415: 'Close To You'
Wr: Rob Fresco
Dr: Roxann Dawson
Synopsis: While Hiro and Ando attempt to save Suresh, Bennet tries to expose Samuel's weakness in his attempt to defeat the carnival leader.
Review: 'Close To You' benefits greatly from its decidedly solid narrative structure. While this season has seen a much-needed reduction in the amount of story that's packed into an individual episode, with writers preferring, instead, to take some time out to concentrate on those important little things like character development and thematic exploration, this hour is probably the most stripped-bare yet, only featuring three plot lines of any actual consequence. Hiro and Ando's mission to rescue Suresh is a little superfluous, descending once again into farce and raising more than a few eyebrows (especially when Mohinder magically realises what is needed to cure Hiro of his geekspeak fixation and lo! It just so happens to be exactly the thing that his best buddy can provide!), but thankfully, this is very much the B-storyline. The real meat of the episode is Bennet's quest to locate the Carnival, which allows us to be introduced to Vanessa, Samuel's former lover, played to perfection by the absolutely wonderful Kate Vernon (you know, she of Battlestar Galactica fame). Oh sure, the process through which this is facilitated is more than a little suspect - all of a sudden, just as Noah and Lauren are about to give up all hope of ever getting anywhere with their pursuit, she happens upon a connection to this Vanessa woman and is able to pull up photos connecting them instantly - but what the hey, we'll forgive it for what it ultimately leads to. We get some great two-handers between Bennet and Matt, two characters who should be thrown together more often, and the impact on both of their characters is made palpable throughout. There's a rather nice undercurrent of resignation running throughout this strand, as Bennet pointedly refuses to seek out his estranged daughter's help, while Parkman refuses to go that extra mile to involve himself in the machinations of the whole Carnival shebang. While these reach some form of resolution by hour's end, their minutiae feel real, the concerns believable.
And then, of course, there's Samuel Sullivan himself, whose leadership of the Carnival is called into question by Lydia, who attempts to contact Peter in order to bring him in and initiate some form of change. However, this process only leads to a confrontation of sorts between he and Emma as, having acquired his mother's power, Peter begins to understand that she is to be used by T-Bag for a distinctly macabre purpose. This is a much welcome development, coming essentially out of nowhere and silencing those naysayers who bemoaned Emma's supposedly redundant nature earlier in the season. It adds a refreshing twist to the show, imbuing the arc plot with an ominous sense of foreboding, recalling the impact of the nuclear threat from the show's debut year but not resorting to amateur dramatics to achieve the desired effect. On the whole, this is another promising episode, taking its time to set things up and pay certain things off, that remains a thoroughly enjoyable watch throughout. It's just a shame that no one seems to want to do anything of worth with poor, poor Hiro... 8.0
416: 'Pass/Fail'
Wr: Oliver Grigsby
Dr: Michael Nankin
Synopsis: Sylar visits Claire, while Hiro's past decisions manifest subconsciously due to his brain tumor. Meanwhile, Samuel tries to impress Vanessa, his long-lost love, but things don't go as planned.
Review: A generally solid episode, thanks largely to its refreshingly considered focus on the show's most sorely mistreated Japanese supergeek. Finally, Masi Oka gets the chance to prove that he's not just a cutsie-wutsie face with a penchant for ludicrously overused catchphrases. Give this man something with weight, a storyline that has some actual bearing on the arc plot and manages to deliver a whack-load of character development to boot, and he'll outshine the lot of 'em. As with season three's once-in-a-blue-moon 'Our Father', 'Pass/Fail' dares to treat Hiro as something other than comedic foil and reminds us all precisely why we fell hopelessly in love with him in the first place. For all the makeshift trial is pseudo-fantastical gumf (it's all in his head! Wait... his mum's there! She heals him! Is it all in his head? Is there something more going on? Is it all just symbolic? We'll never know!), it has its hrt in exactly the right place: it helps us to put Hiro's actions in the past season into a wider context and carefully outlines the somewhat murky moral dilemma that inevitably arises when presented with the responsibility of control over the space-time continuum. It also gives us a chance to marvel at the woefully-missed acting talents of good ol' David Anders, whose turn as Adam Monroe, Metaphysical Prosecutor, is right on the nose, and, indeed, at George Takei who, despite having only a handful of lines and just bashing a salt-shaker a bit, is one of the best things to happen to Heroes in ages. It's a shame that the denouement, in which Hiro engages in a symbolic battle with His Inner Conscience (sorry, Kensei), falls rather flat; there is never any question of the character actuallysuccumbing to his illness so while the point is not exactly moot - he still needs to re-learn the moral lesson, if you will - it still lacks the dramatic punch that it perhaps could have packed. Elsewhere, there's a nice little turn between Kate Vernon and Robert Knepper, who act their tiny socks off with every passing scene in order to present the impression of a couple with a tonne of history. Their dialogue, interactions and nuances make the whole thing lift off the page with a delectable sparkle, disguising the fact that the story is distinctly conventional. By hour's end, when Vernon snubs T-Bag as he presents her with his fantasy, you actually feel resca shred of empathy for this dangerously manipulative character... and then he goes and levels an entire town and ruins it all. The episode's other strand, Sylar's quest to understand what draws him to Claire, is passable but nothing particularly spectacular. We've been here before (for a great deal of season three, it should be noted) and while, once again, Zachary Quinto is absolutely marvellous, delivering each line with just the right level of quiet menace, the whole story feels distinctly inconsequential. Still, Claire gets a nice go at Sylar's eye and we get the chance to witness the Heroes writing staff's desperate attempt to channel the ghost of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (come on... Claire and Gretchen want to be Willow and Tara so badly, it's bloody
embarrassing). Oh, and that Quantum Leap reference made my year. 8.3
No comments:
Post a Comment