My weekly vidcap recaps of Heroes Reborn continues below, with a look at halfway mark "The Lion's Den"...
Firstly, I'd just like to say how much I love Harris's (Cle Bennett) power to clone himself from lost limbs and appendages. I wondered how that ability would work in practice (as it's not the sort of injury people keep having), but it seems Harris is content to snip off a pinkie finger in exchange for a twin. His missing body parts grow back in seconds, so the pain doesn't last long. But it's still a little gross. I think I like the idea because it means his super-power isn't too powerful and has a fun rule to it. Harris can't just create a hundred clones to control an angry crowd, or whatever. He's probably only able to easily create five clones by cutting off fingers, until he presumably has to pass someone the clippers to raise another five cohorts with the other hand.
Miko (Kiki Sukezane) and Ren (Toru Uchikado) are at Renautas, trying to sneak in with the cosplayers of EverNow. I don't really understand why some gamers are a great smokescreen. Is Renautas into producing video games on the side? Maybe I missed something in an earlier episode about why this plan makes sense.
Inside Renautas, Noah (Jack Coleman), Quentin (Henry Zebrowski) and Taylor (Eva Harlow) discover a secret area full of plant seeds, which appears to be a sort of botanical Noah's Ark (no relation). A similar thing has been mentioned over on Sky1's You, Me & The Apocalypse. Maybe armageddon is coming back into vogue, again.
Luke arrived home after months on the road (well, one presumes) killing EVOs with his crazy, unfeeling wife. Awww, they looked happier together in their wedding photo. It looks like it was only taken yesterday, *ahem*.
Tommy (Robbie A. Kay) was questioned by the cops after his EVO-status was discovered by doctors, and is surprised to learn his blood type means he can't be his mother's son. He was adopted! But who are his real parents? Someone we've seen on the show, or new characters yet to be introduced?
Over in Canada, Malina (Danika Yarosh) and Farah (Nazneen Contractor) and being pursued by a Harris Clone wearing an
A sizeable chunk of the mystery's reveal was hinted at, finally, when Erica Kravid (Rya Kihlstedt) took a trip to a Renautas lab that's basically a cut-price version of the Large Hadron Collider. But what are they doing down there exactly?
Having escaped, it's again underlined to us that Malina's destiny is to save the world. OK, we get it.
We've surmised for awhile that Luke and Joanne lost a child in the Odessa explosion, but now comes the visual evidence with Luke watching an old home movie. I'm not sure who still builds sailing ships with their sons in this day and age, but the Collins family are perhaps keeping it old school. But was their son an EVO?
Farah and Malina keep getting cornered, and for some reason Harris Clone is now joined by an EVO who can project inky tendrils that seemingly negate another EVO's abilities. This renders Malina powerless, so Farah is shot and her fate's left ambiguous as Malina flees on her own.
Oh boy, the Carlos (Ryan Guzman) storyline is still rumbling on. It has almost nothing to do with anything else, and it's hard to see how it's going to connect to the big picture. Still, I rather like the armoured suit Carlos made himself, which enables him to also tear van doors off.
It's Noah and Erica, face-to-face. Good vs. evil! Man vs. woman! Time for some answers! Unfortunately, Noah demands answers too late into their conversation, but we do learn that Noah erased his own memory to protect someone not something. His "dead" daughter right? It seems like Heroes Reborn is setting us up for a fan-pleasing appearance from Hayden Panetierre as Claire in the finale.
Anyway, Noah's interrupted by Harris Prime, who himself is interrupted by Miko crashing through Erica's window. Considering the ease with which Harris dealt with Miko in Tokyo, she somehow gets the better of him this time and vanishes into her 'digital playground' by unsheathing Hiro's sword.
Tommy confronts his mother about his parentage, and she confirms he was adopted. But it seems Caspar Abraham (Pruitt Taylor Vince) isn't his father, but has been protecting him for a whole year now. Tommy has a role to play in saving the world... which means it's imperative he find Malina, right?
Oh look: Luke's now so upset that he's... well, burning photographs of his wife and dead child, which in turn sets their family home ablaze. Not sure why any of that was necessary.
The final scene managed to do one very important thing: give us a bit of clarity about what Renautas are up to. They apparently know the earth's magnetic poles are about to switch polarity (it can really happen, too, fact-fans), which will mean the planet's defenceless from an enormous solar flare that will roast everything to a cinder. Quite why eradicating all the EVOs is beneficial isn't clear, unless they think the pole-switching has something to do with them? But how can that be? Maybe there's an EVO with insane magnetic powers who could actually help? Maybe that's where Farah comes in? Is she the benevolent Charles Xavier to Erica's hard-nosed Erik Lehnsherr, sort of? (Tim Kring hasn't seen X-Men, right?)
Final thoughts:
I think this episode suffered from mid-season sag, because there isn't anything fresh and new to introduce, so the story's weaknesses are beginning to feel more exposed. Most of the characters don't have any clear or exciting storyline they're a part of yet, they're just reacting to news and discovering things about themselves. It's probably by design, so here's hoping the last half of Heroes Reborn gets down to business and these characters start coming together to save the world.
At least we know the severity of what's going to happen to the planet (and it's actually something Erica and Renautas aren't to blame for), so the real mystery is what the 'villains' are planning to do about it. Could it be that they're actually trying to repopulate the scorched earth with EVOs after the apocalypse happens? If EVOs are the next step in human evolution, then leaving humanity to burn is just natural selection, right? Or that's what a twisted mind would think, anyway.
What did YOU think of "The Lion's Den"? Pleased with how this show is developing, or are you struggling to keep watching because the novelty of the show's return, and learning about the new characters' abilities, has worn off?
