Lower Decks

The following contains spoilers through the episode “Thanksgiving,” originally broadcast 11/23/09.

Back during the first half of ‘Lost’s’ second season, even Terry O’Quinn was getting antsy. He didn’t understand why Locke had reverted to the angry individual flashbacks showed him as being in the past, but in the present, at least until recently, he’d long since overcome. The actor’s vocal frustrations closely mirrored the reactions of fans who had grown accustomed to thinking of the series as one of the most innovative, thrilling, and constantly rewarding experiences on television, but had found this perhaps to no longer be the case after the first year. I offer the anecdote not as proof, now that we’re approaching that show’s final year with everyone happy once again, that things were never as grim as they appeared, but that there is always time for reflection, no matter what the results are, and Thanksgiving is a perfect time. ‘Heroes’ spent this week’s episode doing exactly that, and it was certainly an appropriate gesture.

By the fourth season of ‘Lost,’ its creators had announced the end of the series, a bold and unprecedented move that helped renew faith in the show. This being the fourth season of ‘Heroes,’ in which once again a once-popular show has made very obvious overtures to its fans to come back, one might wonder if a similar experience might be possible. The thing is, ‘Heroes’ isn’t ‘Lost,’ and it never has been (which is ironic, because when it premiered, many viewers were calling it an improved version of the ‘Lost’ template, an epic serial narrative). ‘Lost’ had an obvious arc to follow (which became slightly less obvious when the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were actually rescued and decided they had to go back), where ‘Heroes’ never did, certainly a vague one, but one that seemed to embrace a more traditional, season-to-season structure that allowed for looser ideas of how to construct stories. ‘Lost’ had a central, evolving conflict concerning a fixed set of circumstances. ‘Heroes’ quickly proved that each season could be built around a new story, a new conflict, and even if each season built on the last one, no obvious or at least direct arc ended up seeming like a mandate. Even if Tim Kring were to say today, “Our show ends after so-and-so,” it would lead to no expectations or conversations. ‘Lost’ became an interactive experience very quickly. ‘Heroes’ remained an objective one, where fans would have to be content (or not) with whatever the creators chose to do. Eventually, those fans decided it would be best to assume the creators not only didn’t have a long-term plan, but that they only did the most irritating things because they seemed like the popular thing to do (well, clearly not).

Along comes a season arc like ‘Redemption,’ and an episode like “Thanksgiving.” Fans a few episodes earlier assumed the best way to conclude the Sylar arc was when Parkman, then possessing the consciousness of the arch villain, tried to kill himself, thereby presenting a spectacular, sudden end to both himself and Sylar. The creators, if they were listening to this reaction, must have scratched their heads (like if ‘Lost’ had listened to O’Quinn and made Locke suddenly serene again, before Henry Gale ever showed up and left the hatch exactly as he found it as a result), because they knew where they were headed (this isn’t to say alternate stories would be totally unknown to ‘Heroes,’ which to my mind has always been the most transparent of any TV show in this regard). They knew that by “Thanksgiving,” Sylar was going to be Sylar again, but also Nathan, but in a far more unsettling way than before. They knew it would be far more interesting, far more creepy, to have Nathan turn on his own family, then reveal that it’s Sylar in control (the Puppetmaster identity perfected, by the way), and finish a conversation that had already been started, have the events of “An Invisible Thread” laid bare, and eventually have Nathan back in control, but in a way that has Peter finally having to take a truly active role, for the first time since “Home Coming,” in the first season.

This episode delivers, or continues to deliver, all the promise the third season finale presented, but in a way that those who perhaps only started watching this season might appreciate. HRG reunites with Lauren, introduced in “Once Upon a Time in Texas,” making an uncomfortable reunion with ex-wife Sandra (how weird is that, anyway?), who seems to have finally settled for a version of normal life that certainly seemed like she wanted when we first got to know her (perhaps something she finally got to have again, or perhaps a hint that isn’t quite appropriate for her anymore). Claire makes the big decision to at least visit the carnival, after a spat with her father that finally exposes the elephant in the room, that their relationship has never progressed from “Company Man” because, in a sense, neither one has moved past that rhetorical point. Those who think nothing ever happens on this show, that nothing ever really changes, might begin to reassess that judgment.

Then Hiro travels back in time to find out what viewers might have been suspecting all along, that Samuel Sullivan killed his own brother. Samuel’s mutinous, mistrustful associates, Lydia and Edgar (Ray Park!), now have good reason to no longer trust him, and Edgar is run off in the process, but otherwise the status quo must be upheld so Hiro still has a chance to reunite with Charlie, a curious arc that has taken off the remaining boy scout sheen on the character (in case there were viewers who still believed that myth, too). Oh, and thanks to Hiro, we know that the season has covered two months, an unusually expansive timeframe for the series, which also means the events involving Mohinder occurred just before the season began.

Samuel as a story point, specifically the connection to Coyote Sands (“1961”), continues a ‘Heroes’ tradition of forming new season arcs from plot points already established, which might be enough for the more generous fans to assume, once and for all, that Kring and the other creators aren’t just improvising, but have had an idea of what they’ve been doing after all. If that’s the case, then maybe fans might began to trust the creators again. Or maybe they’ll just sit back and watch as a thrilling season once again unfolds on the show.