Say Hello To The Bad Guy: The Racialicious Review of Heroes 3.5!
By Arturo R. García, also posted at The Instant Callback
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Not much of the ha-ha this week: finally, Mrs. Petrelli has met her match. in “Angels and Monsters,” the season’s Big Bad stood (well, lay) revealed before us – her own husband.
Arthur Petrelli, thought dead before the series even began, is revealed as the man behind Linderman’s “reappearance” to not only Nathan, but to Daphne, who serves as his chief recruiter for a different Company — Pinehearst.
Pinehearst, it stands to reason, is behind another of the episode’s reveals: that a number of familiar superhumans actually received their powers artificially, including Tracy and Nathan. From a hospital bed inside the facility, Papa Petrelli, thru Daphne and Maury Parkman, has begun assembling his own team. Knox has somehow entered the fold, capturing Adam Monroe and recruiting … Hiro?!
The rest of the Petrelli family isn’t doing so hot this week, either: Peter seemingly comes unhinged during a confrontation with Sylar (by now acknowledged as his brother, without even a blood test), nearly literally punching his head off and almost slicing his mother open for more information, forcing her to place him into an induced coma; Claire has to confront not only Noah’s working with the man who almost killed her, but his willingness to kill an innocent man to protect her (again); and Nathan, faced with the news he was the family’s genetic slowpoke, calls Mrs. Petrelli out and storms off to get help from the “harmless” Suresh …
… Who definitely isn’t harmless anymore. This week we see him verging ever closer to the dark side; not only has he been kidnapping and webbing up his neighbor, a local drug dealer and Maya for reasons unknown – a cure? A meal? — but we see he’s on the list of recruits for Pinehearst, as is the younger Parkman. And as Mr. Petrelli’s plan begins to pick up steam, we see him enter his wife’s mind, taunting her, “You won’t even be able to move.” Strong episode overall, especially with the thought of an all-out meta-war now within reach.
The Racialicious Scorecard:
Hiro & Ando: From bad to worse to shocking. The Dynamic Duo gets conned by Adam at a bar and soon enter a confrontation with Daphne and Knox, declaring, “We are very badass!” Unfortunately for them, Knox calls their bluff by daring Hiro to stab his buddy. No way, we were thinking. Hiro will just figure something – SHANK!
Oh, damn. This isn’t going to help their trust issues.
Knox: We learn he’s part of Mr. Petrelli’s new team, though not how he was recruited. He takes the initiative with Hiro and Ando, surprising even Daphne with his cold-blooded demand, leading to Hiro’s seeming betrayal. You can pretty much bet he’s going to be a player from here on in.
Stephen Canfield: A completely new character, Stephen is another escapee from Level 5, one with a particularly sad story: apparently he’s imprisoned after his ability to conjure portals – to where, we don’t know – leads to the death of his neighbor, the utterly lonely Stephen (“I love my wife. I love my children.”) briefly befriends Claire before being forced by Mr. Bennet to choose between his freedom and killing another man – Sylar. Instead, Stephen, remorseful over the first death he caused, seems to take his own life with one of his own portals.
Mohinder & Maya: Too late, Maya discovers what her new boyfriend has been up to – hoarding people in his lab. “What have you done?” she demands. “You’re a monster.” And for the first time, Suresh is unrepentant: “I wish you hadn’t said that,” he answers. Next thing we know, she’s on his wall of shame.
The Haitian, Usutu, Micah and Monica: All MIA this week, although Usutu may finally see some character development and action soon, as Daphne and Parkman’s respective storyarcs start leading them toward one another.
Next Week: Suresh takes a shot at Nathan and Tracy! Bennet family Russian Roulette!
Character bios and pics courtesy ofHeroesWiki.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Madame Zenobia wrote:
The Haitian, Usutu, Micah and Monica: All MIA this week, although Usutu may finally see some character development and action soon, as Daphne and Parkman’s respective storyarcs start leading them toward one another.
I wonder if Micah will return; hell, if Monica will return permanently?
I enjoyed the episode. I chuckled a lot, particularly in the scene with Peter spitting on his mother. Sylar is a treat to watch. Andre Royo, gone too soon. And his power, pretty damn cool. I, too, wonder where those vortexes lead? Perhaps to an alternative “Heroes” show where the racial see-saw doesn’t sway too heavily in their favor. Or something. LOL. Try to be poetic this early in the morning.
At any rate, I enjoyed the episode was particularly pleased at seeing Robert Forrester. The Petrellis are becoming like the Carringtons, the Colbys, the Ewings, etc. but more dysfunctional…way more dysfunctional. I look forward to Papa Petrelli’s come-uppance. To be truthful, during season one they talked about him so much that I knew, KNEW the character wasn’t dead. He’s too central to things; even after death the family, his colleagues lent him that importance. Can’t wait to see how it all pans out.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 9:26 am ¶
B wrote:
Re: Ando. I’m guessing that his being saved–by Hiro going into the past to do… something–will be connected to his getting powers. I’m rather looking forward to Super-Ando.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 10:27 am ¶
tablesaw wrote:
All of the links are broken. It appears you may have originally drafted this post in another program (like MS Word) that automatically converts quotation marks from the standard “straight” versions to “curly” ones. This caused the blogging software to misinterpret them.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 10:27 am ¶
B wrote:
Oh, the HeroesWiki link isn’t working–at least not for me.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 10:30 am ¶
Lola wrote:
The story is turning into complete nonsense. They keep introducing new characters without resolving story lines from season 2 characters. Maya’s entire purpose is as a witness to Suresh, she is a waste of air time. At this point I’m watching so I can see actors from The Wire and Sylar who is my evil darling. Where is the Haitan? He may not get a lot of lines but he is damn fine.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 10:59 am ¶
Renee wrote:
I was totally shocked to see papa Petrelli. I am loving Hereos once again this season though I was really disappointed when Hero shanked Ando though my unhusband immediately said “he’s not dead, no one really dies on “Heros”.
As for Micah I really hope to see more of him. I really like that little boy. Perhaps it is because he reminds me so much of my own son but just seeing him on screen always touches me somehow.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 11:02 am ¶
tj wrote:
Heroes was created to give work to (bit part) white actors!
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 11:07 am ¶
Erica wrote:
Quick thoughts, in no particular order…
So now we have The Company and The Other Company. Most people get divorces — Mama and Papa Petrelli take dysfunctional to a level you never thought possible.
Mr. Bennet is bat-shit insane. Has he even noticed that Lyle seems to have vanished while he’s obsessed with protecting Claire Bear?
Poor Maya. Poor Ando. Poor Meredith. Poor Stephen. I even felt a bit sorry for Nathan for one of the first times ever. But no sympathy for Peter…
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 11:30 am ¶
LTP wrote:
The introduction of Aurthur gave me chills! I like that twist.
I’m disappointed in the… unhinged storyline of Peter. Not to say it’s not interesting to go in this direction, but I feel like it’s a little erratic and unfocused.
The guy killing himself was sad, but I saw it coming.
Poor guy.
I had more to say but getting up four times in the course of writing this to deal with my baby has made me forget. I’ll be back later!
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 1:29 pm ¶
jen* wrote:
ok. Now Hiro’s drunk the stupid-berry juice along with the rest of ‘em. No wonder he and Ando are having issues in the future.
Once again, white characters never die. They always come back. Parkman, Sr. is Pa Petrelli’s beck-and-call boy? Eh. Meanwhile…there are plenty of brown folks we haven’t seen in a while.
I’m actually starting to get ticked to the point of possibly changing my viewing habits. And though I believe Sendhil is smokin’ hot, I’m making Mohinder an honorary Petrelli and requesting that he be added to my list of desired casualties.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 1:48 pm ¶
Madame Zenobia wrote:
hough my unhusband immediately said “he’s not dead, no one really dies on “Heros”.
Exactly. NO ONE REALLY DIES (anymore). They’ve taken that away. Storylines were a lot more impactful when people died and STAYED DEAD. LOL. I’m thinking of Simone, Isaac, Ted, Eden, Chandra Suresh, etc. And I’m also thinking of Season 1 which was superb.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 2:07 pm ¶
Renee wrote:
I’m disappointed in the… unhinged storyline of Peter. Not to say it’s not interesting to go in this direction, but I feel like it’s a little erratic and unfocused.
Come one, that kinda had to happen. Peter and his boy scout watch me save the world is tired. It was always clear from the glimpses that were shown of Peter in the future that a lot of the good boy shine had worn off.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 4:39 pm ¶
Diana wrote:
I was really disappointed to see Suresh turning into a bug. After he got a little nookie, I thought he would get a bit more play. Oh Well! Before he put Maya on his wall of shame, I thought maybe he would just be going after people who plague our society–wife beaters, drug dealers, etc. But now it looks like he’ll be a full-on baddie.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 8:54 am ¶
Bello wrote:
Micah and Molly will hardly be seen because in real life they have aged ‘faster’ than their characters have. Its the sme problem they have in the show ‘Lost’ with Walt. Unless the time travelling stuff occurs, you really shouldn’t see too much of them.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 10:51 am ¶
lizriz wrote:
Wait. Was Arthur Petrelli the same actor that plays Nathan in makeup? Because I totally thought it was somehow old Nathan through some sort of time travel mojo. LOL Clearly, I’ve stopped paying good attention.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 2:55 pm ¶
Erica wrote:
@lizriz — It is a good resemblance to Nathan! But it’s a different actor: Robert Forster. (They did a similarly good job casting Maury Parkman, who looks like Matt Parkman after a few decades of drinking and fattening up.)
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 9:08 am ¶
Andrea R. wrote:
I too enjoyed this episode and I’m excited to see what’s coming up next week. I really liked the vortex dude and wish he’d stayed a little longer. I think we need the confused ones with powers that do good. We’ve got a lot of evil ones going on, but thus, this chapter is called Villains.
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 12:12 pm ¶
Jeremy Pierce wrote:
Sylar doesn’t need a blood test to establish his parentage. All he needs to do is touch Angela to know her history. She got him that power, probably so he could know that she’s telling him the truth.
Posted 27 Oct 2008 at 7:39 pm ¶