Heroes -- 1x05 "Hiros"

[fenchurch]

Oh, how I love this show!

It just feels so good to have something I'm anxious to watch each week and hate to see end when the hour is up! It seems like forever since I've had that feeling... At least since AtS went off the air. And it really, really sucks that I don't get an east coast feed of "Heroes" because it means I can't watch it with a group or go to a chat right after it airs. At least rackham is as hooked on it as I am, so we can hash things out and rewind to double-check stuff...

I am so in love with how the writers are handling everything... how the characters are still slowly entering each others' orbits and sometimes bouncing away again. I've said it before, but the obvious planning and plotting that's gone on is just... neat!

I actually liked Niki this week. I've found her story intriguing before this, but didn't really care for her at all until this week. It's like the actress finally hit her stride with the character or something.

For that matter, I actually liked Nathan this week. Kinda. I still think he's scum, but we got to see glimpses of a somewhat decent guy in there somewhere too... and for the first time (landing in his pajama bottoms), I thought he looked kinda hot (and not just model-pretty). The one big question I have is, how did he pay for his food and the t-shirt? ETA: dolphinchatter and agilebrit both pointed out that he must have had his people pay the diner, and that he left there in a dress shirt, which I completely missed for some reason. :-p

Creepy!Glasses!Guy really loves Claire. I don't know that it will stop him from experimenting on her later (or whatever it is his organization is doing), but he actually loves her as a father. It's like we're getting to see some of the human side of the characters who seemed a bit remote before this.

Policeman Matt is still cute, but I thought it was a little creepy that he was reading his wife's mind without telling her in order to give her the "perfect day." I don't think she's going to be happy when she finds out how he was able to do it. And I had wondered if eventually he was going to have trouble blocking things out, as he got better at reading minds, so it was neat to see the writers had thought of that too.

I think that moment in Isaac's studio may have been the first time that Peter deliberately activated his ability and had it work. Very cool! I wonder if this is an indication that Isaac doesn't have to be high in order to paint the future... now that he knows for sure what's going on. And now we have Peter, Isaac and Hiro all connecting! I do wonder if Ando turns out to have some ability too, or if he's just the normal guy sidekick type.

I guessed D.L.'s ability partway through the episode... when the cops said that he'd pulled a Houdini on them, I turned to Rackham and said "I wonder if he can walk through walls!" I still also wonder if the stuff he's been accused of was actually done by Alter!Niki.

Seven days seems like such a long time... Squee!!!

ETA: Oh! I was just out looking at the official website for the show and in the forums there (which are, for the most part, not worth reading) someone brought up a point I'd completely missed -- or, rather, I remember seeing it and thinking about it, but it didn't really register. Future!Hiro may be doing some more subtle things in order to bring everyone together... he's the reason for the coincidences that are drawing them to each other. It was pointed out that when he traveled to future!NYC, he picked up the comic book which led him to Isaac's studio... where he found the comic book he'd just been reading, only it was unfinished. So, did his future self plant the comic book for him to find so that he'd be able to locate Isaac? I need to go rewatch that scene in the studio and verify that it was the same comic book pages, just unfinished.

Comments

[dolphinchatter.livejournal.com]

The one big question I have is, how did he pay for his food and the t-shirt?

His ride showed up with money and a change of clothes. You saw him leave the diner in a dress shirt.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

D'oh! Thank you! I don't know how I missed that... except that we may have been so busy talking about it that it slipped right by me!

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Nathan borrowed a cell phone and called his people, who paid for his stuff. Which, they didn't actually show us, but I'm assuming.

Man, I love this show...

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you're right... I had expected that to happen, but I think Rackham and I may have been talking too much when Nathan left the diner and missed it completely. I just edited my post to add in some speculation I picked up off the official "Heroes" message boards... yet another thing I need to go back and watch.

[dolphinchatter.livejournal.com]

The one big question I have is, how did he pay for his food and the t-shirt?

His ride showed up with money and a change of clothes. You saw him leave the diner in a dress shirt.

Now... Creepy guy with glasses... I wonder if everything he's doing is because he actually knew about his daughter previously, and that he's studying in his way to find a way to help her? We still don't know who the cheerleader needs to be saved from. I'm betting she needs to be saved from Saylar.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

You know, I hadn't looked at it that way... Hmmm... that would put a different spin on things.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

See, I love all the little plot twists (Nathan taking off like that was really cool), but I still don't really care about anyone. It's still fairly derivative of The X-Files (especially with the scary ex-husband coming back for Micah -- that's more than reminiscent of "Trevor"), but I can live with that. I just wish I could give a damn about any of them, other than for whatever "special power" each has.

I have to say -- the wimpy Peter finding out he's the series' Rogue was more than a little annoying (mostly because I don't like the actor). And I just can't find the guy who was the second Steven Carrington on Dynasty to be a convincingly scary and menacing villain. I just can't.

Yet...I'm still watching.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

And of course waffles!

[ellbogen.livejournal.com]

I freakin love this show. It is a geek show that will manage to hook non-geeks, thereby insuring a run of at least a few seasons. I think that is the key to geek show longevity (X-Files, Buffy, etc.): to hook the non-geek audience but still deliver for the fan world.

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Policeman Matt is still cute, but I thought it was a little creepy that he was reading his wife's mind without telling her in order to give her the "perfect day." I don't think she's going to be happy when she finds out how he was able to do it.

I don't think she's going to be happy, anyway. I think she's convinced she's hitched to a loser and their relationship isn't going to get better. I like that him knowing what she wants and giving it to her doesn't help because she starts thinking "Why is he doing this? Is he cheating on me?"

I do wonder if Ando turns out to have some ability too, or if he's just the normal guy sidekick type.

So far, I'd say that Ando sees Hiro as the sidekick....

I still also wonder if the stuff he's been accused of was actually done by Alter!Niki.

Thing is, while perhaps the possibility to do this stuff is genetic and has been there since birth, the ability is fairly new, thus we're seeing people just learning about it and freaking on it. So, I doubt the older dead bodies are her thing.

[rosiewook.livejournal.com]

So far, I'd say that Ando sees Hiro as the sidekick....

I think Ando is going to stay normal. You need some Everyman perspective in the show. And Ando has hilarious reactions.

So, I doubt the older dead bodies are her thing.
I'm wondering if Niki's ability isn't somehow channeling Sylar? A wild theory, but it just seems so Sylar-esque (for what little we know of him).

[dolphinchatter.livejournal.com]

I don't think she's going to be happy, anyway.

More so now that he is likely going to disappear for another 24 hours, with no explination other then "I passed out and got arrested for having a gun and acting weird. Oh, by the way, I read minds."

Interesting that the character is showing signs of an eating disorder. The actor has joined WeightWatchers, and the writers are planning on writing it into the show.

{fenchurche, you don't mind if we carry on a conversation inside your LJ do you?}

[jerrymcl89.livejournal.com]

My one real hope for "Heroes" is that they are aiming more for the seasonal structure of BtVS, where most of the current mysteries get resolved, rather than the open-ended puzzles of "Lost" or XF, which ultimately go nowhere. I think if they do that, they will be better able to avoid frustrating the audience, as these kinds of shows often do. But so far, so good :)

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm hoping for, as well... and it looks like we may actually get it, since I can't see the whole bomb in NYC issue continuing on past this season. *knocks wood* They seem to have the perfect setup... a really big event/mystery for the season, with some smaller mysteries running through that can be extended to future seasons.

But you're right about "Lost" -- that's what ultimately pushed me away from the show... they seem pretty determined to answer *nothing*.

[mirandaflynn.livejournal.com]

"that Peter deliberately activated his ability and had it work"

This was the first time he activated the *correct* ability. He's a mimic, not a flyer. He could probably teleport if he stood near Hiro.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Yep. I've been wondering if that's why he was able to still move around when Hiro froze time on the subway...

[krrayn.livejournal.com]

I think when Claire puts two and two together and realizes that when daddy said "No one will remember anything," he meant "I'm going to erase Brody's mind," then she'll realize how dangerous her father is.

So Ando is Hiro's friend, then, right?

And D.L. is Niki's ex? and he can walk through walls...

So Niki's ex is not the same person as Mind!Eraser!Guy? I wasn't sure if it was the same person or not.


Waffles!

[krrayn.livejournal.com]

disregard the last, I just read up on the graphic novels on the Heroes website.

Makes you wonder what kind of abilities Micah's going to grow into...

[downunderdeb.livejournal.com]

And I may be incredibly stupid, or missing something because I download, but how come Hiro can speak English to Nathan in the diner, but can't read the English instructions for the hire car? Does it mean that the 'special' people can understand each other regardless? ... sort of an inbuilt babel-fish?

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Well, in the diner he was speaking *very* limited English and using body language to try to get his point across. Plus, learning to speak a language and learning to read it are very different things, especially since his native tongue isn't a romance language so he doesn't even have an alphabet in common.