So, what's the word, gentle readers? Is it...ambiguous? As in...morally ambiguous? Yes indeed, I think it is. Is this the word that keeps popping into my mind while I watch Heroes every Monday night? Yes indeed, I think it is.
Now that I'm finished having fun with Microsoft Word's thesaurus, let's begin this week's Heroes breakdown and discussion...
1) What we now know:
- Even after several years of parenting a "special" and even more years parenting a normal child before that, Noah has just not caught onto what I like to call The Rebellious Teenager Effect. Mainly, that when you tell your teenage daughter, whether she is "special" or not, to NOT do something, she is going to feel a irrational and often times disastrous desire to do the opposite. Now, if you are a smart and cunning parent, you'll be able to catch what I like to call The Look. Mainly, the look on Claire's face when Noah had the audacity to tell her what she was GOING to do. If, as a smart a cunning parent, you see this look cross your teenage daughter's face, you'll know she has no intention whatsoever of following your instructions. Luckily for Claire and Alex (our comic book nerd "target"), Noah has too much on his mind to be a smart and cunning parent. He's too busy being a smart and cunning morally ambiguous bad guy.
- Nathan Petrelli, it seems, is also too busy to be a smart and cunning father. He has too many problems of his own. Like say, possible mutiny from The Hunter's corner. If this episode showed us anything, it showed us an even more morally vague Nathan...and our anti-hero hero is obviously losing control of his own grand mission. Nathan has ever been the gray hero and every time we wish to celebrate him, he acts the villain and every time we wish to condemn him, he acts the hero. What he is doing now, his gathering up of "specials" in order to keep them controlled, is obviously, as my short-time favorite Abby Collins says, a violation of human rights and yet...that one death of an unknown office worker upset him greatly. An evil man; a villain who is out only for himself and his own ambition, wouldn't flinch at the death of a meaningless henchman...but Nathan does flinch. Perhaps The Hunter will unintentionally help our heroes by showing himself as Nathan's own reflection in the mirror. When Nathan sees that ruthlessly determined man as himself, will it show him that what he is doing is wrong?
2) What we still don't know:
- The biggie still: Who is Rebel? There are just so many possibilities that I refuse to do the guessing game. We know now that Rebel is in contact with others besides Claire, so that opens up even more possible suspects. I'm just going to let this one play out but you're more than welcome to give me your best guesses.
- What's Luke's real connection to Sylar's father? Is it just a neighborly friendship or is it more than it seems?
- What is Tracy playing at and what does she think of Nathan's obviously deteriorating control situation? Does she think she can prove that she is on his side by helping him get what he needs from Abby? Is that why she killed that guy? Or does she really think Nathan was trying to help her escape and that he will help her again? Hummmm...
- We may already know this and I just missed it but, what list are Nathan and team using to round up the "specials"? Dr. Suresh's old list, maybe?
- Is HRG really going to try to be a better person, a better husband and a better father? Is he being sincere or is he just telling Claire what she wants to hear? In my opinion, HRG is essentially a good person (I feel the same way about Nathan). He could have gotten mad at Claire for tattling on him, but instead he made it clear that he wouldn't be far if she needed him and that he loved her. I would like to believe that Noah is being sincere and that he is truly a good guy. It seems next week's episode will illuminate his true self for us frustrated viewers...and our heroes as well.
- How is Claire going to take her dad's disappearance? Will she worry for him and go looking for him or will she leave him to his fate?
3) Dude, I totally dig that:
- As always, Sylar. Particularly for this episode? Zachary Quinto in his stolen, black military get-up. Can anyone say "yum"? Serial killer or not, Sylar makes me VERY happy. Let's retrace my Sylar reactions. Following the scene where he leaves Luke stranded with the military henchmen: a small chuckle followed by "that's what you get when you hang with Sylar, kid". Following the scene where Sylar walks away from the nicely bloodied van (after I'm revived from my swoon), carrying the saved Luke over his shoulder: "ummmmm, ok...."? Sylar wouldn't be Sylar if he didn't possess that singularly unique flicking of humanity in that dead soul of his. It's one of the best parts of his character and why we just love to hate him.
- Totally digging Claire's potentially helpful purpose of helping out "targets". This will make her a useful part of the "specials" rising resistance and keep her from whining too much. It's also good practice for her becoming something other than an immortal victim.
- LOVED the last scene. Not only was I not even remotely expecting that, but it's a great way to turn the tables. However, I couldn't help feeling bad for poor Noah. He was already having a bad day and I'm sure his week isn't going to be getting any better anytime soon...
4) Seriously? Seriously?:
- The whole Hiro/Ando side trip seemed a bit excessive. Did Hiro really have to go halfway across the world to figure out that he can be a hero without having powers? Couldn't he have learned that lesson a little closer to home? And did he really need that lesson anyway? Hiro has always been good with taking his hits and working with what he's got. He never came off as someone who moped around and grumbled uselessly about his situation. It was out of character and that was one of the show's problem's last year.
- Did Claire really have to tattle on her dad? Honestly, was that necessary? How did that help the situation? All it did was hurt her daddy's feelings and make her feel guilty (I'm sure...). What possible help could an upset mother offer her? The only silver-lining I saw with that move was that now HRG would be out of the house and Claire can now hide Alex more effectively.
That's all for this week's Heroes, folks! See you next week, when we find out where HRG's loyalties really lie.
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