TV Review: Heroes: Villains Finale – Dual

Posted by Adam Sweeney (adam@filmschoolrejects.com) on December 16, 2008

heroes-313

Heroes, NBC, Airs Mondays 9/8 c

Episode: “Dual” (Season 3, Episode 13)

Synopsis: Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) has to choose what side of the forthcoming war he is on, Sylar (Zachary Quinto) tries to find a little monster in all of us and Claire (Hayden Panettiere) has to choose who lives, H.R.G. (Jack Coleman) or Angela Pertrelli (Cristine Rose).

Review: This week on Heroes, heroes becomes villains, villains become heroes, cats and dogs start living together and it’s mass hysteria! Man, I love Bill Murray and found myself enjoying this episode as well. All I, and Heroes fans, have been asking for this season is for the story to move forward. The end of the third volume finally accomplished this task, and who knew they could put a little action in the story as they did it? “Dual” proved that Heroes can be a show worth watching, a statement the majority of the third season proved contrary to.

Good things happen when you involve Sylar, at least in keeping my attention. Maybe that’s all we needed, someone who is more focused on doing and less focused on running their mouth, like Angela and Arthur Pertrelli (Robert Forster). Thank God he’s dead. I can’t explain how much I hated the storyline with him in it. I can only hope that Sylar escaped the burning building. But then again, this is Heroes, nobody really dies, right?

There always seem to be a few questions I have throughout an episode of Heroes, like when we got a little taste of the super-soldier ability, or lack of? I guarantee you Captain America wouldn’t get his neck snapped by Knox (Jamie Hector), but maybe it’s time to stop comparing these heroes to ones that have grown near and dear to our hearts. Still, why even introduce the super-soldier concept if you’re going to blow it to Hell in the next episode?

And why would Ando (James Kyson Lee) assume that the super-power formula would give him the ability to time travel? There’s tons of abilities out there that he could be given. Wasn’t this the equivalent of playing a super-charged version of Russian Roulette? And how exactly did Ando and Daphne (Brea Grant) know exactly when to stop in their travel back in time? Do they issue time-travel calendars?

The pacing of the episode worked better than I have come to expect from season three, and I am looking forward, unlike a large portion of the heroes focused on the past, to what is going to come next. For all intents and purposes it looks like Heroes is taking another page from the book of X-Men as the President is going to try and lock up all the heroes in an isolated facility. Hmm, remind anyone of Genosha? As we jump into the fourth volume it will be worth seeing how hard of a line Heroes draws between the good and the bad. This whole season was a moral blur, now it’s time to get down to business.

Up Next Week: Heroes takes a break until February 2nd. Then the heroes find themselves on the run as the fourth volume, “Fugitives”, begins.


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  • Great episode, a few cringe-inducing pieces of dialogue (Give him a spanking?), but overall an exciting hour of television.

    One problem I did have with the episode was Claire's Bio-Mom. Why the hell is she carrying around a gun and then when she loses that gun she acts all scared and helpless, she can throw fire from her fucking hands!

    And also, adreneline is a very fast acting hormone, so her body would have burned through that adreneline way quicker than how slow it did in the show. I know it's fiction tv but unrealistic things like that bug me.


    But other than that great episode, looking forward to Volume 4
  • UnblinkingEye
    All and all I liked this episode. Pro: High body count (con: nobody died who is a central character, except maybe Sylar's "death" - wait until the ME pulls the glass out while performing an autopsy). Pro: Sylar's best spooky performance yet, even though he "died" (Con: Isn't super hearing an ability he got in the first season. Furthermore, Sylar has stored powers from sonic scream, electricity, the "voice", pointy shattershot finger gun, and nuclear bombman, just to name a few. Can't he ever use anything but TK, it's a great ability but come on and try some more. Peter was getting to the same point with just using TK, flight, and electricty, but he finally started using a couple of others, such as time travel and invisibility, before losing them all to Papa Petreilli. I know there is a budget, but let's see it all).
    Gotta continue in next comment
  • UnblinkingEye
    Continue from last comment
    Pro: A satisfying ending to this chapter: no more Pinehurst, the company needing to reorganize and rebuild, and Nathan's betrayal of all of the Heroes (and Villians). I am looking forward to the next chapter with President Worf and The Days of Future Past type future becoming the present (how many times have the writers "borrowed" from this Chris Clarmont classic throughout Heroes?). My biggest irk about this episode is the scene shot by Michael Bay Jr. with HRG and Claire running down the EXPLODING hallway of FLAMES in SLOW-MOTION and JUMPING to safety! It looked incrediably cheap, like the director saying "Um we need to fill about fill about five to ten seconds here. Hey Jack can you and Hayden stand over by this green screen we threw over the door and just "act" like your running and the just jump toward the camera? Okay roll film and Action! (Five to Ten seconds later) Great jobs you guys, your both gonna look like Will and Martin did in Bad Boys and Bad Boys II! See'ya at the wrap party!"
  • Re: the super hearing thing. he was using his TK powers to keep the entire building on lockdown, and was in the middle of torturing Mrs. Petrelli, while learning she knew who his parents were, so we should cut him some slack if he didnt hear Claire coming
  • leonkennedy
    unblinking, you have to realize he lost his powers from first season to end of second, maybe u dont remember that... thats why the second season ending he stabs him self with the shanti virus and gets TK back.

    theres a reason he had to start over,
    go rewatch the seasons and itll clear up ur memory


    " As Sylar prepares for his injection, Elle arrives and shoots bolts at Sylar. He quickly grabs the medicinal case with the remedy and runs from her, getting struck in the back and falling through a pane of glass. Sylar sits against a building with the virus's antidote. He injects himself and the wounds inflicted from falling through glass start to heal. He extends his arm toward a can across the alley and successfully moves a can from across the alley."

    thats at the end of second season.
  • mac lover
    one thing about ando he didnt know if he had it just assume so because as said in the episode by daphne, she wanted run she got her power and matt wanted something about hearing people or something im not sure.(matt even brings up the fact how do you know youll time travel. so they thought what they want is what they ended up getting also they didnt know anything about the formula except the face that it can people powers (im only talking about those three obviously others knew more about the formula.) so that should help clear up your thought about Ando and maybe pay more attention? hahahaha sorry i had to say

    Anyways good ending so many questions that i cant wait to see get answered etc etc.
  • UnblinkingEye
    I remember the ep, but he managed to get his TK back but not the other ones? Plus if you remember in the future ep from this season he had the nuke power too. I don't know if this was from another nuke person running around in the future or from the original. Hell maybe he's like The Legion of Superheroes Ultra Boy and can only use one at a time.
  • I enjoyed this episode as well, but it sucks that we had to suffer through all those episodes to reach these final two. It shouldn't make up for the crap we've sat through, but on some level it does. I again feel hope for this show, hopefully when it comes back in Feb we'll continue to have a good streak of episodes.
  • Nice point, Jmoney. I was wondering about the adrenaline part. My first thought was, "how long does adrenaline last?"
  • Hey Mac lover,
    I know that Ando and Daphne were debating the odds of him developing the time travel ability. ;) I do, in fact, pay attention. It's kind of my job. I just think it is pretty unbelievable to assume that would be the one power he'd get.
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