Heroes: One Giant Leap review

At least the preview for next week’s Heroes’ episode seems to indicate the show’s main characters are finally going to start coming together, sort of a Lady in the Water type of unification. Spoilers again abound in my review of tonight's episode, so if you haven’t seen it already, you may want to check back another time.

I’m sure this episode is on NBC’s website somewhere so why anyone would want to download a torrent for it is beyond me; I looked around for the full video feed to provide the link, but was unable to find it after several quick glances. Unlike CBS’s innertube concept or ABC’s equivalent, NBC’s online video service hasn’t quite figured it that accessibility and, consequently, widespread use first begin with some sort of clear, distinct link to help advertise it. For a company so far ahead in some respects, how can it be so far behind in such basics?

This week’s Heroes episode, One Giant Leap, asks the viewers to ponder the question whether the future is pre-determined or can be altered. I will get to that momentarily.

The review: Rather than go into a long dissertation about how each character was developed a little more in this episode, I will summarize it by saying that “One Giant Leap” begins to pit the good characters against the bad ones, and introduces the seemingly evil character, some sort of Flash/Shadow-eque mind controller (Sylar). It also develops (a little) the idea that these genetic mutations are shared among familial lines (which supports the idea that the Niki/Ikin's son, as well as her mother-in-law have some "power"). It also strikes more at the idea that the heroes, by either the Professor X’s late father’s research endeavor or the Agent’s knockoff version, are being pulled together to serve the greater good, i.e., advancing the central storyline. This episode tended to do more of the same as to what the first two episodes did, and next week’s preview suggests the initial coming together and realization that more than one of them have such powers, so I think next week's episode would be worth watching moreso for that one. Overall "One Giant Leap" was okay; if you liked episode 2, you will probably like episode 3 as well. Read on or click here for my rational prediction of the overall plot of the next four episodes.

Things I liked: The evil characters seem to have it together a little bit more than the good characters. I’m sure this will change. I will give credit for this shadow/mind-controlling evil mutant for creativity since I know I have seen parts of that somewhere, but can’t quite place where, so maybe it’s new, and I can defer to that assumption. I appreciated the car ad, which would obviously survive any online commercial cutting, and I will ignore my suspicion that renting a car at an airport with a foreign driver's license is not as easy as they made it seem (as well as my, perhaps erroneous, assumption that a Japanese worker like Hiro probably not have known how to drive a car in real life or ever had).

Things that defied sense: Cheerleaders at Chilicothe High School or wherever in Kansas they are from, sure love wearing their uniforms. As I pointed out last week, cheerleaders do not wear their uniforms unless they have to. I dated a cheerleader for a short while in high school and the reason for this is that the uniforms simply aren’t flattering. Only in bad movies (or in this case, fictional television programs) would the entire cheerleading squad go to a party wearing their uniforms.

I found the stereotype of the football player who “can’t take no” pretty appalling also. As I have repeatedly mentioned, I can only suspend disbelief so much. At least it looks like they are scrapping the entire high school storyline (which is good) since they can effectively “kill her off” and she can develop her secret identity elsewhere and everyone will assume she has died. I am premising this assumption, in part, on blind faith and also that her autopsy is being performed at one of the Agency’s labs. Of course she is shown driving the scumbag rapist into a wall, so hopefully she is pretending to be some sort of ghost. Also, the class president election coinciding with homecoming makes no sense. Maybe that’s how they do it in whatever fantasy high school these writers went to, but again, an ounce of research helps for a pound of suspended believability.

Things I didn’t like: Gob the mind-reading cop gets caught by the bad guys? I guess mutants aren’t telepathic. While I would be disappointed by killing off his character, it would show that a)they aren’t afraid to kill off characters, b)not all the good guys will make it, and c) it would be easier to forget their assumption that some random FBI agent can just hire an accused conspirator to come work with her, and give him a gun in the same fell swoop. I really am hoping he sticks around so he (not Hiro) becomes the comic relief of the show, but at the same time, I hate to Greg Grunberg be typecast as such (e.g., his character in Alias).

Next four episodes prediction (a.k.a. assumptions I am making to keep my suspended belief suspended):
I will completely suspend the whole destiny pre-determined or not debate. The show’s basic premise is that the powers have developed, largely concurrently, for some reason (assumedly to stop this bomb). No need to join in that whole debate since it’s better explained in any Philosophy 100 class.

Since I am being asked to set aside any disbelief in time travel, I will ignore the various philosophical paradoxes that the show has already created and dubiously questioned. Particularly, I am going to assume the following things have happened (as a nod to a college philosophy in film course I took). First, the stoner artist dies on or before November 8 by Sylar the evil guy. In actuality, it may or may not be the stoner artist, but the police assume it is. Hiro saw it, if he changes it, then why would he have teleported back and restarted the chain of events? One way to solve the paradox would be that Hiro (who somehow unlearned English as he tried calling the stoner artist) eventually meets up with the stoner artist to warn him. Knowing that he will teleport in, they somehow trick Sylar into thinking some other stoner artist is THE stoner artist. Or it’s someone else with powers.

Second, Hiro’s sidekick friend (who is enthralled that he meets his dream internet girl), realizes the paradox and when the police call his cell phone (it’s reasonable to think it was a cell phone they called), they are actually calling the friend somewhere in New York, who tells October 2 Hiro that he has been missing for five weeks. Having seen this attack and Senator-Elect Fly’s victory, this also means that there was some sort of attack/demolition on November 8, and Hiro mistakes this for the bomb and teleports back to close the loop.

I stand by my prediction that the bomb is the season finale or close to it if they are going for the whole 24 effect). I am also assuming that since something good worked out for the Senator-Elect Fly, this means he shortly turns evil (see last week's character portrayal for further analysis as to my point here). To balance the good and bad heroes, his brother stays good, sort of a whole Darth Vader-Luke type of thing.

Tags: heroes, nbc, one giant leap