How to Stop an Exploding Man

Holy.
Crap.

Wow.

OK, seriously...how exactly am I supposed to wait until fall for more Heroes?!?

At this stage, I'm not sure how much speculation there is to engage in, so here's a quick list of high points, cool stuff, and maybe the occasional question:

• Noah, huh? I was betting on Phil...I like Phil. Then again, with Gabriel and Eden, I suppose we needed another Biblical reference. Is Mr. B going to shepherd the Specials now, sort of like in Five Years Gone?
• Niki has won out, and gained control of her powers and personalities. DL appears to have barely survived being shot...again.
• Micah and Molly sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G
• You do know we're nowhere near the end of the Petrelli storyline, right? We have yet to see Mama's motivations. Plus, we saw that DL could phase Niki with him; can Peter regenerate Nathan?
• Sylar is down in the sewers, with the rest of the rats and roaches. I think we're all ready (except for The 9th's Laura) to be done with this villain. Let's not have him do the Michael Myers bit, mmmkay?
• Candice is still alive. Damn.
• I think Matt's dead. Sorry.

I know I should have a lot more to say on this episode, but it is a long, cruel summer. Stay tuned, sidekicks! Even if Tim, Greg, and all the gang are on a well-deserved break, I'll still keep dishing the dirt, rumors, and idle speculation here.

Love, kisses, and dismemberment,
Las Vegas Niki

Season 1 DVD Details

How cool is this???

No sooner do we get word that the official release date for Season One is August 28, but we get a few more rumored details. Granted, it's still just rumored at this point, but even if it's only partly true, it's awesome to know what we're getting,

What we still don't know if we're getting is the online comics. I really hope they put them all into a booklet with the discs. I suppose I'd be satisfied with a digital version, though.

But what about all this HD-DVD stuff? HD appears to be losing the format war to Blu-Ray, and of course the hardware is still expensive. Fortunately, I own an XBox 360, so I can get a relatively inexpensive HD drive to go with my console. Heck, I'd probably buy the drive just for this set. But I'd like to know what the repetitively redundant "Interactive Activity" is supposed to mean.

Hang on to your remotes, sidekicks! The countdown continues...tick...tick...tick...boom.

Landslide

Holy cow...I'm nearly speechless. Without a doubt, this is not only the most exciting episode so far of Heroes, it's one of the most relentlessly thrilling hours of television I've ever seen, period. But here's the trouble I'm having: we're so close to the finale, the storyline is focusing in quite narrowly, and they're answering questions at such a rapid clip that it's getting hard to write and speculate. But let's give it a shot...

I'll get my obligatory Candice rant out of the way first: thank goodness the writers made her a little less cartoony. It was good to see some backstory for her to put her ability and personality into perspective. Mind you, I still can't stand the character as a person or as a plot device, but I understand her a little better.

I loved seeing Mr. Nakamura teach Hiro to put his shields up. It was interesting to hear him talk about some people who have lost their way; it's the same thing Linderman said, but they're obviously on different sides now, if Mr. N is trying to stop the bomb. What happened in the sixteen or so years since he handed Claire to HRG? Was Linderman on the same side at the time, or has the Company become a tool of his using, whereas it was once allied with Nakamura-san? I'm especially confused, since Thompson spoke of Kaito Nakamura with near-reverence when reminding HRG who it was that handed him Claire. Thompson is clearly on the side of Linderman and the bomb, so why is Mr. Nakamura trying to stop it now?

Did anybody see this one coming? According to Linderman, it was Papa Petrelli who had powers. Granted, that doesn't mean that Mama can't have them, too, but it doesn't quite jibe with the online comic. In that, Mr. Petrelli was dumbfounded that anyone could have a power. I suppose he could have manifested later on, which prompted Linderman to contact him.

Is Mr. Linderman dead? I'd be amazed that his character would be killed off so quickly, before his plan came to fruition. Still, he did take a phased fist to the brain, and as we all know, it's all about the brain for these guys. Icky.

I've gotta give a nod to my girl...it looks like Niki has finally won the tug-of-war between her and Jessica. To see Jessica willingly cede to Niki's compassionate side--for the sake of Micah--has to be the turning point in reintegrating Niki's personalities. But what of DL? I'm sure I saw him in the trailer, so I'm guessing he's not quite dead. But with the bomb just around the corner and a possible future encounter with Sylar, his future doesn't look too rosy.

Maybe I've forgotten it, but did either Matt or Molly react to seeing each other during the standoff? She knew he was nearby, but I don't recall anything beyond that. I had my doubts that HRG could kill a kid, and it looks like I was right. Everything seems to be pointing towards Molly surviving both this siege and the bomb. Now that Thompson's dead (and how cool was Bennet's kill line, by the way?), I can imagine that Mohinder would join them in protecting and saving her.

Nice to see our other cop, Audrey Hanson, back. If only the poor gal knew that both of her big-headache cases (pardon the pun) were involved. That, of course, brings us to the biggie...Peter, Sylar, and the bomb. Let's run this down quickly:

• Ted is now out of the picture, so there's only two choices for the explosion.
  
• Claire is with Peter, and had darn sure better stay safe.
• Sylar is tracking them both, and he and Peter will face off in the finale (per the trailer)

Sylar is clearly ready to embrace what he percieves as his nuclear destiny. Peter is desperately trying to avoid his. I'm going to reverse my previous stance--despite what I've heard about Sylar being on Season Two--and say that Sylar is the one who explodes...and he won't survive. I wish I could tell you that I've carefully analyzed all the clues that the writers have given us and come to the best possible conclusion, logically and dramatically. Instead, all I can say is I have a hunch.

So stay tuned sidekicks! In fact, just go ahead and bolt yourself to the sofa right now, so that you won't miss the two-hour finale. Whose side is Nathan really on, anyway (I say he'll help Peter)? Will Hiro kill Sylar? Will Peter? Will Sylar kill them all? Will we discover How to Stop an Exploding Man?

The Hard Part

Welcome to a very special Mother's Day episode of Heroes! That's right...this time, we learn that "mother" may only be half a word...

Sylar has gone all Norman Bates on us, apparently. Could it be that the brain-eating power sponge is simply a victim of a family life comprised of a doting yet pushing mother cloaking her son in conflicting expectations? I have to say, I'm thrilled that the writers gave us this human side of Gabriel that we can sink our teeth into. Who would have ever thought that Sylar would show regret (or pre-gret, as the case may be) for the bomb? It's a nice study in the morals of the psychopath that he can see the bomb as a horrible evil, while seeing the collecting of powers as natural selection.

Sylar seems ready to die; he knows what he's done, and deep down, knows it has to stop. He calls Hiro a coward for not killing him, yet he's too much of a coward himself to stop his own course. At least we got to see him use Mr. Walker's freezing power in a moment that was (for a few seconds, at least) genuinely touching. Sylar tried to show his mother the possibilities of what he could do; how he could perhaps find meaning in something as simple as being a watchmaker, or making his mother smile. Yet even in this, he causes pain. Congratulations, writers...you've made Sylar a genuinely tragic villain.

Compare this to the tragic hero, Nathan. They haven't said as much, but it looks as though Mama Petrelli is prepaing Nathan to sacrifice Peter for the good of humanity. We've seen that Nathan is a good man who buries his compassion under a detached pragmatism, often not very well. Of course, the entire Petrelli family dynamic could fill a post twice this size, so we'll try to keep focused on Mama and Nathan, since that's where the story has taken us.

Where Sylar's mother is simple and naive, Mrs. Petrelli is cunning and wise. Both want their sons to be special, but Mrs. Gray sees the world lying at her son's feet...he can be President, if he wants. Mrs. Petrelli sees the world lying at her son's feet, too. In ashes. He must be President, whether he wants to or not.

And that leaves us with our third/fourth/fifth mother: Niki/Jessica and Candice. First of all, the obligatory Candice rant. Ahem. If the writers are going to keep teasing us with Candice threatening to show someone something truly terrible and soul-melting, then goshdangit they'd better come through. At least they softened her up a tiny bit in dealing with Micah. She's still loathsome, of course, and I can't wait for her character to disappear from the show.

But I do think this is yet another interesting Mother dynamic. As children, we all believe (and need to believe) that our parents can be completely trusted, that they would never betray or hurt us. Candice masquerading as Niki is a very nice metaphor for that. The flip side of it is that Jessica has listened to the ever-toughening Niki, stopping DL from rushing into a certain death...all in the name of saving her son.

So what of the other family dynamics we saw? We saw a son (Mohinder) and a daughter (Molly) without parents, who still manage to find a blood bond. They seem united in their cause to stop the Bogeyman, but you can't help but wonder what else The Company has in store for her Professor X-like powers.

We saw HRG and Matt struggling with their own family issues. At least Mr. B was able to see Claire again, however briefly. In a nice ironic twist, to save his daughter (and the rest of the Specials), he has to wipe out the Walker System, which we assume means killing Molly.

So what exactly is "The Hard Part?" According to Hiro, it's killing. Hiro found it hard to kill Sylar (as he believes it should be). Claire finds it hard to shoot Peter (is that why she's saying "I'm sorry" in his dream?). Nathan finds it hard to kill .07% of the world's population. Sylar found it hard to kill (or to accept killing) that same percentage. Will the Middle Management Trio find it hard to kill Molly?

So much analysis, sidekicks...so much analysis. What comes next? The big question is still "who explodes?" I keep expecting us to get closer to an answer on this, as all three suspects are now in New York. Still, we're no closer to knowing. OK, we're a week closer to knowing, but you know what I meant. At this stage--and I'm sure I'm just being led down the path the writers are wanting me to take--I'm leaning towards it being Sylar. Now that his redemption has been lost, there's nothing for him but to accept his destiny as the Most Special One There Is...at any cost. I know that Tim Kring has said Sylar will be back next season, but it's the only thing I can imagine that doesn't wind up turning into what we saw in "Five Years Gone."

One last bit of speculation for you...what is Mama Petrelli's power? It's all but been shown on-screen at this point. Clearly, Mrs. P has got it going on, superpower-wise. The good folks at The Ninth Podcast have speculated that she is precognitive. I tend to believe that, based on the vague hints she dropped in this week's dialogue. Either that, or she has an ability to subtly weave the threads of fate together. Perhaps something along the lines of not being able to force people to do things, but she can motivate the forces of the universe to set things in motion...or some such nonsense.

Stay tuned, sidekicks! It looks like they've got us by the neck, and they're not letting up until the finale. To misappropriate Freddie Mercury, we're going to be caught in a Landslide; no escape from reality.

PS: Best moment of the show...
Claire: "You can fly?"
Nathan: *"meh" shrug*
Claire: "Cool!"

Five Years Gone

I'm wiping the tears off my keyboard as I write this...I hated this episode. There, I said it.

I can deal with a "what if" future, seeing as Marvel has a whole series of comics about it. Fine. What really bugs me about it is that the speculation is going to run wild, and almost completely wrong. How do I know? I don't, but I seriously doubt that Kring's Krew would lay out the next couple seasons' plot for us right now; this was meant to be a worst-case scenario. I'm also worried that the writers might use this as an excuse for all sorts of plotline "gotchas."

Not only that, but we really didn't get much storyline resolution here. I'm sorry, but I feel like this was the equivalent of the "two characters stuck in a meat locker" clip show that every sitcom uses to pad out its schedule when the principals aren't available to shoot. They had a 23-episode contract, and they had 22 episodes worth of story, so they wrote this to fill in the blanks. I'd have much rather seen this as an online comic.

Can you believe it? Candice is dead, and still the writers are beating that dead horse of a special ability. Seriously, guys...kill her off now and get the story back on track. Speaking of President Sylar (kind of a lateral move, if you ask me...at least there are brains involved), why is he suddenly able to hurt Claire now? Can she not still heal? A lousy thread.

I could pick apart this episode piece by piece, but doing so is just going to make me angry and depressed. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. Instead, I want to wrap this up with the one thing I truly appreciated from this episode. In the words of Randy Jackson, "You da bomb, dawg!" In this case, the dawg in question is Peter. Or Sylar. Or Ted. I like how they addressed the situation, that Peter exploded but Sylar was blamed. Unfortunately, that led us to another Lazy Candice Moment. At least that one little nugget of information provides some grist to the explosion mill.

Stay tuned, sidekicks! Next week, we're back to the present, back to the story, and with backs to the wall. Keep your eyes open, your sword handy, and your hair neatly trimmed. Next one will be better...I promise.

.07%

Well, if Hiro can go five years into the future, then I can blog from one week in the past. Sorry, gang, but real-world obligations and a reformatted TiVO are to blame for the delay. I mean, aren't I a victim, too? Do you think I wanted this? Don't worry...your scalp is safe. For now...

I admit it, I was completely wrong. I truly thought that Linderman and The Company were on opposite sides. I thought that The Company wanted to track and (perhaps) eradicate Specials, while Linderman wanted to unite and protect them from The Company and other threats. Sure, at first I thought Linderman was in charge, but the last few episodes made me change my mind about that. I guess it wasn't a red herring after all. Give them hope by giving them fear...sound familiar (and evil)? The only question is whether Linderman got his inspiration from Bush or The Watchmen?

More's the pity, since it meant we got to see Candice being loathsome again. Sure, we all knew it was her visiting HRG in his cell, but the whole Niki thing...stop it, guys. I'm sorry, but with Candice's character, it's making it impossible for us to trust the writers or the story. It's bad enough that she's such a badly-written, cartoony character; now we get to see her used as Deus ex Machina...the way out when the story can't figure out how to resolve a conflict. Enough is enough, guys. Get rid of her character before it damages the show any more.

Enough negativity for the moment, let's talk plausible deniability. Linderman did not actually say that Peter exploded; only that his "curtain call" comes the day after Nathan is elected. Could this be him dying while trying to stop Ted or Sylar from exploding? And what of Mama Petrelli? When Claire asked her if she had a power, Grandmama stood upright, clasped her hands, and seemed to get ready to demonstrate. Then she evades the question. I'm pretty much convinced at this point that she does have some power, seeing as both of her sons do. Off to Paris with Claire and Grandma, I guess. Though if Peter's vision is any indication, that trip won't be happening.

To go back to Niki/Jessica and Micah, I do think it's interesting that Jessica wanted Micah to be off limits to Linderman. Is Niki asserting herself more in the schism? Is Jessica coming to terms with her other side (the side that, as the introductory voice-over informs us, was created to protect Micah)? How will Micah save the world? Based on the happenings in the ARG (Alternate Reality Game), Hana un-rigged the Petrelli election. I think that's the unravelling that Linderman mentioned to Jessica. Micah Diebold Sanders will be using his vote-fixing techmojo to ensure Nathan's victory.

Nice to see HRG, Matt, and Ted on the loose again. How much do you wanna bet that the tracking system in New York is in the Deveaux building?

No scar on post-Sylar Peter, huh? That makes sense, but I do feel a bit cheated, or at least duped on that one. The thing that bothered me most was that a telekinetic with Super Hearing couldn't hear a chalkboard being rolled at him, much less stop it from knocking him out. That was a little cheap. I will give Sylar credit for the "I can't to try that one out" line, regarding Peter's invisibility.

Random Question, a la Dwight Schrute...will Sylar get a contact buzz from eating Isaac's smack-riddled brain? And who was in that picture? Was it Sylar or Nathan in the Oval Office? I think it was Sylar. We know that he can't control a recently-eaten power very well (remember his hearing issues), and we also know that he's sociopathic, like any serial killer. I think that he sees the visions that Isaac did, but his homicidal madness makes him see himself as the center of everything; after all, he believes he's the next evolutionary step. So how did Isaac give "them" the way to stop Sylar? Did he somehow use himself as bait, with something in his brain chemistry that would be a poison-pill-style time bomb? With the Company on his side, Isaac should have access to most anything he'd need to ensure Sylar's neutralization.

By the time this is up, it'll be Tuesday May 1...one day after Five Years Gone aired. I have intentionally not watched that episode yet, since I want my speculation to be untainted. Shoot, I haven't even checked out any spoilers or podcasts yet. Now that we have new things to watch, I want to reel in the spoiling a bit.

That being said, I just finished reading the online comic. In the future, Sylar is the bomb, but survives because he kills Claire. Does this mean that someone else explodes in our timeline, or does Sylar in fact die? I'm really leaning towards it being Peter, since you know he has absorbed Sylar's whole ability salad. That, and we know that Ted is heading to New York.

Stay tuned, sidekicks! More really horrible things happening to your favorite people coming right up...and you know you can't wait to watch!