Heroes: Farewell to a Favorite

Take a deep breath. Prepare yourself because I was shocked. This week’s episode was great. No really, this isn’t a joke. Except for a few dull moments, I was hypnotized all hour. So let’s not drag this intro out any longer.

“Makes you wonder if we’re not destined to be the last generation of our species. And if that’s so how can we stop that from happening.” – Samuel
Lydia pops in on Samuel and tells him that, though she knows his secret, she has a daughter, and his secret is safe with her. She exits as Eli (Todd Stachwick )shows up. Samuel asks him if he’d be his right (and left) hand man. (You see, he’s kind of like Michael Keaton in Multiplicity but without the different personalities.) He then charges him to break into Noah’s apartment and steal some information.

“Give me her number. Working for the CIA has a few benefits like waterboarding terrorists, some pretty decent bagels and the ability to triangulate cell phone calls.” – Lauren
Someone knocks on Noah’s door. It’s Lauren, ready for their date. They share some sassy, but so out of place, banter. As she eyes Noah’s “research” board, Noah realizes that the compass is missing. It’s clearly a Clair issue, and they quickly join forces to track down his daughter.

I really do love the man known to many as HRG. So many characters without powers have fallen by the wayside, but he’s got real substance. And his family/Company man storyline was some of Heroes most riveting work, but all the lovey-dovey Lauren stuff is really starting to bore me. I find myself tuning out, which makes writing these things harder because I have to rewind over and over again. So doubly, no fun.

But then Eli shows up, multiplies himself into Noah’s apartment and triggers a Reed and Sue Richards-style team up between these two. (Geek Translation: The married, crime fighting team of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman.) Not only did I learn that true partners are always partners no matter how much time passes, but you can also covertly hide a lot of guns in one tiny apartment. Awesome.

The two hide out in the bathroom and don’t end up fighting much more. Boooo because that was fun. Ready to fight, the two head out only to find an empty apartment. Eli is gone, along with Noah’s Primatech files.

“Peter, there are five stages of grief. You need to leap over denial phase and get right into the acceptance of this whole thing.” – Angela
Angela visits Peter at the hospital and tries to dissuade him from going after Nathan. It’s basically like they passed the nonacceptance baton from mother to son. Angela realizes the err of her ways, but Peter wants to fight for Nathan. He even called in the Haitian for a power switcheroo. (Sadly this storyline of who will and won’t survive is the complete opposite of suspenseful since NBC, Tim Kring and Adrian Pasdar are all over the entertainment news regarding his recent sacking.)

Sylar gets the drop on Peter in the elevator. Even I didn’t see Sylar coming disguised as an older, black and female nurse. (I miss the days when Heroes used to always surprise me like this…i.e. the first season.) What happens after that is some of the most riveting Heroes moments in awhile.

Peter was only surprised for a minute or so because then it became apparent that this was the plan all along. While Sylar believes he  has the upper hand, Peter uses his new power-blocking abilities. Taken aback, Peter then beat him like a pinata. (Little Petrelli is starting to re-light my fire a tiny bit.) It’s give back his brother time, or be nail gunned to death? Seriously, I could not make this stuff up!

Things start to get a little iffy again when he attempts to mind pull Nathan out and erase Sylar. Mission accomplished in two minutes without any Jack Bauer-level torture is clearly not reality. In the end, the writers gave Adrian Pasdar some emotional and tough work for his last episode. The tension and emotion is palpable, and he truly does a great job. (He, actually, might be getting out at the perfect time despite all the hooplah about how he found out.)

Nathan chooses to give up the fight by flinging himself off a building roof. He’s too tired for it anymore, and he’s accepted his fate. Peter clings on as long as he can with no help from his brother who tells him that he loves him. “You’re going to have to carry on for the both of us. Tell mom I love her, and take care of Claire. Fight the good fight. You’ve always been everything that’s good in the world, and I got a feeling the world ain’t seen nothing yet. You can do anything. Anything. Remember that. I love you.” Slight tear, but only because Nathan was one of the characters I fell in love with instantly.

In one of the coolest fall scenes I’ve seen in a while, Nathan falls in slo-mo, transforms into Sylar (essentially dying), lands on a parked car hard, and Sylar rises. He even throws in a little wave from below. (Top form for the actors and writers.)

“We’ve been on the road for a day, but you’ve been on this road your whole life, and it’s lead you here. So you have to at least check it out.” – Gretchen
While extremely creepy, Gretchen really is a good friend at heart. And she’s there for her when Claire’s too scared to enter the carnival. Samuel is also there to ease her in. He takes the hands off approach, gloating about how they’re actually more normal then one would think. Carnies need to make an honest living too. Of course, it sounds like some free spirit, wonderful oasis. He even gives the girls popcorn, which he says is the best in the world. He tells them to walk around, meet his family and finish their snack, and then he’ll catch up with the two to walk them out.

They reach Lydia. (This girl needs to give me some tips on who to bare ones back in the most provocative of ways.) She reads Claire’s desires which manifest as a picture of her, The “Indestructible Girl”. A little spooked out, they high tail it out of there.

Gretchen and Claire come upon a jerk who never quite became the baseball star he always aspired to be. He’s holding up a game booth, attempting to show off his wicked slider and win a big stuffed tiger, and there’s a sad, little girl waiting for her turn. Claire points out the carnival worker who uses telekenisis to make the jerk miss but also to help the little girl win. Gretchen isn’t really impressed, and she’s not sure how to take someone who rips off a guy, even if he is a jerk. (Doing something nice, doesn’t always negate something mean, right? I think Claire could learn a few things from her girl crush/BFF.)

Their popcorn is almost finished, and Samuel says he can show them where everyone lives. Claire wants to see, but Gretchen wants to go. Samuel makes a point to say no matter what, everyone is welcome. (Man, he lies so well even I believe him.) To Claire, this world is everything she’s looking for.

Samuel tells a big group of children stories, and Claire gets to tell the last one of the night. She even gets a big hug from one of the wee ones. She runs into Doyle (aka the Puppet Master) who seems like a new person and touts the wonders of the carnival. The jerk comes back, screaming about being ripped off, and he attack Samuel. He doesn’t fight back, and he stops anyone from helping him. Except for Claire of course. When she asks him why he let that happen, he says that their life involves a lot of practice in restraint to maintain their lives.

Gretchen is sketched out, even questioning Samuel intentions to his face (liking this girl more and more), but she supports Claire when she chooses to stay a couple of days longer. Too bad when she drives away, she misses the jerk, dead in the back of his truck. (Who says carnivals can’t put on a good show?)

Samuel and his family, including Claire return to the site of Joseph’s burial. Samuel makes a speech about how they will be nomads no more and they will plant roots there once they’ve gathered all of their brethren and taken them back “home.” And Claire just looks on, eating up every word.

WRAP IT UP

This was the perfect Heroes episode. I wish they decided to take the path of least resistance this season because a lot of the storytelling it took to get to this point was painful. I also didn’t really miss Mohinder, Tracy, Hiro, Ando and Parkman who were only shown briefly at the tail end. Clearly, we’ll jump into their story later. In the end, the result of this mid-season finale has me super excited for the show to return in a month. Though Nathan and Adrian Pasdar will be missed, I wish him much luck in his future endeavors. He deserves it, and I only hope without that sticky storyline, things will start to get even better.

Season 4, Episodes 12:  The Fifth Stage (originally aired November 30, 2009)

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Photographs courtesy of NBC  and Justin Lubin