'Heroes' recap: A return to glory days
At this point, I know what you're expecting from me. I've read the comments. I know what you think of the way, week in and week out, I take Heroes to task for the way it continues to squander its promise. It doesn't bother me because I am a man of steel, impervious to message board flame. But I am aware.
So, for those of you who think my heart is made of kryptonite, I will say this right up top: I Am Become Death was, hands down, the best episode of Heroes of the last two years. Hands effing down. I still think it was a mistake to rehash the same ''Days of Future Past'' storytelling conceit year after year — but for the first time since that first season, it has yielded something glorious.
That's not to say that all of ''I Am Become Death'' was a masterpiece. It wasn't. There's still stupid Hiro and Desert Parkman. There's still the oddness of Dead-Head-Linderman. But the Peter-Sylar/Gabriel story line was so strong it made up for all of that.
Why? Because it presented us with a complete story. It showed us a Sylar who, over the course of four years, has come through to the other side of villainy and found a man named Gabriel. A man who understands what he is and has come to terms with it. A domesticated vampire who is content to sit in his kitchen and make waffles for his son, Noah. And when Present Peter showed up, looking to adopt the Sylar-power in a bid to — what else? — save the world, he rained destruction on Gabriel and everything he'd built. These two characters are the axis upon which Heroes revolves. Mirror images, the same man seen in two different lights. Brothers, both metaphorically and literally. Wouldn't it be stunning if, now that Peter's got Sylar's power and corresponding hunger, he turned into our Big Bad?
When Claire and her hit squad show up, the show finds a way to make us root for Evil Sylar to return. For the first time, we want to see the monster, because only the monster can save young Noah, threatened by Knox the Fear Smeller. And when he does, Gabriel's rage becomes our catharsis. Sure, it's manipulative to introduce a cute kid simply to foster empathy and then snuff him out to evoke a shared anger. But, damn, if it didn't feel good to watch the world burn...or at least Costa Verde.
That, my friends, was some mighty fine broadcasting.
NEXT: Mohinderfly
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