Heroes: Fun Filler

With most episodes, I can look at the title, listen closely to the opening voice over or just plain connect the dots, and I can figure out the theme of the week. We’ve already tackled the ideas of acceptance, redemption, and tabula rasa, but this week was all about some revelations that seem to be leading up to kick-butt, sweeps TV. Sure, not a lot happened and some points were far-fetched, but the key is in the setup. So while I have the option of sitting here and pouting over getting a filler episode, I choose to be excited about the big picture that’s beginning to form.

That is the second Parkman I made scream today. – Sylar
The best part of this Sylar-Matt storyline is Zachary Quinto. Though Heroes might not always be, Quinto is always at the top of his game. When he laughs, I’m completely creeped out. While I’ve always like Greg Grunberg, Matt Parkman might currently be my least favorite character. He has this dope power that just happens to backfire on him every time he uses it to do something cool. He can control people’s minds! Shouldn’t he be plotting world domination or something?

Alas, his powers once again crippled him. Now, Sylar can subconsciously control Matt? Obviously, he can since he gave Matt’s wife the best sexual night of her life and her true husband can’t even remember it, but really? And once again, Matt is forced to completely tweak out his wife. I’m not sure what I’d do if my husband started screaming at the invisible voices in his head.

I appreciate that the storyline played out in a different way for the first time. He didn’t run away from her and the baby, although he wanted to. And he didn’t go on to shack up with some new girl (maybe with lightning fast speed) who he “supposedly” loved too before returning to his fam. Instead he stayed in their home, and she left. He, then, proceeded to obliterate his brain cells and liver because he realized that Sylar got weaker with every drink he took. Matt did this until he disappeared, and then slurred with victory.

Of course, wifey came back, with sponsor in tow, to find her husband completely sloshed. Matt passed out, and when he woke up, he seemed better. In my head I’m thinking, ‘There’s no way he detoxed that fast. Something’s up!’ And as he walked away so nonchalantly, I knew I was right. That’s totally Sylar. I didn’t even need to wait for the big reveal to realize that Matt was now the one locked up and Sylar’s in total control.

I know you’ve been lost too. It’s your nature. – Samuel
Jeremy seems to have made an impact on Noah because he’s really putting himself out there for him. When Jeremy is brought in, the cops aren’t too keen on believing the neighborhood nutjob (killing animals and writing death poetry) doesn’t have something to do with his parents’ strange deaths.

We knew that Noah and Tracy would be reuniting sometime soon, but who else thought that it would be the Haitian to come to Noah’s rescue? I was a little shocked, but he called her because she and Jeremy have something in common. They’ve both killed people (albeit accidentally) and now have to live with the consequences. The young kid is having a lot of trouble processing things, and Tracy could help him as his mentor. They ran into trouble getting cops to release him so Tracy cashed in a Capitol Hill favor.

She ran into Samuel who takes her to the carnival. Tracy’s one tough cookie so she’s not happy about being whisked away or the mind games that Samuel’s tried to play with her. He told her that she should bring Jeremy “home”, even leaving her with the magic compass so she can find her way back, but she’s not ready to commit Jeremy or herself to such an abnormal life.

When she returns, her DC friend has pulled through and Jeremy is released. Don’t ask me how this small town hired all of LA’s paparazzi, but there’s a lot of commotion. When one of the looky-loos gets extra rowdy and charges at Jeremy, calling him a parent killer, he can’t control his emotions and kills him on the spot in front of the crowd. This leads to two of the officers taking Jeremy back into custody, then taking him to the boonies and tying him up to their car so they can drag him to his death. (The turn this storyline took was so powerful. It’s something big that will resonate with Noah and Tracy and make their future choices more believable. It reminded me a lot of Matthew Shepard’s tragic death and what can happen when small town ignorance and violence mix.)

So Noah failed. I’m not sure he had a good plan to start out with. Setting this young boy up in an apartment down the street from him, alone, isn’t the best way to take care of a lost teenager. Tracy is not only ticked off with Noah, asking him to never contact her again, but angry at herself for letting Jeremy down as well. Her path back to the carnival is crystal clear at this point.

“They have entire websites devoted to this.” – Claire
What, Claire? Do you mean websites devoted to cheap, lesbian porn ploys? Because you’re so right about that. I’m not really feeling this arc, but I can appreciate that the writers are being transparent about what’s going on. Claire has not had much time to figure out who she is, let alone what love is, which makes her a little bit more open to the possibility of some girl on girl action. I like that she and Gretchen aren’t acting awkward or dancing around the issue but being exceptionally frank with each other, though I was completely bored by the whole you’re a virgin (gasp) plot.

It’s the week of Halloween so someone had the burden of shouldering a scary-themed storyline, and it was aptly plopped onto Claire. As a kind of sorority, initiation hazing, Claire, Gretchen and two other nameless pledges are kidnapped by Becky and Co. and left in a slaughterhouse for a scavenger hunt. Since Claire has died a million times, she’s not so scared until she realizes that some unseen person is trying to kill Gretchen.

Claire began to put together all the strange occurrences that have come up since the beginning of the semester and realized someone else with powers must be on the campus. She has yet to figure out the “why would they be messing with me” part. In the end, Claire saved Gretchen but ended up kabobbed on a pole. (Of course, she heals up just fine.) Becky revealed herself as the invisible stalker but escaped, and the two random pledges witness a whole lot of unexplainable madness.

ON A SIDE NOTE
Nathan/Sylar totally noticed Tracy at the carnival, noting that he remembers helping her when she was sad and flying her away, but Samuel quickly reminded him that those memories aren’t truly his.

HUH?
So I figure that this is a great forum to express the things that completely shock or confuse me and ask you guys what your thoughts are. Claire thinks someone is about to kill Gretchen so they enter a room which has been labeled the “kill room”? Has she ever seen a horror movie? Is some sorority hazing all THAT important to her that she wouldn’t just trust her intuition and book it? And then there’s Sylar’s voice in Matt’s head. Did Matt really fall for the idea that Sylar can be quieted with some Coors Light and Jack Daniels? And foreva eva at that?! And really Noah, you’re so disappointed in losing Jeremy but what about all the other people you screwed over in your bag ‘em, tag ‘em days? I’m sure there are a ton of people you can truly help who aren’t. And Tracy, since when do you think that living out in the open would ever work? Don’t you remember being hunted down last season?!

WRAP IT UP
Even though it was a filler episode when it comes to the big picture, I was entertained this week. Overall, Heroes has been on a steady path, and these last episodes have really hit the mark. Next time, it’s all about Hiro and Charlie, and since we’ve already seen Hiro tackle the “save the waitress, save my heart” story, I’m interested to see how they’ll twist it around and make it new and different. Plus, I’m officially a Gleek, and more Jayma Mays will make me happy. Until then…

Season 4, Episodes 7: Strange Attractors (originally aired October 26, 2009)

Mondays at 9/8C on NBC

Photographs courtesy of NBC and IMDbPro