Episode 1 - Four Months Later
30 March 2012
Synopsis: Four months after Sylar was stabbed through the gut and Peter exploded in the sky we rejoin the action. Mohinder is giving lectures on a virus which is killing people with special abilities. He is recruited to work for the company by a man called Bob who can turn objects into gold. Mohinder is working with Parkman and Bennet to bring down the company. Matt is divorced and bringing up Molly in Mohinder’s apartment. She is having terrible nightmares. Noah has relocated his family to Costa Verde, California. He insists Claire fit in at school and not draw attention to herself. But she makes an impression on a boy called West who can fly. Hiro finds that Takezo Kensei is a greedy English con man. Nathan Petrelli has driven his family away with his drinking and mourning over the supposedly dead Peter. Peter turns up in Cork, Ireland, unaware of who he is. Kaito Nakamura and Angela Petrelli get left photos of themselves with the mysterious symbol on. They both understand it as an assassination warning. Ando tries to help but Kaito is thrown off the roof of the Deveaux building. Finally newcomers Alejandro and Maya are desperately trying to reach New York and Chandra Suresh. They want an answer to why Maya is able to kill groups of people without meaning to.
The Good: Season two of Heroes begins much as the first did. With a large number of characters all in different circumstances and dealing with their problems in different ways. Just with the early episodes of season one there is so much we don’t yet know that it is difficult to fully judge what is going on here.
The bigger picture developments seem interesting. Mohinder explains that the virus which Molly had (121) is spreading throughout the population of special people. His recruitment by Bob is good as a scene as well as introducing us to the plot to bring down the company. In that scene Bob makes an intelligent justification of the company’s actions. He says that in order to protect everyone they sometimes have to kill the people they find. Mohinder finds that immoral until Bob points out that he tried to kill Sylar. Bob’s ability to turn objects into gold is a clever way for the company to finance itself. It is typical Heroes that all big picture explanations come down to people’s abilities.
Similarly we get more clues about the significance of the symbol which adorned Niki’s shoulder amongst other places. It is of course the banner of Takezo Kensei and now it appears in Molly’s dreams and on the assassination notes given to Angela and Kaito. Similar to Bob’s speech Kaito’s chat with Angela gives us more clues. He imagines the deaths of her husband, Linderman and Charles Deveaux are somehow linked to his own. It is good to know that they were all founders of the company. He also talks about this as being punishment for all the bad things they have done. Clearly a rich possibility for stories.
Molly’s dreams round out the big picture developments as she is clearly being haunted by the bad man she referenced in the season finale (123). Her drawings of the symbol link that together as well and we must wonder if the dreams are linked to the assassinations. Matt Parkman wins our sympathies again by playing the single Dad to Molly as we learn he is getting divorced. Molly also raises the interesting question of the ethics of Matt using his power to gain his detective badge.
We also get to feel sorry for Nathan who having done the right thing has driven his family away in his mourning for the loss of Peter and presumably his Congressional job. We also feel for Claire who having helped save the world is now forced to make no waves at all in her new surroundings. Noah Bennet has a nice moment when he reveals his inner badass by telling off his boss at Copy Kingdom. The surprise of Takezo turning out to be white is well delivered.
The Bad: The episode is so densely packed that it may turn some new viewers off. There were bound to be curious new viewers but this episode doesn’t do much for them. It could have used less characters and more focus. Sound familiar?
There are also some typically unsubtle moments from the Bennet household. Their awkward dinner table talk is very odd. Noah taking a phone call during dinner from a copy company that couldn’t need to call him is stupidly suspicious. Claire’s new flying love interest is introduced without a hint of subtlety; you know they will be together in no time. I complained about Jackie (109) being a stereotypical selfish, arrogant cheerleader character. Well it seems the writers weren’t satisfied with her being unconvincing and dumbed down so we have new antagonist Debbie. A carbon copy if ever I’ve seen one. Noah Bennet’s boss is also presented as a one-dimensional jerk character.
It maybe a bit picky but I wonder why Matt Parkman was given any compensation for being shot. He was suspended from the police force when it happened and we assume there was no body to prove he was fighting Sylar. Even with testimony from other witnesses it seems a flimsy case that he was injured in the line of duty. Which I assume is what qualifies a police officer for compensation.
One also has to question the nature of the company. In the season finale I questioned the lack of security at their base of operations. Now I question why exactly they let prize asset Molly Walker escape with Mohinder and Parkman. It seems slightly too easy but perhaps answers will come.
The Unknown: Why does Nathan see a burnt face in the mirror? What is the black goo coming from people’s eyes after Maya kills them? Why is Peter wearing a necklace with the symbol on it? Why can’t he remember who he is? How did Parkman and Nathan lose their families? Who is running the company now? Is Bob one of the founders? Who kills Kaito? Why has Hiro not returned to the moment when he left?
Best Moment: The revelation that Takezo Kensei is white. Hiro plays his confusion perfectly.
Epilogue: Please slow down Heroes. There is so much going on here that it is difficult to remember anything. There are good developments here for the ongoing story arc but they are lost amidst the plethora of characters and new developments. Heroes needs to calm down or it is destined to repeat the mistakes of its first season.
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