Heroes: Landslide

by Erin

A Soulful Spike Society Review
www.soulfulspike.com

It’s easy to forget, in an episode focused on a political election, what the word “landslide” really means. That it originally referred to the land itself moving, all pell-mell and out of control, rather than a shower of votes pushing one candidate to a decisive victory over another. We get both in this episode, the penultimate episode hurtling us down to the final showdown between Sylar and Peter, between Bennet and Mohinder, between Niki and Jessica, between Nathan and his conscience. Who will win? Who will be dashed on the rocks below?

I’m starting to understand the benefit of the United Kingdom’s television schedule. Thirteen episodes, at most, per season, and then it’s over. Tight construction, focused story lines, and a completed arc. Yes, it leaves you wanting more; then again, sometimes it’s better to get a taste of something delicious than glut yourself on filler. “Landslide” begins the process of resolving a season’s worth of arcs, some of which should have been resolved 9 episodes ago. A careful viewer (the type of viewer that Heroes seems to be aiming at, with the intertextual references that reward repeat viewing [among other things]) realized in “Godsend” that Niki was the stronger of the two personalities and possessed Jessica’s super strength. That same viewer knew that Hiro’s quest for the sword was more important than the sword itself; that achieving that goal restored his confidence in wielding that power. There has been an unfortunate amount of reiteration. In fact, one word in particular has gotten quite the workout this season, and this episode is no exception: Destiny. Peter tells Claire that everything that has happened in her life (and his) has been leading to these moments, that she has a purpose and a destiny. Kaito tells his son, Hiro, the same thing “I’ve been waiting a long time for a Nakamura to ascend.” Angela tells Nathan, in an echo of [insert name], to “be the one we need” to heal a sick world. In fact, this scene blends into Hiro’s training session with his father; the sounds of swords clashing between 2 generations mirror the obvious mental struggle in Nathan’s mind between what his mother and Linderman want and what he knows is the right thing.

Peter, Nathan, Hiro, and Linderman/Angela Petrelli are all operating on a macro level: Save The World. Closer to home, Jessica and DL are interested only in saving their son; Micah, Matt, Ted, and Mr. Bennet want only to save themselves and/or their families. Yet, on a deeper level, Heroes as a show seems to indicate that these goals are not antithetical. The saving of one life can have consequences for the world (“save the cheerleader”). The alliances we see formed here make the future glimpsed in “Five Years Gone” a bit more distant. So what do each of the heroes arm themselves with for the coming confrontations?

Nathan

Linderman makes two poor calculations in this episode; both lead to his death. Actually, they are the same calculation; that someone, once bought, will stay bought. We can see that Linderman invested heavily in Candice, Niki/DL/Micah, and Nathan. Candice remains loyal, and Micah fixes the election, but only to save his family. He responds to Candice’s assertion that Linderman will heal the world with an innocent: “I didn’t know it was sick.” However, if DL and Niki owe their marriage to Linderman, then Micah owes his very existence to Linderman’s social Darwinian experiment. Does that make him beholden? Linderman seems to think it does; he also thinks that healing Heidi will assure Nathan’s cooperation, and that Jessica will do anything for money. With nary a threat of physical violence, and only a pro forma appeal to Nathan’s sense of family responsibility, he gives up where Linderman is located to two people who have explicitly stated their desire to kill him. After betraying Claire, disappointing Hiro (“you’re a billan!”), and selling out Linderman, he is down to one person who still believes in him, and only because of Peter’s love of his brother and ability to see the good in people. He ends this episode seemingly surrounded by loyal supporters, giving a touching speech about healing the world, but even his victory is manufactured. He is, for all his good words on television, what we most fear a politician is: an opportunist with no real loyalties at all. He has become what he said to Peter in “.07%”: “Most of what we are is what people expect us to be. I mean, if you take them away, nothing means anything.” So, what has meaning for Nathan now?

Hiro

At long last, the journey that “began in a cubicle in Tokyo” nears its end. Hiro is shocked to find that his father has never left New York, has kept his eye on his newly independent son. He teaches Hiro how to fight, and how to win. But is Kaito correct? In order to win, does Hiro need to cut out his heart? It seems as if that was how Future!Hiro operated, and I can imagine that a “killer” CEO would operate in much the same fashion. Ando, then, is an acceptable loss if Sylar is taken out of the world. Much the way, I suppose, Linderman and Co. think that 1/3 of New York is an acceptable loss if it brings about a new, peaceful world. Hiro being Hiro, however, as strong in his own way as his father, does not precisely follow Tensei’s path; he puts Ando above the mission, or, rather, as a part of the mission. Save Ando, save himself.

Jessica and DL

It’s obvious that Jessica does not work well with others. She is too angry and too damaged to be relied upon. Yet her anger and coldness made short work of entering Linderman’s stronghold. She’s nothing if not focused. This episode makes the case that physical strength is not enough to survive, to be strong. It is the ties to others that makes you strong (a point made on Buffy more than once). Jessica finally shows true strength when she realized her own shortcomings and Niki’s power and lets go.

DL, in his turn, puts his wife’s life above his own and does not allow Linderman’s bullet to phase through him. Both of them realize that regardless of how their lives have been manipulated, they are connected and stronger together.

Bennet and Matt

All season we’ve seen that Bennet is not used to working in a team. He doesn’t know that the Haitian can talk (or that he is working for the Petrellis, he shoots his partner Claude, and he betrays PrimaTech to save Claire. Even teamed with Ted and Matt, he withholds the key fact from Matt that the “Walker system” is a human being, although he is surprised to find out that Molly is a child. His penchant for the dramatic moment is on full display in this episode, however. His overwrought response to Matt is greeted with “A simple ‘no’ would have done the trick.” He leaves Matt seemingly defenseless, only to reappear at a crucial moment to save Matt from Thompson in a scene that would not have been out of place in an action film:

Thompson: What am I thinking now, Parkman?

Bennet: Your last thought.

Yet, in “Company Man,” it is Bennet’s trust in his daughter and reliance on Matt’s assistance that saves his family from annihilation. It is telling his wife the truth that allows him to avoid, for a time, being captured by his former employers. It is working together with Matt and Ted that allows him to escape PrimaTech and see his daughter again. The future now rests on Mohinder’s and Matt’s responses to the end-of-the-episode standoff. Will he take the pragmatic path? Or will he find another way? (OK, I realize we already know the answer to this. Sorry again, folks, for the lateness of this review.)

Peter and Claire/Ted and Sylar

The old Aesop adage: “united we stand, divided we fall” is proven again and again in the Heroes’ narrative. Peter faces Sylar alone (mostly), and dies. Ted is arrested and taken away to be detained, and falls to Sylar’s brain eating ways. Had Audrey not lost her trust in Matt during the failed raid on PrimaTech, she would have known she was being played by the man she’d been searching for since the beginning of the season; alone, she ends up doing Sylar’s work for him and ends more bitter and disillusioned than before. Worse, Sylar brain consumption didn’t add Ted’s reluctance and fear of hurting others to his powers; they made him into a weapon. Sylar ends the episode far above New York City, contemplating his ability to reduce it to rubble.

Peter, on the other hand, has Claire to help him in his quest. She has accepted her destiny as “not normal” and even contemplates “going on patrol” like a certain other blonde cheerleader of note. She does hesitate in shooting Peter when he threatens to go nuclear, but perhaps she was merely relying on her instincts; he eventually does get his new ability under enough control to not explode. Yet both are frustrated in their journey out of New York, and end the episode discouraged by Sylar’s murder of Ted. They have yet to be separated, however, so hope is still alive that their reliance on one another will not be broken.

Other Observations

• As this is my last review of the season, I do wish to make a case that Tim Kring and the writers of Heroes take a more enlightened stance in terms of their portrayals of female characters next season. Candice’s character, in particular, I found problematic; it seemed to posit the idea that the first thought of a woman with the power of illusion would be to make herself skinny and able to eat whatever she wanted. Worse still was the intimation that Candice makes on the way to the voting booth; that the African-American woman “illusion” she uses could be the “real her.” Do they mean to suggest that if, given the chance, such a woman would want to be a white woman? Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but coupled with Linderman’s assertion in this same episode that all women who have been “hurt by men” would do anything for money and security, well, it’s disturbing.

• Also troubling is the product placement for Silver Surfer, especially since the nbc.com carries a giant banner ad for the new Silver Surfer movie.

• After all my negativity above, I did love the final confrontation between Thompson and Bennet. I also like how these last few episodes have done an excellent job in starting the landslide toward the finale.

Stay tuned for Sara’s review of the LAST episode of the season, both of which are certain to rock your socks off.

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