US TV
Heroes: S03E08: 'Villains'
Published Thursday, Nov 13 2008, 00:51 GMT | By Ben Rawson-Jones | 7 comments
The show's tendency to hop back into the past has caused the narrative to stall before, but on this occasion the old revelations felt very relevant. It helped that Hiro was effectively deployed as a plot function, as it justified his excursion to Africa and his greater understanding of Arthur Petrelli gave rise to a truly chilling cliffhanger. It seems that prophetic artists have a short shelf life on Heroes.
There was a welcome return for two deceased characters. The masterful Eric Roberts was as watchable as ever as Thompson, while Malcolm MacDowell was given more presence as Linderman - a figure who was revealed to be a mere pawn in Arthur Petrelli's game plan. It makes one wonder - just who is pulling Arthur's strings? That'll probably be revealed in the fifth season. Out money is on Mr. Muggles to be unveiled as the real Big Bad.
Elsewhere, it was fun to watch Mr Bennet back in his unsympathetic, first season villainous mode. Further empathy was accorded to both Sylar and Elle, as they were both emotionally manipulated to perform certain acts. The line between heroes and villains are becoming more blurred with each episode.
The wonderful meshing of the old and the new was perhaps epitomised by the scene in which Claire was depicted in the midst of the fire from the first ever Heroes episode - with the cause of the arson (her own mother) only just now being revealed. This episode was hot stuff indeed.
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Disappointing episode. Again, the writers can't keep consistancy when it comes to their characters. How come Elle wasn't her weird masochistic self like when she met Peter originally in season 2? If Elle and Sylar met before, how come there was no hint of this at the beginning of season 3 when they met then? There's also some baffling developments, such as Linderman all of a sudden growing a conscience over killing Nathan, despite being prepared to kill billions of people across the planet later in season 1. Another example, Thompson letting Meredith go because the Company lied to her about the death of Claire? When Thompson if anything, was one of the most treacherous, deceitful characters in Season 1. It's just too out of character. This series has some real problems. Even more so than season 2.
What a cracking episode, Heroes as it should be, lets hope this standard is now kept. I loved Syler before, I love him even more now.
I Think It Was Really Good A Massive Cliffhanger, And It Just Keeps Getting Better!! =]
I really enjoyed it. The show is full of flaws and stuff but when you look past that its good TV.
completely disagree , this episode left me feeling a bit sad to be honest that such a great show had to stoop to an all new low level. none of it fitted well at all and really did feel like they were trying to be creative but just felt flawed.
A very good episode indeed. When the first "one year ago" scene began I thought it would be a bit disappointing. However, as the episode progressed, it got interesting. The scene revealing the train crash was excellent; its been waiting to pop up on the script since the very beginning! I'd like to see more of this in future episodes. Bring on the rest of Season 3!
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Another average episode which I watched with one eye on the TV and another on my laptop. Why are we going back again? What's the next jump? Five years? Ten years? The start of time itself? How low this show has fallen from such great and promising heights. Gets an extra star for the cliffhanger ending - although I'm guessing it'll be solved without much thought in the next episode.