Heroesville: Heroes, Season 3, Episodes 9 – “It’s Coming”
According to Arthur, Sylar can access his empathy to take people’s powers without killing them. So in other words, if he accepts his humanity, his powers work exactly like Peter’s. Remember how much they talked about Peter’s empathy in Season One, even using that word way more often than actual people would ever use it? It’s almost like there’s a plan! And since Kring wrote this episode himself, it actually seems possible in this case. Anyway, he makes his point by tossing Sylar into a dark basement with a chained Elle. Right away, she exhibits more power than we’ve ever seen from her, literally shredding Sylar with her lightning. (And although I am not entirely objective when it comes to Kristen Bell, she totally rocked this episode.)
Claire and Peter spend most of the episode arguing whether Peter has to go his own way to fight Arthur. Personally, I’d think the invulnerable girl would be a great asset, but you know how Peter is. And I find that I am now extremely excited whenever the team of Knox and Flint shows up. I like Knox’s crazy-eyed menace and Flint’s semi-literate glaze. Really, I like almost every character better when they’re paired up on this show.
Mohinder’s not having much luck with the power serum, and he theorizes that there’s a third part of the formula, a catalyst. He makes the leap that the catalyst is a person, and I think we’re all comfortable in assuming that it’s Claire. (This is interesting, because it changes the meaning of “Save the cheerleader, save the world”. Remember, the original mission was based on a faulty conclusion, since Claire was alive and well in the future they were trying to prevent.)
Hey, Matt’s in this episode! A vision of the late Usutu leads him to the comatose Angela Petrelli. He can’t get to her using his powers, and they miss the chance to give him a bloody nose. Using psychic powers too strenuously gives you a nosebleed! Did Maxwell Lord teach us nothing? That aside, Daphne moves darn fast to rat Matt out to Arthur. We see Arthur is looking at a picture of Claire, so he’s cracked this ‘catalyst’ thing quickly. Daphne clearly has some guilt, but once again Arthur whips her into shape by referencing her “old life”. By the way, over with Claire, Knox makes it clear that he and Flint have come for her, not Peter. Yep, Arthur’s got this whole thing figured out. And if I may say, I love Peter’s plan of causing a gas leak as a distraction – especially since he is the only one in the room who would possibly be hurt by a geyser of flame. Old Peter’s not used to not being able to heal.
OK, Hiro is pretty funny as his ten-year old self. And yes, I would probably squander my powers on pranks. And actually, this storyline helps break up the oppressive darkness of this episode. The scenes with Sylar and Elle are pretty rough. Speaking of, it looks like Elle is just venting her anger on Sylar over and over again, and he’s eating up the punishment. Isn’t it nice when people’s issues match up like that? But it’s her “Go ahead. Kill me” that just breaks my heart. My girl is doing some acting right there.
Finally, we get Nathan and Arthur face-to-face. Notice that Arthur touches both Nathan and Tracy and doesn’t go all power leech on them. To me, it’s not clear whether he’s a true believer, or whether he knows that’s the best way to get to Nathan. As stated later, Arthur ultimately wants to give half the world superpowers and unite them under President Nathan Petrelli. Here’s what makes me suspicious of Arthur: While Nathan is awesome, could he emerge as the leader of the Heroes? Sure, he’s got the political skills, but he’s on the bottom tier as far as powers go. Imagine a world where there are thousands of people on a power level with, say, Sylar and Hiro. There are going to be people who are not going to be particularly inspired by a guy who flies. I think Nathan’s connections are the means to an end, but Nathan himself is not part of Arthur’s endgame.
Back in the most depressing cell ever, Elle asks again. “Kill me, and make the pain stop.” Now here’s where Sylar not only copies her powers without stealing them, but he also somehow makes her better. His power is even more advanced than Peter’s. And from his reaction here, it almost seems like he takes on the pain. This could be kind of a Rag Man thing. (Is that story as familiar as I think it is? And no, for a change I’m not actually referring to the superhero by that name.) Interestingly Sylar refers to himself as “human” in this scene, which he almost never does otherwise. He’s begun the process of fixing himself. Then, Elle trains Sylar, which is a recurring theme this season. So many of the Heroes have taken on mentors, rather than stumbling blindly.
Meanwhile, Tracy offers her services to Linderman. She thinks she can sell Nathan on Arthur’s plans. Is she running a game, or did Arthur win her over? It’s hard to tell lately. Since I can’t even decide if Arthur’s sincere or not, I can’t begin to crack this one. And having Tracy in this scene is a brilliant set-up, and they did it so subtly that I didn’t catch it until the end. But we’ll get to that shortly.
Finally, Matt gets into Angela’s dream, and it’s a corridor of locked doors, just like his Bad Dad used to create. Then, Dream Arthur and Daphne get in there, and Dream Daphne’s stab makes him bleed in real life. So just to be evil, Arthur rigged up a trap where he created a fake Daphne to stab Matt inside Angela’s coma. You have to admire that. “Sure, I could kill him, but it’s way cooler if his almost girlfriend does it.” The real Daphne fights her way in and helps Matt pull it together. Finally, whether Arthur really feels remorse, or Matt just overpowers him, or even if it’s no longer worthy of his notice, Angela is free. All in all, this was one of many creepy scenes in this episode. The freaky hallways are always a little upsetting.
Is Mohinder going to euthanize that poor guy he messed up? It sure looks like it. Hey, he and Sylar were confronted with very similar circumstances, and they’re solving it in directly opposite ways.
In the Japanese comic book store, poor amnesiac Hiro is shocked to see that “Captain America is dead! Spider-Man revealed his secret identity! Hulk is red!” Ha! Not only are all three of those things true, but the Red Hulk series is written by Jeph Loeb, longtime Heroes producer (though he was recently let go). And then Hiro finds a Japanese copy of 9th Wonders. Man, that thing’s good for convincing people, isn’t it? But then, how did a new issue come out if Isaac is dead? And would Isaac’s work really be translated into Japanese? That doesn’t happen for a small publisher that often. Either Isaac worked very far ahead, or there’s a Japanese version of Isaac who created his own comic. See, everybody who draws the future has done it with the same art style. Isaac, Peter, Sylar, Matt, Usutu, they all paint the future with Tim Sale art. It’s not such a reach that there’s another guy in Japan who can tap these visions and create something that looks like what Isaac would have created himself. (Which means Isaac may never have had any actual art talent – the composition of his work was controlled by his powers.) 9th Wonders is bigger than us all. Or alternatively, 9th Wonders wasn’t creator owned, and the publisher just hired a new cartoonist. But that means they just happened to find another future painter, and that just seems crazy.
Peter, Clair, Matt, and Daphne all assemble with Angela and they conclude that Claire is the catalyst that Arthur wants. And as much as I like the “warring factions assembling in overlapping scenes”, there’s something that’s even better. I didn’t get the way they were doing this until the actual end of the episode. The people assembling with Arthur are Elle, Sylar, Flint, Knox, and Tracy. That was the exact grouping of killers in Angela’s dream of the future from the season premiere! They’re the ones who kill everybody. They did such a good job of getting people to Pinehearst over the last few episodes that it never clicked until I saw the group together. Oh, this is going to get ugly.
Next week begins a two-parter: “The Eclipse”. And based on the previews, it looks like a real game-changer. I am very excited about this.
Wow, I like this episode so much I didn’t notice the complete lack of Bennet until now. Well played, Kring. Well played.
