‘Heroes’ loses fans, self-respect, its mind

(But maybe we can go back in time and fix it.)

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the comic writing book: you’ve run out of fresh ideas, so you take all of the known elements and turn them on their head. Suddenly good guys are bad guys, up is down, black is the new orange, and formerly cool characters start acting like mopey dinks. Is it any wonder that viewership is down 25% from last year?

One of the things that previously set Heroes apart from other shows — and indeed the comic books that inspire it — is that it didn’t need to resort to these kinds of tricks. This show put superheroes in the “real” world, taking a different perspective on what it means to emerge with fantastic powers and how to apply them to the problems of today.

Unfortunately, instead of standing apart from its TV and comic book brethren to blaze a new trail filled with awesome, the Season 3 premiere quickly descended into a mishmash of unrelated superhero story derivatives that many long-time fans of the industry could spot a mile away.

If you’re sitting there wondering whether to tune in again tomorrow night, or expunge Heroes from your Tivo subscriptions forever, take heart: out of the aforementioned mishmash, a few plot threads emerged which have potential to redeem the premiere — and perhaps the entire premise of the season.

Peter Petrelli:

The appearance of a “Future Peter” who decided to stick around shows promise. Not only was it revealed that he was Nathan’s shooter, but his motive was to prevent a future where superhumans were rounded up in camps and persecuted X-men style. Never intending to let Nathan die (not permanently, anyway), Peter dispatched his present-day self and assumed his identity, allowing him to follow Nathan to the hospital where, somehow, he revived his brother.

But how did he do it? Peter didn’t (or couldn’t) use his blood to regenerate Nathan. By the end of the second episode, it was revealed that Linderman’s visits to Nathan were possibly nothing more than a side-effect of the hospital food — although it was a fairly obvious “twist”. But it leaves some questions: Did Peter use Linderman’s power to revive Nathan? Is hallucinating Linderman an unintended consequence of that power… or something else?

What could that “something else” be? It would not be enough to merely hope that a revived Nathan would not try again to reveal the existance of superhumans to the world. Peter apparently used Matt Parkman’s mind control powers to plant a suggestion into Nathan’s brain: that of a miraculous healing. This is hinted at when Peter apologizes to a sleeping Nathan that “I hope someday you’ll understand what I did to you.” Why else would Nathan start acting so strangely? He’d already been saved from certain death once with Adam’s blood with no ill effects, save for seeing himself scarred whenever he looked in a mirror. Or are hallucinations just one of Nathan’s propensities?

And a somewhat unrelated note: why is every future version of Peter invariably cooler than the one from the present day? It’s too bad Peter can’t seem to absorb his future self’s bad-ass attitude. And what’s with the scar? How can a guy who heals instantly even get a scar? Claire never does — as we’ll soon see.

Claire Bennett:

Thanks to Future Peter’s interference, Claire stayed home long enough for Sylar to find her and take her power. According to Peter, this hadn’t happened in his version of the future. Surprisingly, Sylar didn’t have to kill her or eat her brain to do it (as has been speculated). In fact, he reveals, he couldn’t have if he wanted to. Now something he did has caused Claire to become unable to feel pain — or possibly anything at all. As opposed to the evolution of her power she (and other heroes) experienced last season, we see an unintended consequence anda potentially devastating downside. We already know that changing the past for the worse is a danger of space/time-bending powers; now we also know that regenerators are essentially from the Highlands of Scotland immortal, but it’s also something that can drive a dangerous wedge between them and humanity.

This incident isn’t without its oddities, however. First, if Claire can’t die, how did Sylar (supposedly) kill her in the future the first Season’s Heroes were trying to prevent? Admittedly, the ultimate stakes were actually the fate of New York. If Sylar had been able to regenerate from Hiro’s blow, the city would have been lost. Despite the interference of a Snow Crash Future Hiro, the flow of time — in the sense of Sylar’s destiny — is restored. This would seem to be a retcon to Claire’s powers, but (apparently) one that is easily explained.

What still isn’t explained is how Peter can have a scar on his face when Claire can have the top of her skull lopped off and suffer no outward phyisical deformity once reattached.

Not convinced? Still considering writing off the show entirely? Remember that there are mitigating circumstances. Last year’s season was truncated as a result of the WGA strike, leaving a lot of plot threads dangling. The cleanup probably didn’t have much hope of being direct or pretty (and it wasn’t). But that doesn’t mean I think the premiere was without fault.

Characters like Maya, who were supposed to meet their destiny in episodes that were never shot, are left without a purpose. Peter so far hasn’t had to suffer the consequences of leaving someone in a future that no longer exists. We still don’t know what happened to Monica and Micah.

Who is Tracy? If she’s just another one of Niki’s personas, then how did she find time to wiggle her way into the graces of another politician only been days after being “blown up” saving her son? Maybe it’s Jessica, long presumed dead, but exhibiting the same mental instability? Is that can she freeze people? And William “The Greatest American Hero” Katt, no less? Or does each personality come with its own unique adrenaline-induced cocktail — as Mohinder’s experience may have forshadowed?

Why has Mohinder, long the voice of reason and scientific scrutiny (and the othewise dispassionate narrator of the entire show!) become completely unhinged? Was his sanity sacrified to the altar of the Deus ex Machina to illustrate how Sylar “reads” brains, or how Niki can have multi-powers? Even so, could they have thought of something more original than “The Fly”?

Is this really the Hiro we know? A self-serving glory-hound who apparently no longer feels the sting of his father’s death, the responsibility for indirectly causing it, and no sense of duty to his father’s legacy? Is this guy really Japanese? A better scenario would have been Ando encouraging his despondent and sombre friend to reclaim his mantle as a hero. It would make Hiro’s suspicion of Ando a little more convincing, for one thing. Right now, I’m hoping that Ando does succeed in electrocuting the hell out of him.

I’m going to stay tuned, but I’ll understand if you won’t. Either way, I’ll be sure to let those of you who might be turned off know when the show has picked up, or alternatively — for those still hanging on — when to tune out!