Critical Myth

Television has become the medium of today's modern mythology, delivering the exploits of icons and archetypes to the masses. Names like Mulder, Scully, Kirk, Spock, and Buffy have become legend. This blog is a compilation of the reviews written about the tales of our modern day heroes.

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Location: NJ

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Heroes 1.20: "Five Years Gone"

In another nice bit of inventive plotting, the story takes a leap forward, with Hiro and Ando getting a glimpse of a future where Sylar exploded in the middle of New York after killing Claire. Right from the beginning, the writers start providing answers to questions from early in the season. From there, things get even more interesting, as aspects of each surviving character emerge. This is the “Heroes” version of “Days of Future Past”, the classic tale from the heyday of “Uncanny X-Men”.

Matt is the fascist head of Homeland Security, working alongside the Haitian, hunting down “terrorists” like Future Hiro. He reports directly to Nathan, who has assumed the presidency as foretold by Isaac. He’s been trying to find a “solution” to the “superhuman problem”, and it sounds an awful lot like history repeating itself.

Future Hiro is still dedicated to changing the fate of the world, thankfully, though his life has ripped away a lot of the joy and wonder. As it turns out, Peter is still alive and living in Vegas. So is Niki, who works as a stripper under the name Jessica, in a nice throwback to her original entrance, even if it was ultimately unnecessary. Peter has a ton of physical and emotional battle scars, looking oddly like Jason Behr from “Roswell” in the process, and yet he remains an important piece of the puzzle.

In an unexpected turn, Mr. Bennett has become a crucial part of the resistance, helping superhumans escape Homeland Security with Hana’s assistance. Of course, in retrospect, it’s a logical direction for his arc to take. His dedication to Claire, and the study of the superhumans through Primatech, could have led to more than a few personal epiphanies. Claire, gorgeous with dark hair and the experience of five long years in hiding, is still his primary concern.

It doesn’t take long for Matt and Mohinder to pull together Future Hiro’s original plan, and Matt tracks down Mr. Bennett and then Claire, with very little concern for the consequences. Nathan is more than willing to let it happen, despite Mohinder’s attempts to change his mind. And when “Nathan” is finally revealed to be Sylar, happily taking out his competition, it all begins to come together and make sense. This is a great twist, especially since the writers all but established that someone with Claire’s ability could survive exploding like a nuclear bomb, and Sylar never would have taken on Claire’s power!

Peter, Hiro, and Ando make a great commando team, and it would have been nice to see more of that action. On the other hand, the latest match between Peter and Sylar, completely off-screen, promises some serious fireworks as the season draws to a close. The result is a restoration of Hiro’s confidence in himself, and the truth about what Isaac saw in Sylar’s future.

This episode is a nice bookend to Hiro’s adventures in the past in “Six Months Ago”, an episode that revealed a great deal about Sylar and the emergence of the current batch of heroes. One is left to wonder if Sylar’s rise as president in Nathan’s place was planned by Linderman or something Sylar himself did to survive. Whatever the case, Isaac has predicted that Hiro will run Sylar through with his sword, and Peter is still on course to explode. Getting to that point will be half the fun.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

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