Above Average. Not nearly as good as the episode this was inspired by--season one's "Company Man". It is disappointing to see some effort being put into the show at such a late stage. I can't believe how so many episodes and this entire season has just been wasted when actual character work and interesting plot and story history could have been developed. This is tied with "Cold Snap" as my two favorite episodes this season. They aren't masterpieces or excellent shows and for any other series they would just be solid hours but at least they were somewhat interesting which compared to most offerings this season I guess is something. But it would have been so much better had we had a season of build up and consistent storytelling instead of just dropping this into our lap and resetting everything. It is a tad jarring and disjointed. Angela is my favorite character so I had feeling this would be decent and it was. I like how it gave some nice insight that touched back on dangling threads from season one--which seems like a lifetime ago. We finally learned how some of the Founders met and what precipitated their coming together and forming the Company. We finally learned what Charles' ability was--like Eden he can command people to do what he says. I also liked the theme of "it has happened before and it will happen again" to borrow from BSG. A neat bit of backstory that there had been a government crackdown on those with abilities and Nathan's project wasn't the first time and there being a "Building 26" as well at Coyote Sands. They did a good job casting the younger Angela. I thought she looked very much like her and the actress did a good job with emulating some of her gestures such as brushing Alice's hair with her hand which we have seen older Angela do. Reflecting a bit, I'm not sure bringing in an older living Alice was a good idea. It sort of felt perfunctory and a tad silly. I think it would have been more powerful had she died along with the others in 61. It seemed tacked on along with all the weather shenanigans. I guess the Petrellis are going to forgive Nathan for setting this all in motion. I'm not particularly satisfied with it. I would have at least liked Nathan to have attempted to justify or explain why he revealed the existence of those with abilities. And since a large part of this volume was driven by that decision it really is a big failing that continues to irk. And I see the writers trying to do some character scenes but Nathan/Peter's fell flat for me although it could be foreshadowing. The ominous closing for the episode was the most chilling this show has one in quite some time. Kudos. Looks like the writers are setting up a take on "Five Years Gone" scenario in some form. Did Charles track down Chandra years later and erase his memory? It would seem so because he refers to Sylar in season one as Patient Zero. Next week's episode looks exciting. Maybe they'll be enough momentum from these last few episodes to carry over into season four.
Oh yeah, I'm delighted they're deciding to restart the Company and return the secret identities. I want to pretend like this volume never happened! Stuffing this toothpaste back in the tube in the space of two episodes will be pretty crazy but I'm glad they're doing a rush job. I liked the old system in place, particularly in the "Villains" volume where the Company was the 'good guys'. Hopefully this will be a kinder, gentler Company. Maybe they could call it The Family since they were going on about how they're a family not a company
Yeah the sister being alive and a crazy hermit was a little much. I was assuming that her body died but her spirit/power/ghost lived on in the storms somehow. I was also thinking that Alice was gonna explode like a nuclear bomb or something. She should have been dead. ... I don't remember that whole silly virus thing from S2 anymore but did it have anything to do with the injections that Papa Suresh was giving the specials? Did Suresh Sr create the Shanti Virus or something? I forget.
Question: Is Angela the only living founder of the original company? I really hope they continue with developing more on this backstory. One of my major gripes I had was with them killing off the founders so soon and so quickly without letting us discover who they were and why they were doing the things they did. Did anyone else catch that Dr. Zimmerman was at Coyote Sands? Loved the socks!
Dr. Zimmerman being a Voyager reference? I was trying to remember if there was a Heroes character under that name.
Yes. Yes I had hoped the Generations volume would have explored the Founders and the Company's origins and history with some depth while using the attacks by the hooded mystery figure on the Founders as the reason to explore that aspect. It could have driven a whole season.
Dr. Zimmerman was the Dr. responsible for creating or modifying Niki/Jessica, Barbara and Tracy to have the abilities they gained. I believe it was stated or implied in an earlier episode that he worked for the company at one time also.
So 1961 is black and white and ancient Japan is color? This wasn't too bad, they are trying hard it seems to get back on track with Heroes though it might be too late. This was a slower story but a little nice to get away from the extremes of Danko and Hiro for a moment. Made Angela a little older than real life but then again according to IMDB she's only 14 years older than Adrian Pasdar. I think that logic only makes sense to us sci-fi nerds. Dr. Chandra, there'll be HAL to pay!!! sorry
I loved the episode. All the flashbacks were cool. It was nice seeing all the younger versions of the Company founders and felt like something we should have gotten in season two. Young Angela was pretty.
For a placeholder episode this wasnt bad. I mean we really only had a few minutes of plot development in the whole thing. Still the flashbacks were some of the best in the series and the young Angela was very good in her roll. Thankfully Hiro and the gang didnt also show up in the desert.
Honestly as soon as the older Alice showed up all I could say to myself is. My god... This is fucking retarded even for Heroes.
Poor. Man that episode was torturous. It was slow and nothing happened. Now I'm all for slow paced character development. But we learned nothing of real value. They could have just done a quick recap "over dinner" as Peter mentioned. Lame. The two parts I did enjoy were the socks explanation (or retcon) and the appearance of Sylar on tv. The rest, c'mon.
Black and white indicates a flashback, whereas Hiro's adventure in ancient Japan actually had him there as opposed to remembering it.