Ok, so I’ve bumped this old article back up to the front page, because I think it deserves some attention in light of Monday’s show.
Let me begin with a confession. This Monday, I watched Heroes, not 24. Oh, I flipped back and forth during commercials, but I made sure I was back before I missed any of the show. I had a fleeting “Karen’s got to fire Bill?” moment, but it was fleeting. Heroes is a class act; I love how all of the characters lives are coming together now.
Oh, and did anyone wonder why Sylar was upset that the computer with the list had been destroyed since he now has Charlie’s great memory skills and could have just memorized the whole thing? I did too, until something struck me. Hiro went back in time to save Charlie, and we all thought he failed. After all, she still died, right? Yes, but instead of dying from Sylar’s attack, she’s now dead of a brain tumor, right?
Whew. I forgot how much this show makes my brain hurts, yet how good it feels. I’m with Ando: “this is confusing”.
Is it living up to your expectations?
(I changed the name from my two cents to Heroes: Discussion because I think this show really warrants discussion more than anything else…)
Alright, I’ll admit it. I’m hooked. It took me a few episodes, but I’ve finally gotten into the new cult hit television show Heroes. If you’ve not seen it, you’d better stop reading now, none of this will make sense. You’ll probably have to catch a Heroes marathon to get on board at this point.
The basic premise is that ordinary people are discovering that they have extraordinary powers. Think X-Men meets Lost. And just like Lost there are more questions than there are answers, only throw in variables like time travel and mind reading to make things interesting.
We just discovered tonight that Gabriel Syler (the bad guy everyone’s been talking about) is a watchmaker who has a grudge against Chandra Suresh (the professor who discovered these “genetic anomolies”) for failing to see his potential. More importantly, we discover that he has the ability to take the power of any hero by taking their brains.
I think more and more, Peter (who has the ability take on a hero’s traits by simply being near them) will become a foil to Syler. We’ve seen Peter grow in his ability to “take on” a hero’s power: his brother’s flying power, Isaac’s ability to paint the future, Claire’s regenerative power after falling from the stadium stairs. In fact, I think I’m beginning to understand the meaning of the catchphrase “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.” Syler can steal a heros powers, so he’s been after Claire (the cheerleader). Claire’s power is perhaps most important because she cannot die; when injured, she simply regenerates.
In the early episodes Hiro (the time traveling hero) traveled to the future and saw a nuclear explosion in New York City. Isaac painted it as well. We’ve also been introduced to a hero who puts off massive amounts of radiation when angered. Now we learned tonight that Hero cannot change the future, as he tried to stop the death of a waitress with special powers by going back in time and it didn’t work. So the explosion is going to happen, that much is fairly certain. And most likely the radioactive power will be stolen by Syler in an attempt to weild control over the world, a retribution of sorts against a world that in his mind never recognized how special he was. Now, couple that nuclear power with Claire’s inability to die and you have what is essentially a god. We’re pretty certain now that Peter’s the exploding man.
Now, on the other hand, think of when the samurai-sword wielding Hiro that appeared to Peter on the subway train. He told her to save the cheerleader because she was needed to save the world. Peter’s only chance of defeating a nuclear Syler would be to have Claire’s regenerative powers. What about defeating himself? If you read this weeks graphic novel, I think we discover a lot about what happens in the future.
What role Jessica/Nikki, the mind-reading cop or the unnaturally persuasive woman play in all this I’m not sure yet. Whew, they’ve come a long way! All of their paths are crossing… But I do think that Peter will need to keep as many as possible around to become a true superhero… I called that one right!
