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!"