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jaune_chatEverything happened. And yet nothing changed. Whee?
This week, we have the Last Temptation of Noah Bennet. While managing to not advance the plot in any way, we learn all about a partner we never knew and Jack Coleman does some damn fine acting and brings a sixth dimension to his character (whereas some of the characters are sadly stuck having only or two dimensions). Noah Bennet went well past three-dimensional in the first season, because he’s just that cool.
Small point, wasn’t it Company policy to have “one of us, one of them?” So why was Lauren practically hanging onto Noah’s arm all the time? Yes, I’d expect the agents to have some interaction, but why is Lauren being so damn clingy? And pushy? Strangely enough Lauren, it’s possibly for a man and a woman to enjoy each other’s company WITHOUT sex getting into it! You damn well know Noah’s married, so why the huge push to get him into your hotel room? Back the fuck off!
While intellectually I understand that Lauren wants some happiness without having to lie to someone about what she does, her initial embarrassment and joking about Haitianing Noah (that’s an awesome verb, BTW) gives way to all but shoving a motel key in Noah’s hand. Way to be subtle there, girl. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that Noah not only shut her down, but gave her a solid explanation that she couldn’t attempt to bypass. And from all this we learn… Noah Bennet is a good family man, I suppose. I do hope he remembers about Lyle at some point. That’d be awesome.
Ok, admit it. When you saw Santiago Cabrera’s name in the credits, you squealed like a schoolgirl. It’s ok, I did too. Damn, did that man get prettier since the last time I saw him? Seriously, I saw him with his wrappings around his arms and his pretty soft hair and just went “aww!” I want my own post-junkie artistic Isaac-bear!
Noah’s appeal to Isaac to find Sylar’s face so he could save Claire was really wonderfully heartfelt. I loved that in so many ways.
Noah is a drama geek?! That’s awesome on a stick squared and deep fried in bacon grease! Finally, a potential new job for Noah when he no longer needs to bag and tag. I would love to see him teaching at some really tough high school, ala Dangerous Minds. No one would dare fuck with him. “Kid, you can’t scare me with your death threats and gang affiliations. I used to capture super-powered serial killers as a hobby. Now turn to scene one of Midsummer’s Night Dream and start reading the prologue. With feeling.”
When Hiro was taking to the Cowboy Kid and mentioned his true love Charlie, I cringed and prepared for an explosion. I know I’m stereotyping here, but considering what happened last episode with Jeremy, I was terrified the kid was going to assume Hiro was in a homosexual relationship and go get his dad to beat him up or something. Scarier shit has happened on this show.
Luckily, such disasters don’t happen, and we get some clean, old-fashioned Western fun as we learn about White Hats/Black Hats. Yes Sylar, we’re labeling you again. Hope you don’t mind!
Hmm, while I appreciate Sylar trying to get a solid handle on Charlie’s ability by quizzing her, could he be just a few dozen decibels more creepy by talking about her aneurysm? What was Charlie supposed to think? How the hell could he have known about that in a normal way? Were I her, I’d quickly take the rest of the day off and call the police about a crazy stalker.
(Sylar Field Edition, hee! 40% more rugged than the regular Sylar, waterproof to 30 feet, comes in a shatterproof case with a stylish black band!)
Hiro gets cleverer with the dolly in trying to send Sylar on a cross-country bus trip so he can save Charlie. All the amusements of shoving him into a cargo area aside, why in the world did Hiro think Sylar was going to stay there? With his powers, all it would take is just a moment’s thought to free himself. Which he does.
Ok, the Western standoff in the alley was funny. Sylar doesn’t like it when his prey moves. Zach and Masi must have had a lot of fun doing this scene!
Hmm, Hiro makes a deal with the devil, trading Sylar’s future for Charlie’s. There was something fantastically tense and creepy about Sylar messing around in Charlie’s brain (“I prefer a more… invasive method.” Hee!) while Hiro tries to calm her.
If I were Sylar, I would have demanded a lot more detail from Hiro for sparing Charlie. Like… who do I kill? What powers do I gain? Who, precisely, bands together to stop me? Who, exactly, kills me, and how? If Hiro had mentioned that Sylar’s path led him to kill his own mother, I wonder if that might have stopped Sylar in his tracks? Sylar seemed to really get the short end of the stick in this deal, and I was fairly surprised when he just seemed to accept that and walk away.
Ya know, I think Charlie should have been shilling waffles instead of pancakes in this episode, because she does a lot of waffling. We go from her wanting to be with Hiro, to her berating him for the manner of her saving, to wanting to be with him again. Sigh.
Don’t get me wrong, I sort of like her ambiguous response. It’s realistic that someone who’s already accepted dying actually being angry at having to redefine their entire worldview again. And yes, Hiro did not try to stop Sylar from killing anyone else, apparently, and that’s a perfectly logical reason to be mad. But then finding the genuine gratitude again? Eh… I could see how she’d come around, and be able to express all of these things, it just happened in too short a time frame for it to work for me. If they’d been able to sit down and talk through this over the course of several hours, or had Charlie think about it for a few days, I would have bought the story better.
I was seriously worried Hiro was going to fuck up this past trip even more than he did. (And he did, no lie.) Luckily between a few hints from Samuel and some actual thought on Hiro’s point (Forethought! Holy crap, something rarely seen on this show!), Hiro manages to avoid talking about his sword as he sends his past selves on their paths. I think he avoided immediate horrible repercussions, but I still think there’s going to be very bad consequences down the line.
Samuel… you’re starting to both bore me and creep me the fuck out at the same time. We’re eight episodes in, I’d like to get a slightly more solid explanation as to why you’re collecting people, other than just your stated purpose of giving them a home. Because it’s clear you hold some power over almost everyone at your carnival.
I’d also like to know what other powers you’re capable of using and/or who else is using powers on your behalf, because you seem to be able to not only teleport, but pull other fancy stuff whenever you feel like it. Yeah, I know Arnold the dying man was taking you back through time, but still, you’ve managed a whole lot of crazy shit at random times, and it’s kind of irritating.
I’m wondering if Lydia is subtly angling for Samuel’s downfall, because she keeps giving him so many options that I think eventually he’s going to make a wrong choice. And that choice is going to make the other carnies tear him apart. I think (and hope) she’s giving him just enough rope to hang himself high.
Mentioning about all the other butterflies Hiro has to keep from trampling on might have been fairly useful, I’ll give you that Samuel, but you’re still a creepy, manipulative bastard. Marooning Charlie in time so you can force Hiro to use his last dying days to fix your mistakes? That’s a shitty thing to do. At least Peter did that to Caitlin out of ignorance and incompetence, rather than on purpose. And having the other carnies close in around Hiro like a pack of zombies? Freaky, creepy, not conductive to a healthy working relationship, and just flat-out fucking weird.
Oh my God, you killed Mohinder! You bastard!
This week, we have the Last Temptation of Noah Bennet. While managing to not advance the plot in any way, we learn all about a partner we never knew and Jack Coleman does some damn fine acting and brings a sixth dimension to his character (whereas some of the characters are sadly stuck having only or two dimensions). Noah Bennet went well past three-dimensional in the first season, because he’s just that cool.
Small point, wasn’t it Company policy to have “one of us, one of them?” So why was Lauren practically hanging onto Noah’s arm all the time? Yes, I’d expect the agents to have some interaction, but why is Lauren being so damn clingy? And pushy? Strangely enough Lauren, it’s possibly for a man and a woman to enjoy each other’s company WITHOUT sex getting into it! You damn well know Noah’s married, so why the huge push to get him into your hotel room? Back the fuck off!
While intellectually I understand that Lauren wants some happiness without having to lie to someone about what she does, her initial embarrassment and joking about Haitianing Noah (that’s an awesome verb, BTW) gives way to all but shoving a motel key in Noah’s hand. Way to be subtle there, girl. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that Noah not only shut her down, but gave her a solid explanation that she couldn’t attempt to bypass. And from all this we learn… Noah Bennet is a good family man, I suppose. I do hope he remembers about Lyle at some point. That’d be awesome.
Ok, admit it. When you saw Santiago Cabrera’s name in the credits, you squealed like a schoolgirl. It’s ok, I did too. Damn, did that man get prettier since the last time I saw him? Seriously, I saw him with his wrappings around his arms and his pretty soft hair and just went “aww!” I want my own post-junkie artistic Isaac-bear!
Noah’s appeal to Isaac to find Sylar’s face so he could save Claire was really wonderfully heartfelt. I loved that in so many ways.
Noah is a drama geek?! That’s awesome on a stick squared and deep fried in bacon grease! Finally, a potential new job for Noah when he no longer needs to bag and tag. I would love to see him teaching at some really tough high school, ala Dangerous Minds. No one would dare fuck with him. “Kid, you can’t scare me with your death threats and gang affiliations. I used to capture super-powered serial killers as a hobby. Now turn to scene one of Midsummer’s Night Dream and start reading the prologue. With feeling.”
When Hiro was taking to the Cowboy Kid and mentioned his true love Charlie, I cringed and prepared for an explosion. I know I’m stereotyping here, but considering what happened last episode with Jeremy, I was terrified the kid was going to assume Hiro was in a homosexual relationship and go get his dad to beat him up or something. Scarier shit has happened on this show.
Luckily, such disasters don’t happen, and we get some clean, old-fashioned Western fun as we learn about White Hats/Black Hats. Yes Sylar, we’re labeling you again. Hope you don’t mind!
Hmm, while I appreciate Sylar trying to get a solid handle on Charlie’s ability by quizzing her, could he be just a few dozen decibels more creepy by talking about her aneurysm? What was Charlie supposed to think? How the hell could he have known about that in a normal way? Were I her, I’d quickly take the rest of the day off and call the police about a crazy stalker.
(Sylar Field Edition, hee! 40% more rugged than the regular Sylar, waterproof to 30 feet, comes in a shatterproof case with a stylish black band!)
Hiro gets cleverer with the dolly in trying to send Sylar on a cross-country bus trip so he can save Charlie. All the amusements of shoving him into a cargo area aside, why in the world did Hiro think Sylar was going to stay there? With his powers, all it would take is just a moment’s thought to free himself. Which he does.
Ok, the Western standoff in the alley was funny. Sylar doesn’t like it when his prey moves. Zach and Masi must have had a lot of fun doing this scene!
Hmm, Hiro makes a deal with the devil, trading Sylar’s future for Charlie’s. There was something fantastically tense and creepy about Sylar messing around in Charlie’s brain (“I prefer a more… invasive method.” Hee!) while Hiro tries to calm her.
If I were Sylar, I would have demanded a lot more detail from Hiro for sparing Charlie. Like… who do I kill? What powers do I gain? Who, precisely, bands together to stop me? Who, exactly, kills me, and how? If Hiro had mentioned that Sylar’s path led him to kill his own mother, I wonder if that might have stopped Sylar in his tracks? Sylar seemed to really get the short end of the stick in this deal, and I was fairly surprised when he just seemed to accept that and walk away.
Ya know, I think Charlie should have been shilling waffles instead of pancakes in this episode, because she does a lot of waffling. We go from her wanting to be with Hiro, to her berating him for the manner of her saving, to wanting to be with him again. Sigh.
Don’t get me wrong, I sort of like her ambiguous response. It’s realistic that someone who’s already accepted dying actually being angry at having to redefine their entire worldview again. And yes, Hiro did not try to stop Sylar from killing anyone else, apparently, and that’s a perfectly logical reason to be mad. But then finding the genuine gratitude again? Eh… I could see how she’d come around, and be able to express all of these things, it just happened in too short a time frame for it to work for me. If they’d been able to sit down and talk through this over the course of several hours, or had Charlie think about it for a few days, I would have bought the story better.
I was seriously worried Hiro was going to fuck up this past trip even more than he did. (And he did, no lie.) Luckily between a few hints from Samuel and some actual thought on Hiro’s point (Forethought! Holy crap, something rarely seen on this show!), Hiro manages to avoid talking about his sword as he sends his past selves on their paths. I think he avoided immediate horrible repercussions, but I still think there’s going to be very bad consequences down the line.
Samuel… you’re starting to both bore me and creep me the fuck out at the same time. We’re eight episodes in, I’d like to get a slightly more solid explanation as to why you’re collecting people, other than just your stated purpose of giving them a home. Because it’s clear you hold some power over almost everyone at your carnival.
I’d also like to know what other powers you’re capable of using and/or who else is using powers on your behalf, because you seem to be able to not only teleport, but pull other fancy stuff whenever you feel like it. Yeah, I know Arnold the dying man was taking you back through time, but still, you’ve managed a whole lot of crazy shit at random times, and it’s kind of irritating.
I’m wondering if Lydia is subtly angling for Samuel’s downfall, because she keeps giving him so many options that I think eventually he’s going to make a wrong choice. And that choice is going to make the other carnies tear him apart. I think (and hope) she’s giving him just enough rope to hang himself high.
Mentioning about all the other butterflies Hiro has to keep from trampling on might have been fairly useful, I’ll give you that Samuel, but you’re still a creepy, manipulative bastard. Marooning Charlie in time so you can force Hiro to use his last dying days to fix your mistakes? That’s a shitty thing to do. At least Peter did that to Caitlin out of ignorance and incompetence, rather than on purpose. And having the other carnies close in around Hiro like a pack of zombies? Freaky, creepy, not conductive to a healthy working relationship, and just flat-out fucking weird.
Oh my God, you killed Mohinder! You bastard!
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your commentary makes me happy in my happy place
Date: 2009-11-04 09:25 pm (UTC)*HEADSLAP* OMFG YES. You know, one of the things I hate about my reaction to the show is I never notice the big plot holes that everybody else does. I get all gleeful and OH SHOW ILU and then I read other people's commentary and I'm like DAMN YOU AND YOUR LOGIC BOMB.
But in this case it didn't ruin anything so I'm grateful to you for bringing it up!!
I can’t tell you how pleased I am that Noah not only shut her down, but gave her a solid explanation that she couldn’t attempt to bypass.
THIS. If Noah had even been tempted for more than a moment I would have been so disappointed. It's my personal canon that he went home to Sandra and told her all about it. One thing he doesn't have to lie about.
(Sylar Field Edition, hee! 40% more rugged than the regular Sylar, waterproof to 30 feet, comes in a shatterproof case with a stylish black band!)
Thank you, I was hoping someone would go with that. Also, waterproof would be a cool superpower. I mean, Alex can breathe down there, but he still gets wet.
At least Peter did that to Caitlin...
OMG. Your next fic assignment is: Write a conversation between Charlie and Caitlin at the diner/Irish pub they set up outside of time. ^_^
Re: your commentary makes me happy in my happy place
Date: 2009-11-05 02:16 am (UTC)Despite their marriage being based on lies, Noah and Sandra are still an awesome married couple. I'd love to see her as basically the tough "cop's wife/partner" if they can ever get past their current trust issues.
Thank you, I was hoping someone would go with that. Also, waterproof would be a cool superpower. I mean, Alex can breathe down there, but he still gets wet.
My only worry there would be: wouldn't it be a bitch to stay clean? I mean, if you could never take a shower or bath? That could get kinda gross...
OMG. Your next fic assignment is: Write a conversation between Charlie and Caitlin at the diner/Irish pub they set up outside of time. ^_^
Your wish is on demand. :-D
Re: your commentary makes me happy in my happy place
Date: 2009-11-05 02:29 am (UTC)*goes to read. deadline? What deadline?*
no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 10:05 pm (UTC)I... nothing really happened to advance the story in any way, did it? I was actually bored until the last minute - and then I was ZOMG YAY! because they had a real good reason for not giving us Mohinder before now. I like it when they surprise me :D
no subject
Date: 2009-11-05 02:11 am (UTC)Yeah, flashback episodes are hard to do, because technically they can't change anything, so they backstory better be interesting as hell. Hence the show throwing in a completely random HRG storyline in a desperate attempt to distract us. Because everyone loves HRG, right? Right? (I mean, I enjoyed his acting and stuff but...)
MOHINDER! I know, I was yelling very loudly at my TV when he showed up. I missed his pretty, scientifically stupid self like you wouldn't believe.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-06 12:14 am (UTC)I called the Noah plot line good but pointless we didn't really need it plus Claire was grounded the day before Homecoming and she'd punched Jackie so what was she doing at the pep rally.
I did like the drama thing though and also ICON LOVE at the top of the post.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-06 02:31 am (UTC)Oh writers, why can't you read your backstory... though, to be fair, Lauren said there was 37 hours to Homecoming. Claire could have been going to the pep rally, punched Jackie there, and then slipped out the next night. But I wouldn't put it past writer!fail either.
Glee! Glad you like the icon. So appropriate so many times...