Chapter 56 - "Turn and Face the Stranger" Discussion Thread - 4/9/09

[CFE]

Well now that the Heroes have tackled some form of Government based forces, I wonder what a potential Volume V will be focused on...more from Danko and Building 26 I'm sure (unless he dies by the end of IV) but I wonder what the next development will be...

 

[Ion Kenshin]

This is still technically volume three

 

[CFE]

This is still technically volume three

It's Volume IV...that's the text that came up when Nathan was meeting with the President in his limo

 

[SuperT]

No, this is Volume Four, it's still season three.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

No, this is Volume Four, it's still season three.

That's actually what i meant

 

[Mdizzle]

Loved seeing more of Sandra. It's always more interesting when the time is taken to really develop the relationships between the main and side characters, especially when it's a family member--the scene where Noah nearly kills Sandra was solid. Angela's reaction when talking on the phone to Noah, telling him to leave the Sylar thing alone was also brilliant.

In the showdown between Danko and Matt, I was half-expecting Matt to use his ability to force Danko to shoot his gf...but we know Matt is the merciful type (as evidenced by his end choice). If he had the balls to do that, I think it would have been a more effective way of making Danko suffer.

On a side note, I can never help but remark on how "close" Claire and Peter seem--prolly cuz their off-set relationship has tainted the way I see the uncle-niece relationship onscreen. The part at the end where she arrives with Nathan and exclaims, "Peter!" and they rush over to each other...I gotta keep reminding myself, they're related. Heh.

 

[Dark Helmet]

I missed it & I am catching up with the episode but is Sandra a ****ing ****** ? She wants Claire to show her face only to end up getting captured ? I hope Sandra wises up. You would think Sandra would realize that Claire is in hiding for her own good

 

[SuperT]

I missed it & I am catching up with the episode but is Sandra a ****ing ****** ? She wants Claire to show her face only to end up getting captured & convicted ? I hope Sandra wises up. You would think Sandra would realize that Claire is in hiding for her own good

A group of soldiers busted into her house one night and her daughter disappeared with no note or information on where she went. Any sane mother would be flipping the hell out in her situation.

 

[Dark Helmet]

A group of soldiers busted into her house one night and her daughter disappeared with no note or information on where she went. Any sane mother would be flipping the hell out in her situation.

Well it was not even Sandra so I take that rant back

 

[Matt]

For the past two or three weeks, every episode has resulted in people saying "OHES MY GODZ!!! HEROEZ IS TEH BACK!!!1 YAY FULLER AND SEASON 1S!! YOU PWNZ!!!"

They've been wrong...while the episodes have gotten progressively better, none have been season one quality. While I am not going to say "Heroes is back (as it has a long way to go),"...this was easily the best episode since Company Man and is an episode of season 1 calibre.

The Parkman/Danko storyline was great, as was Bennet and Sylar. I can't wait to see where these plots go. The show has begun to focus on core characters and their development once again instead of ten million little subplots and bringing the main characters back together as they seem to be doing can only be a good thing.

Unfortunately...season one was not perfect...and this episode suffered the drawbacks of season one. Namely, useless, filler, subplots (ie - Niki/Jessica, Micah, and DL until like...the second to the last episode). Hiro and Ando once again...useless crap. Bad writing, was mostly filler. Did we really need to spend 15 minutes watching their wacky babysitting antics evolve as they get in such highjinks as trying to get across the country, making silly faces, and getting picked up by cliched Texan truckdrivers...who are Japanese (OMG! HE'S DIFFERENT BUT ACTS LIKE A HILLYBILLY! HEROES FOR BEST COMEDIC WRITING! ).

Also, Suresh was pretty much just plot device filler that should've only lasted like, 2 minutes instead of the 8 or 9 he was alloted....but I'll let it slide.

All around though...best episode since Company Man. The mark of a great TV show is getting better as it progresses. Season 1 built a solid foundation but left a lot of room for improvement. Unfortunately Heroes hit an instant downward spiral from the beginning of season 2 and on. Hopefully now, it can really pick it up and start building on season 1. Unfortunately...they're 2 years too late and that could spell cancellation. Serials seldom gain back audiences they lose. Hopefully this will be an exception as it would be ashame to see Heroes get the axe next year right as it starts to improve.

 

[Matt]

Well it was not even Sandra so I take that rant back

No, that was real Sandra. Real Sandra had two scenes in the episode...her first scene with Noah where she demanded to see Claire and the second was her scene with Noah in her hotel room. The rest were Sylar.

 

[Matt]

Also, I love that the Sylar/Noah feud is escalating. In a weird way, Noah has always had a psychological edge over Sylar. Almost the only man Sylar fears. Noah versus Sylar should make some excellent TV. But for the love of God, abort the plans to make "5 Years Gone," come true. Let this volume end with Noah and Peter doing what they set out to do together in New York on "How to Stop Stop an Exploding Man." Let them kill Sylar. There is no room left for development in the character. He developed, then reverted. Trying to make him good again or have him grow would only seem like back and forth flip flopping. Clearly he is staying evil and every great villain must have a downfall.

Plus, making 5 Years Gone true doesn't work for any of the characters but Sylar. Claire clearly is not one to go into hiding when people are in danger. Matt isn't going to become Danko (which is essentially what he was in 5 Years Gone). Nathan is wanted by the US military, hard to become president under those circumstances, plus New York is not blown up and that was sort of the key to him becoming president. Hiro isn't tough at all. In fact, his speech to Parkman tonight is the opposite of everything he was in 5 Years Gone (Hiro became vengeful because of Ando's death but he lectured Parkman about doing that). They are strongly implying that Peter can only use his powers if he is empathetic. He was anything but in 5 Years Gone. Niki is dead.

It just doesn't fit on so many levels. To force it through so a few fanboys can go "OMGZ! 5 YEARZ GONE!!!" just doesn't make sense from a story telling perspective.

Kill Sylar once and for all and start a new chapter for the show.

 

[shoelessthunder]

Interesting points, Matt.
Yeah, this was a really intense episode.
Matt getting into Danko's head and messing with him = pretty epic.
Sylar getting into Noah's head and making him so paranoid he pulls a gun on his own wife = extremely epic.
I really like where the stories are heading.
I also kinda liked how it sorta felt like Parkman's character was right on the verge of becoming who he was in 5 Years Gone, heading down that dark path. But he didn't...and now he has a son, which will clearly keep him from becoming Matt Darkman.
Hiro/Ando, not as funny as they were when they first ran into the baby in Cold Snap, but at least now they've gotten the kid to his father.
These next 3 episodes should rock.
(And yeah, it did kinda feel like they just jammed Mohinder's character into the Petrelli, burial ground or whatever plot...Coyote Sands? We'll know more next week.)
Overall, definite thumbs up.

My favorites in this episode:
Noah / Sylar, Danko / Parkman. And any combination thereof. Their scenes kicked ass this week. And I'm usually not a fan of Parkman.

 

[SatEL]

Danko is one stupid ****, how the hell did someone so stupid end up as team leader of a task force meant to take down "terrorists". Ok so he let Sylar take the shape shifting ability, so what’s to now stop Sylar from killing him and taking on his identity? It seems like a pretty stupid move on his part make a powerful enemy (If not the most powerful and dangerous of these "terrorists") even more powerful.

It wasn’t a bad episode on the contrary I actually enjoyed it, just thought I would call out a stupid when I saw it.

 

[GL1]

For the past two or three weeks, every episode has resulted in people saying "OHES MY GODZ!!! HEROEZ IS TEH BACK!!!1 YAY FULLER AND SEASON 1S!! YOU PWNZ!!!"

They've been wrong...while the episodes have gotten progressively better, none have been season one quality. While I am not going to say "Heroes is back (as it has a long way to go),"...this was easily the best episode since Company Man and is an episode of season 1 calibre.

The Parkman/Danko storyline was great, as was Bennet and Sylar. I can't wait to see where these plots go. The show has begun to focus on core characters and their development once again instead of ten million little subplots and bringing the main characters back together as they seem to be doing can only be a good thing.

Unfortunately...season one was not perfect...and this episode suffered the drawbacks of season one. Namely, useless, filler, subplots (ie - Niki/Jessica, Micah, and DL until like...the second to the last episode). Hiro and Ando once again...useless crap. Bad writing, was mostly filler. Did we really need to spend 15 minutes watching their wacky babysitting antics evolve as they get in such highjinks as trying to get across the country, making silly faces, and getting picked up by cliched Texan truckdrivers...who are Japanese (OMG! HE'S DIFFERENT BUT ACTS LIKE A HILLYBILLY! HEROES FOR BEST COMEDIC WRITING! ).

Also, Suresh was pretty much just plot device filler that should've only lasted like, 2 minutes instead of the 8 or 9 he was alloted....but I'll let it slide.

All around though...best episode since Company Man. The mark of a great TV show is getting better as it progresses. Season 1 built a solid foundation but left a lot of room for improvement. Unfortunately Heroes hit an instant downward spiral from the beginning of season 2 and on. Hopefully now, it can really pick it up and start building on season 1. Unfortunately...they're 2 years too late and that could spell cancellation. Serials seldom gain back audiences they lose. Hopefully this will be an exception as it would be ashame to see Heroes get the axe next year right as it starts to improve.

Comic relief is "filler" by definition, and while using Ando and Hiro as comic relief is tired, if it had actually been funny, it would have been a great addition to a very emotional very tense show with a common theme of people's loved ones at eachother's throats. I'm not sure that forwarding the plot is a litmus test of entertainment relevance.

This was a good ep... I guess I didn't enjoy it much because these particular characters don't hold much weight for me. I've never really enjoyed Matt as a character, I'm very tired of Sylar and Mr. Bennet used to be awesome, but they keep shoving him in my face and he's not a face man to me. It was a good show, but they seemed to have pooled together a group of characters that I simply never cared much for.

It's kind of sad, that Heroes has become about this same group of people over and over. Even in the face of improved writing, there's really no room for expansion, for guard changing and such. Le sigh.

 

[SuperT]

This weeks graphic novel revealed:

Spoiler

West has been working w/ Micah to help everyone escape the government.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

This weeks graphic novel revealed:

Spoiler

West has been working w/ Micah to help everyone escape the government.

That sounds pretty cool. I wonder how they met up

 

[kbaxter74]

This weeks graphic novel revealed:

Spoiler

West has been working w/ Micah to help everyone escape the government.

SO this could be how Sylar gets his flight if they are moving towards the Five Years Gone story line. Not saying they should, just a possibility.

 

[GL1]

It mystifies me that people are considering FYG actually occuring. Wasn't the POINT of FYG to prevent it from happening? Weren't we successful?

 

[xisaacx]

It mystifies me that people are considering FYG actually occuring. Wasn't the POINT of FYG to prevent it from happening? Weren't we successful?

save the cheerleader, save the world

 

[Steyin]

But for the love of God, abort the plans to make "5 Years Gone," come true. Let this volume end with Noah and Peter doing what they set out to do together in New York on "How to Stop Stop an Exploding Man." Let them kill Sylar. There is no room left for development in the character. He developed, then reverted. Trying to make him good again or have him grow would only seem like back and forth flip flopping. Clearly he is staying evil and every great villain must have a downfall.

**** that, I want to see the bad guy win for a change. It would also be some nice irony for a show title "Heroes".

It mystifies me that people are considering FYG actually occuring. Wasn't the POINT of FYG to prevent it from happening? Weren't we successful?

I'm thinking of this like Terminator; the future is going to happen in some form, changing things in the past will only delay/alter what happened in the original time line.

 

[BoredGuy]

Wow, positive comments from Matt and GL1!! I'm amazed....

But yeah i thought this episode was great, too.
I really hope 5 years gone doesnt come true, they've killed Nathan too many times already! Let him survive just one season finale!!!

 

[Dark Helmet]

Also, I love that the Sylar/Noah feud is escalating. In a weird way, Noah has always had a psychological edge over Sylar. Almost the only man Sylar fears. Noah versus Sylar should make some excellent TV. But for the love of God, abort the plans to make "5 Years Gone," come true. Let this volume end with Noah and Peter doing what they set out to do together in New York on "How to Stop Stop an Exploding Man." Let them kill Sylar. There is no room left for development in the character. He developed, then reverted. Trying to make him good again or have him grow would only seem like back and forth flip flopping. Clearly he is staying evil and every great villain must have a downfall.

Plus, making 5 Years Gone true doesn't work for any of the characters but Sylar. Claire clearly is not one to go into hiding when people are in danger. Matt isn't going to become Danko (which is essentially what he was in 5 Years Gone). Nathan is wanted by the US military, hard to become president under those circumstances, plus New York is not blown up and that was sort of the key to him becoming president. Hiro isn't tough at all. In fact, his speech to Parkman tonight is the opposite of everything he was in 5 Years Gone (Hiro became vengeful because of Ando's death but he lectured Parkman about doing that). They are strongly implying that Peter can only use his powers if he is empathetic. He was anything but in 5 Years Gone. Niki is dead.

It just doesn't fit on so many levels. To force it through so a few fanboys can go "OMGZ! 5 YEARZ GONE!!!" just doesn't make sense from a story telling perspective.

Kill Sylar once and for all and start a new chapter for the show.

Lets just hope no one gets a time travel ability. Because that is pretty much the only way to fix this mess. It is eventually going to get tiresome seeing favorite characters for the rest of the show be on the run. I think someone will be time traveling eventually

 

[SuperT]

**** that, I want to see the bad guy win for a change. It would also be some nice irony for a show title "Heroes".



I'm thinking of this like Terminator; the future is going to happen in some form, changing things in the past will only delay/alter what happened in the original time line.

There's a CLEAR difference in letting the villain win and what they are doing with Sylar on this show.

Since the beginning of season two, every characters lives have been spiraling out of control, and their friends and families collapsing all around them now to the point where every single one of our Heroes are on the run.

Yet for Sylar, things just keep getting rosier and rosier and now I don't even know if it's funny or sad that he's the only one not on the run from the government.

There's needs to be some comeuppance for his character, and it needs to be FINAL.

 

[Matt]

Its nice that we agree on something for once, Super T. I want Noah and Peter to finally kill him.