That’s all until January.
Heroes Reborn got off to a rough start, and it certainly took its time putting its plot pieces in place. But now that the end of the season is in sight, the NBC series is delivering some fun and interesting story turns that are paying off after a the long and sometimes frustrating investment.
Full spoilers for “11:53 to Odessa” continue below.
After last week’s jump very specifically 7957 years into the future, we quickly learn that Erica was using a captive Hiro to create a gateway between the present and future to basically jump over the impending apocalypse and save a select group of people by setting up a new society on an otherwise desolate Earth. Holy goodness that sounds like a dystopian nightmare, especially since we know she, as it’s put, cares more for humanity than actual humans. Because Hiro is gone and she can’t leech Tommy/Nathan’s powers, she decides to win the young chosen one over to her side instead.
Danika Yarosh as Malina on Heroes Reborn
And she does, pretty easily, all the way through the end when Miko pops in to tell him it’s her job to save him. Apparently the Hachiro Otomo we saw die was just a copy of the Otomo that is working in the future for Erica, meaning he’s still alive and he has been sending messages to the past for Ren and Miko this whole time (or so I think — this might also be yet another butterfly from the trip back in time).
Meanwhile Carlos and Farah kind of sort of become relevant after Parkman tortures them, they realize they love one another still and then they escape. The big cliffhanger at the end of the episode is them and the rest of the HeroTruther gang running away from the Renautas guards at the mansion and toward some sort of plot significance, hopefully.
We want to hear it.
Malina continues to be relatively interesting as her environment-controlling powers get stronger and stronger. Zachary Levi is playing Luke’s dedication to Malina’s cause so sincerely that I honestly started wondering if Luke has some ulterior motive, but I’m probably just overthinking it. There is some mystery left in this plot thread as a time traveler popped in to rescue HRG from the storm Malina was putting out, but we don’t know who it was or where they went. I’m betting dollars to donuts that it was Tommy/Nathan because, according to Masi Oka, Hiro is only in three episodes, and those have come and gone.
We’ll have some time off from Heroes Reborn for a bit as its on hiatus until January, and as far as cliffhangers go, this week’s wasn’t all that dramatic. But Tommy/Nathan finally seems worthy of filling in the empty Petrelli Hero shoes even if Malina still hasn’t really had a chance to develop as a character. I’m glad the show has embraced the crazy, and I actually am really digging the whole future storyline. Considering Miko’s video game arc was the most bonkers of the premiere, I think it’s mellowed out pretty nicely and its intersection with Renautas’s end game in the future melds some really fun sci-fi elements that Heroes Reborn is doing well.
After taking several weeks to really rev its engines, Heroes Reborn is delivering some fast-paced and fun story turns as it establishes both the impending apocalypse and Erica’s plan to circumvent it. There remain some weak storylines in the mix, but the characters whose arcs are working make the show worth tuning back in for. The big question now seems to be whether the world can be saved in the present or in the future, which is an interesting predicament and one that fits well alongside the world-changing crises that the original Heroes run centered around.
