Most of the original Twelve (Remember last season when everybody’s parents made up the Twelve? Now we’ve got the Twelve escaped criminals. Super-powered people are a lot like eggs.) had abilities that were protective, or at least non-physical. Other than Bad Dad, none of them really had a power that could be used offensively. It’s like they started out trying to fix the world, and their descendants just beat on each other. (Also, was I the only person who had a John from Cincinnati flashback when Hiro’s mom brought the bird back to life? Actually, I probably was.)
Hereosville: Season 3, Episode 12 – “Our Father” (Dec 9)
It’s a cute scene with Hiro and Claire coming up with similar plans independently in different languages. OK, I like these two together. Claire’s been kind of a pill lately, and I like her a lot in this episode. It’s nice to see Kaito and Hiro together again, too. Granted, neither character gets any satisfaction from it since Kaito doesn’t recognize his son and Hiro doesn’t have any recollection of his later relationship, but it made me happy.
So that’s where Sylar was last week – Costa Verde! You know, the place he blows up in the future. Not that Hiro knew this, of course. And just to pour salt on my wounds from last week, not only do we get to see Elle’s corpse, but Sylar actually lights her on fire! All of you who told me that she could still come back are liars! Short of a title card telling us that she died on her way back to her home planet, that’s about as final as TV death gets. But now Sylar’s got her phone, and contact information for a whole new batch of victims. (Sidenote: The producers have said online that Sylar lost all of his Season One powers except for his original ability and the telekinesis. Apparently, those were the only powers he got back at the end of Season Two. But how did he blow up Costa Verde with Atomic Ted’s powers? I think about this kind of thing more than I should.)
Peter and the Haitian are back in America and they’re packing heat, ready to take down Arthur. Nathan, meanwhile, goes to Pinehearst to run the show. They want to be able to choose the powers they give to people, which would be a good thing. You want to be careful with who gets the exploding powers, you know?
In the past, Claire meets Sandra Bennet as well as baby Claire. They did a good job with making the cast look younger without going over the top, by the way. Sandra is understandably overwhelmed, what with her having become a mother with absolutely no warning. Poor woman has to cope with a lot.
Well, Sylar’s back in murder mode, visiting Sue Landers, the human lie detector. Now remember, Sylar doesn’t have to kill in order to copy people’s powers anymore. He’s choosing to kill because it’s easier and he likes it. Heck, he massacres Sue’s co-workers for no good reason. It’s worth noting that Sylar is really funny in this episode. Yes, he’s funnier when he’s opening people’s skulls.
Good scene with Nathan and the Marine. The soldier gives a pretty solid reason as to how giving the right people powers could benefit the world. It’s good to get a regular person to weigh in, since that’s not a perspective we usually see on this show. If you’re not Bennet or Ando, you’re pretty much just along for the ride.
Now, I’ve read too many Flash comics in my life, but I’ve got issues with Daphne running both Ando and Matt to Manhattan. What, did she carry them both? Yes, there is no reason why this should bother anybody else in the world. Anyway, when they question the dispatcher, Matt’s back to reading minds again. At least he’s not still mentally compelling people to act against their will. That was a little too evil for my tastes. You’ll also note that Matt still gives Daphne a lot of credit. He’s always telling her that she’s a good person, which has me worried there’s going to be a betrayal. At least she gets to bust open some super speed to catch that dispatcher. That was pretty awesome.
In their respective pasts, Hiro hears his father talk about what a disappointment he is and Claire finds herself on the receiving end of an old-fashioned Bennet Death Glare. Boy, he was protective of his daughter almost instantly, wasn’t he? This results in a nice scene for Claire, where she finally gets over the brattiness she’s been sporting all season. What I like is that you can tell that Bennet gets it. He knows exactly who Future Claire is, and he’s really proud of her.
Then there’s another nice scene with Hiro and his mom. This was really sweet, and if you didn’t get a little lump, then you are a bad person. Again, the overall silliness of “The Light” kind of stepped on the emotions, but you had to be proud of Hiro for taking on that responsibility. Everybody involved did a good job here.
Now, I didn’t get to see the full scene with Peter and the Haitian, since my local news jumped in to tell me that it was snowing. You know who doesn’t need that information in any sort of urgent sense? People who are inside! Luckily, the show comes back in time for the scene with Sylar in the elevator. So grim, and so hilarious. There’s an insane amount of blood in this episode, isn’t there? He rarely made such a mess before – now he’s just enjoying himself.
In the present, Matt and company leaf through the sketchbook, and it doesn’t have good news for them. We jump into the past, and in a really clever shot, they recreate the scene where Adam Monroe shows up to kill Hiro’s dad. Of course, when Hiro steps into the light, we can see that his hair’s just messed up, creating the outline of a hood. OK, now you’re just showing off, guys. Claire seems like she’s not happy about not being the Catalyst. (Double negative! Woo!) It might just be that she thought she was born that way. Either way, Arthur Petrelli shows up in the past, wipes out Hiro’s powers, takes the light, and throws him off the roof. Then he sends Claire back home before disappearing himself. I’m glad they gave us that shot of Hiro hanging from the flagpole, because there’s enough traumatic stuff happening in this episode already.
Back in the present, Ando has the idea that they can use Pinehearst’s formula to create another time traveler, and even suggests himself. Hey, Ando? I like you and all, but we still have this image of you in the future using lightning powers to kill Hiro. Maybe you should stay away from anything that might give you powers.
And now our big finale. With Arthur transferring the Light into a machine (I know. We’ll just have to accept it.), he heads out to deal with the Peter Problem. Arthur is fantastically overconfident here, right up until he notices the Haitian. Hee. At this point, Arthur is so powerful that he’s actually overwhelming the Haitian, which is something we’ve never seen before. That probably explains why Sylar’s powers are still working. This is all very cool, with Sylar keeping the bullet in midair as he questions Arthur. Thanks to the late Sue Landers, Sylar knows for sure that Arthur is not his father at all. And just like that, with no fuss, the bullet’s in motion again and Arthur is dead. Damn, I didn’t see that one coming. I’m not sure what to make of the light that emanates from his corpse at one point. Was he releasing the catalyst? Did the powers that he stole go back to their original source? We don’t know, but I think it’ll be important next week.
So, that’s all over then, right? Arthur’s dead, now it’s just a matter of cleaning up, right? Oh, wait. The formula works, and Nathan’s got himself a super-strong Marine. And if Arthur’s dead, doesn’t that make Nathan the villain right now? Boy, this makes the “Nathan saves the day” ending that they like to use fairly unlikely.
Next week, the Villains arc finishes up! We’ve got people dead, powerless, and stranded in the wrong decade. Oh, and Sylar’s crazy again. As long as we don’t talk too much about “The Light”, this should be awesome.
