Heroes recap of episode 205: Fight or Flight
by Racialicious guest contributor Elton
One consequence of the sheer number of separate storylines in Heroes is that it feels as if the story is only being advanced a fraction of an inch each week. It’s becoming impossible to squeeze the entire cast into each episode. Last week, Hiro was absent for the first time, and this week was Claire’s first duck out of the spotlight. There’s nothing wrong with omitting a few main cast members from a few episodes now and then, but the show still feels disjointed. Yes, everything that happens in Heroes is connected (eventually). Last season, many of the Heroes were more or less united in a mission from Future Hiro: “Save the cheerleader, save the world”. And they did - in a spectacular battle at the end of Season 1, the “good guys” united to prevent “the bomb” from destroying New York City, and villains Linderman and Sylar were (apparently) killed by DL and Hiro, respectively.
One might hope that the Heroes, finally being in the same place at the same time, would at least Facebook friend each other. Alas, Season 2 began with a reshuffling of the deck and they each went their separate ways, even more distant than before. DL is dead, Niki, upon finally getting their son Micah back, has decided to leave him behind once again, Hiro and Ando are separated by hundreds of years, and Nathan and Peter have no idea where the other is.
Well, not everyone is dazed and confused - a few of the Heroes (Noah Bennet, Mohinder Suresh, Matt Parkman, Molly Walker, Nathan Petrelli, and The Haitian) have formed a sort of confederacy in order to investigate and destroy The Company, an organization apparently founded by a mysterious group of 12 people from the previous generation of Heroes in order to find and control people with special abilities. So perhaps that will be this season’s uniting mission: take down The Company.
But another consequence of there being so many separate stories to tell is that no single character’s story is being developed thoroughly. This may result in characters of color being presented as stereotypes. As David mentioned last week, now that Issac is dead, Maya and Alejandro are left to represent Latinos, and it doesn’t help that they’re on the run from the police and trying to enter America illegally.
Then there’s the issue of Hiro Nakamura. He seems to fit the nerdy foreigner stereotype to a tee. And now that he’s running around trying to serve his hero Takezo Kensei, who happens to be a white Englishman trying to find his fortune in feudal Japan by “fighting dirty” and exploiting the natives, the image of Hiro as a subservient and cowardly Asian male stereotype might be complete. He’s even letting Kensei take credit for his bravery in battle and steal the heart of his love interest, Yaeko!
But I think it’s possible to fight stereotypes even in Hiro’s situation. One response to the Asian nerd stereotype has been to counter with guys like the Yul Kwons and Daniel Dae Kims of the world, and show that Asian men can be tall, strong, and sexy, too. However, I think that Hiro represents a different way to subvert the stereotype. A lot of Asian-American guys identify more with Peter Parker than James Bond. It’s true that many of us are short, wear glasses, and love comic books. Instead of denying this fact, Hiro seems to be saying, “So what?” He’s always been the Hero who most completely embraces his powers, no matter what. While other Heroes are ashamed of their powers, or using them for ill gain, Hiro goes on and on about how important it is to protect the weak and fight for justice. Let’s not forget how he won the heart of the beautiful Texan waitress, Charlie. Tragically, she was killed by Sylar before they even kissed, but instead of despairing, Hiro became even more resolute in his mission. He represents a different kind of masculinity that transcends stereotypes in its own way, with intelligence, sensitivity, and conviction. While Hiro may geek out about his powers from time to time, he’s also courageous, determined, and loyal. He can also be a badass - he did stab Sylar, and at some point in the future he will speak fluent English, wear a soul patch and ponytail, and carry Kensei’s sword as his own. So let’s not worry too much about him.
The character I’m most excited about this season is Monica Dawson, the black New Orleanian girl. She’s a cousin of Micah, the boy genius and technopath, who is starting to discover a talent of her own. Being a native Southerner myself, I appreciate seeing the South on Heroes, even if it’s not completely accurate (especially the horrible, atrocious accents). The South has a long and racially charged history of poverty, hardship, and tragedy, from slavery to the Trail of Tears to the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement. These issues are part of every American’s history, but Southerners have to live most directly with the consequences.
Monica lost nearly everything to Hurricane Katrina and is now living in a run-down house, working in a fast food restaurant and risking robbery to support her whole family, and bringing home old hamburgers for dinner. Those who look at Hiro on the surface and see an Asian stereotype might look at Monica and see a black stereotype. Yet, she still has so much hope. She’s damn proud to be the first member of her family to go to college, and even though her education has been put on hold due to the hurricane, she hasn’t given up and is always looking for a way to improve herself. I hope that she will find a way to use her new power of mimicry for good, but I believe a girl with an optimistic, hardworking attitude like hers will go far, regardless of whether she has super powers.
P.S. We have yet to see what Nana Dawson (Nichelle Nichols) can do, but I just wanted to say as a Star Trek fan that I have been really excited to see Nichelle and George Takei on the show, even if they didn’t interact. George and Nichelle are living legends, and an inspiration to civil rights activists everywhere. John Cho and Zoë Saldaña have some big shoes to fill.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Paul wrote:
The aspect of Monica’s characterization that seems most stereotypical to me is that she can only find work at a fast food restaurant. Surely a bright, attractive women could land a job in a department store or as an administrative assisstant. By placing her in one of the most menial jobs in the US, the writers are reinforcing the trope that blacks can only hold such jobs.
Posted 24 Oct 2007 at 10:24 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
So what kind of power do we think Parkman Sr. has? That whole thing kind of tripped me out.
Is it the same thing as the girl with Sylar who could create illusions?
Posted 24 Oct 2007 at 12:00 pm ¶
Jen* wrote:
Parkman Sr. seemed to suggest that he had the same power as Matt, and that it grew to be so much more. If this is so, this is the first time we see identical power passing from one generation to another. {meanwhile, I told them not to go in that room, but did they listen? no.}
My disappointment has been in the gullibility of Suresh. Is it that they cannot allow him to be completely brilliant? Can he only excel in brief moments? I don’t know.
And if Hiro doesn’t realize that he is supposed to be the true Kensei…well, I’ll be sorely disappointed.
Posted 24 Oct 2007 at 2:38 pm ¶
Kirshan Murphy wrote:
@ Carmen
I think Parkman Sr. basically has a more advanced version of the same power that Parkman has. There was a scene where Sr. said something like ‘reading minds is just the beginning, there is so much more’.
One thing I like in shows like this is a ‘throw down’ so to speak. Really show what Peter or Sylar can do. They did that briefly in the episode last season when they showed what the future would be like if NYC was blown up. If you recall, Peter and Sylar were really about to throw down against each other. This season the writers are taking the easy way out, because lets face it, if you had Sylar and Peter at full strength, a lot of these problems would be solved quite quickly. But for now we have Peter with amnesia and Sylar powered down.
All I can say is this, they had better start showing what they can do soon, or else I will not be happy lol
Another example, I watch Smallville and I get frustrated sometimes how weak they make Clark by throwing in so many convenient Kryptonite twists lol
Okay, I will stop rambling now.
Posted 24 Oct 2007 at 2:57 pm ¶
Claudia Leung wrote:
I think one of the aspects of this show that has been most intriguing, and has given it a certain sense of sophistication and cultural cache, is that not only does it attempt to incorporate numerous storylines into the plot, but that amongst these there’s such a diversity of race, ethnicity, language, geography, and even era (what with Hiro time travelling).
Unfortunately, as Elton remarks, a lot of ‘boiling down’ of the characters is made necessary by time constraints. I understand that this results in stereotypical representations, and that perhaps those can be overlooked, because, let’s face it, Heroes a very entertaining production.
What I’m finding harder and harder to overlook, however, is something that the writers and producers have always had complete control over, which is the overarching plot structure: the basic scenarios envisioned by the filmmakers in which we find our representations of race, gender, nationality, and so on.
For example, what about the rendering of basically all non-black people of color as foreigners? Except for Issac Mendez, we have had Hiro, Kaito and Ando representing East Asians as foreigners, Mohinder as the accented son of an Indian geneticist, and now Maya and Alejandro as the epitome of the Latino trope - desperate, sweaty, border-crossers whose secret powers seem - to me at least - to have overtly tragic/mystical/Catholic undertones. It troubles me that the only characters of color on the show this season who are not black are also not American.
This may not seem so troubling if it were not for the fact that all of the actors playing the above roles are American. Several of them have to fake or exaggerate accents in order to play their parts. Of course imitating accents or playing people from other ethnic or national backgrounds is nothing new to the acting profession, and it’s great to see actors of color getting more roles. However, it says a lot about the screenwriters’ limited imaginations of racial ‘types’, and of their understanding of what communicates - and what sells - to mainstream American audiences, especially in a show which does as much promotion of its ‘diversity’ as this does. Are Asians and Latinos in the US going to be constructed as scholastic, accented foreigners and desperados/illegal immigrants forever?
This perspective cannot be simply explained away with the idea that Heroes is trying to represent a truly transnationalist understanding of ‘heroism.’ If it were that simple, then the show itself wouldn’t station the action almost entirely in the US. Even the idea of Hiro’s destined transformation from Japanese supergeek to American-accented, soulpatch-wearing warrior is troublesome. The very relief we are supposed to feel, knowing that he eventually assimilates and succeeds in becoming a cool, American-accented hero only underscores how we are supposed to feel about him now: that his Japaneseness is awkward, childlike, and - as we see in his thwarted love for Yaeko - ultimately emasculating.
Even as I can only wonder at the incredible creativity and work that goes into making this show, and have to credit the screenwriters for their ability to weave so many storylines together into a narrative that is dynamic and compelling, I cannot give the show the credit it so desperately wants - as a proud, multicultural representation of the heroic in people of all races and nationalities.
Posted 25 Oct 2007 at 5:21 am ¶
Daomadan wrote:
Jen: I can’t wait until the moment when Hiro realizes he’s the true Kensei. It just has to happen. It has to!
And great analysis Claudia. Spot on.
Posted 25 Oct 2007 at 8:56 am ¶
Roxie wrote:
well…the hatian is black and not american.
Posted 25 Oct 2007 at 5:04 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:
#7…true.
Claudia, your analysis was awesome. I do however wonder if the writers chose to make Hiro Japanese (i.e. born and raised in Japan) because they wanted him to be foreign because of his power (time and place shifiting) and because they had the Kensei storyline in mind from the very beginning (many shows like Heroes will have the plot at least roughly developed like a few seasons out…)
And, they are all over the world now….isn’t that kind of the point? I mean from the beginning, Mohinder’s father was looking all over the world for people with extraordinary abilities…so maybe there is another side to the foreign aspect…I mean Peter is now in Ireland…
And speaking of Mohinder, I think that his gullibility is awesome! I don’t see it as a emasculating nor do I think it makes him look stupid…just incredibly hopeful and guileless….
I am still hooked on the show….I wish that the Irish guy hadn’t died. That really sucked! I liked him and thought his character was deliciously complex!
Posted 28 Oct 2007 at 1:21 am ¶
Daomadan wrote:
“well…the hatian is black and not american.”
And he also doesn’t have a name but is called “The Haitian”. He’s just a mysterious person with no name. I have big issues that he hasn’t been named yet.
Posted 29 Oct 2007 at 1:32 pm ¶