The Event S1E5: Casualties of war (episode)

Sean and Agent Collier rescue Vicky while Martinez releases Sophia in order to save the lives of the Flight 514 passengers.

No Ordinary Family-First 4 Episodes

The Event S1E4: A Matter of Life and Death (Full Ep and Recap)

Does “The Event” exhaust anybody else? Every week, the individual scenes are crafted specifically to avoid giving the audience any helpful information. After the second episode – where we learned about the aliens and what happened to the plane – we’ve been getting an increasingly elaborate shell game, one seemingly designed just to keep the audience riding high on a buzz of constant plot momentum. But when the plot keeps circling the same five or six things, it just gets tiring to have to cheer loudly as the juggler at the center of the show keeps all of the balls (and chainsaws and what have you) in the air. Put another way, I’m pretty sure I could skip all but the first five and last five minutes of “The Event” and not really miss anything (well, I could, if it wasn’t my job to keep up with it). Everything in between is a long, long journey to nowhere.

“But, Todd!” you say. “Lots of other shows have had this ‘put the action up front and at the end’ structure, and you’ve liked many of them!” Indeed, I have. “24” was the epitome of the super-fun TV thrill ride (at least when it was good). “Lost” was one of my favorite shows ever, combining a bunch of genre tropes I really liked with some awesome plotting and mysteries. I even liked the goofy fun of the first seasons of “Prison Break” and “Heroes,” which were supremely dumb shows but at least sort of proud of that fact, as they just kept coming up with endless strings of insane plot twists. Honestly, if “The Event” were more like those latter two shows, I’d just be rolling with it. I’d know, deep down, that it wasn’t GOOD, but I’d at least be having fun. But look at those four shows I just listed. See how many characters you can name from those shows, just off the top of your head. Now see how many you can list from "The Event." Without checking IMDB, I get to Sean (because he's the main character) and President Blair Underwood before running out of room. Even the DUMBEST of those other shows - "Prison Break," if you're playing along at home - had a wealth of fun characters in it. But “The Event” wants to have its guilty pleasure cake and eat it too. It wants to be dumb and profound and thrilling all at once, and it’s failing at all three tasks.

Take tonight’s final plot twist, which might just be the dumbest plot twist in the history of plot twists. You know that whole thing where the evil Vicky (or whatever you want to call her) and her good pal Carter (played by the always enjoyable D.B. Sweeney) are apparently foiled by the feisty Leila, who breaks out after the latter leaves a giant chunk of glass in her basement prison, the better for Leila to cut loose her bonds and make her escape, shooting Vicky in the process, leading the evil one to tumble down the stairs. Of course, Leila goes to the cops, and of course, we’re suspecting that the cops have been turned (or the conspiracy is monitoring the phone lines). But what happens at the end is even stupider: The conspiracy has set up an elaborate ruse to get Leila to call Sean, so he’ll come and try to rescue her and they can … do something to him.

Let’s leave aside for the moment that the easiest possible way to get Leila to call Sean is to leave a cellphone within her reach. Let’s also leave aside for the moment that a global conspiracy could probably get a guy’s cellphone number if they really wanted to – regardless of whether that guy is on their radar or not. What makes this whole sequence so frustrating is that it exists purely to keep the audience guessing. Nothing can change, and everything has to be reversed because otherwise, there can’t be a series. Leila can’t escape. Sean can’t find her. The conspiracy must always exist because shows like this always have a conspiracy. It’s like there’s been no thought given to explaining to the audience why any of this is worth caring about or why any of these characters are worth our affection. Instead, every effort has been made to just keep plates spinning as long as possible, while the show tap dances.

Every week, I go into this show thinking that this will be the episode where I can turn off my brain and just go with the stupidity. Every week, I’m wrong. It’s simply a long chase sequence that sacrifices everything in the name of superficial forward momentum. Honestly, if you were to summarize everything that’s happened this season so far, you would probably cover less space than if you were to summarize the events of non-serialized shows like “Hawaii Five-0” or “The Defenders.” At least in those shows, the characters take on new cases from week to week. On “The Event,” everything is devoted to keeping up the illusion that things are happening, even as the show is constantly struggling to get back to the status quo. To take another exceptionally stupid example from tonight’s episode, just why would a threat be made to kill all of the people from the plane when they’ve been killed and resurrected once already (and had their memories wiped)? Why not have the alien leader guy use the death of the people on the plane as a legitimate threat? Or promise to use his technology to make all humans immortal? Or something other than just going a step forward, then immediately taking that same step back?

I write enough about what makes me angry about this show from week to week that I suppose it would be best to talk about some of the things I am still enjoying. Jason Ritter remains a likable presence at the show’s center, and his scene with Vicky’s son (yes, she has a son) was well-done. I like the occasional bit of story development when the show lets the audience figure something out for itself – like when we caught a glimpse of Sean’s phone being low on battery and were able to piece together that Leila wouldn’t get through to him because … his battery died. And I really enjoy the scenes between Blair Underwood and Laura Innes, even if they keep repeating the same basic lines of dialogue over and over. The actors are such pros that pretty much everything they’re handed ends up being more fun than it has any right to be.

But I headed into “A Matter of Life and Death” wanting to write about how I can sort of enjoy the show on that stupid level I did “Heroes” and “Prison Break,” before I realized that that’s simply no longer true. Maybe it was true in the pilot, and maybe it was true in the second episode, but by now, the series has put enough of its cards on the table that we should be getting into some truly insane stuff. Instead, it mostly just keeps having the same chase sequence over and over and over, with a little computer hacking thrown in for good measure. Sure, “Heroes” and “Prison Break” were stupid, but they weren’t afraid to blow stuff up. “The Event” keeps lighting fuses and then snuffing them out just as quickly.

The plot in a nutshell, in case you’ve been sensible enough to give up on this show: All of those people who woke up last week? They’re alive, but they don’t remember what happened on the plane. Until the possibly evil alien guy is all, “Look what I can do!” and gives them nose bleeds, which apparently will lead to their deaths. (You ever notice how often a nose bleed is a harbinger of doom on TV? Sometimes, a nose bleed is just a nose bleed.) President Blair Underwood receives a threat to this effect from a phone that was secretly placed in his kid’s backpack. The other aliens want Sophia and company, and they’ll do anything to get her. Torture keeps getting brought up obliquely because the show wants to seem like it has its finger on the pulse of modern America. (And when the president first met Sophia, she just wanted to be like any other immigrant – also topical!) Sean and his new FBI friend race all over, without really accomplishing anything (though they find Vicky’s mom and son), but Leila breaks out of her bonds on her own. It turns out it was a set up by the conspiracy to lure in Sean. And Hal Holbrook’s disembodied voice controls the conspiracy!

--Todd VanDerWerff (follow me on Twitter at @tvoti)
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/10/the-event-recap-dumb-plot-twists-galore.html

The Event S1E1: I Haven't Told You Everything

Sean Walker's girlfriend Leila goes missing during their romantic St. Lucia vacation. President Martinez plans a press conference to tell the world about the closure of a mysterious prison camp, and to introduce one of its prisoners, Sophia.

The Last 5 Episodes

S4E11:Thanksgiving

It's a rocky Thanksgiving for the Bennets, the Petrellis and the Carnival, as the chips start to fall.

S4E10 Brother's Keeper (Full Episode)

Still holding Charlie, Samuel sends Hiro back in time to do some dirty work, and Sylar finally gets his day of reckoning. Or does he?

V S1E1: Pilot

Beginning now, we are expanding our scope to programs like Heroes that strecth the imagination and challenge the viewer. It is why we are inclucing shows like V. But remember, no matter what, this site will ALWAYS be HEROES F1RST!
..........................

The Visitors arrive and say they come in peace, though some are skeptical of their intentions.



http://www.hulu.com/watch/106763/v-pilot#s-p1-so-i0

S4E9 Shadowboxing

Claire courts trouble after the sorority attack; Matt vows to destroy Sylar at any cost; Peter helps Emma start a new life. (...and a network gets revenge?)

S4E7 Strange Attractors

Matt tries to get rid of Sylar; Claire and Gretchen get hazed; H.R.G. and Tracey team up to save a teen from the consequences of his unchecked ability.

S4 E3 Ink (Episode and recap)

Sylar pushes Matt to his limit, a grieving Samuel ventures beyond the carnival in search of Peter, Claire resolves to be truthful, and a new hero discovers her unique ability.



Last week I praised the arrival of Peter Petrelli: Working Class Hero. This week I bemoan the return of Peter Petrelli: Pretty Boy Tool. Seems like Samuel has a particular interest in Peter due to his own brother being an empath himself. At least, that's the impression I got after watching that subdermal compass go all a flutter an episode's end.

It's clear Samuel just doesn't let any ol' superpowered person into his fold. Instead, they have to pass what amounts to a moral test in order to be deemed worthy of inclusion. One man's morality is another man's depravity, so all things are relative. But Samuel, like all villains worth giving a damn about, doesn't actually consider himself a villain. Until recently, that might have even approximated the truth from an objective perspective. But it's clear that Joseph's death has sent him over the edge upon which he danced for so long.

So Samuel establishes a false lawsuit against Peter, stores up some specially made Sullivan Brothers Psychic Ink, and goes to work on Peter's mind. Then again, Samuel didn't have to manually Photoshop himself into one of Peter's pinned-up articles in order to make Peter doubt his own brain. I'm sure a Sudoku would have broken him just as easily. In any case, Peter apologizes to Samuel, unaware that the apology is itself "proof" for Samuel that he's found a suitable heir for his brother's ability.

Before heading back to the circus, Samuel makes a quick visit back to the home in which he grew up. Turns out he and Joseph lived in a carriage house, the offspring of a wealthy family's hired help. When denied entrance to his old home by the current tenant, he does the sensible thing and sinks the freakin' house. In case you didn't get it, this was the "Our Villain's Only a Villain Because People Didn't Love Him Enough as a Child" move they pulled on Sylar last year. And we all know how awesome THAT worked out.

As for the compass itself: it's unclear what it actually points towards, nor why empaths in particular are appropriate vessels for it. The show already has Lydia as its human version of Cerebro, so I'm unclear what added value is gained by the compass itself. My initial guess is that while Samuel creates ink out of earthen materials he can manipulate, there's something about an empath's power that focuses it and makes it usable for a specific purpose. Does the compass point to a place? A person? A cohesive plotline that won't have me banging my head against the wall by mid-volume? I'll let you, gentle reader, weigh in below.

Two-time touch and broken bones/Mirror in the bathroom

I can't even tell you how sick I am of the on-again, off-again relationship between Noah and Claire Bennet. It's this show's version of Ross and Rachel, but with much less making out. There's no earthly reason these two should re-hash the same talking points over and over again. And yet, on a seasonal basis, these two come together and split apart for the sole purpose of once again placing Claire in a position of danger.

Essentially, we're supposed to swallow that one game of "Guitar Hero" means Claire can call Gretchen her BFF. Well, my wife and I own "Rock Band." We play it all the time. And she doesn't even know as much about me as Gretchen now knows about Claire. We're literally weeks removed from the end of a plot in which superpowered people were sent to internment camps, and we're supposed to be OK with Claire revealing herself to someone who is essentially a stranger?

If you've seen this story before, and trust me, you have, then you know Noah's whole "I trust you" speech is a big fat lie. Unfortunately, 1) this makes us not like Noah, who is lying to his daughter, and 2) not like Claire, because we understand that Claire's judgement cannot be trusted. And meanwhile, it's only a matter of time before Gretchen's posting her own YouTube videos of her new roomie healing after cutting herself in the shower. I'm sooo looking forward to more "Single White Superhero," trust me.

Church of the poison mind/I think I'm paranoid
OK, let me just say that all my Evil Parkman dreams started to come true tonight. While I'm preparing myself to be disappointed in the eventual outcome, and wish the show focused more on Samuel as this Season's Big Bad without diluting the evil pool with Sylar's continued presence, I really enjoyed everything inside that dilapidated house.

When deployed properly, the ability to alter a person's mind is perhaps the most potent (and terrifying) power of all. You can argue until you're blue in the face that Sylar is actually the Sylar we know or just a byproduct of Parkman's guilty conscience, but you can't deny there was a realness to the cold look in that dead girl's eyes under the stairs. The fact that she was only a delusion should have taken away the power of the scene, but instead only validated the depths to which Parkman's mind can sink. This was one fake out that "Heroes" did deliciously.

The only problem with this storyline? I'm worried about its connection back to the carnival plot. Sure, we saw Sylar's face on Lydia's back next week. Does that mean that a psychic inside the carnival is working his/her mojo on Parkman in order to break Sylar-as-Nathan free? Seems like a complicated way to go about that change. Easier to just mind-frak the faux Senator back to life (back to reality), right?

Parkman's dark side is a fantastic little story, but only ultimately works if it ties into the volume as a whole, not as a stand-alone piece. The show may just be taking its time in allowing Samuel to gradually recruit all existing heroes one by one, but it needs to assure us that each piece of the seemingly disparate puzzle indeed connects. Moreover, it needs to explain sooner, not later, exactly why Samuel needs so many new members in his faction.

Ultraviolet (light my way)/Good vibrations

A possible way to tie everything together into one melodic whole? Emma, the show's first deaf superpowered character. Say what you will about the show's quality, but you can never fault their diversity in casting and in character. She's just developing her powers, which seem to manifest themselves in the realm of sound vibrations and the electromagnetic spectrum. Maybe these powers will develop into something cool, but for now they resemble something akin to an iPod commercial.

However, her ability to intuitively play the cello might also play a part in countering the effects of Peter's compass. I'm probably reading waaaay too much into this, but in Emma's ability to emit a sort of siren call with her music, I got a strong Mother Abigail vibe from her. The compass can't draw people in; it can only point to their direction. Samuel has to go TO those he wishes to find. It's possible that Emma will be the end of the rainbow for the side of good as the battle lines are drawn in "Redemption."

Or, you know, she'll get a job working Disney's Electric Light Parade. With "Heroes," nothing is ever truly out of the realm of possibility. Even if we desperately wished it could be.
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2009-1-13-monkeys-as-critics/posts/recap-heroes-ink

S4 E1/2: Orientation/Jump, Push, Fall (Full Episode)

The ringmaster of a very special carnival seeks revenge for the death of his brother; Tracy resurrects, hell bent on revenge; Claire starts college; Sylar's personality threatens to disrupt Nathan's life, while wreaking havoc in Matt's mind.



http://www.hulu.com/watch/97009/heroes-orientation--jump-push-fall#s-p1-so-i0

S2E24: I Am Sylar (Recap and Full Episode)

by Adam Bryant

Ah, self-discovery. This episode of Heroes finds several characters pondering who they are and what their next move should be. Sylar shape-shifts himself into a ball of emotional mess which he longer identifies with, Hiro finally accepts that two heads are better than one on his path of heroic destiny, and Parkman decides being a part of his son's life is about more than changing diapers. Plus, Nathan tries his best to stop the program he initiated and Sylar does his best Norman Bates! Huh, you ask? Read on for the details.

Two of a kind
After delivering baby Matt Parkman to his father, Hiro and Ando plead with Parkman Sr. to take them to Building 26 to take down Danko and his men. But Parkman's priorities have changed, and his "game changer" baby boy makes him realize he doesn't need two dead heroes on his conscience. So, Hiro and Ando (henceforth to be known as Crimson Arc) set out on their own to find Building 26. Unfortunately for the "dangerous but ladylike" Crimson Arc, Hiro still wants to use Ando as bait. They have the same argument they've had about 100 times this season, ultimately ending with Ando comparing Hiro to Superman...because he's a fascist. Ouch.

Ando gets a slight upper hand, however, when Danko's men storm in, forcing Hiro to freeze time. But because Hiro was touching Ando when he stopped the action around him, Ando is free to move and manipulate time as well. Hiro plays along like he's happy, but ultimately, sets things in motion long enough to have the tranquilizers take Ando down. Hiro has his bait, and after outfitting himself as one of Danko's men, he thinks he has his way back to Building 26. (Having a little heart, Hiro turns Ando's dope machine off, instructing him to play possum until they get inside.) Too bad that Hiro forgot that the guy he was pretending to be doesn't wear glasses. When they become suspicious, Ando has to take action, unleashing the Crimson Arc's justice on all Danko's men to keep them from Tasing his pal.

With that, Hiro decides he and Ando should indeed be partners. They take the GPS off one of the incapacitated agents, and find their way to Building 26, but just as Hiro gets set to stop time and scope out the scene he is stricken with a terrible headache and a nosebleed. (Shades of Lost, anyone?) How will Crimson Arc solve this one?

Father knows best
Parkman heads back west to return his son to his ex-wife, Janice. Once there, he senses Danko's agents nearby, and Janice makes a plan to head off to a lake house with the baby. And before she even knows what she's done, she invites Matt, which he is thrilled by. But as they ready to leave, Parkman sees his old police badge and has a change of heart. He tells Janice that he must go back and stop Building 26, or else they will never have a life together. He isn't sure what their life is, but he wants to fight for the chance to find out again. Of course, he has to keep the handful agents who've surrounded them in the house at bay first. For now, he has them under mind control, so stay tuned.

A boy's best friend is his mother
Yes, all the other action of tonight's episode was all just a mild diversion from the Sylar show. (The episode was named for him, after all.) We learn through the episode just how (and why) Sylar came to be impersonating Nathan on national TV, and it all starts with a case of shape-shifter identity crisis. While living as Agent Taub, Sylar finds himself unable to control the restructuring of DNA that makes his shifting possible. Side effects include extra teeth, an errant blue eye and apparently a penchant for self-mutilation (at least for the sake of this episode's title screen). Sylar gives his sob story to Danko, who could care less. Danko also warns Sylar that if he can't continue to live as Agent Taub, he will hunt him down like the rest. Luckily, Danko — he of eight different lives, wives and languages in recent years — tells Sylar he needs an anchor (or Lost fans might say a constant?) to remind him who he is no matter how many shifts he goes through.

Sylar's anchor becomes his (believed) mother Virginia Gray, who he murdered back in Season 1. He finds a box of evidence from her unsolved murder and takes to shifting back and forth between the personalities, even carrying on a conversation. (Hitchcock would be so proud.) Turns out, Sylar pinpoints the moment that he killed his "mother" as when he became lost, having eliminated the only person to have ever loved him. But by bringing her back, he is able to again convince himself that he can be and do anything. Even be president.

That notion was also helped along by Micah aka Rebel. Danko learns from a man's body in Virginia (a one-man wrecking machine who Sylar killed and took his powers of disintegration before the agents arrived) that Rebel is still in the D.C. area. They track him to a warehouse and kill the power, erasing his ability to use machines to his advantage. Sylar finds Micah first, and Rebel appeals to Sylar to come back and help his people, those with abilities. He apparently smooth talked him, because before you know it, Sylar-as-Micah leads Danko's men to a pier where they shoot him. The real Micah looks upset as he watches his doppelganger fall into the water, but I'm sure he's happy to live to rebel another day. Danko isn't convinced Micah's dead, but a re-shifted Sylar convinces Danko that Micah isn't a healer. "Dead is dead," he says. (Are we sure we're not watching Lost?)

When Micah sees a late-night chat between Sylar and Virgina while crashing on Sylar's couch, he compares Sylar to his mother. Micah says his mother became someone else on the inside in order to help people, and tells Sylar he could do the same on the outside. He suggests he become Nathan Petrelli and shut down this hunting operation. Sylar suddenly wants nothing to do with Micah and kicks him out, warning him that he will kill him if their paths cross again. But, of course, Sylar does pose as Nathan, though it seems his only goal is to get close enough to the president to fulfill his dead "mother's" dream of seeing her boy rule the country. "I won't let you down, Ma," Sylar says.

Nathan leaves his family at the restaurant to stop Sylar from getting to the President, and refuses Peter's help, choosing to end it on his own. Back in his office, Nathan stares in the mirror of Sylar and gets a lesson in his own self-loathing, brought to him by a guy who only recently decided his life was worth living. But before Sylar can crack Nathan's skull, Danko takes the senator down with some tranquilizers. Danko tells Sylar to get back into his Agent Taub costume to help them bring in the remaining big guns (Mohinder, HRG, Claire, Peter, etc.) they got from Micah's things at the warehouse. When Sylar refuses, Danko puts a knife in the back of Sylar's head. But while that used to be the magic act to stop the energizer bunny from beating his drum, (gasp!) Sylar isn't dead. "That hurt," Sylar says with a deadly smirk. To be continued...

In Asylum (full episode)

S3E17: Cold Wars

Mohinder, Peter and Matt kidnap H.R.G. so they can read his mind and figure out their next step.

S3E16: Building 26

S3 E14: A Clear and Present Danger (Full Episode)

After outing himself to the President, Nathan is charged with rounding up everyone with special abilities in the interest of homeland security.