After seeing how Arthur Petrelli met his end at the hands of Sylar last week I was predicting that Sylar would go after the other one of his so called parents that has lied to him.  Angela Petrelli lied to Sylar just as Arthur had in claiming she was Gabriel’s parent and Sylar wants revenge for being used as a pawn in the Petrelli game.

This was the final episode of the Volume known as “Villains” and starts off with Nathan and Peter squaring off about the death of their father.  Nathan has become so twisted and dead set on giving abilities to create a super army that he directly opposes Peter’s desire to shut down and destroy the formula.  Peter again can’t bring himself to kill family and instead knocks his brother unconscious and works to destroy the formula in the lab.  Mohinder who was trying to use the formula to save himself is thwarted and held to watch as Knox and Flint assist Peter in leveling the lab.  Knox goes to subdue Nathan and meets an unfortunate end at the hands of Traci who freezes him and shatters him like glass shards.  Nathan arrives at the lab but is too late to save the formula, Flint goes berserk and starts igniting the place and Peter injects himself with the formula as the only means to escape.  He saves his brother by flying the two of them out of there, only to have Nathan reject him and say he would not have done the same.

Nathan was always a shady character since season 1 and the few glimpses of hope and good we saw in him were easily overcome by his character flaws.  Peter is on the polar opposite of the spectrum, good to a fault and incapable of making decisions to cause harm and kill that would have saved lives earlier.  Reminds me of the most recent Batman movie where Batman cannot bring himself to kill the Joker even after the joker killed the love of his life.  That pretty much is the way Peter Petrelli is as well without as much darkness in his heart as batman.

Meanwhile most of the episode was about Sylar trapping Claire, Angela, Meredith and Noah hostage in Level 5 and attempting to play some twisted game where he can convince them to kill each other in order to escape, reminds me of a lighter version of the SAW films.  One of the most clever moves was Noah releasing the other villains in an attempt to slow Sylar down, and Sylar wound up killing them all, running up against Eric Doyle the Puppet Master who temporarily held him only for a moment before Sylar overcame him.

In the end it was Sylar’s pride and overconfidence while interrogating Angela that allowed Claire to sneak up on him and deliver the glass shard through the back of his skull.  Though this should not have happened as Sylar had the “Super Hearing” power acquired in season 1 and he should have been able to hear her, though he was screaming at the time.   The building was leveled by Meredith exploding after being injected by adrenaline and unable to control her powers.

One of my favorite sequences was when Ando injected himself with the formula and attempted to determine how to use his power, Daphne had stolen a vial from Mohinder’s hands just before Peter was destroying the lab and brought it to Ando.  Ando’s power was to super charge other heroes and using this ability he enhanced Daphne so fast she can run through time to bring Hiro back to the present.  The episode wraps up the volume with Sylar being buried by rubble while being debilitated by a glass shard in the back of his skull.  Hiro ripping up the formula, Peter regaining his powers and gives the appearance that there may be order about to be established again.

The whole point of Volume 3 Villains was to try and show that there is a duality in each and every one of us and everyone has the ability to be both a hero and a villain, this is what I also believe in my personal life that there is no such thing as pure white/light or pure black/dark but everyone and everything is shades of gray to some degree.

The preview clip to Volume 4 Fugitives shows Nathan Petrelli speaking with the President of The United States played by Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek:  The Next Generation) which was amusing since we are about to have a black president and one is portayed on the show.  I also like the way Heroes taps into the Trek cast for guest appearances and everyone they have tapped has played a decent role although Nichelle Nichols had the shortest role in Heroes that wasn’t clearly defined much.  George Takei I thought did a fantastic job as Hira Nakamura’s strict and disciplined father and enjoyed his portal of the character very much.  Nathan is so hell bent on revenge that he convinces the president that the people who have powers should all be detained and locked up, but of course fails to declare that he has any powers of his own.  This now looks like the future of Season 1 where Nathan was president and people with abilities were hunted down and locked up in facilities.  I would hate to see the show keep going round and round in circles covering the same issues over and over.

If this volume is Fugitives and implying that all people with abilities are fugitives from the law, then the show now turns to where everyone is being hunted and constantly evades pursuers.  With PineHearst and Primatech all but left in ruins, I am not sure what the plans of the company are and if there are any at this point at all.  Since we have until February to mull this over, I am sure that NBC will release Graphic Novels weekly that will help fill in the gaps, since Volume 4 apparently takes place 3 weeks into the future.  NBC typically uses the Graphic Novels to fill in gaps of time, and they have Web Episodes which parallel the show which I should check out and review.

Overall I was disappointed with the final episode as Sylar who is supposed to have the gift of “Understanding How Things Work” ultimately played into the role of a jealous, vengeful person bent on revenge and making critical bad guy type mistakes.  Why is it all villains make the same mistakes constantly, they must spout epithets, final words, delays, pauses…etc.  Ah well, I didn’t like the twist they were putting on Sylar, and instead liked it when he only killed for the sake of stealing powers and becoming the most powerful, when he became just a standard serial killer who took pleasure in it was when they weakened the character quite a bit.  It was refreshing seeing Angela start telling the truth and we did learn that Sylar’s real parents were still not disclosed, if Sylar should return again which is very likely he could come back and seek more vengeance.  My prediction is somebody will find the charred remains of Sylar and pull the glass from the skull and he will regenerate again.

-Dragon Blogger

I love reading the Heroes Comic Books also known as Graphic Novels after watching each episode. The graphic novels fill in the blanks between the episodes and help you learn more about each character and their back story. They go a long way in explaining how characters feel and what is happening between the segments of the show and is all part of NBC’s interactive Heroes experience.

The latest Graphic Novel called Truths focuses on Arthur Petrelli the father of Nathan and Peter and husband to Angela. It focuses on some of his back story and opens up by explaining that Arthur was a man of many faces, his children knowing him as a lackey for criminals, his wife knowing him as a loving but stern father and goes who the man Arthur really was.

The comic opens up with Arthur standing there the bullet Peter fired suspended just before penetrating Arthur’s head. Arthur explains that he has died twice and both times The Haitian was present. Arthur reflects how he became the man he was and we flash back to a hunting trip many years ago when Nathan and Peter were little boys.

Before delving deeper into the hunting a scene shows Arthur and Angela in bed talking about Peter being too soft and not having enough strength, Angela claims that Peter will be great by the time he manifests while Arthur believes that Nathan should have been born with the power not Peter at all. He explains that the genetic markers seems to show up in the children that lack the will for action. Angela is the one who suggests that they inject Nathan with the serum, and that it is nothing more than a vaccination. They both figure why let both sons go to waste when they might be able to salvage one son.

Back at the camping trip memory Arthur tries to get Peter to pull the trigger and kill a deer, but Peter cannot. Nathan grabs the rifle and fires the gun as Peter protests. Meanwhile the gunshot goes off in the present and Arthur admits he is proud that Peter had the guts to pull the trigger now and prove him wrong about him. His last thoughts are that it is the best feeling in the world to be proven wrong and now he believes both his sons are strong enough to do what must be done.

My thoughts:

I think this graphic novel reveals that Arthur did care about his children to some degree and had his “idea” of who he wanted them to be and what he wanted them to become. He formulated opinions about his children and clearly when they didn’t fit what he wanted he thought less of them. Most villains don’t think they are villains, they just think that their way is right and other’s are wrong. Most evil people don’t call themselves evil, but think they are doing what is right and this is and was the case with Arthur Petrelli.

-Dragon Blogger

Watch full streaming episode if you haven’t, then read my review below:

I have decided to do away with the recap of the show scene by scene and instead do full reviews which have garnered better feedback from my audience and inspire people to chime in with their opinions. I encourage everyone to let me know what they thought of the Episode which I think redeemed the Season quite well as some would have very much disliked The Eclipse Part I and II.

First off I have to say that I am still disappointed with Sylar’s sheer cruelty and shocked and dismayed Elle is indeed killed and her body was burned by Sylar at the opening of the episode.  The episode though was stunningly fantastic, it explained much and left me just stunned by the end.

To see how Hiro got to see his mother again in the moments before his death and bond with her one final time was touching, she was able to heal his mental wounds from Arthur Petrelli and he convinced his mother to give the catalyst to him instead of baby Claire.

Claire meanwhile had already convinced Noah to not let them put the catalyst in the baby and even gave the term “Claire Bear” to her father in the past for him to use for her.  You could tell her affection for him, and he showed his compassionate side early on for Claire.

The weakest parts of the episode were the very short scenes with Ando, Matt and Daphne trying to find the unfinished comic book of Isaac Mendez.  They finally collect it after some prodding of the delivery service manager only to find that Hiro was trapped back in time with no way to return.  Arthur had gone back in time just after Hiro had taken the catalyst, stole the catalyst and stripped Hiro of his powers.

Throughout the episode we see Peter and The Haitian assigned to kill Arthur and Peter having doubts and waffling on the thought of killing his own father.  In one of the best scenes we learn Arthur is strong enough to withstand the Haitian if given enough time, but Peter pulls the trigger only to have Sylar stop the bullet in mid air.  Sylar asks Arthur point blank if he is indeed father, and Arthur claims he is.  Sylar had picked up the power to discern lies from a woman at an office in a brutal slaying earlier where he killed her and her unfortunate coworkers to acquire her powers.  He realizes Arthur is lying and delivers the bullet right into Arthur’s brain.

Sylar then leaves presumably to go consume more powers around the facility, he lets Peter live claiming he has nothing of interest anymore.  Peter asks the Haitian to go after Sylar, as he now may be the only one who can stop him.  Meanwhile, Nathan has shown his ugly two faced side again and again and taken over as the face of Pinehearst even injecting the first marine with the formulae after Arthur had passed some of the catalyst into it.

The episode was beyond fantastic and left me with my jaw dropped over Hiro stuck in the past again but powerless this time, Arthur dead on the floor, Nathan taking over for his father and Sylar running amuck as a much more depraved and twisted individual who now seems to not just kill for taking powers but take pleasure in it.

The best episode of the Season in my opinion, with only some minor quips, mainly that Ando is going to try and get himself injected supposedly to save Hiro, this will probably lead to them being at odds again.  Peter is probably so distraught about not having powers, I suspect he will ask his brother to inject him so he can be a Hero again.

Sylar is probably going to become even more deadly and take even more powers, but remember Sylar’s complex is that he wants to be the only special one, so he won’t like the idea of making more specials unless they will be victims for him to slay and steal their powers.  Sylar, I have a feeling wants to be the only one with powers and doesn’t really want an army of heroes who can be a threat to him.

So tell me, what do you all think of the Episode?  Like it, hate it, blah?  Do you like the Evil Sylar, or the Good Sylar better?

-Dragon Blogger

Watch full streaming episode:

Several people have asked me not to use Hulu or find another video that displays outside of the United States, but I could find no legal video streams to support this. I don’t use youtube because it isn’t legal to play full episodes on youtube, I find a valid legal video source and I can’t find any that stream from the US to outside the US. So I still use Hulu for its quality of video feed and legality. If someone knows of a legal stream service that serves content outside of the US, please let me know.

Now to begin the recap and review -

I was nearly hopping up and down in eager anticipation for this weeks episode of Heroes. After a recap showing what happened in previous episodes flashed in a few moments the show starts with several sketches and drawings of Sylar, Mr. Bennett. Arthur Petrelli is creating as many future drawings as possible to predict the upcoming events as the eclipse is on the horizon.

We open with Elle and Sylar continuing to practice aiming and firing electricity. Arthur interrupts and wants Gabriel to find Claire and bring her to him. Elle offers to help Sylar and Arthur agrees for them to work together to find the cheerleader. Later in the afternoon Elle and Gabriel are still attempting to find Claire and Elle thinks Gabriel is being a little too responsible and helpful to Arthur. Elle betrayed Sylar and told the store owner about him being a serial killer and the cops being called. The store owner tries to hold them at gun point and Elle eggs Sylar on trying to confront him on whether he is a villain or a hero, after being butted in the face with the gun Sylar exclaims “I hate heroes”.

Cut to Angela and Claire walking through the corridor of The company and discussing how Claire needs to not get caught. Angela opens up Level 5 and tells Claire she has another plan.

Nathan and Peter are looking to find a villain and Peter convinces his brother to take him along even though the has no more powers.

Mohinder is busy dissecting a patient and trying to find out how to cure himself and make a formula that gives people powers. Mohinder confronts Arthur and explains that he needs the catalyst. Arthur learns that Claire will die, but they are baffled because she shouldn’t be able to die. Mohinder remembers that abilities started manifesting during the last eclipse and that there is another eclipse coming today. They are beginning to understand that something is going to change today. A short time later Mohinder is speaking into his recorder trying to figure out what is happening to him, and what changes are befalling his body. His hands start to excrete a sticky substance.

Daphne and Matt are in an apartment in Brooklyn trying to find clues to where Hiro Nakamura is. Daphne starts getting paranoid and wanting to run away again. She tries to waffle in fear and Matt reassures her, a knock at the door interrupts their discussion. Ando and Hiro open the door and show the comic to Matt and that Matt has to fix Hiro. Matt tries to pierce Hiro’s thoughts but Matt does not understand Japanese. Matt can’t figure out how to get into his mind and fix him, Daphne explains that she wants to run again and she does after Matt reads her mind about her home in Kansas.

Noah and Claire arrive at Stephen’s house to be hidden out from the enemy. Claire confronts her father about her being kept safe, and she still distrusts her fathers true intentions. At the hideout Noah and his daughter confront each other and let their anger out and Noah attempts to teach her.

We cut to Tracy who learns that Nathan went off to find the Haitian and Arthur realizes it is a smart move to try and use the Haitian against him. Arthur instructs Tracy to go to Paris island and the marine training facility. Angela interrupts Traci and has a clue as to whats going on as its revealed in her expression.

Later in the apartment while Matt, Hiro and Ando are arguing about how to track Daphne, Hiro teleports them into a cornfield in Kansas. They arrive at Daphne’s house and Matt can hear her thoughts. Ando looks up in the sky and see’s the eclipse is starting to occur. Here we see Arthur looking over drawings, Angela looking over drawings, Nathan and Peter fall from the sky, Sylar and Elle race off in a car. All of the paranormal heroes are losing their abilities at the same time as the eclipse falls upon them.

Mohinder breaks free from a cocoon and is completely back to his normal human self as a result of the eclipse. Nathan and Peter fall from the sky into a swamp and Nathan reveals he can no longer fly anymore. Peter realizes that there is an eclipse and it could be a clue as there is another eclipse right now. They have a long walk ahead of them to try and find the Haitian, they see dolls tied to the bamboo in the forest.

Hiro, Ando and Matt knock at the door of Daphne’s house and an older man opens the door and say she isn’t there. Matt tries to force the man to let Matt in, but his powers no longer work. He is baffled to realize his powers are gone, Hiro discovers his powers are missing as well. Daphne tells her father that its happening again, but we don’t know what “it” is still at this point. She asks her father if he “still has them” but we don’t know what them is yet either.

Cutting back to Nathan and Peter arguing as brothers do, when Nathan realizes that Peter did read the map correctly. Nathan and Peter continue to argue as Nathan explains he always saves his brother, Peter confronts Nathan about being a coward and not having a backbone. Peter tells Nathan that he has seen the future and that Peter has chosen their dad in the future. The Haitian intercepts them and leads them on and reveals that his abilities are lost too, he explains the villain they are looking for is his brother and his skin is impenetrable. His brother uses his fear to create an army, but his brother is loose and has formed an army. The army comes out of the bush to attack them and try to kill them. One of the soldiers explains that Arthur informed him they were coming and they take Nathan hostage.

Noah and Claire continue training and Claire is striking wood piece after wood piece against a wall to control her strength. She is out of breath and swings at her father. Noah yells at her and she explains how angry she was that Noah kept leaving. Elle arrives at the building and was about to shock Claire when she realizes she has no electricity. Sylar then realizes he has no abilities either. Noah and Sylar engage in hand to hand combat where Noah gets Sylar down and Claire runs in the way and takes a bullet meant for her father. Noah bashes Elle with a wooden board, and picks Claire up wounded and bleeding to rush her to his house. Sylar reaches for the gun but doesn’t retrieve it in time to shoot Noah in the back, then falls unconscious next to Sylar.

Noah arrives at his house to find Sandra and instructs they can’t go to the hospital as they report gunshot wounds. Noah does not know why she lost her powers, but Claire is actually happy to feel pain and Noah thanks her for saving his life. After sleeping for several hours Claire awakes and feels a little better after some first aid. Just after when Noah leaves, Sandra checks on their daughter to see Claire’s condition has deteriorated rapidly.

Matt and Hiro still have no powers and realize that they wish they had their powers returned. They both say they came her to save Daphne, Hiro explains that Matt needs to triumph without powers and not doubt his mission. The goading worked and Matt goes back toward the house to save her. Hiro says he has a plan to get his powers back and Ando and hero start walking, they realize they must find the next issue of 9th wonders to figure out the rest of the journey.

Mohinder shows that all formula effects have gone into complete remission and he is trying to study more and why. He pulls up Maya’s information on the computer and just before he attempts to go after her Arthur comes into the room with Flint. They confront Mohinder and explain that he must complete the formula and return their powers.

Hiro and Ando arrive and see if the latest issue of 9th wonders has arrived. Sure enough they see two men at the comic store who confront Hiro and Ando exactly as they see on the cover of 9th wonders.

Matt arrives at the house after her father leaves and he tries to talk to Daphne through the door, he lets his heart out to her and tries to convey who she is and what she means to him. She tells him the door is open and he lets himself in to find her crippled and walking on crutches with injured legs.

Elle and tries to set Sylar’s dislocated shoulder as he screams in pain, he tries and is quite dismayed to realize they both lost their powers. Gabriel is now confused and realizes they are just human again, he says that he feels relieved and doesn’t feel the hunger anymore. Elle explains that it was her fault that he became that monster, she tells him they can’t take what they want anymore and Gabriel challenges that and takes a kiss from her. Noah meanwhile is outside with a sniper rifle trained on them about to kill them.

I thought this episode was good but not as good and gripping as the previous episode overall. I do like that Claire and Noah have finally gotten to talk openly and both are rebuilding their connection and relationship, the same goes for Nathan and Peter being open and candid with each other. It is going to be interesting to see how the show continues with the Heroes having to fit back in as normal humans and continue onward. Noah would clearly have an edge now as he was always a human without powers, so he would have an edge over the former people as was seen when he took down Elle and Sylar.

At first I didn’t think I would be able to watch this episode while I was traveling at CA World, but was fortunate enough to learn that in Las Vegas Heroes comes on at 9pm instead of 8pm in Arizona so I was back at the Hotel by 8:30 and able to catch the show.

Updated to include the streaming episode:

The episode starts off with a long recap, followed by Ando trying to save hero and getting thrown.  Arthur was about to finish mind wiping hero when he gets distracted by a painting of an eclipse.  Ando rushes over and Hiro teleports them back to Japan accidentally, we learn that Hiro had most of his adult memories erased and he thinks he is 10 years old again.

Arthur tries to put Gabriel through a test claiming he has empathy and tricks him into a room where Elle lies waiting and she unleashes an electrical blast at him that starts to flay his flesh.  We see instead of retaliation Sylar instead encourages Elle to release her vengeance on him.  We see several scenes where she unleashes over and over again at Sylar blasting him and the effects are amazing as his skin vaporizes and smokes and electricity erupts from his eyes, mouth and every other opening on his person.  After unleashing a hellish blast Elle collapses to the ground and begs Sylar to kill her.  Sylar instead frees her and informs her that he forgives her for using him and that he owed her for saving his life.  He asks Elle to forgive herself and then we see Elle stop feeling pain and Sylar learns he acquired her power without ever laying a hand on her.  Afterward in one of the best scenes in the show we see Elle and Sylar bonding and Elle teaching Sylar to control and focus the electricity.  She informs him he will be a Gun Slinger in no time after Sylar shows how quickly he can focus and release blasts.  This scene we see just how much Elle did care for Sylar and I wonder now if the future son that Sylar had is not the child of Elle and Gabriel.

Matt Parkman and Daphne arrive at Primatech to see Angela still in a coma and when Matt tries to read her thoughts Daphne goes to warn and inform Arthur about the situation.  Arthur meanwhile is still plotting and planning to get the formula working and checks on Mohinder who keeps mutating patients with a formula that is missing something, or someone as they determine.  Something also is revealed in that the last eclipse seems to be when people started displaying powers and another eclipse is on the horizon.  Later Matt attempts to go into Angela’s mind to free her and asks Daphne to stay around and help him through it.

Peter and Claire argue about escaping and separating only to find Knox and Jessie attempting to hunt them down.  Originally they both think that Peter is the target and after evading them in the apartment only to be chased in the sewers it is revealed they were after Claire all along.  A few scenes later Peter is able to improvise a trap and use Flint’s own flame ability to allow Claire and himself to escape.

Meanwhile Ando is trying to instruct Hiro about his powers and what his abilities are but Hiro is still a 10 year old and can’t help but play pranks and joke around like any kid.  He does start to master his ability a little bit after a few attempts at first slowing down time, and then stopping it for a short period of time.  After learning how to stop and slow time, Ando asks Hiro to try teleporting and after several attempts he does and transports Ando and himself into a comic book store.

Nathan arrives at Pinehearst with Tracy and confronts his father only to learn Arthur’s plan was the same as Lindermans except with a much higher body count now.  Nathan leaves the company with the intentiont to go find his mother and learn more.  Meanwhile Tracy goes back to Arthur and attempts to negotiate a deal where she will make sure Nathan joins his side in exchange for Arthur keeping her intact and taken care of when the dust settles.  She has the same survival instincts as her sister Jessica it would seem in this case.

This episode was simply fantastic and I have to say the final scenes of the episode were so utterly monumental that I got goosebumps.  The final scenes show Matt, Daphne and Angela escaping from the mental prison built by Arthur after he revealed he had some feelings for Angela and released her after she confronted him.  We leave seeing the “Heroes” Matt, Daphne, Nathan, Peter, Claire, Angela in the hospital room discussing the formula and the catalyst where Claire reveals that she is the host.  In the “Villains” headquarters at Pinehearst we see Jesse, Knox, Arthur, Sylar and Elle gathered around where Arthur wakes up from a future scribling to reveal that the Eclipse is coming.

The previous would show us that The Eclipse will strip the Heroes of their powers and they have to contend with being normal again.  I have never been more excited to see the next episode as I am now.  Tell me what you all thought of this episode?

I particularly thought the scenes between Sylar and Elle were so charged with emotion, hatred, anger and then respect, gratitude that it almost invoked me to write a poem and I just may after this.

-Dragon Blogger