Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
“Dying Of The Light” was downright Shakespearean: all sound and fury, signifying nothing, dialing back the tension from last week and mostly focusing on the ever-shifting alliances in the roster of Heroes and Villains.
Newly-minted Big Bad Mr. Petrelli was again this episode's mover and shaker: his herald, Daphne, literally criss-crossed the country rounding up and recruiting people for the Pinehearst team (Knox, Flint, Maury Parkman and a slightly reluctant Daphne); and he showed off his ability to steal others' superpowers by not only draining an incredulous Peter, but going all Dorian Gray on last season's antagonist, Adam Monroe.
Aside from Arthur's antics, the other notable development was the apparent solidifying of the double-turn between Peter and Sylar. Sy – how long 'til he asks to be called Gabriel? -- not only refused an offer to join Pinehearst, but urged Peter to help him save the comatose Mrs. Petrelli. However, when Sy refers to Angela as “our mother,” the increasingly unhinged and “hungry” Pete beats him down for the second time in three seasons (remember Kirby Plaza?) taunting, “I'm the most special!” And, as we're seemingly always forced to do with Peter, we must step back.
The driving force behind Peter and Sylar's switching places seems to be what everybody's calling the Hunger: the uncontrollable urge to rip people's powers off. During their encounter last week, Peter has allegedly “absorbed” the Hunger from his new brother. But, why now? The two have had multiple encounters (remember Kirby Plaza?) across several timelines; and Sylar's bloodlust has only recently been cited as being fueled by addiction. Furthermore, everybody's blind acceptance of Sylar into the Petrelli family tree is getting to be a distraction. Are the writers setting up another plot twist? Are they just hand-waving their way toward a heroic run for Sylar? Can we get Mr. Petrelli to absorb Gabriel's eyebrows?
Ok, back to the Petrellis: unaware as to his brothers' and mother's condition, Nathan and Tracy get into their own share of trouble with another Pinehearst recruit, Mohinder. Mo slips the new couple a Spider-roofie and binds them for reasons inadequately explained but probably involving their metahuman blood. For a second, Tracy appears to get through to Mohinder's humanity (“It all got out of control,” he admits. “I am a monster.”) but she chooses to double-cross him instead, and we leave the trio in the midst of a showdown. Yet another recruit, Hiro, is revealed to have pulled some chronological slight-of-hand to save Ando – hey, whoever called “ketchup packets” last week got it right! -- in order to earn his first assignment for the company: he and Ando are dispatched to “Africa” to take the still-unnamed Usutu off the board. In the most sensible use of abilities so far this season, Usutu uses his precognitive powers to get the jump on Hiro twice within a minute. Later on, Hiro and Ando do manage to approach Usutu, who assuages them with vaguely inspirational words about “choosing their own path.”
Finally, we come to the series' other favorite family: the Bennets. This time, Claire finally gets to play the heroine, saving both Meredith and her adopted mother from the creepy-as-hell Eric Doyle, and earning more respect from papa Noah – who then turns around and asks Meredith to be his new partner. Oooh, there's one person who's not gonna like that ...
The Racialicious Scorecard:
Suresh: We got to see some balance in Mohinder this week, as he's clearly rattled by Daphne's discovery of his wall of victims (“You're just as bad as the rest of them,” she sniffs), enough to briefly trust Tracy. But her subsequent betrayal put him back on the dark path, as we wait for his showdown with Tracy and Nathan to pick up next week.
The Haitian: Speaking of betrayals, how is he going to react when he finds out Noah is getting chummy with Meredith? Will this lead to him ditching Primatech and joining Team Pinehearst?Hiro & Ando: Hiro's timely time-traveling saved not only Ando, but the team's relationship – for now. Their subsequent journey to “Africa” (it's a big place, you know) leads to an out-of-character remark about white people (“They all look alike to me”) by Ando and some, shall we say, Mystical advice from ...
Usutu: He still doesn't have a name, but at least he's making his way up the character food chain, going from mentoring Parkman to outsmarting Hiro and Ando to giving them nuggets like, “When you started thinking of yourself, that's when you found me ... Now you are ready?” Ready to what, ask what country they're actually in?
Maya: I'm pretty sure when a guy webs your mouth shut and sticks you to a wall, that you can probably consider yourself single again. It looks like she's alive, but otherwise she was in no position to do anything this week.
Knox: Firmly entrenched on Mr. Petrelli's team, and had no problem leading Adam to his doom. One can imagine how pissed he'll be when he discovers Hiro lied his way into his good graces.
Next Week: Peter gets grounded! Will he lose his angst privileges, too?
Previously:
Racialicious Heroes archive
Character bios and photos courtesy of HeroesWiki.
1 comment:
So, does anyone else feel like theres a whole lot of sideways motion in a whole lot of story lines, but as far as the over all plot, there just isn't much to it?
I will commit to watching through this season, but seriously... Im finding it harder and harder to watch. Why?
Parkman is coming down the escalator with an african turtle, pretty as you please. WHAT? did he use his powers to keep people from noticing he had an AFRICAN TURTLE on board? where is the waiting period?
And beyond that... HOW DID HE GET BACK? That, in and of itself could have been a story - a good one. Instead we get wimpy, angsty Captian Whitebread. He has the powers of a god, and yet acts 14 years old "High Five Turtle"
w/e
And I am intrigued with the newer characters.... BUT WE DIDNT NEED THEM any more than we needed all the extra ones from season two - most of which are GONE from the story line.
but, instead of focusing on the main characters (of which there are about 4 too many) we bring in EVEN MORE meta-humans.
I really do not mean to complain. The idea behind this is fantastic. The cast is strong, but they're too busy trying to keep up with plot rather than story.
and why does 'Linderman' need to show up to Daphne? Is there History?
And what happened to Nathan's wife and kids? they just seemed to have been written out with no real explanation. His wife was a MAJOR plot point in season one only to never be spoken of again after she could walk.
Heroes needs to decide what it wants to be. It seems to be confused as to the type of story it wants to tell.
There's more - like the absolute waste of the marionette story. (anyone else notice we are getting one level 5 baddie a week to stop?)
~Enough for now. lol
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