Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Heroes recap: “The Line” - airdate 10/29/07 (S2E6)

The dropping: Peter thinks Veronica Mars has crossed the line, murdering his new girlfriend's brother. Claire crosses the line from good girl to kind-of-mean girl. Mohinder approaches the line, then digs his heels in, refusing to compromise his principles - which would be more impressive if he wasn't a total wuss. Hiro crosses the line and gets fresh with Kensei's sweetie. Mr. Bennet's mentor draws a line in the sand ... and then Bennet pretty much just bulldozes right on through.

Peter and Caitlin are at the pub, mourning crispy Ricky. Peter swears revenge on Ricky’s murderer, deciding that heading to Montreal is the way to go, seeing how he has no other leads. Caitlin says she’s coming with, “to kill the bitch.” Back in sunny So Cal, Claire does not make the cheerleading squad due to the evilness of the head cheerleader, Debbie, of whom the rest of the squad is afraid. Monica has gone with Mohinder to the Company’s lab in New York and is acing all the physical tests they give her. Her ability has a name: adoptive muscle memory. Ned Ryerson (OK: “Bob”) tells Mohinder that the next step is to inject Monica with a mutation of the virus (that can kill the Heroes). Mohinder is outraged at the thought of treating Monica like a lab rat, but Bob says they need to test for the greater good, especially when there are some Heroes out there with really dangerous powers who should be put down. When Mohinder calls Mr. Bennet to complain, Mr. B basically says suck it up, you candy ass – we sometimes have to do bad things. He hangs up on the whiner and then he and the Haitian invade the home of a Russian guy named Ivan. That’s original. “We need to talk,” says Mr. Bennet in a scary Russian accent. I mean, he uses a scary voice and speaks in Russian. I don’t know if the accent is scary or not.

As Claire mopes about not making the squad, West suggests that they use their powers and get some sweet revenge. When she says that her dad told her to lay low and doesn’t West have to listen to his parents, he scoffs, “Claire, I can fly. That makes the whole parental guidance thing a non issue.” Claire is unsure but is succumbing to his less than upright wiles. They decide that public humiliation of Debbie is the way to go. Meanwhile, the Mexican road trip crew is approaching the U.S. border; Sylar is totally skeeving on Maya and she too is succumbing to his wiles. Alejandro wants to dump Sylar and hire someone to get them across the border but Maya says that all three of them will cross together. Ando returns to the scroll-doctor and they pick up where they left off. Unfortunately, feudal Japan is no less boring now than it was last week. Seriously, who thought that this would be an interesting storyline? The only time it’s interesting is when David Anders is on screen and this week he gets way less screen time than Hiro does. Hiro, Kensei and Yaeko decide to attack the army to rescue her dad. We know already. I’m bored.

Mr. Bennet asks Ivan where the last series of Isaac’s paintings are. Ivan is, at first, unimpressed, saying he knows all of Bennet’s tricks, seeing how he was the one who trained Mr. B and “[his] invisible partner, Claude.” I miss Claude – he was cranky and Christopher Eccleston is cool. Where was I? Mr. B tells the Haitian to start selectively deleting Ivan’s memories of his wife as a means of motivation. Mmm – an ad for Welch’s grape juice. I have to go get more wine – be right back. Okay: Ivan tries to appeal to Mr. B’s sense of family and says that if he comes back to work for the Company – which has changed since Eric Roberts was killed and is now under new directives – Ivan will make sure Mr. B’s family is protected. Mr. B pauses, considering.

Mohinder brings the evil injection to Monica and suavely convinces her to take it, but at the last minute he can’t go through with it. He storms into Bob’s office and trashes the glass cabinet holding the virus. “I’m taking Molly and I’m leaving!” he over-emotes. Maya, Sylar and Alejandro drive through a terribly convenient hole in the border fence and are immediately surrounded by heavily armed men. Sylar tells Maya to keep driving, purposely working her into a frenzy. He tells her to use her “gift” to get them past the border patrol. Alejandro is horrified as his sister’s eyes turn black – on purpose! The border patrol keels over, dead, and Maya drives through, Sylar gasping next to her. North of the border in Costa Verde, California, Claire takes a meeting with head cheerleader Debbie, who is busy drinking schnapps and humiliating chubby cheerleaders with a Sharpie. Just then, West, disguised in a ski mask, flies in and scoops Claire up, then drops her on the steps, broken and bleeding. Debbie completely wigs, screaming. I get that, I really do. But schnapps? Looks like peppermint. Ugh.

Hey – best part of this episode so far? We haven’t seen Peter and Caitlin since the very beginning! My friend Kevin C. has pointed out that this season has demonstrated that Milo Ventimiglia is not much of an actor vís á vís the whole tormented amnesiac thing. He’s sure pretty though.

When we come back from the break, the cops are interviewing Debbie who is slurring that a flying masked man killed Claire. Claire walks up and totally faces Debbie who then gets busted, in front of the whole cheer squad, for underage drinking. Back in 1671, Kensei, Hiro and Yaeko find and free her father. Who is he? He looks so familiar! He says he can’t leave until he destroys the guns he made for White Beard. Hiro points out that if the guns aren’t destroyed, they’ll change Japan’s history, ruining the way of the samurai. Kensei is on it. In the Company, Bob apologizes to Mohinder. He’s totally playing Suresh, who falls right into it. Bob offers an intermediary of sorts, to work with Mohinder and makes sure that there are no further misunderstandings. Also, there’s mention of a new Hero, Adam Monroe, who Bob says is dangerous. I’m thinking Mohinder will be sent after him next?

Fighting in Japan. To save Yaeko from being shot, Hiro teleports her away. Instead of having the correct response for a 1671 Japanese woman to such an action (i.e. FREAKING OUT), Yaeko immediately figures out that Hiro is the puppet master behind Kensei and she loves him, not the cute blond Englishman. They smooch, although’ Hiro knows it’s a bad idea – he just can’t help himself, being in love with her and all. Unfortunately, Kensei sees them kissing and gets a little cranky about it. In the modern day borderlands, Alejandro is scuffling with Sylar. Maya breaks it up and says they need to stay with [Sylar]; Alejandro is all, fine, but I’m not helping you if your eyes turn black again. As Maya moves out of earshot, Sylar tells Alejandro – who doesn’t speak English – that as soon as he can, he’s going to kill the twins and take their delicious powers. And if he can’t, it’s okay because Maya is proving very malleable, “a shiny little toy.” Creepy.

Debbie gets suspended from the cheer squad as a result of the on-campus drinking so Claire makes the team. West is all smug about it. In the Ukraine, Mr. Bennet figures out that the way to get Ivan to tell them what they want to know is to threaten to delete all the memories of the man’s dead daughter since that’s all he has left of her. Ivan tells them where Isaac’s paintings are and then Bennet reminds us all of what a goddamn badass he is and shoots Ivan in the head. Jack Coleman is stone cold here. Right on!

Kensei confronts Hiro about kissing Yaeko. Hiro backs down and says that fixing the future is more important than his love life, and they set off to do more great deeds … until Kensei whacks him in the back of the head, knocking him out. White Beard (who actually has a black beard with a white streak) walks up, Yaeko and her sword smith dad in chains, and asks Kensei what he wants as his reward. Kensei stares at Yaeko, then her dad, and then just walks off. Bob has returned Monica to her home in New Orleans, promising her support, advice and a brand new iPhone, fully loaded with everything from martial arts to plumbing. “You have an amazing gift,” he tells her, “Look around. Seems this town could use a little amazing.” Monica thinks that he’s not wrong and thanks him.

Did anyone else think that the girl walking out of the dark towards Mohinder was Elle? I was SO hoping she’d just FRY Mohinder – I’d read somewhere that a Hero was going to die soon, although in hindsight I guess he doesn’t really count. But no, it’s Niki who says she is all better and is Mohinder’s new partner. By the way, it’s totally got to be Jessica there and not Niki. I think they “cured” her by getting rid of Niki – which would be fine, because Niki was a big whiner.

The Haitian and Mr. Bennet have found the paintings: a hand holding a wand (or a syringe?); a blonde woman battering at a door (Jessica? Claire? Elle?); an angry, unshaven dark-haired man (Alejandro?) with a gun; Mr. B with the bullet hole in his eye; Kensei and Hiro fighting. What does it mean, muses Mr. B. And then we segue to Montreal, where Peter and Caitlin have found the doorway from the painting Peter did. They go inside – it looks like it’s full of theater props – and Peter finds a note addressed to him from that Adam Monroe. The note says, “We were right about the Company. The World is in danger. It’s up to Us.” Adam needs to work on his capitals. Peter is angry, confused, doesn’t know what is going on. He and Caitlin hug (bleh) and he mutters, “Please tell me who I am, what the future holds.” Suddenly they’re in front of an obvious green screen of NYC, not post-apocalyptic per se, but empty of people for sure. Peter finds a Homeland Security flyer that reads: Mandatory Evacuation Notice, June 14, 2008. “This is next year,” Peter goggles.

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