Heroes: Cautionary Tales
Star TrekStargate:AtlantisFireflyBy TrinityVixen
The show is called Heroes. It just happens also to star people with superpowers. Those people bemoan their fate, abuse their abilities, and generally make bitches of themselves. But the ones who have to fight for their position and counter supernatural advantages with only the best average humanity has to offer, well, they’re the hungry ones. Never bait the underdog. He has a tendency to bite. And he has rabies.
It has been Noah’s story all along.
It’s a simple story, remarkably so given the players involved, and one of the oldest ones. It’s all about love and the lengths to which people will go to secure it, cherish it, and protect it. The depth of feeling is marked in fathoms dived into murky waters; the challenge is to go deep enough to test your mettle without losing sight of the surface entirely. Only from that place are you at your strongest. Noah Bennet has lived in the moral twilight for some time now. Is it any wonder that he stands tallest in a crowd full of hypocrites declaring their good intentions instead of living up to them?
This is not to say he doesn’t make mistakes. Heroes are more beloved for their flaws. Bennet’s hasty decision to relocate his family in the wake of Claire and West’s little stunt is a push-button panic response, and he does not convey the urgency of the situation with enough tact to justify his paranoia. However, his paranoia is rooted in good intentions tempered with whip-smart instincts about people, specifically the people for whom he used to work. Indeed, the Company is wise to Claire’s location, and they are coming.
None of this matters to the teenager who never learned her lesson after Sylar almost cut out her brain. Not until the Alchemist kidnaps her at gunpoint does Claire stop to reconsider that her hormones, while powerful and persuasive, are no substitute for the experience of her father. Teenagers, man. Further proof that they are fickle little bastards: West confronts Bennet and threatens him with pancaking from a height, but they’re working together before the halfway point of the episode.
As with anyone paired with Bennet, West improves exponentially for the association. Confronted with Mohinder’s betrayal, Bennet must rely on West to set the odds in his favor when he meets up with the geneticist and his new partner, Elle. West calling Bennet off from too deep a plunge into those darker waters rings a little hollow, but it’s worth it to see Mohinder utterly ‘faced by a bratty kid. Even West gets how to do moral compromise and where the boundaries are better than Mohinder does. Bennet cuts Elle’s confidence in her crazy self as surely as West’s bullet-train flying barrage drops her physically. The boys have their leverage against the Alchemist. And Mohinder? Totally got served.
The confrontation between Elle-the-hostage and Bennet-the-boss is completely, tongue-numbingly awesome. Deprived of her ability through crude yet effective means, she is brought as lowly as her power-tripping attitude deserves. She has relied on her abilities and the resources of the Company for too long; she has nothing in reserve to deal with a man of limitless imagination and cunning. Bennet brutally dismantles the lie that Elle is living with a reserved vitriol that is a mirror image of all the love and intensity he pours into his love for Claire. Simply, Bennet detests and pities Elle for what was made of her and what she’s made of the bits that were left. It’s a hatred birthed from care and fear; in a few years, it might have been Claire looking at him out of insane, humanity-deadened eyes like Elle’s.
Heroes NBC 2008 International Euro Sylar RRP SET of 3
 | US $29.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 12:09:34 PST Buy It Now for only: US $39.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
NBC HEROES "HIRO SAMURAI" Fine Tee (sz S-M-L-XL-2XL)
 | US $17.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 16:24:10 PST Buy It Now for only: US $19.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
In a parallel hostage situation, Claire and the Alchemist find no honesty between them, not even the hostile kind. The lack of clarity speaks to deception, yes, but also indifference. No one who could do to his own child what the Alchemist has done–testing her to pieces, wiping her memory, training her to kill–could possibly ever relate to another human being with anything like sincerity. Notably, he is willing to exchange Claire for Elle only after he’s already harvested Claire’s blood, which is really all he’s ever wanted in this whole pursuit. God knows, if he hadn’t had the opportunity to collect a donation from Claire, he might not have even tried to rescue Elle despite knowing full well what Bennet would be capable of doing to her in retaliation. Bennet’s protectiveness of Claire is all the more adorable and admirable as it persists despite her being invulnerable; the Alchemist cannot work up half that enthusiasm with a daughter who is much more frail. When Bennet and the Alchemist arrange the hostage swap, only Noah has made plans to ensure his daughter’s escape above all other concerns.
So, Elle catches a bullet trying to reclaim Claire for her daddy, but Noah takes a bullet for his daughter. From Mohinder. West, true to his agreement with Bennet, whisks Claire away, where she and he must break the news to Mrs. Bennet. Though both Claire and her mother parted from Bennet in outrage and anger over his choices in life, they are shattered by his death. Regardless of how he managed it, Noah Bennet built their family on the steady foundation of his devotion and love. Next to that loss, they are scarce bothered by moral omissions. Whereas the family on the other side of that bullet, Elle and the Alchemist, are frayed and sure to come apart instead of banding together as the Bennets (and adoptee West) will do. Elle discovers disgust for the man who tolerated immorality but never actually loved her as she deserved. Mohinder shifts in the morality quicksand as punishment for his infidelity.
And then there is the breathless moment that surpassed in joy what Noah’s death inflicted in sorrow: Bennet, on a gurney, being infused with healing blood, gasps back to life. At this point, tears at the corner of my eyes blinked out. I got up and danced around. I howled at the ceiling. This? This is what the show’s been lacking all season. If they’re going to get good before the writer’s strike puts them off the air for who-knows-how-long, this is a damned fine way to do it. Since the Alchemist has no altruistic intentions towards, well, anyone, Bennet’s revival is surely the work of Adam and Peter. The Alchemist would never waste Claire’s blood and its research potential on a dead man. Noah is back, though, so I couldn’t care less if it had been achieved by Sylar braining Claire and then sharing his blood. Which makes no sense, but, like I said, I wouldn’t care if that’s how they’d done it. What matters is Noah is back, baby! I told you it was his story.
Besides which, they couldn’t possibly kill two awesome daddies in one episode. There are precious few of them in this show, and they already killed off Kaito Nakamura. He’s back for a short while to learn Hiro up on what it means to make sacrifices and to assume responsibility in ways that have nothing to do with angst or guilt-tripping. Forgive the gender-stereotyping, but Kaito Nakamura is a man, damn it. Hiro, of course, is and probably always will be a boy. For all that he suffers, he maintains his fluffy-bunny impression of the universe; he just mopes his way through the odd disappointment until it goes away. The Nakamuras share one last tender while together before Kaito teaches his son to accept that his death is inevitable. Hiro watches his father stand, fearless, before his murderer, freezing time only to identify the killer, not, as he’d tried to do all episode, stop the murder. The Hoody Killer is Adam, Kensei as Hiro has known him. So now the master of time and the timeless one are set on a course to a bloody confrontation–the one fueled by a desire for honorable justice (and not just a little revenge), the other continuing his spiteful crusade for personal glory.
Also learning his lesson in how far to push beneath the surface of acceptable action is Matt Parkman. His newfound comfort and mastery of his abilities lead him to explore his full potential for the first time since blasting his way out of his father’s nightmare. His ability to manipulate others smoothes the choppy seas of parenthood and working life, but he is making Elle’s mistakes without knowing it. Instead of being his pulled hamstring, his ability becomes his crutch. As such, he will not amend his demands in the face of ethical, practical, professional, or even personal reasons to do so. What he wants, he’s going to take.
What he wants this time around is to put the last name to the last face in the picture of the elder generation of heroes. He extracts the information from an incarcerated Angela Petrelli, never once acknowledging to himself the implications for his future. If Angela, who seems possessed of some super-human power of persuasion, can be forced into doing what she does not want to do, so can–and will–Matt (provided the show gets its symmetry right). Christine Rose sublimates a hundred furious, pained expressions throughout the interrogation; we watch, in detail, how Angela is being broken down, fighting back, and giving in all at once. Angela’s a masterful, withholding ice queen at times, but the scene plays out so the pity is all on her side of the table. Eventually, Matt gets a name from her, but we don’t see how or if he plans to act on it just yet. Perhaps Angela’s embarrassment and inflicted humility have gotten through to that part of him that still knows what he’s doing is wrong. He’d better. Otherwise, there’s a bullet to the confidence (or worse) waiting for him, too.
Next week: Peter and Adam entertain some more world-saving high-mindedness. Better still: Sylar and Mohinder meet again, under threateningly polite circumstances. This reunion promises as much smoldering chemistry as a Petrelli Brothers hug-a-thon. It’s just what Mohinder needs to get over his trigger shyness, if you take my meaning.
Never miss an update. Subscribe to Pink Raygun by Email or subscribe via RSS
About TrinityVixen: There’s an asterisk on TrinityVixen’scollege transcript that assures anyone who reads it that, though there is no specific major, degree, or certificate for it, she did, in fact, complete some kind of creative writing program as an undergrad. Armed with that symbol of irrelevant experience, she has polluted the internet with her opinions and horrible fanworks ever since (and for quite a long while before). Living poor in New York until she finds a means to become independently wealthy, she must subsist on the juicy meat of fandom. Fandom and noodles. And instant soup.
Stumble it!
