Chapter 19 - .07% (April 23, 2007)
Watching "Heroes" return from its second 7-week hiatus has been surreal. In fact, the show is already at a place where anything new will seem that way. It's now the stuff of friggin' legend destined to become classic. This episode was supposed to be the least epic of the final remaining chapters. Well, if that's true, then "Heroes" is about to set a new standard for primetime television.
".07%" was, by leaps and bounds, more entertaining and more fulfilling than "Godsend" was, from when the show returned from its first 7-week hiatus. Once again, all major characters, all story archs, the entire ensemble cast, all were featured in this episode. This was the real McCoy. Let me make a list of every important event that went down in just this one chapter:
• Petrelli Family Reunion - Finally, Claire and Nathan met face-to-face. Little Claire agreed to the "vacation" in Paris, and Nathan from Linderman discovered his destiny to become commander-in-chief. We finally learned more behind Angela Petrelli's secrets, as well as saw the long-awaited reunion of Claire and Peter. Awww. She pulled a giant piece of glass from Uncle Petey's head, isn't that precious? As for the Brothers Petrelli, looks like they're finally back together.
• Prison Break/Road Trip - Two episodes ago, Sprague nearly decimated the entire Bennet family. Now, Parkman, working with HRG and Sprague, have not only broken themselves out of confinement, but they're road buddies as well now! Well, in case you missed it, the little bombshell that was dropped in the diner was confirmation that Linderman is indeed the head of the unnamed "Company" that Thompson belongs to, meaning Primatech and the Linderman Group? More or less one in the same. Wait till Gitelman joins this little party.
• Murderous Rampage - All right, I refused to watch any spoiler footage, so I had no idea that neither Mohinder nor Peter had been fatally wounded by our friendly neighborhood serial killer. Sylar vs. Peter was a sight to behold. Peter even went as far as using Sylar's own signature telekinesis against him. Poetic stuff. But did losing both Suresh and Petrelli slow the psychotic watchmaker down? Of course not. Sylar made sure that Isaac's premonition of his own death would come to pass, and I for one was quite shocked at his compliance. As sick as Sylar vs. Peter was, the scene where Sylar murders Isaac was, in a word, sick-as-hell. I mean, using Isaac's own paint brushes as nails to pin him to the floor? You can't find this kind of poetic irony anymore. And now Sylar can paint pretty pictures.
• Beyond Pot Pies - Aside from turning Nathan, Linderman also demanded that Jessica bring Micah in, to put the little guy's technopathic powers to good use. I definitely didn't see the Faith/Candice Jessica-morph coming, but it definitely made for another great twist, on par with the rest of the episode. D.L. was only given one scene, making you wonder if the writers even remember that he's part of the central ensemble cast. Meanwhile, Mohinder hesitantly joined up with Thompson. Guess this means everyone's falling under Linderman and the Company's control.
• 2011 - We all knew it was coming (or at least I hope you did). The final scene showed what would take the story into next week's massively major episode. Hiro and Ando, who had traveled five years into the future in "Parasite," were shown firsthand the post-apocalyptic New York, five years after the prophesized explosion on November 8, 2006, leaving .07% of the population dead. Hoping to find Mr. Isaac still alive and well (and not dead with the filling inside of his head taken out), the pair showed up at his apartment, littered with newspaper clippings hanging all over the place, as well as ...
... Future Hiro. Homie's back.
The preview for next week's episode? Well, it's exactly as NBC said. An absolute CANNOT miss.
Finally, there's a very good reason why the show has been able to feature all of the main cast members every episode recently, whereas in the past they've taken on different storylines in alternating episodes. It's because much of the supporting cast and recurring guest stars have all but disappeared, and many of the major characters, who in the past have only been involved in their own story archs, have now been thrown into converging storylines. The bottomline is, here at the end of the season, expect more of all of the major characters in the remaining chapters, and less of everyone else. Seriously, when was the last time Janice Parkman or Zach or several other characters even appeared?
If the ratings for tonight's episode don't end up reflecting how successful the show's return ended up being, then that will be hugely disappointing. But somehow I have a feeling "Heroes" will turn out to have been the ratings winner of the night.
The biggest show on TV? Believe it, it's back.
