Well, after a bit of excitement last week, this week’s episode of Heroes came back down to a more familiar pace. I was probably a little too optimistic thinking that the momentum would carry through. With that being said, though, this episode was not a complete stinker. I don’t know if the quality is getting better on the show or if my expectations have just been readjusted.
I was happy to get a little perspective on Samuel Sullivan’s motivations this week, and when we did, it made me think of another superhero franchise: The X-men. It seems to me that Samuel bares a striking similarity to Magneto.
When Samuel was talking to Nathan/Sylar about joining his “family,” I couldn’t help but think of Magneto. One thing that I always appreciated about The X-men, and Magneto in particular, is that he wasn’t some crazy supervillain that just wanted to take over the world. Instead, he had a fairly believable motivation and a real agenda. Sure, it was a slightly bent pro-mutant agenda, but it was better than “kill Batman!” Here is where I saw the similarity with Samuel’s character. Samuel seemingly wants the carnival to be a place for people with powers to feel safe and protected (and also kill those who may disagree). Heck, even their superpowers are slightly similar.
Now I’m sure Samuel probably has other motivations, and judging from the seriously cultish aspects of the carnival, I’m a little dubious of them. I am, however, curious about how the carnival is going to get tied in with the rest of the characters, including the compelling new Emma. Right now there is practically nothing tying everything together, and, frankly, that’s part of the problem. A little hint about how these things are going to connect would go a long way into helping me buy into the season. Right now, the season still feels pretty aimless.
What do you think of the carnival? Are you intrigued with them, or just bored? And admit it, you’re really starting to miss Mohinder, aren’t you?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Oct 19, 2009 @ 21:59 EST5EDT
Heroes is BACK! I have to disagree about the momentum, I thought it carried from last week to this week very well. I was hesitant about the carnies at first, but I like the mystery of who they are and what they are all about.
I am loving this “Sylar/Nathan” persona and am very curious about where it is going. Actually, unlike last season, I am intrigued by all the separate storylines.
I am not missing Mohinder at all and hope #missingmohindermonday continues. Surprisingly, I haven’t missed one of my favorite characters either, Parkman. He has been gone 3 episodes now. I wonder if he will still have Sylar in his head when he returns and what he has been doing.
I second Bob, here, CJ. The whole who is Sylar, good or bad, has been done before. And, not for nothing, Kristen Bell looked a lot better doing it.
I was really starting to like where Heroes was going until this episode. I do like your idea of Samuel being a Magneto type character but as usual the writers are just rehashing old ideas over and over. The whole Hiro saving Charlie thing has been done. As Ivey pointed out the Sylar good or bad thing has been done. And as much as I like Emma her lip reading ability is beyond ridiculous. Also can someone explain to me how killing one cop who’s last known location is the carnival helps throw the police off the same carnivals trail?
This is the first episode all season that I’ve unreservedly liked and which drew my full attention while it was on.
I don’t care if any character is missing, as long as it’s not HRG. That being said, I wonder if Adrian Pasdar gets paid for this episode when his face only appeared on Sylar’s body for an instant.
Sammule has an achieveable goal and magneto does not, sammuel is also selfish, but magneto is selfless he does not want power he wants all mutants to live free however sammuel wants power and only that. so in short even if sammuel does have a similar outlook to magneto he is certainly not too similar to him in that he may get what he wants but magneto will never have what he wants because the x men never loose.