Chapter 58 - "I Am Sylar" Discussion Thread - 4/20/09

[3 Dev Adam]

Here's Sylar's morphing. Yep, he morphes his clothes as well.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

The guy who had the power first was able to do it as well. Remember in the club when he turned into Sylar? If I am not mistaken he was wearing the same clothes as Sylar. I could be wrong though

 

[SuperT]

No, you're right. When he was Danko, he had on Danko's clothing but then when he shifted into Sylar he had on Sylar's clothing.

 

[Gilpesh]

io9 reviews this episode of Heroes:
http://io9.com/5222362/sylar-goes-psycho-in-heroes-crappiest-episode-yet

Just when I really didn't think it was possible for Heroes to get any ****tier, last night's episode happened. This was possibly the worst hour of television I have ever endured. Spoilers ahead, you masochists!

People, tell me. Why are we watching this show? I just don't think that watching Sylar raise his eyebrow Spock-style is going to do it for me anymore. He's going to have to be a watchable character too. And he most certainly was not in "I Am Sylar," an episode all about our nerdy superpowered mental case's so-called identity crisis. And by the way, in case you were wondering, Sylar's identity crisis seems mainly to involve pulling out his own molars, turning into his whiny mom (YES THEY GO THERE), and cutting himself like a teenage girl who is obsessed with goth lolitas.

Check out that goddamn Spock eyebrow. Is that enough to carry an episode? No, dear watchers, I don't think so. But I slogged through this horrifying mess anyway, to bring you news of Sylar's tender inner feelings.

So things start tweaky when Sylar wakes up but he's in the body of Generic Agent Guy (GAG). Oops! He changed into GAG while he was sleeping and grew an extra tooth! So he switches back, rips out the tooth, and broods. Later he tells the Hunter, "I'm feeling broody because I don't know who I am." The Hunter says, "Well when you are in a bad situation killing and raping and brutalizing, you can remember who you are by focusing on something that reminds you of yourself."

And then, I **** you not, he takes out a pocket watch and says it was the thing that keeps him whole. OK, did the writers not watch Pulp Fiction and the watch scene? Seriously, I thought the Hunter was actually going to say he'd stored the watch in his ass, but no instead he just handed it to Sylar who didn't do anything assy with it either - just listened to it and said some creepy things about how many seconds fast it was. "Whoa how did you get the power to know about watches?" asks Hunter. "It's my only true power," Sylar says, and broods.

Then he goes to the park, and broods. At some broody point, he broodingly carves the words "I am Sylar" into his arm. Then he broods.

Next he absorbs some guy's porcelain figurine-shattering power (yes, that is really his power) and paints the words I AM SYLAR on the wall in blood. Turns out, by the way, that Sylar's power comes from "absorbing other people's DNA." At least, that's what he tells Rebel. But I get ahead of myself.

Next up, Sylar's supposed to help catch Rebel. Yay, it's Rebel, the only decent character left on this show! But Rebel is so nice and cool that Sylar actually saves him by pretending to be Rebel, getting shot, and then running away and bringing Rebel home with him. Where Rebel discovers that Sylar is turning into his own mom and having conversations with her Psycho-style. Repeat with me kids, one of the cardinal rules of bad show/movie-making: DO NOT REFERENCE A GOOD MOVIE INSIDE YOUR STUPID LAMEASS WHY DOES IT EVEN EXIST AND GET RENEWED WHEN SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES IS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK ****IN SHOW. Jeezus.

OK I need to calm down. Let's check in with Matt and the Cutsey Asian Stereotype Twins, shall we? So now Matt has baby Matt, whom he proclaims a "game changer" that makes him suddenly in love with his ex again even though like three episodes ago he was about to rip the universe apart after his "true love" Speedy Daphne was killed. He brings Baby Matt back to Ex Lady, and tries to convince her they are destined to be together. Which made me really wish Daphne had resurrection powers so she could come back and slap him and sing an Alanis Morissette song.

So screw Matt, who is going off with Ex to her cabin or something to try to make sweet love to her. Meanwhile, Ando is having YET ANOTHER fight with Hiro over being his equal, and making a lot of groanworthy references to Batman and Superman. Seriously, DON'T REFERENCE GOOD COMICS INSIDE . . . oh why do I bother? So Hiro decides to make Ando his equal by turning Ando into bait for Hunter's shock troops. I'm still not really sure why. I guess he wants to find Hunter's secret hideout or something? It made no sense, especially when he stopped time and dressed up as a shock troop but wore his glasses and was obviously a plant.

Then Hiro and Ando had to stop time again, and run away towards the secret shock troop facility to "shut it all down" as equals. And Ando's name is going to be Crimson Splash or something.

Back to Sylar, who is still arguing with his mom about whether he can be good and become president. Between his dead mom cross-dressing and Rebel's advice, he's decided that his next course of action will be to impersonate Nathan and put a stop to mutant persecution. But Hunter tries to stop him with the old knife in the skull trick! Aaaand it turns out that knife in the skull doesn't actually kill Sylar after all. He gets up, gives Hunter the old mega-menacing look, and now Hunter is in seriously deep ****.

And of course Nathan is hightailing it to Washington to make everything right and confront broody Sylar. Will butch Nathan beat broody Sylar? Will broody Peter wind up helping butch Nathan beat broody Sylar? How many characters can brood before Claire finally also has to brood?

Suresh, back at the ranch, has been captured for what? the fifth time? by the shock troops. And Hiro has gotten broody too, because every time he stops time his brain bleeds. In fact, he's in dire deadly straits after his most recent time stoppages.

I thought Angela's guilt-mongering was bad, but this new wave of brooding and Sylar psychosis takes Heroes into new depths of dickwadery.

 

[SuperT]

I couldn't even get through the first two paragraphs of that review.

I love reading reviews and critiques of the episodes, but the person that wrote that one sounds like a fifth grader who got his candy taken away from his mother.

 

[Matt]

Yeah, I agree. I'm just as much for bashing this show when it is ****** as the next guy (and this episode was as ****** as they come) but all that reviewer did was rehash the plot. I felt like I was watching the ****** episode again.

 

[Asgard]

So, its a given that Sylar's going to open a motel in the future right?

Btw, does Ando's power work like a stun gun when he uses it offensively/defensively?

 

[3 Dev Adam]

The guy who had the power first was able to do it as well. Remember in the club when he turned into Sylar? If I am not mistaken he was wearing the same clothes as Sylar. I could be wrong though

No, you're not wrong sir.

 

[SuperT]

whoops,

 

[SatEL]

Episode was ****, only the ending was interesting mehhhhhhh will watch next episode none the less.

 

[3 Dev Adam]

Is anyone else expecting another anticlimatic episode?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

So, its a given that Sylar's going to open a motel in the future right?

Btw, does Ando's power work like a stun gun when he uses it offensively/defensively?

I think so. He can use it to supercharge others' powers or he can use it as a simple electrical discharge.

 

[GhostPoet]

That review was just BAD...it was like an 8 year old wrote it.

Personally, I'm really enjoying this season.

 

[SatEL]

Is anyone else expecting another anticlimatic episode?

Yep and especially when it comes to a showdown between Peter and Sylar we all know how **** that is going to turn out.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, now we do, since Peter can't have more than one power at a time. Although, I am curious about what could happen if he absorbed Sylar's power. Would he only get Sylar's natural power to understand how things work or would he get all of his powers?

 

[Matt]

My guess is just his natural...remember the debacle with....THE HUNGER?

Any show down with any character vs Sylar is bound to be anti-climactic. Only two characters stand a chance against Sylar...The Haitian and Hiro and neither will be a good fight as the Haitian will simply turn off Sylar's power rendering him defenseless and Hiro can only fight if he freezes time, stabs Sylar, and that's that.

 

[SatEL]

Well, now we do, since Peter can't have more than one power at a time. Although, I am curious about what could happen if he absorbed Sylar's power. Would he only get Sylar's natural power to understand how things work or would he get all of his powers?

Its always been that way even when Peter had all that power.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

True. Peter's always been kind of a wuss.

 

[Deaths Head II]

Any show down with any character vs Sylar is bound to be anti-climactic. Only two characters stand a chance against Sylar...The Haitian and Hiro and neither will be a good fight as the Haitian will simply turn off Sylar's power rendering him defenseless and Hiro can only fight if he freezes time, stabs Sylar, and that's that.

I still maintain that the heroes working together would make for a climactic finale but I doubt that's going to happen judging from the trailer. It's more then likely it'll just be Peter and Nathan tag teaming him and then one of them dying because they both seem to think flying is a power that can counteract telekinesis, healing, shape shifting, sonic screaming, electricity generation, etc.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, Peter's gotta trade up to a new power at some point. Flying's cool, but it's not exactly that useful in a fight. He should re-absorb Claire's power.

 

[Exploding Boy]

I'm sure that he will encounter Baby Matt before the fight and get his powers back.

 

[Solidgun]

What would happen if Peter touches two people with powers simultaneously?

 

[Sawyer]

io9 = mental ******ation.

 

[Ryudoz]

What would happen if Peter touches two people with powers simultaneously?

He would create a giant black hole that sucks in this entire universe.

 

[GL1]

Nothing wrong with that. He wanted to find his dad...he found him. That made him realize that he really does live for the hunt. So, he helped Danko hunt heroes. Taking the power to shape change helped him acheive this even easier, so he thought...but he had a very hard time adjusting to the changes and nearly losing his identiy...thinking about his mom helped him to achieve a bit more ground, but he's still a little messed up in the head.

Sounds like great character writing to me.

Did he not realize that he lived for the hunt when he scrawled FORGIVE ME in blood on his walls in S1?? Did he have any trouble when switching from Gabriel Gray to Sylar and back? To Zane Taylor? Agent Gray. No identity crisis of any type. Sylar has been a 'shapeshifter' from day one... where did this problem come from?

There are a lot of things on Heroes that are decent taken in isolation, but in the context of the show, they suck horribly. Sylar's character "development" is one of them.