Heroes 1x10: Six Months Ago

[andraste]

I usually make my reaction posts right after watching each episode, but Six Months Ago gave me a lot to think over, so it's much later now. Just the one episode today as I spent much of my day off poking my Vividcon vid.

(I am telling myself that it's a good thing I figured out that it won't export all in one piece now rather than on the due day.)



Oh, boy, where to begin?

While the fallout from Homecoming waits in the present, we get a huge insight into the backgrounds of most of our regular characters. (All we learn about the history our Japanese boys is that six months ago Ando took a sick day and Hiro answered his phone, but I gather Hiro backstory will be forthcoming later in the season.) I'm staggered by just how much they packed into the forty-five minutes this time.

The revelation most relevant to plot (rather than character) is the original identity of Sylar, here known as Gabriel Gray. I guessed the moment that Chandra Suresh walked into the watchmaker's shop that we were meeting our serial killer for the first time, without being spoiled in advance, just because the glasses scream 'Clark Kent' so loudly. Sylar gets and personality and a motivation worthy of the menace he's provided up to this point in the series, and his interactions with Chandra are fabulous. The poor professor was just unlucky enough to pick a borderline sociopath as his first contact with a super powered person. Chandra unwittingly feeds his darker side with talk of Gabriel's 'special' nature and pushes him over the edge completely when he rejects him. (I realised the exact nature of Sylar's powers when he took the note with the telekinetic's name on it. Eeeek! That is very bad news for our heroes. Also really icky.)

Speaking of Chandra Suresh, another joy of this episode was his brief interaction with Mr. Bennett. Their daddy to daddy chat rings true even as Bennett plots to use Chandra's research for nefarious purposes and remove his own daughter from the map. At home, Claire has just donned that skirt for the first time. It's fascinating and illuminating to learn that Claire already had her doubts about cheer leading and her friendship with Jackie even before her healing abilities developed.

In contrast to the warm father-daughter relationship between Mr. Bennett and Claire, we get to meet Niki's father as well. While her tale of an abusive dad and dead sister has a lot of clichéd elements, this was actually the first episode in a while where I connected with Niki. At least six months ago she was making choices, and the reason for her Dissociative Identity Disorder is solid as TV explanations go.

We also learn that Matt Parkman's life already sucked six months ago, as he flunks his detective exam for the second time and Eden makes him eat a box of doughnuts because he's in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Mean, but funny.) This is pretty much the story of Matt's life, and we watch him starting to push his wife away with his frustration about work.

The Petrelli story gathers more layers of complexity, and I'm glad that I am keeping notes *g*. I'd guessed about the exact moment of Nathan's manifestation when we found out about the timing of Peter's first vision - it makes thematic sense that those two would get their powers together. Just think, if Nathan had left the hood on the convertible down, we might be watching a very different story. What surprised me more was that Nathan was planning to go after Linderman before his father's death. I'm looking forward to finding out what the real deal with that is, as Peter's been told two contradictory stories already. I don't think either one is the truth, or at least not all of the truth.

Back in the narrative if not actual present, the excuse for all these glorious flashbacks is trying to save a life. We find out that there's another good thing about bending time and space: it really impresses the girls. Freezing time so he could fold her a thousand cranes? Most romantic thing ever! Of course she loves him, how could she not?

Doomed as the relationship is, in a way Hiro does save Charlie, from her own self-imposed emotional isolation. The big narrative question here is whether he teleports away at the crucial moment because of the emotional strain - the woman he loves just declared her feelings and told him that she's dying - or because he was about to completely screw up the timeline and it's somehow self-protecting.

That last scene in the diner was just heartbreaking. ("You're OK!" "No, I'm not OK." Waaaah!) Hiro's learned something about his limitations; let's hope it doesn't send him too far down the path to Grim Future Hiro.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I gather Hiro backstory will be forthcoming later in the season.

It will.

I guessed the moment that Chandra Suresh walked into the watchmaker's shop that we were meeting our serial killer for the first time, without being spoiled in advance, just because the glasses scream 'Clark Kent' so loudly.

Not to mention he has an alliterative name - Gabriel Gray (just like, you know, Peter Petrelli). This show is so for genre fans.

explanation for her Dissociative Identity Disorder is solid as TV explanations go.

It also makes it clear that her power isn't her alter ego; it's superstrength. Her DID is something she has because of her childhood. To make a Jossverse comparison, Niki is a more harmless version of Dana (the psycho Slayer from "Damage").

The Petrelli story gathers more layers of complexity, and I'm glad that I am keeping notes

I knew you'd be.*g*

Just think, if Nathan had left the hood on the convertible down, we might be watching a very different story.

I don't think he'd have been THRILLED about being superpowered in any case, but the fact his first manifestation got his wife crippled definitely makes his hostility every time Peter says "I think I can fly" in the pilot look in another light, hm?

What surprised me more was that Nathan was planning to go after Linderman before his father's death. I'm looking forward to finding out what the real deal with that is, as Peter's been told two contradictory stories already. I don't think either one is the truth, or at least not all of the truth.

Let's just say there is a missing link, and leave it at that till you find out more.*g*

Freezing time so he could fold her a thousand cranes? Most romantic thing ever!

And wonderful, wonderful image. yma2 wrote a heartbreaking Hiro and Charlie story, by the way.

I like the idea of the self protecting timeline. But there's something to be said for emotional strain as a key to how our heroes control their powers, or not, because of various other examples.

[yma2.livejournal.com]

Er... seeing as I've been mentioned here's a link to it.

http://yma2.livejournal.com/108288.html

Wasn't expecting that but there you go. Let me know if you like it! :D

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

the fact his first manifestation got his wife crippled

You know, it wasn't until I came on LJ and started reading review of this ep that I realized that Nathan's flying was partly responsible for what happened to Heidi. For some reason I'd got it into my head that the other car had caused the accident, right up to Nathan's car crashing, and it never occurred to me that Nathan not being at the wheel had caused his car to swerve off the road and crash.

[andraste]

Not to mention he has an alliterative name - Gabriel Gray (just like, you know, Peter Petrelli). This show is so for genre fans.

I love the way they just assume the audience knows their BtVS and have Christopher Eccleston quote the Doctor *g*. It lets them play around with genre expectations, too.

It also makes it clear that her power isn't her alter ego; it's superstrength. Her DID is something she has because of her childhood.

Which was a decision I really appreciated, evil twins being such a superhero cliché. I've now reached the point in canon where Niki has managed to use the superstrength herself for the first time - it will be interesting to see how the balance of power between Jessica and Niki is altered by that in time.

I don't think he'd have been THRILLED about being superpowered in any case, but the fact his first manifestation got his wife crippled definitely makes his hostility every time Peter says "I think I can fly" in the pilot look in another light, hm?

Absolutely. Nobody else in the main cast has their first manifestation go so spectacularly badly. No wonder he's not over the moon (er, no pun intended) about the whole thing.

And wonderful, wonderful image.

I forsee its use in many, many vids. (Please tell me this fandom has a zillion vids already.)

I like the idea of the self protecting timeline. But there's something to be said for emotional strain as a key to how our heroes control their powers, or not, because of various other examples.

The way Hiro's powers fade after this happens makes me think it probably was the stress. I just hope that in future he doesn't teleport to Japan every time someone wants to kiss him, because that could get very awkward *g*.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I forsee its use in many, many vids. (Please tell me this fandom has a zillion vids already.)

It has a lot.*g* Want some recs?

I just hope that in future he doesn't teleport to Japan every time someone wants to kiss him, because that could get very awkward *g*.

Indeed! The poor guy is in enough trouble as it is, he deserves some teleport-free snogging.*g*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I love this ep. Hiro giving Charlie a happy few months and making the cranes (a thousand cranes BTW are meant to make a wish come true) are of joy and also sadness--not that he fails to save her, but that he leaves at that particular point.

And of course it's how he learns English. :-)

Like selenak, I've noticed the alliterative comic names too; I suspect that PP and GG, having similar multiple powers and (very different) ways of acquiring them, will face each other in a huge series climax.