Heroes - Season Three (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

Ok, I've had more time to ponder the problems I have with this, and the thing is, I'm not sure how well sketched out this season can be. They've setup a situation where yes, there are villains out there who've been released from this super secret section.

Peter came back from the past to prevent them from getting hunted.. in the end, this is the most sure fire way to do that, to get rogue crazies out there.

The whole bit about Sylar getting Claire's powers hit me as pretty wrong. Yes, it's a great plot point, but they've slowly turned Sylar into more then an ominous bad guy, but into a super creepy, immortal, all-powerful bad guy. Now that he has the power to turn metal to gold along with being invincible, etc. the solution for him becomes more difficult to realize. It's a real painting into a corner; if he has tons of money at his hand (easy for someone who can create gold), etc.

Sylar getting the powers is almost a reverse of "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.."

I have this gut feeling that they are moving in a direction wherein the only viable solution is to go back and revise all that happened so that it didn't happen.. thanks to time travelers, an inbuilt reset button.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

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Originally Posted by Joe_H
The two new ones though were great. And even had a few little nods to the fans, like finally finding out Peter's mother's ability




The particularly impressive thing about the reveal on Angela's power was that it makes complete sense. We'd assumed that the future visions were just part of his absorbing ability, but in fact was the first power he absorbed.
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Originally Posted by Lou Sytsma
My feelings are mixed on the first two hours. It seemed very busy and unnecessarily convoluted. Too many people with superpowers and too many characters flipping sides or seeming to.




Um, you just described "Heroes" from the beginning: lots of people with superpowers across the globe busy with convoluted and interconnected storylines. "Smallville" it ain't.
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I also found Dr. Suresh's actions ie injecting himself with the serum in conflict with the character established in previous seasons.




To be fair, he was on the verge of chucking it into the Hudson when he instinctively injected himself. Everything behaviorally after that I think can be considered a side effect of the injection, including his animal magnetism.
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This series is going to end up being a case study in why the overuse of time travel becomes a bad story device. It kills any tension because when things get too tough a character can wink out and come back later to try and fix the problem again.




I would agree, but the show is careful to make sure that every "fix" actually just leads to an equally terrible consequence. In season one, we got the impression that future Hiro had been trying dozens if not hundreds of times before he finally got things right. His strings clearly showed just how complex time travel in this universe is. From what we saw last night, future Peter didn't have any better luck; stop Nathan from outing the heroes, make Sylar essentially immortal.
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It also raises far too many questions. For starters why wasn't Mama Petrelli concerned about The Butterfly Effect in Season One?




As I recall, she was VERY concerned about the Butterfly Effect. She was so concerned, in fact, that she was willing to let New York City be destroyed in order to prevent it -- in fact, turn her oldest son into a genocidal maniac to prevent it. The difference is, she has a lot more influence with future Peter than future Hiro, for obvious reasons.
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This season could end on a Bobby Ewing stepping out of shower moment if its not careful.




It could, and I'd be just as pissed as you are. But I don't think it will. The bigger deus ex machina in my opinion is the use of Claire's blood as a universal healer. It's been a long time since any of the regulars have actually died.
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Originally Posted by Mikah Cerucco
Yes, and the proof is right there in the little aside about Sylar eating brains.




I loved that. Not only did we finally see Sylar's process, but we got a little wink and a nod on top of it.
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I left this episode with a lot of questions. What did Sylar do to Claire?




I'm thinking he ramped up her self-defense mechanism to another level.
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Why can't she ever die?




If her power works like Adam's did, it's because her healing factor constantly preserves her at the state when her power first manifested. If that's the case, she will forever be a teenager. It's of course also possible that she will age until her physical peak but avoid suffering any of the wear and tear that follows.
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Didn't we think if her head were severed Highlander style, she'd die?




Ah, but her head wasn't severed. If you cut through her brain, she might die, but Sylar just popped her skull off and left her brain intact.
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- Not only do we get Sylar, but a whole collection of baddies




This is what I think is being underestimated by folks here. The volume is entitled "Villians." The Level 5 baddies that escaped are going to be the main conflict, I think, with the African guy's painting of the world splitting in two stretching over the whole season.
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- Sylar makes himself practically unstoppable, and gets stopped, all in the same episode. I'm not sure how they were keeping him subdued.




Drugs. Heavy drugs from an IV. As soon as they pull the IV, he'll pop right back up, but in the meantime he's out.
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- WTH was going on with Nikki?




It's not Nikki. Nikki burned to death in New Orleans. We don't know who this is, nor why she looks identical to Nikki.
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- What's the deal with Nathan/Linderman?




Either Nathan's near death experience triggered a Baltar/Six breakdown or something stranger and more nefarious is happening her.
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- Does death eyes get involved with everyone who helps her? First it was Sylar, now Mohinder.




She didn't seem to have much choice. Mohinder basically pinned her and mounted her before she could get a word in edgewise.
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All of S1 is about keeping Sylar from getting Claire's power (phew), and he ends up with it in the first episode of S3. I actually had a feeling of hopelessness while watching.

Go Heroes!




I'm just happy to feel anything. The show has actual stakes again.
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Originally Posted by Ken Chan
But you'd have to be a pretty good writer to structure that as seven seasons. And these guys aren't.




It's hard to argue that the people who plotted out Season One aren't good writers. They're more ambitious than most on TV.
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Originally Posted by Greg_S_H
Of course heroes save the world, the city, the girl, whatever it happens to be. I'm talking about every season involving a future event being known and the characters trying to find a way to change that future. It may be looked upon as the theme of the show, as Josh says, but it feels stale. You don't have to agree with me that it's a problem, but surely you can see that there are a lot of stories that could be told without trying to prevent dystopia.




The problem is, we're not dealing with a solitary hero like Batman or Superman, nor an organized team like the X-Men. For them to all band together, it takes a pretty impressive calamity. And in order to know what you have to stop, you have to know in advance. As I mentioned earlier, I think the focus of this volume will be the escaped villians, not the global calamity.
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Originally Posted by Patrick Sun
Actions need to have consequences, but basing an entire volume on the butterfly effect has this recursive effect of viewers investing less and less into these characters because actions have less consequences with the re-do switch in play. It undermines heroic sacrifice for the greater good, it allows "heroes" to play god with timelines, it makes for stilted storytelling and characterizations.




Once again, I would argue that all of the characters who have played god with timelines have suffered terribly for it. The whole point of the Butterfly Effect is that such moves have vast, unintended consequences. Had Peter not gone back in time and stopped Nathan, he would have never told Claire to stay home. Sylar wouldn't have gotten Claire's powers (and thereby become immortal) and he wouldn't have found the files to Level 5. If he hadn't found the files to Level 5, the villians wouldn't have been released. In my mind, the show is exceptionally careful with it's use of time travel.
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Originally Posted by Lucia Duran
They have so much in store for Claire this season, I cannot wait. As much as I was hoping they would wait a while before having Sylar take Claires gift, I really loved the scenes between those two last night. Good stuff.




Clearly there is more to Claire's ability than just healing factor. The Petrellis are like the Skywalkers of the "Heroes" universe.
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The whole GOD thing with Nathan made me cringe.




To my mind, it made a sort of sense; Nathan was blessed with the ability to fly, and brought back from the brink of death twice. It makes sense that he'd see himself as an angel.
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Gotta love Hiro and Ando. I still think they are my favorites (right up there with Claire and her dad). I love all their scenes. Hiro's facial expressions are truly the best. Me thinks someone shapeshifted into Ando, maybe? Hard to tell at this point.




My assumption was that Ando took Mohinder's shot, and that's the power he ended up with.
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New bad guys always make for good fun. Fun powers too!




Not only new powers, but now we know where future Peter got his blue flame ability from.

 

[Joe_H]

Claire was threatening to tell the world near the end of last season too, wasn't she? So she'd been going through his paperwork and looking for all of the incriminating stuff?

 

[Andrew Beacom]

I'm still unclear on what happened to the Peter from present day. Future Peter took his mind and put it in another body but what happened to his original body?

I thought it was a very good and encouraging opening. The time travel is going to get old if it becomes a weekly crutch. Maybe it won't but the consequences will. I do agree they are using it to stop the regulars being killed though.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Quoting Adam Lenhardt
In line with Patrick's post about the time travelling reset button, who cares how much the characters suffer? Its all going to be washed away. Actions and reactions have no lasting impact and hence none for the audience. Prime examples of this can be found on TNG and Voyager etc where the ship and crew are critically wounded or destroyed and then everything is reset back to the start at the end of the hour. At least with those examples it only lasts for that episode, here we are already stuck with another season long arc of time travel.

As to the interconnected relationships, at least lines were drawn along natural lines in Season One and seemed organic. Now in Season Three the approach seems to be, well we've mined out everything we can from the storylines of the previous seasons, lets throw all the characters into a drama blender and see how much we can pump up the angst.

The difference between good and bad storytelling is that at its core good storytelling feels right or true. What's going on in the third season seems to be manipulation which feels false and hence engages one less.

 

[Ken Chan]

It's convenient that Hiro's "nemesis" seems reasonably nice -- otherwise he'd be dead.

Ambitious, sure. Just not that good. The ending of Season One was a disappointment.

 

[Greg_S_H]

For those wondering about Nikki/whatever her name is, an article in Wizard says that answers will be provided in the third episode. Probably not all the answers, but some.

 

[NeilO]

I enjoyed the episode though there are a few weird things. It seems that ghost Linderman explains it was him using his ability that saved Nathan from death. I thought future Peter did something, but maybe it was a combination.

I also thought at the end of Season 2 that Mrs. Petrelli had put the hit on Nathan, but apparently she just recognized future Peter? I also thought that Peter had gotten his dream powers from Charles Deveaux, but maybe that was a different power?

As far as Niki, since she not only was in an exploding building, but also was dying at the same time due to being injected with the virus, I think it is safe to say that she really is dead. The new ice queen is an interesting way to keep Ali Larter in the cast and play with everyone's minds. Of course, maybe there is more here than meets the eye here.

Be sure to check out 9th Wonders | Greg Beeman for lots of interesting pictures behind the scenes of the two episodes (including Claire standing around with her brains). They give an cute deleted scene of Sylar vs. Mr. Muggles in Claire's house that might be a DVD extra so I'll put it in spoilers:AA; I came up with a scene for the moment when Claire was in the closet and Sylar was outside the door, where Mr. Muggles shows up and growls at Sylar barring the path – he’s trying to protect Claire. Sylar raises his finger, the way he always does when he’s going to take off the top of someone’s head. So, you started to get worried if Mr. Muggles is going to be Okay. And then, Sylar flicks his finger – and Mr. Muggles shoots backwards out the doggie door. Oh well, it’ll be a great DVD extra.
And there might be some things that people consider slight spoilers such as more info about Niki (including a picture).

 

[Josh Dial]

Perhaps this is the season where Sylar "saves the day." I'm not saying he'll become a hero per se (though comics have been known to shift characters from one side to the other), but ever since it was revealed that his name was Gabriel Gray, I alway thought eventually his "grey" side would come out. That is to say that eventually he might walk the thin line between hero and villain. It certainly would be an interesting turn of events to have the major villain of the series (arguably) shifting roles.

Of course, given the duality theme between Sylar and Peter, this would mean Peter would edge closer towards villain - something we have seen flashes of before.

Perhaps it's Sylar who "fixes" the entire timeline mess in volume 3.

Also, the show is clearly introducing a religion-influenced theme, with the frequent references to angels, god, and the like. 2 characters in particular follow this theme: Nathan has obvious angelic qualities due to his power of flight, and Gabriel Gray shares a name with an Archangel who may also be seen as the Angel of Death.

It may also not be a coincidence there are 4 villains on the loose, now - the four horsemen? Heroes certainly wouldn't be the first thing to transport over some religious influences and imagery, even if they don't turn out to be direct references/copies.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I don't think Sylar can be redeemed, but I was hoping for a line of dialog where he said something to Claire like, "I don't like having to kill people to take their powers, but nobody else can heal like you." Could have been said in response to her, "Are you going to kill me," but his line about her being immortal was more important.

It would have been a lie anyway, since we've seen him take pleasure from killing.

 

[NeilO]

As far as Peter being a villain, I think future Peter is already leaning that way. Just how long is he going to stick around in the present and how long will current Peter be in Weevil's body? (The answer to both of these might be the same.)

Neil

 

[Greg_S_H]

And is future Peter even future Peter? Didn't Mama say something about "you've been on this planet too long?" Maybe he's an extra-testicle.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Okay I am confused...

1. Is Nathan Patrelli or Peter Patrelli actually Nathan or Peter?
There's the bald cinvict guy who escaped that claims to be Petrelli.
What is that all about?

2. How do we know the difference between the Peter Patrelli
from the future (with scars) and the present day Peter Patrelli?

I don't know how I got this confused, but I look forward to an
explanation.

Not a bad season opener. Certainly looks more promising than
Season 2 at this point.

 

[Greg_S_H]

We barely saw present Peter in this episode. He was by Nathan's side and then chased future Peter into a bathroom. From that point on, it was all future Peter because future Peter somehow zapped present Peter into Weevil's body. The scar didn't matter, because future Peter was just covering the scar to appear to be present Peter.

 

[Dheiner]

How do we know that "Future Peter" is any Peter at all? He can obviously change his appearance, so.......

 

[Garrett Adams]

While I enjoyed the show overall, I was somewhat bothered that the writers had forced Hiro to swallow a whole bottle of stupid pills.

 

[mattCR]

This bothered me too.

"Don't do it"
"I will do it"
"Really, don't do it, super dangerous, world will end type stuff."
"Doesn't matter! I'm in, let's do it"

For all the respect and honor he paid his father in the first two seasons, this seemed like one of the dumbest things I've ever seen.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I mentioned that above, but I was trying to explain to Ron the difference as we know it right now. As I said, though, Ma Petrelli seems to really hate the guy and said something about "you've been on this planet too long." Maybe it's taking things too literal to start imagining Peter's an :alien: from that line, but eh, could be.

 

[Arild]

Eh, you realize what you're accusing Mohinder of here, right? If Maya didn't want to, she certainly would have protested.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Whew! I feel like *I* just took a shot of Mohinder's magic juice! Great start even though I havn't the foggiest damn idea of what's going on or why lol.

Adam helped clear some things up but damn, it feels like Kring just picked me up and threw me head-long into a raging hurricane!