Heroes: The Fix

by Sara

A Soulful Spike Society Review
www.soulfulspike.com

People don't want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown.

Chuck Palahniuk

This week's episode title was an intriguing one.  My first instinct on seeing the phrase "The Fix" was to mentally add the words "is in."  Given the show's exploration of destiny vs. free will overall and the conversation Peter and Claude have on the subject during this episode in particular, there is an argument to be made for such an interpretation; after all, when we say "the fix is in" we mean the outcome of a particular event or contest has been predetermined, albeit through underhanded means. 

However, I also realized the title could allude to something hinted at by Mohinder: the possibility he could develop a means by which a person's special ability could be either suppressed or, perhaps, eliminated entirely.  Since I have it on good authority that Heroes doesn't pay much attention to scientific accuracy, I'm not going to even attempt to speculate as to whether what Mohinder's proposing is even possible; what interests me are the issues surrounding such a possibility. In fact, this same question was raised last summer in the third X-Men movie: if your special ability could be "cured" by getting an injection or swallowing a pill, would you want to do so? Is it right to even try to develop such a fix? And what if it came into the possession of people inclined to make sure every special person was given the "cure," whether they wanted it or not? So even though the question of whether Mohinder "can fix all of this" was only briefly discussed in this episode, I have a feeling it will become a major issue down the road the dramatic possibilities inherent in such a storyline are almost endless.

Fixing was also a prevalent theme as we observed the many parent/child dynamics scattered throughout the episode. D. L. struggled to be a single parent to his son, yet fell short when it came to things both big and small, from paying the rent to preparing Micah's lunch. His solution? Well, it wasn't much of one at first: basically his plan was to see if he could free Niki so she could fix everything. She, quite rightly, told him it was unfair of him to add to her burdens by insisting he and Micah needed her; part of me wished she'd pointed out the same thing Micah did namely that Niki was a single parent for months and yet managed to get by, more or less. But instead she tried her best to be the grownup of the trio, giving D. L. parenting pointers and later mustering up a new resolve to try and deal with Jessica once and for all even if she does believe, as she told the shrink, that "what I am, you can't fix." As for D. L., he ultimately did do a nice job of both establishing who was in charge and making Micah feel like an important member of their new family unit. Given how Micah was spending his spare time I won't say D. L. managed to fix everything that was amiss in their relationship, but I think he made an important step in the right direction.

Meanwhile, the interactions between Nathan and Peter are often quite similar to those of a father and son; Nathan behaves as if, and perhaps believes, he's responsible for ensuring Peter's happiness for taking care of him by fixing whatever's going wrong. In "Fallout," the Nathan of Peter's vision replied to Peter's question "what are you doing here?" with "You get in trouble, I drop everything and fix it. Isn't that how things work?" In this episode, Peter told Nathan: "You're my big brother and you fix everything. But you can't... you can't fix this one this time." It makes me wonder what kind of relationship the Petrelli brothers had with their father, and whether Nathan was forced to take on role of playing dad to Peter because their own father was often distant or absent. Regardless, as a result Peter often treats Nathan as he would an overbearing parent as someone to avoid and/or elude when he knows Nathan will attempt to interfere. I mean, the way the whole scene in Peter's apartment played out I half-expected Nathan to yell "you get back here right now, young man!" as Peter made his escape. And it's worth noting that it appears the more Peter has immersed himself in his powers and what they mean, the more Nathan has attempted to assert control and keep his brother on the straight and narrow. Part of Nathan's ongoing denial of his abilities, perhaps? Which, if true, would make it more than a little ironic that Peter is instead turning to someone else to be his mentor as he attempts to master his power a man apparently willing to work with Peter and show him how to fix his problems himself, rather than try and take care of everything for him.

Of course, the most fascinating and poignant father/child relationship on the show right now is that of Claire and her father. Everything that's happening between them now her sense of estrangement, his awareness of the growing distance between them is a result of his attempt to fix everything and make it the way he felt it "should" be. The sad thing is that if the Haitian (and PLEASE could we get the man an actual name?) had done Mr. Bennet's bidding and erased Claire's memories as well, Claire!Daddy would have succeeded in fixing things to his liking and thus quite probably have left Claire even more unequipped to cope with Sylar during their inevitable rematch. In "The Fix" Claire continued to walk that fine line between pursuing her own ends and maintaining the illusion of amnesia, and her heartbreaking expression when Mr. Bennet left her bedroom left little doubt as to the toll her deception was taking on her. Yet it appears her father's actions also produced a new level of maturity and inner strength in Claire; I can't imagine the girl we first met ever suggesting it might be time for her to start dealing with things on her own with such firmness and certainty, regardless of how close the two of them were.

I also should point out that the entire hour also laid the groundwork for yet two more parent/child interactions: Hiro and his father, and Claire and her biological mother. Both parents enjoyed immensely memorable introductions: our first view of Hiro's dad is from an angle well below his line of sight, meaning we immediately had a sense of him as a man looking down on everyone and everything around him. It also put us in Hiro's shoes, looking up at this stern and intimidating figure. As for Meredith Gordon, I liked how they built up to the reveal of her ability; when she first answered the phone she sounded timid and fearful, her face hidden in shadow. Then we saw her for the first time, paired on a split-screen with Claire (the first time that device has been used on the show) so we could see both the similarities in their features and their poses and note how Claire was fully illuminated while Meredith was still partially shaded. And then the kicker: the moment Meredith oh so casually uses her fingers to light her cigarette. The light dawns indeed. I can't wait for this reunion...

Finally, even Matt's storyline fit into the fixing theme, with the faulty plumbing used as a metaphor for the state of his marriage: he kept on delaying the task, yet once the situation demanded action he was indeed able to make repairs and get it working again. I noticed during my second time through the episode that Matt and Janice's story was the only one to feature a full spectrum of color: the Peter/Nathan/Mohinder and D.L./Micah threads were predominantly blue-toned, with the rest of the colors almost feeling washed out; Niki's scenes tended toward the greenish side, when we weren't in that nice white padded cell of hers; Claire!Daddy and Sylar interacted in a world of black and white, natch; and Claire's world was usually dominated by the warmer end of the color scale reds, yellows and golds. So it makes sense that Matt and Janice, the folks who exhibited the most balance and harmony during this particular episode, not to mention had the most honest conversations and interactions, also got all the colors of the rainbow. They were the only ones we saw actually working together to fix what was wrong in their relationship, so I doubt it's any coincidence that they were also the only ones to achieve some measure of success in that endeavor by episode's end.

Other comments:

· In honor of the five million ads for Hannibal Rising we saw during the episode, I feel I must share my brother's observation that Doctor Lecter would see Claire as the perfect prey: he'd be able to dine to his heart's content and know his food source would be replenished within moments.

· Loved our first view of Mohinder in this episode... I'm sorry lost my train of thought there for a moment...

· Claude's comments about Peter (you're "one of those" and "an empath as a nurse") were so very tantalizing, as it's hard not to conclude he's encountered more than one person with Peter's ability before. Which, in turn, suggests there've also been others who could instantly heal, fly, bend time and space, etc.

· Speaking of our Invisible Man, I wonder if Claude Rains is meant to actually be his name or if it was sarcasm on his part.

· "This is how we roll." Love Hiro. Love the callback to previous events. Love the way his voice hit a dozen different pitches when he said "father." Love that the "gulp" was captioned. Love that Ando had his little moment of being tempted by first-class tickets.

· However, why the hell wasn't Simone with them? 'Cause the last we saw, she was all set to take them to Linderman. Now the boys are wandering around a parking garage, no Simone in sight? No reference to meeting up with her later? Sloppy job on the continuity there, folks.

· Interesting to hear Jessica's death referred to as an accident. And I'd wager a solid amount of money that the person who called the shrink back into the room was Jessica, not Niki.

· Harsh as it was, Janice had a good point in questioning whether Matt truly can't control what he hears or whether on some level he doesn't want to. After all, the skill came in handy when his back was to the wall literally as his captains grilled him; only by hearing and repeating exactly what he had to say did he manage to not get fired.

· Speaking of fires, who wants to bet Claire's mom accidentally started the fire that had them both presumed dead? Myself, I suspect HRG went to her, she got upset and lost control of her ability, and in all the resulting confusion HRG was able to smuggle Claire away.

· Also, seeing Meredith pull fire from her fingers actually creates a logical chain between her ability and Claire's; clearly Meredith herself has some level of invulnerability/regenerative power that prevents those flames from burning her skin (and, I suspect, means no fire can harm her, whether she created it or not it would explain how she survived the apartment fire in the first place). So it makes a lot of sense that her daughter would have a similar gift for self-healing.

· My new guess? Nathan is Claire's dad. They were very particular about establishing her age as between 15 and 16 in this episode, which puts it well within the realm of possibility that someone around Nathan's age fathered her. If I turn out to be right, keep your ears perked for the squeals of anguish from all the Paire 'shippers moments after the revelation.

· Hiro is still speaking, and thinking, in the language of comic books: phrases like "my heart is true, my spirit unbreakable," "do not be afraid, my friend," and "secret headquarters" tend to be dead giveaways in that regard.

· I liked the segue from Claire's wind chimes to the ones outside Matt and Janice's home. And let's not forget, it appeared Mr. Bennet recognized Claire's new decoration whether he understands its significance is yet to be seen.

· Loved the expression of pure joy on Matt's face when he realized Janice was pregnant. Although my years of watching Joss Whedon shows immediately caused me to think, "oh God, it's all about to go horribly, horribly wrong for them..."

· Interesting touch, having the print that looked so much like a Rorschach ink blot on the wall behind D. L. as he argued with Micah.

· The makeup department is still kicking ass, this time making Sylar look like death warmed over as he laid on the gurney.

· The internet has provided some interesting extra details about what Mr. Bennet's been up to over at Primatech; a particular page on the company web site provides access to Mr. Bennet's files on Sylar and Hana Gitelman (known to those following the online comic book as Wireless). The files include a drawing of a human figure with various notes in the margins; on Hana's file, there's a circle around the same spot on the neck that Matt and Ted had their double scar, with a line leading to the notations "pneumatic radio isotope injection,"no interference detected," and "tracking capabilities confirmed." So while Matt, Ted and Hana all believe those scars indicate they were given something that made them special (although we already know that isn't true), it appears (and the most recent comic book installment seems to confirm) they were actually injected with material which allows HRG and his cronies to track their whereabouts. We can also see differences in what they discovered upon scanning Hana's brain and Sylar's hers has an enlarged occipital lobe and overlapping visual cortex cells, while Sylar's got enlarged frontal lobes and irregularities in his hypothalmus. And, in case you were wondering, he too was injected with the isotope "upon delivery."

· And finally, there's the big cliffhanger: Sylar's reawakening. They've set us up for quite the interesting conversation between Sylar and HRG, between Mr. Bennet's callous response to hearing of Sylar's death (the instant classic "well, that's less than ideal") and Sylar's greeting him with the chilling "how's Claire?" Personally, I wonder if when Sylar was spending all that time staring at the cockroach last week he was somehow absorbing what some would consider the bug's special ability: the fact that it can survive just about anything, including being beheaded. I loved how the ticking not only restarted when he opened his eyes, but when he revealed himself to HRG the sounds were not those of a well-oiled clock smoothly marking off the seconds it was more of a tick-ticktick pattern, and the noises suggested some of the springs and gears were entirely out of whack. Oh, and the shunt sticking out of the back of his head was a particularly nice touch.

· As far as the previews go, it is my personal hope that it's revealed Claire's adoptive mother has a power of her own... 'cause that would be all sorts of fun, not to mention ironic. Especially if she were to have the ability to speak to animals, and Mr. Muggles had been filling her in on all the stuff the Haitian made her forget.

Unfortunately for me, though, my long-scheduled trip away means it may be a couple of weeks before I see the next episode. But I have little doubt Erin will do her usual bang-up job of reviewing it; the trick for me will be to make myself watch the episode first, rather than cheating by reading her review to see how everything turned out. So until the next time, stay heroic.

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