Spoilers. The quality plateau's this week, but that's actually not a bad thing. Heroes has been on an upward trajectory of late, and "Turn And Face The Stranger" was a decent installment that's still keeping the characters at the centre of things and actually taking the time to develop the storyline at a more plausible rate.The big storyline this week is Mr. Bennet (Jack Coleman) having a gut feeling that Sylar (Zachary Quinto) isn't actually dead, despite the physical evidence presented to him by Danko (Zeljko Ivanek). In actuality, the body is that of a shape-shifter trapped in his final form at the moment of death, and Bennet doesn't have long to prove the corpse is an imposter before the body is taken away to be cremated. Concurrently, the real Sylar promises to destroy Bennet by using his newly-acquired ability to play mind-games with his spectacled nemesis; by pretending to be his wife Sandra (Ashley Crow) and serve him with divorce papers.
"Turn And Face The Strange" gets a surprising amount of mileage from Sylar's shapeshifting ability, as this episode pulls off regular twists and double-bluffs out people's identity that (I'm not ashamed to say), had me fooled on more than one occasion. It's another of those superpowers that will slowly cripple the series if left unchecked, so I hope it doesn't become too overplayed.
Matt (Greg Grunberg) is also on the offensive, using his mind-control ability to compel Danko into checking on the security of the one person in the world he loves the most – which turns out to be a European escort girl called Alena (Katherine Boecher) living in the suburbs, who has no idea about Danko's real identity or occupation, believing he's a school book salesman. Alena's essentially Danko's fantasy of a normal life away from state-sanctioned killing, who Matt kidnaps and decides to kill in front of Danko in a twisted effort to avenge the death of Daphne.
After something of a rehabilitation a few weeks ago, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) come dangerously close to causing extreme irritation once more, as they try to reunited Baby Matt Parkman with his father on the other side of the country. This takes the form of a road trip, with the unfortunate problem that the baby's power-giving ability has an opposing nature if the infant is upset. This results in Ando having to pull a silly face to make the baby laugh, in order for their car's engine to start.While I can understand this two-men-and-a-baby subplot annoying some viewers, I think it's an amusing idea to tie the baby's abilities to its mood (as trying to pacify a crying child in the hope of a few minute's peace is something every parent can identity with), and making Hiro and Ando surrogate dads is a funnier use of them than most of the discrete adventures they usually get up to. I mean, at their goal here is to unite a friend with their son, who's actually involved in the main storyline and could use some love right now.
All the others characters don't get too much to do this week, but the groundwork for the season finale is laid by Angela (Cristine Rose) and her recent prognostic dream, when she unites the Petrelli family at the portentous, remote "Coyote Sands" – an abandoned government compound in the desert where "Project Icarus" was developed in the 1960s. Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) serendipitously discovers his father Chandra was trying to find the aforementioned site decades ago, and actually ended up working there.
In the final moments, Angela has Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) and Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) dig in the sand, where they discover human remains. The victims of a clandestine government research project, it seems – but how is this of vital importance to everyone's future? Is Angela raking up buried evidence of the US government abusing super-powered people before the days of The Company, to use against their tormentors in the present?
Overall, "Turn And Face The Strange" was relatively pleasurable, particularly regarding Sylar's various infiltrations and how it affected the increasingly fraught Bennet. Coleman, Ivanek and Crow were very good throughout, and it feels like a wise decision to put Bennet on the run (framed by Danko for killing a soldier he believed was Sylar), and intriguing that he immediately drove to Coyote Sands. There are only three episodes left this season, and things appear to be moving into an interesting new direction.For once, I'm not desperate for this current volume to just end, so we can put our faith in another reboot, but I am curious to see how they'll conclude these chapters and inspire people to tune into season 4. The ratings are depressingly low in the US (a 5.9 rating for this, compared the premiere's 10.09), so survival next year could depend on its remaining fans spending the summer championing Heroes' improvement to the disaffected masses.
6 April 2009
NBC, 9/8c
Writers: Rob Fresco & Mark Verheiden
Director: Jeannot Szwarc
Cast: Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Greg Grunberg (Matt), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Masi Oka (Hiro), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), Cristine Rose (Angela), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Ashley Crow (Sandra), Zeljko Ivanek (Danko), Katherine Boecher (Alena), Kenneth Choi (Sam Douglas), Ned Vaughn (Agent Steve Donner), Kimberly Estrada (Agent #1), Reginald James (Agent #2), David Ury (Landlord), Quin Baron & Reed Baron (Baby Matt Parkman)
