therealplister.com

The fourth season of Heroes, also known as Volume Five entitled Redemption, debuted with a two hour premiere this past week, and suffice to say, the new season is already off to a good start with the characters attempting to move on after the shocking events of last season. To briefly recap those events, Sylar brutally murdered Nathan and as a means of covering up the death of a Nathan, a public government official at the hands of a powered person, and the only possible way of neutralizing Sylar as a threat, the heroes have Parkman use his psychic abilities to brainwash Sylar into believing he is Nathan, and use Sylar shapeshifting ability to transform him into Nathan. Yes, kind of complicated. Ultimately, this cover up causes the heroes to form a new version of the Company with essentially the same goal as the original Company, protecting the powered community while also using their abilities for the greater good.

This new season kicks off with a very alive Tracy Strauss tracking down and killing those involved in rounding and caging up people with abilities at the behest of last season’s villain, Danko. But a new villain has surfaced, and Robert Knepper gave a surprisingly impressive performance in the premiere as Samuel Sullivan, the owner of a traveling carnival and leader of a group of powered people, looking to recruit some of the powered people we already know into his “family,” such as Hiro. It’s refreshing to see Knepper tackle something different from the skeevy con man, T-Bag, his famous role on the series Prison Break.

Another newcomer to the cast is Ray Park as a speedster assassin who weilds knives who works for Samuel, and yes, there is a pretty great standoff between him and Peter, who fans know has the ability to attain the abilities of those around him. Ray Park has a pretty strong sci-fi background, best known for roles as Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I, Toad in X-Men, and most recently Snake Eyes in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Needless to say, it’s great to see him join the cast, and hopefully we’ll get to see some of his acting chops, as well as some great fight scenes.

As for the rest of the returning cast, Peter is once again a paramedic, using his abilities while on and off the job to come to the rescue. Hiro and Ando have set up a company, Dial a Hero, but are easily defeated by their first task, saving a cat from a roof, as neither of their abilities are applicable. Parkman is attempting to live his life without his powers, disgusted by what he was asked to do to Sylar, and now finds himself haunted by Sylar. As for Claire, she has finally made it off to college in an attempt to lead a normal life, which is already proving difficult. And lastly, Nathan, well Sylar seems to already be slowly surfacing, which could be bad. Very bad.

Clearly, there’s a lot going on in the Heroes universe, and while at times the pacing of the show has been a bit slow and convoluted, the show really hit it’s stride in season three, raising my expectations for this coming season. After the premiere, the Redemption arc looks to be a promising one, and it should be pretty interesting seeing how everything comes together.

I’ll cut right to it…Nathan and Claire are hiding out in Mexico but find themselves flat broke, Peter and Angela head to a church and debate their next move, and Sylar and Danko team up…? Puzzling, but it looks like they seem to have a common goal.

Down in Mexico, Nathan and Claire manage to scrape together enough cash for a crappy motel room, but are otherwise tapped out. Claire takes the initiative and scores some serious cash by selling a necklace give to her by Noah, and her liver…twice. Ah, this girl amazes me. When she meets up with Nathan at a bar and shows him her earnings, he spots some kids and tells her that he can use it to make even more. Apparently, back when Nathan was a Navy man they would make money at the ports by doing tequila shots until someone passed out. I’ll be damned if Nathan didn’t go to work, but ultimately, he couldn’t quite hold his own against these younger guys. As a result, he passed out and Claire had to catch up and step in…so Claire did roughly 22 shots just to catch up. Basically, Claire can’t get drunk…which in her age group, is kind of a huge bummer, but for this particular plot purpose, it paid off. Eventually, the other dude passed out, and Claire won the cash.

Claire dragged Nathan back to the motel where Nathan opened up to her about how he totally handled everything badly, and gave her a free pass in hopes of making everything right between them. The next morning, Nathan explains that he wants to fix this but he doesn’t know what to do. Claire tells him how amazing he is, likening him to Superman, before eventually walking out. Nathan catches up to her on the street, where she informs him she’s going back to the states, and he then shows her that he sold his watch in exchange for the necklace she sold. He tells her that he too, is going back and will find a way to do something.

Back in the states, Sylar and Danko are both trying to solve a mystery, and sure enough, they realize they might be able to help each other. Danko’s men have been (more…)

Gettin’ up to date on “Heroes,” we last saw Claire confronted by Eric Doyle (puppet master dude that held her and her two moms hostage earlier this season), who claims that she is supposed to help him. Yet again, Rebel is hard at work. Claire and her mother still feel a bit raw about their latest confrontation with him, so despite his efforts to prove that he’s not the same man, he leaves.

Cutting to Parkman, you may recall that Danko drugged him up and left him with a chest full of explosives in front of the Capitol building. When Nathan catches wind of the fact that Parkman is there, he rushes to the scene. Once there, Nathan attempts to calm Parkman down, but Parkman believes that Nathan is responsible for this. Once Nathan manages to gain Parkman’s trust, he pushes him to concentrate on the SWAT team surrounding them to figure out which wire to cut, just as they’re going for the red wire, at the very last second they go for the black wire, and the bomb does not detonate to Danko’s dismay. With that, Nathan knocks Parkman out.

Things are fairly rocky for Nathan and Danko, and they wind up getting into a bit of a pissing match, both revealing that they’re going to try and push each other out. Danko starts digging up dirt on Nathan, attempting to prove his suspicions. He even goes so far as to see Angela in hopes of learning something about Nathan, but she manages to be somewhat evasive. Meanwhile, Nathan has gone over Danko’s head to the president, and is pleased to inform Danko that Danko is out on his ass.

Sylar had an interesting encounter this week…with his father, now suffering from cancer and basically breathing through an oxygen tank. While Sylar was once hell bent on killing him, he now sees how pointless that would be, because he would be putting his father, Samson, out of his misery. Samson shows Sylar that they have the same powers, and sure enough a battle ensues that reveals to Samson that Sylar has a healing ability. Samson’s thirst for the ability takes over, and he pleads with Sylar, saying that he would survive if Samson took the ability, but Sylar decides against it, and storms out leaving Samson to suffer a long and painful death.

As for Claire, ultimately she decides to take the high road and help Doyle, after Doyle totally had her back when she was caught up in a run-in with agents. The thing was, he spared the agent’s life, which won Claire’s trust. She goes to the trouble of creating a false identity and papers for him, and when she sends him on his way asks if he really has changed.  He smiled and walked off without a word.

Meanwhile, Hiro and Ando return to the fold, now seeking to protect (more…)

As for the heroes this week, Peter and Parkman found themselves on Danko’s high priority list, Sylar dug up some answers in an unexpected place, Claire and Mrs. Bennett bonded over liberating a kid with abilities, and Rebel continues to point the heroes in the right direction.

We last left Peter and Parkman at Isaac’s loft, where Parkman had just painted a large explosion in the vicinity of the White House. Peter insists that they bounce because he’s dead certain a team of Danko’s guys is hot on their trail. Parkman insists that they track down Daphne and rescue her. But if Daphne’s in Building 26, then that would be walking right into the lion’s den…which is exactly what they do. Peter takes Parkman’s ability, reasoning that two psychics are better than one, right? Might hurt the getaway a bit, but hey, guess he’s got a point. They get past security and finally reach a room with computers, maybe surveillance, where they start hunting for Daphne. Then they start getting messages from Rebel, one of which is video footage of all the heroes being taken into custody, which is totally not cool and if that footage got out, it could totally kill this whole operation. As for Danko, who starts heading for them, he’s stopped pretty quickly by his own men under Parkman’s mind control. Danko triggers an alarm to disrupt Parkman’s thoughts, giving them a chance to catch Peter and Parkman. Parkman is caught, but Peter manages to somehow slip away…with the video footage.

Claire continues to help Alex, planning to get him set up to leave for Canada. Then her mom finds Alex and demands an explanation for her keeping a boy in her closet. Claire insists that she’s a dirty girl and they’re sleeping together, but Mrs. Bennett doesn’t quite buy that. Eventually, Claire caves and explains that Alex has an ability and is being hunted. Surprisingly, Mrs. Bennett is cool with this, but explains that their house is being staked out, so Claire is going to need her help if she’s serious about helping Alex escape. With that, she uses Lyle’s driver’s license to make Alex a quick fake ID, and Claire is impressed by how cool her straight-laced, non-powered, non-biological mother is. Tender moment.

Meanwhile, Sylar and Luke keep on trucking, and soon enough they make a pit stop at an abandoned and boarded up old Hot Dog place. After ripping down the boards, Sylar and Luke go inside and Sylar gets a few glimpses of his past as a child here. He remembers (more…)

Now that Peter, Mohinder, and Parkman have successfully captured Noah Bennett, they were able to get a glimpse back at how the current crisis all began. After bringing Noah to a hotel room, Parkman began prying into his brain to get to the bottom of all this, and see just how involved Noah was in Nathan’s grand scheme to round all those with abilities up. Granted, what they dig up puts the three of them in some very dangerous situations.

Parkman first learned that Angela Petrelli arranged a pretty nice severence for Noah from Primatech, but he found himself bored with all the free time on his hands at home. Sure enough, Nathan came knocking at his doorstep, looking for Noah’s assistance in creating his government program, hoping Noah’s experience could provide some insight. When he was surprised to see how willing Noah was to give up all the free time at home, Noah explained simply, “There’s only so many crossword puzzles I can do.” With that, Noah went on to show Nathan where his life’s work was, all the remaining weapons and files from working with Primatech.

While Mohinder argued that Noah’s memories could be distorted, and possibly faulty, Parkman insisted that everything he saw was real. With that, he sent Peter to check out the storage unit that Noah brought Nathan to. At the storage unit, Peter loads up on whatever supplies he can carry, but unbeknownst to him, he’s on hidden camera! Nathan and Danko send a team to the unit to capture Peter. And they almost have him, but Peter’s smart enough to slip a grenade outside the door as a distraction, just before zooming the f&*$ outta there!

Back at the hotel, Parkman dives back into Noah’s head, seeing the first meeting between Noah and Danko. Noah explains how things worked at Primatech, the whole “one of us, one them,” and defends some of those being hunted, saying they are good and useful people. Danko basically says screw that. They have a rather curt disagreement over how things should be run, and Danko pretty much wins. Things are getting done his way.

The memory cuts out to a new memory when Noah gets in a cab, driven by none other than Mohinder. Noah explains that Mohinder can be useful (more…)

There was no shortage of hangups for the heroes this week as Claire continued working via text messages for someone who goes by “Rebel,” Hiro and Ando find themselves in India in hopes of getting of Hiro somehow retrieving his powers, and Nathan meets his match when an agent named Abby shows up to investigate his operations. As for Sylar and Luke, well, a quick stop at a diner proves to be violent and enlightening.

Early on, Claire gets a tip from Rebel about one of Nathan’s targets, a geeky kid named Alex who works at a comic shop. She follows the tip, fills him in, and when Noah shows up, no doubt to take the kid down, the two of them take off because a squad of Danko’s (that badass older guy whose kind of a wildcard and works for Nathan, finally found his name) guys aren’t far behind. Alex explains to Claire that he has an ability, and that ability is that he can breathe underwater…which is great, because should he ever find himself in a fight he could totally…ummm, or he could…uhhh, I guess maybe he could…eh, I can’t put a cool spin on this ability. Not only is this kid a geek and getting hunted down by the government, but he’s getting hunted down for having a pretty crappy power. Maybe next episode they’ll introduce a girl who can swim slightly faster than the average person. Later, Claire sneaks Alex into her house, which is totally safe, you know, with her dad being the guy sent to hunt this kid down…

As for Rebel, I actually feel like it could possibly be Noah. Peter seems like the obvious choice, but I’m not so sure I understand how he would have insider info. I suppose it could also be Angela. All good guesses, but I’m going with Noah for now.

As for Nathan, trouble shows up in the form of Abby, who is sent to oversee what Nathan and his team is up to exactly. She’s skeptical of what they’re doing, and is even more skeptical of after seeing Tracy, a former colleague of hers, locked up in a super hot room. Abby has the power to shut down this whole operation if need be, which neither Nathan nor Danko want to see happen…so by no coincidence, Tracy is able to escape into the hallway, where she winds up freezing and killing an agent, right in front of Abby, just before being put back in custody. Abby is suddenly on board, and later Tracy accuses Nathan of leaving the door unlocked and breaking the chains just enough for Tracy to break out. Based on how he’s been acting lately, it wouldn’t be a huge stretch, but when Nathan confronts Danko, it turns out Danko was the sadistic mofo behind that little scheme. This guy’s brutal.

Sylar and Luke take a brief detour from their road trip to grab some grub at a diner, where they do a fair amount of bonding and Luke finally writes down the address of Sylar’s father for him. Sylar begins to take off on his own, saying “You shouldn’t've done that,” but then Danko’s guys show up and corner Sylar, holding a gun right at that spot (more…)

After last week’s crash-landing in the middle of nowhere, Nathan Petrelli finds himself on damage control while his former friends find themselves with a second shot at freedom, on the run of course. It’s only the second chapter of the “Fugitives” volume but already Nathan finds himself overwhelmed and slightly in over his head, balancing his family and his dedication to this new cause, and his hunter (so far this head soldier seems to be nameless) looks like he could definitely cause trouble for Nathan with his ruthless tactics…

Mohinder, Hiro, and Parkman band together while on the run, reaching an unoccupied trailer where they can ditch the jumpsuits and Parkman can draw a few pictures of the future. Hiro explains that he is still powerless after their last adventure and Mohinder encourages him to go and turn himself in so he has the chance to walk away from all this, but Hiro sticks by his old idealistic ways and plans on seeing this adventure through. Once Parkman finishes the drawings, he notices one of Daphne being shot back at the crash site, and leads the gang back to the crash site in hopes of saving her.

Peter and Claire didn’t make it too far through the woods before Noah caught them. Sure enough, Claire looked up at Noah with those pretty eyes and told Peter to start running, while she went back to the crash site with her father…to see her other father, Nathan, who had her tied up. In the woods, Peter crossed paths with Tracey, and tried to convince her to run with him, but she stubbornly refused. When she’s nearly caught in the woods by a few soldiers and Peter saves her, she’s fairly convinced and decides to team up with Peter, except it looks like she has her own motives…

Once Daphne notices that Parkman is missing, she wastes no time sprinting over to Japan to find Ando, who has used his GPS to determine that for reasons unknown, Hiro is somewhere in Arkansas. Together, they rush to the small town and sure enough stumble upon the crash site, bumping into Mohinder, Hiro, and Parkman. Looks like the old gang is back together with another crisis on their hands. (more…)

With the end of the “Villains” volume comes the beginning of the new “Fugitives” volume of “Heroes.” As you may recall, we last left off with Nathan Petrelli going on a power trip and handing over information about his fellow heroes to the president, suggesting that new national security measures be taken. While Nathan once promoted such steps as publicly outing the powered community and also giving others abilities as a means of saving the world, Nathan has once again changed his mind and decided that those with abilities can be viewed as potential threats and therefore they should be roundup as a measure of security. This also means turning his back on those same people he has joined several times to save the world. What a dick.

Most of the episode is spent catching up with our heroes some months after the last potentially earth-threatening incident, as the heroes try and lay low understanding this new threat posed to them by one of their own. But by the end of the episode, most of the main cast find themselves together on a plane in orange jumpsuits, unable to use their abilities. Tracy is the first to fall, getting caught by a clearly prepared SWAT team, being that they were unfazed by her attempts to use her abilities.

Soon afterward, we catch up with Claire, now living with Angela Petrelli who is insisting that she go to college and lead a normal life. Apparently, this is the agreement that has been met by both Nathan and Noah, her two dads (should “Heroes” ever tank, I definitely see a new take on that sitcom “My Two Dads” only this time with the characters being superheroes). Granted, their attempt to keep Claire out of Nathan’s plans for his powered friends is thwarted when Claire overhears a phonecall between Noah and Angela, discussing the plans to capture Peter and (more…)

Here it is, the “Villains” volume came to an end this week, and it was by no stretch short on the action. We watched some characters die, some scored sweet new powers, some got taken out of commission, and some just straight up backstabbed their own brother (Nathan, cough-cough). Quick update on where everybody is: Hiro is still trapped in the past, desperately in need of saving, but his entourage (Ando, Parkman, and Daphne) have a plan to steal the formula from Pinehearst, inject Ando and hope that he’ll somehow get a time-travelling ability (mind you, I lacked faith in this plan because there are no guarantees with abilities). After killing Daddy P over at Pinehearst, Sylar made his way to Primatech where he put the entire facility into lockdown, trapping Claire, Noah, Angela, and Meredith in their with him…Claire and Noah were packing shotguns, by the way. Now with Daddy P dead, Peter found himself deadset on stopping the formula from being used, which conflicted with Nathan’s opinion on the matter. And so, the stage is set…

After Peter and Nathan exchange some words over the dead body of their father (Peter: “Bro, using that formula is totally whack,” Nathan: “Dude…I completely disagree), they part ways, but Peter makes his way into the lab and starts trashing the place, much to the dismay of Mohinder.  Fortunately, Flint and Knox showed up, realizing that if this formula is used, then their status as people with abilities makes them average, so they also decide to trash the place and become Peter’s thugs. Mohinder catches a pretty bad beating from them, and Knox then makes his way to Nathan’s office. Knox maintains the upper hand for a short time, but Nathan takes a shot at him with a glass ball sitting on the desk, and then Tracy shows up and finishes the job by freezing him. What I fail to understand about Nathan, is that his flying ability is probably more powerful than people give it credit for, he could use it for a pretty good short range attack (like he did to the Haitian’s brother), but he doesn’t recognize his own potential. Disappointing.

At Primatech, Sylar talks eerily over the speakers while Noah attempts to find him and somehow subdue him. Claire recalls from season 1 that there is a spot in the back of her head that if you jab something into it, she will shut down. Sylar has her power, so it should work the same way. With that, Claire splits off to keep Angela safe, while Noah and Meredith release some of the inmates, explaining that they’re all locked in Primatech together, so their common goal is to take down Sylar. Among this group was that creepy puppeteer that held Meredith, Claire, and Mrs. Bennett hostage earlier this (more…)

As you may recall from last week, Hiro and Claire took a trip to 16 years ago when Claire was first entrusted to Noah Bennett by Kaito Nakamura. It is then, that Hiro and Claire decide to follow their past selves so that Hiro can find a way to heal his memory and Claire can find a way to stop herself from becoming the catalyst. Hiro winds up overhearing a conversation between his father and mother in which they discuss the catalyst, and his mother insists that it has to be done today and that she wants it to be Hiro, but Kaito refuses and says Hiro is too irresponsible and will never amount to anything. Elsewhere, Claire poses as a neighbor and helps Mrs. Bennett with the baby while Noah is at work. Granted, when Noah shows up, he’s not too happy that Mrs. Bennett has let some stranger watch the baby, and furthermore, he calls Claire out on not being who she claims to be. It is then that the phone starts ringing, and Claire begins pleading with Noah not to answer that phone, knowing that it is the call from Kaito that will make Claire the catalyst, and somehow, she gets to Noah and he doesn’t pick up the phone. Mission accomplished…sort of.

Hiro on the other hand, after disasterously posing as the Nakamura’s new chef, reveals to his mother that he is her son and can travel through space and time. After having seen that she also has an ability, he tells her about his memories being wiped clean and asks her if she can heal them, which she does. Furthermore, he explains all that he is done, and tells her that he is prepared to take on the responsibility of being the catalyst. She agrees, and passes on the light to him, but dies in doing so. Back on the rooftop, Hiro and Claire reunite, informing each other of their successes, but they are interrupted by Mr. Petrelli, who takes Hiro’s ability as well as the catalyst, then throws Hiro off the ledge (we later learn that he is hanging onto a post on the edge of the building, but he’s powerless) and sends Claire back to the present.

Hiro’s entourage back in the present (Parkman, Daphne, and Ando) track down the bike messenger with the last issue of “9th Wonders” and get their hands on it. After reading it, they see that Hiro is trapped in the past, and that somebody must save him, but will need to get the powers to do so. Ando believes that this is his calling…so we just might get to see Ando receive a power by the end of this arc.

As for Sylar, we last saw this guy return to his bad ways, killing Elle and once again going completely rogue. Now he’s got names and numbers of people with abilities, I assume from the time he spent with Mr. Petrelli, so he heads to an office building where there is a woman who is a human lie detector. He plans to use this ability to call Mr. Petrelli out on whether or not he really is his father, after Noah suggested in the last episode that it was all just a way of gaining Sylar’s allegiance.

As shown in the above, Sylar’s return to his previous badass state means he has no problem cracking skulls (literally) and getting his hands dirty (also literally).

Nathan made his way back to Pinehearst, informing his father that he will now be in charge of the operations and (more…)