Heroes: Exposed

By Trinity Vixen
I’m afraid this might come as bit of a shock, but there was a Bad Dad on Heroes this week. I know, I know, what are the odds? It’s shocking that they would exploit that. (This show? Exploitative? Never!) Brace yourselves, we’re in for a rough patch here.

Volume Four, Chapter Five – “Exposed”

Shortly after literally selling his son to his brother (for cold, hard, not-all-that-much cash) and abandoning him without a word, Sylar’s Daddy murdered his mother. Sylar remembers all this when he and Luke pull over at an abandoned hot dog shack. The flashbacks keep coming until Sylar’s catatonic and murmuring for his Mommy. Who, don’t forget, his Daddy murdered because she objected to dropping off her son on indefinite leave with her in-laws. Daddy slit open her head and threw her out of his car before he’d even left the diner’s parking lot. And little Gabriel saw it all. We must infer from this that Sylar picked up his head-slicing fetish from Daddy, who is also a telekinetic (no word on if he had to debrain someone to get that ability). Daddy Gray is a Bad Dad. Sylar no longer wants answers, he wants what every son of a Bad Dad wants: revenge. That puts an end to the Luke and Sylar Roadshow of Maternal/Paternal Antipathy right quick. Luke is sent packing for Momma’s house, thus proving how cruel a bastard Sylar really can be given that the Super Gitmo Action Squad are going to be waiting for him there. (They’ve already captured him once.) Have fun in the orange jumpsuits, Luke!

Not bound for autumn colors is Alex. (That’s too bad: I hear some guys who breathe under water look good in orange!) Claire manages to keep him a secret for all of two minutes once Mrs. Bennet comes snooping around about her mysteriously disappearing emergency cash. Claire attempts to pass Alex off as a boy-toy, but Mrs. B isn’t any stupider than her husband. First, she extracts a painful false declaration from Claire about her supposed boning of Alex; then she lets into Alex about the fact that that would be statutory rape and enjoys watching him squirm and contradict Claire immediately lest this awesome mother break his neck; and then she gets the truth. Mrs. B has some experience being lied to and is no fan, but she’s also not big on holding grudges and recognizes that Alex is in a lot of trouble. So are they all: the Gitmo Goons are watching the house.

Sandra Bennet is my new hero, y’all. She’s an entirely competent female character, which is a rarity for this show. Inside of two minutes, she’s working past being hurt by her daughter’s lies and onto smuggling Alex out of the house with Claire while she and Lyle create a diversion to keep the goons away. (She also makes a veiled reference to wanting to hump members of Def Leppard, which makes her like Lois Lane one decade earlier.) Because Claire and Alex aren’t as savvy as Mrs. B, they almost get caught and have to hide (and resolve their fleeting sexual tension) in a darkened pool. Alex keeps Claire—who really shouldn’t have to breathe any more than he does since she can just heal her oxygen-starved lungs later—alive by kissing some air to her. Alex is free, and Claire Bennet’s Super Underground Railroad has had its first success. Next up to be saved: the freaky puppet master. To be fair, he seems genuinely contrite about needing Claire’s help, but he’s still one hundred billion times too skeevy to be on my screen. (Please, Nathan’s God, let Mrs. Bennet tear him a new one when she sees him.) Hopefully, he’ll be out and gone as quickly as Alex was and Rebel can start filtering more hot, young comics enthusiasts Claire’s way.

Rebel is busy this episode. He or she (my guess is Rebel is Micah) sends messages to Matt and Peter to warn them when Isaac’s loft is about to be raided and gives them the location of Building 26, home of the Super Gitmo Action Squad. Peter clones Matt’s ability so that they might raid the facility and rescue Daphne. (Oh, did I forget to mention that she’s not dead? Well, she’s not.) This means that he’s lost the ability to fly. Finally, some goddamned rules about Peter’s otherwise insanely powerful ability! (Would that Sylar had any such restrictions.) Instead of Daphne, Peter absconds with video of the super detainees being deported. Matt stays behind to fend off the Gitmo Gang but is undone by a fire alarm. (Words cannot express how lame a restriction of Matt’s ability this is. However, since it does actually put some limits on Matt’s insanely powerful ability, this is a good, if random development. Limitations are essential to creating believable, consequence-laden conflict!)

Peter calls Nathan to exchange the video for Parkman and Daphne. Since Rebel was able to contact Peter and Matt while they were in Building 26 (and shut down the power to Building 26 to boot), I don’t see why Peter needed to be onsite to steal this data. Regardless, Peter is identified as the real threat, and the Hunter and Bennet team up to take him down over Nathan’s insistence that lethal force not be used against his brother. Mr. Bennet feigns like he has no love for Peter (he doesn’t, but he doesn’t want Peter dead) in order to get close enough to telepathically warn Peter about the sniper taking aim at him. Because this is Peter we’re talking about, he takes thirty extra seconds to work out Mr. B’s message–“SOMEONE IS GOING TO SHOOT YOU, GET OUT OF HERE”–and gets shot anyway. The Hunter’s dead aim is spoiled by the fact that Nathan swoops in to spirit his brother away. It does not appear that he knows who rescued Peter, but I doubt Nathan will be able to stay in the closet for much longer.

When in doubt, Nathan goes back to Mama Petrelli. He tries to talk Peter into turning himself in, even confesses that the situation has gotten out of control but that he still thinks some good can come from the Super Gitmo Action Squad. Even Peter isn’t stupid enough to believe, after that admission, that Nathan will be able to protect him from the Hunter. He steals Nathan’s ability and flies off. Mama P keeps Nathan grounded on the strength of her conviction (confirmed by her future visions) that things are changing and that Peter should go free.

Very probably, Mama P is seeing the Hunter send a drugged Matt Parkman out into public wearing a vest made of C4 and going, “Yeah, no, I’d prefer none of my children be enrolled in his day care program, thanks.” Peter spilled the beans about Super Gitmo, so the Hunter is upping the ante and using Bomber Matt to prove that the supers are dangerous. I have two words for him: Gabriel Gray. You put Sylar’s face on the news and show a handful of reporters the havoc he caused, the brutality of the murders he committed, and you have a populace scared witless inside of a day. What, multiple decapitations aren’t random and horrifying enough? We have to explode Matt? Apparently, yes, yes we do.

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion. (As if.)

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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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