© (C) 2009 NBC Universal Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia in HEROES - SEASON FOUR - "Brother's Keeper"

Television:

TV Review: HEROES - SEASON 4 - REDEMPTION - Chapter 9: 'Brother's Keeper'

Finally, answers about who Samuel is and what he wants in a pretty good exposition episode. Plus Claire loses a foot (?!?)

Grade: B
Stars: Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg, Robert Knepper, Ali Larter, Masi Oka, Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Milo Ventimiglia, Jimmy Jean-Louis
Writer(s): Mark Verheiden, Rob Fresco
Director: Bryan Spicer
Release Date: November 16, 2009

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By CARL CORTEZ, Contributing Editor
Published 11/16/2009

Finally, FINALLY, after nearly eight weeks, we get some answers to the big questions from HEROES latest arc REDEMPTION. It’s been a long-time coming, but the pay-off, I have to say, is quite satisfying.

“Brother’s Keeper” is a strong effort, telling the back story of Samuel (Robert Knepper) and how he came into his power.

So away we go with his story ...

It’s nine weeks ago, as Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is living a new life in India as a teacher. He’s in a good relationship and his FLY days of Season Three are long behind him.

He also has been digging into his father’s past, and although he promised his new girlfriend he’d get rid of that past, he can’t help but dig through his dad’s old research.

What he finds is that the old man had been gathering up people with powers and putting them in close proximity of each other. By doing this, it increased all of their powers. In 1961, he filmed the birth of a very powerful child. This is Samuel and his own powers of being able to control the earth are amplified ten-fold when in the presence of others with powers.

Not leaving well enough alone, Suresh creates a compass that takes him directly to Samuel. There’s interference though. It’s Samuel’s brother Joseph. He tells Suresh, that he’s very much aware of Samuel’s dark abilities and he’s spent nearly 40 years hiding him from the world and suppressing them.

Samuel, of course, overhears, and wants answers – and to see that film, but it's been destroyed. He kills Suresh.

In the present day, Samuel blackmails Hiro (Masi Oka) to retrieve that film and once he does that, he’ll return Charlie to him. Hiro jumps back in time and does what he's told, but also saves Suresh in the process. When Suresh refuses to hide himself away for eight weeks so Samuel doesn’t find out he saved him (and interferes with Charlie being returned to him), Hiro hides Suresh in a mental institution in Florida. Meanwhile, he breaks his promise to Hiro, and doesn't reconnect him with Charlie just yet.

It seems it’s only been a short amount of time that Samuel has had his abilities and has created his little family of people with special powers.

Although, I find it a bit hard to believe that he was able to work that fast in a little less than nine weeks to create his super-power army, but then again, this is HEROES, so I guess you have to go with it.

Meanwhile, Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) is visited by the Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis) who tells him he needs to see something. He gives him an address to a storage shed, where Peter and Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) discover Nathan’s real (dead) body on ice.

Now Nathan is fully understanding what’s going on – he’s not who he appears to be.

This leads them to Parkman (Greg Grunberg) who is handcuffed to a hospital bed in Texas and in critical condition after getting shot up in an attempt to kill Sylar for good. Peter revives Parkman uses his power of healing, but, unfortunately, Sylar gets the better of him and reveals to Nathan that he’s actually Sylar.

It’s still unclear whether or not Sylar ends up back in his old body, but he does exit Parkman. Nathan runs off with Peter, has some philosophical discussions and also comes to terms that he is indeed Sylar (even though he’s still stuck in Nathan’s body).

Parkman starts using his powers to get out of trouble and escape the hospital so he can try to help Peter stop Nathan/Sylar.

The final part of the episode is Tracy (Ali Larter) not being able to control her power. She’s freezing objects and herself and this all started happening after Samuel visited her. She’s enticed by visiting him, and after visiting Claire (Hayden Panettiere), they both realized it’s hard trying to be normal when you’re super human.

By episode’s end, Tracy has decided to join Samuel, but he has one important thing to ask of her – something we don’t hear quite yet.

I enjoyed the re-introduction of Suresh, and how he’s going to play a pivotal role in the resolution of the Samuel storyline. I’m also loving all the little BACK TO THE FUTURE nods this season (Hiro saves Suresh, by giving him a bullet proof vest to wearm ala Doc Brown).

That said, I’m also getting really sick and tired of Claire’s storyline. She’s so whiny, I’d say kill her off, but if you did, she’d just come back, so what can you do?

The moments between her and Tracy, are so weird, strange and awkwardly written, I understand what the writers were going for, but it was handled in all the wrong ways. Additionally, after Tracy accidentally freezes Claire and turns her into a Claire-sicle, her foot breaks. When Claire is revived, there’s this bizzaro comedic running gag about her severed frozen foot. It doesn't work at all. It was probably funny on paper, but it's executed rather poorly.

The Nathan/Sylar thing is also running out of gas. I get that we need to give Nathan a proper goodbye, so they’re delaying the inevitable where Sylar takes back his body completely. But there’s a little too much talk-talk between the two brothers than is necessary. We get where this is heading, get on with it.

At least we get the full picture of where the Samuel arc is finally heading. Like Sylar, Samuel will soon be all-powerful. And with the way things have been shaping up, it may very well end up one helluva showdown between the two of them before the mid-season is through.

So in conclusion, Samuel and Hiro storyline good, Nathan/Sylar storyline is stretched to its limit and Claire's moments, just as annoying as ever.

More to come next week with the Thanksgiving episode. Let’s hope it isn’t a turkey.

6320-6340

Reader Comments

forex robot from Egypt sez....
Great post this will really help me.
11/19/2009 2:16:13 AM

Fasthands from Louisville, KY sez....
I agree with this review for the most part, especially about Claire's story being a big yawner. However I think you're missing something when you write this: >>Although, I find it a bit hard to believe that he was able to work that fast in a little less than nine weeks to create his super-power army, but then again, this is HEROES, so I guess you have to go with it.<< Samuel has always had a super-powered army surrounding him. He just wasn't the "top dog" until eight weeks ago when Joseph died. The real question now is how did Joseph die? Who is Samuel impugning in the previews? I also wonder what in the world Joseph's ability was.
11/17/2009 11:52:22 AM

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