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- TV Series: Heroes
- Episode: Shades of Gray
- Starring: Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Milo Ventimiglia, Zachary Quinto, Masi Oka, James Kyson Lee, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Ashley Crow
- Written By: Oliver Grigsby
- Directed By: Greg Beeman
- Network: NBC
- Series: Heroes
Heroes: Shades of Gray
Meet Sylar's Dad: Like Sylar, Only Not a Wanker By
Rob Vaux
March 10, 2009
Daddy issues play the central theme with John Glover and Zachary Quinto in HEROES: SHADES OF GRAY(2009).
© Mania.com/Robert Trate
When we last left our one-time network saviors, Claire (Hayden Panettiere) was facing down Doyle (David H. Lawrence) in her kitchen, Matt (Greg Grunberg) was strapped to a bomb outside the Capital building and Sylar (Zachary Quinto) was heading off to kill his dad. All three pick up more or less where they left off. Doyle gives Claire a massive guilt trip about not helping "her kind," but she stands firm and he leaves the house rather than force her. However, she resolves to take Alex's old job at the comic book store, which will let her aid any subsequent stray heroes without bringing them to her mother's front door.
In Washington, Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) flies off to help Matt, which really isn't the wisest of moves since the Hunter (Zeljko Ivanek) wants them both out of the way. Said Hunter then triggers the bomb just as Nate approaches, but the mysterious Rebel prevents the signal from getting through. Matt can't focus his powers (he's still drugged), but he manages to glean what he needs to disarm the bomb from one of the SWAT team members nearby. Nathan then knocks him unconscious and the police drag him off.
Sylar finds Daddy (John Glover) living in a trailer and huffing oxygen through a tube. He has cancer, and is apparently happy to let his boy take the pain away by killing him. Sylar declines. The old man reveals his power--the ability to consume other people's powers--and questions Sylar on the motives behind his behavior. Sylar responds by helping the old man butcher and stuff a rabbit, but he doesn't have the hang of it and accidentally cuts himself. The cut rapidly heals--identical to Claire's power, which Sylar duplicated last season--and papa takes the opportunity to pin him to the wall like a bug. Papa explains that his son's healing power will cure his cancer if it's stolen. Sylar, however, was only playing possum: he counterattacks rather demonstrably, then leaves papa to helplessly die from the cancer.
In Building 26, Nathan attempts to relieve the Hunter of command, but the Hunter claims that only the President can do that… and that he believes Nathan has powers. He leans on Tracy (Ali Larter) to gain evidence, but the ice queen isn't budging. It's officially a race to see who can implicate who first, with HRG (Jack Coleman) sitting on the fence for the moment. Nathan pulls a trump card with the President and gets the Hunter canned. The Hunter responds by pushing Nathan out of the window: Nate flies away, thus proving the Hunter's suppositions. The Hunter returns home to find Sylar waiting for him.
Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee)--remember them?--arrive in Los Angeles to save Matt Parkman. As it turns out, it's not that Matt Parkman they need to save, but a baby with the same name whose babysitter just quit.
After her first day of work at the comic book shop, Claire receives an urgent message from the Rebel that guides her back to Doyle, who's being run down by the Feds. She helps him out of the jam, and cobbles together a new identity for him courtesy of the Rebel. As a result, her "free pass" is up, and agents storm the house. She's rescued by her father, who flies her out of the window.
The Good
Some basic narrative competence--marked most notably by the various power plays surrounding the Hunter--encapsulate another mediocre episode. Claire's interaction with Doyle gets a boost from Lawrence's surprising sympathetic performance, and not all of the show's twists lay the egg they clearly should have (the closing one, at least, is pretty decent). Glover's enjoyable too: he always is, even in material far worse than this.
The Bad
Okay, the detonator to Matt's bomb is in Building 26, and not only does Nathan know nothing about it, but everyone else is able to clear away the hardware and wipe the programming off the system before he gets back? Got it. The Hunter has gone from an intriguing villain to a propped-up stick figure--kind of like Sylar--and while his Machiavellian power plays are intriguing, he no longer feels like the plausible threat they clearly want him to be. In other news, Claire's comic shop excursion serves no purpose except to fill dead space (and could we please get away from the "comic geeks who can't deal with women" cliché?), while Nathan's big reveal as a super holds no narrative power whatsoever (though admittedly, they make up for it with his rescue of Claire). The bit about baby Matt (big Matt's son?) highlights Heroes' biggest flaw: setting up a shocking surprise that more or less falls flat on its face. And Sylar… oh ye gods Sylar…
The Prognosis
Renewed for another season. Fan-fucking-tastic. In the meantime, at least there's interesting peripheral figures like Mrs. Petrelli (Cristine Rose), and HRG's always fun political analysis to stave off total disaster for another week.
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Well Ifor one am not impressed. This show is getting flatter and more predictiable by the episode. Sylar is so powerful and yet so useless. Nathan is stupid. He knew Hunter is a psycho, and he knew Huner was investigating him, so why didn't he hold on to Hunter as they went out the window...let him go splat and then hold on to the side of the bulding until someone got him down. Simple fix. The writing gets worse and worse each show. I mean if Hunter was fired, why wasn't he escorted from the building. His weapon should have been confiscated and he shold have been taken home in government vehicle.