Commentary: Heroes 3x22 - Turn and Face the Strange

[brighteyedjill]

Previously, on Heroes. Daphne is dead, Hiro and Ando become mommies, and the Petrellis prepare to reunite! Also, Syko (that's Sylar/Danko) is born.

And now! “Turn and Face the Strange.” Bowie, baby! Apparently. Is it weird that I'd never heard that song? Cuz I never ever have.

In Building 26, HRG is examining Sylar’s body. At least he explains how Sylar got out of the Primatech fire: the glass in his head melted, allowing him to heal. Thanks for clearing that up, retcon machine! No, it's actually not a bad explanation. I'm okay with it.

Danko gloats over HRG’s long hunt of Sylar, and HRG tries some false humility. It goes something like this: "Oooo, Danko, you're really badass, killing the big bad Sylar all by yourself. Except, like, I totally don't believe you, and as soon as I figure out exactly how much this is NOT Sylar, you're really gonna be sorry!"

Hiro and Ando have stolen/bought a car. With what money, you ask? Why, the same money the used to fly to India and back! Also, they both have drivers licenses. They are taking baby Matt somewhere… to the east coast. It's easy to find anyone you need on the east coast, if you just drive aimlessly. Baby Matt is pissed, and becomes baby touch-and-stop.

Mohinder has arranged passage to India for him and his boyfriend. It's time for a seagoing pirate adventure, everyone! Oh, I forgot we can't joke about pirates anymore. Sorry. But Matt still wants revenge, and so refuses to go with Mo. They hug, and Matt prepares to go ruin Danko's life.

Sandra tells off HRG, and poor Noah confesses his confusion about Sylar.
Sandra: WTF? Sylar? Helloooo? Family falling apart here?
HRG: But... But... Sylar! They say he's dead!
Sandra: If you cared this much about your daughter, we wouldn't be in this mess.
HRG: Oh right... I forget we had a kid.
Sandra: We have two kids.
HRG: We do?
Writers: Oh yeah! Let's try to use that this episode!

Danko is very eager to meet Mrs. HRG. They shake hands. This will be important later.

Sandra is staying at the Regency. Apparently Mr. Muggles is babysitting Lyle? This will also be important later.

In the men's room, Danko!Sylar taunts Danko. It's a really nice one-shot with both Dankos, and I personally think Zelko was doing a great job as Sylar. And of course, it was Sylar, not actual Danko, who was taunting Sandra. And look at the parallels! Sylar wants to destroy HRG, Matt wants to destroy Danko. I propose that they switch. Sylar/Danko and Matt/Noah, anyone?

Angela says that something happened at Coyote Sands. She proposes a meeting with HRG, but he can’t leave Sylar alone. "Nooooo!" Angela says. "Don't do it! Come to the concentration camp instead! Sylar is a bad idea! Nobody ever listens to me. Why do I even bother having awesome visions if no one listens." *sigh*

The poor landlord informs MoMo that Chandra left some stuff in the basement that the Homeland Security guys didn’t get! Oh good. Poor Chandra will continue to be vaguely useful. On the plus side, this may afford Mohinder more opportunities to talk about "my father's research!"

Because their car is kaput, Hiro and Ando are hitching on the side of the road with baby Matt. But Ando laments, “Who’s going to pick up two Japanese guys and a baby?”

Another Asian guy with an awesome Texas accent. Hooray for subverting racial stereotypes. Take that, Marissa Tancheroen! There are parts for Asians that are not goofy mathematicians, computer technicians, wise old healers from Japan or short but wealthy businessmen.

Matt heads to building 26 to begin his quest for revenge, and is so friendly with Danko that he mind-rapes him by first name.

Meanwhile, ignoring Angela's good advice, HRG pursues some revenge of his own. Before the week's bodies go to the crematorium, Bennet finds “Sylar’s” body and pulls out the spike. He doesn’t come back to life! Ruh roh! HRG sends the spike for DNA testing.

Matt follows Danko to the house of some hot blonde chick. At first, I think it might be Danko's daughter. Then they kiss. So unless Danko is secretly a Petrelli (IT COULD HAPPEN!) they're probably not related.

Sandra comes to HRG's bachelor pad, and turns up her nose as the rumpled bed and general untidiness. HRG assumes she's come to find out about Claire, but actually Claire called about a half hour ago, so that’s not what Sandra needs to know. In fact...

Sandra: I came to bring you these divorce papers.
HRG: Bwah?
Sandra: Seriously, you didn't see this coming? Our 16-year-old daughter saw it coming. You're supposed to be this amazing wordly-wise badass, but you couldn't predict that I would divorce you for the farce you've made of our marriage?
HRG: *wibbes*
Sandra: I've changed the locks. And trained Mr. Muggles to attack you on sight.
HRG: We must try harder! Think of Lyle! Our son!
Sandra: Don't pretend to care about him now. You've been ignoring him for three seasons. Also, I'm actually Sylar.

Damnit! And I was just about to be so proud of a wonderful scene between HRG and Sandra. Because this is the kind of thing that can really happen. Marriages fall apart. Sandra's feelings are probably not too far off from this. But no, just Sylar toying with everyone's emotions again. *le sigh* Go back to toying with Luke, I prefer that!

The wipe transitions were pretty funny this week. Having finally realized that it's the baby who's causing car trouble, Hiro and Ando try to get baby!Matt to be happy. Ando finally makes a face that pleases him, so he holds it.

Back in Danko-land, Emile “Jacob Prodassa” lies his ass off to some Russian mail-order bride. What’s with the double life? I thought he didn’t care about anyone? Married to his work, etc., etc.? But no, he kinda sorta seems to care about her, in his own understated way.

Once Emile is gone, Matt busts in with a gun, preparing to shoot this chick. I don’t believe for a minute that Matt would kill an innocent woman. But oh, she works for an escort service, through which she met "Jacob." Yeah. Because all Russians are sluts.

HRG (clever goose!) notices that Sandra’s signature is not her signature. And that Sylar’s body was not Sylar’s body! Sylar is alive! And living like a king in Patagonia--I mean posing as Sandra!

Matt chats up Danko’s hooker girlfriend. She claims that “Jacob” loves her, and will leave his imaginary wife and kids for her in a few years. "Oh honey," says Matt. "That's what they all say. But men are pigs. They'll do you wrong. I had this boyfriend once, who... Um... Never mind. Let's go get my revenge, shall we?"

Hiro finally gets ahold of Mohinder, who says that Matt’s on a very dark path. He gives Hiro an address of somewhere in DC where Matt may possibly be. Hey, at least it's a better lead than "somewhere on the east coast."

Nathan and Claire are at the same gas station as Hiro and Ando, looking at a map and trying to find Coyote Sands at Angela’s behest. We see them fly away over Hiro and Ando's vehicle, and it's pretty cool.

Meanwhile, Mohinder has conveniently found some files of his father’s on Coyote Sands. Chandra used to work there, doing (presumably) "my father's research." Is this going to turn into a V for Vendetta thing? I hope so!

HRG goes to Sandra's hotel, slams her down on a table, and holds her at gunpoint, because he thinks she's Sylar. Sandra really honestly thinks that Noah’s going to kill her. It's heart-wrenching! No, it seriously is! Ding-dong, Lyle calling. He’s supposed to give Muggles pills, and Sandra knows where they are. That’s the test that shows Noah he’s really been threatening Sandra this whole time. He feels terrible, and you can just see Noah's soul draining out of him as Sandra tells him she believes him, but that it's too late anyway. It's over. BWAH!

Parkman takes Elena (That's the Russian prostitute. At least her name's not Katya.) to Danko’s apartment. Danko’s been shaving again, I guess, since he's holding a towel when he answers the door.

Matt holds everybody at gunpoint. Danko must get really sick of people holding him at gunpoint in his own home. Matt reminds us he used to be a cop, and he was surrounded by “basket cases” like Danko, who fantasized about a normal life.

Parkman makes Danko confess that he’s a lying bastard. And also that he knows he’s not worthy of love as he is. Danko really loves her, so Matt decides that the only way to make Danko understand his pain is to kill this girl.

He puts the blame for his current mental situation on Danko’s influence, but still (as predicted), he can't shoot anyone. Danko, however, totally can. Matt stands there, prepared to let Danko kill him. Danko fires, but luckily Hiro makes it there in time! He wheels Parkman out in a roly desk chair.

Still, when time resumes Danko’s lost the love of his hooker girlfriend. Sad Emile!

Back in Building 26, HRG!Sylar is actually HRG! But Danko is actually Danko, and now HRG has proof that Danko is working with the bad guys. He spills that Sylar has been going on assignment as the leader of Squad 6. So HRG holds him at gunpoint (Emile heaves a large internal sigh) as they wait for the squad to return.

Hiro gives Matt a pep talk about being a real hero. And Matt meets his son! Baby Matt is happy. On Greg Beeman's blog, he says that baby liked Masi Oka, but didn't really think much of Greg Grunburg, so Masi had to stand behind Greg in a couple scenes to get the baby to smile while Greg was holding him. Heh.

HRG decides that shooting the Sylar!agent in the back of the head is the best way to prove to everyone that he's really Sylar. Unfortunately, the guy doens't get up, and HRG thinks he's shot an innocent man. He runs away. Angela wasn’t kidding. HRG should just have left it alone. Now he’s well and truly fucked.

But it was really Sylar. He was just playing dead. Bwuh? Neat trick. He seems a little irritate that Emile let him get shot, but he does mention pumping out a little extra blood "for show." You're a creepy bastard, Sylar.

Peter and Angela have made it to Coyote Sands, where they are shortly joined by Flyboy!Nathan and Claire. This place is clearly a concentration camp. Seriously. V for Vendetta.

Claire and Peter are inappropriate right away. Peter is petulant about Nathan being there.

Angela commands her offspring to do manual labor. Unfortunately, no shirts are removed. I chalk this up to shooting this scene in freezing-cold weather. if they'd shot it in the summer, we would have been treated to shirtless Nathan and Peter digging. And that would have been hot.

Mohinder voices over about Icarus. And stuff. I wasn't really listening.

Nathan digs up a skull with a bullet hole. Uh-oh. Looks like we found Angela's sister! But it looks like there was a genocide going on, because there are apparently lots of bodies. HRG joins the digging party. Claire seems to have mixed feelings about this. Nathan and Peter are going to keep digging until next week, I guess. Cuz there's a lot to uncover, "Here, where our story really begins!!!!!!!!!" Yeah, show. Keep feeding us that line. We never tire of it.

Okay, I liked the HRG and Sandra scenes a lot. I wasn't so into the Matt-getting-revenge storyline, but I do like that Matt now has a reason to live again, and can go back to being a father. Perhaps now he will remember he already has an adopted daughter? Also, more manual Petrelli labor next week, plz.

Comments

[shireheart.livejournal.com]

Lol. This cracked me up.

"Angela commands her offspring to do manual labor."

:P

Yeah when Angela bossed her boys around I was like "Can you believe this bitch, she gets to sit back put her feet up pop a bottle of bubbly and watch bay watch...I mean manual labor."

I thought it was an alright episode though. I love Sylar's new power, he's obviously enjoying himself. There are a lot more kink possibilities now. ;)

[brighteyed-jill.livejournal.com]

Yes! Angela is the queen bee. She gets to drink champagne while watching her commands be carried out. She may even import some oysters.

And yeah, Sylar-as-someone-else fic used to be limited to the Five Years Gone verse... But no more! Now Sylar can be anyone. Mwah ha ha! And also, uh-oh.