DonnaK:  Before we get started… the usual warnings….

SPOILER ALERT!!!!! EVERYTHING BELOW THIS POINT IS A SPOILER!!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!!!

Still here? Good… let’s chat.

Looks like my call last week of this volume of Heroes mimicking Marvel’s Civil War and the Xtinction Agenda was right on the money. This has most definitely turned into a war between people with abilities and people without them. This week’s episode not only cleared up and clarified the scenario but gave us our battle lines and created some interesting side stories. List time!

—Our two sides in this “mutant” war are now clearly delineated. On the one side we have Nathan - a person with an ability, mind you - leading the charge to lock up and/or destroy all people with powers. It looks like the ideas Nathan and Arthur Petrelli had in the last volume of giving powers to people has been left in the dust in favor of what could well turn into a hero genocide. Nathan has gone completely off the rails and has become single-minded in his purpose to eliminate the heroes from this planet. On the other side of the coin we have Peter, Nathan’s brother, leading the charge against Nathan and his attempts to destroy people with abilities. Peter’s important-yet-horribly-written speech about the heroes banding together and doing whatever is necessary to stop Nathan and his plans sets up the whole story arc for the volume. On the one hand, I appreciate being given a clear plan about what’s happening, who the players are and having some kind of idea where this is all going. On the other hand, the writing of most of the dialogue and the clumsy set-up of the whole thing really bugged the shit out of me. The wonderful style I felt in the first episode of this volume was conspicuously absent in this episode. There was little to no atmosphere, no interesting direction, no daring choices. It was almost as if the creators just felt they needed to shove a whole lot of information at us and they didn’t much care how it looked, sounded or felt. While I appreciate the information, I would have appreciated it a lot more if it had been delivered with some style and grace.
—We now have an explanation for Peter’s powers. THANK YOU. See? How hard was that? It took all of thirty seconds to lay out some ground-rules for how Peter operates these days. Now… about this only being able to have one power at a time thing…. I’m really not sure how I feel about that one. On the one hand, I totally get it. Peter was just too damned powerful before. All he had to do was be in the general vicinity of someone with abilities and he got them. He was the Onslaught of Heroes, and between him and Sylar things just got too big. There was no challenge as no one could beat them, especially when both got Claire’s ability. However… I’m a X-Men fan. I *like* the big bad guys. I like having a couple of really overpowered people on both sides of the fight. I think it makes things interesting and I’m sad to see that they’ve nerfed Peter so much. This means that somehow they’ve GOT to nerf Sylar as well, because we can’t very well have him running around that strong and have no one there to even challenge him. And to nerf Sylar…. wrong. Bad. Do not want, sir. As a side note… question for the masses… is Peter’s current problem of only being able to hold onto one power at a time a temporary thing or do you think he might be able to learn his way around that block as he’s learned around his blocks in the past? I don’t think we have the information to make a truly informed guess, but I’m taking any and all bets…
—I’m calling complete and total bullshit on Parkman’s new “power”. What kind of horseshit are they trying to sell me with this? Did the African dude’s spirit somehow pass into Matt? Did the spirit walk grant him powers? If it’s the second one, why doesn’t Hiro have them too? What the cock is up with this shit??? I’m really so sick and fucking tired of this show disrespecting both its characters and its viewers like this. There is no possible reason that makes any sense at all why Parkman would suddenly develop this power, and I don’t see why I should have to accept this. I’m fed up to *here* with this crap and I’m really not going to take it much longer. Someone better get Kring in some restraints soon and let Fuller take over these kinds of decisions. I certainly trust his judgment more than I trust Kring’s. *grrrrrr*
—Is Daphne dead? Wounded? Captured? Anything’s possible here… any bets? I’m calling not dead, merely wounded and sped away to safety. Any other theories?
—Mohinder telling Hiro to leave and that this isn’t his fight anymore because Hiro lost his powers is just so…. Mohinder. GODS I hate that character! Of course Hiro is going to fight… just like HRG - who also has no powers - fights. He’ll fight for his friends, his cause, and because he wants to make the world a better place. At least the writers got those two characters right this week.
—Speaking of HRG… he seems to already be springing up doubts as to whether or not he’s on the right side of this fight. I don’t think it’s going to take long for him to realize that he’s backing the wrong horse and it’s time to join up with the heroes again. And since we’re talking about sides and HRG, let’s talk about Claire. After some pretty daring moves on her part during the escape, it looks like she’s being set up as the normal “cover” for the underground hero resistance. She clearly is not going to back down - that girl is as stubborn as a mule. However, the place where she can do the most good is out in the world, gathering information and supplies for the resistance. I believe that’s what the text messages at the end of the episode were setting up - Claire as the above-ground operative of the hero resistance force. If so… good move. I like it, it fits her character and I think it’ll make the war feel more realistic.
—Saving my favorite for last… SYLAR. I’m such a Sylar fan-girl by this point it’s ridiculous. I think Quinto couldn’t be playing this role better if he tried. He has the perfect blend of sheer evil and sympathetic sadness that he makes the absolute perfect anti-hero. I love it, I truly do. AND…. he now has a fucking side-kick! I love that even more! Sylar and Luke, traveling the country together searching for Sylar’s - and possibly Luke’s - father. At what point do these two run into either Nathan’s people or Peter’s? Where will Sylar fall in this battle? Obviously he’s not going to go gentle into that good night for Nathan, but I don’t think he’s going to be happily welcomed into Peter’s operation either. Will Sylar turn into a rogue that ends up causing all sorts of trouble for both sides of this fight? Given Sylar’s narcissism, I wouldn’t doubt that for a minute. This was the one thing I truly loved about this episode - the developments with Sylar. On top of all of this, I truly felt like all of the Sylar segments seemed like they were taken from a different show. There was none of that horribly clumsy dialogue that plagued this episode, none of the rushing around. It was paced slowly, carefully, and written quite well. It was even shot differently - different lenses, lighting, angles. I would lay money down that the Sylar segments were done by someone different from the person in charge of the rest of the episode. I’m looking at you, Fuller. Did you save Sylar from the hands of Kring? If so… BLESS YOU!

Overall, I wasn’t particularly found of this week’s episode. I thought it felt rushed, crammed to death with too much information and lacking in all subtlety and charm (save for the Sylar segments, of course). The atmosphere and (dare I say it?) charm of the first episode was totally gone. HOWEVER… I can also see that the writers are desperately trying to set up a situation and they have little to no time in which to do it all. I’m betting we’ll have one more week of crammed and poorly written stuff like this before things even out and start to get more interesting. I’ll also be interested to see how the show changes as Fuller is able to get more and more involved in it. There’s a lot of potential in the set-up for this volume. Let’s hope to the gods that it isn’t all for naught.