Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Heroes through the current episode, “The Butterfly Effect,” originally broadcast September 22nd, 2008.

The second half of the two-hour third season premiere, “The Butterfly Effect” picked up right where “The Second Coming” left off. Claire will not talk to her mother about what happened with Sylar. Mrs. Bennett is worried that he may have forced himself on her. He didn’t. He did something worse: he took her ability to feel. Until now, although she could heal from any injury she still felt the pain associated with being hurt. Now she doesn’t feel a thing. Claire certainly finds this disturbing. In a return to the video diaries seen during the first half of the first season, she asks if she even has a soul.

Out of all the heroes, Claire has grown the most of the course of the series. During the first season she was forced to deal with her newfound ability, was nearly killed a variety of times in a variety of ways, learned she was adopted, and met a slew of new and strange people. Although she regressed somewhat during the second season, reverting to the angry, bitter teenager upset with her father, by the end of the second season she had become a strong willed young woman willing to do whatever it took to keep her family safe.

And now she wants desperately to prove to herself that she is still alive. Does the fact that she can no longer feel physical pain mean she can’t feel joy either? Has Sylar’s attack put her on the road to the cold-hearted assassin she seemed to be in Future Peter’s timeline? And, if so, is there anything she or anyone else can do to save her? Future Peter “saves” her from being hit by a train — one she deliberately stepped in front of — but can do little to ease her existential angst. Future Peter blames himself for what happened to Claire. She blames herself, telling him she has a lame ability and asking him to teach him to use her ability as a weapon. He says he can’t and won’t explain further, insisting that he must be careful what he says to her.

Much of “The Butterfly Effect” dealt with the consequences of Future Peter shooting Nathan to keep him from telling the world about people with abilities. By doing so, he hoped to change his own future, to keep the next five years from happening. As Angela Petrelli tells him, however, he has potentially insured an even darker future. Angela Petrelli has dream in which she sees the dead bodies of Hiro, Matt, Noah and Peter. She watches as Claire has her head chopped off and sees Niki (or Jessica or Tracy) apparently working with the bad guys. Sylar is there, too.

During a conversation with Future Peter, she warns him that he shouldn’t have screwed around with time because of the famed butterfly effect (step on a butterfly on one continent and halfway around the world a tsunami forms). Because he told Claire to stay home, Sylar was able to get to her. Now she is questioning her humanity and Sylar is virtually indestructible. Will Future Peter spend the rest of the season attempting to undo the damage he caused by shooting Nathan? What other changes has he made to the timeline?

The real Peter Petrelli, still trapped in the body of a man named Jesse, has escaped from Level 5 alongside eleven other terrible people with abilities. This never happened in Future Peter’s timeline. But because Sylar gained Claire’s healing ability, he was able to break into Level 5 and kill Bob (Elle’s really mean father). Elle attempts to exact her revenge with the help of Noah, but instead, Sylar begins to cut into her skull to steal her ability as well. She overloads with electricity and knocks out Sylar and the entire power grid, thus allowing the inmates to escape. All because Future Peter sent two slugs through his brother’s chest.

This part of the episode was good. It sets up the rest of the season (Volume Three: “Villains”) quite well. Noah is one of the few on the planet who knows enough to stop them. But to do so, he has to leave his family again. Claire begs to be allowed to go with him but Noah puts his foot down. He is leaving the family with protection, however, in the form of Meredith Gordon, Claire’s fiery birth mother (played by the wonderful Jessalyn Gilsig).

The rest of the episode, like much of “The Second Coming,” was mediocre at best, starting with Mohinder and Maya. Mohinder’s ability appears to be a combination of Captain America’s Super Soldier Serum and Peter Parker’s Spider-Man abilities. He’s also really sweaty and impulsive. He hooks up with Maya and, later, wakes to find the veins in his hand throbbing and something really nasty growing out of his back. He wonders aloud what is happening to him. Maybe he should have tossed that syringe into the water rather than jabbing it into his arm, hrm?

Hiro and Ando travel to Paris in an attempt to get their half of the formula from Daphne (the speedster). She is apparently a very busy thief: the Mona Lisa is among the trophies in her apartment. Ando cannot understand why Hiro is treating him like a bad guy. Finally, Hiro tells him what he saw in the future: Ando as a villain who kills Future Hiro. Ando, in disbelief, blames a robot. They set a trap, which involves trading Daphne’s treasured school racing medal, but she takes it and the formula. Somehow, though, Hiro was able to place a tracking device on the medal, which leads them to Germany. Still, Hiro doesn’t trust Ando.

This is perhaps the most disturbing new development of the third season so far. The friendship between Hiro and Ando has been a cornerstone of the series. Hiro, with his gleeful acceptance of his role as a hero (with some trepidation and worry thrown in for good measure) has always been tempered by level-headed Ando, who has no ability aside from his heart. If Hiro’s brief trip into the future destroys their bond, will it herald the destruction of the television series as well?

The characters I think have been handed the worst changes during the first two episodes were Nathan and Tracy (Niki’s new personality). Nathan is now a religious zealot of sorts and Tracy is an advisor to New York Governor Malden, who wants Nathan to fill an empty seat in the U.S. Congress as the junior congressman from New York. Nathan, of course, thinks Tracy is actually Niki, the woman he met in Las Vegas. Tracy, who earlier had been approached by a reporter with a photograph showing her as a stripper, insists she is not Niki. Linderman agrees and suggests Nathan think about taking the seat. It is God’s plan.

Oh, and by the way, Nathan is the only one who can see Linderman (who is, or should be, dead). Not a big twist but at least we learned something during this episode. Future Peter reveals himself to Nathan and tells his brother everything. He came back to save the world but now the future is different and he needs his brother’s forgiveness. Nathan asks what he should do. Future Peter tells him to make the right choices before he disappears. The right choice turns out to be accepting the offer. His only requirement? Tracy works on his staff. She seems fine with that. She is confronted by the reporter again, who this time has a video of Niki and Nathan having sex. Now angry, she grabs the reporter’s arm, and he suddenly turns into a chunk of ice. Then he shatters. Whoops. Tracy is pretty darn shocked.

One of the most amusing moments in the episode was Matt meeting a talking turtle that tells him where to find water in a plant. “Thank you turtle. You saved my life.” Of course, it isn’t a talking turtle at all but a man who just happens to be walking by. It turns out Matt is in Africa. The man tells him he has to spirit walk and knows Matt’s name. He says Matt shouldn’t be there and reveals that he can somehow paint the future (he painted the rock with the exploding earth that was also seen on the docks near Mohinder). As boring as the character of Matt has been, talking to the turtle was hilarious.

As the episode closes, the real Peter Petrelli, stuck in the body of Jesse, tries to warn his brother to look out for someone who looks like him, only with a scar, and then watches in horror as the men he escaped with maim and kill. Realizing he looks like Jesse, he goes with the gang. Will he learn to use Jesse’s ability, whatever it is? Will he work to stop the “villains” from destroying everything in their path?

Angela Petrelli, who is now in charge of the Company (she fires Elle), talks with Sylar and after calling him by his real name (Gabriel) insists she is his mother. Big shock. Just how many secret children are in the Petrelli family? And do Nathan’s children (other than Claire) also have abilities?

A lot happened in this episode and in “The Second Coming.” Much of it I found disappointing, mostly the new and not-so-improved characters of Nathan, Tracy/Niki, Mohinder and Hiro. I could also do without Maya, who really should be wondering where her brother is (hint: Sylar killed him). The introduction of Daphne, the speedster, could provide Hiro with a nemesis who is not a mortal threat but more of an annoyance, but his newfound distrust towards Ando is frustrating.

What bothers me the most is the issue of time travel. Why is it that whenever someone tries to go back in time to stop something terrible from happening — be it Kennedy’s assassination, the sinking of the Titanic or the bombing of Pearl Harbor — they always show up only seconds before disaster strikes? Future Peter could have chosen to travel back just ten more minutes earlier and simply talk Nathan out of telling the world about their secret. He could have knocked Nathan out, even, and then pretended to be the real Peter Petrelli and expressed second thoughts. He could have done any number of things to keep Nathan from finishing the press conference but instead he decides to shoot his brother? Really?

The third season of Heroes can still be amazing, if the next few episodes turn things around, stop introducing new twists that alter the fabric of our heroic characters, and get back to basics: fighting bad guys and saving the world. But these two episodes were very disappointing given all the hype.