I Am Bored

The next-to-last Heroes, "I Am Sylar," was a weak entry. The writers have perhaps righted the show, so it's failing on a higher level, but, to paraphrese Benjamin Linus, a dud is a dud.

For this show, they doubled back and we saw what happened to the other characters while Mama Petrelli was telling old stories to her clan out west.

Much of the action dealt with Sylar searching for himself, and his origins (going all Norman Bates on us and talking to himself/his dead mom). He does this about every third episode, and it's gotten old. Kill him off already. (Actually, it appears for some reason now he can't be killed. A hero with no vulnerability is boring. In fact, the only moment of the episode that got me excited was when Danko put that knife in his head. Denying that meant anything wiped away what power the episode had.) Sylar also takes a new power from Clint Howard, the power to disintegrate. Does he really need new powers at this point? I do wonder, though, what would have happened if Clint tried to destroy Sylar. He does know how to fix things--could Sylar have pulled himself back together?

I think by now we can say the whole Danko plot, the main arc of the second half of this season, has been a failure. It was a great idea--heroes on the run, never knowing where to go or who to trust. But this being Heroes, they couldn't keep the plot going in a straight line for two episodes. Let's leave aside they couldn't decide who was running the program, and where their allegiance was, and concentrate on their success rate. First the government is amazingly efficient, capturing almost everyone at once. Then they're total morons, easily invaded by the heroes anytime they feel like it, while the Hunter, who's allegedly got his people watching every video feed in America, can't round up anyone. Now, in this episode, out of nowhere, they once again can pick up everyone at once--without the slightest bit of help from Sylar, I might add, which makes Danko's connection pointless.

Then you've got Matt "change on a dime" Parkman. Most of the season was about his search for the love of Daphne. Then she died and he wanted to die, but now he wants to go back to his wife and raise his son. I realize the producers are rebooting, but it's all dead time on screen. Parkman, by the way, had the power to end this thing any time he wanted, by just going back to Building 26 and forcing them to do what he wants.

Then there's Ando and Hiro. Hiro used to be childlike, but now he's just childish, always talking about the code of the hero and trying out silly plans. This guy can stop time. Go to building 26, check out the joint, and find out what you need to know. At the end, for the first time (in a nosebleed moment that seemed to come from Lost), it looked like maybe the newly super-efficient government had some sort of protective field against Hiro. Or maybe his power is failing him. Who knows, or cares.

Micah makes a quick, meaningless appearance. Nathan (who, by the way, makes Parkman look consistent) goes to confront Sylar, by himself, with no plan, essentially walking into a trap that should have had him dead in no time. Last week, I thought the heroes were starting to pull themselves together, but they still don't spend any time thinking things through.

This farce of a season will end next week. I don't have much hope they can salvage much, but I hope they writers are taking their time and planning out the next season fully.