This was
billed as a much-anticipated episode, and it certainly had its
allure. The Hiro/Charlie episodes were some of the best of the first
season, and I was interested to see how the current version of Hiro
would manage to interact with the old timeline without causing
massive problems and changes. Add Samuel to the mix, and things get
really complicated.
Right off
the bat, there is one thing that irritates me. As much as I love
Samuel as a character and I enjoy his cryptic machinations, his plan
doesn’t quite fit with the way that time travel has been treated in
previous seasons. The writers always made a point to show the past
as relatively immutable and the future as to be determined. This is
definitely not the case with this season, especially since Samuel is
pushing Hiro to change things.
Some things
clearly have been changed over the course of the series. Hiro’s
original six-month relationship with Hiro is an obvious example, and
Hiro’s adventure in historical Japan in the second season caused
certain ripples. But this is on a much more substantial level.
Maybe it’s just the fact that Hiro used to insist on preserving the
timeline, and now he is not. And maybe it’s because time travel is
a storytelling crutch that the writers can’t seem to avoid.
That said, I
think it’s very interesting that Hiro would go so far as to
manipulate Sylar into curing Charlie and then resuming his reign of
terror. While it seems extreme at first glance, and therefore out of
character, I would argue that it speaks to how important Charlie
always has been to Hiro. People do terrible things for love, and
this proves how far Hiro will go for her. And that, in turn, makes
sense of Hiro’s decision to fall in line with Samuel’s desires.
I was
wondering how Mohinder would factor into this season, and why he
hasn’t made an appearance yet. I suppose we now know why Mohinder
has been out of the picture. It makes for a nice twist, even if I
personally haven’t missed Mohinder one bit since we last saw him.
I get the feeling this will integrate the carnival with the rest of
the known “Heroes” world a bit more, and that would not be a bad
thing.
It was also
great to see Charlie again, even if she looked noticeably different
from her original run in the first season. I’ve also gotten used
to the actress on “Glee”, so it took a moment to adjust.
Considering how the episode ends, I have to wonder if Charlie is
supposed to appear again later in the season. If not, maybe she’s
trapped in the same temporal limbo as Caitlin, Peter’s erstwhile
girlfriend from the second season!
Even with
the time travel-related annoyances of the main plot, it was much,
much better than the Noah/Lauren material. I really have no idea
what the point of that was supposed to be. I understand that the
writers enjoy going back and retroactively adding details to the
story, but there should be a rule that such changes/additions be
value-added.
There is a
certain attempt at counterpoint between the Hiro/Charlie and
Noah/Lauren relationships, but it doesn’t seem to matter beyond
that ephemeral purpose. If Lauren never appears again, what was the
point? And beyond that, did Lauren have an ability? We never see
one in play, so it seems to contradict the long-standing Company
policy of using normal/metahuman partners.
Episodes
like this play a dangerous game. They harken back to popular moments
from the heyday of the series, and remind us of all the things we
loved about the show in the beginning. Yet that also tends to remind
us of how the show has fallen from grace from those heady and
fascinating days.