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episode 9, Heroes, Heroes Reborn, recap, review, Sundae Bloody Sundae

Heroes Reborn #1.9 Review: “Sundae, Bloody Sundae”

When the universe gives you something, it (or a writing staff) won’t hesitate to pull the rug out from beneath you in another aspect of your life.

The time travel shenanigans of the “June 13th” saga set in motion events that ensured The Haitian, a friendly and familiar face on Heroes would more or less be brought back to life.

In his place, the universe took away Casper, someone we barely knew and I desperately want to find out more about.

Noah Bennet has experienced both sides of this universal practice three times in as many episodes.

He learned his daughter died while giving birth to twins. He’s then reunited with one of them in the present as a teenager. Nathan is then kidnapped by Quentin “butterfly” Frady, before being reunited with the other twin, Melina.

The Quentin reveal to Noah took me off guard. I was expecting the subterfuge to last one more episode, at least to get a feel for how this version of Quentin kept Noah fooled for so long. Because in every scene with Quentin in “Sundae, Bloody Sundae,” he couldn’t have been more sinister.

Speaking of sinister, I wasn’t expecting it, but Joanne connecting with Harris makes almost complete sense. I say almost because Joanne’s storyline never indicated it would ever merge fully with the Renautas story arc.

And now that I’m thinking about it, imagine what Joanne will do if she were to find out that it was Renautas, with Harris and his clones, that was responsible for the bombing in Odessa? I’d like to see one scene before the end of the season where both Harris and Joanne get their comeuppance. Harris for helping hunt down his own kind – like what happened to Dearing thanks to Matt Parkman – and Joanne for obvious reasons.

She’s killed a lot of people, but putting a bullet between Casper’s eyes was the last straw.

As a whole, I liked “Sundae, Bloody Sundae.” But anything less than a masterpiece was going to feel like a letdown in comparison to “June 13th.”

It was a highlight to see Greg Grunberg play a Matt Parkman reminiscent of the one we saw all the way back in “5 Years Gone.”

As a result we got to experience some heightened “mind games,” which felt right at home in an episode that also featured time being stopped.

These mind games were played on Carlos, who has STILL not interacted with a main character on the show. That seriously has to happen soon. And with Matt working for Renautas, I expect some sort of face-to-face with Erica.

The episode’s conclusion, which shows Miko somehow walking around the desert almost 5,000 years in the future, is slightly off putting in how it’s executed.

The moment felt like a preview for next season (if there is one). There was no natural transition into it and it played out like the Volume previews we got at the end of each season on the original show.

It looked great and the presence of Miko raises a bunch of questions, but it seemed tacked on, even though the possibility of the story taking us into the future was introduced in “Game Over.”

The episode would have benefited from ending on the visual of Nathan sitting across from Erica as she tries to court him to her side.

GRADE: B

Other Judgements

  • “Is it safe for you to go back to the hospital?” I don’t know, is it safe for Nathan to be walking down Main Street in broad daylight with his girlfriend who probably hasn’t officially broken up with her original boyfriend? Don’t be that kind of girl Emily.
  • Casper sounded like an old Baptist preacher in the moments before his death and not in a cheesy way. Casper seems like a character that has a lot of guilt and who took pleasure in helping others lose theirs when the opportunity arose.
  • When Taylor is snatched by The Haitian’s friends, I loved the decoration of the underpass. Faces of people who have been “detained,” “abducted” or are “deceased” line the wall.
  • What in the world is Erica’s chef working on in her kitchen?
  • Carlos’ nephew returns! And I still don’t care about him.
Heroes, Heroes Reborn, June 13th, Part Two, recap, review

Heroes Reborn #1.8 Review: “June 13th, Part Two”

Remember the classic episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “Cause and Effect?”

In it the Enterprise and her crew are caught in an endless causality loop, where it repeats the same day over and over. The day always ends with the ship being destroyed in an accident with the U.S.S. Bozeman, which had come from decades in the past via a time portal.

Long story short, the crew eventually realizes what was happening and finds a way to break out of the loop.

(It’s such a good episode.)

For the story in Heroes Reborn, “June 13th, Part 2” was the closing of such a loop.

There’s no telling how many times the loop of Noah going back in time, attempting to stop the bombs, failing, sending Hiro/Angela/Nathan/Malina to 1999 and returning to 2015 had taken place without any significant changes.

But in the loop we witness, Noah gets it in his head to shoot Erica Kravid. Then he has Casper wipe 2014 Noah’s memory instead of The Haitian.

When it comes to Heroes Reborn and time travel we’re literally in uncharted territory.

In years past, time travel as a plot device was used either as a gateway to passive flashback episodes or to give a peek at a devastating future our ensemble cast had to prevent.

With the “June 13th” two-parter, it’s been used to create a very active flashback episode that potentially makes the “present” of the show even worse.

I say potentially because we have no idea what all Noah changed on his visit to 2014. Anything’s on the table. Let your minds go crazy thinking about the possibilities!

OK, maybe not too crazy.

The only thing that slowed the natural flow of both episodes is what slowed a majority of the season prior: Carlos and Miko.

As I said last week, we don’t need to see how Miko came to exist. That was made clear to us in “Game Over” through dialogue. The only new angle added is Erica lied to Hachiro Otomo, something she does to everyone.

Even though Carlos’ storyline is finally connect to the main body of the story, albeit minimally through Farah, a character that’s more than likely dead in 2015, his presence in “Part 2” just reinforces how insignificant – or at least underwhelming – he’s been to this point.

But that wasn’t enough to take away from the thrill of seeing Hiro Nakamura, family man. Seeing a much older and wise Hiro in a father role with a confident Nathan ready to embrace his destiny and then having to forget it will have an even bigger impact once you rewatch the season from the beginning.

And that’s really the biggest accomplishment of “June 13th,” time travel loops and all.

Grade: A-

Other judgements

  • This might have been Jack Coleman’s best outing at Noah in a long time. His performance as 2014 Noah reacting to the news of Claire’s death is by far his most gut wrenching. His downplayed reaction when Molly says she’d rather die than give up Nathan and Malina hurts even more.
  • When Hiro gives Nathan the first issue of 9th Wonders from the first season, I about lost it.
  • Good thing we’re getting Matt Parkman for another episode. It would have been awkward to get less than 3 minutes of screentime from him.
  • The last two episodes make Angela’s absence in the first six episodes even more glaring. She ups the show’s game and gives it much needed gravitas.
  • “I’m Hiro Nakamura. Former master of time and space.”
  • Anyone else geek out over “11:53 to Odessa” being a direct reference to “Seven minute to Midnight” from season 1?
Heroes Reborn, June 13th, Part 1, Part One, recap, review

Heroes Reborn “June 13th, Part 1″ Recap & Review

Some episodes of television tip you off to how good they’re going to be from the very first shot.

Others, like “June 13th, Part 1,” tell you to sit back, buckle up and pay attention with its music, whether it’s a needle drop of a Top 40 hit or a special piece composed score.

The opening shots of the Odessa festival stick in your head because we’re hearing something that’s been noticeably absent through Heroes Reborn up until now.

This really felt like the first time since at least “Odessa” that the talents of Lisa and Wendy have been on full display.

It was jarring to hear the “Peter Petrelli” theme at first. But by a certain point it was jarring not to hear music in the few scenes it wasn’t present, as when Luke is talking to Joanne in the medical tent.

But the return of the music that defined the first season of Heroes is more than appropriate for “June 13th” which gave us our first significant dose of show’s roots.

We get Angela Petrelli talking about visions. We once again get the sweet, soothing sounds of Mohinder complaining about his research.

With the direction of series veteran Allan Akrush, who helmed “Six Months Ago,” “Company Man” and “How to Stop an Exploding Man,” the episode feels like it could easily have been a part of the original run. Akrush brings a lot of personal touches to it that the last three to four episodes felt pedestrian without.

This episode just felt right. Except where when the Evermore storyline had to make an appearance. The scene with Hiro and Miko’s dad/creator slowed down the pace of the episode even though it’s necessary to explain…well, actually it isn’t necessary at all, is it? We were basically told what happened in “Game Over.” We didn’t need to see it.

Other than that, this was the most streamlined Chapter yet of the season. Kring and Co. put a lot of effort into it and it showed.

We’re being fed so many answers and good material that I didn’t even recognize Nathan’s stepmom was the nurse that brought Noah and Angela the babies until the closing scene at the house.

It culminates in an incredibly natural conclusion to an episode of Heroes. A cut to black that made us want next week’s episode to get here as soon as possible.

Other Judgements

  • Is Mohinder dead? We never see him die.
  • For some reason I assumed Mohinder had lost his abilities. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who experienced flashbacks to the Bug saga.
  • I bet I’m the only one that picked up on the “San Francisco” bit being a reference to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
  • The scenes with Phoebe in the compound under the house are odd if you take into account the Dark Matters digital series, which showed a news report with her clearly present with Erica and Harris AT the festival.
  • I really like the visual of Noah and Casper “Penny Man” Abraham as partners. They both look like they should be in a 50s noir film.
  • Maybe Hiro shouldn’t yell when he’s about to attack someone. Seems like a bad tactic all the way around.