BFFL Best Friends For Life

This episode was good and bad at the same time...

First the good. I'm glad that we finally unveiled Sylar! More than that, we learned that his name is really Gabriel Gray and that Sylar is just a name he picked up from a watch he was repairing just before his first kill. Unfortunately, this also shows one of their many disconnects. In one of the earlier episodes, we saw a photo of young Sylar with a birth announcement for "Paul Sylar". All of a sudden, it turns out that they decided that Sylar should not be his real name, perhaps because they realized that if the FBI had his real name, he should have been easier to find.

The Hiro time travel thing is still bothering me. I guess the writers just think that the majority of the viewers don't care, and they may be right. But if you are going to write about time travel, at least be thoughtful about it, and above all, be consistent. In the present day, they show us Hiro returning from Tokyo to the diner and telling Ando that he realizes he can't change the past. Well if that is true, then why does future Hiro go back in time to give a message to Peter Petrelli? If seems that he is trying to change something that exists in his past.

Also, are we now supposed to believe that Charlie died of her aneurysm before she was killed by Sylar in the new timeline? Or is it just that having popped out of her life, he was unable to keep her from going to work on that fateful day? However you slice it, the diner seen would have played out differently now that Hiro and Charlie had had a meaningful relationship. And I have to say it, it is stupid to show Hiro giving Charlie the Japanese phrase book that we heard about the first time around. We know from the original birthday photo, where she originally got the book, that Hiro was not around. That means the original book came from somewhere else.

Now let's talk about convenience... We go back to 6 months ago, largely because that is where Hiro went. And what do you know...? 6 months ago Nathan Petrelli accidentally flies for the first time; his wife has the accident that put her in a wheelchair; Peter Petrelli becomes a nurse, which is how he meets Simone; Claire has her first major accident from which she miraculously heals, Chandra Shuresh meets both Sylar and HRG for the first time; Eden meets Parkman and in the same moment; gets recruited by HRG; and Sylar kills his first victim.

I guess this is not a bad way to try and backfill a story, but it does stretch the bounds of the imagination. As the puzzle pieces fall in place, it also seems like Chandra is ultimately responsible for a lot of things. If he had never contacted Gabriel Gray, would Gabriel have become a killing machine? If Chandra had not given Gabriel the address for his first victim, would he still be alive? If Chandra had not worked with Sylar and shown him his files, would a lot more victims still be alive?

Now that Chandra has let the genie out of the bottle, what comes next? Sylar is following his "Evolutionary Imperative" (a phrase he pulled from Chandra's book), to go around killing people who are "broken". Somehow he gets their ability. Peter needs to get out of jail, although Claire and/or the FBI/Parkman duo can get him out, even without his brother's pull. And we still have to stop the nuke. Next week could be quite the cliffhanger.

Sidenote... The SciFi channel is airing the first 5-6 episodes on Wednesday, 11/29. If you missed any of them, now would be a good time to get caught up.

Labels: heroes, tv