Heroes: Done Right

By Lisa Fary

I hate to be hokey, but here’s the hero of tonight’s Heroes:

Bryan Fuller fixed this mess of a show in a single episode. Hopefully, it will keep up this pace. The longer Fuller is around and the further we get from Jeph Loeb’s self-loathing tripe, the better off the heroes will be. Matt Grunberg says it’s smooth sailing from this point, so, fingers crossed.

Several things surprised and made me happy in this ep, starting with Daphne and Matt. Even though it was In-Head Daphne saying it, she did call Matt out on the silly circumstances surrounding his love for her.

“You dreamed we were married,” she said.

“It wasn’t a dream. It was a spirit. . . walk.” Matt looked uncomfortably at his shoes, as if realizing how idiotic the notion truly was. He wondered how his turtle guide was doing; it had been some time since they spirit walked together.

Little did Matt know that, in his absence, his turtle friend had begun operating a spirit tour guide business from the cramped apartment the mind-reading cop had once shared with Mohinder Suresh. Their desert spirit walk was all a ruse to get to America.

I got a little carried away there. Sorry.

Their story’s in-head resolution, taking place in in-head Paris, was touching and brought tears to my eyes. In-Head Daphne and In-Head Matt (are they angels??? Is this all directed by a divine hand?) flew above the city and to the moon the way Superman and Lois Lane did, but without the hideous powder blue chiffon and spoken word.

And then she died. And I cried a little bit (which was surprising because I never really liked the character).

Did anyone else notice that Matt didn’t put on his “I’m controlling your mind!” expression while controlling minds? Please don’t ever make that face again.

Then there was Hiro and Ando, who got back to their Season One dynamic.  Hiro made not one, but TWO Star Trek references! When was the last time he did that? When was the last time he made any pop-culture geek reference?  Ando figured out how to use his ability in a defensive manner, they saved a baby, and they talked about Hiro’s baby issues without stopping everything to do so.

That’s how you deal with human drama. While other stuff is going on.

And Micah! Micah came back from Awkward Tween Island! And he’s doing what a good kid with superpowers and a comic book curriculum would do: acting like a hero for the greater good. I love that Rebel isn’t just a new character we have to learn to love. I love that he dressed down Tracy Strauss about her behavior. I love that, while Nathan went to so much trouble to hide his ability and just about everyone else had emo emotions about dealing with their abilities, it took a teenager to act in a truly heroic manner.

“Cold Snap” gives me very high hopes for the rest of the season. I love you, Bryan Fuller.

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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.

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