Blast In The Past

"1961" was one of those flashback Heroes episodes. It stops the forward motion of the story, but these days that isn't such a bad thing.

It was the story of Coyote Sands, where, almost 50 years ago (they kept saying it was 50 years ago--is Heroes set in 2011?) the government rounded up people with abilities and they (almost) all ended up dead. This is the origin of The Company. The few survivors decide to create an organization to hide these special abilities, thus protecting the people with them--of course, if this means they have to kill them or jail them permanently, that's okay too.

I'd say the show filled in the backstory, like this is Lost--except Lost actually has a backstory, whereas on Heroes it's more like an addition to the house in the back while they're destroying the entrance. The creators of the show had as much idea about the origin of The Company in season one as George Lucas knew about Luke and Leia being siblings in the first Star Wars. (I was recently reading about the making of Star Wars and Lucas had some notes about a film set earlier showing the death of Luke's father.) In fact, I'm not even sure if they knew there was a Company in the first few episodes.

Still, Angela Petrelli's past (told in black and white, though I've been informed 1961 was in color) wasn't bad. We got to meet her kind sister Alice (who, after all these years believed dead, is still alive--everyone on Heroes is presumed alive unless you know otherwise, and even then). Old Alice was played by Diana Scarwid, who got one episode of Lost as the Sheriff before they decided they didn't need her any more. Looks like the same for Alice. And we met a bunch of Specials who'd like Deveaux and Linderman who'll play significant roles later on.

Heroes is noted for its quick action, which at least doesn't have you waiting too long. On the other hand, it often means character change on a dime and big moment don't seem properly prepared for. When things went bad at Coyote Sands (simply because Alice threw around a few thunderbolts--what did they expect with special people all over the place?), in no time flat there was mass slaughter. That was the government's plan? Let's study these people, try to cure them, and the minute something goes wrong, kill them all?

Following Heroes' bad tradition of listing serious things that happen in the real world, there were mentions of Japanese internment camps, the Holocaust, and opposition to interracial dancing. (The last one at least related to the plot, and reminded us of the fun of Jedi mind tricks.)

At the end, it looks like the Petrellis are ready to form The Company 2.0. Good idea. And Sylar is back to his new tricks, pretending he's Nathan. Good as well. If the show hadn't so destroyed almost every character already, I'd say we're coming up to a solid finale and a hopeful future.