Alright, this is getting a touch exhausting.
TV watching is one of the most passive pastimes in all of history so if one is mentally fatigued from a program that’s indicator it’s either really good or really bad. If you’ve been watching Heroes Reborn you probably feel like the show slots in the latter category. Now imagine writing about it each week. At least the routine is somewhat cathartic.
Well, I’ll say this, the sixth episode rectified my major qualm: an acute lack of plot progression. The pieces come together in a huge ways and by the end of the hour the audience planted right smack in the middle of the central mystery — the enigma of the June 13th tragedy in Odessa, Texas. How we get there is rocky and slipshod, but progress is progress, am I right?
“Game Over” opens with dual interrogations. Carlos Gutierrez/El Vengador questions his prisoner, the corrupt police officer Dearing, and Noah Bennett/HRG uses the Kravid swimming pool to get information out of the self-replicating Harris.
The El Vegnador plot thread is much less significant so let’s get it out of the way: Basically, Dearing indicates that both Carlos’ nephew and mentor are being held in at the shadowy Sunstone Manor, a place where Evos check in but never leave. They enact a road trip but on the way Dearing advises that only Evos are allowed to enter this facility and the two must switch places as handler/prisoner. Dearing convinces Carlos to drink a fluid that will indicate a false positive to the scanner, and naturally the concoction makes him pass out… Ugh. Despite that typical fallacy there’s a seed of fun interaction between the human hero Carlos and the evil Evo Dearing, but I doubt this show is savvy enough to extrapolate on that. Sunstone Manor’s affiliation is not clear at this point, it may not be linked up to Renautas as we’ve already seen how they treat their captives.
The other scene returns to the core story, HRG’s quest to find the truth about June 13th, his daughter’s death and the true agenda of Renautas. Through Harris we learn fan-favorite Hiro is indeed being held by Erica Kravid and her lackeys.
Simultaneously, Miko and Ren continue to try to rescue the girl’s father from the video game world of Evernow. She is told by a construct in the game (whom she thought was her pops) that she must rescues the “Master of Time and Space” from an invisible castle. It’s the first of a series of huge reveals related to Katana Girl unloaded on the viewer. Naturally, the Master of Time and Space is Hiro, and HRG quickly realizes this when he runs into Miko inside a Renautas facility. With Quentin Frady at his side HRG locates scientist Richard who blathers forth a satisfying info drop:
- Hiro is being held in Evernow because it’s a place without time nor space thus outside of the time traveler’s sphere of influence. That’s actually a pretty gnarly concept.
- The Renautas crew has developed a time machine and are sending their agents backwards seemingly to avoid the incoming solar flare. If that’s the case I’m not sure why they would need all those seeds HRG and friends found in the episode previous.
- As hinted and predicted Miko is not a real person. She’s a video game character based on her “father’s” (not Hiro) deceased daughter. How exactly this is possible is unclear but it’s also revealed that once she frees Hiro from his cage she’ll cease to exist.
- Real human being or not, Ren loves Miko. Channeling her inner Han she replies “I know.”
Miko completes her task and releases our old friend Hiro who then promptly saves HRG from Harris and a few clones. In the interim the show kills off one of the few bright spots of the re-launch. Quentin is murdered by his sister, Phoebe/the Shadow (Aislinn Paul), who can apparently dampen powers (which is a bit of a nod to the solar eclipse in Volume 3 that had the same effect). Actor Henry Zebrowski has really livened up the overall mood and I hope with time travel being reintroduced the writers bring back Q because holy shit does this show need him.
The return of Hiro balances out that loss. It’s very nice to finally see Masi Oka back in the role of one of the better Heroes characters. He doesn’t get too much screen time but there is a noticeable angle to the portrayal, something much closer to the dystopian Future Hiro from Volume 2. A big part of the Hiro allure was his energy and optimism (that’s why Future Hiro was such a fascinating contrast) and much of that is omitted here. It appears we’ll be seeing much more of him in the next episode or two as “Game Over” ends with a trip back to June 13th, the day that holds the key to the show’s primo mysteries.
Some of the connectivity I’ve been begging for started to reveal its sinews in the remaining the scenes. Luke the Nuke continues to demonstrate his melancholy when he sulks around a marina for a bit, buys a boat and attempts to drown himself. Luckily, the now Sherpa-less Malina witnesses this and saves him with her powers, which I’m now officially predicting deal with earth, wind, water and fire (we’ve seen the first three manipulated, however Luke is a fire-wielder so IDK). The upbeat, apparently naive, Malina raps with Luke about destiny and duty and all that and shows him a picture of the person that’ll help her save the world: Tommy “Maybe Nathan” Clarke. Serendipitously, Luke and his estranged wife Joanne just tried to kill Tommy and a team-up is cemented.
In his own thread Tommy finally wises up and realizes he can travel anywhere in the world and effectively has the ability to produce the perfect first date at a whim. He whisks cute friend Emily to Paris and the two wander for a little before Tommy forgets about the global Evo hate and tries to enter a security checkpoint for the Eiffel Tower (why they’re scanning people at that specific spot I don’t know, I guess they don’t want someone accidentally melting the landmarks or something). He’s quickly outted and the two flee to a market where they find a rare 9th Wonder comic (the prophetic funnybook that Hiro was obsessed way back when). Emily then gets a little speech about heroism, etc and the two are soon making out back in Carbondale, IL. Brad never stood a chance.
In one last little sliver of the plot Erica tries to find her love, the telekinetic Francis, but he’s no longer being held at the Renautas facility. After discovering she’s pregnant she makes a video to reach out the “HeroTruther,” an underground org introduced in the “Dark Matters” webseries and likely headed by a familiar face with tech-based powers.
Hey, that actually was kind of cathartic. I started off writing this piece with a primarily negative mindset… But you know what? I’ve soften a pittance. This franchise has continuously failed to meet my expectations, and I’ll admit it’s hard not to penalize for some of the sparkling shortcomings, but this episode did advance the narrative in extremely important ways. The fact that the trip back to June 13th is coming at the midpoint is semi-huge because the writers could have easily danced around that until the end of this thirteen episode run.
With that in mind I’m admittedly a little bit geeked for the next episode. There seems to be more ambition, from action to ideas, and most of the characters hold at least a morsel of intrigue. There’s a lot lacking from Heroes Reborn but the mark of potential remains. It just can’t get out of its own way sometimes. That quality is pretty much baked into the fabric, like a stained shirt after it goes through the dryer. I doubt this show will peak to above average levels but I’m still kinda digging it even in spite of the habitual flaws.