HEROES Vol 5 #12:The Fifth Stage

[Felon]

I have to say, I thought his episode was pretty good, but Nathan's death scene, where he's falling in slow motion as he slowly turns into Sylar, was freaking EPIC! I wanna watch that scene again, it was done so well.

You gotta be kidding me.

Slow-motion falling is, as a rule, the epitome of lame cheesyness. Worst of all, the outcome was extremely predictable. What were we supposed to think was going to happen here? Nathan/Sylar was obviously going to fall outside the range of power-blocking, so his healing ability would save him regardless of whether Nathan or Sylar is in change. Not that there was ever any real doubt that it was just another hackneyed attempt to rack up another notch on the already sky-high Heroes fake-death-scene count. The fact that they were just crying wolf once again is particualrly odious in this isntance due to the drawn-out exchange of emotional goodbyes that ultimately amounted to nothing.

And of course, he has to fall on top of a vehicle. Always got to fall on top of a vehicle. Can't just splatter on the cement, can we?

"Hey, bro, if you're trying to kill yourself, can you at least try to fall a little to the left? No reason some poor guy should have to have your guts drizzling all over his upholstery."

 

[Felon]

Did I miss something? What happened to Hiro? There was that bit at the end with him, Ando, and Mohinder. I don't recall them linking up last episode.

I thought Hiro was still at the carnival, but by all rights he should've bumped into Claire.

This season is full of little non sequitors like that. Got characters appearing and disappearing without reason. Deaf chick, is your time up? Claire's friend, what is the point of you? Blonde lady hanging out with HRG, should I even bother to learn your name? Evil carnival guy, why exactly do you need to have the power to create super-earthquakes?

We're what, ten episodes deep, and it all feels so uneventful. They need to resolve the Nathan/Sylar thing. Stop teasting us by making it look like one personality has won once and for all.

 

[Dire Bare]

You gotta be kidding me.

Slow-motion falling is, as a rule, the epitome of lame cheesyness. Worst of all, the outcome was extremely predictable. What were we supposed to think was going to happen here? Nathan/Sylar was obviously going to fall outside the range of power-blocking, so his healing ability would save him regardless of whether Nathan or Sylar is in change. Not that there was ever any real doubt that it was just another hackneyed attempt to rack up another notch on the already sky-high Heroes fake-death-scene count. The fact that they were just crying wolf once again is particualrly odious in this isntance due to the drawn-out exchange of emotional goodbyes that ultimately amounted to nothing.

And of course, he has to fall on top of a vehicle. Always got to fall on top of a vehicle. Can't just splatter on the cement, can we?

"Hey, bro, if you're trying to kill yourself, can you at least try to fall a little to the left? No reason some poor guy should have to have your guts drizzling all over his upholstery."

Good lord! Try not to be so negative, it's bad for your health! And taking someone's opinion and shouting "You're kidding, right?" is mildly insulting. Sheesh.

While hard to tell from simply watching the episode, this isn't one of Nathan's many almost-deaths, although I can't blame you for thinking that. Adrian Pasdar (the actor behind Nathan) was ticked off because he found he'd been killed off . . . for good . . . and he only found out when reading the script for this episode. I also noticed the fall onto a car bit, and wondered, "Why can't somebody simply hit street?" But it didn't bother me.

But the fall is somewhat a metaphor for Nathan's death. Both Peter and Nathan knew that Nathan jumping off a building wouldn't kill . . . the body that Nathan is inhabiting. And of course, it didn't. But Nathan died because he gave up, he couldn't go on fighting Sylar for control.

Like Alzrius, I liked it! Good scene. And no, I'm not kidding you.

 

[Dire Bare]

I thought Hiro was still at the carnival, but by all rights he should've bumped into Claire.

This season is full of little non sequitors like that. Got characters appearing and disappearing without reason. Deaf chick, is your time up? Claire's friend, what is the point of you? Blonde lady hanging out with HRG, should I even bother to learn your name? Evil carnival guy, why exactly do you need to have the power to create super-earthquakes?

We're what, ten episodes deep, and it all feels so uneventful. They need to resolve the Nathan/Sylar thing. Stop teasting us by making it look like one personality has won once and for all.

Unless I misremember something from the episode before last, both Hiro and Tracy are WITH the Carnival. That doesn't necessarily mean they are AT the Carnival when Claire arrives. Hiro could be somewhere in time and space, and the weekly mini-comics on NBC.com tell how Tracy is off on some sort of mission for Samuel. But even if one or both of them are currently AT the Carnival the same time Claire is . . . Carnivals aren't necessarly big places (although they can be) but they are confusing places with all sorts of folks moving around and lots of shiny distractions. It doesn't strain credulity at all that Claire might have missed her fellow heroes like ships passing in the night.

What did bother me a bit was the Puppeteer promising to speak with Claire later in the evening, which doesn't happen. Claire is (usually) aware and sensitive enough she would have tracked him down before leaving (and I know she didn't actually leave, but she was about to).

You seem to be one of the vocal few (or many, I don't know) that don't like the show. Why do you watch? You shouldn't punish yourself so!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Hiro teleported away in the last episode. (Or even the episode before that). He is not exactly with the Carnival at the moment...

 

[Felon]

Good lord! Try not to be so negative, it's bad for your health! And taking someone's opinion and shouting "You're kidding, right?" is mildly insulting. Sheesh.

Don't be so sensitive. That's far worse for your health than being negative. There's no "shouting" on the internet, though I guess if I'd typed "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" that might make for a legitimate inference.

You seem to be one of the vocal few (or many, I don't know) that don't like the show. Why do you watch? You shouldn't punish yourself so!

I think it's pretty safe to say Heroes' fanbase has shrunk since its beginning, not grown. Probably more people watch it to complain about it than for enjoyment, and feel free to search through past Heroes threads in this forum to corroborate that.

Why watch? Well, start counting the number of superhero-themed TV shows there are out there besides Heroes. Smallville and....umm......uh......Li'l help?

Yeah, that's what I thought. So, people like me watch and hope for lightning to strike again. That's the real shame of it--what Heroes is selling is something people like me really want to buy. It just needs to meet us halfway. The show needs some direction, some inspiration. It doesn't know what to do with itself. It's like the X-Files of the 21st century. There's no long-term game plan. But that can be corrected if they don't wait too long.

 

[RangerWickett]

It can't be corrected. I thought it was pretty much a sealed deal that this is the last season.

However, as much as I loathed most of seasons 2 and 3, I'm generally enjoying this one, though this episode irked me.

I found the way Nathan tried to commit suicide was pretty lame. The least they could have done is make it be less pathetic. "I give up. Here, let me not only kill myself, but help the guy who killed me."

It wouldn't have been hard. Okay, so you want Adrian Pasdar off the show, and Sylar still around, but you want Peter to seem like a bad-ass. Okay, easy. You let Nathan resurface for a bit, give his talk about being tired, about how he wants Peter to kill him before Sylar takes over again. He yells at Peter to kill him. Peter, having beaten the crap out of Sylar and performed some flagrantly Christian imagery with a nailgun, balks at the idea of murdering his brother.

Emotions get heated, Nathan yells that he needs to die, Peter refuses, they struggle, and finally Nathan turns his back on his brother and falls to his knees. Peter stands over him, telling his brother he's strong enough to fight off Sylar. The camera angle shows Nathan's face, which shifts momentarily to a slyly smiling Sylar, then shifts back to Nathan, still with the sly smile.

"You're right," Sylar says, pretending to be Nathan, "I am strong."

And then he telekinetically hurls Peter through the windows beside the balcony, knocking him indoors. He stalks after Peter, who is too stunned to concentrate on the Haitian's power. Sylar, still disguised as Nathan, starts knocking the crap out of Peter, beats him with a handy pipe that's been banged loose, and he's about to slice off Peter's head when bang! Gunshot.

We turn to show Ma Patrelli, gun in hand. Sylar staggers back, and she pumps a few more bullets into him. Adrian Pasdar's last line on the show is a shocked, "Ma?" as he looks to the mother who killed him. He slumps to the floor as Nathan, and then his face vanishes, leaving him just Sylar.

"What a family," Sylar groans as he starts to regenerate and stand back up.

We snap back to Peter, who concentrates, and Sylar gurgles in pain. He looks to his wounds, which are gushing blood. He glares at Peter, growls, "No," then starts to shamble away, kind of awesomely since he's just been shot with a half dozen bullets. Peter stands to chase after him, but Sylar manages to fling himself off the roof, out of Pete's range, and then he flies away.

End on Peter and his mother, standing at the edge of the balcony, looking up into the sky with despair.



That is how I would have done it.

 

[Steel_Wind]

The part that always annoyed me was how Nathan could fly in Sylar's body.

[plot hole]
Hey - the whole nail gun thing was a good bit of squeee!

I am enjoying this season for the most part. I still watch every week -- although I tend to time shift my viewing now. Looking back, I've decided I rather liked Season 2, given what followed it.

Season 3, otoh, was a disaster.

Hopefully, Caprica will entertain me next month, too. If not, all I have to watch is Heroes until V returns (which, for whatever inane reason, I decided I sort of like)

There is that post Alien-Apocalypse series starting in January too - isn't there? The survivors from the same apartment building kinda deal? It looked interesting and I thought I might give that one a go too.

Either way, I'm with Heroes till the bitter end.

 

[coyote6]

The part that always annoyed me was how Nathan could fly in Sylar's body.

I assumed Sylar took Nathan's powers when he killed the real Nathan; pseudo-Nathan was just instinctively using the power he "remembered" how to use.

What's more interesting is that when Peter duped Nathan-Sylar's power, he just got the flight, and not the whole suite. I wonder if Peter could mimic all the powers any more.

 

[Dire Bare]

The part that always annoyed me was how Nathan could fly in Sylar's body.

We know that Sylar doesn't have to cut open people's heads and poke around their brains to gain their powers, that's just how he prefers to do it!

I'd always assumed that between Sylar's natural power and the fact that Parkman shoved Nathan's entire mind into Sylar's body . . . it made perfect sense that the power of flight went along with it.

What's more interesting is that when Peter duped Nathan-Sylar's power, he just got the flight, and not the whole suite. I wonder if Peter could mimic all the powers any more.

That's a good point I missed. Maybe Peter DID steal all the powers, but didn't realize that he had and only used flight. Or perhaps he can steal only one power at a time, even from someone like Sylar.