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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Heroes - The Gathering Storm
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(Episode: Truth & Consequences. Spoilers ahead.)
Uh, how did Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei know where to find his quarry, that mysterious woman in the photo of The Company's founders?
Her name is Victoria Pratt, and she developed Strain 138, a weaponized strain of the Shanti Virus. Hiro discovers through time travel to 1977 that Monroe tried to release the virus into the general population. This confirms Bob's claim that Monroe wants to punish the world with holocausts.
Monroe's vendetta against the world hasn't been sufficiently explained. Best guess is that he became greatly infused with Hiro's heroic idealism, and through whatever experiences has come to view humanity as mostly villainous, and has decided that the villains must be eradicated. He didn't have the ability to inflict a global cataclysm until the weaponized Shanti virus came into being. But what made him snap his twig? What we saw explains his bitterness toward Hiro, but what about the rest of the world?
Another question: how come Maya learned English and Alejandro didn't? Learning a foreign language is not a trivial matter. If she had learned English from common contact with English-speaking neighbors, he would have picked up the language, too - and considering that they are from the Dominican Republic their English-speaking neighbors woudl likely speak a Haitian Creole dialect. If the producers bother to address this curiosity at all, they can say that she learned English for the sake of employment in a profession that puts her in significant contact with English-speaking tourists.
Sylar contrasts Adam Monroe on two levels. Whereas the latter is good at lying, the former is a master of psychological manipulation. (One may read this as an extension of his intuitive aptitude, but the underpinnings of how physical mechanisms work are completely different for those behind human psychology.) Sylar is completely selfish, whereas Monroe (if what we're being led to believe about him is true) has the totalitarian's twisted sense of altruism; Sylar wants power, Monroe wants to save humanity from itself - think of the weaponized Shanti Virus as a parallel to Stalin's purges.
Sylar took a huge risk by manipulating Maya into releasing her power, so that she would learn to control it without her brother. It could be that Alejandro had no power at all, that his "ability" to turn off her power was psychosomatic. There's precedent for this - Isaac Mendez needed heroin to trigger his paint-the-future ability, and Peter needed his brother nearby to gain the confidence to use his.
Monica is now beginning her superheroine career, breaking into a gang's house to retrieve Micah's stolen backpack and its contents, his dad's medal and his comic book collection. Seeing her in black garb, Micah connects her with the 9th Wonders! character St. Joan. IIRC, she dropped that comic book when the gang caught her. Micah may use it to figure out where they are taking her, and he and Niki go to rescue her. The Company had given her an iPhone (or something similar) with a library of videos of acrobatic moves - I'm guessing they intend for her to be a future agent of theirs, and this is their way of training her.
Now that Mohinder knows more details about The Company's viral research and Strain 138, does he really trust those people as much as he lets on? And why did The Company save Bennett? Mohinder demanded it in return for his continued cooperation, no doubt. But what will they do with him? I'm hoping that Mohinder is not as naive as he acts, that he is still working against The Company, but not in a way Bennett intended - perhaps to bring about regime change rather than its destruction.
Wikipedia's article of next week's chapter finale currently posts this synopsis:
Posted by Alan at
1:45 PM |
Uh, how did Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei know where to find his quarry, that mysterious woman in the photo of The Company's founders?
Her name is Victoria Pratt, and she developed Strain 138, a weaponized strain of the Shanti Virus. Hiro discovers through time travel to 1977 that Monroe tried to release the virus into the general population. This confirms Bob's claim that Monroe wants to punish the world with holocausts.
Monroe's vendetta against the world hasn't been sufficiently explained. Best guess is that he became greatly infused with Hiro's heroic idealism, and through whatever experiences has come to view humanity as mostly villainous, and has decided that the villains must be eradicated. He didn't have the ability to inflict a global cataclysm until the weaponized Shanti virus came into being. But what made him snap his twig? What we saw explains his bitterness toward Hiro, but what about the rest of the world?
Another question: how come Maya learned English and Alejandro didn't? Learning a foreign language is not a trivial matter. If she had learned English from common contact with English-speaking neighbors, he would have picked up the language, too - and considering that they are from the Dominican Republic their English-speaking neighbors woudl likely speak a Haitian Creole dialect. If the producers bother to address this curiosity at all, they can say that she learned English for the sake of employment in a profession that puts her in significant contact with English-speaking tourists.
Sylar contrasts Adam Monroe on two levels. Whereas the latter is good at lying, the former is a master of psychological manipulation. (One may read this as an extension of his intuitive aptitude, but the underpinnings of how physical mechanisms work are completely different for those behind human psychology.) Sylar is completely selfish, whereas Monroe (if what we're being led to believe about him is true) has the totalitarian's twisted sense of altruism; Sylar wants power, Monroe wants to save humanity from itself - think of the weaponized Shanti Virus as a parallel to Stalin's purges.
Sylar took a huge risk by manipulating Maya into releasing her power, so that she would learn to control it without her brother. It could be that Alejandro had no power at all, that his "ability" to turn off her power was psychosomatic. There's precedent for this - Isaac Mendez needed heroin to trigger his paint-the-future ability, and Peter needed his brother nearby to gain the confidence to use his.
Monica is now beginning her superheroine career, breaking into a gang's house to retrieve Micah's stolen backpack and its contents, his dad's medal and his comic book collection. Seeing her in black garb, Micah connects her with the 9th Wonders! character St. Joan. IIRC, she dropped that comic book when the gang caught her. Micah may use it to figure out where they are taking her, and he and Niki go to rescue her. The Company had given her an iPhone (or something similar) with a library of videos of acrobatic moves - I'm guessing they intend for her to be a future agent of theirs, and this is their way of training her.
Now that Mohinder knows more details about The Company's viral research and Strain 138, does he really trust those people as much as he lets on? And why did The Company save Bennett? Mohinder demanded it in return for his continued cooperation, no doubt. But what will they do with him? I'm hoping that Mohinder is not as naive as he acts, that he is still working against The Company, but not in a way Bennett intended - perhaps to bring about regime change rather than its destruction.
Wikipedia's article of next week's chapter finale currently posts this synopsis:
Peter and Nathan Petrelli are reunited, but a battle erupts between them. Matt Parkman and Hiro Nakamura are set up by Adam Monroe as Monica Dawson is captured by a street gang, and Micah Sanders turns to his mother Niki for help. Maya Herrera learns Sylar's true nature when he kidnaps Molly Walker and Mohinder Suresh. Elle plays the hero to get back into her father's good graces. The preview states two characters will die.
Actually the preview says they will "fall" - which probably means "die," but I wouldn't put it past Tim Kring for it to mean something else in one or both cases. And death isn't necessarily permanent on this show..."Hero" doesn't necessarily mean good-guy - Maury Parkman could be one of the two, and he's pretty much useless now. I'm betting Elle will be one of them.
Labels: Heroes, Television
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