HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter Ten: “Truths and Consequences”
Written by Jesse Alexander
Directed by Adam Kane
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

They may as well have called this one “A Tale of Two Dunces.”

Dunce #1: Wonder Twin Maya, who is pretty much wrapped around Sylar’s grubby little finger.
Sylar undermines the bond between the Wonder Twins, getting Maya to think that Alejandro hates her for killing his cheating bride, and getting her to admit that she really did want to see the white-clad floozy dead.
He even takes a calculated risk to convince Maya that she can control her power without resorting to Alejandro, which he does by getting her riled up, then as he’s wheezing to death, pleads with Maya to help him. She does of course, getting herself to calm down and keeping the scheming Sylar alive.
When Maya gets back to the motel room though, Alejandro’s been a busy little bee and gone on the Internet and fished out the story of Sylar being wanted by the authorities for murdering his mother.
Tearily, Maya confronts Sylar, and he admits to the killing, saying his mother attacked him when she learned about his powers, and an “accident” happened. Well, Maya relates, and she falls right into Sylar’s open arms.
She then tells Alejandro to hit the road, which he does, at first.
But he returns to face Sylar, only to get stabbed and dead.
And Maya, oblivious to Alejandro’s grisly fate, succumbs to the mounting emotions she feels for Sylar. (Eewwww.)
We see the pair again a little later, but for now…

Dunce #2: Peter, who is pretty much wrapped around Kensei/Adam’s grubby (and indestructible) little finger.
Peter tries to get back to the future, and lands in the very moment he and Caitlin are taken in by the containment suit people, but all he returns to the present with is one of those damned evacuation flyers.
When Peter tells K/A about the Shanti Virus—which just so happens will get released the following day!—K/A shows Peter a picture of the earlier generation, and points to the Woman Formerly Known As The Mystery Woman in the Photo Who Looks Like Joanna Cassidy, a.k.a. Victoria Pratt.
K/A says this woman is responsible for the Shanti Virus and she would know where samples of the virus are being kept. So Peter thinks, if I can’t get to the future to save Caitlin, I can try and stop the virus from getting released, thus taking away the danger that threatens Caitlin a year from now.
So K/A and Peter track down VP, who’s pretty shotgun happy, and when she sees that Peter’s working with K/A, she shoots both of them. But of course, both of them can regenerate. D’oh!
To be fair, VP is just about to blow K/A’s head off (no coming back from that!), when Peter knocks her out.
When she comes to, Peter and K/A try and wheedle the information out of her, Peter claiming they want to destroy the virus, VP saying K/A wants to release it, in fact, already tried to 30 years ago.
Dunce #2 will have none of this poppycock, and resorts to reading VP’s mind, and he finds out that the virus strain 138 (the one lethal enough to decimate humanity as we know it) is being kept in the Primatech facility in Odessa, Texas!
K/A unties VP, knowing full well she’ll go for her shotgun, giving him justification to shoot her, just as she’s about to fill Dunce #2 with some buckshot.
K/A and Peter get on down to Odessa, and sashay into Primatech like they own the damned place (despite Bob’s claim of superior security), but who should they meet but…
A little later for that. In the meantime…

The very sick Niki (though she claims she can’t get anyone else sick) goes to New Orleans and has a reunion with Micah, just in time to have Damon (Carlon Jeffrey) steal off with Micah’s backpack, a backpack containing a bunch of Micah’s expensive 9th Wonders issues, and the medal D.L. was awarded for bravery.
Micah smacks Damon a couple of times and wants to go off to get the medal back, but Niki will have none of this costumed gallivanting around.
Monica though, will have some of this costumed gallivanting around.
Taking a cue from St. Joan’s costume, Monica sneaks Micah out of the house to go off and retrieve the backpack.
The Double M make a nice team, but Monica insists Micah stay outside, out of harm’s way. Monica does some Yamikazi, and grabs the backpack, but the hoods arrive. Monica does a Spider-Man, but the dang St. Joan issue falls, and the hoods draw their guns.
We last see Monica being pushed into the hoods’ van, and Micah hightails it outta there.

And in Costa Verde, Mrs. B points a gun at Bob. (Go, Mrs. B!)
Bob’s making a condolence call, with what are supposed to be Mr. B’s ashes in an urn. (We know better, of course.)
The Bennets are distraught, and Bob is apologetic. Bob says they’re free to go and live a normal life now, but Claire rightly points out that her father is dead. There no longer is any “normal.”
Outside, Bob instructs Elle to keep an eye on Claire, so he can learn to trust her again, as Bob’s laying all the blame for the snafu on her. (She may be sociopathic, but Bob’s an a$$hole.)
Even as the Bennets are busy packing for their move, Claire is hurting, and is even willing to resort to having the Haitian delete her memories of Mr. B, so the pain can go away. West, of course, will have none of that kind of talk.
Later, at the impromptu service where Claire scatters her father’s “ashes” into the sea, we have the first time Hayden Panetierre has let me down in a big way in Heroes. There’s just something about the scene and the lines and the performance that rings hollow. And it’s not because I know Mr. B’s not really dead. The scene just doesn’t feel genuine.
Claire then says her goodbyes to West when she sees Elle in a nearby car. (Elle, by the way, is slurping a Slusho!)
Claire confronts Anti-Claire, while everyone else (including Mr. Muggles) watches. The face off ends with Claire smashing her fist into the car window, threatening to go public with her abilities, ‘cause when she does that, it’s Elle and the Company that are gonna be running for cover.

Meanwhile, Mo is there as Mr. B returns to the land of the living. Mo explains that Mr. B’s back because of Claire’s blood, and that now, he’s pretty sure the blood can help to find a cure for Niki.
Mo leaves Mr. B in restraints as he goes off to his lab.
After some off-screen lab work, Mo comes up with a vaccine. Yahoo!
He calls Niki to tell her he’s got the cure, but then someone else calls him: Sylar!
Calling him from: Mo’s apartment! To be precise, Molly’s bedside! (Where the hell is Parkman?!)
Sylar wants Mo back there ASAP, while Dunce #1 grins like the idiot that she is, waiting for the good Doctor Suresh to inject her power away.

And in another meanwhile, Hiro tracks down K/A and discovers his alias of Adam Monroe. Ando finds the record on K/A’s imprisonment, and Hiro ‘ports to that day, the day K/A tried to release the virus.
We see a young Papa Sulu and a young VP, and though VP disgustedly walks away from this madness, Papa S will have none of this “Let’s destroy the virus, for Heaven’s sake” blather, and instead, decides to store strain 138 in Odessa, Texas.
Which is where Hiro goes, just in time to freeze time and confront… Peter!
Hiro says, Outta my way, Dunce #2, that man killed my father.
Peter says, No way, geek.
We wrap the Volume’s penultimate episode as Hiro charges, sword drawn, while Peter charges up an electric ball…

So on the one hand, it’s great to have Adam Kane back in the director’s chair, but this episode feels like it’s moving just a tad too fast for it’s own good.
Yes, we are headed towards the volume’s finale, but still…
Not only are we made to bid adieu to poor Alejandro, but we’re given the genre treat of having Joanna Cassidy as a guest star, only to have her bite the dust as well.
Now, it’s one thing to do that and still have a character that actually registers as a real person, with a sense of history (as with Elya Baskin’s Ivan in Chapter Six). But in this case, a combination of Jesse Alexander’s script and Cassidy’s performance results in a bland character coming on-screen for a few minutes, then shuffling off to Buffalo before we have a chance to get to know her.
Given what’s present in this chapter, the actress playing Victoria Pratt could very well have been any other actress and it really wouldn’t have mattered.
It just feels like a bit of nasty stunt casting, to get a genre name in there so the geekboys (myself included) will get all pumped up for the episode, just to have it all be an annoying anti-climax.

Having said that though, this is, admittedly, a better episode than some of the season’s earliest. And they are labouring under the WGA strike and the less-than-stellar ratings and the fans’ less-than-enthusiastic comments about this sophomore season.
So fine, I’ll go easy, but I do wish some people would quit taking the stupid pills and look really closely at the people they think are their friends…
(I did get a kick out of the Slusho! bit, though.)

(All behind the scene images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com, except image #5, courtesy of superherohype.com.)

HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: “Generations”
Chapter Nine: “Cautionary Tales”
Written by: Joe Pokaski
Directed by: Greg Yaitanes
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

As a counter-point (in more ways than one) to the previous chapter, this exceptional episode focuses on the major characters absent from “Four Months Ago…”: the Bennets, Mo, Parkman, and Hiro.

Spurred on by his discovery of Maury’s involvement with the previous generation of powered individuals, Parkman stumbles on a new aspect of his Jedi mind tricks: the Jedi mind trick!
Finding he can make people do what he wants them to do by giving them a mental nudge, Parkman decides to use this power to get Granny P to tell him who the Mystery Woman in the Photo Who Looks Like Joanna Cassidy is.
Thus, another great scene with Cristine Rose, as Parkman does a Jedi interrogation and pries loose some stuff from the old days. Despite Granny P demanding a little respect for herself and the rest of her generation, who “mortgaged their souls” for ingrates like Parkman, and goading Parkman to get over his Daddy issues, he digs into her mind, and her struggle is so valiant, she gets an awful nosebleed.
Apparently, Granny P made a promise to the Mystery Woman in the Photo Who Looks Like Joanna Cassidy, who just wants to be left alone. Granny P warns Parkman, if he steals this secret away from her, he isn’t just like his father, he is his father.
The next time we see Parkman, he’s got a Post It stuck to the photo, indicating the Mystery Woman in the Photo Who Looks Like Joanna Cassidy’s name: Victoria Pratt.
(Parkman is such a twat.)

In a great parallel to Mo bringing Papa Suresh’s ashes back to India in Volume One’s “Seven Minutes To Midnight,” we join Hiro at Papa Sulu’s funeral.
Distraught, Hiro is unwilling to eulogize his father, and instead, travels one week into the past, on the day of Papa Sulu’s murder. After seeing the exchange between Granny P and Papa S (in which she slaps him), Hiro tells his father he’s come from Takezo Kensei’s time, and oh, by the by, I’ve also just come from your funeral.
Thus, Papa S understands this is his fate, but Hiro is unwilling to accept that, so he ‘ports both of them back to the day of his mother’s funeral, the saddest day of Papa S’ life.
Hiro just wants Papa S to understand the grief he’s going through, to make him see why Hiro needs to save his life. Instead, Hiro gets to talk to little Hiro, and therein lies a great emotional pay-off, as Hiro comes to understand that he needs to honour his father’s wish that fate be allowed to unfold as it already has.
So after paying their respects, Hiro and Papa S ‘port back to the Deveaux building, and say their teary goodbyes (another nice emotional pay-off), moments before the apparently flying killer arrives. And as Ando comes on the scene, and murderer and victim tip off the rooftop, Hiro freezes time, and says, if he can’t save his father’s life, he can at least see who the killer is.
We, of course, by this time, already know that the killer is one Adam/Kensei, so I guess he didn’t really fly, but simply leaped off the building, taking Papa S with him, knowing he’d heal from any damage taken from the fall anyway. (Though he must heal instantaneously, as when Ando rushed to look over the edge, all he saw was Papa S on the pavement, with no sign of the baddie.)

And in the section of the narrative that has another great bunch of emotional pay-offs, Claire is adamant about staying behind, even as the other Bennets are packing their stuff in preparation for the move.
It’s a fantastic opening scene, and everyone is brilliant here, Hayden Panettiere, Jack Coleman, Ashley Crow, and Randall Bentley. The tension and emotion here is genuine and potent, and it’s great to see Mrs. B put her foot down and act as mediator between father and daughter. It’s also during this head-to-head that Claire accuses Mr. B of abducting West when he was just 12 years old. (Lyle: “Dad doesn’t `abduct’ people.”)
Claire later talks to West, telling him that there was no sinister plan and that she’s not working with her father, but West doesn’t really buy it, so he flies off, putting an end to the discussion.

Mr. B realizes he needs to talk to West, so he asks Mo to get Molly to find West. Unbeknowest to Mr. B, Mo is already in Costa Verde, with Bob and Elle, who is Mo’s new partner. Bob also finally cops to being Elle’s Daddykins.
Bob’s plan: abduct Claire, “take care” of Mr. B. Mo’s suggestion: talk to Mr. B first. Bob agrees to go with Mo’s plan.
Meanwhile, Mr. B can’t wait around for Mo to get back to him, so he decides to drive off to Claire’s school to find West, but Flyboy takes matters into his own hands and zips by and picks Mr. B up, soaring way up into the sky.
He asks Mr. B if Claire is working with him as a tag team, and Mr. B tells him that Claire lied to him about West, so West must be important to her.
They hit the ground when West can’t sustain holding Mr. B’s weight any longer. Mr. B tells West that the family is leaving Costa Verde tonight, with Claire.
Just then, Mo rings Mr. B, and says he knows where West is, giving Mr. B a location that is nowhere near where they are at the moment, so Mr. B knows Mo is lying to him. Mr. B knows Claire’s in trouble too, so he asks West for help. (Hah! Surprise team-up.)

Over at the school, Bob shows up to talk to Claire about the Debbie incident, and during their conversation, calls her “Ms. Bennet.” It’s an unfortunate slip, and again, I thought Bob was smarter than this.
So Claire runs off (apparently all the way home as isn’t the status of her car still stolen?) and warns Mrs. B about Bob, who arrives and whom Mrs. B recognizes as the Regional Manager of Primatech Paper.

Back with Mr. B, the meet with Mo goes down, and Mo tells him they just need to take Claire in for her blood, which can help save a lot of people, but Mr. B won’t have any of that. Mo, taking matters into his own hands, holds Mr. B at gunpoint.
When Mr. B asks who Mo’s partner is, Elle shows up, Elle whom Mr. B recognizes, of course. She’s charging up when who should arrive to save the day, but Flyboy! West zooms in and slams Elle against a car, knocking her unconscious.
The distraction allows Mr. B to grab Mo’s gun and bop him on the nose yet again. Mr. B looks like he’s about to shoot Mo in the head, but West asks him what he’s doing, and he desists.

Back at the Bennet homestead, Mrs. B’s tied up, and Mr. B lets her free just as West comes in with a very unconscious Elle.
Mr. B once again reverts to Company Man and ties Elle up, placing her feet in Mr. Muggles’ doggie bath, so she gets a nasty zap when she tries to use her powers.
Mr. B then insinuates that Elle was a normal girl once, until Bob used inhuman amounts of electricity to turn her into what she is today. (Torture which she can’t remember, but then again, memory loss comes hand-in-hand with electroshock therapy, right?)
So that’s interesting, since a) it could be true, and Bob is a cold and calculating baddie, willing to go to extreme lengths for what he believes in; b) this could be entirely false and be psychological warfare to turn her against her father; or c) this could be a version of the truth to suit Mr. B’s ends. Maybe little Elle was already exhibiting sociopathic behaviour, and electroshock is, after all, still considered an acceptable treatment for mental illness by some…
At any rate, a deal is made for an exchange, daughter for daughter, but not before Bob extracts an indeterminate amount of Claire’s blood. (Hey, she can regenerate quickly, so he could have gotten a lot in the two hours before the scheduled exchange.)

At the swap—where West successfully argued for his presence by saying he was the fastest way to get Claire out of danger—Elle hears Mr. B tell West that as soon as they get Claire, to fly off with her.
So, when the exchange is made, and West flies Claire off, Elle zaps him, and they crash to the ground, Claire voluntarily taking the brunt of the impact, saving West’s life.
In retaliation, Mr. B shoots Elle in the arm, then is about to shoot Bob—Mr. B claims the Company will die with Bob’s death—when bam, Mo shoots Mr. B in the eye, just as the Isaac painting decreed.
What follows that shocker (bad Mo! Bad Mo!) is another bunch of wrenching moments, as first, Claire realizes the last thing she said to her father was “I hate you,” and that at the time she said it, she meant it, and second, she breaks the news to poor Mrs. B.

There’s a montage which winds the chapter down, as Hiro’s tribute to Papa Sulu serves as VO, as he talks about a parent living on in the actions of a child, as we see the episode’s entire cast of characters in the aftermath of choices made: Mo with the gun that he used to shoot Mr. B; Parkman with the photo identifying Victoria Pratt; Bob trying to comfort his wounded daughter, even as Elle processes what Mr. B revealed to her; Claire being comforted by West; Mrs. B being comforted by Mr. Muggles.

The chapter’s coda doesn’t come as a complete surprise, given that Bob had gobbets of Claire’s blood with him, but still, it’s nonetheless a kick-a$$ cliffhanger as we see Mr. B’s eye regenerate, just before he comes back to life!
I wonder though, if a) Bob and company will brainwash Mr. B and make him into a good little Company Man again, and b) if having Claire’s blood in his system will either give him some kind of power, or alter his physiology just enough that he becomes more physically sound, or maybe give him a Wolvie healing factor too.

So this was a great episode, arguably one of the best of this season, and certainly better than the previous chapter.
Not only did this prove that there’s a lot of narrative mileage that can be drawn from genuine human conflict (without needing to resort to massive—and repetitive—threats like viral apocalypses), particularly the sturm und drang of filial relationships, of fathers and sons, and fathers and daughters.
Then there’s the interesting parallel of Claire and Elle, that Elle is the reason why Mr. B is adamant the Company not get their hands on Claire. That Elle is, in effect, the Anti-Claire.
This is quite possibly the most thematically cohesive script of the season thus far, and props should go to Joe Pokaski, who brought this baby home in style, and Greg Yaitanes—who’s worked on everything from V.I.P. to CSI: Miami to Nip/Tuck to Lost to the short-lived Drive—for some really interesting shots and angles.

Oh yeah, bring on the next chapter!

(Behind the scene images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com; TV Guide Heroes cover art [4 of 4] by Tim Sale, courtesy of tvguide.com.)