Synkende kvalitet

Den første sesongen var bra. Den neste var dårlig, men nå har det tatt seg opp igjen. Jeg ser ikke til de grader fram til hver episode lenger, men jeg liker dem. Det er fortsatt mye bedre enn alle de elendige tv-programmene der ute.

The cheerleader saved the world

Claire saved the world by example, by leading the way for Nathan, by inspiring him, convincing him that the path set out for him by Linderman and his mother was wrong.

Everything fit together. All the moments leading up to this moment were true. There are no plot holes, no contradictions. The flying man did make a difference, as he forged his own future, not the one of others he could passively and obediently have followed.

They all followed their own way, no matter how manipulated they had been before.

Prophetic dreams

So Peter dreamt true. He was at least partly responsible for Simone’s death, and he killed Nathan. And there was laughter, Sylar, not Claude. Of course Nathan could have survived, flown away just before the explosion.

They were all there, like Peter foresaw, and they would all have died if he had blown up the city.

Sylar fucked up. He saw what he wanted to see, while Isaac saw what actually happened. Of course Sylar is probably not dead either, but he missed the opportunity to put in motion his plans, his plan to be special. What a tragic wreck. Hiro took him out, like he was destined to. Perhaps his time traveling powers made him difficult to read for Sylar, being new to the psychic power, while as stated Isaac saw everything.

This was only the first chapter, and it’s exactly like a Hollywood producer once said: «A movie should start with a volcanic eruption, and work its way up from there».

The old corrupted dreamers failed. Only ashes remain of them and their vision, and in truth, they had failed, given up long ago. Hopes and dreams prevailed in the new race of humanity. Niki found her strength, both within and without. Hiro found the cold, hard place within himself to do what he had to do. They were all shining, perhaps a bit too much, even in the face of tragedy.

Dead or alive Sylar missed his window. He disregarded the comic book about Hiro killing him, and that was his downfall. If he and Peter ever meet again Peter will have learned to master his abilities fully. It was amazing seeing Peter there at the end, knowing like he did that the explosion couldn’t be stopped, that there was no way of stopping the exploding man. Nathan was the key figure all the time. All the shadows of the series existed within him. But he couldn’t be corrupted either. Perhaps someone will ask why Peter just couldn’t fly off by himself, but in truth he couldn’t, not without blowing up before he came off the ground. It wasn’t one power that made him blow up, but all of them simultaneously.

And he couldn’t teleport, because he had never done it before, at least not consciously. He didn’t know how. And the Haitian couldn't have helped either. Peter would merely have absorbed his power, negating it, grown even more powerful and explosive.

They were all «heroes» there at the end, except for the man lying dead on the ground.

The Trickster

Sylar is The Trickster. He has tricked Mohinder several times, also often using guile when entering his victims’ life, as if he gets off on it. And he does. When he occasionally takes on their lives afterwards, he does them better than he does himself, because he can’t stand himself. He doesn’t want to be special; he wants to run from his own sorry ass.

He can’t explode himself, so he will attempt tricking Peter into doing it, goading him until he looses control.

The question lingers; what did Isaac see and what did Sylar see that was different from Isaac?

They are all here, now, for the finally, for the first great battle in a series of conflicts that will change the world. We see all the threads coming together, and the pull is so strong that it’s impossible to resist. It’s hard to compare Heroes to anything that has come before, because it is, in truth unique. There has never been anything like it. I find myself reminiscing of the great movies I’ve seen, the great comics and novels I’ve read. This is comparable in greatness and everything to all of that.

They say the conclusion to the bomb storyline will come this season, another great choice by the creators of the show. The story proceeds slowly, and has done, fortunately so, the entire season, but it is proceeding, and we get the payoff. We do get small cliffhangers and great payoffs. It seems clear that somebody, somewhere at the television studios have finally learned something: You don’t fuck with your audience. You reward them for their loyal attention.

Linderman will probably regenerate. That’s why he has survived all those attempts at killing him, even though it isn’t yet clear whether he has the same power(s) his granddaughter has. She might be able to heal others as well.

More cast members will die, though. My guess is DL and Ando, but it will also be logical if Peter dies, even though that will truly be a waste of great potential both storywise and within the story itself.

And Peter and Claire are very hard to kill. They need to loose their heads or something, and perhaps still have their brains burned to ashes as well.

There at the end, with, among other things, Sylar at the roof, I felt the choreography, felt the scenes, the puzzle come together, like Niki and Jessica are. Every episode is vast, often telling its own story, but the series still remain a cohesive Whole.

Everything is set, and I eagerly await the upcoming blast.

The gathering of forces

Someone bangs Peter on his head, but abandons him, and he wakes up alone…

They are all coming, coming to New York City, for the bang.

Sylar can’t be the bomb. He isn’t powerful enough. Peter is. Sylar can amplify a given power a bit, be stronger than those having it initially, but Peter can use them cumulatively, combining them into one, cohesive whole. Sylar copies powers, while Peter can use them in his own, inventive ways. Sylar copied Isaac, but Peter’s visions are far more potent than Isaac’s ever was.

Sylar is a firecracker. Peter is… an atom bomb.

Peter won’t get the scar. Future Peter got that and kept that, out of guilt and misery. He didn’t allow himself to heal. In other words: it was a psychological scar more than anything. And it won’t happen, won’t happen again.

Mohinder continues to impress the wrong way. He had the chance of talking Sylar out of it, but dropped the ball. Of course he has issues, but still.

Niki is coming together, too, her two halves slowly joining in a common goal. Who are you? DL will ask her. Niki or Jessica? And she will reply: «I don’t know». Because she will be neither… or both.

Hiro is a wimp, and shows that time and time again, but he will come around. He will gut Sylar.

Molly is the tracking system Bennett, Sprague and Parkman have come to New York to destroy. How ironic.

Angela Petrelli is really a cold bitch. Of course she probably knows that Peter will survive the explosion, but still. But do she and Linderman know that Sylar will take Nathan’s place? They seem to have miscalculated quite a bit. The best laid plans and all that.

There are two distinctly different timelines we see and have seen. One has already happened, while the other is still unfolding. The next five years will be totally different compared to what has been.

And it is and will be absolutely incredible.

This is turning into an X-Men-like story, in a way, like people claim, inevitably. It has to, since the theme is similar. But it isn’t an X-Men story, since it isn’t the X-Men. None of the characters are anything like any x-men, even though the powers may be. There are not that many powers to choose from, you know.

It is drawing inspiration from a number of sources, really, but has its own, unique approach.

I have waited for a series like this, a great television series, for so long, and it’s finally here.

String not yet cut

«I understand how things work». A red herring, if I ever heard one.

Hiro is arriving back from the future, believing it is Sylar he has to kill.

Sylar had picked up quite a few powers in those five years. Candice, Ted and quite a few more. His speech shows he is a great bullshitter as well. The image of Nathan in Peter’s vision is Sylar, not Nathan. Peter survived the explosion. So did Sylar. Mohinder is as stupid as ever. How many times have Sylar and others fooled him by now? Three, four, five? They call them «special», one notch from «specials». It’s okay by me, but interesting. I guess Sylar took Claire’s power in that other timeline, but she regenerated. In this one he didn’t get her power. So, when they confront Sylar in New York this time, he can be killed. Or perhaps nothing is changed yet. Or it is all meaningless. The Future Hiro we met clearly went back in time to make Peter save Claire. But he didn’t know she was alive, and she was.

Anyway, things will come to a halt, reach the intersection of strings soon… with a bang.

Mohinder called them a different species, and they are. They are mutants, the next stage in human evolution.

Good, very good.

I have watched it five times, now, and I never get tired of watching it. There are several contradictory statements, clearly deliberately, but soon we will know what is what, know the truth, or at least a far bigger chunk of it.

Everyone is off. No one is how they are supposed to be, bitter, callous and without hope, and they all met with a bitter end. Future Hiro isn’t that godlike being he looked like when Peter met him on the train, but a sorry wreck. Niki is whole, but not healed. Peter is scarred, both outside and inside. They all are. It shows in their faces, in their eyes. This is not the future, but a nightmare in red and gray.

It will change. The remaining question is how. What is the one, defining action or moment that will change it, or have changed it, except Hiro burying the sword in Sylar’s gut?

0.7%

That’s about the half of the population numbers in New York City, compared to the rest of the world. Linderman wants to save the world and the people that will be killed when Peter goes boom will be acceptable losses. That’s his reasoning and his play, which pretty much makes him a super villain of the highest degree.

He doesn’t appear to have the power of foresight or of being a lord of time, unless he was downright lying to Nathan, or misdirecting him, but has put together the future by collecting painting. A bad decision storywise by the creators/writers, the way I see it, but this and a few other bad choices don’t really lessen that much my experience of the series.

It started out great and intense, and continued great and intense and is growing more so. It’s getting better and better. With each new episode we’re pulled even further into its forge. They keep taking risks and tell the story in their own way and in their own pace, very little affected by ratings, at least compared to most shows today.

Isaac «chose» Sylar to kill him. He had given up, and was in death exactly the same pathetic excuse for a human being that he was in life.

Claire found her father, in more than one way. And she found Peter, just in time to save his life. Save the cheerleader, save the world. By saving her Peter seems to have doomed the world, but that’s just the apparent result.

Hiro met his future self, a changed, bitter and angry man, quite different from himself. Surely he will tell himself everything, everything he needs to change the past?

Ted is coming to New York to serve Peter the final, necessary piece for his meeting with Destiny.