Episode 11 - Powerless
30 March 2012
Synopsis: Peter stops Hiro and Parkman from interfering as he allows Adam to take control of the virus. Nathan finally manages to convince him that Adam shouldn’t be trusted and he destroys the virus. Meanwhile Hiro takes Adam away and buries him alive. Sylar kills Maya and forces Mohinder to demonstrate the cure on her. When Claire’s blood restores her he runs away with it just as Elle bursts in and almost stops him. Niki and Micah go to help Monica who is tied up in a house which is about to be burnt down. Niki saves her but apparently dies in the fire. Noah agrees to go back to work for the company in exchange for Claire being left alone. Nathan holds a press conference to tell the world about his abilities but is assassinated as he does. Angela Petrelli knows who it is though she warns that “Pandora’s Box” has been opened. Sylar uses the cure and regains his powers.
The Good: The best thing about this episode is what lies ahead. This season was damaged by the writers strike and it is difficult to tell how it would have played out otherwise. But now with Niki and Nathan dead (we presume), Noah back at the company and Sylar back in possession of his powers we should get a more exciting season three.
Again Bob is the most intriguing character. He harshly rebukes Elle and interestingly she looks to win back his respect despite the horrible things Noah claims he did to her. Elle’s confused behaviour makes her an intriguing character and Bob remains a mystery. The thought of Noah and Bob matching wits next season is a good one.
Sylar reminds us of what a good villain can give us as he talks to the terrified Mohinder and then shoots Maya in a pretty shocking moment. Of course she is revived in the next scene but it is the kind of dramatic occurrence which Adam was unable to deliver. Peter as the king of all powers makes for one good dramatic sequence when he stops Hiro and Parkman. The way he electrocutes Hiro’s sword is very clever and it’s the sort of fun confrontation which it would be nice to see more of.
There are some slightly odd moments of humour which are worth a mention. First is Maya wearing an apron saying “World’s Greatest Dad” on it. The mind boggles at Chandra, Mohinder or Matt buying that one! Then Elle sees a picture of Bob (on his desk) holding a huge fish he caught. The picture is intentionally corny and once more forces us to ask who Bob really is. Finally Parkman races to Odessa the only way he can – on Nathan’s back. Logically Nathan would have been in agony carrying Matt all two thousand miles. But as an attempt at light humour just before the big showdown it feels out of place. I put these in the good column because they amused me but I am willing to admit they may not have struck the right tone for the season finale.
The Bad: Why does Peter only question Adam when they reach the big door? Wouldn’t it have been worth asking him a few questions before they knocked out a whole bunch of guards? It’s writing for the sake of drama rather that for logic.
Speaking of which we get another annoying Claire and West moment when he very reasonably points out the implications of going public about their powers. Instead of calmly explaining to him why she has to do it, Claire dramatically throws him out and then weeping asks Mr Muggles if he will leave her too. Again its writers thinking this is The O.C. and trying to manufacture drama when the situation itself is perfectly dramatic enough to carry real sounding dialogue.
If Nathan and Niki are dead then their deaths don’t have as much impact as they could have. Neither of them have been major players in this season and so they won’t affect the story too badly. Imagine the impact they could have had if Sylar had killed them both at the end of season one? In fact their deaths come just as she was cured and he realised being honest was best. So the moral of the story seems to be that characters will be killed off once they become the people they were struggling to be. If that is what the writers intended to present then they need to drive home the injustice of that and not just have Micah and Peter act grumpy for the first half of next season.
Hiro buries Adam in the ground inside a coffin. Ando asks him if he is dead and Hiro answers that he can never hurt anyone again. So essentially Adam is buried alive where he will remain alive, potentially forever. My first problem with this is biology. Adam’s cells can regenerate instantly. But they still need nourishment don’t they? In other words shouldn’t he just starve to death? It has never been implied that Claire doesn’t need to eat and drink to stay alive. But even if you forget that, then Adam is likely to break out one day right? Eventually that ground will get disturbed by something so even if he is down there for a few centuries, Hiro can hardly claim that he won’t hurt anyone ever again. It’s a poorly thought out idea in order to create a memorable scene. And it doesn’t fit Hiro’s character to be so brutal. This is the man who felt guilty killing Sylar because he was asking for forgiveness (118). Now he is so cold he can bury a man alive forever? Even though Adam killed his father, this act seems too much for gentle Hiro.
The Unknown: Are Niki and Nathan really dead? Who killed Nathan? What does Angela Petrelli mean about opening Pandora’s Box? Why did the company inject Sylar with the virus and not just kill him?
Best Moment: Molly can’t find Alejandro and so Maya realises that he is dead. Meanwhile Mohinder discovers that Sylar was injected by the company because he has the same strain of virus as Niki had. Maya walks in screaming that Sylar killed her brother. Sylar gets a look on his face of immense irritation. He turns around and shoots her in the chest. “Now look what you made me do” he says as she falls dead in the same spot as Isaac Mendez did.
Epilogue: Considering what the writers strike did to the show I think the writers did a passable job of finishing off these stories quickly and setting up the next season. It will be season three which will determine quite how good or bad season two was. This episode suffers from what has gone before and what it had to set up. Overall though its strong moments are offset by foolish attempts to make some scenes more dramatic than they needed to be.
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