In "Pass/Fail", written by Oliver Grigsby (who should perhaps chalk this one down to being given a sow's ear to work on), we have three tedious storylines to struggle through. Hiro's (Masi Oka) brain tumour finally starts to threaten his life[*] when he collapses, and as he's rushed to hospital he dreams he's on trial for misusing the space-time continuum -- with father Kaito (George Takei) as a stern judge, former nemesis Adam (David Anders) as the prosecutor, and Ando (James Kyson Lee) as his defense lawyer. Why should we care about a "courtroom" drama taking place in someone's imagination? Well, it's all symbolic of Hiro's life-or-death struggle and regrets for the choices he's made. Fair enough, but it's still very difficult to see this as anything other than an opportunity to have some old faces guest-star, again reference the heyday of season 1, and give Hiro an unconvincing sword fight. Did anyone doubt Hiro would survive? Who else was wincing at Ando's dialogue as he watched his friend struggle for his life in the emergency room? Real people don't talk like that.
Meanwhile, Sylar (Zachary Quinto) is harassing Claire (Hayden Panettiere) at university, convinced she can help him get his killing instinct back. She quite understandably wants nothing to do with the man who once sliced her skull open, no matter how much he insists they have so much in common. But Sylar eventually manages to get some "pearls of wisdom" from Claire by shape-shifting into her friend Gretchen (Madeline Zima) while they sought refuge from him inside a cupboard. Is there anyone who didn't guess "Gretchen" was actually Sylar all along, given how interminable that scene was, and how Zima played it like her brain had been scooped out?
Finally, the introduction of a childhood romance as motivation for Samuel (Robert Knepper) continued to develop, as he tried to get Vanessa (Kate Vernon) to reciprocate his love, by reminding her of their shared history together over a milkshake in a local diner. The fact he'd created her dream of a picturesque cabin home in a beautiful garden still wasn't enough to persuade her to become his girlfriend, which appears to tip Samuel over the edge when he took his frustrations out by destroying an entire town after an argument with a waitress.
While I'm glad the show's reminding us of Samuel's tremendous power again, I'm not convinced by the sudden arrival of Vanessa to explain some of his behaviour this season. It feels like an unplanned idea to stretch his storyline out, as otherwise it's all boiling down to a power-crazed carnie who's just a danger to himself and others. I guess they needed something else to add complexity and humanity to Samuel's character, but throwing in a girl he was infatuated with as a kid isn't doing it for me. Or maybe it would have been okay if Vanessa had been alluded to from the start, but it just feels very improvised.
Overall, if you didn't watch this episode you didn't missed anything a one-sentence recap couldn't rectify (Hiro nearly died, Samuel got dumped, Claire became Sylar's accidental therapist), and "Pass/Fail" ultimately felt like another wasted hour. We're so close to the end of this season, yet there's a severe lack of urgency to anything going on. The carnival have basically spent a season being absolved of the "villains" label they were branded with in the premiere, as it's clearly just Samuel who's the misguided danger someone has to eliminate. And, despite the fact the Irish carnie has proven himself capable of beating Sylar[**], and we know he gets more powerful around "specials", Knepper still isn't striking much fear into my heart.
I'm just sensing a huge anticlimax on the horizon. Pass.
18 January 2010
NBC, 9/8c
written by: Oliver Grigsby directed by: Michael Nankin starring: Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Robert Knepper (Samuel), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), Masi Oka (Hiro), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Kate Vernon (Vanessa), Sasha Pieterse (Amanda), Madeline Zima (Gretchen), Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennett), Kate Vernon (Vanessa), Robert Knepper (Samuel), Danielle Savre (Jackie Wilcox), Sally Champlin (Waitress Lynette), David Anders (Adam), Tamlyn Tomita (Ishi), George Takei (Kaito), Quin Baron/Reed Baron (Baby Matt), Jordan Dang (Young Ando), Lisa Lackey (Janice), Satomi Okuno (Young Kimiko) & Dawn Olivieri (Lydia)
[*] Do you remember that subplot where Peter went on a mission with Bennett to leech a life-giving power from that reclusive teenager so he could save Hiro's life? Doesn't that all seem so utterly pointless now.
[**] To be fair, everyone's beaten Sylar at one time or another now. He's become a bit of a joke.
