Heroes 1:22 Landslide

[hazelk]

This episode was so good I fear for the finale but that’s a Wednesday problem.

Liked the title, metaphorically a victory in the polls, more literally a hint about the threat of physical disaster, metaphorically again the suggestion of all the stones finally rolling down the hill to meet at the bottom. New York, New York.

Last week the issue was how killing is hard. Hiro failed and even Sylar balked. This week Hiro learned how it’s done with the return of Sulu (and was that actually Chris Claremont in the sword shop)?

To save the most important thing you must be strong enough to cut out your heart.

Ominously Hiro showing what he’d learned cut from Sylar taking Ted’s head off. Sylar’s heart must be pretty rudimentary but arguably what was left of it died with his mother. More complex comparisons came with Bennet whose heart has survived multiple stab wounds but still find some things it has to steel itself to do. Not killing a ‘friend’ or even a person but a child. Then there was Nathan breaking Hiro’s faith in ‘Flying Man,’ smiling and smiling and still being a villain. More complicated than that though from Nathan’s point of view and it ties into the essential paradox of Hiro believing his ‘destiny’ is to change the future. The whole concept of destiny implies that the future is set and that does seem to be what Nathan believes, he can’t change it but he can be prepared for it. But he also aparently accepts Linderman (and Candice’s) assertion that the world needs to be healed without querying whether it’s sick. There’s a bitterness to Linderman as if the bomb were not only destined but welcomed as some kind of revenge on the world. Nathan said his father was his hero, I suppose he remembers him from before the disillusion set in whereas Peter being that much younger cannot.

Claire said what I said ::squee:: that she’s not normal and Noah accepted that or at least let it be reason for her to get out of Gotham but even then he must trust her to survive two explodable men. Only one of them is dead already. Poor Ted, just when he finally seemed to have got it together.

Unexpectedly, if I had to choose I’d say my favourite parts of the episode were those involving the elder Hawkins. First they blow into town like Angelina and Brad, but if Angelina were funny (best “haven’t we met somewhere” line evah) and Brad were hardcore. Hard to remember the guy who played Forrest on Buffy, not a trace of petulant fratboy detectable.

Second, if Linderman had watched Buffy he’d have known better than to taunt the girl with her nothingness. Tell her that victim is all she is and she’ll show you she’s more. I wondered why Bill didn’t use the gun before, partly overconfidence about being able to play Jessica, but also he knows that DL can phase out of bullets. But not this one, this one he had to be real for because Linderman was wrong. It was real.

Comments

Re: II

[selenak.livejournal.com]

If there were no-one to stop him I think he would have. He would have hesitated (as he did with Claude) but have counted out the greater good, weighted it for Claire and done it.

Agreed. He knew, going in, that he'd have to kill a person to "take down the Walker system", and the fact this was a child would ultimately not have stopped him.

And that second screencap gives the whole thing a look of the betrayal scene in Gesthemane.

I was thinking more of Godfather II, but you're right, Gethsemane will do nicely.*g*

Father Nakamura seems to know about the bomb but I don’t think he ever names the villain he expects Hiro to kill

No, he doesn't. He shares that general Elder tendency of being cryptic. (There is a great s2 quote about the Elders from a member of the younger generation on said tendency, but I can't say by whom about whom without spoiling you.) Also, the story he told little Hiro about Takezo Kensei and which Hiro now repeats is interpretable in many ways. Let me repeat the story: the hero gets offered by the dragon the power to "unite the whole of Japan" by the dragon, but he'll have to kill his princess, the person he loves most/stab her through the heart. Instead, he choses to offer his own heart in her place. Now Hiro puts the emphasis on "cutting out his own heart" in his conversation with Kaito, but you could just as well emphasis the trade and why he does it.

Maybe Linderman was an only child :-)

That's what I assumed from .07% onwards.

Otherwise the only person they’ve spoken to is Nathan and up until now all the people who seem to have knowledge of future events have been telling him he’ll make a good difference. So Hiro telling him he’ll be a bad man is something new.

Again, I'll limit myself to saying something I did then: given that one of Isaac's paintings shows Micah burning behind glass in an exploding New York, given that Micah is in fact dead in the 5YGverse, whereas here it looks like he's about to be rescued by his mother, what are the chances that Nathan in the 5YGverse also told Jessica/Niki and DL where to find Linderman? I don't think he did...

Lastly, because they're fun, and a counterweight to the heartrendering Hiro 'n Nathan scene, another quote from that podcast. Masi Oka is still raving about Adrian Pasdar:

M: He's such a generous person and actor. It's just completely amazing.
A: Yea, it's great.
M: I actually got to hang with him when I was in New York last week.
A: Oh yea?
M: We had some crazy adventures. We actually went to Times Square to recreate…
A: Oh the scene?
M: my Yatta thing.
A: Oh, did he do it, too? Did he spin?
M: Yea, well, he actually too the camera and spun around me and had me
spin in the other direction.
G: Oh, he shot it?
M: Yea
A: He didn't play you though? I mean, I'm sure… people do go to Times
Square and do that.
M: Yea! I think that's what happens. People didn't think it was me.
"Oh, just some crazy tourist pretending to be Hiro again."
A: Right.
M: But little did they know…
G: You can go and do that again, unrecognized.
M: It was really me.

Adrian P. put that vid up on YouTube later, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hjvva4qpzE

And it has an absolutely hysterical follow-up, where a tourist wanders over with a camera to the Heroes boys, but no, he doesn't want to take their picture, he wants an unrecognized Masi O. to take HIS picture in Times Square:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFv6JC0b9MM

Re: II

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

what are the chances that Nathan in the 5YGverse also told Jessica/Niki and DL where to find Linderman?

I hadn't thought that through but I did notice how tense Nathan was in that scene, balanced on a knife edge and it looked as if what finally pushed him into telling them where Linderman was was seeing the "64% Landslide" come up on the screen. I was feeling cynical at the time and interpreted it as Nathan seeing that Linderman had done his job and he no longer needed him/was beholden to him but it could also be the final confirmation that all the crazy talk about destiny and bombs was real. Or a wake-up call - now you have power, what will you do?

That podcast is wonderful.

Re: II

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*limiting oneself to nonspoilery talk, again*

That podcast is wonderful.

They're an adorable cast and completely crazy about each other. And with a great sense of humour. Further cute examples:





And then there are the hilarious interviews,
more dorky backstage pictures and crazy vids...