Heroes Recap: "Company Man"
Holy crap, people!
Mr. Muggles features prominently, as Ted the radioactive man nukes his way with Matt into HRG’s house. Matt is lifting HRG’s computer when the family rolls up in their ungodly SUV. Ted wants to go hardcore on them. Matt is soft-hearted, but ultimately sees what he must do.
HRG pretends not to know Ted, and Ted starts to get a little hot around the collar. “I’m just a paper salesman,” he protests. FLASHBACK! With Eric Roberts! Who gives him his cover within the “organization.” HRG is comfortable with being morally grey, and meets his new partner: InvisoMan! They shake hands. END FLASHBACK! Matt is mad about what HRG did to him and how HRG made him forget. Claire’s mind provides the clues: “The Haitian. This is your fault.”
“Just when you thought plausible deniability was going to save your ass,” says Ted.
“Settle down, Ted,” says Matt.
Claire once again is the key, confirming that he’s not a paper salesman. Thanks, Claire. And….. credits.
Claire figures out that Matt can read minds — they exchange thoughts about Peter Petrelli, and Matt realizes that she’s the cheerleader he was supposed to save. She confesses her abilities to Matt. And…..FLASHBACK! HOLY CRAP, SULU’s there, with his son. They speak Japanese to each other, and Sulu gives the baby to HRG to raise as his own — and ORDERS him to do it. OK….. Sulu is large and in charge. “Don’t get to close,” he says — “she belongs to us. If she manifests, we’ll take her.” WOW, cool.
HRG is thinking in Japanese, deliberately combating Matt. Then he throws him off, saying that there’s a safe in the bookcase, while HRG grabs a gun. Ted disarms him and holds the gun to his wife’s head — and she’s willing to take the bullet, when Matt –at Claire’s and HRG’s thought-requests — shoots Claire instead.
HRG continues to give mind-prompts to Parkman, guiding him through how to gain Ted’s trust and moving Claire out of the way. Claire resuscitates, and wants to go to the police, but HRG convinces her otherwise, telling her that he never told the Organization about her in order to give her a normal life. Matt agrees to be HRG’s bitch in order to get through it all. They agree to go to the factory to get records — proof — of all the crimes they’ve done. Ted says he’ll stay with the family: “if you’re not back in an hour, look for the mushroom cloud.”
FLASHBACK! HRG tells Eric Roberts that his wife suspects something. Eric Roberts smugly produces young MuteHaitian. Now we remember why we hate Eric Roberts. YMH goes upstairs to do the first of many mindwipes on Bride of HRG.
END FLASHBACK! Back at Primatech, HRG is getting tranquilizers for Ted, explaining that Ted is lost, but Matt is someone he can trust. HRG’s also signalled for MuteHaitian. Meanwhile, at the Bennet Farm, Ted is making fireballs with his fists.
HRG grabs MuteHaitian, knowing that he can talk, demanding to know why Claire’s mind wasn’t wiped per his orders. “Because I answer to someone whose instructions supercede yours,” kinda-MuteHaitian replies, “in your daughter’s life.” FLASHBACK! 7 YEARS AGO! InvisoMan and HRG cruise down the lonesome highway. HRG knows that InvisoMan is a security breach, hiding someone. InvisoMan knows that he knows, and knows also of HRG’s orders to kill InvisoMan. They get out on a bridge, and talk; InvisoMan no longer believes in the program, and HRG shoots him, twice, and InvisoMan seemingly goes off a bridge.
END FLASHBACK! MuteHaitian is oddly yelling at HRG for the way he’s hurt Claire. Matt just wants HRG to give Ted what he wants. Back at the house, Ted hears a noise from upstairs. While he’s up there, Claire breaks back in, unties her mom and brother. Ted finds only Mr. Muggles upstairs, and scampers back down to tackle Claire. The rest of them run for it, except stupid Mom, who sees that Claire can heal radiation burns.
Claire and Mom are getting duct-taped. Mom says she always knew Claire was a miracle. The three of them argue over questions of theodicy, and Claire doubts HRG’s goodness. But Mom has faith in HRG despite it all. Ted figures it out, that HRG and Matt are conspiring against him, just as the two return home. Ted can’t decide between revenge and truth (though he says he wants truth), and MuteHaitian comes in to rescue Mom and Claire. Mom stops and saves Mr. Muggles, at least. The three and a dog head outside and meet up with useless little brother, who says the police are on their way.
As HRG and Ted talk, Eric Roberts comes in and shoots Ted, setting him off — Matt flies back in a shockwave, the kitchen explodes in flames around HRG, and all seems lost — Ted can’t control himself. Eric Roberts looks like he just pooped his pants. Matt and Eric Roberts escape, leaving HRG inside. Ted is seriously losing control and Claire runs back in to the house, which has looked better. Claire goes back in and takes a tranquilizer dart from HRG while Matt rescues him; Claire remains to give the dart to Ted, who is SERIOUSLY losing it. Even Mr. Muggles is scared. Claire’s body begins to disintegrate as she goes to give him his shot.
From the outside of the house, we see the home explode, then a seriously crusty Claire emerge, healing as she walks but remaining sooty. Eric Roberts licks his sicko lips while Matt and MuteHaitian look on.
Back at Primatech, Eric is lecturing HRG and explaining that now MuteHaitian has to be killed. “She trusted him over his father,” HRG bemoans fakedly. “Surrogate father,” Eric Roberts explains smugly. They walk into a cell where Ted lays sedated and bound. They’re going to poke and probe him, then what? “What do you think,” says Eric Roberts smugly (again).
Matt is also sedated with a brain scan. Eric Roberts smugly suggests that Matt be his next partner. Another mutant is in the room, with an undisclosed power. Eric Roberts smugly asks when HRG is bringing in Claire. “Right now,” says HRG. Next shot: HRG is driving Claire down the road, explaining that he tried to be the best dad he could. FLASHBACK! Three years ago, HRG is trying on various pairs of glasses. Claire wonders when she’ll need glasses, and HRG awkwardly explains to her that she’s adopted. Like, that would have been nice to know years ago, turdball. “You didn’t grow inside your mother, you grew inside our hearts.” GROOOOAAAAAAANNNNNNN. In reply she picks out the ugliest pair of glasses available, and he stick with them.
HRG pulls up on the same bridge where he shot InvisoMan, and MuteHaitian is there waiting. “This is goodbye,” he says. HRG has MuteHaitian shoot him in the gut, telling MuteHaitian to go deep into his mind and remove anything that would lead him to her. “I love you ClaireBear.” It’s a truly moving moment, but one that will set him up as a villain for sure for now on.
Next Monday: Hiro gets his sword, there’s a new mutant villain, and we meet Linderman.
Posted on February 26, 2007, in Reviews, Television. Bookmark the permalink. 44 Comments.
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All I can say is pass the kleenex.
Oh man o man, that was SOOO good!!
Seriously. A-Ma-Zing.
I didn’t see it. Should I have?
YES you should have. Definitely the best episode so far. You can watch it online I believe.
The real shocker for me was the tangent to Hiro’s storyline. What a great episode.
The worst part was the teaser for next week shows Simone back in the picture. Apparently everyone but Claire’s mom is going to have a superpower at some point.
Claire’s (adopted) mom has a superpower. She can have her brain scrambled a zillion times and still carry on an intelligent conversation with Claire.
Sulu’s appearance was indeed a surprise, but now I’m wondering what the point was of trying to get Hiro to return to Japan. If he was afraid that Hiro would interfere with the grand scheme, he would not have given up so easily. Or is Sulu unaware of his own son’s abilities?
Man, I always did like read your mind cop guy and now I like his character even more. How interesting that they are setting him up to be the new partner for cheerleader dad.
Four words… bring on the Linderman.
Last Lemming,
I also wondered about that. Clearly, he’s a powerful guy (ordering people to adopt children and all, seemingly the shot-caller). So, I think him letting Hiro stay means he wants it that way or doesn’t mind. One thing I wonder is whether Hiro is actually his son, or adopted (like Clair was by her dad).
If Hiro is his real son, then he could have some powers too. Does ‘the company’ know about those powers? Is Hiro’s dad hiding it? Or is Hiro’s dad normal, and perhaps the adoptive parent (as i mentioned above).
Anyways, I agree with most here that this was the best episode so far.
I agree that there are way too many people with superpowers. (Although I did call the Simone with the superpower bit when she was first shot) It is interesting to me that typically (with the exception of our good Indian doctor) the folks with no superpowers are the most interesting.
That was a great episode though. Very well directed. Nice little tricks like moving the camera when everyone is supposed to be upset.
Sulu as the ultimate “villain” though is quite interesting. I wonder if he knows about Hiro’s abilities. (Presumably given his intervention) I think that we’re going to end up with two powers with Linderman being one big baddy and Sulu having some historic conflict with him.
Glasses wearing Dad still is my favorite character and I’m glad he’s turned out to be at least quasi-good. He’s a conflicted character but one who’s conflicted in an interesting way. (Unlike most of the other characters who are just plain annoying)
it’s too bad, because they lost me two episodes ago.
“It is interesting to me that typically (with the exception of our good Indian doctor) the folks with no superpowers are the most interesting.”
Like who? Other than HRG, I can’t think of any interesting non-supers.
“Glasses wearing Dad still is my favorite character and I’m glad he’s turned out to be at least quasi-good.”
I’m working my connections to try to get an interview with Jack Coleman for Kulturblog. Keep your fingers crossed just in case (and let me know if you have any questions you would like asked).
I really liked this episode, too. But I got a little bit confused at first. I thought Sulu was supposed to be “Linderman,” but in the teaser I see that Linderman is someone else. So is Sulu the top dog or not?
Greg, I always liked the cheerleader’s gay friend. I’m curious if he’s gone now that she’s on the run. The parents of the Indian doctor were pretty interesting – far more than he was. Admittedly the cop’s wife is pretty unsympathetic. The mom of Peter Petrelli is interesting to me and I suspect will house a secret. Hiro’s friend Ando is one of my favorite characters although as we discussed last week I have this sinking feeling he has a superpower as well. (I’m hoping not)
Sulu definitely isn’t Linderman. The actor playing him looks like the MCP guy from Matrix Revolutions.
“The mom of Peter Petrelli is interesting to me and I suspect will house a secret.”
I’m pretty sure Mrs. Petrelli is a super. Remember during one of the first episodes when Peter said that when Nathan was in his car wreck, Peter “just knew”? He was with his mother at the time. I think Mrs. Petrelli is psychic. We’ve also seen that super parents appear more likely to have super offspring. If so, it makes sense that Peter and Nathan’s mother would be a super.
Also, it was noted (I think) here that Malcolm McDowell was cast as Linderman. That looked like the back of his head to me.
P.S. Julia’s brother sure is creepy.
What’s MCP stand for? (comment 14)
Sorry. Kind of a joke. MCP = Master Control Program in Tron. I was thinking of the Architect played by Helmut Bakaitis that Neo meets. (The guy with all the TV sets)
Malcolm McDowell is inspired casting though.
I get Malcolm and Roddy McDowell confused. Malcolm is the guy from A Clockwork Orange, right? Perfect mastermind bad guy.
Oh, and that’s super cool you might get an interview with HRG, Greg. I can’t think of a single question though.
I can think of a lot since arguably he’s the best actor in the bunch. (How much of that is due to performances being limited by directors/writers is an other matter I suppose) He really carried that episode last night. It’s very hard to make a villainous character be sympathetic and interesting. It’s very easy to make heros unsympathetic obviously.
BTD Greg,
I like to hear about interaction among the actors, and what his impression of them as people is. ie: Which actor is most/least like their character?
I read some of the bios on NBC’s website and the kid that plays Micah might be the most accomplished of them all!
Isn’t anybody else wondering who “Claude” was protecting?
Yeah, I was. I suspect it’ll be Hiro.
Regarding questions…
1. How do they handle the scenes? Are they, like in say Alias, using a lot of digitally retouched backdrops to avoid location shots? Where do they film?
2. What is it like being on a show with such a large ensemble? How does it compare with some of the other shows he’s been on or guest starred on?
3. What’s your acting style.
4. Is it hard to emote when your character seems to be the type not to show emotions. That is given such an indrawn character how do you portray the character’s feelings and thoughts. (Which he seems to do very well – especially when compared to some of the hamminess demanded of much of the rest of the cast)
5. How much of your character was determined by the writers and how much did you bring to the character that perhaps the writers then draw upon.
I bet a hundred imaginary bucks that Simone is not back and that the clip they showed was from a dream sequence.
Clark, I know they shot at least one scene in downtown LA. A co-worker’s boyfriend called her at work to tell her the cop was shooting a scene in the street outside his office. He was holding his head and thrashing around. I guess the scene was shown episodes ago but I never caught it.
Susan,
Yes, Malcolm McDowell was in A Clockwork Orange.
I’m gonna say that MuteHaitian is taking orders from Sulu and that Sulu is working at the top in opposition to Linderman.
That doesn’t make sense though – unless Sulu works for Linderman.
Geoff, you’re wrong, wrong, wrong.
MuteHaitian told Bennet something having orders from someone higher up than Bennet. Bennet asked “In this company?” but MH responded with something like “In your daughter’s life.” What is he talking about? Do we have any other clues about this?
mistaben, it either refers to someone with an interest in Claire outside of the HRG “Organization,” or it could just be a sloppy reference to Claire. Or it could be Linderman. Or it could be some force for good we have yet to see.
HRG and wife couldn’t have kids, so does that mean CLaire’s brother is also adopted and also has powers?
I agree with those that say there could be problems with too many “Heroes.”
It’s God, people!
HP- I also thought the Haitian might have been talking about God.
That would be a real writing challenge, HP, but I like the idea.
About the credits…they’re still rolling at the twelve minute mark. TWELVE MINUTES. I think it’s ridiculous, and it annoys me every week.
SG (#32) – Yeah I like those. Plus I can see MutHaitian being religious as HP suggests as well.
So maybe Sulu is the boss of the HRG organization and Linderman is the equivalent of Kingpin from the Marvel universe. But I think there is no question that Sulu knows about Hiro’s powers.
I do like how most shows have abandoned the repeated opening. The one exception is BSG that has two different openings. One before the first segment and then one after the first segment. At least they’ve gotten a bit shorter.
I’m kind of hoping the show doesn’t go religious. We have Lost for that. It’d be a bit of a cop-out. I think they ought be a tad more creative.
“I’m kind of hoping the show doesn’t go religious. We have Lost for that. It’d be a bit of a cop-out. I think they ought be a tad more creative.”
I don’t think it has to “go religious” to explain the Haitian’s motivations. He could simply be saying that he reports to a Higher Power (i.e., letting his conscience be his guide). Frankly, I kind of like that. In the real world (as opposed to most TV and movies–with the exception of terrorists and religious fanatics) people are motivated by religious values.
BTW — It seems to me that Claire had already displayed her powers in the fire. What were they waiting for after that?
I agree with BTD Greg. It’s unlikely that MuteHaitian is referring to God — maybe at the outside some sort of “higher power,” but that’s about it. My guess is that he is talking about another mutant, a benevolent and powerful one, who restored his ability to speak.
I disagree. I might have gone with the higher power speak, but he gave that speech to Claire about her power when she called herself a freak in which he referenced God repeatedly. Now, I am not saying that they are going to introduce God into the narrative (which would be an interesting way to go if you consider all the stuff voicewover Mohinder has been saying all year), but rather that the Haitian feels motivated by his conscience/God.
Also, the reason why the Haitian has been quiet all these years is because he is no dummy.
If MuteHaitian were answering to God, he would have spared more than just Claire.
BTW: in the promo for next week you see a bloody Simone asking Isaac if he is going to shoot her again. This is Sylar, people. He and Peter run up against each other again. See here.