Episode 5 - Fight or Flight
30 March 2012
Synopsis: Micah encourages Monica to test her powers. Mohinder takes Molly into the company to see if they can help her. He meets Niki there who is struggling to be cured of her multiple personalities. Matt and Nathan head to Philadelphia and confront Parkman senior. He tricks them into living in their own nightmares while he escapes. Ando takes Hiro’s scrolls to an expert who helps him read them. A girl who can fire electricity out of her hands appears in Cork asking after Peter. She kills Ricky when he lies to her about Peter’s whereabouts.
The Good: A strong episode because of the greater focus placed on the fewer characters featured.
Matt and Nathan confronting Parkman senior together is a good idea. It makes us feel that our heroes are starting to work together to find answers. Nathan knocking on the door is both a funny and serious moment to get them started. Matt’s Dad plays his part really well. He fools them both with his seemingly open answers and his apologetic, fearful demeanour. The fact that his powers are so similar to Matt’s is an interesting development. So far we have only seen children grow up with different abilities from their parents.
Parkman’s Dad is no fool and escapes by leaving both men facing their nightmares. Matt’s are very revealing when he sees Janice and worries that her baby might be his. We see that he fears he will leave his family just as his father left him. Meanwhile Nathan is once more haunted by a burnt version of himself in a future where New York was destroyed. It would seem something happened when Peter exploded that Nathan has never got over. These nightmare scenes are very dramatic and well filmed as we slowly realise they are fighting one another.
One of the strong features of season one was the moral questions raised by the company’s behaviour. Here Mohinder begins to experience those questions first hand despite Noah’s warnings. We can sympathise with him taking Molly to them as no one else would understand what had happened to her. Then he thinks Niki is their prisoner before she tells him she volunteered to be there. He is then sent to help our new hero Monica to understand her situation. It all makes the company look good in Mohinder’s eyes just as Noah and the Haitian arrive in the Ukraine to begin their own digging for Isaac’s missing paintings.
Monica playing the piano with Micah is a very effective bit of filming. She doesn’t realise what she is doing until her hands have completely taken over playing the tune. It’s also nice to see them testing her powers in a fun way rather than all the angst and fear we have seen from our other heroes.
Finally Peter faces the morality of what he is when he realises Ricky’s death is his fault. It reminds him that there is cost which comes with his abilities that he can’t hide from. We learn where his electric power comes from thanks to the mysterious new girl and his painting of Montreal gives his story its next logical step. Well as logical as pre-destination paradox art work can be.
The Bad: It still feels pointless to hear Hiro’s story through Ando’s scrolls. I don’t know anything about the Japanese language but I imagine the expert might be suspicious of writing which resembled 21st century vernacular in such old scrolls.
The Unknown: Who is the blonde girl and who is her father? Is Matt the father of Janice’s baby?
Best Moment: The surreal and gripping nightmares which Matt and Nathan struggle through.
Epilogue: The best episode of season two so far. A strong focus on the main arc plot and some interesting developments which help us get to know our characters better.
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