Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down: The Racialicious Review of Heroes 4.4
By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García, also posted at The Instant Callback
This week on SEXY TORTURE THEATRE: Noah and Mohinder, come on down!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
After crunk-napping Mr. Bennet last week, Mo, Matt & Peter took him down memory lane to gain more intel on his role in Nathan’s Hero-hunting initiative. So why did Noah start playing HRG.I. Joe? The economy.
See, after Primatech was gutted awhile back, Noah ended up another recession casualty, with a (presumably) decent severance package and gold watch from Mrs. Petrelli. Sure enough, though, his old life comes calling when Nate recruits him – not to head up the operation, but to serve under the EEEEVIL Danko. Though the flashback sequences throughout the show made sense, it’s a pity that we didn’t see Noah get recruited by another prominent paper company in the NBCverse. Where’s corporate synergy when you need it?
Scoff if you will, but even a hint of humor, or something a little more relatable about Noah’s joblessness, would have livened up the multitude of flashbacks that framed the show. He even spells it out for us (and Angela) at the end of the show: “You know me,” he assures everyone. “You know I’m comfortable with morally gray.” I always enjoy Jack Coleman’s performances, but we get it, already. Hopefully Bennet’s newest gambit – cozying up to the Hunter – will yield a good payoff.
Hopefully better than the reveal surrounding Suresh: Apparently at least part of the reason he’s been so wishy-washy since escaping from Con Air two weeks ago is, he knew it coming; We saw Bennet recruit him just before the abductions started, and Mohinder didn’t tell anybody. You can imagine how his former co-foster daddy took that bit of info. In Mo’s defense, however, he allowed himself to be captured, ensuring not only an escape for Matt and Peter, but a tasteful set of iron cufflinks for himself, courtesy of Chez Nathan.
And, hey, Matt’s got it even worse — he’s the victim of another recycled plot, after painting a vision of himself as the latest Exploding Man. The big twist this year? Apparently Parkman is going to go off in Washington D.C. Rather than being shocking, the sight of Matt laced with frakking pipe bombs came off as yet another ham-handed attempt at social commentary – and made “Cold Wars” a call-back to the bad old days of Volumes II and II. That’s the kind of reminder the series can’t afford to give viewers anymore.
Next Week: Daphne’s back! Wasn’t her shooting really memorable now?
Previously: Racialicious Heroes Archive
The Racialicious Scorecard
With Mohinder being the only POC featured this week, I wanted to take this opportunity to issue a call on behalf of the Roundtable. We’d like to get one more member to join our ranks. If you haven’t given up on this show, or just want another forum on which to crack on Claire’s wig, let us know in the comments!
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Madame ZZzzenobias wrote:
I always enjoy Jack Coleman’s performances, but we get it, already.
YES! I totally agree! Must we be reminded every other week that he’s morally gray? That *gasp* he’s possibly the SAME that he’s been since season 1? *eye roll*
And, hey, Matt’s got it even worse — he’s the victim of another recycled plot, after painting a vision of himself as the latest Exploding Man. … That’s the kind of reminder the series can’t afford to give viewers anymore.
And THIS is why I damn near threw my television OUT the window. This is identity theft at its finest! Matt is Isaac 100% fully resurrected—especially after seeing that graphic ON THE FLOOR which so resembled the graphic from Vol. I. And were they in Isaac’s loft? AGAIN? Word? GTFOH! It’s just…so blatant now; the rip-offs (can’t really call them ‘throwbacks’ or ‘reminders’) of the instances, items, and people that made season 1 so grand. And it’s something of an insult.
Writers: hey, let’s be lazy and just recycle this sh*t AGAIN. It worked so well the first time; let’s play off of the viewers’ nostalgia and give ‘em a flash to the past. Not only this time, but let’s do it CONTINUALLY THROUGHOUT THIS VILLAINS SAGA! Yeah! Hi-five! Refill the bong, let’s hit this again… *insert major eye roll*
Nah, if they were on the puff-puff-give tip this sh*t might actually be a helluva lot better. I don’t think it was a bad episode, but ‘parts’ of it WERE. I’m done. I really am. I just don’t have the energies for this no ‘mo
Will continue to visit here for the reviews; most definitely 
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 9:18 am ¶
rorysmomma wrote:
Well on a positive note, at least we were not confronted with more “Dad I am a hero I can save the world. I can take care of myself.” Clair gets the bad acting/bad lacefront of the year award.
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 10:04 am ¶
Madame Bon Temps wrote:
Well on a positive note, at least we were not confronted with more “Dad I am a hero I can save the world. I can take care of myself.”
Yup. But ‘it’ comes back next week, unfortunately.
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 10:20 am ¶
Amused0472 wrote:
I thought the gold watch was a bit too cliche and unimaginative– I was immediately reminded of Dennis Hopper in Speed. I like the fact that Mo went down fighting, but why was the PoC sacrificed for the two white guys? To me, it was some Terminator 2 sh*t (i.e., Joe Morton blowing himself up). But I continue to watch and comment because there’s nothing better to fill the void on Monday nights.
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 10:50 am ¶
Mr. Noface wrote:
Speaking of Matt and Mohinder being co-foster daddies once upon a time, WHERE THE HELL IS THEIR FOSTER CHILD (Molly Walker)? Geeze, the plot holes in this show are so big they’ve become singularities.
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 11:20 am ¶
Erica wrote:
What amused me most about HRG’s severance package was how “traditional” it was — I somehow didn’t really expect a super-secret organization to cheerfully comply with traditional retirement traditions. The only thing that would make it all more cliched would be HRG on the golf course (perhaps bludgeoning his fellow golfers), instead of sitting on his couch doing crossword puzzles.
I agree with Madame Z: zzzzzzz!
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 11:39 am ¶
Devy wrote:
To preface: I’ve been reading the roundtable since Volume III and sometimes I only watch the show just to wait for these reviews. It’s a good thing the show is coming back up, IMO. However, I the part that got me the most was when we find Matt and Peter at Isaac’s loft. Of all places, WHY would they go there? I highly doubt that the government didn’t know about this sanctuary of predictive paintings and Mohinder’s “secret” lab. I hope that place is rigged with camera’s everywhere so the lot can almost be captured and they’ll be forced to think more.
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 11:52 am ¶
Sarah wrote:
I am genuinely confused about this, not just attempting to be combatant:
Why is Heroes such a regular feature on Racialicious? It has a multicultural cast of characters, which is nice, but aside from that, I don’t see any relevance to the topic of this blog — race, social and/or discrimination issues.
If i wanted to read a review of the episode aired this week, I could go to numerous websites that are dedicated to that purpose. On Racialicious, though, it seems distracting and doesn’t really add anything to the site.
Mod Note – Racialicious is about race and pop culture. Heroes is a part of that canon, and more or less tradition at this point. There was better content when the writers provided us with dynamic characters of color; now that it has descended into flatness, we snark at it. – LDP
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 12:48 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
I haven’t given up on the show, and I’ve been reading the follow-up with the Roundtables regularly. I’d love to get a chance to hate on Claire’s wig with you! (Although, I’d mostly want to hate on the Benneterrelli’s storyline, and Mohinder’s continuing downward spiral. I didn’t even notice the wig until people on here pointed it out.)
So if you are still looking for Roundtable members, I volunteer
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 1:37 pm ¶
Amused0472 wrote:
I’d be willing too to join the Roundtable.
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 3:07 pm ¶
Arturo wrote:
NoFace: Molly, I’ve read in interviews, is “off the board.” Her powers were stolen off-camera by Arthur P. last year, enabling him to find Hiro, kill Usutu and steal Hiro’s powers.
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 3:47 pm ¶
jen* wrote:
this episode was so -blah- I forgot that it was even on this week until I saw the recap here. I’ve never liked HRG. Ever. His part of the story isn’t interesting to me, it wasn’t particularly mysterious to me that he was playing some kind of dubious role with Nathan and his cronies, and he’s just very boring to me. So having the ep focus on him was like sending me a personal letter asking: “Please stop watching our show.”
I feel like Sendhil/Mo is being compelled to further stupidify just to stay on the show. And it’s pissing me off. As is Matt. Just being.
I was reeling when I saw him there painting – knowing it was Isaac’s place – but nearly spit out my drink when the camera panned to the floor. Really?
Really?
But now I’m listening to Rope Burn cuz of the title here. Haven’t dug Janet out in a while. And I know I’ll be back next week even so. Hoping for *anything* better than this week’s train wreck.
Can we please see Sylar again?
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 8:13 pm ¶
jen* wrote:
and I’m guessing you’ll get 50more volunteers, but if you need an eleventy-th person to round out the table, I’d like that, too.
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 8:15 pm ¶
al oof wrote:
the white girls always come back. we are invincible.
Posted 26 Feb 2009 at 11:12 pm ¶
d wrote:
Wow there are so many people who’ve already volunteered, but if you still need one more, I’d be happy to do it!
If not, I’ll just tune in every week to see your take!
After watching this week’s episode, besides seeing another good portrayal by Sandra, I watch in horror as Heroes each week becomes more and more white and more and more male. And this was supposed to be a show about a ‘global’ event? Seems that unfortunately so many times global translates to white American male. I feel like the show is so lacking in diversity, seeing the British inviso guy feels like diversity.
I for one am glad someone’s still talking about these things. When I saw it in 2006, I thought it would get better, now that season seems like a beacon in comparison to this fugutuves arc.
Oh yeah, and they threw Mohinder under the bus for what reason?
Posted 03 Mar 2009 at 2:09 pm ¶
Renee wrote:
I would love to volunteer for the round table.
Though it was not discussed I am getting tired of Sylar and his parental issues. It seems that they just don’t know what to do with his character and therefore just send him blindly chasing all over the country on a journey of self discovery. It is completely disconnected from the show and each week becomes more irritating to me. Now he has decided to go and kill daddy dearest after remembering that he killed his mother. We get that Sylar is deeply disturbed, ummm if there was an doubt the way he murdered Elle made it really clear. I don’t think we need all of the back drama and I cannot possibly see where it is leading.
Posted 03 Mar 2009 at 4:34 pm ¶
Madame Zenobia wrote:
Renee, I can agree with you. In a way, they don’t seem to know what to do with Sylar now. He ‘is’ a great character still and Zachary does the role justice. Maybe they’ll think of something…less familial? LOL
Posted 04 Mar 2009 at 3:53 pm ¶