TV Review: Heroes 3.5 – Angels and Monsters

Posted by Adam Sweeney (adam@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 14, 2008

Heroes, NBC, Airs Mondays 9/8c

Episode: “Angels and Monsters” (Season Three, Episode Three)

Synopsis: Claire (Hayden Panettiere) goes hunting for villains, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) look for answers to who’s behind the curtain, and the Pertrelli family finds they will have to set out an additional plate of China at dinner.

Review: “Angels and Monsters” represented a significant character piece in the arc of the Heroes storyline. Countless times in the episode we see characters make choices that definitely don’t fit in line with what we would consider heroic. Hiro’s Ginsu knife treatment of Ando was something I definitely didn’t see coming, but it also made me think, “Well, do you really wonder why he wants to kill you in the future?” And Claire is now learning that life isn’t black and white, something that will most likely drive her away from H.R.G. (Jack  Coleman) and, against all odds, near Sylar (Zachary Quinto). (Hmm, could we insert President Bush into this episode? He could have learned a lot about ethics. Insert your own villain joke here. And I’m done with the political commentary … now.)

But moral lines in the sand aren’t exclusive to cheerleaders and time jumpers. We see this as Daphne (Brea Grant) starts to realize that she isn’t quite as super-bad as we thought. Her final scene with Holo-Linderman (Malcolm McDowell), as we will now call him, was effective in showing us that not all characters in the show have to be locked inside a rigid archetypal box. Daphne and Sylar’s stories are beginning to stand out as two of the best on the show. They also show promise in connecting to the lives of other major storylines through complicated relationships. And is there any show other than “Lost” that has more loose ends to tie up?

I can never really know how to feel about Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy). For so long we were led to believe he was the reliable scientist that cats with superpowers could come to for answers. Now he’s going The Fly on us, something that I am sure Jeff Goldblum spit his beer out over when he saw the scene where his neighbor was hanging up on the wall like a bad Andy Warhol art piece. What we can expect from Suresh in the future is anyone’s guess. But I do know this, he isn’t getting his security deposit back when he decides to move out of his loft.

And is it me or is the Pertrelli family the most dysfunctional group this side of a Lohans/Hiltons reality show? Not only is Mrs. Pertrelli (Cristine Rose) turning Peter (Milo Ventimiglia), Sylar, and Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) against each other, but now we find out that Papa Pertrelli (a nickname that should be straight out of Grand Theft Auto) is pulling the strings in a plot to get all the villains grouped together. All we need now is a creepy kiss scene between cameo siblings Angelina Jolie and James Haven and Heroes will have sealed the label as most F’ed up family on television. But NBC might want to rethink the must see TV slogan after that.

Speaking of creepy, the John Wayne Gacy-esque villain (David H. Lawrence) that was mind-raping (that’s a new word, by the way. Feel free to use it … but not too often.) was one of the most “ewwwww” moments I have ever seen on the show. Hopefully it will set up for a chance to see Claire prove herself truly heroic by saving her biological mother, Meredith (Jessalyn Gilsig), from the hands of the bastardized Bozo the Clown. Maybe they can face off in superpower Bucket Bonanza Prize Game.

Heroes has often been criticized for having too many episodes that are overall ambiguous in nature. This time it’s the strength of the episode. The Dark Knight succeeded because it was a story about a hero whose moral character would be put to the test, and questioned how far he would go to preserve what he believed in. The characters on “Heroes” are now facing that same challenge, many of them now finding their fundamental foundations are crumbling under their feet. It’s an idea that is transforming the third season of “Heroes” into what many fans had wanted last year.

Up Next Week: Impressed by his sudden ruthlessness, Knox (Jamie Hector) and Daphne invite Hiro into the Pinehearst fold, and give him an assignment. Peter goes to Pineheart looking for answers, and Claire sets off to save Meredith from a clownhouse, one probably filled with funhouse mirrors that totally make her cheerleader thighs look big.

For more coverage of your favorite shows, check out the Control Freaks Archive.

Where do you see the Heroes story headed? Did you like the Angels and Monsters episode?

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