Heroes: Unexpected

by Erin

A Soulful Spike Society Review
www.soulfulspike.com

 

 

Unexpected, huh? That’s asking a lot of an audience, or perhaps putting a great deal of pressure on a writer. Which is it? Are we supposed to be surprised by the behavior of each of the heroes tonight? Shocked by the twists and turns? Or are the players in this drama being surprised by events, by others, by themselves? I’ll give the coward’s answer and say, “It’s a bit of all of that, actually.”

 

This was a very twist-y episode, both in content and form; I will do my best to try to address it all, using the ideas of “expected” and “unexpected” in relation to their actions. The first one is Mohinder. It’s obvious that we all expect that Mohinder would, in the words of my talented co-reviewer, Sara, “buy an [expletive deleted] clue” in regard to his traveling companion. From the audiences’ point of view, it is painfully obvious that, although the sign on the front of Dale’s shop hanging right above Mohinder’s head reads: “Danger: Do Not Approach Wildlife,” he hasn’t just approached it; he’s done the equivalent of locking himself in a lion’s cage wearing a garland of raw meat. However, Mohinder has not had the benefit of seeing Sylar’s actions from the beginning. Not only has Sylar committed multiple murders without being caught, he’s even fooled and escaped Mr. Bennet. He, in fact, is the only non-Petrelli who has managed that feat. Chandra Suresh spent a considerable time with Sylar before he realized that Sylar was a danger. Sylar is not unskilled at playing Zane as a little overzealous but sincere hero. Mohinder has been exposed to several extraordinary things in a short period of time, which lowers his threshold of accepting incongruous events. Context is key; Mohinder’s first impression of Sylar was as an overwhelmed young man trying earnestly to come to grips with his new abilities. If “Zane” seems a little weird at times, well, in Mohinder’s own words: “I don’t really know you.” A young man with a newly found power might be excused for coming off as intense and oddly socialized. Finally, it’s not a mental stretch for Mohinder to believe that Sylar is “following” them and not realize that it’s his passenger. Perhaps our expectation that Mohinder would put all these disparate elements together and arrive at “Sylar’s my co-pilot” might be premature. It’s also clear that you can’t prepare for everything. No matter how prepared Dale was, both by her power and her own sense of herself, she ended up just as dead. She had the text, if you will, right in front of her: Sylar’s excitement, his beating heart, the bad feeling he obviously gave her, but it wasn’t in a language she understood.

 

Whew. Moving on, to the couple that’s expecting. It was not a great surprise, in the last episode, that Matt revenged himself on his former co-workers and their low opinions of him by stealing Malsky’s diamonds. Yet, it hard not to be concerned about his mental abilities when he chooses his sock drawer as a hiding place; he didn’t expect Janice would look in there eventually? As nice as it was to see Matt finally take some action, both the “diamond” storyline and his marriage storyline are increasingly starting to feel like writerly manipulations to get him into the Bennet house. When the show started, the problems between Matt and Janice seemed to be centered on the fact that Janice was recently promoted at work and served as the primary breadwinner, whereas Matt, due to his dyslexia, could not progress in his chosen profession. Then it was his power, her affair, the pregnancy, and Matt’s suspension. In creating a character, a writer has to be careful not to have him or her be more “done to” than “doing.” Until he appears at the Bennets, gun in hand, Matt has the distinction of being the most “done to” character of the cast. Even if it doesn’t seem completely unexpected that he and Ted and Hana would team up, I’m happy to see him no longer being portrayed as a victim.

 

Also not unexpected was Hiro’s decision to strike out on his own; the conversation with Gustavson about partners either “abandoning you” or “screwing you over” made that fairly clear: M-O-O-N, that spells “obvious foreshadowing.” What was unexpected was Ando finally feeling a part of things; finally understanding what “hero” really means, and Hiro understanding that he had been “using” Ando just as much as Gustavson had used Hiro as a “Japanese Mapquest.” I don’t mean to imply that Hiro was using him in the same way he was used. Instead, he never fully integrated Ando into his mission; Isaac’s comic book told him Ando was supposed to be there, but not what Ando’s purpose was. This was obvious in “Run!” when Hiro became annoyed that Ando was repeating to him everything Hiro had told him about their greater purpose. Run! made it clear that Hiro’s purpose was the only purpose they’d been pursuing. Does this mean that Ando’s lack of integration into the mission is because he doesn’t belong, or because Hiro has neglected to look to him as anything but company on his quest?

 

As for Wireless and Radioactive Guy, I found it highly unexpected that his IM name was “TeddyBear.” That says a great deal about whom he was before he became a walking China Syndrome. There are several references throughout the episode about what constitutes of a hero, or heroic action. Ted and Hana’s plan to “nuke” the Bennets is defined by Ted as a good action. We also have Mr. Bennet, the object of their vengeance, advising Isaac to “save the world” with a gun. Regardless of whether we think of Ted’s or Bennet’s or Isaac’s actions as heroic, it’s certain that they think of themselves as serving a greater purpose. Hana, as a new character, is free from our expectations of what she is capable of, or what her motivations are beyond taking her revenge on Mr. Bennet. In all of their cases (excepting Mr. Bennet), however, it’s clear that revenge is not a heroic motivation.

 

Which brings us to Peter, Isaac, and Simone. Exactly how pure were Isaac’s motivations? Does Peter’s anger and attack on Isaac constitute a morally ambiguous action? I think that this episode contains a very particular answer, which is why it contrasts Hana/Ted/Matt and Peter/Isaac. Ted tells Matt: “We could be heroes” (just for one day; sorry, couldn’t help myself). Peter tells Isaac: “You’re not a hero.” Earlier in the episode, Simone tells Isaac he’s lying and being cagey in the same way he did when he was addicted to heroin. We’re meant to question whether Isaac’s commitment to the purpose Bennet (and Simone, for different reasons) has given him is just another addiction (he’s replaced heroin with “heroism”). He doesn’t question why Mr. Bennet wants Peter found, or what he’ll do with him when he is located. His actions, further, are tainted by the fact that Peter is the one with the woman he loves. In his defense, Simone was asking a lot of a man who not only recently battled addiction, but also developed a frightening new power and lost her in the process to find the man she left him for. As for Peter, were his actions extreme? I don’t know if I really have an answer. He battled Sylar while under the impression that he was powerless. He nearly died from absorbing too many powers at once and was plagued with the certainty that he was going to destroy New York because of that power. He sought help and gained some measure of control, only to have Isaac’s actions drive off the one person he felt could help him. Is anger a non-heroic emotion? Is self-preservation? I don’t believe they are, nor do I feel Peter’s gone to the “dark side.” In the final analysis, though, both Isaac’s and Peter’s actions contributed to Simone’s death and turned her into a cautionary tale about ordinary people caught in superhero crossfire. She deserved better than that.

 

Other Observations

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for Sara’s insightful and amazing review of the next episode!

 


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