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Heroes: Season 2, Episode 1

A tv post by matt, posted on September 24, 2007 at 11:34 pm

Spoilers for “Four Months Later” below.

Things that happened

After a killer first season capped with a considered-disappointing finale, the big question going into the second season of Heroes was simple: can they really keep the momentum going?

Claire and Noah Bennet, having abandoned Texas and now living under an assumed surname, provided our first hint at the answer to that question when, in their first season of the season, the still horn-rimmed father told his ex-cheerleader daughter to — paraphrasing — “just be unremarkable and blend in.”

And that pretty much set the tone for the whole episode, honestly. Unremarkable and colourless, this isn’t an episode that will get anyone talking. Its saving grace was that it wasn’t at all bad, just bland — a distinction that still leaves a ton of hope for the upcoming season.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Mohinder is still wandering around speaking in monologues that lend themselves perfectly to narration. His focus now is on the supposed disease that is killing all the super powered individuals on earth. It’s bad because not only does it result in the death of that hero, but it also threatens the heroes’ combined legacy — the next step in human evolution. You might even call this thing the Legacy Virus.

Mohinder’s confronted by a guy from The Company — a bald character actor who has the power to turn things into gold — who tries to get the junior professor on his, and The Company’s, side. Mohinder appears to agree and join up, but we later learn that he’s actually still working with the aforementioned Noah Bennet — living his boring, bland life and working at a copy centre — to infiltrate the shadowy organization and bring it all crashing down.

In other news, Hiro is stuck in feudal Japan, which looks not unlike your standard American forest. His fortunes are slightly lifted when he meets Takezo Kensei, the legendary warrior he’s idolized all his life (and whose sword he quested after for like 26 episodes last season). Any hope is quickly dashed, however, when he learns that his samurai idol is not even a goddamn Asian guy. He’s just some drunk British jerk who is looking to make a quick buck. Hiro tries to convince him to be the hero he always thought he was, but Kensei seems pretty set in his ways.

On the plus side for Hiro, though, is that no one in feudal Japan seems at all confused by his strange clothes.

Back in present time, Hiro’s dad is still speaking in a very deep voice. He and Ando have spent the last four months trying to figure out where Hiro’s gone to, but have pretty much given up. Father Hiro is ready to pack it in when he happens to receive a picture of himself marked with the mysterious symbol that appeared all over the place last season. Written in red, the symbol over his picture apparently means that he is to die within the next 24 hours.

Mother Petrelli gets a similar message, and thus also seems marked for death. Not at all concerned about this, though, is her son Nathan, who has taken Peter’s death so hard that he’s grown a terrible giant beard that looks awful. He also spends all his time now drinking and looking sad, apparently.

Mama Petrelli meets up with Papa Hiro, where she’s told to get out of the country because otherwise she will die. Papa Hiro plans to do the same, but doesn’t quite make it in time, and by the end of the episode he’s thrown off the building by a shadowy figure who seems to have some strong connection to the Heroes’ pasts. How mysterious.

Parkman is working on getting his life back in order in New York. He’s living in Mohinder’s apartment, having seemingly adopted Molly — that sad little hero-detecting girl from the tail end of last season — and working his way onto the NYPD. We don’t learn much more about him, save for the fact that Molly is having terrible nightmares where she is seeing someone evil. For simplicity’s sake, I hope it’s the same guy who threw Hiro’s dad off the building.

And in Mexico, a brother and sister are on the run from the law, having been charged with murder. It’s not their fault, though — it seems the sister has the unfortunate superpower of being able to kill people just by being around them. They’re off to New York to try to find Mohinder’s dad. They’re a little late.

And, lastly, in our big cliffhanger moment of the episode, a bunch of Irish smugglers pry open a shipping crate at a loading dock in Ireland only to stumble across… Peter Petrelli. Looking all confused and shooting electricity from his fingers. It seems the younger Petrelli is back, and still alive and well. “How do you stop an exploding man?” You fly him into the air, apparently, and then you ship him to Ireland.

Let’s see what happens next.

Things that were good

  • The obvious one: it’s good to have Heroes back. It was great fun to catch up to these characters after being away for the summer. They’ve definitely given themselves a great base for this season.
  • Ali Larter’s absence is always welcome, though I worry it will not last too long. Here’s to hoping, though. Maybe one of the other characters can just sort of mention off-hand that she died in a fire or something.

Things that were bad

  • I’m concerned for this show. Anyone who geeks out on superhero stories can tell you that the origin stories are the easiest. Everything after is significantly harder. Is another mysterious hero-killer really going to be enough to drive this season? I hope there’s more layers coming.
  • That initial scene with Claire and her father was just really bad, wasn’t it? It rang so false and contrived. Really subpar acting from these two, especially considering the awesome performances they gave last season. (cf. “Company Man”)
  • You’ll notice that I didn’t mention new character West in my recap above. That is because I hate West. He is terrible and should be shot. “Aliens and robots?” What the hell? That kind of shit wouldn’t fly on the worst high school drama, much less a show of this calibre. West sucks.

Worth Watching If…

You loved Heroes last year. This was by no means a good jumping-on point for new viewers, as everything is still very much tied into last season’s events. Overall, this wasn’t a bad episode. If it had appeared mid-season, it would be considered better-than-mediocre. As a hotly anticipated season premiere, however, I really can’t consider it any kind of success. They needed a knock-out punch — instead we got little more than a body blow.

In Five Words

All My Heroes Are Cowboys