Heroes: Hiros

by Sara

A Soulful Spike Society Review
www.soulfulspike.com

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way... you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

Aristotle

I admit, this episode stumped me. I watched it twice, kept rereading my notes, and still couldn't figure out where to begin or what I wanted to address. So I did what any struggling writer would do: I whined to someone else about it. Luckily for me, that someone was my review partner Erin. Better still, I caught her on the day she was cranking out her remaining Heroes reviews like Roger Ebert on speed. So when I confessed I was at a loss, this is what she had to say:

Well, it's the only one thus far named after a character...and Hiro has a big part to play in it. Both Hiro and Future!Hiro, which might be why the episode title is the plural of Hiro. We have Mohinder talking about migration and coming together, so I would look at the dynamics of the heroes meeting one another, with special attention to the role of Hiro himself...

Who am I to turn my back on such an excellent insight?

To be specific, what Mohinder said was: "When a change comes, some species feel the urge to migrate. They call it zugunruhe, a pull of the soul to a far-off place, following a scent in the wind, a star in the sky. The ancient message comes calling the kindred to take flight and gather together. Only then can they hope to survive the cruel season to come." And indeed, in this episode we finally see the main characters start to come into each others' orbits: Nathan encountered Claire's father and his silent partner-in-whatever, Peter joined forces with Isaac, Hiro met Nathan, Ando went to see Niki, and book-ending the show we had Hiro and Peter's mirroring introductions to each other.

The first time I watched "Hiros," I remember thinking how strange it was that in an episode bearing his name Hiro himself didn't seem to do a whole lot. He talked a good game, and expressed his absolute certainty that he was going to save the world to both Ando and Nathan. Yet he barely spoke the language, had to bum a ride back to the hotel from Nathan, and when he finally got back to his own car realized he had no idea how to drive it. Then, instead of finding a cab or getting on a bus, he simply hung out at the car waiting for Ando to come back and help him.

Yet even as I considered how to express these thoughts, another voice in my head chimed in to say "Um, what? Hiro's the only one we've seen on this show who's come up with a plan and acted on it. Peter was wandering around wondering about destiny, Mohinder dithered and struggled with his daddy issues, Isaac shot up to try and tune in some more details, Nathan embraced denial like it was an old lady at a photo op, Niki was more concerned with figuring out whether she'd completely slipped a cog, Matt focused on putting his marriage back together and kicking his career into gear, and Claire spent most of her time wishing the whole thing would go away.

"But Hiro? Hiro knew from the start that an ability like his meant he had to do something more, be someone more than just another office drone trying to get by. And once he became aware that a terrible tragedy was going to take place, he simply hopped on a plane and started trying to figure out how he could prevent it, going on little more than blind faith and a prescient comic book. Dude's more take-charge than almost all the other characters combined. So stop procrastinating and start writing, woman."

Interestingly, though, it appears this dichotomy may be more than the musings of a writer in search of a theme to hang her review on. After all, Future!Hiro is certainly proactive: he's journeyed there specifically to give Peter his mission, intentionally setting in motion events designed to completely alter his own past and presumably save Claire's life. In doing so, he engineers what may be the most critical connections to date, the first we see formed between characters who are not anywhere near each other geographically; Isaac, Peter, Hiro, and Ando become part of each other's lives because they share a purpose, not a zip code. After all, if Future!Hiro doesn't chat with Peter on that subway, then Peter doesn't pick up the phone when Isaac tells him it's just some Japanese guy with the wrong number. For that matter, without Future!Hiro's intervention Peter doesn't return to Isaac's and eventually complete that crucial painting which in turn strengthens Peter and Isaac's growing sense of determination and commitment to use their powers to help others.

Yet despite all his power, ultimately Future!Hiro himself could only point his friends in the right direction and hope it'd be enough to save Claire making Hiro, once again, the guy who knew exactly where to go and yet couldn't drive the car there himself. In fact, Future!Hiro tells Peter he risked creating a rift merely by being there, even though he knows his past self is hundreds of miles away meaning the possibility of taking action himself must be completely out of the question. So perhaps we're actually getting our first hint as to the kind of barriers Hiro will bump up against as he begins to explore the limits of what he's capable of doing; he can bend time and space, as he so frequently tells people, but it appears he can't necessarily bend them to his will.

In any event, our heroes are beginning the slow process of connecting with each other, with Hiro acting as the catalyst for some of these newly-developed bonds between our core characters. However, I think it's also important to take a look at what's happening with the heroes who so far still remain isolated from the others: Matt and Claire.

Matt, for his part, is in much the same boat as Hiro was the previous episode: figuring out how to use his powers even as he succumbs to the temptation to employ them for personal gain. In this case, as in Hiro's, it's almost impossible to blame him for doing so; we've seen Matt's struggles to fix his troubled marriage, so we can understand why he'd use his ability to impress his wife. And let's face it: I think we all get why making love with or as a telepath would have plenty of perks. Yet I also know I was left with this nagging sense that Matt was cheating just as surely as Hiro was; he let his wife believe he understood her so well because he'd been paying attention to her and her needs, instead of using her own thoughts as his personal crib sheet.

If that is the case, though, then karma certainly came around and bit Matt on the ass; if a benefit of telepathy is the ability to be completely attuned to one person, the downside is what happens when he's forced to tune in to several stations with equal clarity all at the same time. When Matt first got to the market our would-be thief was most likely going off the charts with the intensity of his thoughts, bringing his voice to the forefront of the chatter Matt was hearing. But once the gun became visible everyone's emotions and adrenaline got a nice little jolt, and suddenly all that background noise he'd relegated to the back of his brain had its collective volume turned up to ten, resulting in Matt getting the mother of all migraines. So, the hurdle Matt will eventually have to overcome seems pretty clear: he has to find a way to filter and/or dampen what he's hearing, or he's going to end up either a hermit or a gibbering lunatic.

As for Claire, she's in an interesting position in terms of the overall storyline. She's met none of the other heroes; indeed has no idea other people like her even exist and yet she herself is becoming the center of their focus, the reason all these special people are beginning to connect with each other to begin with. In terms of her own character arc, Claire took a pretty important step forward over the course of this episode. Like Hiro and Matt, Claire gave in to the temptation to use her power for selfish reasons. However, unlike the two gentlemen Claire actually had a legitimate big-picture motivation as well she wasn't wrong in believing Brody would continue his behavior unless someone or something intervened, and we know Claire only took action upon realizing she wasn't his only victim. Yet while Hiro pretty much shrugged off his mistake and Matt hasn't yet figured out he might have behaved less than honorably, Claire not only understood but owned up to the wrongness of her behavior, so much so that she actually apologized to the guy who tried to rape her and then dumped her body in a river. She may still be reluctant to accept the fact that she'll never be a "normal" girl again, but by speaking to Brody as she did I think Claire demonstrated that she has the potential to become a pretty extraordinary person powers or no.

Other musings:

· Ali Larter continues to break my heart as Niki slips further into confusion and uncertainty. Her reaction upon waking up and discovering what she'd done was pitch-perfect, full of emotion yet beautifully underplayed. Not to mention the kindness she later shows Ando. Given what Niki had been through over the previous 24 hours, it would have been perfectly understandable if Niki'd had him arrested or reacted with anger and disgust. Instead she treated him with courtesy and understanding, and it's a credit to Larter's work that we never question this reaction for a moment.

· In a related vein, I loved her delivery of Niki's answer to Nathan's question as to who she wanted to be: "Someone good. A good mother. Not the person I see in the mirror." It's not exactly the most subtle line in the world, but Larter makes it rich with meaning.

· Nathan, on the other hand, shows a side of himself that can't help but give a person pause. First, he tells Mr. Bennett and the Haitian (as he's listed in the credits, although it's a name I personally hate) he will someday find them and kill them with little more inflection or emotion than if he'd given them the latest football scores. And then he has both the intelligence and nerve to use Linderman's threat of blackmail to extort another $2 million from the man, after which he bares his teeth in a smile that had nothing of humor in it. Yoiks.

· Nathan and Hiro in the diner? Instant classic from start to finish.

· Speaking of which, I personally enjoyed the mini shirtless-men theme we had going in this one.

· I still don't care for Matt's wife, but her obvious concern for him did mitigate my dislike for her a tad.

· Loved the part where Peter channeled Isaac's power, to the extent that he literally saw the world exactly as we know Isaac does when he paints the future. And I find it interesting that they've chosen to make their seer blind when his power has kicked in; the prophet who has visions of the future yet can see nothing of world around him is an archetype dating back to classical times, with perhaps the most famous example being Tiresias of Homer's Odyssey.

· While most folks watching undoubtedly realized that Niki woke up without the tattoo we saw on her doppelganger's shoulder, sharp-eyed viewers might have also noticed that Future!Hiro's sword had an interesting adornment: that same mysterious symbol was on the handle of his katana.

· Finally, Mr. Bennett is undoubtedly developing into one of the show's most intriguing characters. His true nature and motives are most certainly matters for debate, but this episode also leaves us little doubt he genuinely loves his daughter. A lot of the credit for this has to go to Jeff Coleman, who constantly and consistently shows us both the menace and the caring lurking beneath Bennett's exterior, often at the same time. When he tells Brody "I put more stock in her humanity than I do in yours... I know her better than even she does. Claire is a very special girl. It's confusing what's happening to her, and she doesn't need some punk making her life any more difficult," you both want to cheer him and yet can't help but be a little alarmed by the extent of his protectiveness. And his delivery of "Hollow him out. Take everything" gave me chills. Although, personally, I think by doing so Daddy Bennett actually let the kid off too easy; I'd rather he was left with an awareness of what a truly horrible person he'd become than run the risk he'd end up becoming a predator once again.

That's it from my end for now. Again, my deepest thanks again for Erin for helping give my brain the boost it so desperately needed; without her, this review might still consist of nothing more than random notes and my chewed-up fingernails. Be sure to check out what I'm sure will be another top-notch review from Erin on episode six, and I'll see you all for lucky number seven. 'Til then, stay heroic.

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