Heroes: Eris Quod Sum

By TrinityVixen

I’m genuinely torn about this: on the one hand, the show is still on its downhill slide into oblivion; on the other, Peter has no powers and gets thrown out of window! What’s not to like about that? He’s still alive, though. Bummer.

Volume Three, Chapter Seven – “Eris Quod Sum”

At least we finally have confirmation on the source of Sylar’s sudden fit of conscience: Mama loves him best. (So, nyah nyah, Peter.) Still in her coma, Mama Petrelli dream walks into her baby Gabriel’s druggy stupor. He has to save Peter—family means everything to Mama, and if he wants to mean anything to her, he’ll save his idiot brother. All Mrs. P has to do is say that one word—favorite—and Gabriel has the strength to move mountains. (Christine Rose, bless her, also cuts through the smothering layers of melodrama with her deliveries—stop whining and do something already. Or else Mommy will be Very. Upset.)

All right, people, confession time: I’m starting to buy it. One of the most eerily effective moments in the show’s history was our introduction to Gabriel Gray-as-was, both before he started killing and later when he tamed the badness to go and put in an appearance with the woman who raised him. The threat of a visit to Momma Gray’s house was enough to bring out the glasses and the tie and the sweater vest. Future Gabriel might have been subdued by stupidity, but the timid boy yearning for Mom’s approval has always been there. Regardless of the inane decision to hang Gabriel’s worm-ridden fruit on the Petrelli family tree, his susceptibility to the machinations of Mama has always been there.

It also explains why even demonstrating Mama P’s frailties fails to budge her loyal soldier. In the midst of his rescue of Peter, Sylar is ambushed by the powered-up Mohinder and nearly de-brained himself. It gives Arthur Petrelli an excuse to sweep in and have his chance to play hero to his son. This is not the first time he has saved Gabriel’s life, Arthur informs him. Way back when, Angela’s dreams of her baby’s future crimes were so awful, she decided to take care of Gabriel for good (with the help of a little bath water). Arthur is the only reason that Gabriel ended up adopted instead of dead. Sylar pretends to consider this and swap allegiances, but Papa Petrelli is playing three hands behind Mama P. So long as Mama withholds her love unless Gabriel falls in line with her redemption mandate, Gabriel is singing in the choir. Of course she tried to kill him; every woman who thought she was responsible for birthing this monster into the world has. He understands that impulse; he forgives it.

And he can use it. Since his conversion to the side of the angels appears as flimsy as tissue paper in the rain, Sylar’s renunciation of it makes sense to Arthur. Just to drive the point home, Sylar trashes the Save the Peter, Keep Milo on the Show imperative by shoving Peter out a window. Arthur’s a tad skeptical about Sylar’s loyalty because Peter still survives a seven-story fall (from which he cannot heal without his abilities), but it seems that, this week at least, it’s advantage Sylar. How Arthur can possibly be in the dark when even Peter recognizes that Sylar most likely saved his life (and got him out of the building when Mohinder was ready to use him as a guinea pig for the Formula), I can’t say. Maybe, aside from the whole faking-his-death thing, Papa Petrelli isn’t half the match for his wife in the cunning plans department.

It’s also possible that a man who plans every op in triplicate is just not used to assuming anyone else might have Plan Bs (and Cs) to deal with contingencies. (Or that anyone could escape his redundant recruitment drives.) To draw the hesitant, forewarned Matt Parkman into the Pinehearst fold without tripping his psychic defenses (yeah, where have those been again?), Papa Petrelli sets Daphne to kill him. When she fails, Knox moves in to finish the job, her included. Matt tricks him into believing he’s killed them both by using (finally) his considerable mind-control capability, thus saving his and Daphne’s life and buying them some relief from the Pinehearst crowd long enough to get in touch with Primatech. (“The Company” has the same name as the paper factory?) Except that was really Daphne’s assignment all along: trick Matt into playing protector, which is easy since the future he saw for them is enough for him to love her now, unguardedly. He’ll lead her into Primatech, the better to cripple its operations. Papa P’s gambling heavily on Matt not scanning her for trickery; he must know he’s not his father’s son. Let us hope not, as Daddy Parkman is sharing hot pokers in uncomfortable places with Adam Monroe in Hell. (Don’t upset Daddy P, other Bad Dads. You’ll regret it.)

So everyone has picked sides—overwhelmingly for the Company among our familiar leads, mostly Pinehearst for all the new kids—and now they’re free to pick old wounds. Like Nathan having to endure being grilled by Tracy on his sordid history with Meredith, Mr. Bennet, and Claire. Or Claire dragging Elle (at one point, by the hair) over to Pinehearst to sniff it out for answers. (Claire leaves to take care of the miraculously, sadly not-dead Peter; Elle continues inside to get her flickering electric powers taken away.) Or Nathan and Tracy going to take out Papa Petrelli all on their lonesome. Good luck with that; Tracy wigs every time someone takes a nervous breath around her, so I’m sure she won’t be easy prey to Knox or anything. And Nathan can fly! That will totally make him immune to Daddy or Brother Gabe’s multiple abilities. I predict they walk into the building, find out Mohinder is working there, and leave. (Much like Maya.) Neither has quite the subtlety required to pull off a Mama P-style double-agent blitz the way Sylar does.

The good news is that I won’t have to find out I’m wrong and that absolutely everyone behaves completely contradictory to the dictates of their character and history for two whole weeks! Happy Election Day to me! Get out the vote, genre geeks!

For those of you still planning on watching and suffering with me in two weeks, we can look forward to another characterization rewrite, this one taking part in the past instead of the future, care of Hiro’s dream-time tripping on African magic dung paste. I wish I could say any of that was an exaggeration. It’s like they heard my complaints about messing around in time and decided that messing around in time through means other than Hiro’s time-skipping power was still okay. Show? It’s not okay. Not. Okay.

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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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