Spoilers for "Heroes" coming up just as soon as I get the name of Christopher Eccleston's wig-maker...Well that was pretty darned good, wasn't it? An hour that took on the form of a "Lost" episode (single-focus A-story supplemented by the main character's flashback) and made everything "Lost" has done this year seem like the shiny con job that it is.
If there's a character worth spending an entire hour on in this show, it's HRG, both because we know so little about him and because Jack Coleman has done such a superb job playing him. Hard to believe he wasn't even a regular when this all started, that the producers thought there was more potential in Simone and Isaac and D.L. and a bunch of others, and by now he's the show's emotional core. It took me a second to realize what he meant when he told The Haitian to "take everything" that could lead Eric Roberts to Claire, but when it hit me (and Claire)... damn. I don't know what HRG's bosses are really about, but this was the single most heroic thing anyone's done on the show to date -- and, depending on how much Claire-memory got deleted, maybe so heroic that nobody's going to be able to match it for a long, long time. Will he even remember he has a daughter come next week?
Meanwhile, the writers gave us enough information on HRG and what he's doing to play fair with the audience and yet not rob too much of the guy's aura. There's a lot more I want to know, but I don't feel cheated by what they told me so far.
Really, my only complaint of the episode was the climax, which looked cool but by all rights should have ended with HRG, Parkman, Eric Roberts and maybe Claire's mom and brother winding up with a fatal rad dose. They spent far too much time building up the danger of Radioactive Ted if he ever lost control of his powers, and then presumably HRG's fine because he was ducked behind the kitchen island? Looked like there was a whole lotta radioactive nastiness in the house by that point.
A few other thoughts:
- One thing I want to do is go back and re-watch George Takei's last appearance to see what, if anything, Hiro told his dad about his powers and destiny. If Mr. Sulu knows his boy is one of "them," would he pull an HRG, too, or would he want Hiro taken in for further study?
- I like the idea of Parkman as HRG's new sidekick, if only because it would make him feel like a part of the show, which was a rarity for the first half of the season.
- Speaking of going back to earlier episodes to make sure no one's been erasing my memory, wasn't Bluetooth Girl going to go with Matt and Ted for the raid on HRG's house?
- I don't feel like HRG and Mrs. Bennet would have waited until Claire was 12 to tell her she was adopted, do you? Just seemed like that was the youngest the producers felt they could get away with still using Hayden in the flashback.
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