Heroes Chapter 5: Some Things Never Change While Others Change Forever
By now we know that Heroes is great at delivering answers and even better at leaving us with more questions so why should this episode be any different? Hopefully Peter will figure out who he is soon, Molly will come out of her crazy coma, and Sylar won’t regain his powers and steal Maya and Alejandro’s brains. And what about Hiro? We don’t know what he has been up to with Kensei. How was he doing since he decided to stay and help make history right? I’m sure we’ll be given just enough information to be slightly satisfied but not nearly enough to quench our curious thirst.
We began in New York where we left off last episode. Molly was still out cold and now she was burning up with a fever. Mohinder and Parkman got into it because Matt had Molly go looking for his supposedly evil father. Go to Philadelphia and get your father already Parkman!! I was totally on Mohinder’s side. Molly faced her worst nightmare for him and now he needed to return the favor. Parkman decided to go talk to Angela Petrelli to get more information on his dad. I think it was just a little too overwhelming for him to think about facing his father just yet.
After Parkman met with Angela and got no new information, Nathan sporting a nice five o’clock shadow insisted that he go with him. After balking for a moment he agreed insinuating that Nathan could just fly them there and save them some time.
Arriving in Philadelphia (whether by plane or Nathan we do not know) they stood in front of apartment number 9. I imagine that this must have been hard for Parkman. He had to see his dad face to face for the first time since he was 13 and under undesirable circumstance. It was just a little too much for Parkman so Nathan took the liberty and knocked on the door. Inside was Parkman’s dad who was an Archie Bunker of an old man. He didn’t really seem evil in the least but rather confused and was concerned about a marked with the helix picture that was left for him. Well then, if he wasn’t so bad then who the heck got into Molly’s head??
As they pressed Parkman’s dad for answers about the group picture he divulged little new information saying they found each other year’s ago, that somehow they were connected and that they could save the world. Something wasn’t adding up to me. Now Molly may be a young girl but her gift was unique in that she could find people and she found Matt’s dad in that apartment and called him the “Nightmare Man”. What kind of smoke screen was this guy blowing? Matt slapped cuffs on his dad out of anger and then Nathan told him to read his dad’s mind but he couldn’t. His dad blocked his mind reading abilities and then confessed that he too could read minds. Hmmmmm. I don’t know if I believe him totally. The gift doesn’t usually pass on like that. Look at Nathan and Peter (although we don’t really know Angela Petrelli’s gift) and D.L., Niki, and Micah. D.L. could walk through walls and Niki had superhuman strength yet their son Micah had technopathy.
So his dad confessed that he used his mind reading power for bad because he was weak and used people. He then said that he started at reading minds but then it became more and had “stuff” to show Matt. No Matt!!! Don’t go in there!!! So Parkman blinded by the loss of his daddy’s love followed him into the room and the door locked with Nathan stuck outside. Somehow Matt was transported to a prison cell and as Nathan opened the door to help Matt he found himself on the infamous rooftop with a view of New York City totally obliterated by an atomic bomb. What did Parkman’s dad do? Does he altar people’s reality? Well, we didn’t have to wonder for long when Parkman’s dad said “pleasant dreams” to them and scampered out of the apartment like a dirty old man or an evil leprechaun. Apparently he could put people into their own personal nightmares. That is an awful creepy gift. I wonder if he could put them in good dreams but used it for bad? Well, Matt was going to have buck up, learn more of his power and figure out how to get out of the mess his dad left him and Nathan in!
Then as Parkman argued with the prison guard in his dream Nathan who was now on the rooftop had to face his image with a burned disfigured face. The exact same image he kept seeing since the explosion in space. Back in the prison cell Parkman faced his ex-wife and the baby he left. She claimed he knew the baby was his and left anyway, just like his father left him and just like he was going to leave Molly. Then I had to give props to the film editing and directing. As Parkman beat up on the prison guard to get free and Nathan beat up his image of his disfigured self we see that they were really fighting each other in real life. Parkman was the one who realized they were wailing on each other and pulled them both out of the nightmares. Somehow Parkman’s dad merged their dreams together and Parkman didn’t quite know how he stopped the nightmare. Poor Parkman. He knew it was a con, he knew he couldn’t trust him but he really wanted to. I’m sure that was terribly disappointing to see that nothing had changed. Scrambling to locate Parkman’s dad they found a picture of Bob (Mohinder’s boss) from the group photo with the red helix on it so they knew that Parkman’s dad was headed that way.
Meanwhile back in New York Mohinder was so worried about Molly he called Bennet who was now in the Ukraine and of course lied about it. Mohinder told him that he was taking her to “The Company” for help. Bennet didn’t like that and told him to not forget whose side he was on. Mohinder was on Molly’s side so there Daddy Bennet!!
Later Molly was comfortably resting at “The Company” and Bob gave Mohinder another field assignment and a taser to bring a girl in. As Mohinder argued about having to taser someone Niki, or rather Jessica Sanders burst through the door, threw Mohinder against the wall and grabbed Bob in a chokehold. Wait a minute!! Bob told Niki that if she came in and he cured her she would have to do something for him. Well I guess Jessica didn’t like that! She didn’t want to get terminated. Mohinder tasered her and saved Bob’s life.
As Niki came out of her tasered state she was bolted into her bed and amiably chatted with Bob who she had tried to choke just a few moments earlier. Obviously Bob and Jessica were not friends but Niki and him were quite chummy! Mohinder tried to release her when Bob left but she told him that she had come on her own, had given up her son to be there and that she was sick. “The Company” was the only place that could help her.
Across the ocean on another continent Peter had himself a new honey in sister Caitlyn. She encouraged him to dig into his past because she knew he was good. Romance was definitely in the air. As they frolicked and played Kristen Bell made her first appearance as part of the cast of Heroes! Go Veronica Mars!!! She was snooping around the crate Peter was chained in and told the dock guys that she worked for a company and that Peter was dangerous. Of course they wondered that if he was so dangerous why did they send a little girl like her. Oh if they only knew!! She showed her voltage power to us as she exited the dock. That meant Peter had been around her since he absorbed that power and had used it! How is she connected to Peter’s past? More questions, more questions.
Back at the pub Peter was alerted that there was an American girl looking for a shipping container and Peter so he went to stay at Caitlyn’s flat. Caitlyn’s brother stayed behind to take care of the “little” girl and told him not to tell Caitlyn or she would worry. Peter and Caitlyn then crashed at her flat and he noticed she was a painter. Obviously with a lot on his mind Peter admitted he wanted to find out who he really was! He told Caitlyn that nothing in the box would change anything. You’re crazy Peter! Whatever! You don’t say that?? You are a superhuman man full of untapped power. Of course figuring out who you are will change everything!
Opening the box we saw he had a passport and an open plane ticket from New York to Montreal. Interesting. What is in Montreal? There was also American money and a picture of him and Nathan whom he didn’t recognize. Nathan then glanced again at the blank canvas Caitlyn had set up for her to paint on and began to see the future. I love how they showed the fragments he saw and then he got into the precog zone and began to paint.
As Peter painted the American girl showed up at the pub looking for him. Caitlyn’s brother told her he had never seen Peter before. Liar! She knew he was lying so she locked the door with her power and then blasted the brother with voltage frying him to a crisp. She then called to check in with the company she worked for and said she had to use persuasion to find Peter, that she had killed the brother. Uh oh. Busted!! She was ordered home immediately so she pouted and said “sorry daddy” and that “it won’t happen again”. Oh wow, hopefully her dad isn’t Daddy Bennet!! Maybe it was Bob who runs “The Company”. Or does Bob run “The Company”? So many questions!
Then Peter finished his painting and came out of his precog trance. He painted two people (maybe him and Caitlyn), a church building and street names in french. Caitlyn was the smart one and suggested that maybe it was Montreal. Then Caitlyn got a phone call to come down to the pub where she discovered her dead brother. Peter comforted her, told her it was all because of him and now they were headed to Montreal.
A half a world away in New Orleans, Monica was questioned by police about the robbery at Burger Bonanza but wouldn’t snitch because she was too afraid. Monica’s friend Camille (whom I find unnecessary to the whole plot unless later she has some super power) wanted to know more about her karate kick and how she did it. It’s the same old same old from Monica. Nothing made sense, she saw it on TV, and her body did things before her brain knew what was happening. They were really driving home the point that Monica knew she was destined for greatness. I’m sure that will come in to play later on in the season.
After her shift Monica returned home to find Micah playing the piano. It was nice to hear him play because they hadn’t had a musician in the home since Monica’s mom had died. Oh totally more information to be had there. Who was Monica’s mom? How did she die and was she really dead? Monica plopped down by Micah and shared she missed her mom. Well, he missed his mom too. As he played she joined him. Now she was playing the piano like a regular prodigy. She watched Micah and learned. So it isn’t totally connected to the TV. She can watch anything and learn!
Later Monica made a bunch of tomato roses and hid them as Micah came in the room to tell her something. He confessed about his power, showed her how he did it, told her about D.L.’s power and then showed her an Isaac Mendez 9th Wonders comic book featuring St. Joan. St. Joan was a copycat. She could mimic anything and Micah thought that she was similar to Monica. Ha!! I bet St. Joan IS Monica.
Micah being the ever adventurous kid took Monica out to test her copycat powers so Monica watched some neighborhood girls do Double Dutch and jumped on in and rocked the ropes like she had been jumping her whole life. Then later she practiced in front of the TV doing more karate kicks. She knew she should do something great but her new power wasn’t quite what she expected. Then there was a knock at the door. It was Mohinder! He told her he knew she had a lot of questions about what was happening to her and he had some answers for her! Just what she was looking for…answers.
Finally, back in Japan Ando took the last couple of scrolls that Hiro left for him to a specialist to try to read them because they were damaged. We found out that they were at the final battle of White Beard. Yaeko insisted she fight with her love Kensei. As they gazed out at the camp it was a huge army to fight. How were they going to defeat all of those men? Then it ended. The rest of the text was too damaged to read. Would dear sweet Yaeko be killed in the fight? Would Hiro teleport them all out of there or just Yaeko? How would they repeat history and defeat White Beard?
Maybe Chapter 6 will give us some much needed answers but more than likely it will give us a lot more questions and a few answers leading to more questions. Unfortunately for Parkman nothing had changed with his dad proving some of his worst fears and Caitlyn lost her brother forever, caught in the middle of the villainous search for amnesic Peter Petrelli. Then Ando lost the final passage to Hiro’s written history by the simple erosion of the passage of time. Would any of these heroes find gain anytime soon? I’d like to think they will all be turning a corner in the very near future in their search for their identities and how they are all connected. Who stripped Sylar of his powers? Who shipped Peter to Ireland? Who is the new “bad” heroes father and what is Bennet doing in the Ukraine with “The Haitian”? Whatever the answers may be, they will more than likely lead to only more thought provoking questions lurking just around the corner.
© Copyright 2007 Blindigo Magazine | Article written by Niki Tschirgi
