Heroes: Father (and Mother) Time

Finally, this show is moving in the right direction.

Sure, there’s still more overtly stupid stuff than necessary (I’m talking to you Matt, Daphne and the now-comically evil Sylar), but the stupid-to-good stuff ratio was solidly on the “good stuff” side last night.

I’m fairly sure we can thank Hiro’s mother for that.

Let’s just get the stupid stuff out of the way. I mean, what exactly was the point of Matt, Parkman and Ando’s trip to NYC to find the bike messenger who had the lost issue of 9th Wonder? Sure, we found out that travelling by super speed is a lot windier than teleporting, but the rest was kind of a waste. Yes, the characters needed to eventually see that Hiro would become “lost in time”, but we were seeing that very thing happen before our eyes, so those scenes felt superfluous last night. Then again any scene with Daphne and Parkman feels superfluous these days. On the other hand, I don’t mind Ando too much at all, especially now that he’s actually expressing an interest in having superpowers (and perhaps fulfilling Hiro’s dark vision).

I know that last week I expressed optimism about Sylar’s return to evil form, but I didn’t realize Zachary Quinto would be playing a cartoon villain. I liked the idea of Sylar absorbing the power of Sue Landers (is she related to this guy), who could tell whether people were lying. His character needed to learn the truth about his potential Petrelli parentage (alliteration!) Unfortunately, the writers and directors have apparently given Quinto free reign to do whatever he wants, and he’s apparently decided to go WAY too broad with the character (“Cake”). Remember when this guy used to be genuinely scary?

Still, those problems were relatively minor, especially since there was plenty to like last night.

Hiro and Claire’s trip to 16 years ago had the potential to be another incredibly stupid sideshow, but things took a positive turn when it was revealed that Hiro’s dying mother had the power to heal. As in she had the power to heal the pain inflicted on us the last few weeks by Hiro acting like a 10 year old. The show also showed some solid sense of humor in the scenes with Hiro and Claire trying to interact despite their language barrier.

Hiro had to find a way to get healed of is stupidity by his mom, while Claire had to stop her dad from allowing Kaito Nakamura to put the catalyst into Claire despite the fact that the catalyst was represented last night by a warm golden light that seemed downright pleasant.

Kaito wanted to put the catalyst in Claire because he viewed his son as an irresponsible failure. But we already knew that. What we didn’t know was that young Hiro had often overheard what his father thought of him and that his mother was the one person who always believed in him. The scene (pictured, right) where the dying mother gets to see her full-grown son (and realizes he became a success just like she knew he would be) was touching. In a show that often feels too busy, this scene was allowed to play out patiently and the decision paid off.

The scenes between Claire and her parents were almost as good. We saw how overwhelmed Mrs. Bennett was at first. She was so overwhelmed that she let a strangely over-tanned teen girl named Bonnie take care of the baby, much to the dismay of a still rough-around-the-edges Noah (not yet H.R.G.) This stuff was so good that I’m willing to overlook the physical impossibility of the same matter occupying the same space at the same time, and the inherent creepiness of Claire feeding herself and changing her own diaper.

Too bad their success in the past was immediately interrupted by Arthur Petrelli, who took the catalyst from Hiro and left him stranded in the past.

Arthur also conveniently lived long enough to pass on the catalyst to the formula, which was tested on an Iraq War soldier of Nathan’s choosing. Nathan was moving ahead with his plan to save the world, while the increasingly conniving Tracy was making sure she was still positioned firmly at his side. The formula was successful in that the soldier gained super strength. I was hoping the formula would give people less generic powers than the ones gained by the soldier and Mohinder. Maybe the super power to arrange furniture in a pleasing fashion.

Unfortunately, Arthur won’t be around to see the fruits of his labor. Peter had been assigned by his mom to kill his dad (think about that for a second), but, like the Haitian, we all knew there was no way that could happen. Ok, so Peter DID pull the trigger, but it was Sylar who delivered the kill after stopping the bullet in midair (cool) and finding out that Arthur wasn’t really his father. I never realized that the Haitian could selectively dampen people’s powers, but this is the second straight week he’s done so, so I’ll guess I’ll roll with that.

I’ll miss Robert Forster as Arthur because I liked that he wasn’t a conventional capital E “Evil” bad guy. Still, the character appears to have served the story and I’m definitely NOT against cutting back on characters in this show. Hopefully, the writers will continue to streamline the characters, sharpen the focus and allow for longer, more effective scenes like the one between Hiro and his mom.

So what’d you think of this episode? Will Nathan’s super soldier actually use his powers for good? How do you think Hiro will get back to the present? How did Arthur Petrelli even know to find Hiro and Claire 16 years ago? Finally, we all think that Noah eventually realized who Claire was during their meeting in the past, right?