Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Heroes through the current episode, “I Am Become Death,” originally broadcast October 6th, 2008.

Finally, Heroes is back (and then some). This was a superb episode, action-packed and confusing and filled with all the things that made Heroes “must see TV” during its first season. After a slow start, I can say with some certainty that Volume Three: Villains has truly begun. Still, there were some problems with the episode and I will get to them soon enough. But first I want to touch upon what I did like about the episode.

Although the time travel aspect of the episode (and Volume Three as a whole) had its share of issues, I nevertheless felt that for the first time things started to come together during this episode. Up until now, we had been given only glimpses of Future Peter’s timeline. We know it takes place some four years in the future, we know Future Peter is hunted as a terrorist by Future Claire (a dark, twisted version of the Claire we know and love), we know Future Hiro is killed by Future Ando (who has abilities) and we know it isn’t a very pretty place.

In “I Am Become Death,” we learn that Future Nathan is President, with Future Tracy as his First Wife. We learn that Future Sylar (who goes by Gabriel) has a young son named Noah and has found a way to control his homicidal tendencies. Future Daphne (the speedster) and Future Knox (the Level 5 inmate who is powered by fear) are teamed with Future Claire to hunt down terrorists (like Future Peter). Future Matt is married to Future Daphne and the two have a future baby and are also raising Future Molly. And Future Haitian is still working with the Future Company. Whew!

Future Peter takes Peter to this dark and dreary world. Abilities are available for anyone who can either a) afford them, or b) steal them. Peter thinks people will be able to control themselves, but according to Future Peter they don’t. Future Peter tells Peter someone in his time is working on a formula. And he reveals that not everyone was born with abilities. Some were made. Suddenly, shots ring out and Future Peter goes down. It’s Future Claire. After a brief moment of shared confusion, Future Claire opens fire on Peter, who runs off.

Personally, I find Future Claire pretty awesome, even if she is little more than a glorified hit woman. It’s as simple as that. And, in many ways, she is a logical outgrowth of where Claire is headed. And that is pretty terrifying. Peter asks what happened to Future Claire and tries to connect with her but nothing works. With Future Peter out of the picture, Future Claire is very intent on killing Peter. Of course, Future Peter isn’t dead, he’s only unconscious (or otherwise incapacitated). As Future Claire, Future Daphne and Future Knox work to track down Peter (with the help of Future Molly), Peter goes to talk to Future Mohinder, who sticks to the shadows and explains he got the formula very wrong. Peter reads Future Mohinder’s thoughts and learns Future Sylar is in Costa Verde.

The low key life of Future Sylar was intriguing and obviously intended to showcase the softer side of Sylar, the one Angela Petrelli seems to believe in. Future Sylar lets slip the fact that he and Peter are brothers and, when Peter asks about his ability, explains that it will turn Peter into a monster. Why exactly Peter needs Sylar’s ability is something I never felt was clearly explained. From what we have seen in earlier episodes, Sylar’s innate ability is to see deep within complexities of the human mind. And then he takes what he wants. But Peter can already absorb the abilities of those around him (which raises the question of why he never absorbed Sylar’s ability) so he must need to use Sylar’s ability some other way to save the world.

Eventually, Future Sylar allows Peter to take his power. Just then, Future Claire, Future Daphne and Future Knox show up, and take Sylar’s son (named Noah) hostage. Peter tries to talk his way out of the conflict but eventually everyone starts fighting. During the ensuing battle, Future Knox tosses Future Sylar across the room. He crashes into Noah and kills him. Again, there is a moment of shared confusion. And then Future Sylar gets angry. He attacks Future Knox and before anyone can stop him, begins to glow. As Peter watches in horror, Future Sylar grows brighter and brighter. And then he goes nuclear.

The destruction of Costa Verde reminded me of the destruction of Buenos Aires in the film version of Starship Troopers. Some 200,000 people were killed, including (presumably) Future Knox and Future Daphne, plus Future Sylar. Both Future Claire and Peter survived but Peter is now captive alongside his future counterpart. Future Claire has just started torturing him when Future Nathan shows up and unties his brother. He explains that one man can’t save the world. It will take an army of people — people with abilities. Congress will fund an army, which Future Nathan thinks is a good idea.

He asks his brother to read his mind to learn his true intentions and Peter does. Then he reaches out and telekinetically chokes his brother. He’s using Sylar’s ability. He reads Future Nathan’s mind but wants more. He slices into Nathan’s skull, just like Sylar does (or did). Then he teleports away. He arrives in four years in the past in Sylar’s Level 5 cell. He tells Sylar that he has the ability. Sylar sees that Peter has the hunger and calls him brother.

Whew! It was a lot to take in. And to think, it was only one of the storylines in the episode. I loved it. Everything about it. Which is odd, because I have never been fond of time travel in Heroes (I still maintain that the paradoxes involved are many and varied, but I suppose if I ignore them entirely they don’t pose a problem). There may be some who feel Volume Three is too much like Volume Two, with a dystopian future that needs to be averted by the Heroes. Given that so many characters have the ability to travel through time, it makes a lot of sense that they would travel back in time to try to avert the tragic consequences unleashed on the world by those with abilities.

As much as I enjoyed the bulk of the episode, which involved Peter and Future Peter, many of the other continuing storylines were disappointing. Shockingly, I actually enjoyed Matt’s involvement in this episode. He finally has something to do, rather than just run around aimlessly (as it seems he has done in the past). He learns about his future life with Daphne (who survived the explosion in Costa Verde but wasn’t fast enough to outrun the blast and died in Future Matt’s arms) and decides that he has to find her. And his guide on this search is a turtle. Hilarious!

Mohinder and Maya continue to bore. Even with the glimpses we saw of him in the future, we don’t know exactly what it is that he ultimately transforms into. He has been tracking the changes to his body and the rash on his back is spreading (disgusting, right?) and he is afraid of what he is turning into. He attacks a man living above him, a man presumably beating his wife, and then chases off Maya when all she was trying to do was get him out into the sun. Mohinder eventually realizes that he can’t remove the ability from Maya or himself. The man he attacked earlier returns. Mohinder punches him in the face and then pulls him into his loft. Honestly, all of this is trite and dull and bogged down the episode.

I was interested to learn about the history of Tracy and Niki. They, and another baby named Barbara, had their DNA manipulated after their parents died. Tracy is shocked when Dr. Zimmerman tells her this. He can’t tell her much else because his memory has been wiped (by the Haitian). Tracy wants him to remove her ability, but he can’t. She grabs the doctor’s arm and uses her freezing ability. He apologizes. She later tries to tell the police what she knows about the reporter she killed, but due to stress she freezes the phone and it goes dead. She breaks down in tears.

I wish we know why Niki was killed of. She was much more interesting than Tracy Strauss is. Tracy is intertwined with Nathan, however, and he even saves her from committing suicide after resigning from his staff (this is after Linderman tells him to pray for guidance and to help Tracy). The two learn about one another’s abilities and then kiss. Aw. Nathan simply cannot take his hands off women who look like Niki and/or Tracy.

Finally, there is poor Hiro. Trapped in Level 2, he and Ando argue about their relationship. Ando thinks Hiro is still mad about the future in which he is killed by Future Ando. Hiro wants to escape through a vent and Ando reluctantly agrees to help him. While standing atop Ando’s shoulders, he apologizes to his friend and promises to change. Just as Hiro makes it into the vent, Ando spots the Haitian in their cell. They are brought in front of Angela Petrelli, who tells Hiro that his failure will lead to the downfall of them all. Ando defends his friend and Angela explains that Hiro is the key to unlocking the whole mystery (of who is manipulating everyone). The two start digging. They’ve released Adam.

Just what is it that forced Angela to risk freeing Adam? The formula falling into the hands of someone powerful? I would assume that is the case. I do not recall having heard anything about this powerful manipulator during past episodes, which is frustrating, because it seemed as if Adam was the “big bad” in the eyes of Angela and the Company. And now there is somebody else even more powerful? How will Adam and this powerful manipulator tie in with Peter and the future timeline?