Heroes Recap: "Powerless"
Liveblogging the possible season finale. Previously, not a lot happened, except that Joanna Cassidy went waaaaay downhill.
Not expecting too much from this Hiro/Peter fight. But first, Mohinder comes home to Sylar. Maya is making breakfast for them, and she is only slightly less boring with a dead brother. Maya wants a cure, and Sylar wants the Shanti virus. Mohinder pulls a knife; Sylar pulls a gun. He sends one of Mohinder’s to the hospital, he sends one of his to the MORGUE! (sorry, couldn’t resist). Sylar knows that Mohinder’s blood can heal — and the cheerleader’s as well. Maya gets upset and gets all killing-eyed on Sylar. Everyone goes all blackeyed, including Molly, which is GREAT, until Sylar orders her to stop, and she does. Finally Mohinder agrees to help them.
Petrelli Manor. Nathan, Mama and Matt the Cop are talking about Adam’s murderous rampagings. Nathan’s a little pissed, and Mama says that Adam’s rampage is over. They explain to Mama that Peter’s alive and working with Adam, and she tells the story of how the Pre-Heroes (or Preroes) worked together to fight evil, and worked with Adam at first — finally Adam decided that the world wasn’t worth fixing, and needed to be cleansed with an unstoppable virus. Just when things were almost too late, Mama realized her error and stopped (but still wanted to blow up NYC and all). Mama points them to Primatech, and Nathan and Matt are off to fight Sark — Mama explains the principle of headshots on Adam, and further mentally tells Matt that he may have to kill Peter too with a headshot. What is this, Call of Duty 4?
Primatech. Peter and Adam saunter in, and time stops — Hiro is on the scene. The two do battle! Just as Peter is about to zap him, Hiro teleports around, telling Peter of Adam’s nefarious past. Peter’s not listening, and Hiro teleports around Peter and holds his sword to Peter’s throat. I am officially enjoying this. Peter explains that he saw the future and saw the virus that kills everyone, and with that he electrocutes poor Hiro. Time now unfrozen, Adam looks at Hiro and takes back his sword. A nice pre-credit scene.
California. HRG Family is packing, and Mrs. Bennett and Claire talk about her going public. It’s a half-baked plan, frankly, but she IS invulnerable (including for headshots?). Meanwhile Elle and Evil Ned talk about Claire’s plan to go public, and Ned is surprised that Elle didn’t take care of business. Elle was spooked, is all. He benches her, and she’s upset and seeks forgiveness from Evil Ned.
Cell. HRG plays a ball-bouncing game a la Great Escape; Elle watches and finally she asks HRG about her past. She asks nicely, and he tells her of how they tested her abilities at age 7 and Evil Ned didn’t give a crap about her pain. Evil Ned wanders in, and Elle huffs away. Evil Ned wants HRG’s help in dealing with Claire’s rebellious nature, whether she has any hard evidence of the Company. Evil Ned walks away, threatening Claire’s life.
Nawlans. Micah wanders in, seeking Niki’s help in retrieving his medal (and oh, his cousin) from the clutches of the evil gang that seized her last week. Niki explains that she has no more powers, and Micah no longer wants to be her son. They go off together to rescue her.
Primatech. Peter and Adam walk down the hall taking out security guards; Peter uses his powers and Adam uses his newly-retrieved sword (which, I need to point out, apparently doesn’t cut things at all but instead seems to work like a nightstick). Ahead is a big, big safe; Peter is unsure how to open it. Meanwhile, Adam confesses to the murder of Hiro’s father, but weakly justifies himself by questioning Sulu’s motives in not destroying the virus. Adam reminds Peter that his love interest is stuck in some post-apocalyptic future, and that he can change it. With that amazingly unconvincing explanation, Peter starts to work.
NYC. Sylar, Mohinder, Molly and Maya arrive at the Lab, where he threatens them all; secretly, Mohinder has triggered an alarm. Sylar brags about killing Isaac in the Lab — frankly that WAS a highlight of last season. Mohinder takes a blood sample from Sylar, stalling while the alarm goes to work.
Mansion of Evil. Elle sneaks into Evil Ned’s office to read her file, but it’s empty. Instead she hacks into an iMac and sees Sylar in Mohinder’s Lab. She decides to play hero for Evil Ned’s lab, and runs off.
Nawlans. The gang are about kill Monica by burning her the hell up. Meanwhile, Micah is tracking her with his cell phone. It’s magic, brought to you by Sprint! Oh, and he makes the traffic lights change. Man, I hate that kid.
Primatech. Nathan and Matt arrive after a comedically bumpy flight. It’s like the Greatest American Hero. Matt explains that Mama Petrelli told him to kill Peter, and Nathan replies, “listening to my mother has never resulted in anything good,” saying he’ll take care of Peter. Hiro arrives to save the day, to First Season effect.
California. West arrives to keep Claire from leaving — he’s a big fat wuss and doesn’t want to ruin his life. Claire in turn breaks up with him. This really IS the best episode of the season. West drifts off, sadly, and Mr. Muggles barks with glee and runs away, to see HRG walk in the door. Good timing, Dad. “Hello Claire-bear,” he says.
Lab. Maya and Molly bond. The two worst characters in the same room — is this a good idea? Anyways Maya gets Molly to find Alex for her, and Molly says, “he’s not anywhere.” awwww. Sorry, Maya. She rises in fury. Meanwhile Sylar learns he has the same strain of virus as Niki, and that the Company must have injected him. Before Sylar can get too angry, Maya confronts him about killing Alex. Yawn. He shoots her, right where he killed Isaac. That’s two we owe you, Sylar.
Lab. Mohinder gives Sylar the heal-anything blood, and Sylar wants Mohinder to test it first on Maya. Crap.
California. HRG is busy explaining his resurrection, and he tells Claire to stop exposing the Company, and says he’s made a deal to keep them all alive, in exchange for going back to working for Evil Ned. He leaves, and tells Evil Ned, “it’s done.”
Primatech. Peter tears that safe a new one with his mental ninjutsu, and Adam is about to go in when Hiro warps in and confronts Adam. Peter tosses Hiro into the wall with his telekinesis, knocking him out. Adam tells Peter to finish the job, and Peter starts crushing Hiro Vader-style. Matt arrives in time to try and compel Peter to get Adam instead, but Peter fights back, getting the upper hand. Just as Matt passes out, Nathan walks in. Hiro awakens, and enters the vault to confront Adam. Inside the vault is a deck of cards, a human brain, a gold key and other weird stuff, and Adam and Hiro share the obligatory pre-confrontational phrases. Adam pulls his sword on Hiro, hiding the virus behind his back.
Meanwhile, Nathan tells Peter the truth about Adam, saying that even Adam’s healing of Nathan was manipulation.
Adam tells Hiro that releasing the virus is the way to cleanse the earth so that only the worthy will inherit it, including himself.
Nathan explains that Adam used Nathan’s injury as a way of getting Peter’s trust. The two run into the vault to stop it all. Adam thinks he’s God, and Hiro touches Adam, warping them away — just as Adam drops the vial. It tumbles, tumbles…. commercial.
Peter freezes it just before it hits, preventing release of the virus. Matt walks in and asks, “where’d those guys go?” Peter astutely replies, “they’re gone.” Thanks, Pete. They pause to look at the other gallery of objects, then Nathan tells Peter to destroy the virus. Peter exercises his Radioactive Man powers to nuke the hell outta the virus, leaving only cinders, but as they fall away they leave the DNA mark momentarily in his hand. WTF?
Matt the Cop rapidly changes topic to how they should kick ass to quit getting manipulated. Nathan then suggests they should take everything public and hold a press conference, while the Company cameras look on.
Lab. Mohinder administers the healing blood and Maya is cured, just as Elle walks in and yells Sylar’s name. He shoots her, but she gets up and fries him, but he still gets away as Elle gives pursuit. Mohinder looks and realizes that the healing blood is gone, in the hands of an insane superpowered villain, and instead remarks, “Niki.”
Nawlans. Monica gets her cell phone confiscated and is about to get arsoned. Niki and Micah pull up, to see the gangsta pull away. Niki confronts the man, kicks him in the shins and pistol-whips him a couple of times before running into the burning building to save Monica. Niki super-lifts a beam out of the way and is trapped by the fires. Monica escapes and the building explodes, seemingly with Niki inside. Yay!
Japan. Ando wanders into his office, to find Hiro. When Ando asks what happened to Adam, Hiro replies, “he can never hurt anyone ever again.” Cue scene of Adam trapped in a coffin in the Nakamura gravesite. Well, that should keep him sane and balanced.
Lab. Maya’s OK, and Elle’s back and jazzed about saving lives and stuff.
NYC. Peter and Nathan make up. It’s touching, but now it’s time for a press conference. Nathan gives a speech that sounds remarkably like Jim McGreevey’s speech, with a survey of the whole season in a few flashbacks. It’s full of vague references, and just as Nathan is about to reveal his secret, an unseen assailant plugs him in the chest with two bullets. Matt the Cop sees no one, except for a man in black with a black baseball cap. So WTF with the monster in the mirror, and this whole season about Nathan? Was that just abandoned? Gimme a bone, Kring! On the phone, Mama Petrelli understands — it was unavoidable, but now Pandora’s box is opened. End of volume two.
Volume Three: “Villains.” In an alleyway, Sylar injects himself with the healing blood. He feels a surge of power returning to him as he heals, and as his telekinesis returns he remarks, “I’m back.” This season, it kinda sucked, and now it’s kinda over.
Posted on December 3, 2007, in Reviews, Television. Bookmark the permalink. 46 Comments.
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And that’s how it ended?? I got stuck watching the two hour (excellent!) The Closer tonight- and figured I’d watch Heroes here. Thanks for the re-cap- I always appreciate your sheer geniosity.
My pleasure.
Wow. What a suck fest that ended up being.
Three observations:
1. This was better than last season’s finale. Hiro finally got the job done.
2. Mohinder is the stupidest person on the face of the earth (but you already knew that).
3. The writers must have had a blast with that Popeye the Sylar Man teaser for next season.
This ep had some weird plot holes, IMO. First, why would Peter go to all that effort to yank the safe door open, when we know he could WALK THROUGH the door, destroy the virus, and walk back out? Oh…yeah…that would interfere with the dramatic confrontation scene. Second, Niki claims to have lost her powers, but then uses them to free Monica, but then can’t use them to free herself–huh? Third, why on earth should Nathan be dead? He may not have ready access to his daughter’s blood, but Peter has absorbed the power, thus HIS blood should work to heal Nathan’s gunshot wounds.
NICE touch with Adam, though! I’d say being buried alive, and potentially living through it ad infinitum, is much worse than a shot to the head. It raises questions, though. Can Adam starve to death? Can he suffocate? Or would the damage of starvation and asphyxiation keep healing, over and over? This leaves the possibility of Hiro retrieving Adam at some future time, when Adam is needed, but surely Adam will completely lose his mind after being in that coffin for an extended time?
I stopped watching this season for a long time, and tried to watch the finale last night. Ended up watching a Nova on PBS instead.
Haven’t watched this since the third episode. Sounds like I didn’t miss anything.
Hehehe. Excellent observation about the walking through the door thing Nick.
I actually thought the Adam thing was a plot hole too. How long would it take him to claw his way through the coffin and dig himself out? Surely not more than a few months I would think…
I just wanted to point out that Niki didn’t have her powers back. She was kicking ass “au natural.”
I’m thinking certain coffins would be impossible to scrape through without tools of some sort …
I thought the scenes with Hiro time-shifting/teleporting around Peter Petrelli were pretty cool. My first thought was that Hiro didn’t have a chance against Peter … but that impression changed pretty quickly. He seems to have much more control over his powers than he ever had previously.
Hiro was almost badass in parts of the show – until he saw flying Petrelli and stretched out his arms like a geek, again.
I’m thinking certain coffins would be impossible to scrape through without tools of some sort …
An infinite supply of regenerating fingers would be all the tools he would need. Given enough time he could claw his way through any coffin.
Not an infinite supply of regenerating coffins!
nyuk nyuk nyuk!
This clip seems relevant.
Geoff J., just to be argumentative – aren’t some coffins made of steel? I’m trying to imagine a scenario where flesh and bone would be sufficient to make a dent in that kind of material.
The sanity/insanity issue has been raised as well. If the process takes too long, he might turn a bit nutty. Then again, 400 years of life might have made taught him extraordinary patience.
danithew,
Given a sufficient supply of saliva and a little bit of elbow grease I would think that rusting/rubbing through a coffin would take less than a standard lifetime. Of course I have no idea why it is we’re discussing this.
Just because he’s immortal doesn’t mean he doesn’t get hungry or tired…
How about dehydrated?
Season 1 (except the finale) was better. nuff said
Ok, Peter’s lack of power use bugged me. So did Peter not showing/using his powers at the press conference. Wasn’t that the point? Who was the shooter – mamma Petrelli or HRG man?
Anyway, the thing that bugged me the most was why Hiro didn’t simply jump in time to the past? Then what bugged me is what happens to the girlfriend in the future if the future doesn’t exist. Does she leap into the current time frame. The Lost writers noted that Heroes has lots of problems due to continuity issues from Hiro’s powers. The lecture by his dad about changing the past might be a way to try and avoid those too much though.
BTW – when the bleeding eye girl got shot, did anyone else say, “now that’s listening to your audience.” (Seriously, if she and Mohinder get together I fear for the intelligence of their kids)
As for the coffin, if the girl from Kill Bill could get out I’m sure Adam can.
I haven’t seen Kill Bill, but seriously…nobody (not even Niki!) can lift a coffin lid from inside, with six feet of dirt on top of it. Adam’s not going anywhere, until a plotline needs his blood (or some such oddity).
I have to wonder about Hiro now, though. Granted, he didn’t have a gun with him to shoot Adam, but still, doesn’t one need to be just a tiny bit sadistic to bury an immortal person alive?
The link in #15 doesn’t seem to be a link. Can you post the URL to the clip?
Well the point was not that Adam would lift the coofin lid Nick — rather that he would claw a hole in the coffin and then dig his was out. Since he presumably has hundreds of years to try and an endless supply of new hands to nub down and grow back it seems unlikely that prison would hold him long. (Though it would be quite sadistic if it could…)
oops, try this, Nick.
Clark,
I believe that you refer to “the bride” not “the girl”.
The bigger issue in this discussion is air and food. In order to keep wearing away at a coffin lid, whether it was steel, or wood Adam would need to breathe. He’d run out of air, die, no new air could enter the coffin, and he’d regenerate only to die again.
I think the writers need to clarify Peter’s powers. He’s getting pretty ridiculous.
It seems like he only uses his most recently required powers. It would be better in terms of drama if he was limited in some way. Either after a certain period of time he no longer can use a power he comes in contact with, or he has a limited number of powers he can access, or with 12 powers he can’t possibly control them all.
I think excessive time travel and excessive powers are where the show gets silly.
How long can a freshly regenerated person hold their breath?
Brian, it seems to me that Adam’s powers are very much based upon Highlander. (I’d argue that it is partially a Highlander homage) In which case Adam should be able to sword fight deep on the floor of Scottish lakes. Until someone takes his head…
BTW – even though the biggest problem on the show is how stupid everyone is, this finale was much better than last years. But seriously, how much better would it be if at least one character had a clue?
i.e.
Peter instead of removing the door uses his telekinesis to adjust the lock mechanism’s internals, unlocking the door.
Hiro, instead of using a samurai sword, goes and gets a machine gun and teleports around as fast as he can shooting as he goes.
Nikki, realizing that the non-burning portion of a rafter only recently set on fire isn’t that hot, pushes it aside.
Peter, instead of standing there looking stupid, shows his powers, injects Nathan with his blood, and then goes after the killer. (And why is it that no one bothered to even look to see who the shooter was – he just walks away with cops all around?)
Mohinder, instead of just giving everything to Sylar, tries to poison him. (I mean he was in the tax for a while) Or at least makes a grab for the gun after Sylar puts it down.
The blond blue fire girl actually can hit what she aims at. Whaaa? We had this episode showing how she can control it and she keeps missing Sylar at close range and then when she hits him he merely falls down?!?!?!
One could go on. It’s sometimes like a bad horror movie where the heroes are so stupid you almost beg the serial killer to knock them off so as to improve the strength of the species.
How exactly did Hiro get Adam into the coffin? That would suggest there was room enough in the coffin for both of them, right?
Or do we assume that he knocked him out, then had him buried in the coffin? (Otherwise, how did he know there was an empty coffin down there? Not an empty coffin? Ewwwwwww!)
Oh well, it was nicely poetic and a well-deserved fate. Good one, Carp!
I did cheer when Maya got shot. (But thought, what was the point of their whole storyline?) And then… ah, man.
The most likely scenario for Adam is that he’d asphyxiate, regenerate, come to consciousness, scrape his fingers to the bones, asphyxiate, regenerate, and so on. However, after a few days he’d dehydrate as well, and although he can regenerate, it’s questionable whether he can rehydrate without contact to the opne air. After dehydration, the lack of food would eventually take the toll on his cells.
It all depends on how the regeneration occurs. Does his body draw the material for new cell growth from itself, or does it draw the material from the surrounding environment, or is there an internal mechanism that makes new cells?
My co-worker and I were discussing this and one scenario is for Adam to eat himself.
Seriously, if he eats, say his arm and gets the moisture and protein he needs from that, it will regenerate, and he can eat it again and again.
Then all he needs to do is scrape really, really hard before he asphyxiates.
Needless to say he’ll be ape-shit crazy and hell bent on revenge when he gets out of there. So I see potential for a great villain.
I would pay good money — yes, PAY — for that version of Cannibaladam.
Anybody know if caskets are generally locked shut in any way?
Yeah, it’s a federal guideline in case the undead ever rise…
I’m sure that if they ever need Adam back they’ll just choose some random lame explanation for him getting out.
Aside from that, he shouldn’t be able to get out. If you look again as the camera pans up from him, the coffin looks pretty solid and there’s also something that looks like a stone or concrete slab above the coffin (a white thick layer of some sort); he shouldn’t be able to get through that.
Looking over the Costco casket site it seems that a standard steel casket is made of 18 gauge steel. According to this page 18 gauge steel is 0.0478 inches thick. That’s less than a twentieth of an inch.
Also it seems from the Costco page that the sides of the casket are at most 2 inches thick, most of which seems to be padding.
Note that the caskets are all sealed, but I’m guessing that attacking the seal first might be a good idea.
The question then becomes how many scratches from human fingernails would it take to get through 0.0478 inches of steel.
Let’s say each scratch takes off .000001 of steel, or a millionth of an inch. Then it should only take 47,800 scratches for Monroe to break through.
If he takes a bite of his arm, scratches the lid, asphyxiates, dies, regenerates, and repeats the cycle once every hour, then he’s scratching 24 times a day, and he could be out of the coffin in 1992 days. That’s approximately 5.5 years, about one 72nd of a 400 year life span, comparable to about a year in the life of you and me.
The real consideration is what does he do once he breaks through. Keep in mind that he doesn’t have superhuman strength. What’s the weight of 6 feet of dirt?
Best thread ever.
I still think that we need to consider saliva as an accelerant.
However, to be quite honest, I think within the world of HEROES, and the few rules the writers themselves have set up, I now believe that putting Adam in the coffin would be fatal.
Intrigued by how long it takes one to die from anoxia (total lack of oxygen to the brain). I learned it only takes about 4-6 minutes and huge numbers of brain cells start to die. If a head shot from a gun is fatal, how much worse would it be to have every cell in your brain die of oxygen deprivation.
Anoxia typically severely damages the part of the brain known as the hippocampus, which forms new memories. So the bottom line is Adam wouldn’t remember to scratch through the coffin, or eat his arm.
If Adam is wearing a belt, it might be useful to use the buckle to scratch at the steel casket, instead of his fingers – for as long as the buckle lasts.
That might speed things up by a few days.
Brian, if there’s one thing I’m sure of it is that the writers of Heroes have no rules they follow.
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