Conversations With Dead People: The Racialicious Review for Heroes 4.11
By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García, also Posted at The Instant Callback
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Give credit where it’s due: writers Adam Armus and Kay Foster took a premise that could have imploded big-time – Sylar coming unraveled – and turned “I Am Sylar” into a taut, capable lead-in to next week’s season finale.
Tying it all together, of course, was the Big Bad’s stumbling all over his new power. The story starts 18 hours before the final shot of “1961,” as we see the implausible occur: the Man with the Plan losing himself so badly in his new shape-shifting power, he wakes up wearing the face of a recent victim. Things get so bad for him he actually takes advice from Danko, who wants nothing more than for his heaviest hitter to keep racking up the metahuman notches.
Along the way, though, an equally unlikely voice emerges on Gabriel’s other shoulder: the much-missed Micah. Whereas maybe even a few weeks ago, Sylar would have shredded Micah like so much confetti, his state of confusion allows the kid to urge him toward something better. That appeal gets Micah a reprieve and an assist from Gabriel, but it opens up a whole other can of worms.
See, Micah’s pep talk seems to lead Sy toward dreaming big – like, Presidency big. It also, however, references Sylar being the one to ultimately stop the superhumans from being hunted. And here, in a very nice touch, is where the Benetrellis rejoin the story, with Nathan promising to stop his newfound doppelganger on his own. So now we face two questions: who’s the bigger dead man walking between Nate and Danko, and is there a chance Sylar could (gulp) sincerely want to do the right thing here?
The episode also took promising steps in bringing more of the major players back to the nation’s capitol in the name of the right thing: Hiro and Ando, er, the Crimson Arc make their way to Building 26, where they hope to … uh, it doesn’t seem like they even know what they’re doing. Worse yet for them, just before they stage their assault or whatever, Hiro’s power shorts out, hinting at more than just emotional damage. And seemingly not far behind is new papa Matt, whose sense of duty pulls him back into action, and away from his seemingly reborn family ties.
And not far behind any of them are the rest of the First Family, who are sure to figure in next week’s proceedings, for better or worse. The biggest question I had coming out of this episode was: why do we always have to go through 8-9 weeks of mindless chaff with this show before a (usually) passable end to the Volume?
The Racialicious Scorecard:
Micah: Ask and we shall belatedly receive, I guess. The upside to Rebel’s sporadic appearances is, he’s not around enough to be damaged by the creative team. His breakthrough with Sylar, however implausible, was a feel-good moment and provided a nice counter-balance to the “talks” Gabriel was having with his interpretation of his dead mother.
Hiro & Ando: Another week, another adventure toward couples therapy. This week, we learned that Hiro is apparently “a little fascist.” Well, yeah, the guy is short, but Ando might have been over-swinging there. As Hiro learns (again) to get over Ando’s own heroic ambitions, though, his time-freezing power glitches, hinting at deeper problems ahead. Oh yeah, one more thing: can somebody write Hiro to call more people BY THEIR FIRST NAMES?!
Mohinder: Doing the voiceovers and getting shot and captured. Some things just never change, right, Mo?.
Next Week: Tim Kring’s writing the Volume IV finale – what could go wrong?
Micah & Sylar image courtesy of Comic Book Resources
All other images courtesy of HeroesWiki
Previously: Racialicious Heroes Archive
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Lilith wrote:
Am I lame for loving the scene between Sylar and Micha? All he needs is to feel special…. lol
Posted 22 Apr 2009 at 10:27 am ¶
Betty Chambers wrote:
Sylar talking to himself as his mother, that’s borrowing from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, a true classic, which this show will never be.
Posted 22 Apr 2009 at 4:50 pm ¶
Erica wrote:
Yup, Mohinder appeared in the episode just long enough to get tazered again. How does he do voice-over narrations while unconscious?
@Betty — Yup, I recognized that too. And it also reminded me of a scene with Gollum arguing with himself in Lord of the Rings (less classic than Psycho). It was one of the few very strong moments of the episode. So no surprise it was not very original, eh?
Posted 22 Apr 2009 at 6:13 pm ¶
Madame Zenobia wrote:
I love Zachary Quinto. Love him.
And can I say that when they segwayed to the Benetrellis, that my heart sank just a little? I was so fascinated with Sylar and the Ando/Hiro show that I found myself not missing the brothers, the mothers, the illegitimate, annoying, wig-wearing daughters… *le sigh*
And to know I get a full episode of them all next week?
Shyt better be good.
And precisely WHAT can Nathan do to “fix this” this time? And how many times over the course of this season, last season, seasons that have yet to air, does Nathan, dear Nathan jump in to ‘fix’ problems that HE is responsible (if not wholly but in part) of starting in the first place? Sometimes I tire of Nathan. Sometimes (most) I tire of Pete…and I used to LOVE this character circa season 1. But it’s not him; it’s the writers…nah, it’s him too. *le sigh* I’ll shut up now.
Loved the episode though
Surprisingly 
Posted 22 Apr 2009 at 10:20 pm ¶
Madame Zenobia wrote:
Tim Kring’s writing the Volume IV finale – what could go wrong?
Well, Season IV could mysteriously transform into Season 3 compounded with the worst part of Season 2….
*exits stage right*
Posted 22 Apr 2009 at 10:36 pm ¶
Renee wrote:
Personally the best part of the episode was the end when Danko stabbed Sylar. I certainly hope he takes Danko out.
I was really happy to see Micah though. I have such a soft spot for that kid, perhaps it is because he reminds me of my oldest boy but he just makes me smile, even when his lines are hopelessly naive and optimistic.
Posted 23 Apr 2009 at 12:36 am ¶
Erica wrote:
@Madame Z — And precisely WHAT can Nathan do to “fix this” this time? He can do what he does best: strut in, declare he won’t stand for this any more blah blah blah, and promptly get knocked out. And he’ll need to be rescued, of course, and he’ll learn a lesson, of course…
Posted 23 Apr 2009 at 11:45 am ¶
jen* wrote:
I’ve been hating Nathan for ~2 1/2 seasons, now…How come nobody’s thrown a knife in the back of his skull? His character just seems superfluous to me. Oh…and stupid.
But I’m totally with you Mme. Z. – Zachary Quinto quite nice.
Posted 23 Apr 2009 at 3:13 pm ¶
jen* wrote:
Apparently he makes me near incoherent. Quinto *is* quite nice.
Posted 23 Apr 2009 at 3:14 pm ¶
Mask wrote:
No matter what, Sylar will always be the reason to watch this show.
Posted 24 Apr 2009 at 12:06 am ¶
Mr. Noface wrote:
Maybe this has been asked before, but where the heck is the Haitian? I think that half the problems these folks are having with Sylar could have been solved if the Haitian was involved. Can someone say, Plot Device?
Posted 27 Apr 2009 at 9:24 pm ¶