”Evolution is an imperfect and often violent process. A battle between what exists, and what is yet to be born. In the midst of these birth pains, morality loses it’s meaning. The question of good and evil reduced to one simple choice. Survive or perish.”
What is good and what is evil? That’s what this week’s episode of ‘Heroes’ acknowledges. Rather than being straightforward, or answering our questions on that particular issue, the show tells us that during a great evolutionary growth morality ceases to have meaning. You either survive, or you perish. This is life at its most basic level, and it causes us to question what we really believe about these characters. How so? Well, I guess we’ll have to get on to the recap.
Warning: This is an episode recap. Spoilers for episodes up to and including “Better Halves” follow.
Isaac & Peter/Hiro & Ando: We get the other side of the phone conversation, and more. Is there anything better than Hiro being told he’ll have a sword? “I had a sword.”
Isaac and Peter realize there’s a panel missing from the comic page made of Isaac’s paintings. Simone took it to sell.
Clair Bennett: OK, we get that you can’t be hurt. But if you’re not telling you mother, why grab a hot pan from the oven when she’s in the room? Quick (probably wrong) thought: Sandra gave a nonsensical speech to her dog about breeding - is it possible that Mr. Bennett bred Claire? Food for thought, and just another question to throw out there among the dozens. Speaking of Mr. Bennett, he supposedly spoke with Claire’s biological parents and they’re willing to meet with her. Most kids who had her powers would want to know their parents so it makes sense that she’s so eager to meet them.
The BioParents show up for the meeting, and it’s awkward as expected, but there’s very little information forthcoming from these people. It’s almost like…oh, I don’t know, they’re not really her parents.
While eavesdropping on this meeting, Mr. Bennett gets a “work” call. Eden tells him that Suresh has left for India, but he’ll be back. They then discuss briefly Isaac and Peter; it’s obvious that she’s his East Coast accomplice. When she mentions there may be somebody who can stop time, Mr. Bennett sounds more interested and impressed than threatened. But when Eden delivers the, “Save the Cheerleader,” message he stops. It’s hard to read his reaction, but whether he’s a good guy or bad Mr. Horned Rimmed Glasses has just been given a very important piece of the puzzle. He tells Eden to bring in the “precog” (Isaac) and they hang up.
When walking the BioParents out of the house it’s revealed that the two people were in fact working with Mr. Bennett. From the conversation it can be determined the meeting was a setup, and they’re not her parents. Or maybe they are. It’s possible that these two, who seem to work with Mr. Bennett, were the ones Claire was bred from. Even if they’re not her parents, these people are aware of the situation. Mr. Bennett tells the gentleman, “I’ll keep you posted.” To me this statement implies either a colleague or a superior, not someone who was just bought off to play a part. Personally, I think they’re just coworkers and the real biological parents are either dead or in a lab somewhere. Of course, there’s too much supposition to base any concrete theories here. Once again, food for thought.
Niki & D.L.: D.L. is in the house with Niki and Micah, he reveals himself to his wife. D.L. tells her that some woman killed his crew, took the $2 million, and set him up. They begin to reconcile and after spending the night together D.L. tells Niki that she got up in the night and left. Niki is visibly shaken by this news as she obviously has no recollection of having woken in the night. She looks in the mirror and sees her alter-ego on the other side of D.L.
Micah shows up in their bedroom and is excited to see his dad who tells him he has a secret.
“You mean like Superman?” “Yeah, just like Superman.”
D.L. wants Niki to go with him to get his name cleared so she’ll never wonder about him. They go to visit some of D.L.’s friends, but upon entering the room they see a massacre. The scene is all too familiar to Niki. They leave immediately and return home.
Niki tells her husband that she’s seen something similar, in the garage. She thinks she’s doing it, but he doesn’t believe her. This man does not seem like the evil person we’ve been told about. In fact he seems like a very caring father and husband. When Micah comes in to ask about his backpack, Niki finds it and then “wakes up” on the couch. Freaking out about what’s happening to her, she goes into the bedroom and has a heart to heart with her alter ego. Turns out, unsurprisingly, that the alter ego is responsible for all the murders and is the one who took D.L.’s money. While I find the Niki storyline interesting in the show, as a hero I don’t see her worth. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if she actually is one of the heroes. It’s quite possible she’s just a gateway for us to meet D.L and Micah. There has to be more to her power than being bonkers for her to have any relevance on the heroic side of things.
The alter ego tells Niki where the money is, and when she gets it down from the attic crawlspace D.L. is waiting for her. He’s not too happy to find out it was his wife who betrayed him and killed his crew. She backpedals and tries to talk her way out of it, but the alter ego takes over and they battle. D.L.’s power to go through solid objects comes in handy for fighting as he reaches into her chest and wins the fight with a squeeze. A realization occurred for me here too.
Last week we thought D.L. was the same guy who was working with Mr. Bennett but Wikipedia’s constantly updating ‘Heroes’ page indicates that they are in fact two totally different people. The mysterious mind-sucker, known on Wikipedia as The Haitian, was no where to be found this episode. Nor was mind-reading Matt (who was last seen trying to convince a convenient store that he was not robbing the place).
Hiro & Ando: I love the dynamic between these two; they support each other in the “heroic journey.” When Ando questions, “What happens if we get to New York…and it explodes?” Hiro is right there to inform him of the rules, “When we get to New York, it won’t explode.” Hiro may be goofy at times, wielding an air lightsabre during this conversation for instance, but he’s a good person. His unwavering belief in the heroic journey may be his greatest power, and Ando’s support when Hiro is dejected is needed now as the transition is made. Maybe Ando won’t be around, or needed, later but I hope so.
While engaged in palaver, the guy they cheated at the Casino shows up. He wants them to help him get his money back by doing whatever they did before. Another card game, more super cheating by Hiro and Ando. I wonder how long it’ll be before Hiro stops being amazed at his power, I love watching his face after he freezes time. But the goofiness can’t stay around forever. When Ando notices one of the men has a gun he pulls Hiro into the bathroom.
“You guys go to the bathroom together?” The gambler says. “Yes, it is how we roll,” Ando says simply. While they’re bickering in the bathroom, they hear a scuffle out by the card game. We learn later that it was Niki’s alter-ego’s handiwork going on out there. Hiro tries desperately to stop time and help but he’s too flustered to do it and within a minute, the gunshots stop and its all over. Hiro is devastated that he did nothing to help. “I just hid in here. A hero doesn’t hide.” For the first time Hiro doubts himself. Luckily Ando is there to support his friend by giving him an out. Ando explains that you can’t start at the end, it’s a “heroic journey.” “Otherwise they can’t make a movie about it later.” Hiro is still upset he didn’t help the people, but Ando says that when he has more power maybe he could come back and fix things. “Like a do over? I like that.” Ando has done his job as faithful sidekick.
Mohinder and Eden: Eden? As in the Garden of Eden? The beginning. I doubt she’s Sylar, but he’s “Project 0” and the first of the super humans. So it is possible, or it’s possible that Sylar can morph. We don’t know, and at this point anyone could be Sylar. If Eden didn’t turn out to be working with Mr. Bennett I’d be surprised. Suresh finally gets ready to leave and takes off. Before he leaves Eden tells him, “You’re not done here…I’ll see you later.”
Isaac and Eden: The episode ends with Eden showing up at Isaac’s door.
Now, I’ve always been pretty confident that Niki’s alter ego actually did kill the people in the desert. I mean, how did she know where they were? As the episode caused us to question our beliefs about the characters, the one who held little surprise for me was Niki. D.L. on the other hand has just become far more interesting. He genuinely seems to be a decent guy. After his fight with Niki he grabbed Micah and left, but it didn’t seem like a kidnapping. More like he wants to protect his son. We’re so early in the show, but I’m beginning to think we haven’t met the people who are responsible for the nuclear explosion in NYC.
So what did you think? Did this episode provide proof of Mr. Bennet’s evilness or his goodness? Will Hiro be carrying around a cheap sword in next week’s episode? Who is Sylar? Is Niki going to recover? Will she be able to use her schizo powers to fight crime, or continue committing them?
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