WRITER: Chuck Kim DIRECTOR: Adam Zane
CAST: Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Jack Coleman (Mr Bennet), Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman), Ali Larter (Niki/Jessica Sanders), Santiago Cabrera (Isaac Mendez), Eric Roberts (Thompson), Missy Peregrym (Candice Wilmer), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli), Leonard Betts (D.L Hawkins), Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli), James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Malcolm McDowell (Mr Linderman), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah Sanders), Matthew John Armstrong (Ted Sprague) & Ian Gomez (Curator)
Sylar grapples with Peter, Mr Linderman outlines his plans for Nathan's campaign, Mr Bennett masterminds an escape with Matt and Isaac faces his destiny...The final five chapters of Heroes' incredible first season begin with .07% and it continues to amaze me how the show refuses to rest on its laurels. Heroes is perfect entertainment and now the mysterious Mr Linderman has been unmasked, in the note-perfect guise of Malcolm McDowell, the overall storyline seems to be building towards its explosive climax. Literally.
As usual, the storyline focuses on a handful of characters. The long-awaited Sylar versus Peter fight has a tragic end, Mr Linderman's dastardly plot tempts an ambitious Nathan and Mr Bennet (the fantastic Jack Coleman) helps Matt and Ted escape from the Company's clutches. Mr Bennet remains a firm favourite with me, mainly because his character doesn't have any superpowers to fall back on and is the most multi-layered and human character on the show.
Other heroes are less prominent, but have some nice scenes to chew on. Niki/Jessica (Ali Larter) has a sassy scene with Mr Linderman, most interesting for Linderman's keen interest in Micah's power of technopathy (controlling machines). Could this be tied to the nuclear bomb?
Hiro (Masi Oka) is absent until the final scene, which is another of Heroes' patented cliffhangers that leave you aching for the next episode. A marathon run of this show would surely give you heart palpitations!
.07% is essentially a reconfiguring episode that ties up some loose ends from Parasite, but is mainly concerned with preparing audiences for the final stretch. It's often difficult to review individual episodes of serialized shows, as each one is dependent on previous instalments and sometimes only make sense in hindsight, but .07% certainly does a great job of realigning certain allegiances and making you hungry for more.
I'm sure we're in for a brilliant final run of episodes and .07% seems to indicate this is true. The Sylar/Peter fight has a great climax, Isaac's plot finally has resolution and there are some intriguing moments with Nathan's mother Angela, who appears to have been involved before this generation of heroes (along with Claude and Linderman, perhaps?) Who knows... but it's going to be great fun finding out!
