Heroes – episode 18

“Parasite”

I appreciate what Heroes was trying to do here, but it didn’t all work. Still, good stuff and a couple of things that I had predicted but was not quite sure of.

At an even 20 different character scenes, it was a busy episode.

Perhaps a small, lady’s spoilér

(Characters who don’t get their own summary but feature in the episode will get bold text in the treatment of the character they dealt with most).

  • Isaac: Isaac blames Peter Petrelli for Simone‘s death and grieves a bit. Bennet comes in with Candace, who can glamourise a situation to look like Simone … thus ruining Nathan’s anonymous tip-off.
    Isaac finds the emergency drugs he keeps on hand (the most sensible thing to own for all recovering junkies everywhere) and paints what appears to be his own death.
  • Hiro:Hiro is blocked from Linderman’s casino, but is let in by FLYING MAN! (whoosh!) He sidles into the Linderman vault, where he steals the sword of Kensei … but not before having security set off! Fortunately he is saved by Ando ex Machina, and they travel through time to the ruined New York. Hiro is somehow convinced that he’s failed, forgetting that there’s no shame in travelling back in time to a place that he’s not lived yet.
  • Bennet: Bennet tells Thompson that he remembers nowt, which is true enough; Matt even concurs with this outcome, but Thompson still doesn’t let him out. Candace establishes herself as Queen Bitch, straight up. Bennet meets Sandra, who is only faking memory loss, and she presents him a note in his own handwriting to say “Don’t follow Claire, she is with friends.”
    After the trip to see Isaac, Bennet speaks to a woman whom he thinks is Sandra but is, of course, Candace. Bennet has already been exposed by the Company.
  • Nathan: Nathan gets a visit from the FBI, who set him up for his Vegas adventure, while Peter Petrelli is secretly, invisibly, in the room. Peter Petrelli tells Nathan about Simone and then escapes. Nathan goes to Vegas, helps Hiro get into the Linderman vaults, and beats up Niki to teach Jessica a lesson. He aims to kill Linderman and is turned against that idea when it seems that Linderman knows everything ever.
  • Claire: Claire hates The Haitian‘s plans, and tries to escape to New York to meet Peter. Sad enough for her, the door is answered by Mama Petrelli who, as it turns out, has been employing The Haitian all along!
  • Mohinder: Mohinder drugs Sylar, having figured out he’s not Zane. Rather than going gangland on Sylar, he subdues him with the magical inhibitor he’s synthesised and takes away some spinal fluid. Having discovered the secret of genetics, Mohinder is dismayed to discover that Sylar got back his powers. Peter Petrelli enters Mohinder’s apartment only to find Mohinder on the ceiling and Sylar pushing him against the wall … cutting into Peter Petrelli’s head and cutting off his forelock!
  • First thing’s first: while that ending was great, the falling of the forelock to the floor was hilariously bad. My “FUCK YEAH!” (Something that I got several times during the episode) dissipated into laughter as “to be continued …” assaulted the screen.
    More on the adventures of Mohinder, Sylar and Peter Petrelli later.

    Claire’s behaviour in this episode was just whiney and bitchtacular, and I didn’t approve of it. The suspicion that I had a few episodes back, that the Haitian might be sponsored by a Petrelli, turned out to be true. It’s well established that hero powers can be hereditary sometimes, so perhaps Mama Petrelli has a power of her own? At any rate, she’s fully aware of everything. Why not shoplift when your sons can fly and blow up New York, Mama Petrelli? Why not indeed! Keep speaking French to the Haitian, you’re doing good.

    While I was unsure of the Haitian’s employers, I always knew that Ando ex Machina would occur. I was not surprised in the least, as the meeting of expectations in this sort of situation is enough to put a laugh and a smile on your face. Hiro’s blindness to the idea of going back to the past seems a bit dodgemo … and where was he intending to go when he did the teleportation?

    In the strange sakes, Micah hasn’t recognised that Jessica is not Niki, despite her wild out of characterness. Jessica says she’s better at being Niki than Niki herself is, but I think you’ll find that Jessica is a lying bitch. It’s nice to know that Niki is now doing to Jessica what Jessica had been doing to her before. You know, when Jessica had a purpose beyond being destructive.

    The next question is: why did Linderman hire Jessica to kill Nathan when he actually intended to offer Nathan Untold Opportunitiesâ„¢? It’s almost as if they wrote that in a couple of episodes ago, then realised this week that neither can die while the other lives, ala Harry Potter and Voldemort (every situation in fiction now boils down to this choice). Therefore we get Niki/Jessica kicked to the side while Malcolm McDowell makes some pot pies and doesn’t kill anyone. The whole episode was about revenge, but rough justice simply ain’t the right justice.
    It wouldn’t have been right for Nathan to simply shoot up Linderman, but who knows what moral compromise he’ll have to endure next?

    Candace was always written, from her very first speaking role, as bitch city. It was no surprise, then, that she beat up Bennet like no one else. I was surprised that Bennet’s cover lasted so short a time, but I suppose that being married to someone you genuinely care about will do that to you. Bennet and Matt are the only people within the Company who have been shown to have families. They are therefore the only people in the Company shown to have any sort of moral fibre.
    Claude showed moral fibre, and he had to be shot out of the place. They can’t exactly kill Bennet, just as Sylar couldn’t exactly kill Mohinder. You can’t just dispose of my favourite characters, The Company! I demand a Sprague/Parkman ex Machina at once!

    So we come to the meat of the episode, in the form of Mohinder. My notes say “They’re back at Mohinder HQ already.”
    Which they were, after their visit to Suspicious Mechanicsville, USA. Mohinder as a vengeful son is a stupid idea, and Sylar knowing stuff about Shanti is also a stupid idea. Why would Papa Suresh have told Sylar any of this stuff? Sylar is a fairly successful stalker, so I buy none of what he has told us so far. This is because I am naturally cynical, and also because Sylar is a natural idiot.
    Now I can’t pretend to be a scientist, but the ease with which Mohinder analyses DNA inside his father’s apartment … not even a lab … suggests that he may have hero powers of his own even beyond sounding distinguished. I never thought that simply tying down a Sylar and giving him an IV of an untested chemical compound designed to inhibit powers was a good idea, but I’m never one to question the logic of a renowned … Mohinder.

    Essentially the ending of the episode gives us the best idea ever: Sylar versus Peter Petrelli. Sylar has the power of surprise going for him, but Peter Petrelli has the power of impotent rage on his side! Impotent rage manifests into violence, and violence manifests into awesome!
    Therefore, new hairstyle Peter Petrelli will win the day and all will be happy once more in Heroes land.

    Something that many people have said about Heroes is that, unlike Lost, it raises questions while giving you sensical clues. On this front, I commend Heroes. This episode didn’t even have any stupid lines!

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