Heroes: Going Postal Chapter 2: “The House Guest”

By TrinityVixen

Previously, Echo DeMille super-shouted to escape a couple of Company goons. One was crippled by the experience; the other, a super called a Constrictor, survived and put the injured one down with a bullet before continuing the chase.

We resume the story as DeMille throws himself into his house, and we get a shot of him locking the door. (There will be a test on this later.) He runs through his bizarrely connected house shouting for a woman named Gina. Not to be confused with the third personality that borrowed Niki Sanders’ skin suit for just long enough to get her husband killed. Come on writers, this is lazy. When you write a show that seeks to build mythologies and interweave storylines, you can’t be so careless, especially with a name that isn’t very common.

Gina-not-Niki doesn’t respond to any of DeMille’s frantic calls (how rude!) until he turns around to find her lurking in a doorway to a bathroom, dressed only in her negligee. This is why I was confused about the house’s layout, since there definitely was a shot of this same bathroom sans Gina from a different entry point and now suddenly on the other side she’s in there.

“You’re late,” Gina says, giving him the eye, showing him (most of) the goods. DeMille is, momentarily, tempted, but he recovers, trying to get her to listen. Not surprisingly, as she is already half naked, she is hardly in the mood for conversation; She tosses him on the bed. He tries to tell her between kisses that something has happened. Far be it from me to surmise about their relationship, but unless she knows that he gets really antsy about missing their bump-and-grind sessions, why would she still be jumping him when he’s clearly upset?

DeMille finally pushes her off and comes right out with the truth. “I think I killed a guy.” The camera zooms in on her face as she reacts to this, then DeMille’s, as if this is an after school program with a very special message to import. (Who the hell directed this? There were AV guys in middle school back in the day with better control of the camera.) You expect to see them doing conflict resolution. “Well, Echo, I really feel that when you say you killed someone, that it makes me nervous and uncertain.” “I’m sorry you feel that way, Gina. I only wanted to share my experiences with you and have your input.”

What DeMille actually says is that he’s capable of making sounds. (No. Way!) Only that today they’re really loud—“Shatter your eardrums loud.” So much for the modicum of control he demonstrated in not blasting that Doberman yesterday. Heroes: we promise you inconsistently used superpowers, and we deliver! DeMille freaks out on Gina some more about his powers before dragging them both to their feet. “We’re leaving. You gotta trust me.”

Kudos to the actress playing Gina, she looks suitably wigged out yet still enough assured of her lover’s sanity that she says she trusts him. DeMille bolts from the room to start fishing around in drawers for some earplugs. I’m impressed. I wouldn’t even have thought of that. Wallet, passport, clothes, food—yes, these are all important things, but when your best line of defense is a sonic scream that could also kill your girlfriend, earplugs cannot be overrated.

DeMille whirls about to see that the front door is open. Dun-dun-dun! He runs back to the bedroom/bathroom suite where he managed to miss Gina before, again calling out to her. As soon as immediate panic fades, he thinks to pick up an electric guitar as a weapon. He backtracks to the front room and around to a separate living room and around some more until he busts in a door to a den space, guitar raised for some heavy metal justice.

A cat looks up at him like he’s the biggest moron that cat has ever seen. (It’s not personal. Cats always look at everyone like that unless you’ve got an open tin of tuna in your hand.) DeMille grimaces until he hears a choking noise coming from behind him. He backtracks again to find the Constrictor standing in the entryway, holding Gina against his chest. I’m assuming the house has two concentric circles of doorways to explain how they moved around each other without seeing each other. It’s a pointless waste of time to have him whirling about looking for his girlfriend since we know she can’t have gotten far and the payoff to the tension is to see her trapped by the bad guy.

Speaking of: I can’t see where one of the Constrictor’s arms is—for all I know it’s around her torso and squeezing—but his other arm is loosely around Gina’s neck as he plays with her hair, so, again, it doesn’t seem like he’s actually constricting anyone so much as holding onto them. There’s also a purring noise that either he is making or the music is making around him. He’s supposed to be a snake. The cat is in the other room thinking everyone is stupid and he better still get fed, damn it.

DeMille gives up on the Hulk Smash idea at once and drops the guitar. He recognizes that he’s not in control of the situation. Concerned for Gina, DeMille begs, “Please, just let her go.” Anything but her. Take anything. That’s a man.

“Now why would I let her go? We’re just getting to the fun part!” The Constrictor keeps rubbing his face against Gina as she makes panicky noises. DeMille alters his tone, demanding that the Constrictor release his girlfriend. Gina is no longer making any noise at all, her mouth breathlessly opening and closing. DeMille makes his choice—better a deaf breather than a dead hearing person.

It takes a longer roar from DeMille for the Constrictor to let go, but he does, both he and Gina clapping their hands over their ears. DeMille plucks Gina aside, checks that she’s okay, and slides over on his knees to the dazed Constrictor. He grabs the other man by the neck, infuriated and murderous.

“Is this the fun part?” Lips against the Constrictor’s ear, DeMille shouts once, and bloody gore shoots out the other side of the Company man’s head. Gina jerks, horrified; the Constrictor falls backwards, dead.

DeMille rushes back to her, oblivious to the fact that she’s resisting his embrace almost as forcibly as she did the Constrictor’s. He mutters romantic nonsense about protecting her as she stares around his shoulder at the corpse on the floor.

Outside, there is a knock on the door. (That is now closed…how? When?) DeMille and Gina jump apart, scared.

“Oh sh—” and cut to the eclipse. That cutaway joke was funnier when it was Claire waking up to discover her partially autopsied body.

Going Postal Chapter 2: “The House Guest” can be viewed at http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/Webisodes.

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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.

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