There is a definite disconnect running in this episode. A sense of "wth?? at the end.
That is not an accident, imo. That is the sign of Bryan Fuller returning to the top spot in the show and burying stupid plotlines. Because this episode, #19, was the show that marked his return to Heroes.
Danko is left with a stuffed rabbit on the TV and a very live Sylar in his apartment. I don't see how that ends particularly well for Danko.
Claire is on the run - but why and from who is not clear. Whatever - it does not matter. All I can say is: about time. She's got a reason to be out of the house and out of Costa Verde.
It's time for 18yr+ Hayden Panettiere to stop being a kid in Mommy's house, put on a short skirt and go be the hot babe on the show, not the hot jailbait.
Ando and Hiro - somehow - will muddle out of this mess - I hope.
HRG's role as the mole in charge of the Program has potential - if they don't blow it.
These are possible reasons to be happy with a new direction...but there are only so many lives and restarts left for this show, and I genuinely expect that we are swirling the bowl now. Heroes is plain out of nine lives as mainstream one hour drama.
We'll see.
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As for the episode itself, it suffered greatly from far too many plotlines. This was not a show of four A stories - or even Three A stories.
It ended up being a show of four B stories. And that's why this format of multi viewpoint storylines without a clear A story just has to stop. Sometimes it can work - but more often than not - it fails.
We've been building on this Sylar thread for a long time now. There was a payoff there...promised. After all of that crap... didn't you feel a sense of obligation on the part of the writers to deliver a payoff?
I guess for a moment or so we got one. But overall?
Promise? Denied. A bitter old man with cancer. No real insights and no real excitement. Mommy dearest is left unresolved and hanging like a very sad chad.
The only real redemption to the scene was Fuller trying to seize that moment to perhaps propel Sylar into the role of active villain. To search after the things Daddy turned away from. Not to be a villain in the bogeyman sense, but in that moment where Sylar was the Monster in the Whitehouse from Season #1. A villain who aims high.
All of that might end up well - but it's a faint glimmer of hope. Reality is, we just watched a multi-episode arc without any real purpose or payoff. Dreadful writing, dragged out arc, no payoff.
Sort of the essence of how Heroes has managed to grasp Fail from the Jaws of Success, even when it's trying something new.
I suppose they might seize upon Samson Gray as a villain after Claire now. I have to admit - if I was Samson Gray - I'm after the cheerleader in California with my oxygen tanks in tow and a bullet in the breach.
Speaking of Claire...
I have no idea at all why they even BOTHERED with the Puppet Master and Claire. Why were those scenes even there? It's not as if they could have been edited in to some other episode that would have worked substantially better.
No matter where those scenes show up - it just rang FALSE. Worse, pointless and mostly stupid really.
The man SHOT HER IN THE CHEST. He was about to rape her genetic mother and tried to kill her adopted mother. There is simply no reason why Claire should have even bothered to help that man. He was the man the Agents SHOULD have caught. The kind of villains Daddy put away that DESERVED to be put away. The kind of villain SHE tried to put away - and succeeded, too.
They could have used that as a moment to introduce some self-doubt into Claire's Black and White world. To instil a more mature shade of grey. Instead - they seemed to have missed that opportunity too.
Ah well. We'll see where this reset moment takes us.
Too many damn resets in one season, if you ask me. I don't think they can pull this one off. Next season? Maybe. But this one is a disaster.
For all that, I loved Angela Petrelli in the restaurant. She's getting the Company Man treatment soon, too. Christine Rose is a good enough actress to pull it off. If only the writers can manage it.
Got to admit Volume #2 Generations is looking better and better all the time...
