Heroes Season 2 thread (2 Viewers)

[Chris Roberts]

Last night's was the best episode of the season so far, imo. Particularly the end as we finally have a peek at a major plot. But even during it Iit felt like the pieces have finally started moving on the chessboard, so to speak.

What happens when head cheerleader goes insane or kills herself? I forsee Claire being the one who learns a lesson from that prank. And West seems evil(er) now.

Sylar was great and I like that he seemed to be turning Maya to the dark side. I'm guessing the company injected him with the virus to try and shut down his powers. I wonder if he needs Mohinder to cure him or if it actually will wear off. Either him or Maya could spread a plague.

HRG was back to how he was in S1 so that was great. I'm sure he planned to kill that guy before they went into the room so taking memories from him didn't matter.

Mohinder and Niki are an interesting combination and I like that she's apparently loyal to the company now. Mohinder is more and more being put into HRG's situtation. Instead of Claire he has Molly and he's already betrayed his principals to protect her.

We could actually get a scene where Peter and Sylar meet without fighting each other. Because Peter won't remember and Sylar won't have his powers back yet so will play innocent. Maybe they could team up...



Mohinder pulled it from a shipping crate in NY. It was shipped to where HRG found it.

 

[Jerome Grate]

 

[Josh Dial]

Ummm, isn't it brutally clear that the major plot line is for season two is the virus? The virus that like 5 characters have directly talked about? The virus that was planted (as in planted in the storytelling) deftly in season one, in the past, present, and future? The same virus that is being worked on closely by The Company as a "cure" for those with abilities? The same virus that from our glimpse of the future, seems to quickly mutate, causing a massive evac from NY? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the virus is going to be big this season.

Underneath all that, we have the paintings that, like season one, seem to spell doom.

Yet another seperate thread is the duality between Peter and Sylar, once again. Peter has abilities, but no memory - Sylar has memory, but no abilities. Each character's "missing piece" is severely limiting their goals. Peter doesn't even know who his brother is, nor does he know what The Company is, yet clearly during the 4 months missing time, he was working on their downfall or something to that extent. Sylar desperately wants to get a "taste" of the new abilities, which are almost taunting him in his mediocrity.

With regards to Hiro's much-maligned storyline, I'll try and spell out my thoughts. I think the writer's are clearly building on the fan's (as stated in this thread) general love for Hiro. He's sweet and kind, and yet he's had a pretty rough go of it (losing Charlie, having his quest stopped so many times, etc). Now he's in the past, where he meets basically his boyhood hero, only to yet again have things come crashing down (Kensei is a no-good drunk). So he resolves to fix the timeline (again), only to once more fall into a love that most likely won't last, and has had his hero turn on him.

Pretty depressing stuff, in my opinion, for a hero the fans seem to love so much. I know his story drags on slightly, but I think they really needed to use these few episodes to set up just how powerful the ultimate betrayal (as we saw last night) was.

One thing I think people are forgetting, is that Hiro is also highly skilled in sword fighting now (thanks to his Father), and that one of the new paintings showed Hiro dueling a white samurai who I can only assume is Kensei. We know Kensei can't be killed (can he?), so does something happen (the princess gets killed?!), and does this start Kensei onto the road of true evil? I'll echo what I mused earlier (and was again stated by someone else) that perhaps Kensei is immortal, and alive in the present, doing evil (possibly virus related?). If so, we would now how a big villain (billain?) with literally 400 year old ties to the heroes. Lastly, I'll posit a guess that if the whole "betrayal" story had simply been rushed through, the same people who are complaining about it dragging and being boring, would be the same who complain that it makes no sense, was "rushed" and "out of character."

Sometimes it feels like some people are watching a different show...

Edit: Oh, and the scenes with Noah Bennet were just pure awesome. Strong writing there. I'm quite happy he didn't "give in" and rejoin the company, and instead stuck to the plan, and did what had to be done (as he always has...).

 

[jeffask]

I love hero's

 

[Jason Seaver]

I wonder if the writers are getting too comfortable. The show is a hit, and the writers know that they've got their timeslot through April with little interruption and a loyal audience, so they're able to space things out, missing that part of what made the show a hit was that scarcely ten minutes ever went by without something jaw-dropping happening. Now, they've become too enamored of the tease.

Of course, the other side of last year being as jam-packed as it was is that they used so many storylines that a lot of this year seems like a repeat: We've got another super-powered serial killer, and another trip to the future to see the results of a walking weapon of mass destruction not being able to control his or her power, and Hiro falling for another girl in the past. They're re-using powers. And we've still got Gabriel Gray, who really should have just been left dead at the end of last season.

I wasn't totally disgruntled with this episode - I was pleasantly surprised that Bob seemed to take Mohinder's advice about Monica to heart, even while deciding that Mohinder needs a keeper. Kenzai turning heel was predictable, of course, but I think it signals that we've only got another week or two in Feudal Japan, with the only question being whether Hiro returns home alone or with company.

Still, enough with the decompression. More barreling ahead, less inching forward, s'il vous plait.

 

[Jose Martinez]

Like I said, I'm probably in the minority that still think this show is awesome and agree with what Josh has pointed out. No complaints about this season.

 

[Chris]

The show has been good, but the subplots are at times murky and don't seem to add anything to the main plot, which hurts. I don't know, I need to see how some of these sub plots (like the border breakers & Hiro) mean anything to the plot because right now they are just BLAH.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Like Josh, I could clearly feel the pieces moving into place last night (and the week before, for that matter). And the trailer for next week makes it blatantly obvious that things are on the verge of coming to a head. There are a couple storylines that don't quite fit yet (Claire and West, Hiro and Kensei) but all of the other plot threads seem to be coming together at a common point, and that common point is the Company.

 

[NeilO]

That is my interpretation so far. Now a big paradox could be if they get infected in the future and bring it to the past.

Neil

 

[Greg_S_H]

They should have made Evac City somewhere other than New York. It really does smack of rehash. Last night's wasn't bad, but little things did add up to make it feel off somehow. Posters above have laid out all of those little things, so I won't repeat them.

 

[Joe_H]

How do you know that there's no real connection when we're only 7 episodes in, and when the connections are just starting to show up?

 

[Jeff Cooper]

That was me who brought up the possibility of Kensei being the villian, and I'm believeing it more now. I think that the Hiro/Kensei storyline is going to be one of the biggest if not the most important plot thread there is this season. Think about it: from everything we have seen so far, Kensei is the original hero. His flag that he carries is adopted as the symbol for the heroes even from the first episode of season one. When we first see him, there is an eclipse, possibly activating his powers, just like the eclipse that started the first season. I say that the eclipse activated his powers, because with his power of healing, surely he would have 'stumbled' accross that before accidentally, and not been surprised about it, if it was activated before the eclipse. Now with his turning to the dark side, I am certain that he is still alive and possibly the main driving force behind the whole show. Trust me, this boring Hiro/Kensei plot is going to turn out to be HUGE.

 

[Holadem]

I think you have a good point there Jeff. Pretty good possibility. The problem is that none of that changes the fact that these recent eps have been a trial to sit thru at times. And I don't buy the unstated yet pervasive argument that this state of affairs in normal for a "setup".

Ideally, the set up would be fun AND the payoff would be fun. It is possible to have both. I want both

This is what, the 7th episode of S2? I think last year at this time, we were one episode away from "Saving the cheerleader" (having several plot threads come together brilliantly, the whole thing was just so epic just writing about it gives me chills ). That's the sort of stuff what I miss.

--
H

 

[TravisR]

I think/hope the payoff will be good. I haven't hated this season the way alot of people have (if I did, I would stop watching rather than drive myself crazy) but it's definitely taking its time in coming together.

 

[EricW]

pretty sure it was Jessica with Suresh. there's no way Nikki would want to do the Company's bidding rather that return to her son. Nikki went to the Company to get rid of Jessica and The Company realized the asset that Jessica would be and instead made a deal with her to get rid of Nikki. that's probably what she meant by "i owe the company".

for a moment i thought Kensei would eventually be Linderman (both british accents), and maybe the self-healing would evolve to healer-powers, as Parkman's power is evolving. i suppose it's still possible as having your brain taken out could still kill a self-healer. but then it would mean that Kensei ages verrrrry slowly instead of not at all. i mean, a self-healer would mean that their cells regenerate as to what they before, so in a way they wouldn't age either. i dunno. but then Linderman was a person who truly believed he was doing right (in the wrong way) while Kensei seems to be just plain evil.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Some more thoughts about Kensei:

Clearly he's very important, because we've heard all about him through the 'fables' that Hiro and his dad told throughout season 1. An interesting note would be that if indeed he does become a major villian, and the big baddie behind everything, then it is in fact Hiro's fault for everything, since it was his 'kiss that broke time' that started Kensei down the dark side path. Kind of cool to think that the whole sequence of events that we are seeing could be because of Hiro falling in love.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

This was the 6th episode, and the 'Save the Cheerleader' episode from the first season was the 9th episode, so technically we still have 3 weeks .

But, yeah, I see what your'e saying and agree with you to an extent. I actually didn't watch the 1st season as it aired, and instead tore through it all on dvd in about 2 weeks. So naturally I didn't know if the perceived slow pace of this season was real, or just because I was experiencing it live and having to wait for a week each time.

As an analogy, I know for a fact that Lost seemed to be a chore to sit through each week, but when watched as a cohesive whole on DVD, that story actually moves very well.

 

[Josh Dial]

Just to clarify, "The Line" was the sixth episode of season two, and the "Homecoming" episode from season one was episode nine. If anything, this season is an almost mirror of the first, in that we spend the first few episodes seeing new heroes finding their powers/destiny (Kensei [maybe he knew or not], Monica, and even Peter to a certain extent), Claire is at odds with cheerleaders, Noah is doing mean things to people (though much cooler this time around!), Sylar is plotting, and Mohinder is looking for answers. And of course there is the time travel to the future, where we see a ravaged and broken NY (world this time?) and a hero "stranded" there for the time being.

The only thing really missing from season two is the plot being "dragged down" by Niki/Jessica/Micah/DL (you'll recall numerous people said the show effectively ground to a halt when they were on screen). Of course, some argue that the twins this season are slowing everything down.

Personally, if you ask me, season two is moving much MUCH faster than season one did, which makes sense seeing as there was a lot more "stuff" to get through in season one. By this time (episode six), in season one we had really only seen two or three major plot devices:
- Hiro jumped forward in episode one, and back in episode two, revealing the explosion. However, we didn't really know ANYTHING else about it.
- Sylar is seen, but in a very shadowy manner. We really knew nothing other than he kills people.
- Arguably the only real plot thread (which can be seen as an extension really of the first I mentioned) is that in episode five, we get the "Save the Cheerleader. Save the world." tagline. And even then, it's in the final seconds of the episode.

So, if anything, season two is almost exactly where season one was. You could even argue that it's ahead in that it's pretty clear (to me at least) that the virus has mutated in the future, and killed normal people. Whereas in the first season, we couldn't really guess the source of the explosion until we met Ted in episode seven! And even then, it turned out it wasn't even Ted that exploded.

Heck, I wouldn't even call the first nine episodes of season one epic at all. In fact, I think part of the charm was that it wasn't epic, rather the characters were simply hurtling towards each other (Peter, Claire, Noah...) haphazardly.

Season two is more of the same, really. Various characters are hurtling towards each other, once again, and I you can bet real money that they will meet again, just as they did at the High School, and again in NY months later. This time, we even have the possibilty of characters from other TIMES being involved.

In any event, it's certainly better than Grey's Anatomy /puke.

EDIT: another thing I'll add. I think it's pretty fair to cut the characters themselves a little slack given what they've been through. Nathan, Peter, Mohinder, Claire and the Bennets, Parkman, The Sanders family, etc - these characters have had a lot thrust upon them. It's almost nice to see that they are still "human." Nathan is depressed, Claire is still just a teenager, etc. It would have almost been wrong to start season two with everyone behaving like nothing happened, and all of a sudden in some super team kicking mastermind butt.

 

[Will_B]

Felt like the evil half.

I do have to just shrug and accept that The Company doesn't even have anyone tuning in the cell phone conversations of Mohindar, nor any listening devices in his office. He's been so cavalier about detailing his intentions while on the phone it is a wonder it took them this long to put him under watch.

 

[pitchman]

I agree with Holadem. I don't know why, but Heroes has definitely lost its mojo this season.

Last year, I was quick to sing its praises. I may have been the first person on this forum to correctly peg it as a fledgling "breakout hit" at the time.

I will continue to hang in there, but I am finding it difficult to care about any of the characters this season. I mean really, what the hell is up with Peter? And Claire and "fly boy"?? And on an on... Everything seems arbitrary, disconnected and DULL!

The masses are taking notice, too. Heroes tanked again last night, placing third in the same timeslot it frequently finished first in much of last season. According to overnight ratings posted on Zap2it: