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Heroes 3x22 "Turn and Face the Strange" Discuss and Grade

Grade the episode


  • Total voters
    49
Another nice episode, Bryan Fuller has definitely restored the emotional core to this show. Kudos to Zeljko Ivanek - I knew instantly that he was playing Sylar and not Danko - okay maybe that spoiled the surprise but it was still a great performance. And Ashley Crow got the chance to play Sylar, as did Noah Bennet (but not Jack Coleman :rommie:). That was hilarious, seeing Noah turn the tables on Sylar's masquerade routine.

And nice job once again having the characters be consistently smart. Noah knew exactly how to confirm the id of Sylar's corpse - pull out the stake. We got confirmation that yes, Sylar survived the last volume's finale because the flames melted the glass in time for him to scram (or dig his way out of the rubble).

Funny how Sylar assumed Sandra's signature would be girlish when in reality it's mature and elegant, and he apparently didn't stop to think that a husband would know his wife's signature from decades of married life. Sylar may be clever, but he doesn't know people worth spit.

The only two I could possibly see causing a stir are Nathan and Peter and that coming more from fangirls who are more interested in how hot they both look without their shirts on.
At this point, we need some reason to keep watching. :D But Fuller is continuing to undo a lot of the damage, so I'm more sanguine about the show being worth watching in its own right. The Coyote Flats stuff does seem a tad shoehorned in, but S2 is when they were supposed to have done the backstory work, and that just fizzled, so this is just another example of Fuller's belated repair job to the show.

Hiro and Mohinder are really the only one with a justified reason for being angry with Sylar.

They all have a reason to kill him - he's a threat to all of them. And he's killed both Peter and Claire, so both they and anyone who cares about them would have a motive for vengeance. He injured Matt severely and was indirectly responsible for Janice deciding she couldn't take the madness anymore and leaving. Matt might have never realized he had a son. He also severely injured Sandra.
 
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Really I thought the boys proclivity for moronity returned this episode.

And the title?

Strange means casual sex to some.
 
Maybe it refers to the normal people still associated with the characters (not counting Noah), such as Danko's Russian girlfriend and Sandra having to "face the strange" (in Sandra's case this is hardly new to her but this one time hurt far more).
 
Possible.

But I was trying to twist what they meant into something humorous and disgusting.

It's what I do.

But these women. Sandra. and Lena, they both thought they were in serious broad and loving committed relationships. Suddenly they discover that the men they love are facades of the monsters who tend to them within tiny boxes. Going from a wife to pet, and even from Mistress to pet is something of a demotion that you have to wonder "what" it is, not "who" it is, that you have been sleeping with all this time?

Noah's Mister Muggles is Sandra.
 
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Really I thought the boys proclivity for moronity returned this episode.
You mean our adorably dense Petrelli boys? They barely had any screen time.

Noah saw thru Sylar's shenanigans pretty well this time round. Sylar's only slip-up was in not realizing a husband would know his wife's signature, but that's just Sylar being a weirdo who doesn't know anything about normal people's lives.

Mohinder had the sense to get out of Dodge, but his scientist's curiosity (which is his key weakness like weirdness is for Sylar) tripped him up again. Matt is too furious to do anything but what he did, and we all knew he wouldn't pull the trigger. Fuller was just cleaning up the loose ends of the Daphne plotline, which he's dumped in favor of Janice and the kid.

Danko is still headed for a very obvious cliff, but he's constructed to be a tragic figure who will pay for his evil ways, so I'm happy to see that all play out. Sylar will kill him and adopt his identity, tho I'm still hoping Fuller will come up with something more surprising than that. I'd love to see Danko dead but Zeljko Ivanek stay with the show...he does Sylar so very well...

Hiro and Ando are still comic relief, but at this point, there no other role for them, and at least with Fuller back, they are charming and not teeth-gnashingly cloying. All in all, far less stupidity than I've been used to - nothing glaring that made me want to put my foot though the TV. That alone marks a big improvement over the standard set in S2-S3
 
It is interesting to note that Sylar's acquisition of the shapeshifting ability makes the future seen in "Five Years Gone" of him assuming Nathan's identity a possibility once again.
 
Ok, just saw it this morning. I almost fired an average from the hip, but the self-destruction of Noah's life bumped it up a notch for me.
 
They are cranking up Sylar's "should die soon" reading. I mean seriously after all this he better not just get to ride off into the sunset, that's WAY too much of a Karma Houdini.
 
But Five Years Gone was based on a future of a destroyed New York City and a politically powered Nathan Petrelli who came into his own providing leadership during a dark time of crisis. None of that applies anymore. Why not shape shift into the president or into Danko or any number of military commanders for that matter if Sylar wants power?
 
This probably makes me shallow, but one of the things that is irritating me the most right now is Hayden's horrible wig. These days we have the capacity to make wigs that look so much better than what she's being put in. The color is off, and the shape is unnatural. It makes her face look too round - which considering her structure is NOT a feature you want to enhance. I don't know, it's just driving me slightly crazy. Bring back her real hair!

I'm curious as to what Hayden did to her hair that she has to wear a distracting wig on the show. How bad could it have been? Did she pull a Felicity or something?
 
Really I thought the boys proclivity for moronity returned this episode.

And the title?

Strange means casual sex to some.

It's a quote from David Bowie, and in the context of the song "Changes," referred to it's more mundane definition.
 
But Five Years Gone was based on a future of a destroyed New York City and a politically powered Nathan Petrelli who came into his own providing leadership during a dark time of crisis. None of that applies anymore. Why not shape shift into the president or into Danko or any number of military commanders for that matter if Sylar wants power?

One theme that I thought was emerging in this show in S1, and I would like them to return to, is the notion that these characters have impulses that for good or bad will cause alternate futures to have parallel themes because the characters can stop from repeating themselves (and usually don't know they're repeating).

Sylar's tendency towards absolutism (why does he need to eradicate all the competition?) might impel him to be "President" just because there's nowhere higher to go. Alternatively, Matt's impulses towards protecting others could put him on either side of the Homeland Security line. But either way, he's dangerous because of his tendency towards emotional impulsivity and need to act.
 
Really I thought the boys proclivity for moronity returned this episode.

And the title?

Strange means casual sex to some.

It's a quote from David Bowie, and in the context of the song "Changes," referred to it's more mundane definition.

I hope everyone knows that line from the song.

Maybe in context of the show:

Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
 
But Five Years Gone was based on a future of a destroyed New York City and a politically powered Nathan Petrelli who came into his own providing leadership during a dark time of crisis. None of that applies anymore. Why not shape shift into the president or into Danko or any number of military commanders for that matter if Sylar wants power?
I just meant that now that they've given Sylar back his ability to do it. And frankly, I think they're going to try to correct Nathan's storyline and pull him back up out of the depths. Not sure how they'll manage it, but with time travel as a possibility, it's not like they couldn't find a creative way to pull it off.

This probably makes me shallow, but one of the things that is irritating me the most right now is Hayden's horrible wig. These days we have the capacity to make wigs that look so much better than what she's being put in. The color is off, and the shape is unnatural. It makes her face look too round - which considering her structure is NOT a feature you want to enhance. I don't know, it's just driving me slightly crazy. Bring back her real hair!

I'm curious as to what Hayden did to her hair that she has to wear a distracting wig on the show. How bad could it have been? Did she pull a Felicity or something?
I read somewhere (I think here on the board) that the constant styling was damaging her hair, which is not an unusual problem. And that's fine, but they could have found a better solution! If I were Hayden, I'd be screaming to high heaven about how they're making her look. She looks like an over-cooked butterball.
 
If Sylar touches Nathan without killing him (if they throw Nathan away they're dumber than Mohinder) and then he's caught impersonating him, Peter could seize on the opportunity to blame Sylar for instigating the round up. Claire hates Sylar, so she'd probably help cover and you know Angela would. They could probably convince the others.
 
Peter could seize on the opportunity to blame Sylar for instigating the round up.
Peter might be fooled into thinking that it was Sylar all along, but I doubt he'd cover for Nathan intentionally. He's too perennially pissed off about Nathan's devious side to ever abet it. He wants Nathan to be "good" and will never stop being a foot-stomping little beeotch until he is.

Ditto for Claire - she's already shown a very low degree of tolerance for feeling "betrayed" by either daddy. She may be a brat, but she has often had a point when she goes off on those snits of hers.

Would Nathan foster the deception on his own? I dunno, blaming Sylar of all people for his own epically bad decision making seems slimy even for him. Nathan needs to show some willingness to pull himself up out of the mire so he can continue on the character arc he was supposed to be on as of the end of S1 and has been mangled all to pieces since then.


EDIT: well, here's something interesting. Would anyone expect Heroes to show up in a list of top money-makers via advertising? Within the top ten? Tied with the vaunted CSI?

The list also shows what we already suspected. Heroes, despite turning in its worst season viewers- and ratings-wise, still commands top dollar because of its audience, which is dominated by heavily invested young males. In other words, those likely to spend money.

Wow. That is interesting new info and explains why NBC seemed so "well of course" when they renewed the show in the midst of ratings free-fall.

And I don't think this even counts product placement, which we all know Heroes is a champ at.
 
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Peter might be fooled into thinking that it was Sylar all along, but I doubt he'd cover for Nathan intentionally. He's too perennially pissed off about Nathan's devious side to ever abet it. He wants Nathan to be "good" and will never stop being a foot-stomping little beeotch until he is.

Which is why you're now a marked women for coming into the SPN thread and comparing Dean Winchester to the little twerp. :evil: Yeah, Peter is probably too self righteous to ever lie like that, but it's possible he could get guilted into it over shooting him. Yes, I know, I know it was future Peter, but crap I want some kind of retribution. Or acknowledgment. Or Nathan having a pulse.
 
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