Most people point to the second season of "Heroes" as the moment where the show went into its creative freefall.(You can discuss amongst yourselves the varying degrees to which the show has clawed back from the depths of outright awfulness since that time. For me, that’s another discussion for another day.)
However, I like to think the decline of "Heroes" started just before that, with the season 1 finale. The entire season built towards an amazing showdown at Kirby Plaza featuring Sylar, an exploding Peter and the rest of the cast of characters. What we got instead was underwhelming and too-quick confrontation that left a bad taste in fans’ mouths over the subsequent summer. That bad taste only grew worse once the show came back for that notorious second season.
Flash forward two seasons (and three volumes) and we have the long-estranged Petrelli brothers, FINALLY coming together in solidarity as they prepare to face off with Sylar, the show’s most dangerous menace, in another season finale. As the brothers enter the room to take him on - the door closes?! Instead of seeing the fight for ourselves, we see Claire seeing the fight.
FAIL. I mean, God forbid we get to see something cool.
After the fight is over, Peter stumbles out and leaves the room with Claire. A little later Nathan is flung into the room and onto a piano. Nathan gets up, faces Sylar and after another awkward moment (honestly, a homeless cat could’ve done a better job choreographing this "fight") Sylar...we’ll get to that later.
All of this being said, I don’t think "An Invisible Thread" was nearly as bad as that season 1 finale, thanks to a couple of cool twists, and an awesomely tortured howl from Cristine Rose as Angela Petrelli. (Seriously, that howl may have been the best thing this season.)
In fact, I didn’t even think the non-fight was the worst part of the episode. I had more of a problem with the blatant stupidity demonstrated by some of the characters and by the writers for no other reason than to advance the plot to where it needed to be.
If you recall, we left our Heroes as they raced to Washington, D.C. Separately, Hiro and Ando, as well as Matt Parkman, wanted to stop Danko’s men in Building 26 once and for all. Meanwhile, the Petrelli-Bennett’s wanted to stop Sylar-disguised-as-Nathan from meeting the president, shaking his hand and being able to impersonate him.
Here’s a sampling of my "WTF/No way" moments from last night’s episode as they jumped in my head: WTF, Sylar can now move his vulnerable spot?! (This plot point is either a little too convenient or WAY too convenient?) Where the hell was Peter hanging out until the moment he found unconscious Nathan? WTF, why is Hiro’s body rejecting his power all of a sudden? (Other than to make us think he was the character who might die, of course,) WTF, why did Peter only absorb Sylar's shape-shifting ability when he touched him? No way does Claire believe for a second that guy is Nathan? (I guess a vague reference to Mexico IS enough to convince her, despite the fact that Sylar-as-Nathan was acting completely different) Oh wait, Claire has been an idiot for a solid year and a half now. No way Sylar would keep Nathan alive and lying on the floor for a prolonged period of time when he could just take his memory and his powers in about a minute. (What was his reasoning for this again?)
That reminds me of another disappointment I had with this episode. Last week, I was encouraged by the idea that Sylar (spurred by Micah/Rebel and unbeknownst to our Heroes) would use his politician-impersonating power for the good of other people with abilities. Of course, the writers COMPLETELY abandoned that idea and seemed content to have the character fall back into cartoon villain mode, though they also decided to ramp up the creepiness by having him hit on Claire. (Double ick.) I mean, Sylar’s a lot of things, but when did he become a pedophile?
Then there was the non-fight.
Look, I understand that a network TV show is never going to have the budget a summer blockbuster movie does. Also, contrary to popular opinion, I have an imagination and I don’t need to see every single thing. However, you can’t just have the build up this show has had in the past for certain confrontations and then cheat the audience. To be blunt, this show is NOT good enough in other areas (writing and acting) to deprive us of some eye candy. As far as the budgetary concerns, shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Supernatural" and even "Charmed" that probably didn’t have the resources "Heroes" does consistently deliver the goods in the action department.
I can see the dramatic reason for not showing the fight. The writers probably wanted us to wonder whether or not Peter was able to absorb Sylar’s power. If that’s the case, why not have them at least tussle in that room a little bit before the three fly off camera? Peter could then absorb the power during that time, eventually stumble back into the room and everything follows suit. (Including Nathan’s effectively gruesome death.)
Fortunately, the fact that Peter DID absorb the power led to the episode’s coolest sequence. Sylar got close enough to the president to shake his hand, but the president had been replaced by Peter in the limousine.
With Sylar incapacitated and Nathan dead, a few of the characters (and the writers) had an ingenious idea. Reasoning that Nathan would be essential to starting a new Company, Angela and HRG convinced Parkman (pictured, right) to wipe Sylar’s memory clean and make him believe that he was Nathan and that he’d been Nathan all along. I really liked how disturbing this twist was (Sylar losing his awful memories) and I liked the way it tied into Mohinder’s narration in the beginning (that I usually ignore).
In fact, the only thing I don’t like is that it once again shows the writers’ unwillingness to be completely done with a character/actor on the show. When the show was originally conceived, it was supposed to feature a rotating cast of characters, but since the original characters and cast became so popular, that became almost impossible to do. The result has been what has to be the record for non-deaths/fake deaths outside of the daytime soap opera arena.
By keeping Nathan alive, the show gets to keep Adrian Pasdar and Zachary Quinto’s services (while freeing up the latter/budding movie star to do other work). While this is a very convenient thing for the writers (and for both actors, whom I like) it once again has a faint whiff of cop out. The show needs to buck up and just kill one of these characters already without bending over backwards to find a way to bring them back. (Seriously, Adrian Pasdar has been killed or almost killed in three out of four volume finales, by my count.) That being said, this was BY FAR the smartest way the show has brought someone back from the dead.
Unfortunately, the memory wipe didn’t last as Nathan 2.0 is feeling a strange affinity toward clocks. Uh oh, time to call Parkman in for a brainwashing tune up!
So what’d you think of this episode? Were you glad to see Tracey back in the teaser for Volume V: Redemption? (It was a cool scene, but I saw "Obsessed" - there’s no way Ali Larter is THAT bootylicious.) Was there any reason to keep Danko alive? Is Claire of any use anymore? Will you be tuning in for "Redemption"?
Finally, thanks for following me along on these "Heroes" recaps. Like the show itself, I like to think they have potential, but more often than not turn out to be ridiculously, entertainingly bad.
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