Heroes Season Four Episode Ten: Brother's Keeper. May contain spoilers for future episodes ("Thanksgiving").
Oh "Heroes". There is this cat in my neighbourhood that always greets me enthusiastically. Whenever I come visit my parents, it comes running towards me whenever it sees me coming, and then follows me home. It's perfectly sweet and loves to be petted for a certain period of time: But I know exactly that a point comes when that cat leashes out, growls at me, and will attack me with its claws when I come close. This ALWAYS happens.
And "Heroes", that is how I feel about you. It's one of the reasons why getting attached to you is so much more difficult than obsessing over, say, "Dollhouse" (which too is painful, but the pain is usually either caused by outside forces like "the network" or it's so mind-blowing and makes so much sense that it becomes part of what makes the show great). The other reason: I can suspend disbelief like you wouldn't believe and ignore when you invent physics as you go along (so now people with powers emanate a measurable force that is amplified when two or more specials come together, huh? How did that work out last season with the hoarding of hundreds of specials in the secret government facility?), but the one thing that is hard to forgive is when you are not sure about your own characters, if even after four years of writing for them, each episode feels like you started from scratch and just made up things about them.
In retrospect, last week's episode wasn't as bad as I made it out to be (obviously I hadn't read the spoilers for upcoming episodes and was concerned about Gretchen leaving like that) - but I still think that it's indicative of this season (which so far has been way better than anything else since season one) when I sometimes feel like well-established characters like Claire act out-of-character (and am I the only one who felt like both Hayden Panettiere and Madeline Zima weren't really sure how to act in all their scenes previous to Gretchen deciding to leave? Like they didn't really understand the motivation and decision-making progress of their characters?).
There are two sides to this. On the one hand, the end of last episode with Claire staring over longingly at Gretchen's empty bed and Matt deciding to make the ultimate sacrifice because there was nothing else he could do to battle the way superior Sylar who was driving his body were emotionally compelling scenes, which gave both characters the opportunity to go to new places. On the other hand, the thing about narratives is, they have to make sense. Even if the aftermath, the consequences, of a particular decision or event are amazing for the story and provide a new direction, how you get there still matters, and if you have to ignore something you previously established about a character to get there, you shouldn't.
Also, if you take away the consequences of someone's action, or devaluate a particularly brave decision or action, within the first half of the episode, this tends to diminish the entire thing in retrospect.
In "My Brother's Keepers", everything falls into place and the characters are placed on the tangent that will finally lead them together and give them a shared storyline, instead of oh-so-many individual stories that are barely connected - but the episode also takes away the most emotionally compelling moments of "Shadowboxing".
Peter / Nathan / Matt / Sylar
After the season finale of last year, when Matt drove Sylar's memories out of his body to replace them with Nathan, it was hard not to see parallels to "Dollhouse", which was starting its first season at about the same time. The idea that some things in a person can not be wiped and remain, that some character traits are more than just memories and are fixed, was conveyed in such a tiny scene (Nathan hearing a clock, knowing exactly what was wrong with it). "Heroes" potential has always intrigued me: in no other show you could have three actors in one room who all share some fragment of the same identity or body (Matt in Matt's body, Sylar in Matt's body, Matt in Sylar's mind, Nathan in Sylar's body, Nathan and Sylar in Sylar's body, I think my head is spinning now). The tragic element of the scene in which Peter, not knowing what he is doing, is reversing Matt's decision by saving him, and therefore also Sylar inside of him, is that this is a game of "musical chairs": there's two bodies for three people, and one of them will have to go. The idea of family, that was so far more present with Samuel and probably the complicated relationship between Claire and her Dad (this will come to fruition in "Thanksgiving", the ultimate family-episode), now comes up here too: Peter didn't know about Nathan before, and it's the Haitian who reveals the truth, but Peter trusts his brother, so despite all warnings, he takes him along for the ride. They both discover Nathan's actual dead body (which, for some ominous reason, Mama Petrelli has kept around in a cryogenic box), and go to Texas to save Matt. Of course, Peter's decision to make Nathan a part of this, instead of finding out what exactly happened on his own, puts Nathan/Sylar's body in exactly the spot where he shouldn't be. But Peter only has a small family, and his mom has proved to be anything but trustworthy, so he needs to stick to the one person he still has left.
Tracy / Claire
At the beginning of this season, I was surprised how interested I was in Tracy Strauss' arc: it was well-executed and fit in so well with the Volume-title "Redemption". When we see her here, we have to remember the long way she's come so far: she went on a vengeance spree, Noah convinced her to start something new, she tried to get back her old life as a Washington lobbyist and failed miserably, then she tried to redeem herself by helping Noah save a troubled kid, which failed miserably and horribly, and now she is out on the road, trying to figure out whether she should join the Carnival or not (I supposed the Compass can only show the way once the person carrying it has made up their mind? Yes?). After what she saw in Georgia, she has probably the best reasons to actually follow Samuel's call, which is interesting as he didn't really have much to do with what happened to Jeremy - the hateful townspeople did all his work for him.
The person she finds there is Claire, not Noah. This is an interesting pairing, as these two have more in common that one might have suspected from Tracy’s roots. This is also a scene in which “Heroes” wholeheartedly embraces the potential weirdness of having a character who can freeze anything and one who can heal and grow back body parts (also, this probably sparked a whole new femslash community). In many ways, the scene in which Tracy freezes Claire was like an “Ink, Part 2”: and one has to appreciate when a foot that is breaking off can be played for comic relief (also classic: When Noah comes back and finds the two women on the couch, with the now useless extra-foot in front of them on the table, as Claire has grown a new one. So what exactly does Bennet do with all of the extra parts Claire has left behind over the years?). Especially after the doom that has loomed over Claire’s relationship to her powers over the past episodes, it’s nice to see her actually enjoying having them (“I heal! That’s like what I do!”). I love how "Heroes" delves into the idea that having a show about superpowers is sometimes not about flying or blowing stuff up in creative ways, but also about pretty things (like Emma and Peter, enjoying their own personal rainbowy goodness) and the wackness that is severed-body-parts-humour.
The down-side to this is, of course, that Claire has just found out that she can not have a normal life. She tried, and now the only person who made it worthwhile is gone. She tells Tracy to run with her instincts and join the Carnival (weird. So Noah failed to mention to her what he has found out about Sinkhole Sam? She actually bought his good guy/bad invisible girl-spiel from last episode?)
Hiro / Mohinder / Samuel
We find out, finally after the reveal from two weeks ago that Samuel killed Mohinder, that the Indian scientist has indeed started a normal life back in India, teaching, living with his girlfriend. But the past does not just go away because you turn your back – and the film reels of his dad’s research are still looming over Mohinder, revealing Samuel’s “Heroes”-story quite literally, as Dr Suresh Senior was present when he was born. Another vital information on the tape, that Samuel is keen on getting his hands on, is that the presence of other Specials increases his power. And, as is revealed now, Samuel isn’t just trying to protect and grow his family, he lusts for power, and his brother, before he died, tried everything to keep the information about his power from him.
This is an interesting development but also sad, because Samuel was so intriguing because his motives were not entirely evil, and because some episodes even showed that some of his actions were justified or at least understandable from his perspective (like when he took revenge on the police men who killed Jeremy, or even supporting Becky in taking revenge on Noah). I am more interested in the idea that past actions by Noah and Nathan as a politician give reason to Specials to do anything to protect themselves from harm, than see another power-hungry villain who likes to collect stuff.
Of course, anybody who felt sympathy for Samuel probably changed their opinion two episodes ago, when he sacrificed his own time traveller only to strand recently saved Charlie in time, and make Hiro his pawn. He desperately wants the video reel to find out about his own powers, and Hiro has already indicated that he would do pretty much anything to save the love of his life (“forget about the cheerleader”, he said back in Texas, clearly stating his priorities). He gets Samuel what he wants, but he also proves he is more resourceful than he was in past seasons, saving Mohinder and hiding him from Samuel (in an insane asylum of all places).
Oh "Heroes". There is this cat in my neighbourhood that always greets me enthusiastically. Whenever I come visit my parents, it comes running towards me whenever it sees me coming, and then follows me home. It's perfectly sweet and loves to be petted for a certain period of time: But I know exactly that a point comes when that cat leashes out, growls at me, and will attack me with its claws when I come close. This ALWAYS happens.
And "Heroes", that is how I feel about you. It's one of the reasons why getting attached to you is so much more difficult than obsessing over, say, "Dollhouse" (which too is painful, but the pain is usually either caused by outside forces like "the network" or it's so mind-blowing and makes so much sense that it becomes part of what makes the show great). The other reason: I can suspend disbelief like you wouldn't believe and ignore when you invent physics as you go along (so now people with powers emanate a measurable force that is amplified when two or more specials come together, huh? How did that work out last season with the hoarding of hundreds of specials in the secret government facility?), but the one thing that is hard to forgive is when you are not sure about your own characters, if even after four years of writing for them, each episode feels like you started from scratch and just made up things about them.
In retrospect, last week's episode wasn't as bad as I made it out to be (obviously I hadn't read the spoilers for upcoming episodes and was concerned about Gretchen leaving like that) - but I still think that it's indicative of this season (which so far has been way better than anything else since season one) when I sometimes feel like well-established characters like Claire act out-of-character (and am I the only one who felt like both Hayden Panettiere and Madeline Zima weren't really sure how to act in all their scenes previous to Gretchen deciding to leave? Like they didn't really understand the motivation and decision-making progress of their characters?).
There are two sides to this. On the one hand, the end of last episode with Claire staring over longingly at Gretchen's empty bed and Matt deciding to make the ultimate sacrifice because there was nothing else he could do to battle the way superior Sylar who was driving his body were emotionally compelling scenes, which gave both characters the opportunity to go to new places. On the other hand, the thing about narratives is, they have to make sense. Even if the aftermath, the consequences, of a particular decision or event are amazing for the story and provide a new direction, how you get there still matters, and if you have to ignore something you previously established about a character to get there, you shouldn't.
Also, if you take away the consequences of someone's action, or devaluate a particularly brave decision or action, within the first half of the episode, this tends to diminish the entire thing in retrospect.
In "My Brother's Keepers", everything falls into place and the characters are placed on the tangent that will finally lead them together and give them a shared storyline, instead of oh-so-many individual stories that are barely connected - but the episode also takes away the most emotionally compelling moments of "Shadowboxing".
Peter / Nathan / Matt / Sylar
After the season finale of last year, when Matt drove Sylar's memories out of his body to replace them with Nathan, it was hard not to see parallels to "Dollhouse", which was starting its first season at about the same time. The idea that some things in a person can not be wiped and remain, that some character traits are more than just memories and are fixed, was conveyed in such a tiny scene (Nathan hearing a clock, knowing exactly what was wrong with it). "Heroes" potential has always intrigued me: in no other show you could have three actors in one room who all share some fragment of the same identity or body (Matt in Matt's body, Sylar in Matt's body, Matt in Sylar's mind, Nathan in Sylar's body, Nathan and Sylar in Sylar's body, I think my head is spinning now). The tragic element of the scene in which Peter, not knowing what he is doing, is reversing Matt's decision by saving him, and therefore also Sylar inside of him, is that this is a game of "musical chairs": there's two bodies for three people, and one of them will have to go. The idea of family, that was so far more present with Samuel and probably the complicated relationship between Claire and her Dad (this will come to fruition in "Thanksgiving", the ultimate family-episode), now comes up here too: Peter didn't know about Nathan before, and it's the Haitian who reveals the truth, but Peter trusts his brother, so despite all warnings, he takes him along for the ride. They both discover Nathan's actual dead body (which, for some ominous reason, Mama Petrelli has kept around in a cryogenic box), and go to Texas to save Matt. Of course, Peter's decision to make Nathan a part of this, instead of finding out what exactly happened on his own, puts Nathan/Sylar's body in exactly the spot where he shouldn't be. But Peter only has a small family, and his mom has proved to be anything but trustworthy, so he needs to stick to the one person he still has left.
“Are you hearing yourself? Look you know what I see when I look at all this? I see a Big Brother who would let me win by a nose when we raced. I see a naval officer who would re-arrange his leave so I could have a good birthday. For the past couple of years, I’ve seen a guy that saved my ass more than a few times.”It's not just Samuel who profits from people wanting something they can't really have - at the end of this, Sylar also has exactly what he wants, and in a way, so does Matt, who makes a half-heartedly happy phone call to his wife, saying he's finally back in the driver seat for good.
Tracy / Claire
At the beginning of this season, I was surprised how interested I was in Tracy Strauss' arc: it was well-executed and fit in so well with the Volume-title "Redemption". When we see her here, we have to remember the long way she's come so far: she went on a vengeance spree, Noah convinced her to start something new, she tried to get back her old life as a Washington lobbyist and failed miserably, then she tried to redeem herself by helping Noah save a troubled kid, which failed miserably and horribly, and now she is out on the road, trying to figure out whether she should join the Carnival or not (I supposed the Compass can only show the way once the person carrying it has made up their mind? Yes?). After what she saw in Georgia, she has probably the best reasons to actually follow Samuel's call, which is interesting as he didn't really have much to do with what happened to Jeremy - the hateful townspeople did all his work for him.
“Just because they’re different doesn’t make them freaks.” – Tracy in the diner, about circus peopleThen, her powers go out of control. She just saw what happens when "Specials" get exposed to the public, how antagonistically human beings can react to anything that is different - so she decided to go to Noah to ask for help, because she literally has nobody else to turn to.
The person she finds there is Claire, not Noah. This is an interesting pairing, as these two have more in common that one might have suspected from Tracy’s roots. This is also a scene in which “Heroes” wholeheartedly embraces the potential weirdness of having a character who can freeze anything and one who can heal and grow back body parts (also, this probably sparked a whole new femslash community). In many ways, the scene in which Tracy freezes Claire was like an “Ink, Part 2”: and one has to appreciate when a foot that is breaking off can be played for comic relief (also classic: When Noah comes back and finds the two women on the couch, with the now useless extra-foot in front of them on the table, as Claire has grown a new one. So what exactly does Bennet do with all of the extra parts Claire has left behind over the years?). Especially after the doom that has loomed over Claire’s relationship to her powers over the past episodes, it’s nice to see her actually enjoying having them (“I heal! That’s like what I do!”). I love how "Heroes" delves into the idea that having a show about superpowers is sometimes not about flying or blowing stuff up in creative ways, but also about pretty things (like Emma and Peter, enjoying their own personal rainbowy goodness) and the wackness that is severed-body-parts-humour.
The down-side to this is, of course, that Claire has just found out that she can not have a normal life. She tried, and now the only person who made it worthwhile is gone. She tells Tracy to run with her instincts and join the Carnival (weird. So Noah failed to mention to her what he has found out about Sinkhole Sam? She actually bought his good guy/bad invisible girl-spiel from last episode?)
Tracy: “I was sitting in this diner, thinking about…about changing everything. My entire life. I’ve been so lost Claire. I tried so hard to put my old life back together, but once I did, nothing fit anymore. Then I met this strange man named Samuel. He lives with a group of people…We’ve come to understand now that almost everything Noah does is to make the world a saver place for his daughter to grow up in: But his earnest wish that she should lead a normal life can not come true, and Claire is coming to terms with the idea that she might not get that, even is she does trust her father now. The questions is if she realizes in time that Samuel isn’t the right place to go, or what exactly changes if it should turn out that she can have the one thing that Tracy lacks: a real friend. For Tracy, there isn't any way around Samuel's Carnival.
Claire: “Who all have abilities? Yeah, I met him too.”
Tracy: “He invited me to join them, to move to this place where we’re all accepted. I think I might do it. Give up everything, start a new life.”
Claire: “Maybe you should. Maybe that’s what your body is telling you it wants.”
Tracy: “It’s great to have someone to talk to about all this. It’s hard to find a friend out there in the normal world. Someone you trust.”
Claire: “Yeah, I had something like that. I’m pretty sure that’s over. It just sounded so good on paper, College… Now I’m starting to wonder.”
Tracy: “It’s hard out there, for girls like us.”
Noah: “Ladies! How was your day?” [seeing the severed foot on the coffee table]
Claire: “Well, you know. Same old, same old.”
Hiro / Mohinder / Samuel
We find out, finally after the reveal from two weeks ago that Samuel killed Mohinder, that the Indian scientist has indeed started a normal life back in India, teaching, living with his girlfriend. But the past does not just go away because you turn your back – and the film reels of his dad’s research are still looming over Mohinder, revealing Samuel’s “Heroes”-story quite literally, as Dr Suresh Senior was present when he was born. Another vital information on the tape, that Samuel is keen on getting his hands on, is that the presence of other Specials increases his power. And, as is revealed now, Samuel isn’t just trying to protect and grow his family, he lusts for power, and his brother, before he died, tried everything to keep the information about his power from him.
This is an interesting development but also sad, because Samuel was so intriguing because his motives were not entirely evil, and because some episodes even showed that some of his actions were justified or at least understandable from his perspective (like when he took revenge on the police men who killed Jeremy, or even supporting Becky in taking revenge on Noah). I am more interested in the idea that past actions by Noah and Nathan as a politician give reason to Specials to do anything to protect themselves from harm, than see another power-hungry villain who likes to collect stuff.
Of course, anybody who felt sympathy for Samuel probably changed their opinion two episodes ago, when he sacrificed his own time traveller only to strand recently saved Charlie in time, and make Hiro his pawn. He desperately wants the video reel to find out about his own powers, and Hiro has already indicated that he would do pretty much anything to save the love of his life (“forget about the cheerleader”, he said back in Texas, clearly stating his priorities). He gets Samuel what he wants, but he also proves he is more resourceful than he was in past seasons, saving Mohinder and hiding him from Samuel (in an insane asylum of all places).
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