It is with a great deal of sadness that I sit down to write my final “Heroes” recap.Actually, there’s not that much sadness – other than how sad it is that a show that was SO good, and SO exciting in its first season could never get its act together.
I realize the whole “Heroes has been absolute crap since season 2” routine isn’t exactly original. However, I kept watching because I’m an intensely loyal fool. On top of that, even when the show got REALLY bad, I found its badness to be fascinating. However, as the show crawled toward its season 4 finale, I found myself dreading having to sit down to watch the show each week. It felt like a punishment. The badness wasn’t fascinating or even so-bad-it’s-good anymore – it was simply depressing.
Before I get to the season finale, let’s talk about “The Wall”, during which the show reinforced the idea that you CAN have too much back story. If you care to remember, this was the episode in which Samuel strapped Noah down in the hall of mirrors and forced Claire to see HRG’s less-flattering memories. Basically, it was a (bad) remake of the season 3 episode that had Parkman, Mohinder and Peter kidnap Noah and force their way into his mind.
The season 1 “Company Man” episode exploring Noah’s past is a classic. Every subsequent attempt to delve into Noah’s past has been an absolute joke. I mean, did we REALLY need to know that when he was “younger” (Jack Coleman is good, but couldn’t they spring for an actor in his 20’s here?) Noah was an aspiring playwright (eye roll) who sold used cars and had a wife who was killed (for no apparent reason) by a special. (At least they made his wife black just to mix things up.) Noah started tracking down people with abilities and was eventually recruited by the Company (welcome back Eric Roberts) and the rest is history. Pointless history.
The whole thing ended up being even more pointless when Claire revealed that, no matter what Samuel showed her, she was never going to turn on her dad. So basically this was little more than another excuse for the show to break out the black and white film. In the end, Samuel buried the two of them alive in his trailer so that she could watch Noah die slowly.
The other main storyline had Peter entering Sylar’s mind to try to free him from Parkman’s trap only to wind up stranded himself. I don’t know if I was being influenced by the show’s general chintziness, but these scenes felt less like a vast, barren wasteland and more like an abandoned Hollywood backlot. It’s too bad because I actually dug the idea of, arguably, the two most powerful characters on the show being completely helpless, but the show decided to take the therapeutic route and had Peter and Sylar work out their issues.
In the end, Sylar got the opportunity to personally apologize to Peter for murdering his brother, and Peter finally let go of the anger he’d been hanging on to and, consequently, let Nathan go. I thought the show would’ve been wise to explore the idea that, in Sylar’s mind, they spent five years together (which is probably more quality time than Peter spent with Nathan), but there was no time for that. They were off to save the day in the season finale.
They hit a VERY mild road block when Eli the Replicating Man showed up to stop them, under Samuel’s orders. This was the guy who couldn’t even hold on to Lauren in the previous episode. (Seriously, how did she get away from him? I guess they couldn’t afford to show it.)
Predictably, Peter and Sylar disposed of Eli and Sylar was able to (semi)convince Parkman that his motives were pure. Unfortunately, Parkman is one of MANY characters in the “Heroes” universe that could’ve probably sat out this season without being missed. (Hi Mohinder!)
Another one of those characters is Tracy. Ali Larter made what amounted to a cameo as Tracy (somehow) liquefied Noah and Claire’s underground trap and saved the day (never to be seen again). If you’ve read this recap before, you know that I think Jack Coleman is one of the best actors on this show, but I wasn’t really moved by his emotional final moments with Claire. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was top-notch. I just knew there was NO WAY the show would kill off a major character (that’s not “Heroes” style), so I didn’t get invested. I like Noah, but the character outlived his usefulness a long time ago, and dying underground with Claire (especially given what she does at the end of the episode/start of the new volume) would’ve been very poignant.
Unfortunately, another character that could’ve taken the year off is Hiro. I mean, talk about pointless. He spent a good portion of this season dealing with a brain tumor that was supposed to teach him about accountability and not abusing his powers before he died. Yet in this episode, his tumor is completely gone and he’s back to using his powers at will.
Ok, so the actress they got to play the older version of Charlie was adorable, but come on, “Heroes”! Could you really not get Jayma Mays to do a cameo?! “Glee” hasn’t been on for like three months and it’s not back till April! In a completely predictable turn of events, Older Charlie convinced Hiro to stop trying to make their life together happen, since she’d lived out her own fulfilling life that included a cute granddaughter.
The big showdown at the carnival ended with more of a whimper than a bang. For example, Sylar didn’t so much save Emma from Puppet master Doyle. He basically distracted Doyle long enough for Emma to be able to save herself. (I guess that counts.) Meanwhile, Claire, Noah, a mind-controlled Eli and eternal flip-flopper Edgar convinced the rest of the carnie folk that Samuel was up to no good, causing him to flip out.
Fortunately, Hiro and Ando showed up (I love how Claire was completely unsurprised to see them) and together they teleported all of Samuel’s people (his source of power) away. (I guess Ando’s “Red Lightning” power went back to being a “Super charger” power this week.)
As a result, Samuel was left alone and defeated. If we ever see him again (God help us), he’ll hopefully have his act together. Robert Knepper is a good actor, but he never could settle on what Samuel’s accent should be, the same way the writers didn’t settle on what Samuel’s motivations were and whether or not he should be a full-on bad guy until it was too late.
So that’s the end of the “Redemption” volume of “Heroes.” We were led to believe the story would center on Samuel and his group, but the person getting the titular “Redemption” turned out to be, well, Sylar, who had a passing relationship at best with the season’s main bad guy.
As is customary, we got a sneak peek at the next volume. (I WOULD say the producers are being overly optimistic in planning a new season, but NBC really has nothing these days.) Anyway, I have to give credit where its due – Claire revealing herself to be a special in front of TV cameras in a way that harkened back to her days as a Texas cheerleader was terrific.
The only problem is that I absolutely DO NOT trust this show’s writers to develop that idea in a meaningful or competent way next year. Assuming this show gets a next year.
As a result, I’m signing off as a “Heroes” watcher. Feel free to tell me “good riddance”, but I’ll just say I enjoyed (most of) my time writing about this show and some of the time watching it.
So what’d you think of this episode? Were you happy with how the season turned out? Finally, will you tune in for season 5?
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