Heroes season 3 episode 11 review and thoughts

Such was the feeling of dread I felt when tuning into this week’s episode of Heroes that I almost flicked channels to watch Transporter 2. It’s got that bad that I’d contemplate watching 90 minutes of Jason Statham grumbling his way through a series of predictable set pieces rather than the show I got so excited about only a couple of months ago. I mean, what’s next? Will The Grinch take my fancy next week, or will Big Momma’s House suddenly seem like an appropriate way to waste my valuable time. Perhaps I should just gouge my eyes out with a turkey bone and be done with it.

If you were reading last week you’ll remember I wasn’t too fond of The Eclipse part 1 and to be honest, part 2 didn’t do too much for me either. Predictably, it just tried to encompass way too much and failed to offer any kind of payoff as it either suffered from terrible writing or the kind of twist the Edwardians saw coming.

We left last week on a cliffhanger as Noah has a depowered Sylar and Elle in his sights. But when we re-join our sickeningly cute couple this week, they are engaged in some post-coital pillow talk before Elle spots the laser target and all hell breaks loose. Now, I can’t blame Noah for copping a look, she is a hottie, but seriously, man, so unprofessional! And then, when he’s got a perfectly good telescopic sight, why use the laser dot?

Anyway, it seems the whole point of the eclipse in this part of the world is to put the boot (or in this case, power) firmly on the other foot. So we watch as Noah takes on the role of the bully, hunting Elle and Sylar through the backstreets before tracking them down to a convenience store and slitting Sylar’s throat with a Stanley knife (personally Id’ve gone for a headslice to see how he likes it, but hey, I’m not an agent).

In the end, though, it’s all a fruitless exercise that means the last two hours of my life have been wasted. Why? Because we know Sylar isn’t really dead, thanks to one of many subplots where we see Claire admitted to hospital with an infection that we can only suspect she caught from the bullet she took, rather than kissing boys at school because, oh, yes, she doesn’t go to school anymore. Needless to say, Claire dies but doesn’t really die and then they somehow escape from the police and the hospital with a newfound respect for life…yadda yadda yadda, then something happens in the jungle and something else in the cornfields and well, to be honest, you saw last week’s episode, everything wraps up nicely and the eclipse is over and everyone has their powers again.

You see, it’s hard to get excited about what is, in essence, a pointless two week detour from the main plot of the show. Yes, it’s shown us how vulnerable our heroes are without their powers and enabled Sylar to change his mind about whether he’s a good guy or not again, but in essence, nothing happens.

The only saving grace is the scenes in the comic book store which are truly enjoyable and put some of the fun back into Heroes. Seth Green is excellent and Breckin Meyer provides a great foil for the type of fanboy banter in which we are all versed. The 9th Wonder Comics are also a great opportunity to engage the audience as well, as the characters on screen are left to visually piece together the clues in much the same way as the audience back home. Isaac was one of the best aspects of season one and, in my opinion, the show has been lacking ever since his untimely demise. It’s no surprise that some of this season’s finest moments have come through seers or through the 9th Wonder Comics and, with the promise of an unprinted issue out there, we can only hope that there is more to come from our cranially-challenged artist.

Hopefully next week won’t be such a flat and a return to the improved writing that was exhibited in episode 8. If not, then all I want for Christmas is for Bryan Fuller’s return to come as quickly as possible.

Read Daniel’s prior review here.