Meet Rebecca: The Racialicious Review for Heroes 4.5
By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
SPOILER ALERT
There goes the neighborhood: for the first time in what feels like ages, three POC characters were directly involved in the key goings-on in Heroes – and all of them lived!
At the center of the big twist, including the salvaging of what Roundtable member x called the Claire Gone Mild plot, was Rebecca, who, it turns out, has been making Gretchen look more murderous than creepy, in an effort to push Claire-Bear into the open arms of The Mysterious Samuel and the Carnival.
Now, you might ask: isn’t it an amazing (expletive) coincidence that Sam and Rebecca not only knew Claire was going to attend Barbie Arlington U., but had the foresight to establish Rebecca in a position of authority at the Jumpa Da Sharka sorority? In a word, yes. But Tessa Thompson’s evil smirk won me over, and it added a nice layer of surprise to the Claire/Gretchen reveal. Nice to have an honest-to-goodness villainess on the show again, what with Mama Petrelli and Tracy now seemingly back on the side of good.
Speaking of the side of good, that’s where we met Dr. Gibson, who set out to help the newly amnesiac Sylar figure out who he was before the cops, led by Captain Lubbock – and hey, it’s always good to see Ernie Hudson – figure out his identity.
The finish, of course, was ridiculous: Samuel knew exactly where to take the Carnival to swoop in and save Sylar from police pursuit, and looked like a complete goon waving his arms for Sy to join him. The Carnival vanished without a trace (an extension of Rebecca’s power, perhaps?) and the cops just packed it in without even checking for residue or giving Lubbock his David Caruso moment. Blah.
As an aside, the episode featured a short film/advert on “Responsibility” featuring Masi Oka, and it was pleasant enough seeing him do the Hiro thing … but the ending, where the Token “Hot Girl” (Olivia Munn) is so impressed that she gives him his phone number? Trust me, that ish was the most sci-fi moment in the whole hour.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Kelvin wrote:
I’ve only watched one and a half episode of Heroes this season. I think I’ve given up on this show and no amount of POC characters can get me back into it.
Posted 19 Oct 2009 at 11:47 am ¶
Lisa J wrote:
I didn’t get why the cop immediately arrested Sylar. The guy had blood on him yes, but don’t you think he might have called an ambulance at one point, or asked him what happened before telling him to get on the ground and slapping the cuffs on him. Maybe it is my sensitivity to cops and they ways they abuse power but even though on the one hand I was like “yeah, take that Sylar” but another part of me felt really bad for him b/c he doesn’t know who he is or what is going on. He seemed sort of innocent. I guess that is what makes ZQ such a good actor.
They should be ashamed of themselves for that Arlington U mess. Now you know there is no such school and most people would know that since DC is such an important place and people are pretty familiar with the universities near there even if they aren’t from around there.
Yeah it was good to see some POCs but why did the first one that we’d seen in God knows how long except for Hiro and Ando have to be a villian? Oh well, at least the Dr was nice but I suspect we won’t see her again.
Sigh.
Posted 19 Oct 2009 at 4:42 pm ¶
Tamara wrote:
I think I missed most of this. I saw the young POC and thought she was a Becky and that’s it. It’s nice to find she’s a villain.
4.6 will reveal yet another POC; a magical negro, if you will.
I can’t wait for the Roundtable discussion on this new eppy. 
I look forward to it.
Posted 19 Oct 2009 at 8:27 pm ¶
Miztification wrote:
@LisaJ, I took it that maybe they had his picture/fingerprints on file or something, but I wondered the same thing myself.
Posted 21 Oct 2009 at 7:51 am ¶
PPR_Scribe wrote:
I *heart* Rebecca!
And the Spock-er, I mean, Sylar and Uhuru-er, I mean Dr. Gibson (budding?) relationship!
Posted 22 Oct 2009 at 10:53 am ¶
Tamara wrote:
I think the next Roundtable will be ripe for discussion regarding this show. I think I just had the biggest WHAT ARE THEY DOING moment I’ve ever had. Seriously, what were they thinking? (other than shock value) UGH. SMH at this series now.
Posted 26 Oct 2009 at 8:54 pm ¶
JC wrote:
Why is Olivia giving Oka her number a sci-fi moment again? I dropped the show but I’m just curious about your angle.
Posted 03 Nov 2009 at 4:25 pm ¶