Digging Out Of The Hole

I thought the latest episode of Heroes was the best of the season. Not that it was great, but at least it wasn't hopeless. In fact, if you forgot about the last two seasons and pretended the characters have been acting consistently and rationally in the past, there were some pretty good scenes. Here's my analysis. There will be spoilers.


The Good:

The plot has finally settled down and we're getting to a big showdown between the two sides.

Hiro and Claire go into the past the help their younger selves. There's so much potential drama here I'm sorry they didn't do more. Compare this to when Hiro was stuck in feudal Japan with a dull story for what seemed like forever.

Matt, Daphne and Ando team up. An interesting grouping, and it's nice to see them working together after endless infighting.

A surprise appearance by Sylar at the end that worked dramatically.

They killed Arthur, who was getting tiresome. In general, this show needs culling. (Actually, I don't believe Arthur is dead. When he was lying on the floor, Peter said "it's over," which usually means it's not over.)


The Bad:

Sylar in general. As I feared, Tim Kring has returned to what worked in season one, but we already had evil Sylar go around capturing other powers. I want a new plot. (And did he kill a bunch of people with no powers? Since when does he do that?)

Arthur suddenly showing up and taking the Catalyst. How did he know what to do--if it was this easy, what's been his problem up to now? (In general, Arthur is weak or powerful, smart or stupid, based on plot convenience.) Worse, it made a hash of this whole subplot. They'd been building up for weeks that it was Claire, and that this was important. Arthur even sent Elle and Gabriel to get Claire, but I guess that was unnecessary. But then, now Claire making sure baby Claire is Catalyst-free also becomes meaningless. For Hiro takes it, and, as with everything vouchsafed to his protection, he loses it immediately. This is the third time lost a piece of the priceless Formula this season. (It's also the second time Hiro is finally ready to be a hero when Arthur pops up out of nowhere to screw him up. Of course, now it seems like a mistake to cause him so much trouble, since when Hiro is operating freely, he gives Arthur whatever he needs.)

They still have no idea what to do with Nathan, who, after what he's learned so far this season, is acting unbelievably stupid. (There I go, remembering previous episodes--always a mistake.) This also makes Tracy superfluous (even more than Niki was--though Ali Larter is still beautiful), since I thought she was there to trick Nathan into working for Arthur.

I thought Peter would be better without his powers, but he's not working no matter what. (Reminds me of Apollo in Battlestar Galactica.)

This show's idea of time travel (which it should get rid of in general) keeps changing. Apparently now Hiro is allowed to travel into the past and change the present. This is bad, because if he ever gets his power back, it means he can go back and fix anything that's wrong.

Mohinder still seems to have no idea what the hell he's doing. And since it's really Arthur who brought the formula together, who needed Mohinder to begin with?


The Ugly:

The Marine had a long story about his troubles in Iraq. As I've noted before, Heroes is a comic book show. It can't handle real-world tragedy.