Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Heroes through the current episode, “Cold Wars” originally broadcast February 23rd, 2009.

Hot on the heels of “Building 26,” which wasn’t a complete waste of an episode, comes “Cold Wars” and its focus on Noah Bennett, one of Heroes most compelling characters. The bulk of the episode — the portions that focused on Noah — was exciting. Unfortunately, judging from what was revealed in this episode it looks like the rest of Volume Four: Fugitives will be little more than a retread of previous seasons.

At the end of “Building 26″ Noah had been kicked out of the house by his wife and while relaxing at a bar was drugged by Matt, Mohinder and Peter. During “Cold Wars,” they bring him to a motel and brilliantly decide to drug Noah and force him to reveal everything he knows using Matt’s ability. In flashbacks, we watch as Noah is given a thank you gift by Angela Petrelli for his service to The Company, is recruited by Nathan Petrelli to participate in the government’s round-up of those with abilities, and attempts to bond with Danko.

From these memories, Matt decides to send Peter to Noah’s self-storage unit to pick up some weapons. Peter flies off and quickly trips an alarm. Noah tries to warn Matt and Mohinder but the two are busy fighting with one another. Mohinder thinks Matt is trying to get revenge for Daphne’s killing while Matt thinks Mohinder wants to be caught by the government. When Matt learns that Noah met with Mohinder, the two even come to blows.

Noah is able to escape but is soon recaptured and Matt is able to continue probing the chiaroscuro reaches of his mind. He assumes Danko is in charge and directs Peter to kill him. Noah reveals that Daphne is alive and Mohinder promises to buy Matt the time he needs to learn if Noah is telling the truth. He is. Mohinder is captured by Danko’s goons, as is Matt. Peter, meanwhile, has a gun to Danko’s head when Nathan arrives. Peter shoots Danko in the arm but doesn’t kill him. He gets away.

Noah walks a subdued Matt out of the motel when Peter drops a stun grenade, swoops down and flies off with Matt. Nathan threatens Mohinder in an attempt to get him to join the government. Noah meets with Angela and the two discuss Danko and what Noah will have to do to convince the government he is on their side. Matt draws a bunch of paintings, including one that shows him decked out in an explosives vest and another that shows Washington, D.C. in flames.

So, to sum up, Noah and Angela are working to undermine Nathan and the government. Daphne is alive but Nathan insists that she and all the other people with abilities will die if Mohinder doesn’t help him. And Matt will apparently try to blow up Washington, D.C. with a few pipe bombs if nobody stops him. I’m interested to see how Noah tries to stop Nathan and what he will do in order to protect his daughter. I assume he knew Peter would try to rescue Matt and thus wanted to be the one walking him out.

I’m not sure it was necessary to have Noah’s memories/flashbacks in black and white but I liked it. I did not like the end of the episode and the way it set up another heroic struggle to stop a cataclysmic event from occurring in the future. We’ve had enough of those. And this one isn’t particularly exciting. Oh no, Matt is angst ridden and decides to blow up the White House. Quick, someone make sure he misses the bus into the city. But wait, Daphne is alive so he shouldn’t be so angry, so why would he want to blow up anything?

Killing Daphne, or pretending to, was a weak way to turn Matt into a bitter, violent man. Bringing her back makes me happy and should make Matt happy but, once again, it makes it difficult to feel any real concern for characters on Heroes. They don’t die. Peter, Sylar and Claire have all died only to be resurrected. Niki died but was brought back, more or less, as Tracy Strauss. Elle and D.L. are apparenlty really, truly dead, as are Charlie and Kaito Nakamura, among others. So I suppose some people have died and stayed dead. Still, when my first reaction to a character’s death is “When will they come back and how?” something is amiss.