Santiago Cabrera and Masi Oka in Heroes: Fallout
© NBC

Mania Grade: A+
Stars: Masi Oka, Ali Larter

Related Links

4

"Heroes: Fallout"

Wow, what an episode.  I’ve been waiting for an episode to really start carrying the storyline forward and this one was it.  “Fallout” is an appropriate name for the episode since dealing with everything that’s happened up to this point is the overall theme of the episode.  Peter, the one who believes he has the least amount of power was the most heroic in the previous episode.  He did save the cheerleader, and he used her power to save himself from a potentially fatal fall.  Now he’s in jail even though Audrey knows that Peter didn’t actually commit the crime.  Isaac has gotten himself clean and is finally learning to use his abilities without drugs.  It’s at this point that he finally accepts his destiny and seeks a meeting with Hiro and Ando.  Mr. Bennett sends the Haitian out to make Claire’s brother and Claire’s best friend forget about her power.  Claire suddenly feels more isolated than ever when she discovers that her friend not only doesn’t remember her abilities but he also doesn’t remember their friendship.  When Claire gets home we finally get to hear the Haitian speak when he tells Claire that he is there to make her forget but that she must only pretend to forget because it is important that she remember.  Without doing to much synopsizing let me just say that as everything shakes down the heroes are finally meeting each other, and some of them, Hiro, Ando, and Isaac for example, are already teaming up. 

Oddly this episode ended with a “to be continued”.  That felt a little unnecessary to me since nearly every episode so far has ended with a cliffhanger that carried over into the next episode.  It would be like if an episode of LOST ended with that kind of tag.  Part of that may be due to the marketing machine trying to keep the hype up on this series.  HEROES is doing really well in the ratings but I feel like the network is desperate to hype this thing for fear of the series failing.  I haven’t seen so much unnecessary build up on a show in a long time.  It actually backfired a bit with the over hyping of “save the cheerleader, save the world”, when that episode didn’t answer any of the questions that the ad campaign promised.  Anyway, back on topic…. 

A lot of major stuff happened in this episode, but one of my favorite moments was when Isaac finished his newest painting which portrayed Hiro wielding a sword and fighting what appeared to be a T-Rex.  To this point Isaac’s paintings haven’t been metaphoric, they’ve been pretty literal.  So will we see Hiro actually fight a T-Rex?  I don’t think so, maybe the visions aren’t as clear since he’s doing the painting without drugs, or maybe they’re going to be metaphorical since he’s doing it clean.  Whatever the case, Hiro declaring that he must have that sword was a priceless moment.  It’s also an obvious step forward to the future Hiro we saw a few episodes back. 

The other obvious pivotal moment came at the end of the episode when Peter collapsed outside the police station and had the vision of himself blowing up.  It appears that he will take the radioactive man’s powers and explode himself.  Also, why has Peter become so sick?  It feels to me like he’s used his power, to borrow those of other heroes, so much that it has taken a toll on him.  I’ve seen people posting everywhere that Peter is dead.  That’s just ridiculous.  But speaking of dead people the scene between Eden and Sylar was a major jaw dropper.  Bennett and his “super group” caught Sylar and has been keeping him in a room that’s supposed to render these special abilities useless.  I think that room was built with one person who has one ability in mind so when Sylar is put in the room with his multiple abilities he’s either working in his mind to figure out what makes the room tick or his multiple abilities just overpowered the room.  Either way it led to a horrible end for Eden who planned to make Sylar kill himself.  We didn’t actually see Eden die, but I believe she may actually be dead.  I liked this character and sat in front of my TV with my mouth hanging open in shock at this scene. 

This is only the tip of the iceberg of everything that happened in this episode.  I haven’t even talked about Nikki’s story arc, while still my least favorite, it is getting better.  The “fallout” from this one episode changes everything and asks even more questions.  The “good guys” are starting to form a team with Isaac, Hiro, and Ando already together and Peter and Claire aware of each other.  Mr. Bennett has lost the trust he just gained from his daughter and I think that’ll push Claire to Peter and the others.  Peter’s vision showed many of the heroes together at the explosion too.  So, can Peter tell the future too?  Sylar is definitely a bad guy (expertly played by Zachary Quinto) but what side will Nathan fall on and what are Mr. Bennett’s true motivations?  I’m also quite excited to see more from the Haitian now that he’s actually spoke.  This episode had a real spark of energy running through it that got me more excited than any episode yet.  The characters get to evolve but the questions just keep on coming.  Now, unfortunately we have to wait until the end of January to see if we’re gonna get any more answers!