Heroes Season 2

[stumpy]

[spoiler]

Or maybe the burns that Nathan saw in the mirror are just a hallucination.  After all, he did look confused by them, and they weren't there when he looked at them again.  Maybe it's some sort of future premonition, maybe it's some sort of psychological attack sent by a bad guy (perhaps the guy Molly keeps seeing), but really I can't see how it could be real in any way.

Good point. It could just be a simple hallucination. They still have a lot of explaining to do about how he survived and why he has apparently taken such a psychological beat-down. Obviously, all that could help explain an overactive imagination, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they were foreshadowing some of that story.

And by the way, in the episode Five Years Gone, Sylar was able to use Candice's power to fool cameras.

That agrees with the idea of light illusions, rather than mental ones. BTW, do we know that's really where Sylar got the power? He couldn't have killed another illusionist or shapeshifter?

BTW, since when is Claire smart? I mean, I know all she was shown doing in the classroom scene was knowing something that most people probably know anyway, but I worry they will try to retrofit her into some sort of brainy character mold, which I don't think is consistent with what we have seen so far.

Since when is she stupid? 

Since when did I say she was stupid?

The impression I got from Season 1 is that she's a pretty average student as far as grades are concerned.  All she did was get one question right, and I doubt they'll show her schoolwork much.

Exactly - she was an average student, as best we could tell. Not that they ever really went into it, but they gave plenty of focus to her at school and we never were given any hints that she was exceptional. With West's comment that she is smart but doesn't want anyone to know it (part of his glib theory about aliens and robots), I just don't want them changing gears on us without some explanation.

And, overall, meh. Let them do what they want. If it turns out that now that she won't be spending all those hours a week at cheer leading practice, it wouldn't really be much of a stretch for her to move up in the ranks academically. It they write it like that, then I have no problem with it.
[/spoiler]

Also,
[spoiler]I agree about West not flying to school. He'd be an idiot to draw that kind of attention to himself. [/spoiler]

[Conduit]

[spoiler]

And by the way, in the episode Five Years Gone, Sylar was able to use Candice's power to fool cameras.

That agrees with the idea of light illusions, rather than mental ones. BTW, do we know that's really where Sylar got the power? He couldn't have killed another illusionist or shapeshifter?

He said, "I've certainly gotten enough power, met enough 'special' people.  Like this girl Candice who helped me become president."  So, yeah, he almost certainly got it from her.  Besides, the special effects are the same, so its definitely the same power regardless of who he got it from.[/spoiler]

[detourne_me]

[spoiler]of course would be an idiot if he flew to school,  but he'd also be an adolescent kid.  c'mon even Invincible and Spider-Man fly to school and they're bona-fide heroes.    thats why i'm saying it ups his creep factor if he drives to school.  means he either has some uncanny foresight for a teenager, or he's got someone experienced with powers giving him directions... maybe someone from the company.[/spoiler]

[Conduit]

[spoiler]

of course would be an idiot if he flew to school,  but he'd also be an adolescent kid.  c'mon even Invincible and Spider-Man fly to school and they're bona-fide heroes.    thats why i'm saying it ups his creep factor if he drives to school.  means he either has some uncanny foresight for a teenager, or he's got someone experienced with powers giving him directions... maybe someone from the company.

I assume you mean Spider-Man web swings to school?  Anyway, he goes to a college in New York City, where it's no big deal to get around by walking and using public transportation.  Costa Verda could well be a place where people normally drive everywhere.  And besides other kids and teachers wondering how West gets to school, there's also the issue of his parents, whom he may be keeping this secret from.  It'd be kind of hard to keep them from knowing that he didn't drive to school.  As for being an adolescent kid, I'm an adolescent and if I could fly I probably wouldn't go to school that way.
[/spoiler]

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Well, looks like the writers blew it.

What I mean is, that they said they would make the show so that new viewers could pick it up and understand.

I just talked to my sister, who has only watch an odd episode of last season here and there--and was throughly confused by what she saw.

She said the episode assumed that the viewers knew too many things about the characters.  Her roomates, who had not seen anything of it before, found the show impossible to follow and extremely confusing, because they didn't know who these people were, and why they seemed to be connected.

A couple of explanatory lines here and there would have done it, but they didn't have any of those.

[bredon7777]

Interesting.

My office is full of rabid Heroes fans.  Their biggest complaint about the premiere: "It was boring! They spent too much time going over what happened last year!"

Can't please everybody, I guess.

[thalaw2]

Aside from the creepy new kid I thought this episode was cool!  The new boy is too weird....I suppose if I could fly in High school I might use my powers to look in girls bedroom windows...then again I've never been the stalking type. 

[Kitt Basher]

A word or two about Claire's Intelligence:

[spoiler]The point they were trying to make with her knowing the answer wasn't that she knew the answer ... most of the kids in the class (if not all) knew the answer.  It's that she was being a "robot" and following the herd of lemmings by not raising her hand to answer the teacher.  Or at least that is the way "the creepy new kid" would see her.   BTW, i would still (ok maybe not still) use a flying ability to window peak  :unsure: ...  to anyone who says they wouldn't:  I suppose invisibilty would never be used in the girls shower either right?[/spoiler]

[bredon7777]

A word or two about Claire's Intelligence:

[spoiler]The point they were trying to make with her knowing the answer wasn't that she knew the answer ... most of the kids in the class (if not all) knew the answer.  It's that she was being a "robot" and following the herd of lemmings by not raising her hand to answer the teacher.  Or at least that is the way "the creepy new kid" would see her.   BTW, i would still (ok maybe not still) use a flying ability to window peak  :unsure: ...  to anyone who says they wouldn't:  I suppose invisibilty would never be used in the girls shower either right?[/spoiler]

Kitt:
[spoiler]
Shower, not so much- the water would give away your outline :D.  The locker room itself,, hell yes.
[/spoiler]

[stumpy]

[spoiler]The difference being that, when you're invisible, it's somewhat less likely that you'll be caught using your power because, umm, you're invisible.  :P Seriously, though, when I said he'd be an idiot to fly to school, it's not about whether there'd be a temptation to (mis)use his powers, it's whether he could do it without getting caught. You might be tempted to use X-ray vision for some prurient purpose, but you'd be pretty careful about it if everyone saw bright blue beams leaving your eyes. As far as I could tell, that peepage scene took place in the dark where he wasn't especially likey to be seen. That's is in pretty stark contrast to flying to and from school during the daytime. [/spoiler]

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Quick thoughts:

[spoiler]
The Hatian is back!  One thing I can't understand, is why didn't the Company warn him about his powers?  I mean they scold him for letting it happen, but how was he supposed to know?  And why didn't HRG let him know too, since it seems the Hatian is on their side.

The new painting series is a nice little plot development.  It works, as long as they don't try that again next season.

Our second duplicate power, it seems, since Takensi seems to be a regenerator like Claire.  This may also mean that Claire will be alive a long, long time.  Which makes sense, really.

Yup, just as we suspected Hiro was responsible for some of the Takensi legends, although it seems that some will be done by the man himself.

Well, it's confirmed that Maya's brother definitely has a power, and that he can cure her disease, even in other people.  Her powers are definitely creepy, I'll give them that.

I'm liking Matt's new role as a detective.  It works and gives him a far more central role this time, as he's now right at the center of things.
[/spoiler]

[BentonGrey]

Cat, some responses:

[spoiler]
Yay!  I really liked the Hatian, and I am looking forward to him and HRG teaming up again.  As far as Mohinder, I think you missed it slightly, Cat.  It was indicated in the dialog between Mohinder and HRG that it was PLANNED for him to pretend the Hatian had mindwipped him.  The fact that the Hatian was SENT to meet HRG proves that, as Mohinder couldn't do it, be mindwipped, and then be aware of it.  However, why the Company didn't tell him...that's a good question.

I'm wondering of Takensi is just a healer, something he said right before he died made me wonder.  "Maybe I'll be a hero next time around."  I wonder if he's more like Immortal Man....either way, poor Hiro!  He's met the girl of his dreams, and now he has to let another man romance her....terrible!  I was really excited when Hiro took the armor...and I rather wish they had just let Takensi die, and let Hiro BECOME Takensi.[/spoiler]

[Mr. Hamrick]

[spoiler]

• I don't think we've seen the last of this development with "who is behind the Takeshi legend" as it seems that he is more out for the glory than to do the right thing.  SO . . . who thinks that Hiro winds up doing most of the dirty work.  I'll go with him being a duplication of Claire's power for now as I took his comment to be a reference to "reincarnation".  However, the other could be very valid, especially with this "other big bad" that Molly has been seeing in her dreams.
•   Two things that jumped out about the whole Matt/Petrelli/Ando killer thing:  one being that Mrs. Angela Petrelli knew Matt was reading her mind.  She could hear him read her thoughts and talked back to him.  What's that saying about her power?  Also, she mentioned that the symbol on her photo as that of her husband's law firm. 
• Mohinnder definitely faked having his memory wiped.  The conversation after the fact with him and Noah confirms as much.  Nice to see The Haitian and HRG back together as a team.
• What is the deal with Nathan and Peter and mirrors?  They did a similar shot tonight with Peter and a mirror implying that he should be seeing something that he isn't.
• Any bets on which of the pair of Irish siblings have a power?  I figure its one and not both.  However, it could very well be neither.
• As for Maya and Alejandro, their powers are apparently tied to Mayan Mythology, the Mayan god Quetzalcoatl, and the end of The Age of The Jaguar.

[/spoiler]

[BentonGrey]

[spoiler]I don't think that it necessarily follows that Mrs. Petrelli could 'hear' Parkman read her mind.  I think that she deduced what he was doing when he mentioned "revenge."  She obviously is familiar with people with powers, so she just 'shouted' in her mind when he looked back at her.[/spoiler]

[Tomato]

Cat, some responses:

[spoiler]
Yay!  I really liked the Hatian, and I am looking forward to him and HRG teaming up again.  As far as Mohinder, I think you missed it slightly, Cat.  It was indicated in the dialog between Mohinder and HRG that it was PLANNED for him to pretend the Hatian had mindwipped him.  The fact that the Hatian was SENT to meet HRG proves that, as Mohinder couldn't do it, be mindwipped, and then be aware of it.  However, why the Company didn't tell him...that's a good question.

I'm wondering of Takensi is just a healer, something he said right before he died made me wonder.  "Maybe I'll be a hero next time around."  I wonder if he's more like Immortal Man....either way, poor Hiro!  He's met the girl of his dreams, and now he has to let another man romance her....terrible!  I was really excited when Hiro took the armor...and I rather wish they had just let Takensi die, and let Hiro BECOME Takensi.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]It's a good point, but I get the feelin that his statement was more intended as a "I'm going to be reincarnated" kind of thing. My question would be: is it Generalized healing, or is it just for fatal wounds? Because I doubt he would be hiding behind trees and things if he thought he could heal everything, even if he is a coward.

It makes you wonder though... if he just found out about this ability, it'd be interesting to see how he tries to take advantage of it.[/spoiler]

[Adamence]

[spoiler]With all the talk last week about West possibly being telekinetic rather than just a flyer, did anyone else think that he may have been responsible for Claire's car going missing making the fact the doors were unlocked insignificant?[/spoiler]

[stumpy]

[spoiler]
Some general thoughts on the episode:

• The opening scene of Holt's thieves accusing Peter of stealing the iPods was not credible. No one is going to steal a shipment of iPods and then lock himself in the shipping container. I'm sorry, but it just isn't believable that they thought he stole the iPods that they were going to steal. I know that they wanted information, whether or not he was the man who took the iPods, but they would have had a smarter approach than beating the snot out of the one guy they can see who didn't take them.


• Apparently, Bennet isn't going to come clean that he isn't being as normal as he wants Claire to be. And, to some degree, Claire is correct that she would be better with some personality at school, since she doesn't want to get noticed as the potentially psycho girl who doesn't do anything, doesn't talk to anyone, etc. Obviously, she shouldn't become a campus celebrity, but there shouldn't be any problem with her having some distinctive profile, as long as it isn't the same one she had in Odessa.


• So Hiro is doing what I think most of us thought he was going to do, take Kensei's place in some of the feats for which Kensei is famous.


• I actually forgot that Peter met DL. I thought he was going to express a different power to free himself from those ropes.


• There's a storm tunnel that goes under a river? <grumble>


• I am assuming that Kensei heals when he dies. Not exactly the same as Claire's power (though Claire does that, too, from what we have seen). His power seems closer to a short-term reincarnation, thus far.


• Peter would help those rogues out of "common courtesy"? Bah! What courtesy has he been shown, besides being tied up and having the tar beaten out of him by those same people? I would have loved it to have seen Peter snag the box with his personal items telekinetically and tell Holt to bugger off. I think it's likely that Caitlin has some power that develops later on and she needs to become part of the regulars, but I am not at all sympathetic to the brother or his crew.


• I am also stoked to see the Haitian return. I love that "Welcome to Copy Kingdom" line when the Haitian shows up at Bennet's work. And, I admit that I grinned at the irony that the man who erases things is to team up with the man in the copying business.


• I guess if they are going to portray Claire as smart in some academic sense, they are certainly highlighting the contrast between intelligence and wisdom. Let's hope Mrs. Bennet isn't too upset when she finds that severed toe.
  
  BTW, the toenail on Claire's toe regrew as well as the living parts of it. A little odd, but I think we have seen her hair come back in short order before, so that's part of the power's effect, even if it is a bit iffy. And, after all, the epidermis is mostly dead skin cells and she always seems to get that back (instead of her skin looking really pink after a heal), so no big deal.
  
  (BTBTW, who's to say the toe itself can't regenerate into a whole new Claire? I saw a Japanese monster movie once where that happened. :P)

Other bits:

I don't know why "Midas" didn't let Mohinder know about the Haitian's power. But, I don't even know that the Haitian even really did anything to Mohinder. It certainly didn't seem that way when Mohinder talked to Bennet. I am leaving this open, since we don't really know one way or the other.

Also, do we know that the Haitian gains (or at least has access to) the memories he erases? It almost seems like he has to, otherwise how would he know when to stop? He seems to be able to erase memory of fairly specific events, when he couldn't know ahead of time for how long the victim had known the target fact (so it seems unlikely he's just erasing back to a certain length of time).

I agree that we never really saw Mrs Petrelli "hear" Matt's power working. I think she was tipped off because she was just thinking about revenge and then he asks her about revenge. Matt's kind of sloppy about that sort of thing.

Also, I doubt that Mrs. Petrelli is this season's big bad. It seems she took kind of a beating in that interrogation room by either the actual big bad or (more likely) a minion.

[/spoiler]

[Uncle Yuan]

On a completely unrelated note - HRG and family are "laying low" and not drawing attention to themselves.  In order to do this he takes a meaningless job as the Assistant Manager in a copy shop.  And somehow on an Assistant Manager's "salary" he can afford to give his daughter a huge brand new car and house his family in a HUGE suburban home.

'Cause living WAAAAY above your apparent means is a GREAT way to lie low.

[Conduit]

[spoiler]

Some general thoughts on the episode:
BTW, the toenail on Claire's toe regrew as well as the living parts of it. A little odd, but I think we have seen her hair come back in short order before, so that's part of the power's effect, even if it is a bit iffy.

No, we haven't.  I'm sure she can cut her hair, otherwise it would be extremely long by now.
[/spoiler]

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Conduit, I believe Stumpy was referring to the scene where she was burnt by radiation in Season 1.  If I remember correctly, her hair was pretty badly ruined, but regenerated with the rest of her.  I could be wrong, however.

[cripp12]

for some reason I thought there were more commercials then usual.  That was annoying. It was every 10 minutes.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Seemed about normal to me.  By the way, every 10 minutes is actually about normal.

Last weeks, there were fewer, but that was a special occasion.

[cripp12]

Seemed about normal to me.  By the way, every 10 minutes is actually about normal.

Last weeks, there were fewer, but that was a special occasion.

that's probably why I thought there was more.

[stumpy]

Conduit, I believe Stumpy was referring to the scene where she was burnt by radiation in Season 1.  If I remember correctly, her hair was pretty badly ruined, but regenerated with the rest of her.  I could be wrong, however.

That's right. I was thinking about her eyebrows being burned off when she injects Ted with the sedative last season. Her whole face is shown being scorched as she approaches Ted. Then, as she walks back outside, her face regenerates and she has eyebrows again by the time she hugs HRG.

[thanoson]

Also, we now know that Peter doesn't have to think of the power he's gonna use.

[Talavar]

If Peter is actually blackmailed by the threat of a box being held over a fire, that's just lazy.  He's already re-demonstrated telekinesis, which would be more than enough to grab the box in question, but he's still also got Hiro's power rattling around in there somewhere.  Even invisibility might let him seem to disappear while he grabbed it. 

[stumpy]

[spoiler]Yeah Peter is showing some instinctive control of his powers. It's frustrating when he can't use them consistently, so I am glad to see that.

However, a fully-in-control Peter should be able to crush just about anyone. That's a problem the writers this season are going to have to deal with and I guess their first attempt is the amnesia. Peter isn't sure which powers he has and he isn't very clear on how to call them forth. I think that's the explanation for his not just taking the box and leaving Holt standing there wondering how his pistol got up his butt.


BTW, is anyone else impressed at how much facility Hiro exhibited in using his powers? He has gone from just trying and hoping it works to pretty reliably using at at will. He certainly seemed well in control of things when he disarmed those guys of their swords and then their archery equipment. "Go now, before I take your clothes next!" He was getting so good at it that I was almost surprised that he didn't stop that attack on Kensei at the end (or at least the last - fatal - arrow). I guess he was just surprised.[/spoiler]

[Conduit]

My thoughts:

[spoiler]
It's interesting to see that Claire can regrow limbs.  Frying boy has just gotten more annoying and creepy.  How frequently has he been looking into the windows of Claire's house over the past 2 episodes?

Peter using all his powers would be cool, if it didn't make absolutely no sense.  In Distractions, he specifically said that he had to remember the original source of the power in order to use it (not to mention that he now doesn't remember Claude's training).  Unless something weird is going on, that's a major continuity error.  The only thing that suggests there may be more to it is how his abilities seemed to fire off semi-randomly.  He shot lightning at a thug, was confused, then pointed his hand at the other guy as if he was trying to do the same thing, only he TKed the gun instead.

Kensei is really cool.  "You look like a fish when you talk...Like a giant carp."  I also like Hiro's "Have you seen a scary white man?"  I also liked the scene where he dressed up as Kensei and disarmed all the samurai, especially when one of them said, "Why does he keep saying his own name?"  Man, we've gotten some good lines out of that story arc.  The only thing I'm worried about is Kensei's revealed power.  I really hope that there's a good reason why he pulled that "hide in a tree and pick them off from afar" trick instead of just walking into the group and easily killing them all with his sword.  I also hope that they don't try to make it so that Claire's power prevents the owner from aging, because Peter sure looked like he had aged a little in Five Years Gone.

It's good to have the Haitian back.
[/spoiler]

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Stumpy:
[spoiler]
It does seem that Hiro's major weakness is being surprised.  He seems to lose his control over his powers whenever startled or shocked, which is how he ended up back in ancient Japan in the first place.  Personally, I think that works and is believable, especially given Hiro's personality.
[/spoiler]

Conduit:
[spoiler]

In Distractions, he specifically said that he had to remember the original source of the power in order to use it (not to mention that he now doesn't remember Claude's training).

Peter also said that he could only use powers when around somebody.  Just because he can only do something one way at one point in time, doesn't mean that he won't learn to grow past that limitation later on.  It seems to me that Peter is learning to use certain of his power instinctually, like when he uses Claire's regeneration.

I also hope that they don't try to make it so that Claire's power prevents the owner from aging, because Peter sure looked like he had aged a little in Five Years Gone.

Peter also doesn't have that power on all the time.  Just because he ages, at least a little, doesn't mean that those with that power innate won't.   Besides, duplicate powers don't have to be exactly the same.
[/spoiler]

[Conduit]

[spoiler]

Conduit:

In Distractions, he specifically said that he had to remember the original source of the power in order to use it (not to mention that he now doesn't remember Claude's training).

Peter also said that he could only use powers when around somebody.  Just because he can only do something one way at one point in time, doesn't mean that he won't learn to grow past that limitation later on.  It seems to me that Peter is learning to use certain of his power instinctually, like when he uses Claire's regeneration.

That time, we were given a clear explanation why he was able to use his powers outside of their presence.  This time, we're given nothing, we're just supposed to accept that it happened, even though it violates what's been previously established.  And how can you talk about him having learned to get past a limitation when he's forgotten everything?  Really, all I want is a good explanation.

I also hope that they don't try to make it so that Claire's power prevents the owner from aging, because Peter sure looked like he had aged a little in Five Years Gone.

Peter also doesn't have that power on all the time.  Just because he ages, at least a little, doesn't mean that those with that power innate won't.   Besides, duplicate powers don't have to be exactly the same.

Claire's power heals damage after it occurs.  If Peter is wounded when he doesn't have the power on, the wound heals when it is turned on.  If it healed the effects of aging, then every time Peter turned it on his age would "reset" to around his early twenties.  So unless he never used it after about 2 or 3 years since the explosion (very unlikely), he shouldn't have looked any older.  There's also the fact that Sylar didn't get any younger after he stole her power.  If the power is different when it comes to aging, then that's good.
[/spoiler]