HEROES 2.6 – "The Line"

Writers: Adam Armus & Kay Foster
Director: Jeannot Szwarc

Cast: Dana Davis (Monica), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Masi Oka (Hiro), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Ali Larter (Niki.Jessica), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Dania Ramirez (Maya), Shalim Ortiz (Alejandro), David Anders (Kensei), Nicholas D'Agosto (West), Stephen Tobolowsky (Bob), Dianna Agron (Debbie), Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian), Adair Tishler (Molly), Katie Carr (Caitlin), Elya Baskin (Ivan) & Eriko Tamura (Yaeko)

Mohinder tests Monica, Hiro and Kensei rescue Yaeko's father, Claire gets revenge on a bossy cheerleader, Sylar helps the Herrera's get across the US border, Mr Bennet meets his mentor, and Peter travels to Montreal...

"God delivered Gabriel to us, Alejandro. We should put our faith in him."

-- Maya Herrera (Dania Ramirez)

The Line is aptly named. It's the sixth episode; a quarter of the way through season 2, and many viewers are becoming so desperate for a sense of direction, The Line acts as a handy marker. If nothing's grabbed your interest by episode 6, chances are you're not going to enjoy season 2...

Fortunately, there are enough signs of improvement to make you continue to give Heroes the benefit of the doubt. It's been a deathly slow start, hamstrung by bad creative decisions, but I like to think it's been an intentionally prolonged set-up to better spread out the season. That’s no excuse, but it's an explanation, and lessons will hopefully be learned.

As ever, the episode is fractured into a half-dozen strands. Sylar (Zachary Quinto) helps the Herrera twins get across the US border, by persuading Maya (Dania Ramirez) to use her "death eyes" (do you have a better name?) to kill the border patrol, much to brother Alejendro's shock and disappointment.

Is this the first step in Sylar successfully splitting the twins asunder? It would make dramatic sense for Maya to become perverted by Sylar, with her brother the only cure (literally). We'll have to see, but while the Herrera's plot is adequate, the actors still have an irritating vibe about then, and adding Sylar into their mix is nothing but a temporary fix. Mind you, Sylar's creepy English-speaking admission to Spanish-speaking Alejandro about his murderous intentions, was good fun.

A more frivolous diversion was Claire (Hayden Panettiere), who's finding it difficult to get into the cheerleading squad because of bitchy Debbie (Dianna Agron). It leads to an amusing trick being played on her, where the bottle-swigging bimbo is treated to a surreal attack by flying West (Nick D'Agosto), who picks up and drops Claire from mid-air and chases Debbie. The story is pure filler, but it's sometimes nice to have a light, silly plot to counteract the more dramatic moments...

We're certainly not having much fun with Hiro (Masi Oka), who's still in 17th-Century Japan trying to re-enact childhood legends nobody's particularly interested in, although at least this storyline moved forward regarding the rescue of Yaeko's father and Hiro's relationship with Yaeko (Eriko Tamura) herself, culminating in an unexpected traitorous move from Kensei...

As much as I liked the development this week for Hiro, the main problem with the storyline is that it's so removed from everything else (not only in terms of time and location) that it's like watching a spin-off series! If they could only provide some connection to contemporary events – other than Ando's fascination with what his friend is up to – that would alleviate matters and make you more forgiving. I mean, at the moment Hiro doesn't even know if New York was saved from disaster, does he!

Mr Bennet (Jack Coleman) is in Odessa, Ukraine, to find his Company mentor Ivan (Elya Baskin), who knows the whereabouts of Isaac Mendez's final eight paintings. The Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis) is on hand to threaten Ivan with the loss of cherish family memories, lest he reveal where the Mendez paintings are being kept. It's great to see Mr Bennet returning to a more ruthless presence, as a final act of murder is an cold-blooded kick Coleman's character was in desperate need of.

There are also a few limp stories trudging along. As you'd expect, Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is involved in one, as he's whisked Monica (Dana Davis) to New York from New Orleans, in order to test her "muscle memory" abilities for The Company -- under the orders of Bob (Stephen Tobolowsky). Unfortunately, Bob later asks Mohinder to rid Monica of her powers with a quick injection, but Mohinder refuses.

At the moment, The Company themselves are annoyingly vague. They were the villains last year, or at the very least misguided, but it's difficult to get a grasp on them this year. Bob in particular seems quite reasonable at times, while Ivan pleaded with Mr Bennet about how The Company have changed recently. It's okay to be ambiguous, but at the moment is seems like the writers aren't even sure if the Company are injudicious experts, or dangerous controllers.

In the episode's most intriguing moment, Bob is seen holding a file marked "Adam Monroe", which provides resonance later on in Peter's plot. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) finally leaves that depressing Irish pub, although walking cliché Caitlin (Katie Carr) tags along, with the pair arriving in Montreal, Canada, to find Ricky's murderer – using Peter's plane ticket as their only guidance. Once there, they find the doorway Peter painted last week (marked with the helix symbol, natch) and venture inside... to find a written message from a man called Adam Monroe ("... the world is in danger") Oooh.

The Line ends with Peter accidentally transporting them forward in time (to Times Square, appropriately) where it's 14 June 2008 and New York is an evacuated ghost town. On the plus side, season 2 has finally revealed a disaster that needs preventing. On the down side, it again revolves around a New York tragedy! Seriously? Are the writers so exhausted of ideas they're going to essentially re-use season 1's stakes? After last year's limp finale, I don't even have faith they'll do the storyline justice, and we're not even half-way through the season yet!

Overall, The Line works well enough because there are signs the overall storyline is moving forward – primarily with the Adam Monroe name and the future glimpse of New York. We could still see a reversal in fortunes, if the writers have a surprising plot up their sleeves --but focusing on a city-wide catastrophe for the second year running is an awful decision.

So yes, Heroes still has major problems to sort out, but The Line's final moments give you hope season 2 is about to pick up the pace. As always, the storyline is riddled with irritations (Niki as Mohinder's lab assistant – huh?) and dumb oversights (Monica's taken away without her family's consent, and she was willing to go with stranger Mohinder?), but it was generally more entertaining than most episodes have been so far.

The first step in the right direction, or the first definite sign of Heroes recycling itself?

The line has been drawn...


29 October 2007
NBC, 9/8c pm