"What advice could I possibly give you besides 'kiss my ass', Nathan?"-- Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia)
Spoilers. The clear and present danger of the title could refer to the mass exodus of viewers from Heroes, as the once mighty superhero drama that premiered to worldwide acclaim in 2006 has spent the past two years growing ever more illogical, ungainly, derivative and excessive in its increasingly futile quest to bottle lightning twice. Praise be for the decision to split the traditional season into two distinct, self-contained "volumes". "A Clear And Present Danger" is the opening salvo of "Volume IV: Fugitives"; Heroes' third re-launch, depressingly, and quite possibly its last chance to course correct. So, third time lucky?
As usual, there's a lot of repositioning and exposition to wade through, but it's all held together by the vigorous threat of an armed team, led by "The Hunter" (Damages' Zeljko Ivanek), under orders from Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) to bag n' tag selected people with super-abilities. First up is Tracy Strauss (Ali Larter), whose icy touch proves ineffective against the team's body-armour, during a home invasion.
Nathan himself has climbed the political ladder in the interim months, to become the Chairman on the Senate Commission for Homeland Security. Nathan has minority groups across America anxious about his plans, as he's been subtly hinting about eradicating "dangerous people" in their society on television recently. This allows for some allegorical cuteness not seen since season 1, mainly from an Iranian paramedic Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) works with, who's worried about Nathan's vague threats are aimed at immigrants – an allusion that would have felt more timely four years ago under Dubya's administration.
Regardless, flyboy Nathan's being particularly hypocritical in his prejudice, which Peter duly tells him when they meet for the first time in months. Elsewhere, lovebirds Matt (Greg Grunberg) and Daphne (Brea Grant) are trying to lead normal lives without using their powers, which is something speedster Daphne's having a particular problem with. The mystical African Ustu (Ntare Mwine) also appears to have a spiritual connection to Matt (another example of Heroes reneging on a decision to kill a character) as he returns to teach Matt how to draw the future. Heroes can't exist without that particular foreshadowing technique, it seems -- even if it makes no sense that a telepath can suddenly become precognitive.
Claire (Hayden Panettiere) is being prepared for an elite education by Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose), but gets wind of a plot to capture her own kind after eavesdropping on a phone conversation between Angela and her biological father Nathan, so flees to find Peter and tell him about her discovery.
Mohinder's (Sendhil Ramamurthy) role as an admittedly unlikely villain in Volume III appears have been forgotten about, or forgiven off-screen, by Peter, who takes a ride in his cab. Mohinder is later targeted by The Hunter's team at a multi-storey carpark, but manages to escape by clobbering The Hunter with a car door (yes, he still has super-strength, minus the skin condition), before being captured by Mr. Bennet (Jack Coleman), who appears to be working alongside The Hunter.
As usual, a comical tone comes courtesy of Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee), with the de-powered Hiro determined to turn his best-friend into a crime-fighting superhero instead – by buying a firehouse "lair", making a spandex costume, injecting them both with GPS trackers (ooh, plot-point), then living out a Street Hawk fantasy by giving Ando a motorbike nicknamed the "Ando-Cycle" to cruise the mean streets of Tokyo and thwart criminals.
Hiro seems oblivious to the fact Ando's only power is the ability to super-charge someone else's ability, which effectively makes Ando the world's most useless solo superhero. Anyway, Hiro is easily captured back at the lair by The Hunter's goons (whom we assume weren't told Hiro has no abilities?) and transported back to America, leaving Ando as a probable rescuer thanks to the satellite tracker Hiro is carrying.
Sylar/Gabriel (Zachary Quinto) is also back, despite being presumed dead after the Primatech fire that closed Volume III. Now, Sylar's on a quest to find his real family; frist meeting with his watchmaker "father", who admits he raised Gabriel on behalf of his wayward brother before walking out on him and his "infantile" mother.
But back to the main story -- and, before Peter realizes the ghastly truth about his brother's ambitions, all the main characters are captured, made to wear orange overalls (the horror), hooded, restrained, and marched onto an air transport bound for a top secret prison – most likely with Guantanamo Bay overtones. Fortunately, the capture of Claire during a raid on Matt's apartment is deemed a mistake, and Nathan allows her to be driven back home. This gives Claire the chance to incapacitate her driver and sneak onto the aircraft through its landing gear, just as it takes off, and help release her friends without arousing suspicion...
Your tolerance for "A Clear And Present Danger" will be decided by how willing you are to forget the previous two years. Just imagine The Haitian's erased those bad memories from your mind. If you're in the right frame of mind, this was certainly a more confident outing than we've seen recently, and one that fixed some longstanding problems – even if there's little explanation for some of the changes. For example: Peter is suddenly only being able to sponge powers through physical conttact (and possibly only retain one at a time?) Still, I've been calling for this limitation since around mid-season 1, so I'm glad it's finally happened, but the script made little attempt to explain the new rules governing Peter's abilities, which was an unfortunate misstep when that knowledge is required for the climax.
Hiro is also powerless, and when he inevitably regains his abilities, they'll hopefully be less potent. The writers have needed to inhibit Hiro in some way since day one, as it's been proven time and time again that a time-travelling teleporter is near-impossible to keep on a leash, without it seeming ridiculous or illogical, and could easily solve any problem if he acted sensibly.
Sylar, on the other hand, retains his powers – which is fair enough, as it makes him an imposing force for the others to struggle with in future – but it's a shame his character grows less interesting as time ticks on. His sudden interest in his own family tree might become interesting (we know who'll be playing Sylar Snr, and it's good casting), but the only thing that held my attention here was Sylar's violent dispatch of The Hunter's armed goons using a mix of his abilities – in a well-staged action scene at a taxidermist's.
The writing seemed more willing to just let the characters talk, in contrast to Volume III's frantic pace and multitude of plots, which in turn came about because Volume II was criticized for being too slow and dull. The pace and balance was more inkeeping with Volume I here, which was nice to see, but the problem facing Heroes is dwindling faith that quality can be maintained, and the fact we can't erase the stink of previous years so easily...
It's still nonsense to believe Nathan would sanction the incarceration of his own kind, and the allegiance of Mr. Bennet and Mohinder continues to change with the wind. Wasn't Mohinder rewritten as a villain not too long ago? Would Bennet really go along with Nathan's scheme? In the case of the latter, I suppose there's a chance he's only agreeing to this because Nathan promised him Claire would be spared the harsh treatment, but we'll have to see.
Overall, I was pleased to see some semblance of realism creeping back into the show, as the idea of superheroes existing in the real world was a key reason for season 1's succeess, before the characters got sucked into two seasons of infighting. The sequences in the aircraft hangar were particularly gritty and sold very well. I'm also surprised but excited that Emmy-winner Zeljko Ivanek is appearing in this storyline as The Hunter -- he was magnificent in Damages' first season as slippery lawyer Ray Fiske, and will hopefully lend some acting chops to what appears to be a fun, imposing role.
I'm tentatively interested to see how things develop, certainly -- but, more than anything, I'm mildly amused by the irony of Heroes (a series that eclipsed Lost in its debut year) orchestrating its own plane crash to lure viewers back. How times change, eh? But, if they crashland on a desert island, it's game over for me...
2 February 2009
NBC, 9/8c
Writer: Tim Kring
Director: Greg Yaitanes
Cast: Cristine Rose (Angela), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Masi Oka (Hiro), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Greg Grunberg (Matt), Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Brea Grant (Daphne Millbrook) & Zeljko Ivanek (The Hunter)
