HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter One: “Four Months Later…”
Written by: Tim Kring
Directed by: Greg Beeman
(WARNING: SPOILERS)
(SERIOUSLY…)
“The sun rises on a new dawn, yet few of us realize the debt we owe to those responsible for this. To those who dwell among us, anonymous, seemingly ordinary, whom destiny brought together to repair, to heal, to save us from ourselves.”
So Season 2’s first salvo opens with a VO by Mo, and a montage of scenes from episodes past and presumably, future. (The final shot with Nathan is a doozy.)
Dang.
There goes my fervent wish that Season 2 would open with a shot of Claire finally doing some actual cheerleading…
As we play catch-up with our gang, Mo is doing a meagerly attended lecture tour, where he discusses the virus that took his sister’s life and almost did away with Molly as well, a disease that sounds like the Legacy Virus which first reared its ugly head in the X-Men comics and was showcased in the sad and sorry X-Men: The Last Stand.
At his Cairo stop, he is approached by the Company, who offer to fund his research. Here, we are introduced to perhaps the most intriguing new character of the episode, Bob, played by Stephen Tobolowsky (seen recently on HBO’s Deadwood), who apparently has the Midas touch.
Meanwhile, Parkman—having survived the four bullets of season 1’s finale—at long last gets his detective’s shield (utilizing his gift to help him pass his final test). He’s divorced now (I’m gonna miss Mrs. P, who should still be pregnant, wherever in the world she is; and as we discovered in “Five Years Gone,” Baby Parkman has some sort of power…) and playing Two Heroes and a Little Lady with Mo and Molly, the trio living in Mo’s apartment.
As all this domestic bliss is going on, Molly is having nightmares of that Sauron baddie she mentioned at the tail end of Season 1. (Said baddie even utters the oh-so-Sauron line, “I can see you…”) She’s drawing creepy kiddie pictures of eyes and that Heroes “godsend” sigil, and Parkman (and Molly’s teacher) are understandably worried.
Meanwhile still, while Daddy Sulu and Ando conduct a vigil at Kirby Plaza, waiting for Hiro to return, someone sends a death threat to Daddy Sulu.
Granny Petrelli also gets a similar death threat, right after she confronts a boozed-up and bearded Nathan—I knew that figure Ando bumped into seemed familiar—who apparently survived the Peter explosion, only to be left by his wife and kids. So he’s drowning away his sorrows, while seeing himself scarred and burned horribly in mirrors. (I guess with Niki in absentia, someone had to do the mirror thing…)
The subplot has a great scene between Daddy Sulu and Granny P atop the Deveaux building, and ends with Daddy Sulu apparently going splat on the sidewalk, without displaying any sort of power at all. (He says if he’s to fight, he would need a sword, which Ando dutifully scurries off to find, only to arrive just as the Mysterious Hooded Figure Known To Daddy Sulu pushes Daddy S off the rooftop. You’d think though that Daddy S would have been better prepared and have some sort of sword near him at all times… Or at the very least procured one on the way from Kirby Plaza to the Deveaux building.)
And meanwhile even more, the Bennets (now the “Butlers”) have moved to Costa Verde, California, where Claire has her first day of swimming in “the shark-infested waters of 11th grade.”
She’s told by Daddy B to keep her head down and to be completely anonymous and ordinary, understandably a very difficult thing, not just because of what she can do, but also because of her age. That sense of wanting to be the individual she so clearly is, but needing to appear mundane and mediocre (a “robot” instead of an “alien”) because the family is still on the run, is conveyed beautifully by Hayden Panettiere, and her scenes with Jack Coleman are some of the best the episode has to offer.
Daddy B is also bored and uppity at Copy Kingdom, where he’s no longer the Boss of himself, though he quickly addresses that concern…
We also get to see Lyle, Mrs. B (yay!), and Mr. Muggles (double yay!), himself also suffering in anonymity; in Costa Verde, no one knows he’s a champion. Poor Mr. Muggles…
As it turns out though, Mo’s lecture tour was designed to attract the Company’s attention, and the plan Mo and Mr. B have to bring down the Company kicks into gear when Mo takes the job offer.
But, unbeknowest to all, West (Nicholas D’Agosto; Election and Rocket Science), Claire’s classmate who seems to have an interest in our favorite Indestructible Cheerleader, can (gasp!) fly! Exactly the power Claire’s currently Boozed-Up BioDad has. Coinkydink? Hmmm…
All that, and we’re also introduced to siblings Maya (Dania Ramirez, from, hmmm, X-Men: The Last Stand) and Alejandro Herrera (Shalim Ortiz), who are apparently wanted for murder in San Cristobal, Honduras. They’re evading the authorities and trying to make their way to the United States, Papa Suresh’s book their only hope to help Maya, whose power seems to be uncontrollable and fatal, leaving corpses that appear to have bled from their eyes.
Oh, there’s also the Hiro subplot, which picks up—unlike the present, which does a four month leap forward—right where Season 1 left our lovable time- and space-bending geek, in feudal Japan, as he comes face-to-face with his hero, Takezo Kensei (Alias’ David Anders).
Sadly though, Kensei turns out not only to be a gaijin, but also a saki-swilling mercenary despised by the swordsmith’s daughter Yaeko (Eriko Tamura) who is supposed to be his One True Love.
Very quickly it becomes apparent that Hiro has to turn this lout into a hero and cause love to flourish between the two, or risk the integrity of future history.
Unfortunately, this subplot is the one that seems the most extraneous of this episode. I suppose that’s because, a) it doesn’t seem explicitly connected to all the other events unfolding, and b) it feels like familiar ground, the time traveler turning the historical figure into the one people will know in the future, as opposed to the fallible, and less-than-heroic schlep he finds.
I’ll give this subplot some leeway though, as a) hopefully, this will all connect with everything else later on, and b) I’m hoping they’re going to turn that familiar riff on its ear.
Of course, all this is going on, and we still haven’t seen hide nor hair of Micah (whom I miss) and Niki and D.L. (whom I don’t). I just hope that when they come on-board, the writers can juggle all of those plot balls without things getting too crowded.
Oh, and the cliffhanger?
It comes as no surprise (given that Milo Ventimiglia’s name was in the opening credits) that Peter—whom everyone thinks is dead—is actually still alive.
Of course, he apparently has amnesia (gasp!), got a haircut (double gasp!!), and lives chained up in an otherwise empty cargo container in Cork, Ireland. He’s also taken to wearing that snazzy Heroes sigil around his neck.
Repeat after me: Hmmmm…
Parting shot: A breakdown of this season’s schedule: the first 11 episodes in a row, then a month long break, the next 7 in a row, a 3-week break, then the final 6 episodes, followed by Heroes: Origins, the 6 episode spin-off which will introduce us to a half-dozen new characters. Origins episodes will be brought to us by such established names as Kevin Smith, Eli Roth, and Michael Dougherty. Boo-yah!
Also, when Origins was first announced, the intent was to do an American Idol, and get viewers to vote for their favorite character, who would then go on to become a Heroes regular in Season 3. I’m not certain that’s still exactly the way they’re gonna go with Origins, but that’s an interesting idea…
(Behind the scenes images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com.)
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter One: “Four Months Later…”
Written by: Tim Kring
Directed by: Greg Beeman
(WARNING: SPOILERS)
(SERIOUSLY…)
“The sun rises on a new dawn, yet few of us realize the debt we owe to those responsible for this. To those who dwell among us, anonymous, seemingly ordinary, whom destiny brought together to repair, to heal, to save us from ourselves.”
So Season 2’s first salvo opens with a VO by Mo, and a montage of scenes from episodes past and presumably, future. (The final shot with Nathan is a doozy.)
Dang.
There goes my fervent wish that Season 2 would open with a shot of Claire finally doing some actual cheerleading…
As we play catch-up with our gang, Mo is doing a meagerly attended lecture tour, where he discusses the virus that took his sister’s life and almost did away with Molly as well, a disease that sounds like the Legacy Virus which first reared its ugly head in the X-Men comics and was showcased in the sad and sorry X-Men: The Last Stand.
At his Cairo stop, he is approached by the Company, who offer to fund his research. Here, we are introduced to perhaps the most intriguing new character of the episode, Bob, played by Stephen Tobolowsky (seen recently on HBO’s Deadwood), who apparently has the Midas touch.
Meanwhile, Parkman—having survived the four bullets of season 1’s finale—at long last gets his detective’s shield (utilizing his gift to help him pass his final test). He’s divorced now (I’m gonna miss Mrs. P, who should still be pregnant, wherever in the world she is; and as we discovered in “Five Years Gone,” Baby Parkman has some sort of power…) and playing Two Heroes and a Little Lady with Mo and Molly, the trio living in Mo’s apartment.
As all this domestic bliss is going on, Molly is having nightmares of that Sauron baddie she mentioned at the tail end of Season 1. (Said baddie even utters the oh-so-Sauron line, “I can see you…”) She’s drawing creepy kiddie pictures of eyes and that Heroes “godsend” sigil, and Parkman (and Molly’s teacher) are understandably worried.
Meanwhile still, while Daddy Sulu and Ando conduct a vigil at Kirby Plaza, waiting for Hiro to return, someone sends a death threat to Daddy Sulu.
Granny Petrelli also gets a similar death threat, right after she confronts a boozed-up and bearded Nathan—I knew that figure Ando bumped into seemed familiar—who apparently survived the Peter explosion, only to be left by his wife and kids. So he’s drowning away his sorrows, while seeing himself scarred and burned horribly in mirrors. (I guess with Niki in absentia, someone had to do the mirror thing…)
The subplot has a great scene between Daddy Sulu and Granny P atop the Deveaux building, and ends with Daddy Sulu apparently going splat on the sidewalk, without displaying any sort of power at all. (He says if he’s to fight, he would need a sword, which Ando dutifully scurries off to find, only to arrive just as the Mysterious Hooded Figure Known To Daddy Sulu pushes Daddy S off the rooftop. You’d think though that Daddy S would have been better prepared and have some sort of sword near him at all times… Or at the very least procured one on the way from Kirby Plaza to the Deveaux building.)
And meanwhile even more, the Bennets (now the “Butlers”) have moved to Costa Verde, California, where Claire has her first day of swimming in “the shark-infested waters of 11th grade.”
She’s told by Daddy B to keep her head down and to be completely anonymous and ordinary, understandably a very difficult thing, not just because of what she can do, but also because of her age. That sense of wanting to be the individual she so clearly is, but needing to appear mundane and mediocre (a “robot” instead of an “alien”) because the family is still on the run, is conveyed beautifully by Hayden Panettiere, and her scenes with Jack Coleman are some of the best the episode has to offer.
Daddy B is also bored and uppity at Copy Kingdom, where he’s no longer the Boss of himself, though he quickly addresses that concern…
We also get to see Lyle, Mrs. B (yay!), and Mr. Muggles (double yay!), himself also suffering in anonymity; in Costa Verde, no one knows he’s a champion. Poor Mr. Muggles…
As it turns out though, Mo’s lecture tour was designed to attract the Company’s attention, and the plan Mo and Mr. B have to bring down the Company kicks into gear when Mo takes the job offer.
But, unbeknowest to all, West (Nicholas D’Agosto; Election and Rocket Science), Claire’s classmate who seems to have an interest in our favorite Indestructible Cheerleader, can (gasp!) fly! Exactly the power Claire’s currently Boozed-Up BioDad has. Coinkydink? Hmmm…
All that, and we’re also introduced to siblings Maya (Dania Ramirez, from, hmmm, X-Men: The Last Stand) and Alejandro Herrera (Shalim Ortiz), who are apparently wanted for murder in San Cristobal, Honduras. They’re evading the authorities and trying to make their way to the United States, Papa Suresh’s book their only hope to help Maya, whose power seems to be uncontrollable and fatal, leaving corpses that appear to have bled from their eyes.
Oh, there’s also the Hiro subplot, which picks up—unlike the present, which does a four month leap forward—right where Season 1 left our lovable time- and space-bending geek, in feudal Japan, as he comes face-to-face with his hero, Takezo Kensei (Alias’ David Anders).
Sadly though, Kensei turns out not only to be a gaijin, but also a saki-swilling mercenary despised by the swordsmith’s daughter Yaeko (Eriko Tamura) who is supposed to be his One True Love.
Very quickly it becomes apparent that Hiro has to turn this lout into a hero and cause love to flourish between the two, or risk the integrity of future history.
Unfortunately, this subplot is the one that seems the most extraneous of this episode. I suppose that’s because, a) it doesn’t seem explicitly connected to all the other events unfolding, and b) it feels like familiar ground, the time traveler turning the historical figure into the one people will know in the future, as opposed to the fallible, and less-than-heroic schlep he finds.
I’ll give this subplot some leeway though, as a) hopefully, this will all connect with everything else later on, and b) I’m hoping they’re going to turn that familiar riff on its ear.
Of course, all this is going on, and we still haven’t seen hide nor hair of Micah (whom I miss) and Niki and D.L. (whom I don’t). I just hope that when they come on-board, the writers can juggle all of those plot balls without things getting too crowded.
Oh, and the cliffhanger?
It comes as no surprise (given that Milo Ventimiglia’s name was in the opening credits) that Peter—whom everyone thinks is dead—is actually still alive.
Of course, he apparently has amnesia (gasp!), got a haircut (double gasp!!), and lives chained up in an otherwise empty cargo container in Cork, Ireland. He’s also taken to wearing that snazzy Heroes sigil around his neck.
Repeat after me: Hmmmm…
Parting shot: A breakdown of this season’s schedule: the first 11 episodes in a row, then a month long break, the next 7 in a row, a 3-week break, then the final 6 episodes, followed by Heroes: Origins, the 6 episode spin-off which will introduce us to a half-dozen new characters. Origins episodes will be brought to us by such established names as Kevin Smith, Eli Roth, and Michael Dougherty. Boo-yah!
Also, when Origins was first announced, the intent was to do an American Idol, and get viewers to vote for their favorite character, who would then go on to become a Heroes regular in Season 3. I’m not certain that’s still exactly the way they’re gonna go with Origins, but that’s an interesting idea…
(Behind the scenes images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com.)
No comments:
Post a Comment