Heroes season 3 episode 10 review

Billy doesn’t think Heroes has got legs any more. Is the axe going to fall?

Despite Kring saying sorry for thinking we’re “saps” and “dipshits”, and others’ view that season 3 of Heroes has turned a corner, I remain massively unconvinced by this show and episode 10 does relatively little to reverse my scepticism.

The Eclipse part 1 is the first of a double episode story where the aforementioned celestial event causes the removal of all powers from those that previously owned them. This idea didn’t get me onboard from the outset, on the basis that not one of the super-powered people seemed to know that an eclipse was coming, apart from those that had seen visions of this in the future. But hang on, when a total eclipse last came to my geographic location, everyone knew it was on its way, and when it would occur. But then I get the distinct impression that for Tim Kring this eclipse was metaphorical, because he seems to have researched or understood so little about these events in his portrayal.

Normally, at this point I’d give a blow-by-blow of what happens in this episode, but doing that for this show is tedious in the extreme, so leaving out plenty, I’ll just cover the most salient aspects and ignore the drudge.

Arthur knows the eclipse is coming, because he keeps painting the event! He also foresees that Claire will die (except the picture he shows us doesn’t actually display that implicitly), and that something strange will happen to Suresh. He sends new buddies Elle and Sylar to get Claire, because she’s the catalyst to the formula for making anyone super-human.

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Meanwhile, Angela sends Peter and Nathan to get the Haitian, and Parkman to get Hiro, and she gets Noah to take Claire somewhere safe.

Except Parkman doesn’t go get Hiro, he just turns up at Parkman’s apartment like he’s been cued to appear. So how did he get there at exactly that moment? At this point cute Daphne has one of her moments of doubt and runs off home to Kansas.

Nathan Airways take Peter to Haiti, before dumping him from altitude into a river when his powers spark-out with the arrival of the eclipse. They find the Haitian, but are hunted by his psychotic, and usually indestructible, brother.

The loss of powers is simultaneous for everyone. It happens to Hiro and Parkman after they and Ando teleport to a cornfield outside Daphne’s family home, and it happens to Elle, Sylar and Claire when they meet at the supposedly secret house that Noah picked. Claire gets shot protecting Noah from Elle, and the injury doesn’t heal. Back at Pinehearst, Suresh goes into a cocoon and comes out looking normal again, much to his relief.

Noah takes the injured Claire home to care for her, Ando and Hiro go shopping for new comics in a shop run by Seth Green, and Parkman discovers what scares Daphne so much – without her powers she can barely walk.

The cliffhanger is that Noah returns to the house to sort Sylar and Elle out, and is poised to shoot them with a sniper rifle while they’re making out.

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As convoluted as all this is, there was barely one classic Heroes moment in this episode, and it was an amusing sequence where Parkman tried to use his mind power on Daphne’s dad, but just made the usual faces instead,  without any results.

The rest was boring, and, more worryingly, entirely unconvincing. I’d love Tim to explain to this ‘dipshit’ how an eclipse can be total at three geographic locations in the world at the same time, especially three that can’t be joined by a viable shadow track! Totality lasts a maximum of seven and a half minutes, so I’ll be checking next week to see how longer it lasts on this show. I suspect much longer.

But getting back to the characters and plot, I’m losing patience entirely with this show. Please, Mr Kring. Decide if Sylar is good or bad, if Hiro and Ando will ever be useful or interesting again, if Peter gets his powers back, and if Suresh can get his old job driving a cab back, so I can go and watch something better than this!

You’re bored with these characters, you’ve admitted as much, and that’s how I feel too.

Check out our review of episode 9 here.

 

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