Heroes 1.18 review
In what could only be termed a long overdue change of pace, it looks like the Heroes are finally growing some balls and taking charge of their lives...
As usual – beware of spoilers!
After the emotional mini blockbuster that was Company Man, Parasite resumes the usual format of flitting from one character to another. Which, though frustrating, is just the way it has to be when you have such a sprawling cast. And offers up a few nice little moments.
With no idea what happened to Claire, Mr. Bennet’s double life of subterfuge and secrets get the best of him when he’s double crossed by a new partner (think X Men’s Mystique in a mini skirt). And considering the kind of company he works for, things may very well end in tears.
After what seems like a trillion years, and with the help of an (impossibly) conveniently placed Ando, Hiro finally recovers his magic sword of destiny. Hopefully now we’ll start seeing him continue on his journey to being that time travelling samurai who gave birth to the best cheerleader-based catchphrase in the history of the world, and stop running around in circles doing nothing much in particular.
Nathan’s meeting with the oft-talked-about-never-seen Linderman makes for a curious mix of underwhelming predictability and semi bad-assness as Nathan is offered a choice by the seemingly omnipotent businessman. Like the super cool Mr. Bennet, I’ve always thought Nathan to be capable of operating in a morally grey area, a refreshing contrast to his brother’s constant whining about Doing What’s Right.
Ali Larter continues to impress as she conveys a totally different characters through body language and subtle changes in expression. Her scenes with, um, herself are always my favourite, but the Nikki/Jessica (Nikkica?) storyline hasn’t actually been moving anywhere in a very long time. It’s my hope that the few remaining episodes of the season will see some sort of comprehensive explanation – if not outright resolution – to the Nikkica story.
Meanwhile Mohinder, displaying an uncharacteristic degree of intelligence, competence, and sheer bad-assness, finally realises the complete stranger he’s been living out of his car with for god knows how long, isn’t the man he claims to be. On discovering Sylar’s true identity, he takes action, and when Peter – still reeling from the timely death of boring Simone – arrives on the scene, things go from bad to worse as Sylar gains the upper hand, resulting in a grisly cliffhanger…
On the whole the episode feels a little disappointing, if only because Company Man proved that with the right focus, these characters can really shine. When they’re dotted about and with very little screen time, things do seem to drag and not really connect (even when Claire happens on ANOTHER implausible and frankly quite ridiculous connection between two of the characters which I personally found neither shocking nor remotely interesting). We’ll just have to wait and see.
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