Heroes: Company Man

by Sara

A Soulful Spike Society Review
www.soulfulspike.com

Life is all one piece. Men err when they think they can be inhuman exploiters in their business life, and loving husbands and fathers at home. For achievement without love is a cold and tight-lipped murderer of human happiness everywhere.

Smiley Blanton

As I settle in to try and write my review of "Company Man," I find I'm experiencing the exact same reaction I had when I first saw the vast array of brunch offerings at the Princeville Resort during my recent vacation: with so much good stuff to choose from, it's almost impossible to decide where to begin.

For one, this episode presented at least one jaw-dropping plot twist during every single act: HRG and Claude worked together?! Hiro's dad is part of the Company?! HRG shot Claude?! Eric Roberts is evil?! Wait, sorry, that last one should have been in the "comes as a surprise to absolutely no one" file. My bad. Still, that fact remains we were given a tremendous amount of information to absorb and incorporate (particularly about the folks Mr. Bennet works for), with heretofore unknown connections between characters coming to light that can't help but forcibly readjust our understanding of the Heroes universe. We wonder if Mr. Nakamura would have treated Hiro differently if he knew his son was one of "them," or if indeed he does know and sought to protect Hiro the same way Mr. Bennet attempted to keep Claire's ability a secret. We can't help but speculate as to who Claude was protecting and why was it important enough for him to risk discovery and death, or why Mr. Lethe (my new moniker for the Haitian until they GIVE HIM A FRIKKIN' NAME) pretended to be mute from the start; not to mention whose instructions could possibly supersede Mr. Bennet's when it comes to Claire.

Or we would have spent tons of time pondering all of these things, were it not for the intense, compelling, and ultimately wrenching character drama that unfolded during the course of the hour. While I've had the above Blanton quote in my notes for several weeks, and almost used it for an earlier review, I'm now incredibly glad I saved it for what turned out to be the perfect episode to pair it with. Because the way I see it, "Company Man" was about Claire's father finally realizing that he can't be HRG, ruthless hunter and kidnapper of specials, during the day and then throw a switch to become Mr. Bennet, loving father and husband, at night.

When the episode title made its appearance, the words "Company Man" were placed above the Bennet home. Appropriate symbolism, given how Mr. Bennet viewed being a Company man as more important than being a family man for so much of his life; his answer to Thompson as to what he'd do if told his wife and child were in danger, "I'd do what I've always done: what I'm told" was chilling proof of that. And no matter how hard Mr. Bennet worked to keep his two lives separate and compartmentalized, I think deep down he knew this kind of collision between his two worlds was inevitable; when confronted with two angry and potentially dangerous men Mr. Bennet didn't panic or appear to hesitate over whether to tell the truth about the Company or maintain his cover story - suggesting he'd given some thought to what he'd do in this very situation. That he chose to protect his cover and the Company only reinforces our sense of where his priorities lay.

In fact, his behavior throughout the series to date has been one instance after another of how his life as HRG has impacted Mr. Bennet's behavior as a father. When speaking with Thompson, Flashback!Bennet said "people are fragile" like teacups," and asserted he was "comfortable with morally gray" measures. That combination of ruthlessness and arrogance was the guiding force behind all his behavior as he sought to protect his family, preferring to keep everyone he loved in the dark so he could maintain control of the situation and erasing people's memories as casually as if he was correcting answers in a crossword puzzle. It never occurred to him that his wife Sandra, for one, might be able to handle the truth of who he was and what he did, much less be an ally in the effort to keep Claire's ability a secret; he truly believed he was the only one capable of handling the job and of making the tough choices that went along with it.

Yet it's also obvious that being Mr. Bennet affected the way HRG did his job, in ways both overt and subtle. The biggie, of course, is that Claire's father did not turn her over to the Company as instructed but instead used every means at his disposal to preserve her secret; despite all the reminders he was her surrogate father, Mr. Bennet ultimately committed himself to being Claire's dad first, a company man second. However, that's just one way in which the family man altered HRG's approach to his work. For one, Mr. Bennet told Ted that he made a conscious choice to release Ted instead of killing him, saying "You had a life. Who was I to take it from you?" We also know Mr. Bennet released Matt, even though Thompson later points out how useful Matt's ability could be to the Company. Personally, I don't think the man who walked into Thompson's office all those years ago would have released either man, family or no family. But he didn't find them back then; he found them within the past year, after having spent more than a decade building a family of his own. To me, that indicates the compassion HRG evinced toward them both is a direct result of his life as Mr. Bennet.

And, perhaps, also due to what happened between himself and his previous partner Claude. I find it fascinating that Claude's death seems to have been the catalyst for Mr. Bennet opening his heart to Claire, as Claude noted how Mr. Bennet had kept himself emotionally distant from his adopted daughter moments before his "death." You'd think that being asked to execute his own partner would only reinforce Mr. Bennet's desire not to become too attached to Claire, not push him in the other direction. Yet it looked to me like Bennet was nearly as surprised as Claude when the gun went off, and he was clearly torn over what he'd been asked to do. Claude tried to tell his partner he did have a choice between doing right and doing the Company's bidding; the irony is that it seems it was believing he didn't have a choice in shooting Claude is the very thing that made Bennet realize he actually did.

So it's also appropriate Mr. Bennet made his final choice between Company and family in the exact same place he shot Claude all those years ago, bringing his personal journey from company man to family man full circle in a scene I'd wager didn't leave too many dry eyes out there in t.v. land. What'll be interesting to see is how much of an impact Mr. Bennet's decision here will have on his attitude towards his employers overall: will he be able to go back to be HRG and stand idly by while folks like Ted are "studied" and (presumably) killed, or has his love and compassion for Claire finally caused him, like Claude before him, to question the actions the Company takes in the name of "the greater good"?

Of course, the hour wasn't a solo act by any means; almost as central to the story as Mr. Bennet was his daughter, Claire.  For a while now I've tried to figure out what the person/power symmetry could be in Claire's case, especially since for everyone else it's been a pretty obvious match:  the empathic person who can absorb powers, the investigator who can hear thoughts, the prisoner who can't be contained, etc.  But a cheerleader whose body heals any wound almost instantly?  I just wasn't seeing the connection.  However, something finally did dawn on me as I considered this episode:  the one person on this show least subject to experiencing  physical harm has arguably endured more emotional trauma than virtually all of the other characters combined: forcing her to become as resilient emotionally as she is physically. 

I read a comment somewhere along the line that Mr. Bennet and Claire had the most complex father/daughter relationship seen on t.v. since Jack and Sydney Bristow graced our screens on a weekly basis. I can see where the person was coming from, but ultimately I'd have to disagree. The potential certainly is there, but Mr. Bennet and Claire have had a strong bond since she was very young, whereas Jack and Sydney only became close in Sydney's adulthood. Instead, I think the writers took a page from the Buffy script book in using a fantasy setting to explore a real-world situation many of us can relate to: realizing and coming to terms with the fact that our parents are neither perfect nor infallible. It was obvious from the onset that Claire was her daddy's little girl in the best sense of the term: she adored and idealized him, and he clearly doted on her. But the more she learned about him and his machinations to keep her safe, the more her trust in him disintegrated. And since she is still just fifteen years old, she pretty much swung from one emotional extreme to the other, her unquestioning faith turning into complete distrust; "Company Man," thus, was about Claire finally finding that middle ground between the two and accepting that her father is just another flawed human like the rest of us.

Since the color red has proven to be fairly significant in the Heroes universe, I'd be severely remiss in not pointing out how Claire was the only character in this episode sporting it. If nothing else, the wardrobe choice resulted in an interesting visual callback: when she was lying on the floor after being shot by Matt, her positioning combined with those red lapels reminded me instantly of that shot of her in "One Giant Leap" on the morgue table with her chest laid open. And, of course, Claire was the only character in this episode to engage in some thrilling heroics: first she took a bullet to save her mother's life, and then later, in what had to be an homage to her counterpart Wolverine's actions at the climax of X3, endured Ted's fiery meltdown to sedate him and thus save Odessa from becoming a smoking crater. Granted, it's probably a bit easier to make such sacrifices when you know you're not going to die, and it appears Claire doesn't feel pain to the same extent as the rest of us, but still: I gotta think having your flesh burned off is never high on the fun meter.

Other thoughts:

- In a Heroes first, this episode featured one storyline only. Because the episode was solely about Claire and her family, both Ando and the grown-up Hiro were absent from "Company Man" making Hayden Panettiere the only member of the cast to appear in every episode of Heroes to date.

- I've noticed that, particularly online, there's an increasing tendency to praise the fast-paced storytelling style of Heroes while putting down that of Lost; fans, producers and actors have all taken pains to point out the speedier paths to resolutions and answers Heroes tends to travel. Which is why I find it ironic that "Company Man" is probably the more universally praised episode of the season, as it's structured almost exactly like an episode of Lost: present-day story intermingling with flashbacks that not only shed light on a particular person but reveal heretofore unknown connections between established characters. Hell, we even had a close zoom in on someone's eye, a Lost stylistic hallmark. And I'd also argue that sometimes the Heroes characters can suffer from the desire to keep a storyline zipping along: Erin's excellent point about Matt continuously being in the victim role is one example, as is the way D. L.'s gotten shunted to the sidelines for several weeks now.

- Continuity: it's become a bit of a pet peeve with me. 'Cause all I could think as I watched Matt and Ted go through the Bennet home was "What the hell happened to Wireless?" She was there when these guys decided they needed answers from Bennet, and then suddenly it was a two-person gig. Even a passing mention making up some lame excuse as to where she went would be preferable, at least to me. And I suspect such omissions are going to end up being even more obvious when watching episodes back-to-back on DVD. If there's one thing I'd like to see TPTB at Heroes improve on, it's paying attention to how one scenario (Matt, Ted and Hana meeting in an L.A. graveyard) flows into the next (Matt and Ted are suddenly in Texas, no Hana in sight), both within an episode and from show to show.

- The kid who played young Hiro was just too cute for words. Also gotta enjoy the touch of having the meeting between Hiro's dad, Claude and HRG take place on the roof of the Devaux building; now it makes even more sense that Claude would not only know about the pigeons but feel comfortable using the locale as a place to hide out.

- Christopher Eccleston definitely looks better without the beard.

- Hayden Panettiere continues to knock me out with her performance as Claire. Her expressions as she communicated telepathically with Matt were just as eloquent as her words, and damned if she didn't do a pitch-perfect job in the flashback scene of evoking someone not only younger but much, much more innocent.

- Kudos also to Jack Coleman, of course, for his stellar work as a man trying desperately to maintain control in an increasingly chaotic situation, both in the real world and in his own head. I'd also be remiss in not mentioning Ashley Crow, who's made Sandra into an equally fascinating character when she could so easily have been a caricature. I'm thinking Mr. Bennet may have been mistaken all these years in believing she could neither handle nor keep Claire's secret, given the inner strength she showed both in accepting her daughter's gift and in her refusal to leave her child behind even to save her own life.

- On the other hand of the spectrum, I suspect they had the young man playing Lyle put his face in his hands while crying over his sister's death because there was no way he could pull off even a semblance of real grief in his expression - hell, I barely bought his "sobs" as it was. Oh, and is Mr. Muggles the ultimate hero? You be the judge.

- I've decided I could happily listen to George Takei read the phone book; I love his voice that much.

- I can't wait to find out who on earth the Haitian was referring to when he spoke of a person whose instructions superseded those of Mr. Bennet.

- Cheesy as it may have been, I still loved the touch of having Claire hand Matt back his bullet. And I did appreciate the rock-solid continuity of discovering their shared connection with Peter. Also loved learning that it was Claire herself who chose the famous horn-rimmed glasses for her father to wear.

- Apropos of absolutely nothing, I really miss Audrey. If nothing else, maybe she could finally knock some sense into Matt's head.

- When did Eric Roberts start morphing into Tom Berenger?

- Given how Ted's powers are all about an overload of radiation, I suspect having Ted say "If you insist on lying, you're gonna upset me. And you know what happens when I get upset" was a nod to the Incredible Hulk t.v. show's most famous and quoted bit of dialogue. Also, weren't Ted's howls of agony as his meltdown progressed the most horrific sounds we've heard since Jackie's death throes? Absolutely chilling and heart-wrenching.

- Matt is in Company hands once again. This I do not like.

- And finally, it appears TPTB at Heroes are firm believers in the Joss school of thinking when it comes to the family you're born into vs. the family you choose, as in one of my favorite moments in the whole show we hear Mr. Bennet tell Claire "We're your real parents... we're your real family. What makes us real isn't where you come from. It's how much we love you." That's pretty much Joss' philosophy in a nutshell.

That does it for me this time around. Keep checking back to read Erin's sure-to-be excellent review of "Parasite," and I'll be back sometime after April 23 when Heroes finally returns for the final arc of the season. 'Til then, stay heroic.

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