Heroes: Run!

by Sara

A Soulful Spike Society Review
www.soulfulspike.com

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.

James Thurber

I'm finding "Run!" to be a hard episode to pin an overarching theme on. At first the focus on family struck me, between the intercutting of scenes at the Parkman and Sanders/Hawkins home and Claire's attempts to connect with her biological father (side note: I hate using the terms "real" vs "adoptive" when it comes to her parents, as it implies HRG and Sandra weren't "real" parents to her when that couldn't be further from the truth). Yet the Mohinder/Sylar and Hiro/Ando plots had absolutely nothing to do with family, and I found it's hard to argue a theme when said motif is missing from half the show.

Next, I thought maybe I'd discuss the growing number of connections being made between characters: Matt and Jessica/Niki are now on each other's radar, Mohinder unwittingly sat down to tea with his father's killer, and Claire interacted with Nathan—sort of. Then I remembered Hiro and Ando spent the entire hour isolated from any of the other main characters, so that idea got tossed on the plastic tarp next to Zane's body.

Finally, I sat there and considered the episode title: "Run!" Punctuated thusly, not only does that one simple word evoke the "bam!" "pow!" "crash!" enthusiasm of classic comic books (not to mention the campy-to-the-point-of-pain experience that was Adam West's Batman), but becomes a command I've often yelled at the characters during the course of the average Heroes hour (although, strangely enough, not this one). Mohinder's voiceover gives us one way to interpret the choice of episode title:

To survive in this world, we hold close to us those people on whom we depend. We trust in them our hopes, our fears. But what happens when trust is lost? Where do we run when things we believe in vanish before our eyes? When all seems lost, the future unknowable, our very existence in peril... all we can do is run.

Yet, to me, such an interpretation didn't cover a lot of the episode's content: it seemed to more directly apply to Claire's story, which is what we were watching as Mohinder spoke. Certainly Matt, Jessica, Mohinder, Hiro, Ando, and even Nathan didn't experience any sort of loss of trust, fear, or confusion of the sort Voiceover!Mohinder described. Then it occurred to me that while there wasn't necessarily a lot of Run!ning in this episode, virtually all of the characters were in motion: specifically, they tended to move toward that which they shouldn't and away from what they should have embraced. Framed a slightly different way, time and again these folks were confronted with what Dumbledore once described as "the choice between what is right and what is easy," and almost to a person they chose what was easy, walking away from what was right.

Nathan is probably the best character to start with; after all, the hour begins with the episode title writ large on his office carpet. In fact, over the course of the show thus far we've seen several instances of Nathan opting for easy over right in his decision making: selling Peter out to the press, sleeping with Jessica, and brushing off Niki's plea for help are but the first few examples that spring to mind. Yet while his ultimate decision regarding Claire certainly fits into this pattern of behavior, and in the end wasn't all that surprising, I still found myself disappointed in Nathan—maybe because of how close he came to being the good, decent man still lurking under the politician's veneer.

To his credit, upon hearing the news that Meredith and their baby survived the fire his immediate inclination was toward doing right by both his ex and his newfound daughter. Yet Nathan let his mother steer him off that path without putting up too much of a fight; after all, it's so much easier and cleaner to hand over an envelope than to take up the mantle of responsibility toward another human being, and with it all the messiness that invariably ensues. He seesawed back the other way by going down to Texas to give Meredith the envelope in person, even opening their exchange with an apology for his past behavior; for a moment it even looked as if Nathan was actually hoping to see Claire when he arrived on Meredith's doorstep. Then he retreated once again, first by doing his best to avoid looking at a picture of Claire (and who wasn't mindful of his mother's warning about looking into his daughter's "sad little weepy eyes," especially given how evocative a photo we know Meredith took?), and then by refusing Meredith's offer to summon Claire. And finally, of course, he literally turned his back on Claire (albeit without knowing she was so close by) and drove away. So despite several opportunities to do the right thing, time and again Nathan opted for what was easier.

Matt too faced a moment of decision, when he held those diamonds in his hand and listened to another man think of him as a joke. He still knew what the right thing to do was, of course. But from the first time we met Matt we've watched him try to stand firm in the face of overwhelming opposition and near-constant accusations of incompetence and/or mental instability, always doing his utmost to be a good cop and person yet for his efforts receiving nothing but sneers and disdain from his peers. So if doing the right thing had earned him nothing but misery, then why not do the wrong thing and finally reap some sort of benefit? Besides, it was so very, very easy to slip that little bag in his pocket as a silent "screw you" to this and every other cop who'd disparaged him. Thus, instead of going to his fellow cop Matt walked right on by him: movement toward the wrong thing, away from the right.

Jessica and Niki, of course, are the living embodiment of these warring impulses; Jessica is all about sprinting down the path of least resistance, while Niki almost always opted to turn her back on the easy answer in favor of being a good person and mother. For the time being, it appears in Niki's case that trying to do the right thing hasn't been any better to her than it has been to Matt; she's been shoved to the sideline of her own life, helpless and unable to stop the one-woman abattoir that is her other half. However, there might be a glimmer of hope for Niki; Jessica was genuinely surprised when Matt told her he heard both of them talking, and when I watched the scene a second time it's clear Matt was listening to them with his ears and not his mind. So Niki either manifested in physical form and really was on the stairs, or she regained enough control to use Jessica's vocal cords for her end of the conversation. Either way, it suggests that Niki is growing stronger, and that even Jessica and Niki don't know when they're no longer having these chats solely in the head of the person controlling the body.

Hiro and Ando managed to make the wrong decisions, turning away from what they should do and toward what they shouldn't. Ando, for his part, allowed the sight of a pretty, crying blonde woman to distract him from their stated mission: finding Linderman. By episode's end we realized just how big a mistake he'd made, even if Ando himself still hadn't clued in, and watched as Ando literally put even more distance between himself and the path he should have been on. However, I'd also argue Hiro was in the wrong when he initially refused to help Hope; from all appearances she was a woman in trouble, yet he was all set to leave her to her fate and go on his merry way. Ando was right to call Hiro on it, and to point out that staying to help wouldn't have been a question if it'd been a woman Hiro liked—Hiro was being self-centered, making it not about being a hero but about fulfilling his personal quest.

And yes, I am impressed with myself for having managed to make both men wrong about the same thing despite having been on opposite sides of it. Why do you ask?

Finally, perhaps the most obvious example of someone who walked right on toward something he should have been running away from was Mohinder. Obvious to the audience, at any rate; Mohinder, of course, couldn't possibly be faulted for his decision. Sylar certainly sounded like Zane (I actually thought Sylar was the one who left the original message until we saw Zane sitting and freaking out in his apartment), and did nothing to suggest anything untoward was going on. Still, I admit I spent most of their scenes silently urging Mohinder to get out while the getting was good.

Other thoughts:

· Sharp-eyed geeks might have noticed that this episode was directed by Roxann Dawson, best known to sci-fi fans for portraying B'Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager. I admit that the first time through I didn't think this episode was particularly well-directed, especially when compared to the subsequent one "Unexpected." Yet a second viewing made me realize there was a lot of interesting and subtle stuff going on: the way Claire often stood above her moms when interacting with them, playing with one's sense of who was the parent and who was the child; the number of times Torres used items in the foreground to create frames for the action taking place; the stairwell scenes between Jessica and Matt with all their twists and angles; the way most of the scenes with Claire and her adoptive family are shot from near the ground, almost as if from Mr. Muggles's perspective; how the shot of Nathan sitting across from Meredith echoes that of Nathan sitting across from his mother earlier in the show, both women sitting to the right of the screen; the recurring use of reflections, and not just for the Niki/Jessica scenes; the shift in focus between Angela's ring and Nathan's as they talk about what Nathan should do... you get the idea. It's cool stuff, if you're of a mind to check it out.

· Between the episode being directed by a Star Trek alum and the recent guest turn by George Takei, Hiro's Vulcan salute was almost too big a wink at the audience. But because Masi Oka is so very awesome, he managed to pull it off.

· I wondered for a while if Hope understood Japanese and thus picked the name on purpose, until I remembered that later in the episode she refers to the men as Chinese. Her being dressed like a fairy princess, though, was undoubtedly intentional.

· Oh, and for those of you having the "Where have I seen that woman before?" headache at home in regards to Hope, Missi Pyle portrayed Tony Shaloub's alien love interest in Galaxy Quest. And once you know that, you rewatch all of her scenes kicking yourself for not figuring it out before.

· Part of me wondered if Meredith actually intended to ask Nathan for money when she initially called him; something about her expression when he asked "how much?" suggested she actually hadn't thought of it before he brought it up. Just a personal reaction of mine, though.

· Sticking with Meredith, I really didn't like her intention to gyp her own kid: Nathan offered $100 grand, yet when Meredith offered to split the money with Claire she said he was giving them $50 grand. So I was completely expecting her to lie when Nathan asked about Claire. But Meredith surprised me by telling him exactly what she said and why, and I believe her subsequent offer to call Claire was on the level. With Meredith's portrayer Jessalyn Gilsig recently signing on for a pilot, chances are a return visit from Meredith is an iffy proposition at best—which disappoints me, as in just three episodes Gilsig made her into a very intriguing and complex character, someone I'd like to see more of down the road.

· I thought they did a great job, in a limited amount of time and dialogue, of conveying a sense of history between Nathan and Meredith; having them say the same sentence at the same time was a particularly astute touch in this regard.

· The red in Janice's pajama top was very similar to that of the curtains in la casa Parkman, reinforcing how she symbolizes Matt's home life.

· James Kyson Lee's expression when Hope stood up to her full height? Beyond perfection. That man does love those blonde warrior women, doesn't he?

· While all of the acting in the episode was top notch, once again I have to give special kudos to Hayden Panetierre: she manages to break my heart on a near-weekly basis, and her subtle shifts in expression as Claire listened to her father reject her, hope collapsing into sorrow, just about killed me. Ditto her face when Sandra claimed she didn't know who Claire was.

· Since it's a running motif with Sylar, I'd be remiss if I didn't note the sound of ticking clocks kicked in as he successfully convinced Mohinder to let him accompany the good doctor.

· So Zane managed to look at Sylar and think "Oh yeah, he looks like a Mohinder Suresh?" Uh huh...

· Sylar collecting Zane's DNA sample? Way creepy. Ditto the pan from Malsky's feet to his head when you realize we just skipped all the anatomy that should have been in between.

· When Hope is revealed to be naughty, not nice, she's dressed in an outfit very similar to Jessica's.

· Given that he's been rendered unconscious twice now (each time with a single punch) while in Las Vegas, Hiro should seriously considered staying outside the city limits from here on out.

· I was going to go into this whole explanatory paragraph about the guy Sylar quotes, but in the interests of time, length, and saving my sanity I'm just going to give you a link instead: Abraham Maslow.

· Great job with the editing of this episode, particularly at the beginning in the intercutting of scenes at the Parkman and Sanders/Hawkins homesteads.

· Much as I enjoy Peter's storyline, I must admit I didn't mind getting a break from it; this episode was in fact the first in which Peter does not make an appearance.

That does it for me, folks. Be sure to check out Erin's insightful analysis of "Unexpected," if you haven't already, and I'll see you for episode 17.

______________________________________________

Please join in the discussion of this review at the Soulful Spike Society Message Board. Go there NOW!

If you enjoyed this review and are reading it from outside the Soulful Spike Society website (www.soulfulspike.com), then click the logo below to access the S3 in a new window. There you will find more great reviews, analyses, fanfiction and a link to our marvelous message board.