Heroes Watch: "Holy--!"

Remember, Heroes is a comic book world. There are too many plots, too many characters we care about, (too many characters we don't care about), and nobody is ever dead. Ever.

I thought Angela's explanation of Adam's powers was also anticlimactic. I'm expecting to hear that not only can he heal himself, he has this strange ability to affect other people somehow. But no... he's just really, really old.

I was so happy that they were willing to kill off HRG. Not because I don't like the character - as frustrating as he is, I do like watching him. I was just happy that they were really willing to kill someone off. But no. He grazed Elle, couldn't pull the trigger on Bob, and got saved by Claire's type H blood.

Yeah, Angela's announcement that Adam is 400 years old served what purpose exactly? It didn't give Parkman any tools with which to find or defeat the guy, and we in the home audience knew it already (unless Kring thought we didn't know ... in which case, thanks for assuming the worst about viewer comprehension, Kring).

And plot contrivance aside, Bob/Monhinder killing HRG makes a lot more sense than bringing him back to life with Claire's Blood of Healing. Unless HRG has powers of his own that they need ... but that would be stupid.

Still, a fun hour, all told. But from one episode to the next I continue to conclude that Kring is a better creator of story concepts than actual stories. After all the S2 buildup to date, what precisely has been accomplished that clearly serves the arc's putative long-term narrative goals? This is going to wrap up in two weeks, but it still feels like the big problem (the Shanti virus outbreak) has yet to be really addressed.

What I want to know is why do they need Claire's blood at all? They had Kensei for 30 years, they could have tankers full of the stuff by now.

The more we learn about Adam, the more I'm finding it hard to be intimidated by him. He can heal... so what? Hard to kill? Sure. But what could he really have done that was so bad that they had to lock him up? I mean, these people aren't precisely the Pollyannas of superhero-dom, so it couldn't have been that he wanted to kill people - I'm guessing whatever he wanted hit them close to home. Maybe he really was going to go public and his compadres were afraid to be locked up by the government? (Also, if they wanted to put him away forever, there's gotta be something more permanent than a little room at the Company. Heck, toss our boy in some lava and see how the ol' healing works out for him.)

I digress.

Anyway, I loved this episode, except for our boy Suresh. I think the writers simply do not know what to do with this character, and thus they have the poor guy kind of bumble around. Compared to the other ‘normal' on the show (Noah Bennet), Suresh sucks. Which is odd, since you'd think the morally grey (dark, dark grey sometimes) HRG would be the tougher character to do well. Maybe it's just that Jack Coleman owns, and Sendhil Ramamurthy, well, not so much.

I also agree that this episode has been the first episode this season to feel like a story that flows together instead of a bunch of scenes that get jumbled together in the editing room. I nominate this particular writer for a raise and a lead position on the team. Make it so!

Best episode of the season, and arguably one of the only ones that could compare favorably to "Company Man" (any wonder both focused on HRG's conflicted work/family responsibilities?).

This episode showed us a lot of interesting story arcs, and showed the folly of the Honduras twins, Micah's cousin in New Orleans, and the whole Ireland side of things in regards to plot this season. Sure, we may be getting a payoff (although I'm not holding my breath about Peter's detour through the Emerald Isle), but the show worked this week by focusing on the limits of powers (Hiro choosing to restrain his; Matt pushing his arguably too far; Elle learning in part why she's the messed up psycho she apparently is), and family dynamics (the differences between the adoptive relationships of Elle-Bob and HRG-Claire; Hiro and his father; even Matt and Molly).

A couple conspiracy theories:
1. Elle and Claire are sisters. I read this somewhere else, but Elle mentioned burning down here house 16 years before with her powers accidentally...and Claire survived a house fire. We're going to find out that the Company took both of these children and gave them to be raised by "employees." HRG protected Claire and hid her powers; Elle was tortured by Bob into becoming a psycho (although one apparently with a heart, as Kristen Bell NAILED the reaction to learning the truth from HRG when tied up in Mr. Muggles' dog bath). We're not done with these two at all.

2. HRG was saved not by Claire's blood thanks to Bob, but by Adam. Suresh's look of sadness/guilt over shooting HRG shows that Bob and Suresh didn't stop to save him....someone else did. And who has the blood to save our Company Man? Adam....who realizes that HRG, as a former insider, knows more about the Company than anyone, and will help him in his sick mission if only to protect Claire.

I'm very concerned about the anti-death blood plotline. I can handle cliched writing and slow pacing, but it seems to me that the anti-death blood lowers the stakes of the show. Mr. Bennet was a single man facing off against two armed and woman who could hurl electric orbs of death at him, all so that he could save his daughter. That seemed like a great exit for an excellent character. But now with the anti-death blood, anytime someone is near Claire, Peter, or Kensei apparently they can't be killed. Great. I look foward to the inevitable Heroes vampire scene.

Finally an episode that got me excited about the Heroes concept again.
It seems to me they're setting up teams of Heroes against each other. Adam, Peter, West, Claire, and HRG do battle against Suresh, Bob, Elle, and Niki. This puts Hiro, Micah, Nathan, and Parkman somewhere in the middle. Why one of them would actually desire that 93% of the world's population be killed will probably be a stretch.
I'm still anxious for an explanation of what the previous generation of Heroes actually did together. It almost seems they were no more cohesive than the current Heroes. Some of them like each other, some of them didn't, some of them were bad, and some were good. Sounds really familiar. I wonder if Kring and team took the time to create a true back story that could tell their story. They hint that they have an extended backstory but don't ever flaunt the backstory and drop juicy hints as Lost is prone to do.
I'm also looking forward to a higher body count so we can see more focused episodes like this one. I love to see extra Heroes on a one, two episode basis like Invisible Man and photographic memory girl last year. In fact, it would be nice if they would phase back in to the story from time to time and disappear into their own lives again. Comic books do that extremely well because they leave the backstory and origins of these characters to be told in their own comic series. I bet that would work really well with Heroes.
Let's hope the remaining episodes follow suit.

Did we ever get any indication of what Hiro's dad's power was? We know it wasn't time-travel, because he told Hiro that he had never time-traveled before. I can't remember anything ever being revealed about that, I was sorry to see him go without getting more backstory from him.

I really want more backstory for the older generation.

I bet Kaito's power was the ability to teach anyone anything...

Well he mentioned that he needed a sword if he was going to defend himself. I would suspect that it's something similar to the muscle mimicry powers of the girl in New Orleans.

I'm going to throw out a theory... what if Adam isn't a bad guy after all? Perhaps Kaito was compelled to jump by Matt's father, and Adam was just trying to save him? Maybe it's a little far-fetched, but it does make Kaito's last words make a little more sense. If Adam was really the villan that he was made out to be why would he be the last one Kaito would expect? I'd also call everyone who has claimed he is evil non-credible sources.

I agree that I'm really interested to learn more about the older generation and what they can do. The first part of the season might have been better served giving them some background story.

So here are my thoughts:

So glad that someone finally pointed out how far of a stretch the blood healing was! None of the other TV blogs even mentioned it. The fact that they can bring people back from the dead with blood just put a whole spin on things that isn't very pleasant. Why would they fear anything anymore? Just keep some blood handy, right?

I enjoyed West in this episode. It's the first time I enjoyed watching him and I'm guessing he doesn't have a family. We never see them. He never mentions them. And he seemed really happy to be a part of Claire's family for once.

I definitely think Adam is good. He's had 400 years to stew over Hiro -- I'm guessing he's over it. Besides, he's trying to take down the company and we all know the company is bad. So how is killing off the company heads bad? (Yes, I know Hiro's father died -- but even he said that they had done bad things that they had to answer to. He answered to it).

Elle and Claire.. probably sisters. They went way out of their way to point out the parallels between the two in this episode. Both of them daughters of the company. Both raised in different ways. And the mentioning of the fire when she was 16 was a bit telling...

It's like the whole second season has been a Bill Mantlo run, and this issue was guest-written by Alan Moore.

I've also considered that Adam is a good guy. However, the whole Takezo Kensei thing makes me think not... I am not sure. And yeah, 400 years is a long time - he's either over the Hiro thing or freaky insane about it. That's one hell of a long time to nurse a grudge.

As for killing off the Company heads being 'bad' there's that whole murder-is-wrong thing, and good guys generally don't do it. But in this case, I am not sure it's all that bad an idea...

I don't know. I am excited to see how it turns out, though.

"Yeah, Angela's announcement that Adam is 400 years old served what purpose exactly?"

If I was going up against a guy who's been around since before America and is still running around killing people, I'd think it would be a relevant piece of info.

I said back at the beginning of the season that I thought the list of people who got the plague was just a bit too convenient, and the whole thing smacked of someone in the Company manipulating HRG & Co. as part of an in-house purge. The last two episodes have only added to that idea, with Adam conveniently placed with Peter and not drained of blood - Bob and Adam are in cahoots.

West's involvement did surprise me, as we thought he was working for the bad guys. Unless, of course, he is: Poor fatherless Claire spends all her time with "we're better than them" West and turned to the Company's side while simultaneously HRG works for the Company to keep Claire "safe" in West's clutches. Nice two-fer on that one evil-branch-of-the-Company!

And contrary to the above, what evidence is there that Adam is good? Bob calling him a genocidal psychopath doesn't mean Adam is good, it just gives Mohinder no reason to look into Adam (and thus start questioning why they need Claire blood when they had his blood handy). Kaito not suspecting Adam is simply because Adam played his cover well and used Linderman et. al to do his dirty work - just cause Bob knew which side Adam was on doesn't mean the rest of them did.

Mohinder has gone and gotten on my last nerve, and is officially the Worst Character in the Show, IMO. He is wishy-washy and disloyal, and he never stops whining and complaining. Is it the actor doing a lousy job, or is it the character himself that sucks so much?

Have you noticed the opening credits? In the last two episodes I've noticed that only the actors appearing in the episode are listed among the series regulars. Last week Masi Oka wasn't credited and wasn't in the episode. This week Milo V. wasn't in the credits and wasn't in the episode (among others.=).

It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend among large ensemble shows.

You may fear Claire's blood... but don't forget: we feared the amazing shapeshifting of Candace and how it could be exploited, but Kring and Co. fixed that quickly.

My take is this: perhaps Claire and Adam's blood can be used for healing, but if they are infected with the Shanti virus it becomes a moot point. They won't want to heal anyone because they will infect them.

I also suspect that Adam is the "patient zero" of the Shanti virus, and he is the one who transmitted it to Shanti herself, thus giving Mohinder a personal stake in killing Adam.

Thought it was the best episode since 'Company Man".

@Chaddog: When Elle mentioned burning down a house 16 years ago, she said it was her grandmother's house. Could Claire's mom be her grandmother? Or did I hear that wrong?