Television is the new movies
Heroes Season Recap Part 2
Posted Monday, April 16, 2007
When Jericho took a long break I decided near the end of the break to give everyone a refresher on what had happened so far. With Heroes returning in 1 week I thought I'd do the same thing. Here is part 2 of the season. Recaps courtesy of Television Without Pity. Click the pictures to see what I thought of the episode.
Six Months Ago
It's a blast to the past as we head back to six months ago and visit all the Heroes one by one to learn how they started on this crazy-ass ride. Eden and Matt meet during a traffic stop and Eden tells him to go eat a bunch of donuts. We discover that aside from having a murderous split personality, Niki's also an alcoholic. Claire fights with Jackie over a cheerleading uniform and cuts the shit out of her hand, only to have it completely heal in about a day. Nathan, apparently, used to be a fairly decent guy when he worked for the DA's office and was intent on prosecuting Linderman, even if it meant bringing down his own father. Papa Suresh seems to be randomly contacting names on his list; two of the people he contacts are Mr. Bennet and Sylar.
Sylar's real name is Gabriel Gray and he's actually kind of Clark Kent-ishly cute. He's also kind of bent because he's got all sorts of ego issues that Papa Suresh clearly enjoys feeding into. Eden gets captured by Mr. Bennet and the Mindblower and she's blocked from using her power of persuasion. This causes her to breathe heavily and wear a bad wig. Bennet enlists her to use her powers for good and tells her to get Claire's name off Suresh's list. Hiro goes to work at the diner, all the while trying to convince Charlie that A) he's from the future and B) she's in danger.
While driving home from Peter's nursing graduation party, Nathan and his wife are run down by some of Linderman's henchmen. As the thug's van bumps the back of their car, Nathan suddenly flings up into the air, leaving his wife to crash into a barrier all by her lonesome. Niki's alter ego seems to be based on her sister Jessica who died when she was eleven. Niki's father was apparently a mean drunk who beat her when she was a child, forcing her dead sister to rise up in order to protect her. Jessica shows up at her father's hotel and attacks him, accusing him of choking her to death all those years ago.
Peter agrees to give a deposition against his own father, but Papa Petrelli dies before he can do so. Charlie tells Hiro that she has a brain tumor and that she's going to die. Then she tells him she loves him and they start to kiss. But Hiro misses it because he jumps back to present-day Japan and can't seem to get back to his girl. Gabriel meets a man who has the power of telekinesis and he introduces himself as Sylar, taking his name off a watch face. Then he kills the man in order to suck the power out of his brain. Guess that answers the "Is he a bad guy or a good guy?" question, huh?
Fallout
Bennet's keeping Sylar in a TK-resistant room in the bowels of the Make-Believe Paper Company. We get confirmation that Sylar is, indeed, collecting abilities from all the Heroes he's killing. Bennet makes an interesting observation in regard to this, saying that he thinks Sylar's actually gone completely insane due to his brain being infiltrated by far too many superpowers. The power, it seems, has gone to his head.
Jessica actually shoots at DL three times, hitting him once; he avoids a bullet to the brain by conveniently phasing around it, so she goes after him on foot while Niki stares plaintively at her from reflective surfaces. Niki thankfully resurfaces to take control back over her life (and body) when she realizes that Jessica would do anything to retain her power, even if it means hurting Micah. Matt and Clea interview Peter, and when Matt turns on his mind-reading power, Peter hilariously starts to pick up the power himself and then he and Matt spend a confusing couple of minutes reading each others minds. Heh.
Hiro, Ando, and Isaac meet up in Odessa and Hiro tells Isaac everything he saw in the future. In turn, Isaac tells them about the painting he did of the exploding man. Isaac finally gains the ability to paint his visions without the use of drugs and what he ends up painting is Hiro fighting a dragon with a sword. The Mindblower pays a visit to Lyle and Zach, and it seems he's going to erase Claire's memory too, but he has different plans for her. He tells her he works for her father and that she needs to remember her powers and keep this a secret from her dad.
Eden realizes that Bennet has been told to keep Sylar alive, and she thinks this is a bloody stupid idea (as do I) and that she can tell him to kill himself with her power of persuasion. She rather unwisely decides to take matters into her own hands and goes to see Sylar. He's more powerful than she thought, though, and he attacks her. But before he can steal her power, she blows her own brains out. Aw, Eden.
Nathan comes to retrieve Peter from jail, but he passes out on the front steps. He wakes up in a dream world New York and, as he walks through the city, he meets up with all of the Heroes, only they all look terrified of him and run away. Peter looks down at his hands and it would seem that he's glowing with fire or radiation or something and he explodes…only to wake up in his brother's arms and declare that he's going to go off like a bomb. And then it would appear that he dies. Maybe.
Godsend
It's two weeks after the night Peter exploded in his dreams and now he's in a coma, Niki's in jail, and Claire's pretending not to remember anything about the night she met Sylar. Speaking of Sylar, he's crapped out in his cell, surrounded by roaches. According to one of Bennett's resident creepy-ass doctors, they still don't know just what Sylar's aptitudes are, and if they keep pumping him full of drugs, he'll be dead within a day. Matt and Audrey organize a failed raid on Bennett's fake paper office to find Sylar, and, because the Haitian's around, Matt can't get a doorway into Bennett's head. Audrey now thinks he's an idiot. Cute, but an idiot. That's okay, because Matt decides to go back to his wife anyway. She's about to leave him, so Matt does the logical thing and tells her that he can read minds. Because THAT'LL make her stay.
Hiro and Ando are in New York, looking for Hiro's future sword. He finds it attached to an ancient Samurai model and, wouldn't you know it? It has the super-secret "S" symbol right on its hilt! Ando quickly recognizes that the symbol is a combination of characters that stand for "Great Talent" and "Godsend." Hiro declares that the sword is his sacred object and, that with it, his powers will return and he can fulfill his destiny. He steals the sword, only to discover that it's a fake loaned to the museum by none other than Linderman.
Niki's green-around-the-gills defense attorney informs her that the D.A. is going after the death penalty and Jessica shows up to start antagonizing both Niki AND the lawyer in a loving homage to Sybil. It's awesome. Also awesome? Isaac without a shirt showing up to greet Simone and Nathan when they come to visit him at his studio. Nathan sees the exploding man painting and finally starts believing that all this shit is connected. It helps that, at the precise moment he does so, Hiro and Ando show up to tell Isaac about the Linderman sword. Nathan's all, "The Linderman in the Who?" Hiro's all, "Flying Man!" Hee.
Claire tries to rekindle her friendship with Zach by repeating her water tower fall from the first episode so that he can witness it and commit it to tape. D.L. and Micah go to see Niki in jail, and Niki begs her guard to let her give Micah a hug. When she the guard goes to hit her with his stick, she not only stops the stick in mid-air, she easily breaks it in half. When she's not Jessica. Guess we now know that she has the super-strength whether she's dipping out into multiple personalities or not, huh? Too bad she gets tossed into a rubber room anyway.
Bennett pays a visit to Mohinder in order to discuss The List, introducing the new catchphrase that's sweeping the nation, "Are you on The List?" Mohinder says that once he figures out The List (whatever that means), he's going to warn everyone on it about Bennett. Bennett wants them to work together and asks Mohinder to contact him. Peter continues to have his exploding dream, but now Christopher Eccelston keeps appearing in it while laughing maniacally. Peter wakes up screaming and immediately leaves the hospital. Once outside, he sees Christopher Eccleston blatantly stealing money out of someone's wallet and runs after him, only to discover that Christopher's power is invisibility, and Pete's stolen it from him so they're BOTH invisible, and help him, Christopher-Wan! You're his only hope!
The Fix
Peter chases Claude and demands that they be friends, or at least enter into a mentor/mentoree relationship. Claude tells Peter to go screw. Matt sits around uselessly reading his useless wife's useless mind. Sylar festers away in his cell, still dead to the world. So does Niki. Hiro and Ando are chased down by a bunch of thugs in a van and they spend the beginning portion of the show hiding beneath a car. Heh.
Once the action picks up, Nathan visits Mohinder, and they go off in search of Peter. Claire and Zach do some deep-diving into Mr. Bennett's computer but find jack-all. Matt's really not digging his gift all that much, so he declares to his useless wife that he's going to get his revenge on Bennett and the Haitian Sensation. Micah and D.L. are having problems getting along, and it's pretty clear that D.L. is crap at raising children. I blame prison. They're having money problems because D.L. refuses to take off his clothes in front of a camera for money.
Claire begs the Haitian Sensation to tell her anything at all about her birth parents and he gives up that her real mom died fourteen years ago. Claire heads right on over to the internet and, after some research, finds a likely (dead) candidate in a small Texas town. She thinks her dead mom might have family, so at least it's worth a shot to contact someone to find out. Sylar dies, but then totally wakes up seconds later, so…not dead? I guess? Matt gets suspended from the force and goes home to fix a plumbing problem. Yes, it's about that exciting. His useless wife lets him read her mind, and he finds out that she's pregnant. This fills him with unabashed joy, even though he has no job and the baby's probably not even his.
Peter returns to his gargantuan apartment long enough to pack a bag and meet up with Nathan and Mohinder, who just want to help him. Peter pulls a runner, only to be intercepted by Claude just outside the door, effectively making them both disappear, so that Nathan and Mohinder go chasing a cloud. Claude and Peter partner up for what I can only hope is a great adventure. D.L. phases into Niki's cell and whines at her about how hard it is to take care of Micah without her. She tells him to suck it up and go raise their son. I don't know why they're worried about Micah; he can break into ATM's with his special ability, so he looks like he's doing just fiiiiine without them. Niki's psychiatrist demands to talk to Jessica, but Niki has little-to-no control over her alter-ego, so that's pretty much a bust.
Hiro and Ando are abducted by the van guys and, after a long-ass ride around town, they come face to face with their captor. It's Hiro's dad. And Hiro's dad is George Takei. Awesome. Claire finally tracks down the woman she believes to be her mothers' family, only to discover that the woman actually IS her mother, and she's totally not dead. She can also totally light shit on fire with her fingers. And, finally, Bennett goes to check on Sylar's body, but he discovers Henchdoctor's body instead, and Sylar's in the corner, looking psychotic, and also sporting a damn thingy implanted in his skull. He has only one thing to say to Bennett: "How's Claire?" Ooooooh.
Distractions
Claude and Peter are well on their way to becoming a dynamic duo, with Peter finally learning how to master some control over his powers. Jessica gets coaxed out of retirement by her shrink and winds up tasering the poor woman within an inch of her life. Sylar traps Bennet in his cell and heads off to pay a visit to Claire and Mr. Muggles. Simone asks Isaac to look for Peter during his psychic episodes. Isaac's agrees because he wants to get to Peter before he has a chance to explode all over New York.
Claire and Zach take a secret road trip to visit her real mother in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere, and mother and daughter have a tearful reunion. Hiro's dad chastises him for his side trip into fantasyland and Hiro just responds by spilling all the beans about the painting and Linderman and the Sword of Destiny. Hiro's dad shows what he thinks of this scenario by ripping the painting apart. Claude convinces Peter that the way to control his power is to stop thinking of the people in his life and start looking out for number one.
Sylar breaks into the Bennet household and strikes up a friendship with Mr. Muggles and Mrs. Bennet. The shit hits the fan when Mrs. Bennet starts getting suspicious of him. He uses his telekinesis to fling her around and seems about to finish the job when HRG busts in and shoots him a hell of a lot. He gets away, unfortunately. Claire shows her mom her gift of regeneration, and her mom responds by sharing her own gift.
Hiro very cleverly works it so that his sister gains his father's respect and, possibly, a new position of power at the family firm. Linderman's greasy lawyer gets Niki released from her padded prison. Simone and Isaac share a romantic moment on the Magical Rooftop of Superheroes as Peter watches with Claude at his side. Shortly thereafter, Claude shoves him off the roof in order to make him fly, but Peter just crashes into a parked cab. And promptly channels his Claire power and regenerates. Niki's locked up for good behind a mirror and Jessica's looking to have a good time, all of the time.
And Claire's daddy? It's Nathan, y'all. IT'S NATHAN.
Run!
Firemommy blackmails Flydaddy with her knowledge of their daughter's existence. I hope she flames up and then someone sprays her with fire extinguisher and she drowns. What? She's an ass. Claire demands to meet her real father, but Firemommy tells her he doesn't want to know her. Oh, and then she lies about the amount of money he's giving them. See? Ass.
Hiro tells Ando that a hero needs to have hope. Fortunately for both of them, Hope is right around the corner in the form of Missy Pyle. The boys agree to retrieve her pink rhinestone-encrusted bag from her abusive boyfriend in exchange for an introduction to Linderman. Turns out she's kind of a conniving bitch, though, and she punches Hiro in the face, shoves him in a storage closet, and takes Ando with her, leaving Hiro behind.
Matt goes to work as Greasy McFatNut's bodyguard. Linderman hires Jessica to kill Greasy McFatNut, because Greasy McFatNut stole the two million Jessica stole from Linderman. Oh, it's such a twisted tale. So, Matt accompanies Greasy on a diamond buy in LA and learns that Linderman's "man" is about to come and kill Greasy McFatNut. So Matt decides to save him, even though it's pretty clear the guy is a major douchebag. A chase ensues, with Niki making an appearance outside her mirrored prison to plead with Jessica to stop being a baddie. Jessica ignores Niki and blithely tosses Matt out a window. He's fine, of course, even though Greasy is basically cut in half by Jessica. Matt manages to walk away with a shitload of diamonds, which he totally deserves.
Zane Taylor, one of the Heroes from La Carte des Héros, contacts Mohinder and wants to meet, but Sylar gets there first. Mohinder finally shows up, but Sylar's already taken Zane's brain and his talent, which seems to be the ability to melt metal things. Sylar enthusiastically offers to accompany Mohinder on his quest to find more Heroes, and an unlikely partnership is forged. That is not going to end well, people. Not at all.
Nathan goes to see Meredith and he gives her the money she asked for. He wants to see his daughter, but Claire's already left. Fortunately, she's hiding outside and she hears their entire discussion. Unfortunately, Nathan leaves without meeting her. This doubly sucks because Claire's poor mother is now suffering from Alzheimer's or something, most likely due to the umpteen brain vacuums she's suffered at the hands of the Haitian Sensation.
And, finally, Jessica gets another assignment. This time? Nathan's her target. Go ahead. You can say it. Dun dun DUNNNNN!
Unexpected
A brand new Hero appears in the form of Hana "Wireless" Gitelman. She's like a Blackberry, only with a leather jacket and boobs. Isaac spills his guts to Bennet about how Peter's alive and in New York. Bennet gives him a gun so that he can save the world from dangerous invisible guys with emo bangs. Mohinder and Sylar are on their Cross-Country Ride Straight to Hell, and their first stop is at Dale's garage in Montana. She has superhearing, and the first thing she superhears is Sylar's heart beating abnormally quickly because he's so close to the braaaaaains that he's reaaaaaally excited. Claude continues his Education of Peter with a little stick-play on the roof (dirty!), and they discover that Peter absorbed Sylar's telekinesis. Then Claude hits him in the face with his staff. And, no, that is not a euphemism. Mrs. Bennet collapses in the kitchen, and Claire calls her father while Mr. Muggles laps up spilled milk from around his food-giver's body. Mr. Muggles: "What? Two-second rule, dude. Plus, I was thirsty. Shut up."
Elsewhere in storylines I'm tired of seeing, Hiro teams up with Tom Cullen to go after Ando, and Matt and his wife fight about the diamonds he stole. Yes, they're both about that exciting. Hiro? Still doesn't have the sword. Matt? Still doesn't have any balls. But, the show picks up a bit in the most awesome moment of the episode: Peter saves Claude after HRG and the Haitian Sensation attack them on the Superroof. How does he do this? First, he freezes the taser prods in mid-air, then dumps Claude over the side of the building, then he FLIES AFTER HIM and FLIES OFF THROUGH THE SKY. Kick. Ass.
After we learn that Claude has been on the run from HRG for years, the Invisible Duo figure out that Isaac was the one who gave them up for bait. Peter is understandably peeved. Simone goes to see Nathan and tries to convince him to go public with their abilities. You can imagine how well this goes over with Nathan. Matt meets Radioactive Ted and Wireless in a cemetery and they convince him to join forces with them in order to locate and take down Bennet and OWI. Claire's mother has a brain hemorrhage thanks to the Haitian Sensation, and little Clairebear has had just about enough of her father's lies. But the minute she declares that she wants to protect the family from Bennet, Matt and Ted show up to get answers to their questions. And, finally Angry Peter confronts Isaac and gunplay ensues, only the bullets don't wind up in Peter, they wind up in Simone, who shows up at the last minute to give Isaac's key back. So much for a romantic reunion, huh, Isaac?
Company Man
It's Papa Bennet backstory time! What you need to know from the past: Eric Roberts, looking like a Madame Tussaud's version of himself, is Papa Bennet's boss. We don't learn much about him, but if he's played by Eric Roberts my guess is you don't want to mess with him.
Papa Bennet didn't adopt Claire willingly, either; he was ordered to by…George Takei. While Hiro played with a Gameboy nearby. He was also ordered not to get too close to Claire, because, Takei says, if she starts to manifest, they'll take her back.
Claude used to be Papa Bennet's partner; Papa Bennet was supposed to kill him, because Claude was protecting a Hero, which is against company policy; Papa Bennet probably would have skipped shooting Claude if Claude had told him who it was, but Claude doesn't, so Papa Bennet, who is a shitty shot, pumps a few rounds into him, but Claude winks out before Papa Bennet can confirm the kill.
We also meet Teen Haitian, whose necklace is a silver version of Jessica's tattoo.
Back in the present, Sprague and Parkman hold the Bennet family hostage; Parkman is trying to get to the truth by reading people's minds, and also trying to keep Sprague from flipping his shit and going all fusion-vengeance on the household. Claire is still pissed at her father and opens her mind up to Parkman to get back at him. After a bunch of Mexican-standoff misdirection that gets Claire shot, reveals her secret to her mother…again, and makes us sit through a lot of speechifying about faith, Eric Roberts shows up in the present day to manage the situation. His idea of "managing" is to shoot at Ted. Nice work, Ambassador -- Ted gets so pissed that he goes nuclear and can't stop his own chain reaction, and Claire's the only one who can get close enough to him to administer a tranq. Everyone winds up with mild radiation burns and Casa Bennet looks like it's burning to the ground, but don't worry -- Mr. Muggles gets out alive.
At the end of the episode, Sprague and Parkman are drugged up and strapped to beds in the Primatech lab. Papa Bennet tries to blame everything on the Haitian (I think…the web of finger-pointing got kind of confusing); Eric Roberts pretends he buys it, but obviously doesn't, and is like, "Okay, so, bring Claire in. Like now. So we can probe her brain and then kill her." That last part may have been silent. Cut to a tearful father-daughter scene in the car which culminates on the same bridge Papa Bennet "killed" Claude on, Papa Bennet ordering the Haitian to 1) shoot him (in the abdomen, not lethally) and 2) wipe his mind of everything so that Eric Roberts can't find Claire. Claire is bawling, I'm bawling…even the Haitian seemed kind of touched. Could have been pollen, though.
Parasite
The final episode before the hiatus begins with Peter and Isaac mourning Simone, only Isaac's idea of mourning involves shooting at Peter a whole hell of a lot. The Haitian Sensation gets orders from someone to take Claire out of the country. She'd rather go live with Peter, but the Haitian puts the kibosh on that idea. We discover that Nathan's actually working with the FBI to bring down Linderman, and they want him to record a meeting they're having in Vegas. Peter sneaks a visit to Nathan and tells him about Simone. Nathan's only suggestion is to call Mohinder, but Peter disappears before help can arrive.
Mrs. Bennet surprises us all by telling her husband that she knows all about Claire and that he told her not to tell anyone that she knows the truth. They agree to tell no one that they know what's really going on. Bennet's new partner arrives, and she's hot and kind of bad-ass and can somehow absorb other people and project herself as them, and she wears really short skirts. Mohinder finally wakes up and smells the chai and realizes that Sylar isn't Zane, and drugs him. Unfortunately, Sylar's all-powerful, and he stops the drugs and attacks Mohinder and staples him to the ceiling.
In Vegas, Nathan gets Hiro into Linderman's Museum of Creepy Isaac Paintings. Hiro almost gets arrested while stealing the sword, only to have Ando save the day because Ando is now a damn security guard. So, Hiro gets his damn sword, and before security shows up, he transports himself and Ando into the future where the bomb has already flattened New York. Speaking of New York, after an impromptu and creepy visit from Bennet and his new partner Candace, Isaac goes batshit crazy in his studio and starts painting again. What he paints looks bloody and disturbing and a lot like…himself, with the top of his skull cut off.
Nathan and Niki meet up in Vegas while Jessica's sleeping inside her head, and Niki tries to save his life by telling him that Linderman's onto his association with the feds. She tells him to take whatever deal Linderman offers him or choose death. Nathan decides to kill Linderman with Jessica's gun. When he goes to meet the man, he's in the big hotel kitchen, chopping the shit out of some vegetables. Oh, he's also Malcolm F**ing McDowell, people. Linderman makes individual pot pies while Nathan contemplates murder. Linderman then tells him that he knows he can fly and he knows all about the Heroes. He offers Nathan a shot at the presidency and, of course, Nathan doesn't shoot him.
Candace dupes Bennet into spilling his guts about Claire when she impersonates Mrs. Bennet. Looks like Bennet's goose, she is cooked. Claire gets away from the Haitian Sensation and pays a visit to Peter's apartment, but only Mama Petrelli is there. Luckily, she not only knows who Claire is, she's apparently partnered up with the Haitian Sensation. So Grandma P is the one who's been looking out for Claire all this time! Awesome! Peter goes to visit Mohinder and Sylar attacks him, saying that Peter's like him and wouldn't it be cool to find out what makes Peter's brain tick? And that's when Sylar starts to slice Peter's head open…
AIEEEEEE!
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