Showdown at the OK Corral

Most of the time is spent around the crash site, with Nathan narrating the whole thing to some listener who isn't revealed till the last few minutes of the episode. The Heroes gather and Parkman rushes off to save Daphen from visions his white-psyhic eyes gave him, snd Ando and Daphne meet up and rush off to save crashed heroes. And meanwhile, Sylar is still hunting for his daddy, and comes across a mother and a son whom he tortures pyschologically, before the son reveals a hidden power. It's a flawed, yet taut and fascinating Heroes, right after the jump.

Episode 15: Trust and Blood
Full Episode Online: TV Dome

Aftermath
43 hours after the crash, a sweaty Nathan Petrelli picks up a phone in Washington DC, and asks the listener if he woke them.  He informs them of the plane crash, and how it broke apart when it hit the ground.  “Some of the prisoners escaped.”  Flash to Hiro running along, terrified, until he tumbles over a ledge, practically into the arms of Parkman and Mohinder, who push him back against the ledge as they hear soldiers’ muffled voices from above.  They want Hiro to use his power, but he explains that he lost it. Hiro wants to, of course, go back to help the others, but Mohinder explains that it’s best if they keep moving, until Parkman wanders off. When they call out his name, he turns to them, his eyes white.  They decide to go ahead and follow him. Okay, now wait a second. They’re just going to skip the crash? After making such a huge deal about it in last episode’s cliffhanger? Gah! How did they all survive? So the whole huge deal over Mohinder grabbing Peter’s hand was nothing? Okay, bad start for an episode, but let’s move on.

Mini-Family Reunion
Peter and Claire are running along, when Noah hops out of the bushes, grabs Claire, and points a gun at Peter.   “This is much more complicated than you know, Claire,” he warns his daughter, his gun still aiming at Peter’s skull.  “You gonna shoot me, Bennett? In front of your own daughter?”  He lets him go, and Claire looks at her father in disgust.  “What did you do?” A bright light appears in the sky, and a second later the plane’s wreckage explodes into a million pieces from a couple of dropped bombs from the sky.  We flash to Nathan on the ground, the morning after the crash, pissed off as hell that they had destroyed the wreckage, and also kind of mad that they had been shooting to kill.  He wants them in custody, not dead.  Meanwhile, Peter and Tracy run through the woods, Peter imploring her to not stop, and hurry up, or they’ll catch her..  “Stay here, they win.  You come with me, you can fight.”  She continues on with him. Still not much happening, but at least it’s not a meaningless blur of chaos.

Future Drawings
Parkman runs up to a trailer and pries open a door, while Hiro and Mohinder stare, shocked, from the side. “What is he doing? We’re not thieves!” Hiro protests.  Mohinder says that the trance is compelling him, to just let him go.  Parkman emerges from the trailer with colored pencils and a blank piece of paper, sits down at a table, and starts to draw. While Hiro and Mohinder change into different clothes, the mysterious African dude shows up to just Parkman and tells him to focus.  Mohinder, meanwhile, tells Hiro he needs to save himself while he still can, because he has no powers.  Parkman snaps out of trance and he sees he’s drawn a picture of Daphne near the crash site, a bullet wound opening up in her shoulder. There’s also a picture of the three of them in India.  Despite Mohinder pointing out that Daphne wasn’t even on the plane, Parkman rushes off to save her. This is good – finally the Daphne/Parkman romance is starting to make a little bit of sense.

Teammates
Daphne shows up next to Ando, revealing to him that Hiro had told her about his secret hideout.  Ando tells her he knows where Hiro is – in Arkansas – in fact he was just about to buy a ticket to go try and find him.  .  “Why fly when you can run?” Daphne snaps back, and in a second she grabs Ando and they dash off.  They show up at the crash site and look from afar to see Noah and Claire talking.  Daphne points out that because Ando kills him in the future, Hiro must be alive. (Which, when you think about it, doesn’t really make sense, as that future was supposedly destroyed when the formula was torn to bits, but that’s okay, because Daphne herself may not fully understand the whole picture.) Then she heads off to investigate further, leaving Ando pouting behind, but happy that he knows Hiro is alive.

Crash Site Shootout
Down at the crash site, Noah lectures Claire while she bitches back at him (same old routine).  Noah says these abilities have to be controlled, but he’s arranged for him and his family to be safe. “I’m one of them,” Claire points out. “So is he,” she says, glaring across the room at Nathan.  He walks over to them and informs her that she’s going back to Costa Verde. Nathan tells him he needs to keep his daughter on a leash, because she’s running out of favors. While they’re talking, Daphne dashes in and saves Claire, then brings her back out to the hill, where Hiro and Ando and Claire and Parkman meet up. Suddenly, a shot rings out, and Daphne is shot in the shoulder, just like the picture. She’s then shot several more times, falling fto the ground, limp. Parkman screams out and rushes over to grab Daphne, and turns his mind on the guards, making then shoot each other in the head.  Hiro and Ando manage to get away in the confusion, prying Parkman away from Daphne’s body. Wow. And all of this is narrated over by Nathan on the phone to whomever in the beginning. Annoying, yes. It would have been a much more powerful scene without it, but still, it’s amazing, and if they’ve really killed off Daphne, good for them. Real danger, and it’s about time.

No honor among heroes
Peter and Tracy set up a decoy to lure someone near them so they can steal the guns. Peter says that he figures he picks up one power at a time-, depending on who he touches.  Tracy says she knows Nathan better than anyone, so they should follow her lead. Peter reluctantly agrees.  Near the crash site, Noah and Claire argue, and Noah says he’ll do what he can, while Nathan watches from afar.  Dakon, Nathan’s “hunter,” as Nathan calls him, and official head killer dude, comes and taunts him,  saying that if this whole thing goes south, he can kiss his political career goodbye.  “We’re all replaceable,” Nathan says. “Some of us more than others.” He gets a call, and it’s from Tracy.  “One second, “Nathan says.  Dakon says that if his affection for these animals goes any further – Nathan stops him and says that they’re humans, not animals.  He then dismisses Dakon and talks to Tracy, who betrays Peter just to have her old life back – setting up a meeting with Nathan three hours later.  At that meeting, Tracy approaches Nathan, while Peter hides behind a tree a little bit away. Nathan points out that Peter is unstable – he thinks he’s gonna save the world, and he’s gonna get them all killed.  Peter comes out from behind the tree, pointing a gun at Nathan and demanding to know what he’s telling Tracy. While they’re talking, red dots show up on Tracy and Peter, and Tracy looks at Nathan, saddened. “You said you came alone.”  (Yeah right, Tracy.)  We flash to some dudes in the bushes, among them Noah, who soon gets a clear shot at Peter’s head, though he tells the hunter, who’s right next to him, that he can’t get one.  Peter whispers in Nathan’s ear that this is not over, it’s only the beginning. He then absorbs Nathan’s power, which causes the hunter, in the bushes, to raise his eyebrows in surprise – Nathan’s powers are secret known only to the heroes.  Peter then pushes Nathan away, and kicks off into the sky. Nathan swears at the sky and raises up his hands, shouting “Take her.” The soldiers rush out from the bushes and surround Tracy, and Nathan approaches Noah and says. “That was a clean shot. You had Peter.” Yes I did,” Noah says, half-smiling. “Thank you,” Nathan replies.

I’m baaaaaack…
A mother and son, Mary and Luke, walk to the house next door to the taxidermy shop where Sylar killed all those people last week, her berating him for hitting somebody at school, apparently for calling her a whore.  They walk into the house and see the TV on and someone sitting in the chair, completely bewildered as to how he got there.  She’s about to go hit him with a poker when she sees his hands planted into the chair with screwdrivers, and duct tape over his mouth.  Sylar walks into the room, and tells them she’s going to help Agent Simmons (dramatic duct tape rip off mouth) loosen his tongue. “You sick freak. You’re gonna torture me in front of them?”  Simmons demands.  Sylar smiles and says. “No.” He pauses and looks at the mother and son. “I’m gonna torture them in front of you.” Wow. Dang. Finally. Sylar the villain is back (he was always much better at villainy anyway), and he’s kicking some serious ass. 

Apprentice
Sylar plays with the family, wondering who he’ll choose, and he decides on “Mommy.” “What did we ever do to you?” she demands. “Nothing,” Sylar says. “Wrong place, wrong time. I could be a tornado or a hurricane, really no difference actually.” As he’s taunting them back and forth in classic Sylar fashion, it’s disturbing, creepy, and excellent. Then, suddenly, the kid, Luke, in a fit of rage as Sylar is describing how he’s sure that Luke would like nothing more than to see her blood splayed across the living room floor, pushes forth a wave of heat and breaks the mug of hot tea in Sylar’s hand. “Well, well,” Sylar smiles. “You and I really need to talk.” He sets up a toy figurine on a table, and says, “Show me.” The kid shoots out a slow wave of heat that melts the figurine to the ground. “It’s kind of like a microwave,” he said. “You should see what it does around pacemakers,” he adds, a very slight smile. Sylar snickers, and points out that he knows Luke’s not happy, and that his mother is scared of him.  He tells Mary that Luke lied about hitting the kid at school – he actually hits kids a lot.  With Sylar intensely in conversation, Simmons breaks free from the chair and runs for his gun, but before he can shoot Sylar, the kid pushes Sylar aside and jumps forward, extending his hand and melting the gun in the guy’s hands, the heat spreading up his arms into his whole body. Simmons falls to the ground, a bleeding pile of flesh. “What are you?” Mary’s voice quivers.  Sylar walks out of the house, leaving them alive, which, he points out, is kind of a big deal for him.  Luke follows him outside into the night, begging him to take him with him, and says that he knows why Sylar is looking for his father, and he knows where he is.  Sylar’s jingle doesn’t go off, and he asks why. The kid says that it’s because Sylar thinks only his dad holds the answers in this hellhole of a world, just like him. “I can take you right to his driveway,” Luke states.  Sylar agrees, and the two walk side by side down the dark street. It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship, and a nice bonus plot development this volume – here’s hoping they don’t kill the kid off anti-climactically like they did that marine last volume.

By our powers combined, we are Team Heroes!
Parkman, Mohinder, Hiro, Ando, and Peter swooping down from the sky, all meet up at the house where Parkman stole the art supplies.  Peter tells them all to lose their cell phones, for the sake of tracking. (Good, they’ve learned their lessons from “Pineapple Express.”) . He sees the pictures on the table that Matt drew, and so does Hiro, who decides that the warrior must regain his sword, so it his destiny to travel to India, like in the picture, to get them. Peter gives them all a rallying speech (as if we haven’t had enough of those on this show already), and the heroes are now official fugitives.

Speaking of mommies…
In Costa Verde, Claire ponders thoughtfully in her room.  Her mom wanders in and says, “You’ve been awfully quiet since you got back.”  Apparently she believes Claire has been on a college road trip, and she asks if she’s made any decisions.  Claire says she was thinking of staying at home for awhile, getting a part-time job, which her mother instantly approves of. “The house would be empty without you.” She then receives a text from someone, who says they’re a friend and that they hate them as much as you do. The person won’t say who they are, but chances are it’s Peter or someone like that.  However, if it’s the return of someone old, it could be a cool surprise next week.  At the end of the episode, we see that Nathan’s been talking to Angela this whole time, and he asks her if he can count on her when Peter inevitably comes to her. Angela points out that he already went over head by conferring directly with the president, so she politely tells him that he already seems to have made his decision, and promptly hangs up on him. Ah-ha, so there’s hope for Angela still.   The episode closes with a scene of Tracy, her masked ripped off in some kind of cell in a truck, with guards on every side of her. Nathan says,  Her and Nathan argue for a bit, and finally he says,  “Try not to fight it. It’ll be easier.” “You’re one of us, Nathan!” Tracy screams as Nathan walks away and down and out of the truck. “You’re one of us!!!”

Review
This episode had both its good and bad spots, but what’s probably best is the Sylar scenes – though the character isn’t particularly expanded, he’s deepened, and darker paths are being explored for his character at the same time as a kind of vulnerability is being explored, with the introduction of Luke, who already seems like a loose cannon – in a way he’s reminiscent of Pyro at the end of “X2.” He better not die some lame death or turn into a boring douchebag – this is the beginning of something potentially fascinating, and they shouldn’t screw it up. As for the rest of the heroes, there is a lot of potentially solid, good character interaction here – especially in scenes like where Claire and her two dads are arguing together – there’s something deep there to mine, but Claire is sounding like she’s going on autopilot. She only has one setting – pissed off.  And all the potentially amazing conversations that and character development that could be taking place is instead being replaced by filler, still relatively in set-up mode. However, it does deserve several kudos – for going a hundred miles an hour, Heroes does all right. It would do much better slower, but this isn’t bad television, and there are worse ways you could spend your half hour. That may sound like damningly faint praise, but if you lost faith in Heroes with the first part of season three rolled around, now may be a good time to check it out. Since they finally started killing off heroes (I’m crossing my fingers that Daphne is dead), it looks like they’re willing to take risks. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

-Thomas Anderson
aka Movie Buzz Review Dude. Check out his movie/media/pop culture blog here.