To prepare for the confrontation ahead, Hiro follows respected businessman, husband and father Arthur Petrelli in the days before he "died" to discover what drove him to create rival company Pinehearst and strike at Angela. Later, a moment unfolds where Sylar, horrified and guilt-ridden, might have stopped his murderous pursuit of abilities -- that is, if H.R.G. and Elle had swayed from their monstrous assignment. Finally, under the wing of Company man Thompson, agent-in-training Meredith watches her new life go up in smoke, following the arrival of her hot-headed brother.

I won't be around for the live episode posting/chat due to my work schedule, but still feel free to have the live discussion. I might make it home for the last half of the show tonight...it just depends.

Papa Petrelli is worse than any we have seen so far!
I like this 'back story' ep.
The connections are making sense!

Wild and vilandragirl this isn't as much fun without the two of you to chat with

I am here now but completely lost since I came in halfway through.

OH CRAP! Nooooooo!



Glad you are here!
I can't wait for your thoughts on the ep!

So, Mama Petrelli isn't so bad afterall.

I'm really liking this Sylar backstory.

The Claire/Mom connection was pretty clever, but I did see it coming as soon as I saw the burning train.

Elle/Sylar is a weird combination. I'm kind of glad that she's faking it.

I'm only about 40 mins in right now.

I'm glad you two were able to come by
I understand work though.

No, Mama P isn't that bad, though she isn't 'Mother of the Year' either.
It's sort of funny seeing the Heroes as they were when we first met them.
I miss that, but hadn't really realized how much.

The Sylar backstory is sad to me.
Why did they give him away? Do we know and I just forgot?

No, we don't know, but I'm hoping they'll go into that more. We got a little bit of the really old backstory in S1 (like one flashback to when they gave Claire to HRG), but not nearly enough.

Wow, crazy ending, pretty scary stuff.

Very graphic that is for sure!

Well I hope we find out before the season is over why they gave Sylar up.

Well I will give my review tomorrow. I am not in the mood to watch it tonight. I did see the last half mostly and it was pretty good but I was a bit lost as to when they were taking place in, past or present.

With the exception of the end, it was all in the past.
I look forward to both of your comments.

I'm gone now.

Papa P is the devil reincarnate. Ugh I can't believe he wanted to kill his own son just to protect his precious plan. At least we now know that Linderman is not as bad as he seemed to be since he opened Mama P's eyes to what her husband was doing to her. But I wonder how he got this ability to steal others powers completely? That has yet to be answered.

Poor Hiro. I read some spoilers though that maybe Ando will come to his rescue in some way.

It was interesting to see Claire's mother's backstory. She is a bit more interesting now and knowing that the other fire guy is her brother.

The Sylar backstory is sad. He tries to not be bad but I liked how he described it as an addiction. I found it very interesting. Interesting how the "Company" really had their dirty little hands involved in so many lives. It is nice to see this other side of Elle too. I am liking her more now. She has just seen to much in her life that is has slightly warped her too. She is more of a victim overall.

It would appear that the fans are not the only ones concerned with the lack of originality and character development on “Heroes”. Following the previous episode, two prominent members of the writing staff were fired and Tim Kring resumed control of show-running responsibilities. To be honest, I think this is a case of scapegoating. The problems come right from the top, and Kring’s inability to make good on his promises (both to the fans and within the story).

This is yet another episode that takes us back to a time just before or concurrent with the first season, retroactively changing the context of certain scenes and choices. When this was first done, it was impressive and clever. Now that it’s been done several times, and almost always to adjust the continuity to explain away contradictions caused by more recent plot twists.

Take, for example, the decision to recast Sylar as a man driven less by psychological need for power, acceptance, and recognition than a “hunger” that drives him to accumulate those things. This was already in flat contradiction to the first season. Instead of trying to find a way to reconcile the discrepancies in the “present”, the writers chose to use this episode to shoehorn the new “reality” into past events.

The problem is that it doesn’t fit. Elle wasn’t working for Noah during that time; the first season clearly shows him working constantly with the Haitian. Also, it ignores the established aspect of Sylar’s ability that allows him to recognize when someone has a power. He does not recognize that Elle has an ability, and he trusts her far too quickly to be believable. It’s just an attempt to reform Sylar from total villain to misunderstood hero. Far better to have killed him off in the first season finale.

The Arthur/Angela story was better, if only because it actually clarified a few things, even if it was just as much a retcon as the Sylar plot thread. I don’t like the idea of Angela being mind-warped for so long, and I don’t buy Linderman’s decision to open her eyes to the truth. But it does remind us that Angela is just as capable of real evil as Arthur ever was, but she draws the line at harming her own children. (Which continues to suggest, in my book, that the “solution” to this conflict will be Peter, Nathan, and Gabriel charting their own independent course.)

At least the first two plot threads seemed to connect to the rest of the ongoing arc. Meredith’s plot thread seemed to suggest a lot more importance than the character currently deserves. I’m not sure there’s anything about Meredith that inspires enough interest to justify the time spent on her. It’s entirely possible that she’ll factor into the end of the current arc, thus explaining her prominence here, but I think it’s equally likely that the writers just needed a way to fill out the episode. Where the other plot threads had an obvious relevance to the arc, this one felt unusually isolated.

And then, there’s the end of the episode. It seems ludicrous that the precognitive Magical African Man would be killed so easily, even by someone with Arthur’s power. It’s possible, however, that precognition in the “Heroes” universe sometimes follows the same rules as seen in the “Dune” mythos: those with prescience of equal power tend to cancel each other out. Even so, it felt contrived, and with so many other plot elements looking equally questionable of late, that’s exactly how it will be taken by disaffected fans.

The bottom line is that this episode wanted to be special, and instead, it came across as desperate for attention. So do the changes to the writing staff and the promises for a tighter plot and deeper character development. The fans have heard it all before, and they’re no longer giving Kring credit before the deed is done.

I agree with what you say about Sylar and Elle.

entilzha nice post. You pointed a few things I had not thought of with continuity.
I'm still trying to figure out why Mama P sent Sylar away. Was it her choice? Did Papa P make her do it? Still so many questions.

I do agree that they should have killed off Sylar at the end of the first season. As seen now there are plenty of other people who could have played the villian in the future of the show, without him.

I disagree that this episode came across as a desperate need for attention. I do think this was still a good episode and have talked to several others that said this episode drew them back into the show, when they were faltering in watching it before, simply because it did give some back story and helped them understand the possible direction of this story arch.

I'm thinking Mama P sent Sylar away possibly.

As I said in my first post, I liked this 'back story' ep.
I think they did a good job.
I am curious as to where they will go from here though.
They know they made mistakes that fans and critics didn't like.
What, if anything at this point in time will change?

I disagree. In 6 Months Ago, when we see Sylar's mother, it becomes clear (at least to me), that his primary motivation is acceptance. He wants to be special so he can be loved. I think the same showed through in his interaction with Elle last night. She kept saying how special it was, and ultimately, I believe that was the driving force in him killing Zane. Yes, the addiction part has been brought in, but aren't most addictions emotionally based?


Yes, we saw him often with the Hatian, but there is nothing that says a person can't go between two partners. Elle and the Hatian have very specific skills. It would have done him no good to take the Hatian to Sylar, when his primary objective was to see Sylar use his powers.


I don't recall that Sylar can recognize when people have powers. (Which doesn't mean it didn't happen, just that I don't recall.) If he could recognize people's abilities, why did he need the list? And when he found their location, I never saw any indication that he intuitively knew who they were.

All very good points, vilandragirl.