Ink-Stained Amazon

Ooooooo. Such much Heroes goodness last night. It was exactly the kind of visceral storytelling I enjoy.

There were big foreshadowy reveals:

Parkman can not only hear thoughts but he can force people to submit to his.

Mama Petrelli rightly says that if he explores this power he will be exactly like his father. Matt may think he’s doing it for a good cause, but as Kaito Nakamura pointed out to Hiro,

“We have the power of Gods. That does not mean we can play God.”

Again, it raises questions of where to draw the line. Should Parkman read Angela’s thoughts in order to protect someone? Or should he respect her privacy and the sacrifices her generation made? What about using Claire’s blood to heal others? Could healing be considered an act of God?

There Were Smaller, Expected but Satisfying Reveals

Elle is indeed Bob’s daughter. Bob may be thinking more globally about “specials” than HRG, but he has clearly failed as a father.

I had been worried that Kristen Bell was having trouble playing conflicted evil, femme fatale, spoiled daughter and damaged woman. When we first saw her she came off as a combination of spacey & pouty. But Girlfriend’s got it down, and the writers of this episode gave her some great lines:

“Overprotective, much?” –A shout out to Slayer Slang

and to Mohinder a saucy, “What’s your superpower? Punching bag?”

(Also gotta love Mohinder’s “Have you killed many people?”)

There was the funny…

Bob was the regional sales manager at Primatech Paper!

And HRG’s “Did you pack Mr. Muggle’s doggy bath?” was delivered with a perfect combination of calculation and humor.

There was the touching & sad…

Love child Hiro saying “I’m Takezo Kensei,” and grown-up Hiro smiling and saying, “Yes, you are.”

(And I wonder, does Nakamura Sr. know that Adam once claimed to be Kensei? I didn’t get the impression he did considering his pleased reaction to Hiro’s time travel to 17th Century Japan.)

I was very glad we got to see more George Takei. It’s so easy to only think of him as Sulu, and he’s quite a talented actor. I love that Hiro got to say goodbye to his father, and that we get to see his continuous evolution from child to man, from man to hero. He’s experimental and reflective, and right now seems to be the only hero concerned with going out into the world with these gifts in a responsible manner.

Other Thoughts

-Claire spelling out “I’m sorry” in rocks under West’s flight path was heartbreaking. She did nothing wrong. She’s confused, in love* and scared. It wasn’t the brave Claire of last season, but it was an honest moment, and certainly something a teenage girl might do.

-It’s nice to see more of Mrs. Bennet’s personality, which last season was suppressed as the result of numerous brain wipes. But now we can clearly see she’s a tough woman–the kind of woman Noah would be attracted to, and exactly the kind of woman he would need to keep away from his shady Company business.

-Mohinder shot Noah!!! But of course he’ll live. It’s just a question of who saved him, and what he might be expected to do to return the favor.

-A Random Idea I’m playing with . . . It’s not fully formed, but it was something that I thought of while reading the Heroes graphic novel collection last night.

There was a story told about how Claude and a rookie Noah Bennet came to find baby Claire, and how Noah was so taken with the helpless child that he swore to always protect her, to always keep her safe. I got to thinking that while the characters on this series have a lot of Daddy Issues–and that’s certainly a component of Claire’s relationship with Noah–he is very much a lioness. He’s a Sarah Connor, or a Ripley. He’s singularly focused on saving his child rather than the world. He protects instead of avenges. Like I said, just an observation and an argument not fully formed, but something I’ll be thinking about for the book.

–Finally, why is it that when women exert their power, I mean, really exert it, they get a nose bleed? I don’t think I’ve ever seen this happen to a heroic male character but last night it happened to Angela. It happened to Willow Rosenberg on BTVS several times, and it happened to Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four movie (and to countless other female characters I can’t recall right now, but you can see I’m compiling a list). It bothers me because it gives the impression that women can’t physically handle tremendous power.

*(with a questionable guy, but I think the writers might be fixing that. West was much less creepy last night)