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- TV Series: Heroes
- Episode: The Eclipse Part 2
- Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Masi Oka, Ali Larter, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Milo Ventimiglia, Jack Coleman, Leonard Roberts, Greg Grunberg, Adrian Pasdar
- Written By: Joe Pokaski, Aron Eli Coleite
- Directed By: Holly Dale
- Network: NBC
- Series: Heroes
TV REVIEW- HEROES: The Eclipse Part 2
What Happens When the Heroes See the Light? By
Stephen Lackey
December 03, 2008
Sylar (Zachary Quinto) throws down some Darth Vader action on Noah (Jack Coleman) in this week’s episode of Heroes: The Eclipse Part 2(2008).
© NBC-Universal
As bad a character as Hiro has become, last week was still very much a return to form for Heroes. The focus was steady on the characters that matter and what happened to them had impact and really seemed to mean something. Now, there’s no way that a great deal of what was hinted at last week and actually happened this week wouldn’t be reversed when the eclipse ended but the evolution of the characters will stick around. This week continued with the same sort of precise and moderate pace as last week and that’s a good thing. The plot again doesn’t get bogged down by unimportant characters and side stories. Problems still remain, but even Hiro, the new Jar Jar Binks, had a really cool moment in this week’s episode.
For a while it seemed that Nathan and Peter’s mission to retrieve the Haitian was going to get drug down by a cheap D&D secondary mission but instead that mission started and finished in a matter of minutes. One of the lamest characters on the show, Nathan Petrelli, third to Hiro and Mohinder, kicked much butt with his flight ability. When the writers find ways to make invincibility and flight useful in a fight it can be some of the coolest scenes in the series. It’s easy to make flame blasts and lightening bolts useful in a fight and cool looking. Nathan ends up being one of the most problematic of the episode from a character basis. He started this thread of the story against his father but by the end of the episode he appears to be rejecting his mother and going back to his father. You could say that he’s playing the part of the waffling politician, but that just doesn’t feel right. He could also be planning to infiltrate his father’s gang but not telling his brother so one of his father’s minions won’t be able to read it from Peter’s mind at the most inopportune moments. If that were the case wouldn’t a mind reader pick up on that information from Nathan’s mind?
The reference to the missing 9th Wonder story was fantastic both as a nod to the hardcore comic book collector and a reference to a scene that could have easily been forgotten from the early days of the series. This leads to Hiro's awesome scene where he gets in the middle of a stand off between Bennett and Sylar. Speaking of Sylar, he’s finally back and more evil than ever. It took getting his throat cut and almost dying to make that happen, which is some very entertaining comic book melodrama. Hiro really has to grow up though. He could be a fun character again but he needs to be funny in a more mature way – maybe like Spider-man. The episode was full of thrills and a few twists (some were quite predictable though) and as previously mentioned it stayed focused on the characters that count. There was no Nikki/Tracy/Jessica this week and she wasn’t missed. No doubt she’ll play a more important part when Nathan returns to his father and his job. Tracy, Nathan, and Mohinder are easy targets for trimming the fat on this series.
Finally, it feels like Heroes is on the road to recovery, sort of like when a piece of metal is ripped from the base of the back of Claire’s head. It’s good to see Heroes finding its way back to being good again. Hopefully, it won’t stray from the path….
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Heroes has gotten much better. I think Hiro is becoming the "Jar Jar Binks" of that operation. They need to tone down his child like antics. It is annoying. They need to kill off that Hiro and bring back the future Hiro from season one. It is almost buffonish the way he behaves sometimes. They really need to tone that down.