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A scene from HEROES "An Invisible Ring"
Television:
TV Review: HEROES - SEASON 3 - 'Fugitives - Chapter 12: An Invisible Thread'
An uneven end to an uneven season -- are they really going to consider canceling CHUCK leave this on instead?
Grade: B-Stars: Zachary Quinto, Adrian Pasdar, Milo Ventimiglia, Greg Grunberg, Masi Oka, James Kyson Lee, Hayden Panettiere, Cristine Rose
Writer(s): Tim Kring
Director: Greg Beeman
Rating: NR
By CARLOS DELGADO, Associate Editor
Published 4/28/2009
So this is how HEROES ends for the season. For an hour I was confused, shocked, and ultimately creeped out. The Sylar (Zachary Quinto) story arc has suddenly come to end, though if we know anything about HEROES, nothing ever ends. The only truly shocking part of “An Invisible Thread” was watching Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) getting his throat sliced open and die. Everything else was fodder for the upcoming season.
Last time we checked, Sylar was scheming to meet the president (in the form of Nathan Petrelli, since Sylar is a shape shifter) and shake his hand, enabling Sylar to take the shape of the most powerful man on Earth. What happens instead is a complicated series of events that leaves Nathan dead, Sylar virtually dead, and a whole lot of questions unanswered.
What’s the best way to simplify what happened… Sylar frames Danko (Zeljko Ivanek), which we can assume brings about an end to all the shenanigans that go on in Building 26. Nathan and Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) face Sylar, but Peter escapes while Sylar kills Nathan. Sylar thinks he has won when he finally meets the president, but it turns out that Peter stole Sylar’s shape shifting ability and impersonated the president. Matt (Greg Grunberg) then “reprograms” Sylar into Nathan, thus removing the Sylar threat and bringing Fugitives to a happy ending. Except, of course, it doesn’t.
I was, for the most part, entertained with what happened during “An Invisible Thread”. Sylar as a shape shifter was a great plot device, one that automatically generated tension and suspense. The only problem was that shape shifting combined with all of Sylar’s other abilities made him virtually undefeatable. HEROES ultimately had to really on a sleight of hand plus overlooking an obvious plot hole to finally bring down Sylar (that plot hole, by the way, was that Sylar should have been able to resist the tranquilizer injected in him. He does, remember, have Clair’s healing abilities). Was “An Invisible Thread” extremely creative writing, or was or just desperate writing? I haven’t quite decided.
Judging by the last five minutes of the episode, I lean towards desperate. I hate to be Captain Obvious, but anyone who didn’t realize that Matt’s rewriting of Sylar’s identity wouldn’t stick is just an ignorant moron. My suspicions were confirmed within minutes when Nathan/Sylar checks the accuracy of a clock, a reference to Sylar’s old obsession with time.
The other painful act of desperation was bringing back Tracy (Ali Larter). Even worse, she was now supposed to be a vengeful villain. Why? Why is bringing her back necessary? I just don’t get it. She had an honorable death saving Rebel/Micah (Noah Gray-Cabey). What could possibly make the writers decide that
The final consensus for “An Invisible Thread” was typical of the entire season: uneven. It was moments of brilliance negated by sheer stupidity. It’s hard for me to truly invest myself in HEROES when I know disappointment is right around the corner. But despite what I think, HEROES lumbers on with “Redemption”. Let’s hope this volume can live up to its namesake.
Reader Comments
Drake from sez....
Im bored) lets play three word story =)
Three word story is a game in which a story is built by multiple people, who use three words each turn. It is a common favorite of forum gamers, since it is easy to explain and play in a linear, structured fashion. An example game goes as follows:
* A fat man...
* ... walked into a...
* ... car and it...
* ... was very painful...
* ... but he jumped...
* ... back up and...
* ... dug a really...
* ... small cave that...
* ... had two red...
* ... cats coming out...
* ... from some smoke...
* ... though a blue...
* ... streak speeds by...
* ... forcing twenty wayward ...
* ... evidences of fright...
ok =)?
Ill begin:
I opened the door...
7/23/2010 9:00:56 PM
xXmikesipXx from Argentina sez....
I'm trying to open forum but sometimes there are no images on it :(
7/20/2010 8:20:40 PM
Heiniprionvex from Bulgaria sez....
Hello. And Bye.
7/16/2010 1:13:56 AM
JK from Netherlands sez....
Damm That was a bad ending.
Not even THE fight at the end was shown.
Seeing the brothers going in to kick Syler's ass, and getting only shown a flash of blue light???
5/6/2009 5:53:37 PM
YKeong from Malaysia sez....
I think Heroes have gone from good to bad and then just downright waste of time. I say that for the following reasons:
1. We missed the cool fight scenes when the Petrellis battle Sylar in the hotel room. Instead we get to see lights. Pathetic.
2. Angela's should learn from mistakes and kill Sylar when she have the chance. She still have Peter and a grand daughter to protect so, why would she risk it all? Peter can shape shift to Nathan and proclaim world peace with the president.
3. Claire character is getting redundant. She's in every episode, but not really doing anything by just being cute and pretty.
4. Plot is getting confusing much like Lost. Series have lost the element that keep the audience focused. Please simplify it and try to cut back on sub-stories.
5. Too many characters, hence too many stories to develop for each character. Suddenly there's baby parkman, and parkman's wife ... and then this and then that. Geezzzz ...
===============================================
I've always envision Peter and Sylar to go head to head, Good vs Evil. Right now, its just tedious to watch. I would vote to keep "Chuck!" for season 3.
4/29/2009 9:02:46 PM
capt awesome from burbank sez....
couldnt they just inject nathan with claires blood ughh so nathan is officially dead even tho hes still on the show eventually sylar will come back and fake nathan will be gone
how lame!!!
4/29/2009 10:49:50 AM
Mike from Iowa sez....
It is not that desperate comic books and other superhero movies someone with Matt’s power could do that, because in one of the X-Men movies Xavier tells Wolverine that “he can make him believe he was a ten year old girl, so I believe what Matt did could happen.
4/28/2009 7:16:29 PM
Neo from L.A. sez....
Hey galveston from Oklahoma City, why dont you let the real writers take care of business. If you dont like what they do then dont watch Heroes... i thought it was a good episode, not great at all. It was a shock to see everything unfold, but it was also satisfying cuz thats the kind of stuff that makes Heroes what it is.
4/28/2009 3:21:49 PM
DHF from sez....
The plot hole is maddening in retrospect because it can be easily explained by a little dialogue: the amount of tranq would kill any normal human if it can really take down an elephant, so it should be enough to keep him sedated until they could deal with him (of course, he would eventually recover). All it takes is ten seconds of dialogue.
Spot on with the Tracy bit. The "Sylar remembers" bit could have been handled more subtly, but just kill Tracy already. It was unnecessary. Rather have a real finale than this half-hearted attempt at a cliffhanger.
4/28/2009 11:30:49 AM
CJ from London sez....
well personally i thought it was rather good...
4/28/2009 10:11:43 AM
galveston from Oklahoma City sez....
A B minus? You're far more generous than I. It makes perfect sense to leave a psychotic lunatic who will eventually revert back to form in a position of power as a US senator. Why it's peachy keen. Who needs to have Peter shape shift into Nathan to say what needs to be said to the president to end the hunting of specials and then "die" at a later date to bury Nathan properly? We'll keep Sylar around. There's a brilliant idea. Characters taking the place of other characters is such an empty well of an idea. If you want to kill off a character, kill him off. Of course, once they had the balls to kill someone they kill off a character with an enormous amount of story potential like Nathan. Morons. Hey, maybe they'll build up to yet another fight between Peter and Sylar that doesn't deliver.
How far do these characters bend over backwards not to kill Sylar? Stupidity is too kind a description. The character should have been gone a long time ago. And couldn't Clare's blood have healed Nathan? It healed Noah.
4/28/2009 9:42:11 AM
Lito from Deadmonton sez....
Carlos, I thought you said in another review you were (glad to) give up?
4/28/2009 9:40:01 AM
