Heroes Volume Four, Chapter Ten: 1961

Hey! Hey! No fair! This episode opens with some Mohinder-heavy “Previously on Heroes…” footage that we’ve never seen! Okay, granted, “Mohinder argues with his landlord” might not be the most scintillating plotline Heroes has ever drummed up, and maybe it deserved to be excised, but we’ve had very little quality Mohinder exposure this volume. In any case, if the footage was necessary enough to the current episode to require summarizing, it should have been necessary enough to appear in an episode.

(Fair warning: I’m going to be talking about Mohinder an awful lot. That’s because thinking about Mohinder and his freakishly lovely bone structure always boosts my spirits, and after this sloppy, improbable, boring, dismal episode, my spirits are in desperate need of boosting. Heroes may sometimes suck eggs, but Mohinder is always beautiful.)

At Coyote Sands, Nathan, Peter, Claire, and Bennet dig up bunches of skeletons at Angela’s behest. Peter asks Angela why they’re doing this. Oh, Peter, now you’ve done it. Angela launches into a series of terrible flashbacks to 1961, in which Teen Angela and her slow-witted sister Alice arrive at a relocation camp for super-powered people run by Young Chandra Suresh and Young Dr. Zimmerman. Angela is at the camp because of her prophetic dreams, whereas Alice has the ability to control the weather. Despite the presence of armed guards, the camp seems cheerful and bucolic.

Here’s the deal: these flashback scenes are awful. They’re inane and pointless and dull, and they don’t make any sense in the context of the series as a whole (if Chandra Suresh really had worked extensively with super-powered individuals at the camp, he shouldn’t have been so pants-wettingly happy to find Sylar--and thus find validation for his widely lampooned theories about the existence of special abilities--back in season one). Therefore, I’m going to dispense with them as swiftly as possible: Angela has a dream warning her that Chandra Suresh will kill everyone at the camp, her sister and parents included. One night, after Angela sneaks off to the local malt shop for some squeaky-clean teenaged fun with fellow camp residents Teen Charles Deveaux, Teen Bob Bishop, and Teen Linderman, Alice spazzes out while Chandra is testing her abilities. This leads to a scuffle, which leads to a riot, which leads to the camp guards slaughtering everyone. Post-massacre, Angela and the boys grimly decide to band together and form the Company as a way to prevent any future catastrophes. The major accomplishment of these flashbacks is to confirm my suspicion from two episodes ago, back when Angela was sanctimoniously telling Peter she had to become evil in order to save the world, that the more we learn about Angela, the less interesting she becomes.

Back in the present, Angela tells Peter she’s been dreaming that Alice is still alive. She wants to find her body to confirm her death, thus all the extemporaneous exhuming. Peter asks why Angela never mentioned any of this before. Angela’s answer: “I’m allowed to protect you.” Has Angela always been this odious, or is this a recent development? Because I distinctly recall liking Angela a great deal these past couple of seasons, but now that seems like a foreign concept. Angela wants to return to the old Company methods for controlling people with super-powers (i.e. by killing them surreptitiously) instead of Danko’s methods (i.e. by killing them outright). Peter thinks this sounds pretty sucky, so he flounces off into the desert. Nathan follows him.

Claire and Angela chat. Angela tells Claire, “I wish I had half of your strength,” then goes on to praise Claire’s courage and self-confidence and spirit. Hey, you know what would be awesome? If we could see a little of Claire’s alleged strength and courage and self-confidence and spirit in action instead of just hearing bursts of clunky expository dialogue about it. That’d be great.

I’m in a foul mood. I apologize. This episode has made me a little crabby.

Anyway, while Angela is stroking her granddaughter’s ego, a wild storm strikes up. Angela claims she saw this happening in her dream and starts screaming for Alice. Angela and Claire get separated in the storm, and Angela vanishes.

Peter and Nathan hole up in a nearby café and squabble with each other. Peter brings up the grudge he’s held against Nathan stemming from the 1986 World Series. Nathan, who has been this volume’s main driving force of evil, who jump-started a course of chaos and destruction when he launched his cockamamie scheme to round up and imprison everyone with special abilities, who tricked and betrayed Peter and handed him over to Danko, delivers the single best line of the episode when he tells Peter, “We have got to find a way to forgive each other.” “We,” Nathan? “We”?

Bennet wanders out in the storm to find Claire. Mohinder appears out of nowhere, conks him over the head, drags him into a shed, and yells at him to stop following him around. Bennet is rather nonplussed by the delightful randomness of this turn of events. So am I. Mohinder fondles skulls and gets teary about the possibility that his father was performing inhumane experiments on the camp residents. You know what’s great about this episode? Mohinder’s hair. He’s backed off from the super-gelled look he was sporting earlier this season, and his curls are once again tumbling across his forehead in a most attractive manner. I approve.

Mohinder and Peter go in search of Angela. They have a rather nice scene where Mohinder, still feeling guilty about his crazy evil bug-man escapades last volume, berates himself for being weak and corruptible. Peter gives him various reassuring pats and tells him that everybody does evil things sometimes. So says the guy who robbed a bank and murdered his brother in an evil alternate future and tried to cut his mom’s head open. Really, I’m not sure why Mohinder’s the only one suffering from a guilt complex and self-esteem issues this volume.

Bennet and Nathan mope about how they’ve both really screwed things up, what with their lunatic imprison-everyone scheme. Bennet tells Nathan about Sylar’s cool new shape-shifting ability. Claire joins them and confesses that she can’t remember the last time she read a book. This is not surprising. She also says, “There was a time when I wanted to become a doctor.” This is somewhat more surprising.

Adult Alice, who is creepy and weird (though not notably creepier or weirder than Young Alice) spirits Angela away to an underground bunker and plays Roy Orbison records to torment her. There’s a ham-fisted attempt to explain Angela’s sock-shoplifting fixation from the pilot episode, then the sisters hug and cry a lot… man, it’s so awful, it defies description. Peter and Mohinder burst into the bunker to save Angela. Alice mistakes Mohinder for Chandra, because hey, apparently one Indian guy is pretty much the same as another, and zaps him with lightning bolts. Angela calms her down and cries some more, and Alice wanders off or disappears into the ether or dies or something.

Peter gives Mohinder a canister of film that might or might not reveal the truth about Chandra’s level of culpability in whatever went down at Coyote Sands. Everyone gets ready to leave, but Mohinder decides to stay behind, probably because he’s had his fill of the Petrellis. Mohinder, babe, I’m with you.

Angela, Peter, Nathan, Claire, and Bennet hang out at a diner. On the television, a press conference is given by… Nathan Petrelli. Bennet deduces that Sylar must be now impersonating Nathan.

Well. That was… Well. Maybe next episode will be better, huh?

Comments

Morgan Richter said…
FIRST!

I have nothing to add. Oh, Heroes. I thought we were friends. I feel betrayed.
Patrick said…
Cheated into second!

I kind of liked the explanation of Angela's sock stealing in episode one (it has already been included in her heroeswiki entry with the line: 'With an interval of 56 episodes, this is the longest plot hole of Heroes to be filled').

However I do share a lot of Morgan's concerns. I am especially disappointed that Dr. Chandra Suresh has been exposed as a bit of a fake. It's very easy to publish a groundbreaking book called 'Activating Evolution' when you've been aware since 1961 that people have powers! He had direct evidence of the powers of Angela and Alice and even of their father (who could send energy waves). I'm afraid I consider that cheating Dr. Suresh, if you even have a doctorate...

As Morgan says, it does make his search for Sylar seem a little strange. Especially since he had presumably done tests on Daniel Linderman (who went on to found the Linderman Corporation) and Charles Deveaux (who was so rich and successful an entire building was named after him). So he knew of two very high profile people who had powers at the start of season one.

It was interesting that one of the buildings in the camp (I think where the main research was taking place) was called Building 26.

I also shared Morgan's amusement that after all Nathan has done this season Peter seemed more upset about some Mets tickets back in 1986. Oh Peter. I'll be rooting for Sylar when next you meet.

That would be a great ending for the season - if most of the heroes were wiped out by Sylar and then we could start next year with a completely new cast.
Lou said…
Great review Morgan, I was chuckling throughout. I agree wholeheartedly. It truly was a dismal episode. I wandered away at some point to wash dishes.

The only high point plotwise was Sylar as Nathan.

Im so glad for the return of the pretty curls on Mo. And he's all tortured and regretful. Aww I just want to hug him. (IMO you can never talk about Mo too much. Id be quite happy if the whole review was about his beauty. But then I guess your readership would mostly just consist of me...)
Morgan Richter said…
Oh Peter. I'll be rooting for Sylar when next you meet.This morning, I seem to be suffering from a rare yet acute ailment known as "Petrelli Fatigue."

Sometimes I find Heroes' half-assedness kind of endearing. Witness last week's episode, when Mohinder's landlord presented him with Chandra's Big Box of Plot that he'd stashed in the basement. (Ingrid and I were riffing on all the future possibilities of further Boxes of Plot: "That one is labeled "Do Not Open Until Season Five!"). And then there are times when the sloppiness just makes me feel crabby and humorless.

I did enjoy Mohinder popping up out of nowhere and randomly yelling at a confused HRG to stop following him. That was a fine, fine moment.

Id be quite happy if the whole review was about his beautyIt may come to that. Not going to lie: as long as lovely Sendhil Ramamurthy is on the show, I'm probably going to keep watching no matter how lousy it gets, because he's just awfully nice to look at. But if there are more episodes like this one, I may have to watch it with the volume muted.
Morgan Dodge said…
I was so excited that they explained why Angela had a sock fetish that I completely blanked out on the rest of the episode. Or maybe... maybe the rest of the episode was just that forgettable?

I'm curious. Do you think that they wrote that entire episode to explain the sock fetish? In the writers meeting was there a day of "ok guys, we made her steal socks in the first season, now how are we going to explain this away?" And thus the episode was born!

I missed large chunks of this episode and yet I feel like I missed nothing.
I did like Chuck last night, however. I was particularly fond of the Princess Bride reference. Very nicely done.
Lou said…
...as long as lovely Sendhil Ramamurthy is on the show, I'm probably going to keep watching no matter how lousy it gets...I hear you.

Do you think that they wrote that entire episode to explain the sock fetish?I believe this is the only rational explanation of WTH this ep was all about. If only they had this sort of fastidiousness on Lost.
Morgan Richter said…
Do you think that they wrote that entire episode to explain the sock fetishI am all in favor of explaining away plot holes. However, I do think maybe the episode explaining what happened to Peter's poor Irish girlfriend after he stranded her in a postapocalyptic hellscape should have come before the episode explaining away Angela's sock fixation.

Still: points for effort. I guess.

It's interesting how the only two episodes I've disliked this volume have been Angela-centric. Back when she was machiavellian and heartless, she was pretty awesome. I think they've tried to give her additional layers, which is great in theory, but now she seems self-pitying and smug. It's a disappointment.

Things I liked: Both HRG and Peter trying to cheer Mohinder out of his funk. It's good to see these characters sometimes respond to situations with basic human compassion. I also liked Claire's jeans-and-sweater combo. It was a good look for her.

I felt vast sympathy for the poor young actor forced to pretend to be Young Malcolm McDowell. Those are some big, crazy shoes to fill.
levitatethis said…
Yeah, this episode was...well, the only thing I really liked was Mohinder who at least not only looked fantastic, but more importantly acted IN CHARACTER. Unlike others he's at least feeling remorse and self-loathing for his past actions and trying to come to terms with what he's done and what it means about him, as a person.

Hell I'd watch a show about Mohinder striking out on his own on a journey of self-reflection and discovery because at least this version of him seems connected to the man we met in Season 1.

As for the rest of the show...Angela is starting to grate on me too, and I used to love her. All this retconning is pissing me off. I don't like the complete change to Chandra's storyline and you perfectly noted that this makes his finding Sylar (and thereby gaining validity for his theories) strange...since he already has a history with Specials.

I had the same reaction as you did when Angela was telling Claire how perfect and strong she is. Huh? When were we shown this? She's had her moments but there's still a ways to go before a claim like that can be made without sounding like the writers are trying to convince us of something that isn't yet there.

I did like Peter trying to cheer Mohinder up....

As for crazy sister mistaking Mohinder for Chandra -- didn't you know? All us Indians look alike ;-)
Morgan Richter said…
Levitatethis, it was nice having Mohinder stay in character even in an otherwise sloppy episode. No complaints about him, though I get a little uneasy at the way the show keeps hitting him on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper for his past actions while letting some of the others (Peter, Matt, Bennet): a) get away with doing despicable things without consequences, and b) get portrayed in a sympathetic light.

I can't stand the retconning. It's insulting to the viewers. I'm cool with small details getting fudged (Mohinder's age when Shanti died had to be shifted around to establish that he was conceived to cure her of the virus), but I get irked when they change things we've already seen in past episodes, such as Chandra's excitement over discovering Sylar's abilities. We've seen it. It's locked in place: Sylar is the first person with abilities whom Chandra meets. It's too late to change it, no matter what cool plot idea you come up with later that might contradict it.

Claire's had some good moments, but having Angela list all these admirable qualities that we haven't really seen was lazy writing. I know it takes more effort to have this sort of information come out organically through the actions of the characters, but it makes for a much tighter script and a much better show.
Patrick said…
Yeah, Morgan's right - what about the poor Irish girlfriend stranded 'in a postapocalyptic hellscape'? It's bad enough that she was given an Irish-American name (Caitlin) which was unlikely enough, and that her Cork family had really dodgy accents, but she was very nice and didn't deserve to be abandoned and then forgotten about!

I laughed reading about Morgan and Ingrid's discussion of the 'Big Box of Plot' waiting for volume 5. Now Mohinder has something even better: A Big Reel of Plot which he can watch whenever some new storyline has to be developed.

I am taking bets that near the end of this volume Mohinder will watch the reel and get shocked by something (which we won't be shown). Then when Sylar is defeated and everyone is in a good mood Mohinder will solemnly announce that they have something much worse to worry about, something much much worse... They'll ask what, and he'll reply (honestly): 'I don't know. The writers haven't thought of that yet. But I'm sure it will be awesome, like that time Molly warned us about someone who was much worse than Sylar. But then he just turned out to be Matt's dad, who was really working for Peter's dad, and both were killed really easily. But this will be much better, trust me, Bryan Fuller is going to sort everything out over the summer'. I can't wait!
Patrick said…
Eleventh!

I also hated the actor playing the young Daniel Linderman. Did they cast him on the basis of who could do the worst Malcolm McDowell impression? I'd love to see the audition tape. And are acting rules so strict in Hollywood that they can only cast Americans to play Irish and British people? Because surely there must be some good young actors from Ireland and Britain over there who could have been used?

The young Linderman was so bad you could not understand why anyone would have been scared of him in season one. The only way you could imagine him as Alex would be in a musical version of A Clockwork Orange where nothing bad happened.
levitatethis said…
The fact that none of the other characters who have done highly questionable things seem to be showing much remorse is a huge issue. But considering I was irritated that Mohinder never really dealt with shooting Bennet in the face I'm happy enough that at least one character is reacting to his past deeds with all seriousness. Everyone else gives themselves a pat on their shoulders. At least Mohinder is all "I'm not ready to give myself a pass".

I agree that retconning can work when it's relatively inconsequential. But this show keeps trying to rewrite huge, signicant portions of the past and that's unacceptable. Just like in Volume 3 when Elle was suddenly written as the reason for Sylar being who he was instead of Chandra, this time around Chandra's backstory is being rewritten in a way that makes Volume 1 illogical. Did the writers have to make it Chandra who was the doctor working with the government in 1961? What, they couldn't fathom it being another Indian doctor? C'mon.

As much as I'm enjoying Volume 4, an episode like this frustrates me. I consider Volume 1 canon. All attempts to completely rewrite fundamental portions of it are bullshit and I refuse to go along with it.
Morgan Richter said…
I think it really would have added something if Young Linderman had been wearing a derby hat and false eyelashes on one eye, a la Malcolm in A Clockwork Orange. Then maybe the character would have had more impact.

Heh. Patrick, Ingrid and I were actually wondering whether we could get you to weigh in on the show's gritty, realistic second-season depiction of Cork, flawless Irish accents and all. I'm sure you'd never be able to guess that they didn't really film in Cork.

(Ingrid's not being shy with commenting this week, by the way. We're both currently out visiting our dad. There may be some lag time in responding to comments this week, but it's not because I'm ignoring anyone.)
Ingrid Richter said…
Heh. I would pay good money for a musical version of "A Clockwork Orange". Then again, I considered the Korova Milk Bar in NYC a cool place to take out-of-towners, so I might be completely suspect.
Patrick said…
Hi Morgan and Ingrid!

I'm trying to find some of the Irish television reviews from the time which I seem to remember were pretty scathing. One point in Heroes favour is that Irish accents are never done right on screen - even by Irish actors! They are always exaggerated so that the accent becomes a stage Irish caricature. See Pierce Brosnan (from Co. Meath) in the horrible 'Evelyn'. See also ALL the accents in 'PS I Love You'. I only saw the trailer in the cinema, and got into trouble for laughing too loudly. I remember them pronouncing Whelans - the famous music venue in Dublin - as Whale-ins. It is, of course, pronounced Whelans.

Anyway, I came across this quote from Adrian Pasdar about the casting of the Cork characters:

“The irony is we had American guys playing the Irish guys in those episodes because the Irish actors who auditioned for the roles didn’t sound Irish enough.

“So the portrayal of the guys from Cork, I have to admit, was very interesting. So I don’t know how much of it worked and how much of it didn’t”.

And as the Irish guy on the blog commented:

'I can tell you Adrian, none of it worked! '
Patrick said…
Cork people are very strange - they wave the Confederate flag at sporting events as their nickname is the 'Rebel County' and they consider themselves to be the best county in Ireland by some distance. They have a very distinct accent and a very distinct personality and neither was shown on Heroes.

There is a website called The People's Republic of Cork and they had some very harsh things to say about the accents. To quote MoWest:

'Offically stopped watching it when I saw Episode one.. season 2.. And it had the character with the worst Irish accent ever. FACT!

twas a pity cause I really like season 1'

They also have an astonishly crude version of the concept of 'jumping the shark' which I won't go into here, but I'm sure some Google searches will find it!
Patrick said…
Korova Milk Bar - disturbing. I see a new one has opened at White Plains.

I liked Young Alice and Young Angela in this episode and thought they did their jobs very well. Older Alice was terrible. She waited fifty years by the camp all abandoned and alone but it was only when Angela admitted she had lied that she realised this wasn't the perfect, safe life she had been promised.

Not that it was fifty years, but everyone kept saying that.
Morgan Richter said…
Ah, thanks for the Cork scoop, Patrick! Even on these shores, the Irish accents were pretty widely derided as being somewhat, er, inauthentic. Glad to have that confirmed.

Yeah, I didn't have any problem with the young actors. I thought Young Charles Deveaux was pretty charming, and Young Bob Bishop... well, he wore glasses and stood in the background a lot, which was pretty much all that was required of him. Mostly, I had a whole bunch of problems with the script. Those flashback scenes were so soggy and limp. Just embarrassing.

Someone on a message board commented that she hopes Alice becomes the main villainess of Volume Five. Just no. No, no. Please, no.
Dan said…
Man, what an awesome last two minutes!!! Heroes, you kick ass! Pure awesomeness.

(I'm feeling all positive today, so the revelation that Sylar has started his Nathan impression is all I want to focus on from this episode.)

I may have to watch it with the volume muted.As Morgan well knows, this was the only way I even attempted to watch episodes of Charmed. Rose McGowan, you can run around in skimpy attire for hours on end, just so long as I don't have to listen to any dialogue you may be uttering.

And as far as accents go, I'd just like to tangentially mention that the awesomeness that is Lost takes a serious nose dive every time the (allegedly) Australian mother of Claire (sans Bear) opens her mouth. The missus and I just collapse into giggle fits, which I'm pretty sure is not what the writers are striving for. Ah well.

(I seem to have spent most of this comment on shows other than Heroes... I can't imagine why)
Morgan Richter said…
(I seem to have spent most of this comment on shows other than Heroes... I can't imagine why) No idea, Dan. That's just strange! Because man, that was an awesome last couple of minutes! Nathan was Sylar! I mean, wow! Heroes, you're firing on all cylinders now!

Sigh. Yes, Sylar-as-Nathan was indeed an awesome revelation. The forty-two minutes preceding it were somewhat lacking in awesomeness.

Ah, well. Mohinder looked especially pretty this episode. I suppose that should be enough of a silver lining to keep me happy.
Jason Gilman said…
I was okay with the flashback scenes, but the grown up crazy Alice stuff... I don't know. Okay, so we learned some backstory in regards to the origins of the company, but what exactly was the purpose of this episode in moving the story line forward? Like others have said the more we find out about Angela the less interesting of a character she is. And now she's abandoned her sister a second time... lame.
Morgan Richter said…
Jason, I also had trouble trying to figure out what this episode really accomplished. We're two episodes away from the finale -- do we really need to have a lengthy detour about Angela's relationship with her sister? Kind of interesting finding out the origins of the Company, I suppose, but it wasn't a terribly exciting explanation.

Ah, well. It looks like next episode we'll be free and clear of this Coyote Sands business. Just as well.
Lou said…
I also had trouble trying to figure out what this episode really accomplished.It stank of a filler ep to me. The only real purpose IMO was to herald the return of Mo's curls. For that Im happy.

Lost takes a serious nose dive every time the (allegedly) Australian mother of Claire (sans Bear) opens her mouth.Yes! What the hell is all that about? I just cant bear it.

By the way Ingrid, Korova Milk Bar looks awesome. Anywhere that serves a cocktail involving a Snickers bar and Im there. But Im from the 'burbs so I would say that...
Morgan Richter said…
The only real purpose IMO was to herald the return of Mo's curls. For that Im happy. That's really all it takes to put me in a happy mood. To make it even better, Mo was all beautifully tearful and angst-ridden. Too bad he was stranded in such a dismal episode.

I also wish we had gotten a chance to see Mo go off on Nathan for chaining him up and throwing buckets of water on him. Nope. Doesn't seem to be holding much of a grudge for that, actually. He maybe threw Nathan a bit of a scathing look when Nathan asked him to go off after Peter, but that was about it.
Ingrid Richter said…
By the way Ingrid, Korova Milk Bar looks awesome. Oh, Lou, it was. It was touristy and loud and the bartender would card everyone twice, but they had molokos - gimmicky, alcoholic milkshakes - and great decor. So sad that the Lower East side joint closed. Haven't been to the one in White Plains, but it looks slick.
Dan said…
Yes! What the hell is all that about? I just cant bear it.Thanks, Lou. Glad to hear a non-Australian recognise the ludicrousness of that accent. I mean, I know we sound funny to everybody else, but we don't sound like that, surely.

Hmmm... I'm still not talking about Heroes. Sorry.

Um, I wonder how Skulky The Turtle Wonder is doing? I'd love to have seen him out there with a shovel, digging for all he was worth.
Lou said…
Glad to hear a non-Australian recognise the ludicrousness of that accent. I mean, I know we sound funny to everybody else, but we don't sound like that, surelyNo certainly don't. Ive spent some time in Oz, and that accent is an insult. It's Claire not 'Clear' for pete's sake woman.

Right Im off to White Plains to drink stupid cocktails and contemplate the smell of Mo's hair for this week. Hurrah, happy weekend all!
Ingrid Richter said…
Heh, even more off-topic, I remember chuckling over a lousy American accent on MI-5 (aka Spooks). Turned to Morgan and said: "Is that really how the British think we sound?"

Also, I distinctly remember an Australian foreign exchange student in high school telling all of us that we all sound like Kermit the Frog to her...
Dan said…
I distinctly remember an Australian foreign exchange student in high school telling all of us that we all sound like Kermit the Frog to her...Only when you play the banjo and sing implausibly about a surplus of songs serenading spectra.
Patrick said…
A final point before the new episode. If I was Peter I would have spent some time this episode thinking about what new power to take in place of the power of flight. There were far better powers available to him, especially Claire and her invulnerability. But he seemed happy to stick with flying, even though it made him the same as Nathan, and ensures he'll be pretty weak when trouble comes. Sure it might have been awkward when he explained to Claire why he needed to touch her, and she might have reminded him that they are broken up, oh wait I'm getting mixed up.

PS. I love Dan's hilarious recaps of the blog discussions on his blog!
Dan said…
If I was Peter I would have spent some time this episode thinking about what new power to take in place of the power of flightOh, Patrick, doesn't that presuppose Peter spends time thinking? That's not the Peter Petrelli I know.

But yeah, you have a point. Maybe Nathan or HRG could have suggested he snaffle some better powers.

PS. I love Dan's hilarious recaps of the blog discussions on his blog!Thanks. Recaps of comments of recaps. It's all delightfully meta.
Morgan Richter said…
I love Dan's hilarious recaps of the blog discussions on his blog! (BTW, I don't know why the formatting of italics in comments has been so wonky this week, folks. I'm hoping it's something that Blogger magically repairs by my next entry.) Yeah, Dan has a gift for boiling all our comments down to their bare (hilarious!) essences, doesn't he? Dan's cool that way.

(Comments about recaps of comments on recaps... sometimes there's a fine line between "meta" and "self-amusing.")

New episode tomorrow. It's got to be better than this one. Really.
Morgan Richter said…
Gah. Here's a question from this week's Behind the Eclipse Q&A with the writers:

“In ‘1961,’ Chandra was studying people with abilities (Angela, Bob, Linderman, etc.) Yet when we first met Chandra in Season 1, he was still looking for proof that Evolved Humans even existed. If Chandra Suresh knew people with abilities existed then why was he so desperate to find his subject zero?”

Angela talked about how the Company “Wiped memories.” There was a scene where Charles put the whammy on Chandra, but it was cut from an early draft – I thought it was better to let the audience imagine what happened – they do a very good job of it.
Not a bad explanation, but I'd argue that it's one they absolutely should have left in the script. If the scripts overall were tighter and more consistently clever, then it'd be safe to let the audience puzzle out the explanation. After so many continuity errors and gaffes and examples of retconning, though, viewers are going to naturally assume this was another screwup, unless there's explicit evidence suggesting otherwise.

Wow, this episode still makes me cranky a week later.