It’s a brave new world….but Aldous Huxley never could’ve imagined it like this!
Welcome Back Everyone,
The countdown has ended and new one has begun. The sands in the hourglass are slowly running out on this dear planet of ours. First it was the destruction of New York and .07% of the world’s population. The it was 90% of the human race when the Shanti Virus threatened to be released. Now we find the entire planet itself in peril at the hands of none other than ourselves(which is truer than we think!). Ok, ok, I guess I should put out my spolier warning now before I ruin the first three episodes for those who haven’t seen them yet…
SPOILER ALERT!!!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!!
The season starts off in Frankenstein style with an angry mob complete with torches and pitchforks chasing Future Peter down a street. Quickly ducking into a nearby warehouse to escape but ends up jumping from the frying pan into the fire as a future version of Claire who was waiting for him, holds him at gunpoint. Before escaping to the present, the conversation they have gives us the slightest of inklings as to what has become of Earth four years into the future. It seems that the world has become a dark, dark place where thousands and maybe millions of people have abilities but are feared and hunted like animals. But it’s not without reason since that light we think we see at the end of the tunnel is really the Earth’s core pushing it’s way to the surface!! It seems that everyone having an ability is not the greatest thing that could’ve happened. Future Peter, having full control of Hiro’s power, has taken on the mantle of saving our planet and hopefully our species by what looks to be any means necessary! Our first glimpse at the underlying theme of this volume; every hero can be a villainous and every villain can be heroic…hence my title, Moral Shades of Grey.
I think everyone had extremely high expectations for this first episode considering how long we’ve all been waiting. With that said, all expectations were not only met but far surpassed in my view. It might be bold to say so, but I think that The Second Coming was better than any single episode from Season 1 and almost better than all of Season 2 put together!! Any of the die hard fans from Season 1 who were put on the fence by the fuckery of Season 2 are now fully re-buckled in on the bandwagon and any of the fans who fell off during Season 2 are now running to get back on. I’d like to think that in the next 13 chapters(which happens to be the length of this volume), we’re going to see Heroes like we’ve never seen it before. While the writer’s strike did throw a huge monkey wrench into the gears, they’ve still had enough time to spiff up these episodes more than they ever have and probably ever will again. A small hint of what’s to come was shown to us during the scene where Hiro and Daphne Millbrook(our new villainous speedster) meet. The special effects depicting her ability to move to incredible velocity couldn’t have been done better. I knew what was coming due to my craving for spoiler fixes and I was STILL blown away! With the exception of the Maya/Mohinder scenes, this episode was nearly flawless. We actually are going to be seeing many characters paired together for what seems to be symbolic representation of the struggle between good & evil that rages inside everyone. Currently the pairs are; Maya & Mohinder, Sylar & Noah Bennett, Nathan & Tracey Strauss(aka Niki Sanders), Parkman & Rafiki(that’s what I’ll call the African precog for now…), Hiro & Daphne, and finally Peter & Peter!
Sorry, it’s hard not to jump around to all these different storylines so I have to try and keep things linear for y’all. In fact, I’m probably going to avoid doing an episode synopsis because if you haven’t seen Chapter 1, 2 & 3, you shouldn’t even be here reading this! What I will do is give you some of my favourite scenes and my theories on how the show will evolve. So here are my top five moments from The Second Coming, The Butterfly Effect and One of Us, One of Them:
5. Sylar Brain-Raping Claire
Wow. Ummmm…wow. The whole goal of Season 1(Save the Cheerleader, Save the World) is undone in the first episode of Season 3. The real test of how good an episode is for me can be defined by how many times I jump out of my seat with excitement because of some plot twist or drastic plot reveal. When Claire opened that to see Sylar standing there had me doing laps around the room! Granted, the closet door keeping Sylar at bay from Claire was a bit silly but I immediately forgave that once we got see Claire sprawled out on her dining room table. This scene answered a couple of key questions for everyone; Could Claire survive a Sylar encounter? and How exactly does Sylar take people’s powers? Technically, I guess Claire could not survive Sylar fingering her brain because she would not have regenerated without him replacing that top portion of her head. Though she was able to talk to him during his procedure, once he finished she did die. This is contradicted by Sylar himself when he tells Claire “You are different than all the others, Claire. You’re special. To be honest, I couldn’t kill you if I tried. You can NEVER die, Claire….and I guess now, neither can I.” I imagine he meant that he could keep her “dead” by interrupting that part of her brain but the instant it was restored, she would return to life. We also got to see how Sylar was able to take abilities all this time. But it really couldn’t have made sense without Mohinder’s discovery of where everyone’s powers come from; the adrenal gland. We know that Sylar’s ability is Intuitive Comprehension(the ability to understand anything in an instant) and once he is able to see how the brain fires its synapses to the adrenal gland, he is able to mimic that by using his understanding of how the brain itself works. This is further proven by the fact that Mohinder is able to give anyone powers, since we all have an adrenal gland.
4. Future Peter Revealing Himself
This one was a big shocker to me, especially since a non-fanatic of Heroes friend who was watching the episode with me guessed this reveal while my theory ended up being way out in left field! Future Peter is setting the stage for his big 180 degree turn from good to evil. However you still feel a tinge of sympathy for his character in knowing that the only reason he’s doing any of the despicable things he’s done is for a brighter future. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and Future Peter seems to taking the express bus. Seeing the most powerful of all those with abilities turn ruthless and possibly evil is everyone’s worst nightmare. This is only going to be counteracted by Sylar’s turn from evil to good which I predict with a high percentage of probability. I wondered how much could they do plot-wise with an unstoppable, uber-powerful villain that could only be defeated if literally everyone teamed up and ganged up on him…it was an obvious dead-end for Zachary Quinto’s character. But now I’ve had the epiphany that he was given such power because he’ll need it to survive the onlslaught of Level 5 escapees. The scene with Future Peter stopping time in during the bank heist was great! I can only imagine at the countless powers he has considering the future he comes from is one where everyone and their granny has an ability. The real creepy part is thinking about if Future Peter has somehow gotten control of Sylar’s actual power of Intuitive Comprehension(which technically he’s had since Homecoming in Season 1). This would mean that he has a full understanding of every power he has, therefore making him stronger than anyone on the planet! No one could contest him at that point…not Sylar, not Parkman not even himself!! Oooooh, I just got the willies!
3. Hiro vs Daphne
This looks to be the most fun of all the pairings we’re destined to see this volume as the reparte between hero and arch-nemesis keeps things light. Not to mention that in almost every scene these two have together is laden with special effects! I think Hiro having a nemesis that’s not a power-hungry megalomaniac gives Masi Oka a chance to really play with his comedic side. Even the nature of Daphne’s power being able to counteract Hiro’s adds another level of irony in the fact that while Hiro’s power doesn’t really work on Daphne, her powers don’t give her an advantage over Hiro either! I loved the scene in episode 3 when the Hatian had both of them depowered and they didn’t even know it which actually defines the Hatian’s powers a little more. He was able to neutralize them without knowing they were there and this leads to believe that his Power Neutralization ability functions somewhat like a field. Better for since he doesn’t really have to concentrate to knock out another’s power, all he needs is to be conscious. There was a definite pop from me when Ando clobbered the Hatian to steal the briefcase. Slapstick abound! It even goes as far as the movie playing while the briefcase exchange is going down happens to be a Buster Keaton flick! The crazy part is that hidden amongst all the comedy in this storyline are the answers that will lead us to this volume’s true outcome. What does the “formula” do? How did Kaito become it’s guardian? Who hired Daphne to steal the formula? How is Angela involved? How does the formula lead to the Earth’s destruction??
2. The Emmergence of Knox
This was one of the things I knew about long before season 3 went on the air and I’ve been waiting ever since. Jamie Hector who plays Knox was one of my favourite characters in an HBO series called The Wire. Those who know about him, know him as Marlowe Stansfield, the main antagonist for the show’s final two seasons. And if the writers make Knox anything like Marlowe, then we’re in for a intimate look at pure evil. While all the villains we’ve seen have an agenda or at least some method to their madness, we’re yet to see someone who is evil simply because they like it. It was smart to have Knox’s power based on fear since it gives him a built in character driver to do bad things. To make a Spiderman analogy, Knox will a Carnage to Sylar’s Venom. While Sylar is no doubt a self-proclaimed killer, he still has some form of a twisted moral code. For Knox, I think this will be completly absent and he’ll be in “kill at will” mode much like he was when he killed his own teammate, The German Magneto during the bank heist! I’m extra glad that his lifespan on the show will be longer than two episodes since it’s already been foretold he will join forces with REAL badguy dreamteam(Adam Monroe, Tracey Strauss and Maury Parkman) in Angela’s grim vision of everyone’s future. We also get hints of a history between Knox and Bennett during their encounter at the bank. I’m really anxious to see Jamie Hector take this character and run with it!
1. The Sylar, Bennett, Angela Triangle
I’m still reeling from CRAZY reveal in episode 3 last nite! Sylar is really Angela’s son?!?!? WTF?!?! And on top of that, she’s feeding him powers?!? Poor, poor Bennett, what have you landed yourself into? Stuck holding the leash of a certified monster and trying to contain him with just your wits, is what. Sylar’s current array of abilities are quickly approaching the level of lethality they were at before his de-powering. As of episode 3, he has his own power, Telekinesis, Spontaneous Regeneration, Matter Transmutation(turning stuff to gold), Pyschometry(the ability to obtain info about an indvidual by simply touching an item they touched) and Sound Manipulation. While he has lost a great deal of offensive power(Ted’s power and Zane Taylor’s power), he has more than made up for it defensively by acquiring Claire’s ability. This storyline could be the opposite to the Star Wars storyline for Anakin Sykwalker. Instead of someone purely good turning to ultimate evil, we see ultimate evil find it’s way to pure good. Who will get to who first, Bennett or Sylar? How long will Angela continue to feed Sylar? Will Sylar turn good? All these are questions dying to be answered!
Below I was also able to find the episode titles for the chapters in Volume Three:
301. The Second Coming
302. The Butterfly Effect
303. One of Us, One of Them
304. I Am Become Death
305. Angels and Monsters
306. Dying of the Light
307. Eris Quod Sum
308. Villains
309. It’s Coming
310. The Eclipse Part 1
311. The Eclipse Part 2
312. Our Father
313. War
Hope y’all enjoyed my review of the last three episodes at least a fraction as much as I enjoyed the episodes themselves! To be honest, I think they could’ve just replayed these chapters over and over and it would’ve been better than what we saw in all of Season 2!
Check back for more spoilers, theories and reviews!
Holla,
SV
