Storytime: Heroes 0204: The Kindness of Strangers

For all it’s talk of just being about average, diverse people, Heroes has a knack for keeping it in the family to a degree that the Bluth family would envy. I can only imagine that perhaps one of the goals of the Origins spin off is to give the series some much needed diversity.

Speaking of diversity, or lack thereof, where were Hiro and Peter tonight? I’ve been enjoying the Heroes incursion into Ireland, and the sooner that the ‘Hiro in the past story’ arc finishes the better, so it was a little disappointing for them to both be no shows.

Last week I got a little bit cruel in regards to what seemed to be pretty crappy dialogue in some scenes (those guilty know who they are), and commented that it was only because Heroes can do better. Kindness to Strangers continued largely continued this theme (how many inner city black kids have the term ‘stay of execution’ in their common vocabulary?), but it did have some good moments. The Mother-Son Petrelli conversation was well done, and I’ll admit, the ‘I never want to see you fall’ line was kind of cute. There, I said it, I’m a pussy.
On that note, I have no doubt that West is going to be an interesting character eventually, but now watching him is more draining then Thousand Cut torture on a hemophiliac (Fuck…Sorry). I'm particularly interested to see how such a pipsqueak deals with Mr Bennett, as implied in that rather awesome looking piece of artwork.

My other criticisms from last week still stand, as one boring matriarch is replaced by another down in New Orleans. Newcomer Monica’s power is actually rather interesting, and the possibilities for ass whooping were set up well in the last couple of minutes. But seriously, I’m sure that Katrina montage would be moving to someone who lived through it, but to me it just seemed out of place and contrived.

The most dysfunctional same sex-different race household in New York also found themselves in trouble this week, and continued the family ties theme. Parkman found himself in some Daddy drama, and unselfishly endangered a young girl. Gee, I wonder why his wife was cheating on him? Seriously, the last minute kicked ass, it built up tension and left us on a cliff hanger. I don’t really care for Molly as a character, but come on, it’s a kid in trouble, that sucks.

For a character that I really cared little about in season one, Sylar has grown on me. His nonchalant ‘who them?’ acting when quizzed about his homicidal cohorts took the episode for me. His calculated evilness was also rather disturbing, what with turning the brick on the gringo, leaving him now alone with Herraras. Are we perhaps seeing his ascent (or is that descent?) to the throne of supervillian. As for the Herraras, the sooner that Sylar cracks open their heads and feasts on the goo inside the better

I’d hesitate to say it’s been the best episode of the season thus far, it was certainly a good one. I still think the ‘Claire’s Car’ subplot is one of the dumbest fucking things I’ve seen in my life, and is relying far too heavy on coincidence. This isn’t an episode of Frasier damnit.

Note: I’m trying to use less Arrested Development references, but I can’t help it. Sorry.