Heroes Review: “Hysterical Blindness”

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I suppose you could say that Heroes has jumped the shark in the past, but if there was ever an episode where shark-jumping was apparent, it was last night’s “Hysterical Blindness.”  Oddly enough, though, this wasn’t the worst episode of the season – that honor belongs to last week’s episode – mostly because it was Sylar-heavy.  The bad parts were bad, the good parts were decent, and there weren’t too many cringe-worthy moments.  And the big shark-jump?  Not really a big deal – you can see for yourself in the pic above.  Keep reading for the full review; spoilers ahead.

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The big moment this episode, I’m guessing, was Claire’s kiss with Gretchen.  Maybe it was supposed to create buzz, or maybe this really was the next step in Claire’s “character arc” (and I use this term very loosely), but only Heroes and Hayden Panettiere can make a college girl-on-college girl kiss seem boring.  It turns out that Gretchen simply has a crush on Claire, which sort of explains Gretchen’s creepy behavior.

Anyway, for some reason, Claire and Gretchen decide to join a sorority.  I thought it was funny that initially, Claire claimed to not really be a sorority girl.  Weird, because she is without a doubt a sorority girl.  Claire and Gretchen engage in inane dialogue with each other and their future sorority sisters, each one more vanilla than the next.  The “leader” (Rush Chair? President?) of the sorority is especially nice to Claire, and we later find out that she’s part of Samuel’s carnival.  Her power is invisibility, and it was she that murdered Claire’s roommate.  It’s all a scheme to recruit Claire to the carnival, and I really don’t know that murder was a necessary means to those ends.  It all seems a little ridiculous (aren’t there better ways to get rid of a roommate?), but then again, this is Heroes.

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Meanwhile, Emma the deaf file clerk tells her mother about how she’s been “seeing” sounds in the form of colors, which her mother immediately attributes to dementia.  Emma storms out and walks aimlessly, when Peter Petrelli (using his super speed) conveniently shows up out of nowhere and saves Emma just before she’s plowed over by a vehicle.  I guess that’s one way to get these characters together.  Emma walks off without saying thanks, and Peter (why is he even attracted to this woman, anyway?  Because she’s as much a wet blanket as he is?) realizes that his super speed ability is gone.  Now he, too, can see sounds, as Emma’s “disorder” is actually an ability.  It turns out that this ability can be used to turn sound into a weapon, which is good, because otherwise Peter would have traded super speed for the lamest ability ever.

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It looks as though Ernie Hudson is going to be a part of the Heroes cast.  Hudson plays a cop that discovers Sylar in the road, covered with dirt.  He brings Sylar into the local police station where a woman (is she a psychologist?) is determined to help Sylar remember who he is.  Sylar can’t remember much, and it appears as though he’s been “reset.”  Hudson figures out that Sylar is Gabriel Grey, the fugitive who murdered his own mother.  Hudson confronts Sylar, Sylar accidentally smashes Hudson with telekinesis, the woman psychologist drives Sylar away, the woman psychologist convinces Sylar to turn himself in, he does but accidentally uses lightning power, he’s shot, rolls down a hill, and eventually finds himself face to face with Samuel standing before a very colorful carnival.  Yeah.  When the authorities catch up, the carnival is gone.

What happened to the carnival?  Was that a result of Samuel’s power?  Or his time-traveler/teleporter?  What’d ya think of this episode?

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9 Comments

  1. This was surprisingly halfway decent, except for the idiotic Gretchen thing. How is it any less creepy because she has a crush on Claire? That just CONFIRMS the creepiness of it. I might have a crush on someone, but regardless of either of our genders, if I stalk them online, gush to other people about them constantly, and try to prevent them from hanging out with other people, going in to kiss them probably isn’t going to go over too well after all that.

    The invisible girl thing was surprisingly well done for Heroes, I didn’t think they were clever enough to set up a storyline three episodes in advance. Bra-vo.

    So now Nathan is gone forever? Mama Petrelli’s going to be pissed. New Sylar is a five year old and real Sylar is still in Matt Parkman’s head. And the Carnival is all one big hallucination? But then how did Hiro actually go there as a child? Maybe it just teleports. That would explain why it was in Japan in the first place.

    Where the fuck is Mohinder?

  2. i have to say when mohinder stopped mutating i felt like they ruined a great side story, mohinder as a super human-bug? fucking epic.. But no they had to keep him as a lame ass, useless storyteller he is not morgan freeman ffs

  3. They had too many scenes with the deaf chick and Peter sitting or standing around staring at colors going “whoa I can’t get over this wow!” that was like…15 minutes of the half hour. I don’t understand why he likes her either, but he did like that ugly ass Caitlin girl. Now that he has time travel powers again, I wonder if he will think to go back and save her? Probably not.

    They could of kept the whole “Is that ugly, alien-like Gretchen girl a creepy girl a murder?” thing going on for longer. She looks like the kid in the Aerials video.

    The Sylar stuff is interesting. I thought Ernie Hudson was gonna throw him into Oswald State Penitentiary. I’m waiting for the Office cameo when Dwight and Michael get Sylar a job as a saleman.

  4. Anyone Canadian on here? Is that deaf chick from the show FB Eye – or whatever it’s called….deaf lady and her dog Levi work for the FBI. Sometimes she looks like her sometimes she doesn’t (and I’m too lazy to research myself =p)

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