Do The Wrong Thing: The Racialicious Review for ‘Heroes’ 4.4
By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
Finally, Fuller, not filler.
Could you tell it was Bryan Fuller writing “Acceptance”? What was your first tip-off? The lack of boredom or the narratives that actually moved people along in recognizable characterization? It’s too soon to call this a turning point, but at least we got to jump into this season’s Big Reveals in satisfactory fashion, with nearly everybody getting the wrong end of the stick for the right reasons.
The biggie, of course, is the apparent undoing of SyNate, the victim of his own goodwill after ‘fessing up to his mother’s role in covering up the accidental death of former girlfriend Kelly. An admirable move, usually, but not when Kelly’s the daughter of Angela’s best frenemy, Millie. Faster than you can say “Break yourself,” “Nate” gets jacked out of his car and shot and left for dead.
He wasn’t the only one trying to fix past mistakes; as we rejoined Hiro, he kept getting delayed from starting his Bucket List by Dial-A-Hero’s newest customer, Tadashi, a poor schmuck recently laid off from Yamagato Industries. What could have degenerated into Groundhog Day-style histrionics instead turned into a wake-up call for both men – and a potential sign of worse times for Hiro, who vanishes just after telling Kimiko the truth about his condition.
While Hiro and Nate took a turn for the worse, Noah and Tracy got closer to each other to fine, even if Noah needing a pep talk from Claire, of all people, probably just scared him straight more than anything else. Whatever the reason, Noah’s subsequent heart-to-heart with Chilly Jilly (along with the influence of Micah, perhaps?) steers her away from reclaiming her *ahem* “politics”-as-usual gig with Governor Malden. As an unfortunate aside: it appears Roundtable reader Tamara’s theory was shot down, and Tracy is not related to The Mysterious Lydia. But Tamara, thumbs up for suggesting a twist that might’ve been interesting.
Which brings us to the episode’s final image: the honest-to-Spock Sylar emerging from the ground following his assault. It’s tough not to interpret the scene as symbolizing any number of things: the triumph of a man’s true personality against forced conditioning; the unfortunate but irrefutable resilience of evil; or, perhaps most hopefully, Sylar crawling head-first out of the dirt stands in for certain other creative parties digging their heads out of … you know.
The Racialicious Scorecard:
Hiro, Ando, Kimiko & Tadashi: Yet again, the Nakamuras and friends deliver the most genuine emotion in an episode. Like I said earlier, this could’ve turned into a really bad series of caricatures, but thank goodness it turned out differently. Also, take note: Akihiro Kitamura, who played Tadashi is a writer and director in his own right – and he’s on MySpace. Cruise on by and give him props, won’t you?
Images and character bios courtesy of HeroesWiki
Previously: Racialicious Heroes Archive
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Lisa J wrote:
You’re right, this episode was better BUT, even though I liked the ending of the Tadashi/Hiro story and the way Hiro gave him a very grown up talk and talked him out of killing himself the whole things seemed a bit contrived. After the first couple of butt photocopies it seems like it should have occured to Hiro, as the big boss (or one) at the company could have either said “Look, I know you want to photocopy your butt. Don’t ask how I know, but don’t do it” or just said, “You have your job back” or gone to his manager and said “Don’t fire Tadashi no matter what he does or how unlandish it is.” And the fact that it was such a silly thing he did to get fired was irritating. Iknow the man was shamed and wanted to kill himself, and honor is important in the East particularly in Japan but why did it have to have this slightly silly aura to it?
Oh and Jenn, or one of you, called it right on the Clairebear-roommate kiss thing.
I hope I’m wrong but even though this episode was a bit better than the last two, the last one in particular, I don’t know think it is going to be a turning point and it’s going to get better overall let alone get its audience back. They’d have to do something super kickass for weeks on end to get there.
Posted 08 Oct 2009 at 4:12 pm ¶
jmn wrote:
For the racialicious scorecard, don’t forget the Haitian was mentioned by name when Mama Patrelli said she had him mindwipe Nathan after he killed Kelly. Now POCs are not only getting silenced, they’re only referred to in past tense on this show. What a fail. Well, it’s not like the Haitian speaks much. Or has a name. I nominate we name him Jean-Marc, after following this thread on favorite Haitian names: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2205188299&topic=1598
Posted 08 Oct 2009 at 5:29 pm ¶
Tamara wrote:
As an unfortunate aside: it appears Roundtable reader Tamara’s theory was shot down, and Tracy is not related to The Mysterious Lydia. But Tamara, thumbs up for suggesting a twist that might’ve been interesting.
Yeah, bummer, right? LOL.
This episode was about ‘acceptance’…so it took her this long to see how the Governor truly regarded her? To be honest I didn’t pay much attention to her scenes other than to note that when she cried in the bathroom her hands turned into rivulets of tap water. *side-eye* So, she’s learned a bit more about her ability, eh? That she can’t control it sometimes? That maybe she can’t fit in with ‘normal people’ anymore? That she must seek out Noah Bennett & company in order to find her place?
I initially in my thinking linked Lydia and Tracy as sisters because wasn’t it ‘prophesied’ that there was another sister? Niki/Jessica, Tracy and ? Or are Niki/Jessica counted as a two-fer? I remember something about triplets… This fembot will not die; each season they try for relevance, a reason to keep Tracy (who in a way is an amalgamation of Niki/Jessica) around and in the forefront of things because she’s sexy and blonde and Nathan likes sexy blondes……………So yeah; she’s not going anywhere. Still it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Who will she ‘drown’ next? It’s like one minute she’s a vigilante seeking revenge and the next she’s decided to go normal again. What are they doing with this character? And since she can freeze people and liquefy herself, will we see her transform into vapor for her next series of attacks? Death by fog. Hmmm.
I loved this episode. I find that I like these flashback sequences that are nicely done and well acted. Adrian and Christine have awesome chemistry and the actress portraying Millie (shoutout to “Pushing Daisies”) was also amazing.
I loved the Nakamuras sequence. And why the whole “photocopy” deal? Because nothing with Hiro can be too serious. There’s a childlike magic that comes about other characters when he’s around. LOL. So naturally the dude’s hangup was because of an office party prank. Had that not been the case it would’ve been something equally asinine. But ultimately I love how it ended. The Butterfly effect was really working my nerves but I’m glad Hiro figured it out; I’m glad it ended. I thought he was going to give up on ole dude but no, they had a heart to heart and it was very nice. Nice also was Hiro’s bonding with his sister.
HRG and Claire scenes were a bit tedious, but I’m glad he’s decided to pick himself up off his shoulders and move on with whatever it is he’s decided to move on to…and what was that exactly? To help Peter and his ‘ghost-tattoo’? I’m sorry, but those scenes weren’t memorable for me this eppy. LOL. I’m so biased towards Sy!Nathan I couldn’t bring myself to really care about father-daughter bonding or uncle-niece meet-n-greets. LOL
Where is Mohinder?
Can they please, PLEASE give the Haitian a name? I mean…c’mon already! He’s practically FAMILY! He’s both a Petrelli AND a Bennett! He’s the great divide! Name this man already!
I saw previews for next week’s bit and can I say that I love me some Winston Zeddmore? LOL I look forward to that bit. HE will have a name since the Haitian doesn’t. Hopefully his partner, the black lady has a name, too and is around some more. *crosses fingers and hope they both last awhile*
Posted 09 Oct 2009 at 12:49 am ¶