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HEROES 3x07 "Eris Quod Sum" Discuss and Grade

Grade the episode


  • Total voters
    64
Boy. That wasn't very good, was it?

No, it wasn't.

Yes it was.

It was if you loooove the characters enough that the ahem plot flaws seem minor by comparison. I'm having a lot of fun this season, for me it's as good as S1. I'm not expecting many Emmy nominations, tho...

Claire & Elle on the airplane was silly, sure. But they needed to get the girls across the country and couldn't just have them spend a week on the bus. Hiro and Ando's road trip was draggy and silly, and Elle & Claire just don't have that kind of chemistry possibility (Elle and someone else, maybe) so I'm happy they didn't drag down the plot with meandering nonsense and I'll give em pass on the air travel as unavoidable silliness.

Powerless Pete is a terrific idea and they really need to stick with it for a while. It solves his major problem, namely that they've had to make him stupid to stop him from using his powers to kill every dramatic situation the writers come up with. Now he will have to think about how to solve a dilemma, a vastly more interesting prospect than him frantically hurling around every imaginable power, which is just deadening.

In fiction, you want to make the heroes less powerful than the villains so that the drama is intensified.

And don't start bitching about comic books. :rommie: I stopped reading them in high school, so I neither know or care what plotlines Heroes is swiping from them. Given the sheer volume of comic book output, I am certain every conceivable plotline has been done a hundred times.
 
Claire & Elle on the airplane was silly, sure. But they needed to get the girls across the country and couldn't just have them spend a week on the bus. So I'll give em a pass on that one as unavoidable silliness.

My point was that usually we get three episodes of road trip which they skipped. :)

Powerless Pete is a terrific idea and they really need to stick with it for a while. It solves his major problem, namely that they've had to make him stupid to stop him from using his powers to kill every dramatic situation the writers come up with. Now he will have to think about how to solve a dilemma, a vastly more interesting prospect than him frantically hurling around every imaginable power, which is just deadening.

They may as well write him out, then. There isn't enough room in the cast for another powerless character and Bennet's a lot cooler than he is.

In fiction, you want to make the heroes less powerful than the villains so that the drama is intensified.

Too late. They should have thought about that when they made him as powerful as he was. They gave themselves an out back in season one (Mohinder's line about his powers becoming unstable if he absorbs too many) and chose not to use it.

As I said before, they pull this rubbish with Rogue all the time and I stopped reading X-Men comics because of it. They just did it again with the end of Messiah Complex (in fact it seemed like the whole point of the storyline was to reboot her powers again).

They wrote themselves in to a corner and I'm not going to be conned in to thinking that their cop out way of fixing that is somehow a good thing.

And don't start bitching about comic books. :rommie: I stopped reading them in high school, so I neither know or care what plotlines Heroes is swiping from them. Given the sheer volume of comic book output, I am certain every conceivable plotline has been done a hundred times.

Yes, the only problem is that they're directly lifting now. Those of us who do still read comic books don't want to read the same stories as we're seeing on TV.
 
Boy. That wasn't very good, was it?

No, it wasn't.

Yes it was.

No, it really wasn't.

I was rooting for it, Mohinda even seemed to be acting like a person with dimension and then the the Barbie twins take a ride in an aeroplane. It's like they were trying to commit suicide and take 700 people with them, except that they were surprised when it all went HORRIBLY wrong.

Although, the "have you met my wife" line was beyond awesome. :)
 
It's like they were trying to commit suicide and take 700 people with them, except that they were surprised when it all went HORRIBLY wrong.
Have you met any teenage girls? They're all retarded.

What surprises me is that Claire's mom let them get on a plane!
 
Yeah Claire isn't too bright and Elle was desperate enough to take the chance because she probably thinks she's on the verge of dying anyway. Why not take a whole plane down with ya? Elle has never been a very nice person...

Peter won't be written out of the story, ever. His squeeing fans are what's keeping the 18-34 demo nice and healthy. :rommie: It's pretty easy to tell which characters are safe for the duration. Even Sylar/Gabriel is safe for now, and if Star Trek XI is a big hit, he'll be safe for as long as they can hang onto Zachary Quinto. Sylar will die only when Quinto quits the show of his own volition because he's too big a star for TV.

The whole Sylar Redemption Plotline does not faze me because I knew they'd do it. It's the way they can hang onto the guy long enough to benefit from the Star Trek XI PR boost. Did anyone really think that would not be a huge factor?
 
I don't mind his redemption story; I just don't like the way it's being handled.

Sylar finds out that he's a Petrelli, and suddenly he's a good guy!

"You came for me?"
"It's what brothers do, Peter."

Give me a fucking break.
 
What doesn't work for me at all is anything to do with Gabriel. His transformation from Sylar to devoted Petrelli mamma's boy was rapid, inexplicable, and unconvincing.
The clues were all there in S1. The first things we ever learned about Sylar is that 1) he can't control himself (the voice mail message) and 2) he is remorseful enough to cover the walls with insane FORGIVE ME scrawlings ...

I never argue opinion. If it works for you, cool.

I'll say this though. The heart of this story, and the season likely, hinges on Gabriel's transformation and what side of the evil fence he eventually falls. I would have expected more care and energy put in to convince me of his sincerity, insincerity, or even skepticism, in so whole heartedly embracing the Petrelli clan. The things we learned from previous seasons - as you say - may be perfectly valid clues; but I don't hold as much faith in long term planning or consistent characterization from these writers. This shows tends to have characters do what the plot requires them to do, characterization be damned. And it is not afraid of leaving untidy bits hanging while asking us to look the other way.

I'm not down on the show, but certainly down on that episode.
 
So is Bruce Boxleitner's character already out of the picture? Seems like a waste unless...

He's a man scorned (Tracy left him for Nathan) to the point where he's going to lead the charge to hunt down the superfreaks.
 
I thought it was an ok episodes, but the one thing that bothered me was that Arthur just killed Parkman's dad like that. Why didn't he take his power first, then kill him? That seemed out of character (but it saves the writers from having to come up with a way for him to read Sylar's mind and know if he is good or evil, or to prevent him from controlling everyone around him, making him too powerful).
 
I don't mind his redemption story; I just don't like the way it's being handled.

Sylar finds out that he's a Petrelli, and suddenly he's a good guy!

"You came for me?"
"It's what brothers do, Peter."

Give me a fucking break.

See my extended rant above regarding Sylar's characterization. For Sylar, having a brother is a far bigger deal than it would be for most people and this has been foreshadowed since early S1. Ditto for having a mother who isn't lame like Virginia.

As for Peter being oddly forgiving of Gabriel, who killed him and split open Claire's head among many other horrible crimes, I'll chalk that up to his first-hand experience of the hunger. Peter knows he'd have done the same things, so how can he judge?

I would have expected more care and energy put in to convince me of his sincerity, insincerity, or even skepticism, in so whole heartedly embracing the Petrelli clan.
The writers could have included more scenes that reminded the audience of the previously established characterization. But this is also a fast-paced show and that works against detailed explanations for anything.

But Gabriel isn't being sincere or otherwise. He's reacting to his own psychological problems, which I guess is very sincere. He needs the Petrellis, it's not something he's making a choice about.

the one thing that bothered me was that Arthur just killed Parkman's dad like that.

If Matt's powers are the same as Maury's, then Arthur already has Maury's powers, via Peter, who got them from Matt.
 
Peter has also always been kind hearted and quick to forgive. He was a hospice nurse, remember. Compassion is one of his better traits.
 
Arthur seems to drain people, cut and paste rather than copy and paste like Peter. Quite different, especially compared to the new Brother who has to cut open brains to copy and paste... It might be possible that Arthur unwittingly drained the power from Nathan when he was still a sperm? later with more control over his abilities, Gabe and Pete... Fuck... Are they Twins? Ripping off a hack like Lucas is just sad.

O. If Arthur does uncontrollably (Definition of orgasm people.) lose control of his.. No, because then he would have stripped Angela during coitus... I has wondering how often she slept around since it's pretty obvious that Hiro is her son too?

O.

And is it possible that Arthur is dead and Maurie is really the puppet master still after faking his death?

Remember Angela fed Sylar the ability to know anyone/anything's most intimate and detailed histories down tot he last truth... Which really has to make you wonder how any one can lie to him any more? So honestly he knew for a fact how intensely Angela loved him.

Thinking back to that conversation Angela had with Chuck talking about which of her sons will end the world... Biblically isn't Gabriel one of the heralds of the end of days?
 
Peter has also always been kind hearted and quick to forgive. He was a hospice nurse, remember. Compassion is one of his better traits.

Compassion for Sylar would be akin to madness unless there was something else behind it. And Peter's capable of being pretty nasty, too. His self-image of being sweet and compassionate covers up some less savory traits such as selfishness, self-righteousness, self-destructiveness, stubbornness, self-pity...basically he's the center of his own universe but he likes to think of himself as a sweet little puppy who everyone must love. What a headcase. :rommie:

The key is, now he understands Sylar's mindset. He has no choice but to be empathic. And this may be the beginning of the end for Peter's epic lack of self-awareness. Now he's gotten a kick to the head that he was stupid and arrogant to think he could control the hunger. He couldn't anymore than Gabriel could, so now they're equals. That's where the empathy comes from, it's true empathy, not that fake kind that Pollyanna Peter has been trotting out till now.
 
Is it just me or we getting really jerked around this season as to who's good and who's bad? I mean, just these last 2 episodes, Sylar, Peter, Arthur, Angela, Dahpne and Mohinder have all changed from heroes to villains to something in between several times each. Its very muddy.

It all seems very contrived too... especially Peter and Sylar... ones good, one's bad... then they switch, then they are both good, then both bad, then one is half good, half bad, and the other is 75% good, 20% bad, and 5% Teflon.

And I thought Mohinder was turning to a real baddy... I mean he did kill a bunch fo people and appeared to be totally psychotic, then all fo the sudden this episode, he's his old self again who had just done a few regretful things with good intentions.

And there's also Daphne... what is her deal? Fake good, but still good deep down? All bad? All good? Who the fuck knows.

I didn't like this episode much, though I liked parts of it. Its just the muddiness of the characters and the zaniness of the intermixing plot that makes it all seem like a pointless excercise. And what a lackluster ending. We know Hiro is just on one of those spirit walk things, cuz Matt did it earlier. And they leave with suspense as if we don't know if he's gonna be okay? Psh.

Oh, and anyone else notice how "The Company" which was so bad in season 1 is now pretty much good, so they just made a totally new company to take its place as the "bad" one? And Noah is back with the company seemingly willingly after vowing to destroy it only a few months earlier. Hmm.

The preview for the next episode makes it look like it will hopefully bring somg clarity to this mess of characters

I think the point here is that having superhuman abilities eventually corrupts no matter how nobel your intentions were in the beginning.
 
The ends justify the means.

Sylar will be a nice guy with a cute kid.

Do what ever you have to ensure that.

No matter the sacrifice.

Peter never gives up.

Just ask Kaitland.
 
I'm really unimpressed with the guy playing Arthur Petrelli...something is just off with his acting. He's not threatening, intimidating, or interesting to me. Seeing as he's the VILLAIN BEHIND IT ALL (NBC previouslies are really stupid) they should have found someone with the chops to pull it off.

I can't quite place why, but overall this episode was just sort of "there." I wasn't wowed and I wasn't bored. The storylines just sort of marched on a bit, but not to any place particularly worthwhile.
 
Peter has also always been kind hearted and quick to forgive. He was a hospice nurse, remember. Compassion is one of his better traits.

He was a hospice nurse who ducked out on his very first case just because he had dreams about being a special person instead (one who could fly.) Even though he promptly left his girlfriend with a major health care problem for her dying father. I rather liked the openly hard Nathan much better from the beginning, but that's me. EmoBoy has the Kring Power, which is to be adored by the producer who believes he is adored by the audience.

I'm just not into EmoBoy that much. Similarly, in first season, SuperVirgin had a real problem, a monstrously evil father. Now, she doesn't but she still mopes. Her repeated rape subplots don't do it for me. Comic Hero was appealing but the joke has worn thin. The characters like Nathan or Matt or even a genuinely flawed character like Isaac were more interesting. But they will never, ever be the focus of the show. The presence of ordinary people was exciting but they're gone now, never to return.

Part of the thrill of the first season was that the whiz bang surprises were pretty logical. There was One Big Story, which was fairly tightly plotted. Now the show has adopted the Farscape Principle, which is if you can't make sense, make it inventive. (Lost operates on this principle too except it is even more inventive.) But when the show switched, I didn't.
 
I think the point here is that having superhuman abilities eventually corrupts no matter how nobel your intentions were in the beginning.
Based on the evidence so far, the responsible thing for all the metahumans to do is: "donate" their powers to Arthur and then kill Arthur (or if he's unkillable, lock him up somewhere forever), thus removing all the nasty powers from the world and shutting Pandora's Box for good.

And don't have kids!!!!

But people always want to survive. They want to feel they are ok as they are and don't have to change or not pass on their destructive genes. So nobody is going to want to make that sacrifice voluntarily.

Besides, not all of them would agree to do give up so the "good" ones would feel obligated to stick around.
 
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