Episode 2 - Lizards
30 March 2012
Synopsis: Hiro takes on the role of Kensei himself and wins the affections of Yaeko. He tells the real Kensei who is then shot in revenge. But it seems he has the power of regeneration. Claire wants to explore her powers but Noah warns of her of what the company would do if they caught her. She cuts off her toe and it re-grows but West sees it happen. Parkman investigates Kaito Nakamura’s death by interviewing Angela Petrelli. She is attacked by the mysterious killer but survives thanks to Matt’s intervention. Maya and Alejandro head further north and receive help from a family friend. Mohinder is sent to Haiti to help a new victim of the virus. It is the Haitian and once cured he heads to California to help Bennet while Mohinder lies to the company. Peter saves Ricky’s sister Caitlyn from some local thugs. But it starts a feud which Ricky insists Peter help them with. He holds the documents which they found with Peter as collateral.
The Good: This episode continues the pattern of the first, where the big picture developments are strong but the smaller stories are more questionable.
Mohinder finding the Haitian dying is an interesting story, leading to much speculation (see The Unknown). There is some clever filming as we jump from Mohinder’s view of the Haitian to Bob appearing telling him his memory has gone. It seems like a logical development until the clever twist that Mohinder faked it in order to reunite the Haitian with Noah.
It’s good to see Angela Petrelli showing us her skills. She picks up on Parkman’s telepathy very quickly and screams “get out of my head” in her thoughts. It’s a dramatic moment and reinforces the idea that her generation of heroes know a lot more than ours do.
Claire and Noah engage in a heated discussion which raises a good moral dilemma. Her natural curiosity and altruism allow her to make good points about how her power could help the world. But he counters effectively that people would find her and torture her to learn how her power worked. At this stage they balance the debate nicely between their competing levels of knowledge and fear.
Hiro has some fun, threatening to steal Samurai’s clothes and flirting with Yaeko. The twist that Takezo has the same power as Claire is a clever one and gives us some idea of how his legend began. Peter shows off a bunch of new powers in the Irish bar. Alejandro seems to have a shared power with his twin Maya. While she kills people, he can absorb her death grip and resuscitate people. It’s another twist on how powers devolve to children of the special.
The Bad: Heroes didn’t indulge much in love stories during its first season (Simone Deveaux apart). But now we have three love stories featuring our three youngest stars: Hiro, Claire and Peter. Hiro’s is played out innocently so doesn’t annoy while the other two have all the potential to be very irritating. They have both started in a stereotypical TV romance style. Where two people are brought together somewhat unnaturally and find that the other person is the one who will understand the situation that they are going through. Let’s hope they find ways to make them more convincing than clichéd.
Speaking of Claire, she should be screaming in agony when she puts her hand into boiling water. Her look of discomfort is not convincing, the writers need to remember that pain is still very real even if she can heal herself.
Matt Parkman acts like he doesn’t know much about Angela Petrelli or Nathan. But I assume Mohinder would have filled him in on who saved the world four months ago and of Peter’s subsequent disappearance. It’s a small discrepancy but his behaviour doesn’t quite match the situation.
The Unknown: Where did Peter get the ability to fire electricity out of his hands? It looks as if he absorbed DL’s power by proximity in the season one finale (123). Is someone targeting particular people with the virus? Molly and the Haitian were both valuable to the company at one stage and they are the only two victims so far.
Best Moment: Hiro appears before the samurai threatening to kill Yaeko. He tells them he is Takezo Kensei and freezes time in order to rob them of their swords and bows. “Go now before I take your clothes next” he says. He shouts after them suggesting they write about this in their history books. “The Battle of Twelve Swords, that’s a good name!"
Epilogue: A better paced episode than the first with some nice twists in it. But at this stage there are elements to the story which could become annoying if they continue.
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