Heroes : ".07%"

[norwich36]

Wow. In the 400 years since we last got an episode, I think I had forgotten exactly how wonderful it is to see a show juggle multiple plotlines and character arcs so well. I also managed to forget how this show fills me with so much glee I have a hard time analyzing it rationally. But let me give it a shot.

Good and Bad Parents

Lindermann has, in only two brief appearances, completely supplanted Lionel Luthor as my favorite magnificent bastard. Holy crap, what a wonderfully complex villain he is! I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this from a show that gave us Mr. Bennett and Mama Petrelli, but DAMN. How beautifully ironic that his heroic power is healing, and that he wants to give the world hope by first giving it fear. And how simultaneously wonderful and tragic that today's Heroes are apparently repeating history: a history that left Mama Petrelli with deep regrets, Lindermann with a deeply creepy desire to destroy the world in order to save it, and presumably Hiro's dad with his own issues that I'm sure we'll discover in future episodes.

And you know, if Lindermann turns out to be Nathan's real dad? Heroes officially becomes the fandom with the most incest EVER. Because as Lindermann was trying to turn Nathan to the dark side of the force, there was a definite slashy vibe, which must be added to the pre-existing subtext between Peter/Claire, Nathan/Claire, and of course, the completely over-the-top Nathan/Peter vibe. Hell, Nathan/Peter has practically left the realm of subtext to become text. I half expect them to just be making out onscreen in the next episode. I mean, first Nathan's total anguish on seeing Peter died, and that lovely Pieta-esque hug, and then the conversation afterwards: "I don't know who I am without you"? DAMN.

Thinking about recurrent themes in this episode, I actually think the writers may be deliberately playing with incesty themes as a way to examine different shades of parental love. For example, the shapechanging Hero whose name I have forgotten was threatening to start seducing Mr. Bennett in the form of Claire. Come to think of it, the shapeshifter also delivered Micah to Lindermann in a way that could be read, possibly, as having weird "pandering to the pedophile" overtones. (Was I just imagining that? Maybe it's just that I find Linderman SO creepy that I can't read his paternal concern in any way other than the perverse?)

If Lindermann is the perverse father, and Nathan is the father who alternates between neglect (ignoring Claire up until this point in her life) and protection (sending Claire away presumably to protect her from the bomb and whatever his plan to avert it is), then Mr. Bennett is of course the good father, protecting Claire at his own expense and acting rather paternalistically to Matt and Ted. True, he's trying to effect his own escape as well, and searching for allies, but I do feel he was being deliberately contrasted against Lindermann as a good paternal figure in this episode. And I just loved how amazingly competent he was, even if he is inadvertantly setting the stage for the nuclear catastrophe.

Contrasting with our trio of father figures, we have a pair of mothers, in Jessica and Mama Petrelli. Both of them will sacrifice a lot to protect their children, though surprisingly Jessica seems to be the one most likely to look out for her son's true interests. I was pretty impressed, actually, that Jessica stood up to Lindermann to protect Micah, because even though she's exhibited protectiveness toward him in the past, we hadn't, I don't think, seen any self-sacrifice in that protectiveness before. She's clearly not going to let Micah be exploited if she has a choice, which is the first really admirable characteristic she's ever exhibited, even if she fails to actually protect him. Meanwhile, Mama Petrelli "protected" Claire by giving her to the company--and clearly she thinks her decision was justified, to spare Claire whatever exploitation she herself experienced? And yet her protectiveness can't be divorced from her ambition for her son. She won't let Claire, or even Peter's death, stand in the way of Nathan's election. Why? Is she being manipulated by Lindermann? Does she buy his vision of the future? Or does she simply think that if Nathan has power she'll be free in a way she is not now? I'm uncertain of anything except that she must have a deeper motive than just ambition.

Is the future predetermined?
So parenthood, good and bad, was a big theme in this episode, but the other huge theme was the fixity of the future: can the future really be changed, or is it predetermined? Isaac's death, which Hiro hoped to prevent, was not averted, though it's hard to tell how much of that is because Isaac simply gave up, and how much was predetermined. Peter's "death" seemed, for a few moments, to challenge the predestined future (or at least the accuracy of Isaac's visions), and yet when Peter revived the audience--and possibly Nathan?--realized that it may not be possible to change the future Isaac saw. I loved the fact that Hiro is realizing that changing the timeline might not be possible, and that it would be a good idea to investigate more before jumping around in time again. And I'm sure most of the rest of the audience squealed as loudly as I did when Hiro came face to face with his future self!!

Finally, I have to return to Isaac's death. Was he giving up because he had lost so much? Was he making some sort of heroic sacrifice to ensure an outcome he had seen in the future? I really hope the latter is true, because giving the power of future visions to Sylar seems like ceding the battle to him, otherwise, and I'd like to think better of Isaac than that.