The Heroes Review - 3.11 The Eclipse, Part Two

Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 12.02.2008

The powers return, but does the show? 411's Jason Chamberlain reviews the new episode of Heroes; The Eclipse, Part Two!

Well, that’s two straight duds. Though this one wasn’t quite as dud-ley as last weeks.

3.11 The Eclipse, Part Two
Written by: Joe Polaski & Aron Eli Coleite
Directed by: Holly Dale

Before I get into the review, I don’t want to say I’m down on Heroes. I know that seems to be the popular opinion, and obviously for the first batch of episodes this season, I was really digging the show. I’m not taking that back. I did dig those episodes, and I did, and do, think this season has great potential. And in my opinion, it was living up to that potential right up until, well, until the Eclipse.

Forgive the metaphor, but the characters were not alone in losing their mojo when the Eclipse hit. The show has too. Hopefully now that’s it over, we can get back on track. But with some of the odd choices made in this episode, I’m not sure.

Seth Green is one of my favourite actors, so I was really looking forward to his time on the show, but I don’t know. The whole comic book store thing has kind of fallen flat for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool to chill out in comic stores; I do it all the time. But more Issac Mendez comics? He was pumping out third season shit way back when? I know it’s probably a lame thing to call bullshit on, in a show that features super powered people, but it just seems like lazy writing.

That said, bringing in that mail guy who received Issac’s final story is cool, because that is an actual moment from the first season I remember.

Hiro as a ten-year-old is still bothersome, especially with his “I don’t want to grow up” bit, but at least it gave Seth a chance to have a cool speech about what makes a hero a hero.

We got some more of Daphne’s cerebral palsy bit, which ultimately gave her a chance to make amends with her dad whom, it seems, she had abandoned upon receiving her powers. So that was kind of nice, and after yet another talk from Matt, she seems to have finally accepted that she’s a good guy after all (though she can be my nemesis any day of the week).

The Petrelli brothers trip to Haiti all in all seemed pretty pointless, but for sending Nathan on a path to Pinehearst. Through his experience of powerlessness and not being able to stop “Baron Samedi” from slaving and whoring villagers, he decided that maybe some people do need powers to protect the greater good. Hence, off to Pinehearst. Nathan seems to have turned on the drop of a dime here. I mean yeah, I guess I see how he could make that kind of decision, but he came to it awful quickly. And he didn’t even give Pete a lift back to the States! What a dick.

Speaking of Pete, I figured if anything would repower him, it would be the Eclipse. We can’t seriously be dealing with a powerless Peter from here on out can we?

The Haitian got a hero moment by taking down his brother, but really, was the whole Samedi arc necessary? The guy really didn’t impress me much as a badass, to be honest, though we did see just a smidge of his powers. Whatever.

Elsewhere, Mohinder beat the holy heck out of Flint so he could bust out to go see Maya while he wasn’t all scaly. I’m certainly not shedding any tears for flame boy. As for Mohinder, it did suck to see him make it to Maya’s, only for his powers (and scales) to return just as he reached for the door. So he slunk back to Pinehearst before she opened the door. I haven’t really missed Maya, but she’s definitely a looker. Something tells me we’ll see more of this couple in the future.

We also dealt with the fallout of Claire’s gun shot wound as she actually died in the hospital; after rightly blaming herself for screwing stuff up and finally apologizing for being stupid. Then Mrs. Bennett screams one of her “wake the dead” screams and we all waited for Claire to come back to life. (well, we did!). So when she finally gets her powers back, we’ll have a slightly less annoying Claire to deal with right? Wrong. Soon as HRG returns home, she’s all smug and in his face again. “You don’t care that I died, blah blah blah”. Yeah sweetness, that’s why he just followed a trail of blood all around the freaking city to get revenge. Moron.

Of course he was tracking Sylar and Elle, who have to pay for the whole “shooting Claire” thing. Personally I’d buy them both a pint. Anyway, Sylar/Gabriel continues to be a stalwart guy (aside from the whole, 'mindlessly following Daddy’s orders no matter what they are' thing) and does all he can to protect the wounded Elle, even going so far as “dying” at HRG’s hands. Once the Eclipse brings their mojo back though, they head back to the Bennett house to inflict some pain and take Claire. It looks like Sylar is about to kill HRG before Hiro (still ten, mind you) shows up and takes both Sylar and Elle away before taking Claire to the past (apparently she’ll help him get his memory back if she sees the moment Kaito gave her to Noah).

As Sylar and Elle regroup on the beach, he seems to come to the realization that he’s never going to change after all, and, ah, he kills Elle. Or at least, he starts to. Maybe he doesn’t finish, it’s not clear. Either way, it’s totally counter to what they’ve been doing with the character since the season began. If they were going to have Sylar valiantly fight to be good only to finally be overcome by the hunger once more, it could have been played out far better. As it is it’s not even the hunger that inspires him to kill Elle, as he already took her power empathetically. No, this is flat out murder, no hunger involved. So forget that emotional investment you may have spent on Gabriel’s redemption story, cause it looks like that just went out the window.

Not that this is the first quick and unrealistic character change this season. Heck, I complain about Mohinder pretty much every week. But I was willing to go on the ride with Sylar cause I’m a sucker for a redemption story. If this is the ultimate pay off, it blows.

So yeah, for the second straight week I think Heroes dropped the ball, and if Sylar has truly gone back to the dark side for good and Elle is dead, it may have done irreversible damage this time.

Now that the Eclipse is gone, I only hope this show gets its powers back!

Things I Dug

- “I need to know if I can be a hero without my powers.”
- Noah going all Terminator on Sylar and Elle.
- Arthur’s a douche. Just thought I’d point that out.
- Mohinder grows a pair and kicks Flint’s ass.
- “Best. Day. Ever.”
- Nathan’s speech about not using his power when he had it. Too bad it leads him to a stupid decision.
- Milo Ventimiglia (sp?) channels Rambo, taking on Samedi’s men in the jungle. I dig this cause Milo played Stallone’s son in the final Rocky movie, and we all know who played Rambo!
- Noah calling BS on the whole Elle/Sylar thing. He did kill her Dad after all.

The 411: Heroes served up another clunker this week. If I never see another eclipse on this show, I'll be happy!

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]