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HEROES 3x12 "Our Father" Discuss and Grade

Grade the episode


  • Total voters
    72
Who says the bullet is still in there? It could have come out the back of his head. Or, in a more grim take on things, once the body decays after a certain point, the bullet will fall out on its own. Plus, we have no idea if Adam's healing power is the same as Claire's ... maybe the bullet will simply pop out, like when Claire got shot in the chest. I actually like that actor (he has a unique accent) so I wouldn't mind seeing him back. Or, at least, hearing his voice.

Here's a different question: If Mohinder takes the serum, will it fix his damage, overwriting the flaw in his formula, or just add powers on top of his already damaged self? Presumably, we'll find out.
 
There was a lot I liked this week. For some reason, it felt more like old Heroes. I liked the stuff with Hiro and Claire. That said, I'm now going to rant.

I really hope Arthur Petrelli is not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead -- but I very greatly doubt it. That actor is just dull as powder. Ick. In his defense, I don't think the writers have given him much to work with, but neither have they to Cristine Rose, and she acts the fire out of what she's given.

All the Petrellis but Angela are lame shadows of their former selves, and I was yelling at Peter the entire time he had that gun pointed at his father. Peter is just stupid. He should know better than to think he'd have the intestinal fortitude to shoot ANYONE, much less his own father. I love how Sylar just dismissed him as completely unworthy of effort. I completely agree with that assessment.

I think they made it pretty clear that Elle is history, don't you? Until they find someone with the power to reanimate ashes, I guess. ;)

It would have been interesting to see Sylar and Arthur face off without the Haitian's interference - except that Arthur is lame, and the writers seem to be scared of actually writing and filming a multi-powered confrontation.

Okay, and what was with the catalyst!?!? Talk about a letdown! We spent the entire episode trying to get the catalyst to go to Hiro instead of Claire. Did this make anyone besides me really annoyed that when it came down to it, it didn't really matter who had it, because Arthur stole it two seconds later? And it's not a chemical element in the blood, no, it's a glowy-special-effect/alien-possession/glitter-sparkles-goodness aura that makes NO sense even in the Heroes universe. And the implication seems to be that with Arthur's death, the catalyst has been lost. Huh? What a waste of a story line!
 
I liked most of this episode, but I got really pissed when they made Hiro fuck up again when minutes after taking "the light" and promising his mother he'd keep it safe, he fucks up again and Arthur gets it. How many times has something like this happened?


And once again general complaints that the plot lines are contrived and arbitrary, and Sylar's character is making less sense all the time (although he was awesome in this episode, the path leading up to this place doesnt fit).
 
Way Below Average. And am I the only one who thought that the scene with Hiro and his mom was so forced and manipulative that it should have been in some movie on the Hallmark Channel? I mean, the scene in WALL-E where EVE hurridly assembled WALL-E only to find him, albiet breifly, stripped of his personality had more emotional resonance. And those were two cartoon robots. And don't get me started with the awful expository dialogue. I wantted to put a nail gun to Claire's and Hiro's heads after that cutsey Japanese/English exchange. And Ando pretty much figured out how to save Hiro with his dialogue. Way to take the peril out of the situation. Wait. This is Heroes. There hasn't been any genuine peril since season 1. And the circle is now complete in the Borgification of Sylar. I know the writers are trying to bring him back to S1 form, but the damage is done. There will be some lame plot contrivance to make him "good" again for the sake of "character development". I'm not buying the malevolence anymore.

Sylar lurking in the shadows as an unknowable threat=Good

Sylar cracking wise in an elevator wearing a bloddied shirt=Bad

And since when did super strength become one of Chiana the Speedster's powers? She can't be more than a hundred pounds. How could she carry Matt and Ando and still run? Okay, let's assume that she could carry them. She is obviously physiologically designed for such speeds. But shouldn't matt and Ando be a couple of bunches of raw hamburger in her hand from the friction? Kring is so blase about this show. I'm sticking around, if only to watch a slow motion car wreck. But I think that not even Brian Fuller with JMS as his wingman and Brian K Vaughn and Bill Willingham in their back pockets is enough to save this show. And I'll be surprised if it comes back for a season 4.
 
I really don't think Daphne's power is limited to JUST fast twitch speed. I still stick to my controllable time-bubble theory. But as far as her transporting two people with her, I guess all they would have to do is JUMP, and then have Daphne just push them forward in mid-air to travel along with her.

As for strength, it came to my mind when the soldier threw the chair into the wall: One could throw a chair as strong as they want to, but the impact of the chair to the wall directly correlates to the velocity at which it impacts (hey! mass * acceleration!) the wall. So, for Daphne to be able to move so fast, she must also be pretty strong as well...
 
It struck me as no less plausible that Speedchick could use her ability to bring friends than Hiro or Nathan could take 'passengers.'

Actually, Nathan's fatigue from carrying Peter to Haiti struck me as the odd phenomena (I figured his power worked like Superman's, e.g. when he took Lois for a fly finger-to-finger); before that, it appeared that the heroes with friends almost shared the power when taking them along (like Matt bringing third parties into the dreamworlds he created).

Each ability seems to have its own rules regarding how it breaks the laws of physics. I figured simply touching Daphne's hand while she ran, or the hand of fireguy or firechick while 'active,' could conceivably be enough for superspeed or fire immunity. Plus, we saw Artie Patrelli use the 'time & space' teleport power to "send" Claire on a solo trip somewhere - Hiro or Peter never did that. We don't really know the full extent of the powers, and that's a pain - but undoubtedly purposeful.

But I was more put off when Future Peter took Peter back to the future after shooting Nathan, found superhumans commonplace, and wasn't surprised by that. I mean, WTF?
 
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Byrne's 1986 re-launch of Superman suggested that the only way such a tiny pinpoint of a person could lift, say, a humongous ocean liner into the sky without punching through it or cause irreparable stress damage is because an aura surrounds the Kryptonian which extends to whomever or whatever he is carrying. The same aura presumably protects any passengers from air friction injury, etc. The Flash is said to be protected by a similar aura as an extension of the "speed force" (or whatever they're calling it now).

Dunno if they're going for the same things with Daphne and Nathan, but it would tie some pesky scientific facts away with a fictitious outside element were they to use such an explanation.
 
^Who is going to remove the bullet exactly?
Who wouldn't? Are you *seriously* asking this for *this* show?

One of Artie's goons would probably do it - Flint or Knox. They may be wondering where their next paycheck is coming from now that the boss has croaked. Hey, in this economy even mutants have to worry about job security.

Or it could be Peter (guilt trip) or Mohinder (general stupidity).

Characters are brought back all the time. Logic need not apply.
Elle will be back. Mark my words, immolation is no object if Kristen Bell's schedule frees up. With time travel in the mix, it's foolish to consider anyone dead for good.
 
Yeah...I was thinking more along the lines of a dead person from a future or past timeline being dragged back or forward into the present (depending on what logic they're using, the future might not be an option but the past always is). So some past Elle, maybe who was never adopted by the Company and is a very different person, could be plopped into the middle of things. Or she could be a bigger psycho than ever and not the kind of person Sylar could kill quite so easily (exactly WHY didn't Elle zap Sylar when he started to get rough? Gah!)
Who says the bullet is still in there? It could have come out the back of his head.
Then Arthur would revive immediately after the Haitian left.

Plus, we have no idea if Adam's healing power is the same as Claire's
He's also got Peter's (and Claire's) healing powers. I have no idea what the rules are for having two types of powers that do the same thing. Does one overrule the other?

And it's not a chemical element in the blood, no, it's a glowy-special-effect/alien-possession/glitter-sparkles-goodness aura that makes NO sense even in the Heroes universe.
I agree, I didn't much like that.

I belatedly thought of something - Noah is now responsible for every person Sylar is going to kill (starting with lie detector girl). As we saw from Future-Gabriel, he could have been a nice guy trying to squelch the hunger if given the motive, which is to believe, rightly or wrongly, that he's a Petrelli and has family connections. Presumably that got him to lil Noah's birth which would have provided another motive.

But by exposing the lie, Noah just unleashed a maniac back on the world. Or maybe it's Hiro's fault for teleporting him to a beach instead of deep under the deep blue sea...but then again, Hiro was just a stupid little boy playing a prank or something. There's no way a ten year old could really understand what was going on.

Sylar's off the hook now. Clearly he's just an innocent victim of the hunger. From now on, it's Noah's fault.

Sylar's character is making less sense all the time (although he was awesome in this episode, the path leading up to this place doesnt fit).
The way to make fitful sense of Sylar is to hang onto the elements that click and toss out everything else, because that way lies madness. This seems to sum him up adequately:

1. Sylar/Gabriel has a crippling need to fit in and have a family, preferably an important one. This is probably a result of his upbringing and has nothing to do with the hunger.

2. The seeing power gives him an overpowering addictive urge to use the seeing power on brains. The goal is not to collect powers or even to kill, but he doesn't mind doing either of those things either - collecting powers makes it easier to get his next fix. Using the seeing power is like a drug and he does it simply to get high.

3. When/if he loses his powers, the addiction vanishes like flipping a switch. Then he goes back to being a basically normal-ish person who feels horribly guilty and even suicidal about killing.

4. Occasionally he is also lucid and self-controlled enough to feel guilty even when he does have the powers. No idea how or why the addiction might ebb or flow. He doesn't seem to become less addicted just because he's recently had a fix. To the contrary, he seems like he's on a bender now, and getting a fix just makes him hungrier.

5. He can theoretically control the hunger well enough to never succumb to it, but only if point #1 up there isn't a big issue for him. If it is a big issue, he becomes demoralized and turns to his addiction to compensate.
 
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Sylar's new purpose on the show is to kill all characters of actors whose contracts are up. Even if he has no reason to kill them, he will.
 
FRAK! Frakety frak FRAK!

Here's a great spoiler about Sylar's daddy...not a superduper spoiler, depending on your tolerance levels...

Sylar is Lex Luthor's brother!!! John Glover cast as Daddy Grey. Well, there goes my Peter Coyote idea, but I can't say I mind being wrong this time. Great, great idea.

I now rescind all my crabbing about Sylar not being a Petrelli, tho it still would be cool if Angela were his real mom after all.

And in more breaking news...Bryan Fuller's plans for rescuing the show. Incidentally, there are some small spoilers in there.
AUSIELLO: Where did Heroes go wrong, in your opinion?
BRYAN FULLER:
It became too dense and fell into certain sci-fi trappings. For instance, in the “Villains” arc, when you talk about formulas and catalysts, it takes the face off the drama. And I think the goal for everybody is to put a face back on the drama. You have to save something with a face; otherwise you don’t understand what you’re caring about.
Say no more, Bryan, that's enough for me. Nice summary of what's gone wrong - too many gimmicks, zero understanding of what makes good drama and makes the audience care.

We're also going to tell fewer stories per episode. We're going to limit it to three or four with one big one that you can wrap the stories around. We're altering the structure of the show so that there's a very clear A story that takes up a larger percentage of the show so that that story gets traction.
Peter as a paramedic? Cool! Keep him unpowered long enough to hold down a real job. And the return of Janice and Matt Jr confirms my suspicion that Janice lied about the kid not being Matt's just to run away from the craziness of the superpower stuff. The kid had powers in 5YG so he had to in the 'real' timeline as well.
 
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FRAK! Frakety frak FRAK!

Here's a great spoiler about Sylar's daddy...not a superduper spoiler, depending on your tolerance levels...

Sylar is Lex Luthor's brother!!! John Glover cast as Daddy Grey. Well, there goes my Peter Coyote idea, but I can't say I mind being wrong this time. Great, great idea.

I now rescind all my crabbing about Sylar not being a Petrelli, tho it still would be cool if Angela were his real mom after all.

And in more breaking news...Bryan Fuller's plans for rescuing the show. Incidentally, there are some small spoilers in there.
AUSIELLO: Where did Heroes go wrong, in your opinion?
BRYAN FULLER: It became too dense and fell into certain sci-fi trappings. For instance, in the “Villains” arc, when you talk about formulas and catalysts, it takes the face off the drama. And I think the goal for everybody is to put a face back on the drama. You have to save something with a face; otherwise you don’t understand what you’re caring about.
Say no more, Bryan, that's enough for me. Nice summary of what's gone wrong - too many gimmicks, zero understanding of what makes good drama and makes the audience care.

We're also going to tell fewer stories per episode. We're going to limit it to three or four with one big one that you can wrap the stories around. We're altering the structure of the show so that there's a very clear A story that takes up a larger percentage of the show so that that story gets traction.
Peter as a paramedic? Cool! Keep him unpowered long enough to hold down a real job. And the return of Janice and Matt Jr confirms my suspicion that Janice lied about the kid not being Matt's just to run away from the craziness of the superpower stuff. The kid had powers in 5YG so he had to in the 'real' timeline as well.

God I love Bryan Fuller.
 
Oh well, so much for that. The great and powerful Bryan Fuller has proven to be just a guy who has no more idea what he's doing than anyone else they've already got.
 
And I'll be surprised if it comes back for a season 4.

With NBC's place in the ratings war and that Heroes is still hitting the demographics it wants, the show will certainly be back.

It would have to bomb considerably more, I would think, before they dont' renew it.

NBC just doesn't have the programming to get rid of Heroes. Not yet.

Oh well, so much for that. The great and powerful Bryan Fuller has proven to be just a guy who has no more idea what he's doing than anyone else they've already got.

I disagree. I think he hit the nail right on the head. These past two seasons, I just didn't care about the characters. The writers had just been adding more and more people with powers, more twists, and so the show became flat and cliche.

There was no heart. So who cares?
 
Have we seen the last of Wesley Crusher ... um, I mean Micah? God, I hope so. This season has been wonderfully brat free.
 
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