Heroes

[sinanju]

So we're left with a seven week cliffhanger. Oh how I hate the way networks screw around with their schedules these days.



Once again we learn that native intelligence and education are no match for a fine appreciation of the tropes of countless Hollywood horror films. Perhaps Bollywood doesn't make films like that, so Mohinder didn't grow up knowing the basic rules for surviving an encounter with an unstoppable killer.

What are those rules? you ask. Let's review, shall we?

1. Having successfully identified the secret killer, you do not reveal your knowledge of his identity until after you have successfully neutralized him. Mohinder had managed to poison Sylar with the chai tea, but really--he should have waited for Sylar to collapse instead of gloating. It turned out okay, but people tease wild animals all the time and they often--but far from always--get away with it. It's still stupid.
2. Having successfully neutralized the unstoppable killer, you KILL HIM. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Remove his head with a knife from the kitchen, if you have to. A basic rule for dealing with unstoppable killers of any flavor, gleaned from Highlander: take his head, then he's dead. It works on humans, werewolves, vampires, immortals--unless you're dealing with an intangible being or a Hydra, it pretty much works on everyone (Well, except Demise*).
3. If you feel yourself tempted to simply restrain the unstoppable killer in order to taunt him, question him, or otherwise interact with him, remember Rule 2. This is especially true if your reason for keeping him alive is to make him confess to being the unstoppable killer you know he is**, to sample his DNA***, or to study his cerebrospinal fluid****.
   
4. If you are nonetheless tempted to violate rule 2, remember that you're dealing with an unstoppable killer. The thing about them is that they tend to be unstoppable, and they kill. A lot. They'll kill you if they have a good reason. Or any reason. Or no reason.

On the other hand, I guess this means we're definitely done with those overwrought voice-overs by Mohinder at the beginning and end of each episode (though they'd dispensed with them earlier). Mohinder was an idiot in this episode; and he got what he deserved. (And really, wouldn't it have been very cool if--after all this build-up, Sylar got taken down by a normal human with some sedatives and a sharp knife? At the very least it would have been a helpful reminder that just 'cause you've got superpowers it doesn't mean ordinary people are no threat.)

I'm somewhat disappointed in Mr. Bennett as well, though not nearly as much. But really--he went to all the trouble of getting shot and having his memory erased to give himself plausible deniability, but then he tells his wife everything. She tells him. Now the damning knowledge is BACK IN HIS HEAD. And in his wife's head, as well. Plus, they KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT and I'm pretty sure that an organization as large and ruthless as the one he works for can probably overcome the "running tap water" gag if they're bugging you. Which, you know, they probably are. (And that's even before you bring in the shapeshifting secret agent to entrap you.)

How's about you write yourself a note and put it where you'll stumble across it after you get out of the hospital and go home. Yeah, that's a bit of a risk, but not as much. Then, having read a note to yourself in your own handwriting giving you the minimal amount of info you need to accept the necessity of letting Claire go, you destroy the note and you DON'T TELL YOUR WIFE.

On the positive side, Hiro has his mojo back. Nathan turns out to be not quite as self-involved as he appeared to be. Jessica isn't the only one who can sneak out occasionally and screw with her alternate identity's plans. And the Peter Petrelli/Sylar comic book style super-slugfest is GO!

*A regenerating supervillain from the Wild Cards novels. He was decapitated--but he was growing a tiny new bud of a head from the stump of his neck during his autopsy, so they decided to abort the investigation and go straight to cremation.
** That's just stupid. You know who he is. He knows who he is. This is just an exercise is ego-boo, and you know what? You've already defeated him. Just kill him and chuckle to yourself occasionally over it for the rest of your life.
*** You can take DNA swabs from his dead, deceased, murdered corpse as easily as from his alive, supposedly helpless living body.
**** There will be plenty of cerebrospinal fluid to study AFTER YOU CUT HIS HEAD OFF!

Comments

[fikgirl.livejournal.com]

The heroine in my current novel (as yet unwritten and only mapped out), employs the same philosophy about killing vampires: "Stake through the heart and cut off the head. Works for everything. Vampires included."

Of course, I should really learn to heed the spoiler warnings. The spoiler whore in me is a spoiler!crack!junkie though.

[laurel]

Wow, I had pretty much the same thoughts (and made some of the same comments) during the episode.

I really couldn't believe Horn Rimmed Glasses guy would go through all that he did and have told his wife. I was thinking at that point that maybe the wife was a shapeshifter or something because it just made no sense (maybe Eric Roberts and/or someone who worked for him found the note and went with it). So I wasn't surprised later on and had been expecting that for a while.