HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter Four: “The Kindness of Strangers”
Written by: Tim Kring
Directed by: Adam Kane
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

We rebound from the previous choppy, scattershot chapter to this more satisfying, lean and mean episode.
We drop the feudal Japan and the amnesiac Peter in Ireland subplots, and there’s also no sign of Niki working with Bob. And as the “Salvaje” clue did suggest, the powerless Sylar subplot oh-so-conveniently collapses into the Wonder Twins’ thread, as Maya, Alejandro, and the American kid-in-the-Mexican prison-whose-car-they’re-fleeing-in (aka Derek, played by TW Leshner, soon to be seen in the upcoming Timber Falls) almost run over a prostrate man lying in the middle of the road.
And yes, it’s Sylar, though he introduces himself as “Gabriel.”
Maya, trusting fool that she is, tells Sylar that they’re headed for New York too, since she needs to meet Papa Suresh, brandishing the book for Sylar to see. And when Sylar says that he knows Papa Suresh, Maya is overjoyed, while Alejandro is rightly suspicious.
At a stopover, Derek sees a newspaper with the police sketches of the Wonder Twins and calls Sylar over. Derek says, ironically, “There are murderers in the car.” Sylar tells Derek to call the cops while he keeps the Wonder Twins busy. But he instead picks up the brick that’s being used as a paperweight at the newsstand, and bashes poor Derek’s head in (off-camera).
Back in the car, Sylar confronts Maya with the paper, and when she says, “Yes, that’s us, but it wasn’t murder,” Sylar says, “Well, Derek’s calling the cops on you.” Maya freaks, and her bleeding-black tears-from-the-eyes power kicks in, and Sylar starts to die. But Alejandro does the whole “calmate” thing, and Sylar is saved. Shoot.
He now realizes that he’s in the car with two powered people. So he drives off, while the Wonder Twins think that they’re just ditching Derek, but who’s apparently dead, while a cockroach crawls over the bloodied brick.

Over in post-Katrina New Orleans, Micah is staying with his cousins Monica (Dana Davis, from TV’s The Nine and the upcoming Prom Night remake) and Damon (Carlon Jeffery), and their grandmother (or “Nana,” played by Nichelle Nichols, who we saw ever-so-briefly last episode).
Monica (who has quickly proven to be the most interesting new character this Volume) works at the Burger Bonanza, with high hopes to get her family out of the still-depressed area. But her hopes are dashed at every turn, and all the while, she slowly begins to realize that she is not exactly normal.
Apparently, her power is to insta-learn anything she sees, so she learns how to make a tomato flower and whoop a$$, Rey Mysterio-style, all from the TV. At this point, it’s unclear whether Monica can insta-learn anything she actually sees, or if the TV is the proper conduit. (Micah, her cousin, has an affinity with machines, after all.)

Meanwhile, in Costa Verde, Claire, mindful of her father, at first tries to distance herself from West. But flyboy is insistent and asks her out on a date, and, if she is unimpressed by it, promises to leave her alone.
So West ends up flying Claire to the Hollywood sign, where they sit and bond amidst some good blue screen (a lot better than last episode’s Japan stuff). Claire says stuff happened back in Odessa, and she’s not sure if she can really trust anyone anymore. West, of course, says learn to trust me. Jump off the sign. (Yeah, I say that to all the people I’d want trusting me too.)
And when Claire is convinced, she does so, and of course, flyboy catches her, and there’s a mid-air kiss.
When Claire gets back home, late, she and West realize that her excuse (library) isn’t going to hold water. So Claire, in getting Mr. B off the scent (he suspects it’s a boy), says she tried out for cheerleading. She then manages to convince Mr. B that this is something she needs (“one normal thing”). So Mr. B, poor schlub, relents, on the proviso that she doesn’t start dating anyone yet.
Claire, little liar, agrees.
Oh, and the Haitian shows up, presaged by the wind chimes, and says he has a lead on the other Isaac paintings. They’re headed to Odessa.
Texas, you ask?
Nope. The Ukraine.

Over with the Petrellis, Granny P confesses to having murdered Daddy Sulu, while the wounds she received in the attack two episodes ago appear to have been self-inflicted. It’s clear though that she’s covering something up. (Or perhaps protecting someone…)
Knowing Parkman is reading her mind, she “tells” him to just accept her statement and leave it alone, or everyone will find out about “us” and “what we can do.” (Note though that we have yet to see what Granny P’s power actually is…)
After a brilliant scene between Cristine Rose and Adrian Pasdar, Granny P’s handcuffed and wheelchaired out to the hoosegaw.
Meanwhile, Beardo Nathan first visits his two sons, and tells them their grandmother is in hospital and could use some cheering up. The pint-sized Petrellis don’t approve of Beardo Nathan, so he shaves off the facial hair in time to have his scene with Granny P before she is carted off by the fuzz.
Parkman enlists No-Longer-Beardo Nathan’s help by first revealing he can read people’s thoughts, then showing Nathan the death threats received by Daddy S and Granny P, which both came from a photograph Nathan recognizes. A photograph with his parents in it, that had some “ten, maybe twelve people.”
So let’s review. Daddy S said there used to be twelve, and now there are nine.
Check. Pop Petrelli, Charles Deveaux, and Linderman, casualties of Volume One.
Nine.
Daddy Sulu then does a pavement dive.
Eight left.
Now, when Nathan searches for the photograph, Parkman reveals that the ex-Mrs. Matt was actually pregnant with Matt’s scummy partner’s kid. (How this impacts on the “Five Years Gone” implication that Matt’s kid has powers remains to be seen.)
Then, when Nathan finds the photo, who should be in it as well but Bob, someone who may or may not be Joanna Cassidy, and… dan-da-da-daaan, Papa Parkman!
So Parkman takes the photo home and asks Molly to help him find Papa Parkman, who apparently stole a lot of money from some people, and abandoned his son when Matt was 13. But when Molly sees the photo (and somehow I saw this coming), she throws a hissy fit and refuses.
Papa Parkman is the Sauron baddie, whom Molly dubs “the Nightmare Man.”
Parkman, bull-head twit, tries to strong-arm Mo into making Molly find his MIA father, but in the end, it’s Molly who says, “Okay. I’ll help you find him.”
Molly does the stick pin-on-the-map thing and (yes, apparently we all see this coming except for idiot Matt) gets “caught” by the Nightmare Man, going into shock, while Parkman hears her screaming in his head.
To her credit (and Matt’s bone-headed prodding), Molly gets out city, apartment building, and room number, before she enters Catatonia City.
Repeat after me: Parkman is an idiot.
Oh, almost forgot. Somewhere along the way, Nathan sees Monster Face Nathan in the mirror…

So, I liked this chapter a lot (hey, Mrs. B and Mr. Muggles! Yahoo!), and Monica, as I mentioned above, is an interesting character being played ably by Davis. And though I could have done without the quick snippets of file footage of Katrina damage (which seemed a tad heavy-handed), Monica seems like a very real, honest character, with some nice rapport with Micah, so I’m looking forward to seeing where that subplot goes.
And then there’s Claire, who continues to be a rather substantial, involving character; I think this is the first time I’ve really been disappointed with her, because of that whole lie about not seeing any boy at the moment.
To be fair though, she was lied to for many a year by her adoptive father, so maybe she just sees this as a fair turn-around. And she of course has no idea about the 8th Isaac painting-yet-to-take-place. Though I do suspect that West (as far as the painting goes) is a red herring, and that shadowy someone with Claire is someone else altogether (my pet theory as to the killer’s identity).

I also enjoyed this episode since it feels the least-cluttered since the season began, so here’s hoping there’ll be more chapters like this to come.

(Images courtesy of comicbookresources.com; behind the scene images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com.)

HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter Three: “Kindred”
Written by: J.J. Philbin
Directed by: Paul Edwards
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So it turns out that Ricky wants Peter to help with a heist at a local bookie’s. But while the plan’s being discussed, Peter picks up on a stray thought from Will (Star Trek: Enterprise’s Dominic Keating), who’s planning to screw everyone and take the money. Peter announces this, but of course, Ricky takes Will’s word.
Peter then tries to access his powers, shirtless of course, to better lure Caitlin into his personal gravity. Caitlin meanwhile, keeps Peter’s powers a secret and takes to calling him “pretty boy.”
The heist goes off without too much of a hitch, and Peter uses his TK to move an armoured truck to facilitate their escape. Conveniently enough, Caitlin is again the only one to witness Peter in action.
Back at the pub, Will tries to take the money, shooting Peter in the process. But the bullets are spewed out by Peter’s body, and he uses his TK to nearly strangle poor Will. Caitlin gets Peter to stop, and Will scampers off into the night.
Ricky sees all this, and takes it in stride, grateful for the save. He hands the box over to Peter, and gives him an honourary tattoo (a Celtic-inspired design) to signify his new status as a member of the family.
With the box now in his hands, Peter is still reluctant to open it, due to his fear that he may not like who he really is. And though Caitlin assures Peter that he’s a “good soul; I can tell” (I’m sure she tells that to all the shirtless, superpowered Americans who come through the pub’s door), she eventually asks him if he’s happy with who he is right now. Peter says “Yes,” and he leaves off opening the box for another day, as they go into liplock.
Meanwhile, the “Godsend” sigil is momentarily revealed to be an element hidden in the design of the tattoo, before disappearing, leaving Peter’s skin apparently untouched…

Mo returns from Haiti, much to Matt’s annoyance, since he feels he’ll need to keep an eye out for Mo while he does the deep cover stuff.
Mo moves into his new laboratory space, which happens to be poor Isaac’s loft. (Oh, look, recycled set!)
While there, he snoops around, and finds the eighth painting in the series of Isaac paintings-yet-to-take-place, and what should the image be but… (more on that later!)

Ando’s back to doing the sarariman thing at Yamagato (with a boss who does a fantastic job of looking constipated), when he notices writing on the hilt of the Takezo Kensei sword, a message for him to open the hilt, which turns out to be hollow. Inside, a bunch of teeny scrolls, upon which Hiro has apparently written to Ando from the past.
Segue into flashbacks from previous episodes, leading up to Takezo’s drive-by arrowing and regeneration.
Initially freaked-out by his insta-healing, Takezo comes around when he realizes that he’s not the only freak around (Hiro reveals his powers), and, better yet, he can become “richer than the Pope!” So Hiro, feeling he needs to force the hero issue, teleports Takezo to the place where he is to do battle with 90 angry ronin and retrieve the Fire Scroll.
Hiro waits for Takezo to return in Yaeko’s company, all the while mooning after her when she talks about the “gentle” Takezo (as opposed to the “brute” he sometimes is). Takezo returns, triumphant, and Hiro sees this as a successful mission, as Takezo has apparently succumbed to the whole “hero” thing.
Hiro says he should take his leave now that things look to be on the right track, and Takezo tries to dissuade him, saying Hiro is his “conscience.” But Hiro is steadfast. That is, until he sees Yaeko enraptured by the company of Takezo. Poor, love-smitten fool, Hiro decides he can stay for a little while longer.

And while I’m passably okay with the feudal Japan subplot at the moment, the whole Wonder Twins thing is wearing thin, and I truly hope this ends up being a pivotal, relevant thread.
Anyway, while in Mexico, Alejandro tries to steal a car in broad daylight (duh!), and is spotted by the cops. Chase ensues, which ends with Alejandro’s arrest. Maya goes to the jail, thinking to bail him out on their remaining $14.
Things go bad, of course, and Maya is about to be arrested herself when she uses her power. After being released from his cell, Alejandro calms Maya down, and saves the lives of the two cops and the American teen-ager who happened to be in the cell next to Alejandro.
Just as the Wonder Twins are about to make their great escape, the kid says he’s got a car, and they spring him too, and pile into the vehicle.

Then, in the first of two subplots that see the return of some familiar faces, we discover that D.L. died after all*, and Niki is about to leave Micah with some relatives, while she intends to go off to do something important and (what else is new?) mysterious.
Micah is brought to New Orleans, where he is greeted by (look who else just beamed down from the Enterprise), Nichelle Nichols!
We also find out that Niki has contacted Bob, and wants them to take away her powers. Bob of course, needs something in return from her (which he does not disclose, the big tease).

Returning character subplot two: Oh, look who’s in a dodgy blue screen beach. Sylar!
Apparently the rat bastard was dragged away during last season’s finale by (gasp!) Candice, the b!tch!
She’s now going by the name “Michelle,” and doesn’t look at all like Missy Peregrym (sigh). When Sylar forces “Michelle” to drop the illusion though, they turn out to be in some dingy hovel, and Sylar still has stitches from the impaling he received in the Season One finale.
Moreover, Sylar seems to have lost the powers he so painstakingly stole from all his Season One victims. And when “Michelle” tries to persuade Sylar that he needs her help (in a semi-awkward seduction scene recalling Mystique trying to get into Wolvie’s pants in X2), Sylar decides he’s going to start from Square One, today.
He bashes “Michelle” in the side of the head with a coffee mug, then proceeds to do his brain-eating thing (off screen, of course). We also see that, as was implied last season, Candice/Michelle was indeed overweight.
But when Sylar tries to use the illusion power, it doesn’t work, and frustrated, he exits the hovel, and we pull away to see it’s in the middle of a dense forest somewhere. (Didn’t recognize the geography, though the “Salvaje” clue outside the hovel makes me suspect this subplot may collapse into another one somewhere down the road.)

And, to address last episode’s cliffhanger, Claire tries to convince West that he didn’t actually see what he thought he saw. West of course, is dead certain he saw her cut off her toe, and that it grew back.
West makes Claire cry (the schmuck!), but then reveals to her that he can fly! (Taking off from school premises in broad daylight. Sure, students were in class just then, but there are such things as windows, doofus!)
Cue more dodgy effects and iffy flying bits. Later, on a beach somewhere, West and Claire get into a “who’s got the cooler power” debate. Claire then sees the tell-tale mark on the neck of someone who’s been abducted by the Company. And when she quizzes West, he tells her that he lost an entire day once, and the last thing he remembers before the lost day was a man with Horn-Rimmed Glasses.
(I’m gonna have to check at this point, but didn’t West see Mr. B in the parking lot, when he almost ran Claire over in Chapter One? Or were his eyes too locked onto Claire? And whatever happened to Claire’s car? Did we even file police reports? Or is that how far beneath the radar the “Butlers” need to stay that they won’t even do that?)
When Claire gets back home, she greets Mr. B, and gives him a loaded, foreboding look.
At the same time, Mo snaps the Isaac painting with his cell and zaps the jpeg over to Mr. B.
The image? A very dead Mr. B, shot through the eye, with Claire standing in the shadowed background, apparently being kissed by some shadowy figure or other. (Or at least, it looked like she was being kissed…)

Okay. Though I did appreciate the story Hiro was telling Ando, the “real” one, as opposed to the Takezo legends Hiro grew up with, and Hayden Panettiere continues to knock her scenes out of the park, the episode itself felt scattershot.
Again, as with some of the more problematic episodes from Season 1, this one seemed to have too many subplots, and some (like the Wonder Twins one) are quickly becoming tiresome. Honestly, what still keeps me nominally engaged with the plight of the Wonder Twins is Dania Ramirez’s performance. Clearly, she was underutilized in X-Men: The Last Stand.

On the plus side though, Mr. B is apparently getting sucked into the whole murder mystery (and here I thought the potential victims would be limited to the earlier generation of “heroes”), and there’s the implication that Claire will have something to do with his murder. I just hope that this subplot develops well, and the fact that Claire is being implicated in the murder-to-be, brings something interesting to my pet theory regarding the killer’s identity. (I am also taking Bob’s cue and being a tease at this point.)

I am concerned though that they’ve apparently kick-started 3 new subplots (the powerless Sylar; Micah in New Orleans; and Niki doing stuff for Bob), while still having all the others on-board, and with the post-Veronica Mars Kristen Bell still unseen.
Clear some of the board, people.

It’s also unfortunate that they couldn’t get Missy Peregrym back to reprise her role as Candice, since she’d already been shanghaied by Reaper. As a result, what was reportedly intended to be a multi-episode arc featuring a Sylar/Candice team-up, ended up being just another brain sandwich for Sylar. Sigh.

Oh, and no Granny P, Mrs. B, and Mr. Muggles this chapter. Boo! Hiss!

* Whether D.L. died as a result of the wound he received in Season 1’s tail-end, or some other occurrence in the four months which took place off-screen, has yet to be established.

(Images courtesy of comicbookresources.com.)

HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter Two: “Lizards”
Written by: Michael Green
Directed by: Allan Arkush
(WARNING: SPOILERS)
(SERIOUSLY…)

Okay. Let’s backtrack.
When the whole Takezo Kensei thing was introduced in Season 1, with Hiro being a time traveler, my first instinctive theory was that Hiro would wind up back in time and actually be Kensei, thus inspiring himself to be the man—and hero—he grows up to be. That sort of circular symmetry fascinates me to no end.
Then, I tweaked that theory when I began to suspect that Daddy Sulu’s power could have been immortality of some sort, and that he was incredibly old, and that he had actually been Kensei, and he was really telling Hiro stories of himself.
Well, as it turns out, my first theory was right. Sort of.
Back in feudal Japan, Hiro is forced to wear Kensei’s armour to rescue Yaeko, and in an interesting play on the conventions of masked heroes, refuses to take off his mask when Yaeko requests to lay eyes upon his countenance.
Hiro’s efforts though, are enough for Yaeko to be smitten with Kensei, and when she expects Kensei (the real one) to help her rescue her father, Kensei agrees to go along with the harebrained scheme hatched by Hiro (aka “The Carp”), a scheme which will turn him into the hero history purports him to be.
But in feudal Japan’s version of a drive-by shooting, Kensei is plugged with arrows and apparently dies. For a few seconds, I thought, that’s it? That’s Anders’ role in all this?! So Hiro really does get to be Kensei?
But Hiro pulls out one of the arrows, and, lo and behold, the wound closes up! Hmmm. One must keep in mind, this Volume is entitled “Generations.” (Though Heroes writers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite seem to imply that identical powers do not necessarily equate to an actual filial connection.)

Meanwhile, back in the present, Parkman’s first case as a detective winds up being Daddy Sulu’s murder. And since Granny P’s fingerprint was lifted off the photo fragment found on Daddy S, Angela’s brought in. Granny P, canny little minx, not only twigs onto the fact that Parkman is reading her mind, but also reveals that (gasp!) she slept with Daddy S a long, long time ago*. (Man, somewhere during this Volume, we really better see a flashback episode with the young Petrellis, Linderman, and Nakamura… Lots’a hanky panky there…)
Even as Nathan arrives at the police station however, she is attacked in the interrogation room, by an apparently invisible presence. She’s saved though, and the mystery of who is targeting the previous generation of Heroes quickly takes center stage. (I have a preliminary pet theory of who might be the killer, but it’s too early to spring it, and I’m still trying to reconcile what we see of Daddy S’ death, and the attack on Angela.)
Also, Daddy S’ messy date with NY pavement was apparently one of eight paintings by Isaac that have yet to come to fruition, and that painting is the only one of the eight that HRG’s seen.

In other present day subplots, amidst a sea of questionable accents, the amnesiac Peter escapes his Irish captors, only to have to save Caitlin (Katie Carr, Hayden Panettiere's co-star in Raising Helen, where she incidentally also played a character named "Caitlin") from some dastardly goons. This complicates the problem that began when Peter was found in the shipping container that was supposed to have a whole caboodle of iPods in it. So Caitlin’s brother, Ricky (Holt McCallany, from David Fincher’s Fight Club and CSI: Miami), makes a deal with Peter: help us with this one small job to pay off these goons and get them off our backs, and I’ll give you this box that contains everything we found on you, “Peter.”

And while that’s going down in Ireland, Maya and Alejandro are coming ever closer to America. Here, we find out they’re twins, and that Alejandro seems to be immune to Maya’s power, and that he can somehow cancel its effects—“Wonder Twin powers, activate!”—thereby preventing the death of whoever is struck down by it. (The question that arises here is, does Alejandro’s power work on Maya because they’re twins, or can his power affect others as well?)

In yet another subplot, Mo’s first day on the job brings him to Port-Au-Prince, where a third superpowered someone contracts the virus. And who should it be but the Haitian himself! He seems ready to face the judgment God is meting out to his sinner’s a$$ and is initially unwilling to receive Mo’s help. He gets it anyway, and when he finds out that Mo is working for the Company, he steals Mo’s memories (or so they make it seem).
When Mo contacts HRG though, who steps into Copy Kingdom but the Haitian. Yahoo! Partners reunited! Part of their agenda: find the other seven Isaac paintings-yet-to-take-place. (Could they be paintings of the other murders-about-to-happen? Jeez, I hope they don’t bump off Granny P… You all know how much I love Cristine Rose.)

In other Butler/Bennet news, Mr. Muggles does indeed miss his time in the spotlight, in that other far away life in Odessa, as he indulges in some masochism by watching a dog show on TV. Poor Mr. Muggles.
Oh, and Claire’s new ride is stolen.
She’s also chafing under the “keep your head down” edict (with a great line with a lot of resonance and honesty: “I can’t not be who I am, whatever that is”; it sounds awkward, I know, but Panettiere pulls it off brilliantly) and is curious about her powers’ limitations and mechanics. This subplot leads to a scene that so outdoes the autopsy scene from Season 1, it‘s not even funny.
It’s a great, audacious bit that segues neatly into the chapter’s cliffhanger, as West witnesses Claire’s regeneration in action.
And when Claire rushes out into the driveway, West is gone, baby, gone. But Mr. Muggles is barking, up, at the sky.
Look up, Claire! Look! Up!

So this episode seems more cohesive that the season opener, or maybe it’s because I’m acclimating to each subplot and how it works in the overall scheme of things. (I’m also finding the groove of the feudal Japan subplot, which is the one I had the most trouble with in the previous episode.)
Of course, now I’m wary of the other subplots that have yet to kick in and how they’ll ultimately fit in with everything else that’s going on: there’s the still unseen Niki-Micah-D.L. trio, as well as Sylar, and the yet-to-be-introduced Kristen Bell. (Another Trek alum, Nichelle Nichols, is also still waiting in the wings.)
Again, I hope the writers juggle those balls well…

* They better not spring some sort of “Oh, by the way, the end result of my little dalliance with Daddy Sulu is Hiro,” ‘cause that would make Hiro half-brothers with Peter and Nathan, and a half-uncle to Claire, and things would get preposterously incestuous…

Parting shot: This totally escaped me before: the necklace amnesiac Peter was wearing—I’d completely forgotten that that was the Haitian’s!
Hmmm, something owned by the Haitian, on an amnesiac’s person…

(Images courtesy of comicbookresources.com.)

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.)

TV WATCH 2007 (3)
PUSHING DAISIES Pilot

I am in awe of Bryan Fuller.
Wouldn’t you be? Not only did he bring us the unjustly cancelled Wonderfalls, but he also worked on the first season of Heroes (having written “Collision” and the astounding “Company Man”)*, and brought The Amazing Screw-On Head (review in Archive) to zany animated life.
Now he’s at the helm of Pushing Daisies, one of the best new series of this coming season.

“This was the moment young Ned realized he wasn’t like the other children, nor was he like anyone else, for that matter. Young Ned could touch dead things and bring them back to life.
“This touch was a gift given to him, but not by anyone in particular. There was no box, no instructions, no manufacturer’s warranty. It just was.”

At a young age, Ned (Lee Pace, from Wonderfalls) discovers that he can bring the dead back to life with a touch. There are, however, rules to his “gift” (which I won’t disclose here to try and save the suspense; though said rules are outlined in the first five minutes of the Pilot, they do have long-term ramifications that serve to inform the Pilot and the series as a whole).
In the wake of Ned’s discovery, he is parted from his first love, Charlotte (though he calls her “Chuck”; Anna Friel, from the Goal! films and the upcoming Bathory, where she plays the Blood Countess herself, Elizabeth Bathory). Years later (but still as a direct result of that childhood incident), he opens a restaurant called “The Pie Hole,” where he bakes exquisite pies and has a lucrative partnership with a local PI, Emerson Cod (Boston Public’s Chi McBride).

To say any more would cheat the show’s potential audience of the poignant wonder Pushing Daisies holds.
I can say this though: Fuller’s script is narrated from start to finish by Jim Dale, in a very conscious fairy tale styling. And the look of the show—which recalls the technicolour Fantasia of Tim Burton, circa Big Fish—mirrors that fairy tale motif to a tee.
Small wonder then, that the Pilot’s director is Barry Sonnenfeld, whose Addams Family films proved that he could be Burton when you couldn’t have the real Burton.
And if that isn’t enough to tantalize and to pique your curiosity, the supporting cast also includes Ellen Greene (Sylar’s kooky mom on Heroes) and Swoosie Kurtz (Locke’s kooky mom on Lost) as Chuck’s aunts, and Kristen Chenoweth (Running with Scissors and Stranger Than Fiction; reviews for both in the Archive) as Olive Snook, waitress at The Pie Hole, who lives in the apartment next to Ned’s.

The Pushing Daisies Pilot is a wonderful, heartfelt hour of life, death, and what should, by all rights fall squarely in the middle of those two extremes, love.
It’s funny, and moving, and smart. It’s vintage Bryan Fuller, and you have got to see this show.

* Over the course of Heroes Season 1, Bryan Fuller wrote most of the Claire scenes. Anyone who’s checked the Iguana out in the past will know that Claire is one of my favorite characters on the show, who also had, I feel, one of the most satisfying character arcs in the first season. I’ve also long maintained that Hayden Panettiere is one of the best of the show’s ensemble.
So thanx to Mr. Fuller, for giving Hayden all those great scenes to work on, and for helping shape a great character.

Parting shot: I never got the chance to see Dead Like Me, Bryan Fuller’s other show, though I’ve heard lots of good things about it.

(Images courtesy of abc, about.com, and thepiemaker.com.)

Warning: HEROES Spoilers

It’s the Friday before Heroes’ return to the airwaves and I am stoked.
What can I say? As a comic geek, it was only natural that I was gonna give Heroes a look-see when it popped up, and what I got from the pilot was a brilliant surprise.
Here was a very human show about characters who were quite a bit more than human. This wasn’t a show about codenames and powers (just one of the sins—in a long list—of X-Men: The Last Stand), but about people who suddenly realize they’re no longer as ordinary as they once presumed they were.
As much as I’m loving Heroes though, I will cop to the fact that I do feel there are too many characters running around (any ensemble show always runs the risk of overpopulating the screen), so much so that the ones I really like, I love, and the ones I’m less than interested about, I pretty much think are a waste of good air time.
I’ll try and stay on the positives, shall I?
Yeah, Hiro’s the breakout character of the show, and we all know why, right? He’s readily identifiable to any comic geek out there, and is the one person who has been the most enthusiastic about the discovery of his powers. There is a certain infectious positivity to Hiro that is a joy to watch, and Masi Oka is doing an excellent job of giving the role so much more humanity than mere comedy relief (which, let’s face it, is a major function of Hiro’s character).
Then there’s Claire, who has, over the course of 11 episodes, become one of my favorites. And those moments when Hayden Panettiere displays an uncanny maturity in her performance and I need to forcibly remind myself that she isn’t even 18…. Well, those moments make me love the character of Claire even more…
And yeah, Mohinder’s clearly the Prof. X figure, but he’s the character who is at once on the outside (for being the non-powered human), and at the center of the story (thanks to his father’s research). Mohinder is history’s (and humanity’s) witness to this singular moment in our race’s evolution.
I should also point out that I loved Eden. (And yeah, I was immediately hooked on her because Nora Zehetner did such an amazing job on Rian Johnson’s fantastic Brick, but Eden the character quickly became a point of fascination for me as well, with a power that had so many possibilities, and a past I was hungry to uncover.) So, seeing her die (presumably she’s dead) in ep11 (“Fallout”) was a great big bummer. (And the way she died seemed to be one of those “decisions-so-stupid-you-know-the-character-only-made-them-so-the-writers-could-bump-them-off” actions, it just really niggles at me like nobody’s business…)
But hey, I’m trying to stay on the positives…
So… just a few more days to go…
And yes, Peter’s discovery that he could very well be the cause of the impending nuclear explosion was a good cliffhanger, but hey, hearing the Haitian speak (and what exactly he said to Claire) has to go down as one of the great Heroes moments thus far…

Till next time, save the cheerleader, save the world

(Originally posted 012007)