WRITER: Joe Pokaski DIRECTOR: John Badham
CAST: Masi Oka (Hiro), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Greg Grunberg (Matt), Clea Duvall (Agent Hanson), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan), Jack Coleman (Mr Bennet), Nora Zehetner (Eden), Ali Larter (Niki/Jessica), Leonard Betts (D.L), Zachary Quinto (Gabriel Gray/Sylar), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Ashley Crow (Sandra), Thomas Dekker (Zack), Tawny Cypress (Simone) & Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian)
Matt interviews Peter following his heroics at the High School, in the hope of finding Sylar. Meanwhile, Isaac contacts Hiro and Jessica is hot on the trail of D.L...The mid-season finale of Heroes arrives with its usual loose flair, in another story that draws the characters closer together while nudging along the myriad of plots.
Fallout continues the climactic events of Homecoming, with Peter's imprisoned after his scuffle with Sylar while protecting Claire. His imprisonment leads to a meeting with Agent Hanson (Clea Duvall; miscast, but trying) and mind-reader Matt. Mr Bennet (Coleman; now a bonafide regular) glides through the story in his usual laconic style, although his capture of Sylar presents him with meatier scenes with the super-powered killer.
There's a feeling throughout this episode of realignment, with Hiro and Ando even debating the grammar of "save the cheerleader, save the world": was it a consequential sentence, or two tasks assigned to the heroes from Future-Hiro back in Collision?
It's not yet clear if saving Claire's rescue had any direct effect with averting global catastrophe, but the truth of the situation was obviously to provide the show with two potential endings. If Heroes was cancelled, you can be sure Claire's safety would have saved the world, but seeing as Heroes is now a huge success for NBC, the adventures will continue for another dozen episodes...
Heroes enjoys its own premise and Fallout again provides plenty of moments and situations designed to appeal to all the geeks in the audience: Matt's mind-reading causing feedback with Peter, Eden's confrontation with Sylar, the silent Haitian's static field and Jessica's strength. The show uses its stream of "geek-outs" to hide the fact the plots are usually quite simplistic -- they just move at such a quick pace you overlook its storytelling faults.
There are signs the whirlwind carousel is beginning to slow down in Joe Pokaski's script, however. In earlier episodes, every individual plot was interesting to some degree (it was just the performances that crippled a few of them), but after eleven episodes it's becoming clearer which stories are wandering aimlessly. The biggest offender at the moment is Niki's alter-ego Jessica chasing husband D.L; a storyline that exists in its own bubble and isn't tied to the main plots. As such, while the show is generally beginning to pull together, Niki's story is becoming an unwanted distraction.
Milo Ventimiglia is improving as Peter Petrelli, becoming a sort of Italian Keanu Reeves, which works better than you'd expect because of the show's comic-book trappings. Greg Grunberg is solid if uninspiring now, while Santiago Cabrera tries his best to wrestle a decent performance as precognitive painter Isaac. Cabrera hasn't been given much of a role by the writers, but it's impossible to know if he's a good actor struggling with weak material, or being given weak material because the writers knows the actor's limitations and can't be recast now.
Fallout doesn't quite provide the stunning halfway climax I was expecting, but there's enough indication the series still has places to go. Fans will get a kick from one of Isaac's paintings (depicting a monstrous fight for Hiro), a particularly enjoyable character sadly dies, and the finale features a cool glimpse at the future that should ensure your loyalty until Heroes returns for Volume One, Part Two...
