norwich36: (claire hiro)
norwich36 ([personal profile] norwich36) wrote2007-02-19 11:15 pm
Entry tags:

Heroes "Unexpected"

Could someone recap the last 2 minutes of the show for me? Apparently my VCR clock is a little fast.

Reactions to the first 58 minutes behind the cut


I do know it was Simone who died, because I had gotten home and turned on the TV just as my VCR clicked off, but I don't know what happened between Isaac pulling the gun on Peter and shooting Simone. (No need to recap the fight for me, if that's all it was--but did Simone say anything? And did we get any flashes to any of the other characters?)

I am so very glad it wasn't Mrs. Bennett that died--that would have killed me. Unfortunately, turning on the TV to see Simone dying took away a little of my suspense in watching the episode (dammit!), but it was still heartbreaking to see Mrs. Bennett collapse and to see Claire's reaction to it. I downright adored Claire's confrontation with her dad in the hospital, both his extremely convincing grief at what he had done and her refusal to let him off the hook for it. And saying that she wanted to run away more than anything, but she couldn't because it was her responsibility to protect the family from him--Oh, Claire, I couldn't love you any more than I do right now. You are one million percent made of awesome. And frankly I hope you find a way to save the day and kick Matt and Ted's butts, because they were both annoying the hell out of me in this episode.

I have a new rule, and it is: nothing can happen to Mrs. Bennett, Claire, or her brother. Heroes writers, I hope you're listening, because I will fly to Hollywood and do my best Jay and Silent Bob imitation if you hurt them.

Stepping back from my passionate defense of the Bennetts for a second, though, it is quite interesting how exposure of powers is the theme of the day: Simone encouraging (threatening?) Nathan to tell the secret, Claire repeatedly trying to tell the secret, and Matt, Ted and cool Israeli woman all trying to uncover the secret. Only the Hiro/Ando plot was not directly concerned with the imminent exposure of the Heroes.

So let me digress to that plot for a second. I actually appreciated the fact that they're keeping Hiro and Ando in comic relief mode, because as Hiro said, enough people have died already--we need these lighthearted bits on the show to switch it up a bit. I think Hiro is clearly making a mistake sending Ando away--trusting the advice of gaming commission guy who's clearly just been double-crossed by his partner-in-crime doesn't seem like a wise move. But that's okay, because clearly it's setting up a scenario where Ando will learn how to be heroic without Hiro and Hiro will realize how much he needs Ando. I wonder if Ando is deliberately positioned here as a kind of golden mean between Mrs. Bennett, whose ignorance is literally killing her, and Simone, who knew everything but was positioned to misuse her knowledge? Of course, Simone is really killed because she's in the middle of a dangerous love triangle, not because of her knowledge--but if Isaac hadn't killed her, I bet Nathan might have arranged an accident.

I loved that scene with Nathan, btw. I can totally see him participating in a round-up of the Heroes, and I have no doubt that right after Simone left the office he was making contingency plants for dealing with her and her dangerous knowledge. In fact, if Nathan had access to Haitian guy, I bet he'd be using him in precisely the same way Mr. Bennett was; in many ways they are very similar, in their pragmatism, their recognition of the dangers posed by the Heroes, and their love for family that somewhat humanizes their otherwise Machiavellian machinations.

And Claire and Peter are quite similar as well, though I'm a little worried now that Peter is going to quickly become corrupted by the powers he acquired. While I did completely love that scene where he deftly rescued invisidude--the telekinesis and the flight, very awesome--the part of his confrontation with Isaac that I was able to see before my VCR cut out worried me a lot, because he seemed less motivated by a desire to really understand what was going on and more by jealousy, which really isn't his most attractive feature. While Peter has no need to adopt Sylar's tactics of mass murder to increase his power, as it is he already seems to be being corrupted by his powers. And really, he's being completely dumb in the way he confronted Isaac. If he *really* wanted to know what had happened with Isaac, wouldn't it have made more sense to get Simone on his side and have her weasel it out of Isaac, rather than violently confront him?

And speaking of dumb acts by characters, I honestly can't decide who was being dumber in road-trip land: Mohinder or Sylar. Oh, Mohinder, you really aren't the sharpest crayon in the drawer, are you? But on the other hand, Sylar, honey, if you really want Mohinder to continue being your source, why can't you wait until *after* he does the interviews with the subjects? He's definitely going to catch on by the fourth or fifth (or maybe the sixth or seventh) time you murder one of his subjects before he gets to interview them--especially if you so obviously react to their powers--and then where will you be? Sure, you'll have his list, but no more hot man lovin' for you, and that would be a real tragedy.

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