Heroes 1.21 - "The Hard Part"
Original Airdate: May 7th, 2007

I am simultaneously frustrated by and impressed with this episode. Frustrated, because last week was so cohesive and amazing and I can’t help but feel like now we’re back to the more fragmented version of Heroes, wherein I care a whole lot about a couple of plotlines and not at all about some of the others. And impressed, because the ones that I do care a whole lot about are frakkin’ amazing.

So let’s start with the amazing. For me, this outing is all about Sylar and his slightly insane mom. Mom is kooky! Mom loves snowglobes! Mom has a strangely palatial bedroom in an otherwise dinky apartment! Sylar visits Mom after painting himself taking GeicoTed’s power, and realizing that he therefore must be the cause of the upcoming explosion. He actually feels some guilt, and suddenly we see the character’s gooey, nerdy insides and it’s pretty sad.

Kudos to Zachary Quinto, who makes us feel both of Sylar’s sides throughout this episode � the freaked out, human one and the evil, mustache-twirling one. The scenes wherein he uses his power to create an apartment-sized snowglobe for Mom is an amazing example of what Heroes can do when it’s on its game � the show is capable of creating epic moments out of human desire and decent use of slow-mo. Mom, incidentally, ends up dead after she tries to stab her son with a pair of scissors. Eep.

Equally exciting is Hiro’s continuing quest, as he tracks Sylar, yet can’t seem to kill him when the chips are down. There’s a boatload of foreshadowing being dumped on these scenes, but it doesn’t feel too heavy-handed � it just contributes to the idea that Hiro will definitively transform into the Hero he’s meant to be by season’s end.

Now we’re getting into the stuff I didn’t care about as much, but I guess a lot of it is probably necessary in guiding us through these final chapters. First off, Jessica and D.L. set off to save Micah, who’s hanging out with Candice-as-Jessica/Niki. They end up paying a visit to the Linderseum, where they discover that their whole family is actually some kind of weird, Linderman-fueled science project. There isn’t really a lot more to say about this except that Jessica wears a really gorgeous, shiny trench coat throughout, and I want one.

And Peter wants Claire to ditch Paris in favor of hanging around. To sweeten the deal, he gives her a gun so she can shoot him if he starts exploding. Jesus, Peter. You have the worst plans in the history of the world. I hope Dr. Who comes back and schools you and hits you some more with a stick.

Oh, dear�I seem to have some unchecked aggression towards Peter, don’t I? I’m not sure where that’s coming from. I actually like Milo on this show, and I was one of those vocal anti-Jess-ers when he did Gilmore Girls. But every once I in a while, I feel like he has one setting for this character, and that setting is CRAZILY INTENSE and it bugs a little. Like in this episode.

There’s also something with Mo and a little girl named Molly Walker, who has the power to locate people, wherever they might be. She’s also sick with the same thing that plagued Mo’s sister, but he cures her and it’s actually really sweet. This storyline isn’t especially fascinating, but it does endear me to Mo a whole lot. He smiles quite a bit and bonds with Molly and it’s all pretty sweet and actually makes me hope that they’re not planning on killing him in the season finale. I know I always joke about Mo being kind of useless, but I’d be sad to see him go.

Anyway. We conclude with a fairly neat bit of insanity that makes me start to care about the Peter/Claire plot again. Peter and Claire hook up with Matt, Bennet and GeicoTed (aka My Favorite Heroes spin-off) and Peter starts to absorb GeicoTed’s power and gives Claire a look like, "Time to shoot me, OK?" As cliffhangers go, it’s an OK one, though it’s certainly not on par with, say, Claire being flayed open on an autopsy table. Still, I guess it at least gives Peter a reason to be CRAZILY INTENSE � not that he usually needs one.

iTunes Links:

Heroes - Series
Heroes - Season 1
This episode - "The Hard Part"

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.