Monday February 16, 2009
316
As the President sends a representative to investigate Nathan's activities, Sylar continues his quest to find his father. Hiro and Ando travel to India to fulfill the destiny shown by Matt's drawing, and Claire risks her father's wrath to protect a new friend.
Read Full Recap » (warning: possible spoilers!)Claire tries to help one of her own despite her father's attempts not to, Hiro and Ando travel to India to fulfill Matt's painting, Sylar still searches for his dad and Nathan tries to convince Homeland Security about the necessity of his operation. hide show
Claire feels frustrated about Noah's behaviour when he keeps lying to their family. When Claire gets a new message from Rebel (the unknown person who sent her a message in the previous chapter) to save a person from Noah she runs to his rescue. That person turns out to be Alex, someone who has the ability to breath underwater. Claire helps him escape right out of Noah's hands and together they flee. Not having any other solution she hides Alex in her house. At the same time, not being able to deal with all the lies being told to her mom, Claire tells Sandra everything about Noah and his new "job". Frustrated, Sandra tells Noah to pack his bags and leave the house. Saying goodbye to Claire, Noah goes to a bar where he is ambushed by three familiar faces; Matt, Peter and Mohinder.
On the other side of the world in India, Hiro and Ando try to make Matt's painting come true when they try to stop a Hindu wedding from happening. Ando talks to the bride and convinces her not to marry someone she doesn't want to. Hiro feels left out as he thinks he is useless now without his abilities and with Ando being the Hero now. In the end, Ando is taken by the groom in order to force the bride to marry him and Hiro saves the day when he ruins the wedding by coming upfront right in the middle of the ceremony. When Ando is saved, the bride gives both Hiro and Ando a fax message that tells them to save Matt Parkman and it is signed by Rebel.
Sylar is still on the road with Luke when he becomes impatient with Luke's attitude not to tell him exactly where his father is. When they stop at a food joint, the two of them bond as they figure they have more in common. Sylar even teaches him a thing or two about the use of powers. At that point Nathan's men come in and try to put Sylar down but all they end up with is Luke who is left behind by Sylar despite Luke saving Sylar in the first place. However, Sylar returns and saves Luke and again go into the highway on their way to find Sylar's father.
Finally, Nathan gets a visit by a woman from Homeland Security who has come to check all about this operation and why they need the extra funding. Meeting up with Tracy, the woman thinks the programme should be shut down as they are keeping people without a warrant under the most difficult situations. When Tracy manages to escape her locking room and kills a man in front of the Homeland Security lady's eyes, the woman is convinced the programme should not shut down and the funding be given. In the end, it is revealed that Tracy's escape was the Hunter's plan to gain Homeland Security's trust.
Overall a good episode. I liked the idea that Claire is conspiring against her father and of course the Hunter's wonderful performance (who is getting a bigger role in the next episodes). Key facts: The rebel's involvement becomes bigger and bigger. Also notice how the stories become less but with greater depth. Of course this is not the best episode but it is a good start since the episode is better when it has less stories but with greater story telling. Enjoy!
Sylar is off to find his father with the help of Luke, who stole his mother's car keys. Along the way Luke seems to be annoying and stringing Sylar along until he tells Sylar a story about a little red wagon which almost chokes him up. Sylar and Luke are in a road diner and Luke finally tells Sylar where his father is. The group trying to capture the Heroes close in on them in the diner and they almost have Sylar but Luke creates a distraction and he gets away but Luke is captured. In one of the end scenes, Sylar breaks Luke out and kills the members of the group. Has Sylar taken a liking to Luke?
As shown in the painting of Parkman, Hiro and Ando go to India to stop the marriage of an Indian woman named Shaila to a mean and corrupt man named Deeprak. Ando shows his powers to Shaila as a sign and she initially calls off the wedding. When Deeprak confronts Shaila and her granfather, Ando steps in and his powers falter. Deeprak takes Ando hostage forcing Shaila to marry him. As the wedding is about to happen Hiro comes in to stop the wedding, saying that the Shaila does not want to marry Deeprak. Shaila confirms this to her grandfather but Deeprak grabs her and starts to run away. Hiro chases them down and punches Deeprak in the nose and stands over him with a sword forcing him to call off the wedding. Hiro rejoices in fulfilling the prophecy of Parkman's painting.
Claire is helping another hero who can breath under water named Alex. The operative there to get him is Claire's father. Alex is almost caught by HRG, but gets away. When Claire's gets home she tells her mother what her dad is doing again. Later on he comes to Claire's room to let her know he is moving out for a while; that her mother thinks it best. HRG end up in a bar and starts hammering them down only to realize that he is being drugged. When he passes out, Parkman, Peter and crew are the culprits. The episode ends. What will be in store for HRG.
This is the last thing Heroes needs right now: it should be moving forward, not traipsing back. hide show
I've said it before and I'll say it again... you just can't please Heroes fans. If they're not rubbishing their favourite show for its apparent complexity, they're berating it for being slow moving and 'boring'. Now, it's certainly worth reminding ourselves of the age-old credo, 'you can't please all of the people all of the time', but it seems that the Heroes audience is never happy; or, at least, it would appear so if you spend your time idly lurking on the show's many interweb forums like a sad b*****d, as I do. Ahem. The central issue, it seems, is that the fans want the programme to return to the heady days of season one when things were 'more original, characters were less convoluted and stories were more interesting'. The problem, of course, is that as soon as you ask a show to go backwards, it stops being original or interesting and instead it becomes a rehash of itself, trying desperately to counter the highly natural tide of story development. Things. Change. It's inevitable. You simply cannot expect any halfway decent show to remain in a self-contained bubble, especially not one with an ongoing plot. While a number of the changes inherent in Heroes haven't exactly been executed as well as they could have been, the very fact that the show is willing to progress should be something that we encourage, not lambaste. The answer is not to return to the stylistics of the first season: it's to write change in a more convincing and enjoyable fashion. Just look at the other serialised shows on TV at the moment: Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural... none of these are much like their début seasons but, crucially, they are far, far better for it. Development is the cornerstone of a successful, ongoing drama, not the enemy.
With this in mind, it is easy to see where 'Building 26' falls regrettably short. The episode tries its very best to restore some perceived 'loss' of season one characteristics by concentrating squarely on the kind of character facets that were implicit in the central players back when we were first introduced to them. So, Hiro and Ando make a completely pointless trip to Inia in an effort to regain Hiro's 'destiny' (his powers). Naturally, there's a moral lesson in this escapade: that you don't need powers to be a hero. Well, there's a revelation. This motif has been reiterated to death by the show since the get go. Hell, we even have a character who effectively acts as an encapsulation of this fact: Ando himself. Sure, it's mildly interesting to see the roles reversed in their relationship but on the whole, the narrative creaks with the rot of aged familiarity. There is no logic to the journey either: the pair travel to India simply because the painting indicates that they do, rather tha out of some need that the painting happens to reflect, and in so doing, the only ultimate outcome is the receipt of a message from REBEL about Matt... which, surely, they didn't need to travel abroad to receive. Hiro's epiphany, for me, just doesn't have the weight or relevance to justify devoting an entire B-storyline to a, quite frankly, ludicrously boring and clichéd story about a woman who doesn't wish to enter into an arranged marriage. With every beat, the plot becomes still more predictable: as Ando convinces the bride to call off the wedding in two seconds, so it becomes clear that the groom will reinitialize it. Once Ando is kidnapped, Hiro's adoption of the role of intercessor is assured. And then, once the wedding begins, Hiro's interference is achingly obvious. The entire story can be read before it unfolds on-screen and that, my friends, certainly isn't the sign of a rivetingly written narrative.
That it were only this strand that falls victim to this problem. Sadly, it's rife elsewhere too, particularly in Claire/HRG's narrative. Fresco tries desperately to restore the conflict that made their story such a success in season one but, in so doing, makes the whole thing feel like a tired retread of things past. These two characters have grown significantly since we were first introduced to them: they've had so many reconciliatory father/daughter moments based on his desire to protect her and her assertion she she doesn't need protecting/what he is doing goes beyond the acceptable that I've lost count. And yet, here we **** go again. It's the same plot beat we've had forced down our throats for far too long; during the early season three episodes, it seemed it was buried, or at least put to rest for a while. Now, we have the whole damn thing all over again, in glorious technicolor. Claire rebels against her father's wishes and brings a cute boy along for the ride (um, West, anyone?) It's just yawnsome. And the fact that she pulls the wool over his eyes for the majority of the episode is just plain unbelievable. How many times has she rebelled now? It's practically a pre-requisite. He'd have her surveilled or locked in her room or something as soon as she raised the slightest objection. But no, in the interests of servicing the plot (getting it to the point where HRG can be kidnapped), she gets away with it AGAIN. It's almost insulting to the viewer to expect us to swallow this sort of thing. Granted, it does give us the rather unexpected development of having HRG estranged from his wife but this doesn't make up for the boredom induced by the predictability of the remainder of the storyline.
There are additional problems elsewhere, too. While Nathan's story is at least a decent attempt at exploring the politics of his actions, it is fraught with story inconsistencies and illogical developments. First, why would Homeland send a non-believer to investigate the activities of Building 26? Particularly when this decision will have been overseen by the President? The head of state is aware of Nathan's project; hell, he activated it. He is, therefore, a believer in the existence of powers and any investigation would surely have been into the human rights aspect of the operation alone. Thus, someone privy to the reality would have been brought in, not a sceptic. The only reason for this is to serve the plot, so that conflict can be created out of an attempt to illustrate both sides of the political debate. Very lazy guys. And then there's Tracey's 'escape'. This is utterly, utterly ridiculous. Right, so she understands that someone loosened her shackles to facilitate her escape and that this was designed to win the doubting Thomas (who she knows and is her friend) over to Nathan's side. You know, the woman who actually sympathises with her situation and may be able to help her out of it... as she actually tells her when she first enters her cell. So what does Tracey Strauss, sensible, intelligent, expert at conniving and political manoeuvring, do? She murders the man who tries to recapture her, in power-centric fashion! It isn't even accidental! And she does it right in front of the woman who was going to help her and didn't believe she was a monster! Eh?! This is completely and utterly unbelievable, especially given that Strauss seems to understand that she was being manipulated: so she just went along with it? Oh yeah, very sensible. Again, this just illustrates the lazy nature of the writing: Tracey's illogical move is simply a convenient method of getting the story to the point that Fresco needs: no governmental objection to Nathan's operation. It's a shame that this decision taints what is otherwise a fairly competent strand. There are some strong interchanges between characters (particularly Nathan and the Hunter) and the race/difference allegory is well woven. But,a gain, flawed writing gets in the way of this success.
The only aspect of the episode that escapes these problems is Sylar's story which remains somewhat refreshing thanks to the inclusion of the child. Once again, there's some good interplay between the two and the development of their somewhat warped surrogate father/son relationship is moving at a pleasing pace. Zachary Quinto is particularly good this week, returning Sylar to the manipulative, evil SOB of old while also interjecting enough compassionate difference to stress the changes he is going through. Crucially, they are nothing like the complete about turn that compromised his character in 'Villains': they are slight tweaks, not personality shifts. Sadly, however, this is not enough to save 'Building 26'. The remaining strands, while far from execrable, are fraught with problems, the most prominent of which is the failed execution of some perceived 'need' to return to the trappings of season one. This is the last thing Heroes needs right now: it should be moving forward, not traipsing back. If it doesn't regain its focus and momentum soon, I fear for the show's survival. Let's hope this was one is just a blip.
Not an important episode, just putting the next pieces in place. hide show
As Peter predicted, the team is keeping close tabs on them and is taking out the targets they can but the most powerful ones are still at large. However, the home team does manage to take a prisoner.
Under the Patriot's Act, Nathan's team is monitoring everything, including the traffic cameras. He just got a new boss, he's being distanced from the president just in case Nathan becomes an embarrassment. Chaining Tracy to a chair doesn't exactly make Nathan look sympathetic. Tracy's escape is perfectly timed, just as Abby is about to shut Nathan down. A little too perfectly timed, Danko engineered it. Nathan is after funding for a facility for the prisoners, probably unique cells for each one, just like Tracy's. I'm relieved it wasn't Nathan, it wouldn't be like him to cold-bloodedly kill someone.
Claire saves Alex from Bennet and he can breathe underwater. Another case of a power being related: on the swim team. Alex is now stashed at the Bennet house. Claire tells Sandra the truth, just leaves out that her own father is behind it. Sandra kicks Bennet out, I'm surprised she's tolerated so much, she's a good woman. Yet again Bennet pledges to be a better husband and father, I wouldn't hold my breath. This is who he is, it's what he's good at.
India: Ando steals Hiro's thunder and stops the wedding. But it falls to Hiro in the end and like Peter, Hiro finds he can be a hero without his powers too. Rogue must be pretty well connected – they find Ando and Hiro in India to tell them to save Matt.
Sylar and Luke continue their road trip and Luke's knowledge of Samson makes me wonder, could Sylar and Luke be related, maybe even brothers? Sitting in the diner, they certainly look and act the part. Sylar, whether he intends to or not, starts mentoring Luke about his powers. Very cool how they escaped the diner and Luke saved Sylar's life. Sylar left him behind to be captured but came back for him. It's obvious that Sylar craves a family and specifically a brother, look at how easily he accepted Peter in the role, and now Luke.
Well done, boys! Peter, Matt and Mohinder drug Bennet and 'helped their friend' out. Wonder how he likes being on the other end of the stick?!
This is the first time in the series when we don't know the end game, where this is all leading. The mystery is refreshing, it lends an uncertainty to it all. Not that important but enjoyable.
Building 26 was a much slower episode compared to the prevous two episodes this Volume. There is some enjoyable stories going on in the episode like Claire's, at first her story was the same old stuff where used to with the character you know daddy issue stuff but then she saved some dude it was good to see the character do something fun. Nathan's story was slightley boring and it dragged out the part where Niki sorry I mean Tracy killed that dude was decent. The strongest parts of this episode was Sylar's with his new little apprentice. Hiro and Ando's Indian story was very predictble. The episodes ending was pretty funny I liked that and I was wondering what had happened to Matt, Peter and Mohinder. This episode was a slower episode than the last and it dragged on too much 8 out of 10.
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