Sunday, March 1, 2009

Super Powered TV: Heroes 3-16: Building 26


The government agents discuss the hunt for their targets. Nathan meets Abby Collins with homeland security, his new overseer for his little project. Abby is of course a total skeptic, disbelieving everything to do with the project. Nathan brings Abby before Tracy, stranded in front of a heat lamp. The two of them of course know each other. Abby stomps off, angry about human rights violations. Tracy breaks her chains and attempts escape. She freezes and shatters an agent when surrounded and gives Abby a first hand look at powers in action, just before she is brought down. Nathan confronts Danko about Tracy’s sudden escape. Danko confirms that he did so, but of course nothing will be done about it. Why the hell does the government always have an absolute sociopath in charge of missions like this? Just once, maybe once, could Hollywood give us a capable soldier that wasn’t borderline insane? Thank God for The Unit, but I digress.

Sylar and Luke Campbell go cross country in search of Sylar’s dad. But Sylar catches Luke in his lies. Luke and Sylar have a heart to heart about dad’s red wagon. At a diner, Luke plays with his powers and draws Sylar’s wrath. But their heart to heart leads to Luke giving Sylar the address. The agents close on them. Luke distracts them and Sylar uses his powers to cause enough havoc to escape. Sylar abandons Luke to be captured by agents. But Sylar returns to the diner, cuts down the soldiers, and rescues Luke. But he claims it’s only for a box. And nobody believes it.

Hiro and Ando have already arrived in India with no question as to how a fugitive and his friend can make it out of the country. Ando meets a local named Anna Pura who is the third figure in Parkman's drawing. Anna cancels her marriage as she sees Ando as a sign. We learn that she is a restauranteur and her fiancee Deepak is a local crime boss. Hiro and Ando have a really stupid argument about who gets to be the hero, until Deepak arrives. Deepak knocks out and kidnaps Ando. Anna agrees to the wedding in order to rescue Ando, but Hiro stops the wedding. Hiro punches out Deepak and threatens the groom with a knife. Hiro realizes the drawing has come true and celebrates. In the aftermath, Anna realizes why Hiro and Ando have such familiar names. She has a fax with their names on it: a fax from Rebel.

We open with Claire at breakfast with the family, only to have another message from the mysterious Rebel. This leads to an argument between Claire and Noah about her future. Claire decides on a mission instead. She pays a visit to Alex and tries to convince him he is in danger. He, of course, works in a comic shop and thinks she is playing a prank on him. So she chops her hands open to show her power. Only for dad to come inside the shop. Alex makes a run for it. (What's with all the 90's Spider-Man issues on display in this shop. Do we have clones on the way or something?) Alex is a water-breather, as we learn in a heart to heart in his jeep. Alex leaves, ready to go underground. Noah confronts Claire again about her actions. After returning home, Claire tells her mom the truth about her father’s actions with the government initiative. Mom proceeds to kick Noah out of the house, and he agrees. After a heart to heart between Claire and dad, Alex comes out of Claire’s closet. Noah goes for a drink at the local bar. He promptly passes out and is picked up by Parkman, Peter, and Suresh as the episode ends...

A little more predictable this week, but still an able episode. I just have to silently voice my hope that Danko will die sooner or later. It is depressing to watch an otherwise solid season of this show sullied by an obvious caricature. Hopefully, Rebel will not remain a cipher for too much longer either. Sometimes Heroes pushes its mystery elements a step too far. I don’t want to see that make that mistake again.

If all goes well, I will be back tomorrow with episode 17 and the next day with 18, and the Heroes guide will be back on track.

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