HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter Eleven: “Powerless”
Written by Jeph Loeb
Directed by Allan Arkush
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So this is a far more effective volume ender than last season’s Kirby Plaza showdown, but that’s getting ahead of myself…

Let’s kick off with Peter and Hiro’s face off, as they argue back and forth about whether Kensei/Adam is a goodie or a baddie, till Peter zaps Hiro unconscious.
K/A then takes his sword back…

But first…
Micah finally gets home to Niki but needs to rush back out again to save Monica. Of course, Niki being virused and all, doesn’t have her super strength at the moment, so Micah ropes her in to drive. (Though can’t he just “tell” a car to drive him wherever he wants to go?)
Using his cell phone to locate Monica’s cell, Micah and Niki track Monica down to the shop that the hoods who’ve taken her have been hired to torch. (Thus, St. Joan is about to be burned at the stake in New Orleans…)
They get there just in time for Niki to pistol whip the fleeing hood, and rush into the burning store to save Monica.
But Niki’s powerless at the moment, and though Monica gets out, the shop explodes, apparently taking Niki with it…

Back at the Company, Bob is ticked off with Elle and blames her for Claire’s decision to go whistle blower on their a$$. Bob suspends her from any more field duty, so Little Miss Sociopath turns to Mr. B in his cell.
I was never really a Veronica Mars fan, but the scene between Kristen Bell and Jack Coleman, particularly the beginning of it, with Bell’s fidgety eyes following the ball, is great.
Elle asks Mr. B to tell her what Bob did to her when she was just a little girl, and he begins to, but Bob arrives and tells Mr. B that the Company will have to do something to stop Claire from going public…

… which she’s busy preparing for, putting together all the files Mr. B amassed regarding the dastardly deeds of Bob et al.
Mrs. B tries to convince her otherwise, but Claire has her mind set. Even West tries to tell her he prefers his secrets rather than this going public deal. So Claire gives Flyboy his file, and the break up is official.
It looks like Claire’s got something new to cry about, when who should walk through the door but… Mr. B!
With the Bennets alternately relieved and confused, Mr. B drops the bomb. Claire’s plan to expose the Company’s misdeeds is “unacceptable.”
Instead, he’s made a deal: his family gets to live a quiet, normal life (the only thing he’s ever really wanted for them), and he comes back into the Company’s arms.
Mr. B doesn’t stick around for any discussion. He steps out the door, and tells Bob, “It’s done.”

And even as Mr. B leaves home, the man who shot him dead, Mo, arrives home, to find Maya cooking breakfast and Sylar powerless.
(So I’m wearing the dunce cap this time out, as I really thought Sylar was temporarily powerless due to the trauma his body underwent from the Kirby Plaza wounds. I should have suspected that the Company had actually injected him with the virus. With that turn of events though, why didn’t they just kill him when they had the chance, given how dangerous he’s proven to be… I mean, if he’s gonna die from the virus anyway, right? And actually, while on that train of thought, they should have just killed Kensei/Adam too. Just taken his blood and killed him a long time ago…)
Okay, sorry for the cold blooded digression. I should just take Bob’s job and be done with it.

Back in Mo’s apartment, it becomes all too clear to Maya that Sylar is not the Gabriel she fell for. And, having seen Mo’s data on his laptop, Sylar sees that the cure for the Shanti virus lies in Claire’s blood, and that in theory, this should give him back his powers.
So it’s off to the lab!
At the lab (which of course used to be Isaac’s loft, where Sylar ate poor Isaac’s brain), Mo discovers that Sylar’s been injected with the strain that’s killing poor Niki, and Molly helps Maya “find” Alejandro, only to realize that he’s no longer anywhere to be found, and that Sylar killed poor Alejandro.
So Maya’s about to get all black teary-eyed when Sylar shoots her. Then, before he gets injected himself, Sylar wants to see the vaccine in action, so he has Mo inject Maya first, and Claire’s blood heals her and brings her back to life, just as it did Mr. B.
Sylar takes that as his cue to scamper off with the other vial, even as Elle arrives and starts zapping.
(Elle, by the way, was snooping around Bob’s office, to find the files on her… gone. She then checks the surveillance monitors, to see Sylar terrorizing Mo. So off she goes to make Daddy proud.)
Sadly—and how many times must this happen?—Sylar escapes. With the vial meant for Niki.
Sigh.

Meanwhile, Parkman reports to Granny P and Nathan that Victoria Pratt is dead. (So that’s where Parkman was, while Molly was left alone to be used as a bargaining chip by Sylar… Bad Parkman!)
Nathan tells Granny P that Peter’s still alive, and that he’s apparently in cahoots with Kensei/Adam, as their fingerprints were all over the crime scene. Granny P tells them that they’re after the virus and that it’s in Odessa.
She also says that she actually helped K/A once (did she sleep with him too?), but stopped before it was too late, when she realized that K/A was mad, mad, mad. (And she wasn’t for wanting to blow New York up. Hmmm…)
Before they go, Granny P shoots off a thought in Parkman’s direction: if you can’t stop Peter, you may have to kill him. Bullet in the head. Only way to be sure. (Go, Granny P!!!)

Amusingly, we see the tail end of Nathan and Parkman’s flight to Odessa, as they land, and vow never to talk about what went on, ever again. Parkman also tells Nathan what Granny P “thought” him earlier, about just maybe needing to off Peter if he should prove a stubborn handful. Nathan says, “… nothing good ever came from listening to my mother,” and “… leave my brother to me.”
Conveniently, they touch down at Primatech just in time to be met at the door by Hiro. The three then rush in to find Peter having already TK’d the vault door open. Hiro tries to stop K/A, but Peter TK’s him, slams him to the wall, and looks about to telekinetically throttle him, when Parkman arrives and does the Jedi mind trick: K/A is using you, go deal with him.
But Peter fights back with his mind, and is quite literally sweeping the floor with Parkman’s a$$ when Nathan arrives and the brothers stand face to face. Nathan (bless his soul) talks reason to Peter, asking him, “Can you really trust K/A?”

While all that psychodrama’s going on, Hiro steals into the vault and has his own face to face with K/A. Heartfelt and bitter words are exchanged, and Hiro ‘ports them both away.* But even as he does so, K/A drops the vial containing the virus (which he was holding behind his back).
Luckily, Peter arrives in time to telekinetically catch it before it hits the floor. He then incinerates it between his palms, using Ted’s nuclear power.
Standing in a vault containing a whole lot of other mysterious items, the current generation realizes they’ve had enough of cleaning up their parents’ messes. Nathan decisively announces that he’s going public, about everything (ironically, what he once argued with Simone would be the wrong thing to do). He even tells Parkman to make sure people listen to what he has to say.
Of course, a hidden surveillance camera catches this pivotal announcement…

… and at the press conference, I get the sense of what’s about to happen as Nathan gets into a weepy speech, accompanied by shots of episodes past.
Just as he’s about to say, “I can fly,” he’s shot.
In the panic, we see someone walk away, though said someone is too far away to identify. (Parkman though should have been able to catch the killer’s thoughts, right?)

Granny P then gets a call on her cell, and she replies, “It was inevitable.”
She then says, “You do realize you’ve opened Pandora’s box, don’t you?”
End of Volume Two.

We then get a tease for Volume Three, entitled “Villains.”
Sylar injects himself in some back alley, like a heroin junkie.
First, his wounds heal, then, he uses his TK to pull an empty tin of spinach across the alley into his hand.
The big, bad brain eater’s back…

* We see later on that Hiro actually ‘ported Kensei/Adam into a coffin, buried in the same cemetery Papa Sulu’s grave is found. Once again, these people leave a dangerous fellow alive…
Will they ever learn?

Parting shot: So that’s it for this volume, and as fallout courtesy of the WGA strike, that’s it for the season too; Volume Three will be with us in the fall.
I’ll be back soon with the first installment of something I’ve decided to call In-Between Seasons, where I’ll give my assessment of a TV show’s recently completed season (including my thoughts on the finale), and give my two cents on where we should go from here…

(Behind the scenes images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com.)

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.)

HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: “Generations”
Chapter Eight: “Four Months Ago…”
Written by: Tim Kring
Directed by: Greg Beeman
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Okay, for an episode designed to answer most of the questions that have piled up since the season kicked off, this one still feels a tad scattershot—and this, with only two scenes of the Wonder Twins, an obligatory intro for Monica and Nana, and no Claire, Mo, Hiro, or Parkman—but hey, I’ll take it if only to get it out of the way, so we can forge on to the end of this volume.

And, in keeping with the spirit of getting things out of the way, we first see the Wonder Twins at Alejandro’s wedding, as he gets married to a girl who’s only too willing to cheat on him on their wedding night.
Already unhappy and suspicious of Alejandro’s blushing (yet skanky) bride, Maya catches her getting hot and heavy with someone other than Alejandro, thus triggering the first disastrous outburst of her power: everyone at the reception dies, except for Alejandro. Maya then runs away, saying she killed them all.
When next we see Maya, she’s become a nun, and Alejandro’s found her after months of being on the run. Everyone thinks she’s poisoned the wedding guests, and Alejandro’s actually turning her over to the policia, when her power kicks in. Alejandro does the “calmate” thing, and he realizes that, as Maya asserts, this is about the both of them, so, off the Wonder Twins run.

From the smallest portion of the episode, to the largest: Peter, and how he ended up amnesiac, in Ireland.
Kirby Plaza: Nathan zooms up into the night sky with a Peter-about-to-go-nuclear. Nathan’s already getting bad burns, and Peter—after a quick explanation as to why he suddenly can’t fly—makes his brother drop him, just before he explodes, blasting Nathan even further.
Before Toasty Nathan can go splat though, Peter (who can now, conveniently enough, fly) catches him and brings him to hospital. Guess who’s there: Bob, and Elle, who zaps Peter unconscious.
When Peter regains consciousness, Bob tells Peter he’s a friend of the elder Petrellis, and that he’s here to help Peter: 30 years ago, they discontinued work on a vaccine to eradicate powers. Now though, they’ve started the research up again, and Bob offers Peter the chance to live life without fear of harming anyone he loves ever again.
Peter bites.
After getting a haircut from the sociopathic Elle (who likes to get kinky with some jolts of electricity), Peter’s kept in a cell, given regular doses of a cocktail designed to suppress powers. One guess as to who’s the occupant of the adjacent cell.
Ding! Adam/Kensei! And wouldn’t you know it, but they’re actually able to communicate with each other! (Given how dangerous Adam is, shouldn’t he have been in solitary confinement? That’s bad enough, but to actually put anyone in the cell next to his! Gross criminal negligence. And they didn’t have the cells wired with surveillance equipment?! Man, I thought Bob was smart…)
So Adam gets to chit-chat with Peter, eventually winning him over and convincing him that Bob’s a baddie. And what seals the deal is when Peter makes a request to see his family, and Bob flat out refuses. To sweeten the get-away plan, Adam says he can cure Nathan’s burns with a small amount of his blood.
So Peter goes off his meds, and five days later, uses D.L.’s phasing ability to walk into Adam’s cell, then to walk on outta there with Adam.

Meanwhile, Monster Face Nathan’s confined to hospital, where Granny P is his constant companion.
Then, in a great scene (perhaps the best of the episode), Heidi—who’s now walking, thank you very much, the late Mr. Linderman—visits, and has an exchange with Granny P in the hall.
Nathan’s told her everything, about the powers, about the plan to let New York go ka-blooey, everything, so Granny P does spin control, and feeds her the same lies she told Peter, about the mental illness that runs in the Petrelli family, and that, quite obviously, Nathan’s got it too.
That scene between Cristine Rose and Rena Sofer blows everything else in this episode away. Granny P’s like this alluring black widow, spinning her web, hypnotic as she gets Heidi to tow the line. There’s such simple, yet awful menace in the way she touches Heidi’s arm…

After the breakout, Peter and Adam pay Nathan a visit, and Adam injects a syringe of his blood into Nathan’s IV. Immediately, Nathan’s burns begin to heal.
But the escapees have to book.
Adam has just given Peter the plane ticket to Montreal, when Elle and the Haitian catch up to them.
Elle zaps Peter in the back, setting his shirt on fire. Elle gives chase to Adam, while the Haitian goes after Peter.
Peter shrugs off the flaming shirt, and runs into a whole bunch of shipping containers. The Haitian corners Peter in one, easily overpowering him, since the Haitian nullifies any powered individuals in his vicinity. And since Granny P helped him once, now the Haitian does his best to return that favour: it’s his attempt to give Peter a new life, by taking away the memories of his old one, and leaving him shirtless, handcuffed, and amnesiac in an otherwise empty shipping container. (Oh, and he places his necklace around Peter’s neck.)
I guess he mush have a lot of faith in Peter, ‘cause, who’s to say that, shirtless, handcuffed, and amnesiac, he wouldn’t have starved to death in that shipping container?
And, since we don’t see any more of Adam, we can only assume he managed to get away from Elle. Or, gasp! The sociopath let him get away.
Also, whether or not Elle is Bob’s daughter is still up in the air.

In another Kirby Plaza aftermath scene, D.L. is saved from the gunshot wound of Season 1’s climax.
Concerned about their lack of medical insurance (Michael Moore, where are you now?), Niki is surprised to learn all the bills have been paid, by… Michael Moore?
No.
Bob.
Bob, who claims to be cleaning up the mess left by Linderman, and who offers Niki the chance to voluntarily enter a facility while she undergoes chemical suppression of her powers. At this point, Bob makes an interesting comment regarding how some people react to the reality of these powers: those unable to cope with the mental strain end up creating other personalities, as with Niki.
Niki’s hesitant to leave her family, but Bob warns the meds have some side effects. So Niki’s a lot logy, and when she can’t even smile at Micah’s 11th birthday—what’s the design on Micah’s cake? The 9th Wonders St. Joan cover!—she stops taking her meds.
And just when she’s about to start a new job at a car dealership, another personality pops up: Gina, who takes over and high-tails it to L.A.
Meanwhile, D.L. takes a job to make Micah proud: fire fighter! (Which was, I guess, preferable to D.L. over Micah’s birthday wish: for his family to be the Fantastic Four Minus One.)
There’s a minor tease at this point, as the audience is made to think, oh, is this how D.L. dies? In the line of duty?
But no.
D.L. tracks “Gina” down, and finds her in a club, where he takes her away from some scuzzy lowlife clubster, who shoots D.L. down in cold blood.
At the wake, we have the New Orleans crew making their brief appearance, where Nana offers Niki her help.
Bob also shows up, and exchanges a Meaningful Glance with Niki.

Okay, let’s see. Other than a few present day scenes: Nathan arriving at the pub in Ireland, the now-virused Niki being released back into society, and Peter and Adam in Montreal (which bookends the chapter, so that ostensibly, the entire episode is Peter using his power to heal the broken synapses so he can remember the past four months; of course, how he is also “remembering” things concerning the Wonder Twins and Niki is beyond me), that’s pretty much the episode.
So, while it does address some questions, it also quite obtrusively, ends up being a narrative bump, off-setting the momentum that Chapter Seven managed to build, as we’re made to sit through an hour of catch-up.
Yes, I absolutely loved the hospital scene between Granny P and Heidi, and yeah, Elle sure is one sick puppy, but the entire scenario of how Adam got to Peter and flipped him (and how Peter ended up in that shipping container) got way too incredulous for me.

But, like I said, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get back to the story as we rush on up to the last three chapters of the volume, and that alternate ending we’ve all been hearing about; see Afterthoughts (22).

(Behind the scene images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com; TV Guide Heroes cover art [3 of 4] by Michael Turner, courtesy of tvguide.com.)