Writer: Jeph Loeb
Director: Allan ArkushCast: James Kyson Lee (Ando), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), David Anders (Adam), Kristen Bell (Elle), Ali Larter (Niki), Dania Ramirez (Maya), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah), Dana Davis (Monica), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan), Greg Grunberg (Matt), Masi Oka (Hiro), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Stephen Tobolowsky (Bob), Adair Tishler (Molly), Randall Bentley (Lyle), Ashley Crow (Sandra) & Cristine Rose (Angela)
Hiro, Nathan and Matt try to stop Adam and Peter releasing the Shanti Virus, Sylar introduces Maya to Mohinder, Mr Bennet makes a deal with the Company, and Elle tries to impress her father...Hiro: You are not God.
Adam: Really? I've lived for over 400 years. Who is to say that I'm not going to live 400 more?
Okay. It was unfortunate the writers of Heroes had to condense their season's plan because of the Writers' Guild Of America strike, so the rushed feeling to this premature finale can be forgiven (just about), but this was ultimately still a disappointing conclusion to a haphazard and very messy Volume Two...
Powerless begins with Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) returning home to find Sylar (Zachary Quinto) is back and finally introduces him to Maya (Dania Ramirez) -- who doesn't seem confused that her brother Alejandro has inexplicably abandoned her (actually murdered by Sylar last week...)
Maya pleads with Mohinder to rid her of her death-dealing ability, whereas Sylar wants his own power-guzzling ability restored. Mohinder thinks that Sylar must have been injected with the Shanti Virus by The Company -- who then, presumably, dumped transported Sylar in that remote cabin in Mexico with illusionist Candice for... well, unexplained reasons!
After realizing (yes, finally!) that Sylar is definitely a cold-blooded murderer, Maya's emotional state triggers her power and everyone in the room begins to die. Luckily, Maya can't let herself kill innocent Molly (Adair Tishler), so manages to bring her power under control, even if it allows Sylar to take control of the situation...
At Primatech in Odessa, Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Adam (David Anders) are on a bold mission to "save the world" by destroying the Shanti Virus kept in the bowels of the building, which acts as a cover for The Company. Dimwit Peter still thinks Adam's intentions are honourable, but in fact the dashing Brit actually wants to release the virus and wipe the slate clean on humanity (as God once did with his Great Flood).
Hiro (Masi Oka) arrives to stop Adam and is forced to tackle henchman Peter by freezing time and teleporting around whilst brandishing his trusty sword. He's unable to convince Peter of Adam's true intentions, and is knocked unconscious by a bolt of electricity Peter conducts through his weapon...
At the Bennet residence, Claire (Hayden Panettiere) is still grieving for the apparent death of her father and threatening to expose the Company to the public. This would be very bad news for the Company, and Bob (Stephen Tobolowsky) chastises his daughter Elle (Kristen Bell) for provoking Claire into taking this course of action...
After Monica (Dana Davis) was captured by thugs last week, she's now locked up in a basement being doused with gasoline. Man, these schoolbag thieves take things a little too seriously! Micah (Noah Gray-Cabey) arrives home and tells Niki (Ali Larter) what's been going on, and suggests they mount a rescue mission using their combined powers. Niki reveals her viral infection has inhibited her super-strength, so despite the logical action being to call the poli8ce, they decide to head off anyway -- with Micah using his technology-controlling ability to trace Monica's cellphone...
Now at Isaac Mendez's loft, recently converted into Mohinder's laboratory, Sylar is tested to see which strain of the Shanti Virus he is carrying. As luck would have it, Elle has sneaked into her dad's office and sees Sylar on a surveillance camera the Company installed behind an air vent in Mohinder's lab. Seeing an opportunity to impress her father, Elle heads off to single-handedly recapture the dastardly serial-killer...
Having been locked up in a cell bouncing a ball off the walls (in a nod to The Great Escape), the imprisoned Mr Bennet (Jack Coleman) strikes a deal with the Company and is allowed to return home to his family. He tells his family they can lead a normal life without fear of Company interference, but only if he agrees to leave them permanently and Claire promises to never reveal her abilities to the public...
Back at Mohinder's lab, Molly uses her power to try and trace the missing Alejandro for Maya, but is unable to find him -- meaning he must be dead. Maya is enraged and confronts Sylar, who promptly shoots her dead. With Sylar diagnosed as carrying the same strain of the virus Niki has, Sylar insists that Mohinder use his blood-based cure on guinea pig Maya first...
Matt (Greg Grunberg) and Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) arrive at Primatech to try and stop Peter and Adam, who have reached a huge vault that contains the Shanti Virus. Despite the fact Peter has the ability to phase through solid objects (as evidenced just a few episodes ago), he inexplicably decides to rip the vault apart using his telekinesis, giving Hiro another opportunity to try and reason with him.
With the vault ripped off its hinges, Adam enters to look for the virus, pursued by Hiro, just as Matt arrives and tries to mind-control Peter. For another inexplicable reason, Matt's power doesn't work on Peter, so it's left to brother Nathan to appeal to Peter's better nature.
Inside the vault, Adam finally has the deadly virus in his possession and Hiro is unable to talk his former friend around. Fortunately, Nathan has better luck making Peter see sense and Peter rushes to the vault to stop Adam, just as Adam drops the vial before being teleported away by Hiro. As the vial drops to the floor, about to shatter and contaminate everything, Peter manages to levitate it to safety and obliterates it using a handful of radiation.
A little later, Adam's fate at the hands of Hiro is revealed as something particularly chilling: buried alive in a coffin for all eternity. Who would have thought Hiro could be so callous? Does anyone really deserve a fate worse than death? Wouldn't it have been more merciful to kill Adam by decapitation, or a gunshot to the head? Still, I suppose it means Adam could resurface in the future...
Mohinder resurrects Maya using his blood cure and prepares to do the same for Sylar, but Elle arrives in the nick of time and attacks Sylar with bolts of electricity, forcing him to run away and for her to become unexpectedly revered as a hero...
Niki and Micah manage to locate where Monica is being held captive and, despite not having any super-powers, Niki beats up the fleeing goon and rushes into the burning building to save Monica. Unfortunately, having ensured Monica's safety, Niki is left trapped inside the building just as it explodes, presumably killing her...
With another major catastrophe averted, Nathan decides it's time to go public with the existence of super-powered people, so arranges a press call on Odessa television, where he gives a rallying speech about all the wonders he's witnessed -- with handy clips from the show! But, at the moment he's about to reveal he can fly -- he's shot twice in the chest by an unseen assassin!
As with last year's finale, just as Volume Two: Generations comes to an end we're given a glimpse of Volume Three: Villains... with Sylar lying in an alleyway, injecting himself with Mohinder's blood cure, and managing to make a can of Popeye's favourite move with the power of his mind, before proclaiming "I'm back..."
So there you have it. Powerless was definitely watchable and contained a few cool scenes, but it was riddled with illogical moments, plot oversights, rushed storylines, dumb decisions and an unmistakable feeling that even the writers were glad to see the back of this misguided Volume.
It makes sense to get rid of Niki, whose character has been a struggle for the writers since mid-season 1, but why did they bother to introduce another alter-ego for her (Gina) and never explore it! And won't poor Micah have a complex about fire now that both his parents have died trying to rescue people from burning buildings?!
Nathan's assumed death also seems like a tragic waste, and it didn't carry much weight because his character was so marginalized this year. Adrian Pasdar is one of the few actors on Heroes whose performance can elevate the shaky material, so if he's definitely gone -- it's a big loss. Mind you, now that the show has regenerative Lazarus blood in its mythology, nobody's really dead, are they?
At this stage, I just want to forget Volume Two ever happened. It was mired by bad ideas and creative indirection from the first episode, and never recovered. So many subplots had no overall relevance, or weren't paid off. Whatever happened to Kaitlin? Now that Peter's stopped the Shanti Virus, she can't just magically reappear safe and sound in Ireland -- he's lost her forever in a future parallel universe! D'oh!
Even worse, the "sneak-peak" of Volume Three honestly thinks restoring Sylar's powers is an exciting tease for audiences! As much as I like Sylar, his character has been fully explored and played-out now. It was bad enough he and Peter miraculously survived Volume One's damp squib finale, but having both restored to near-omnipotence is a bankrupt decision.
Overall, season 2 was a convoluted mess that struggled for momentum, made bad choices at nearly every turn, sidelined popular characters (Ando was particularly mistreated), tried to hide its narrative blandness by jumping around in time, and rarely surprised the audience when it came to its once-famous twists and cliffhangers.
If Heroes is to stand a chance of survival now season 1's goodwill has worn off, Volume Two had better serve as a wake-up call to creator Tim Kring and his staff. They need to find focus in their stories, narrative consistency, write characters with real depth, stop making illogical goofs with the superpowers, inhibit the more outrageously powerful characters, ensure that characters/subplots have a defined arc to them before they're introduced, and bring back the sense of unpredictable fun that was missing from this sophomore slip-up...
3 December 2007
NBC, 9/8c pm
