“It’s the way the world ends, Noah: under a burning Texas sky.”
Heroes Reborn had its best episode yet as it finally revealed how Claire died. Full review continues below for the second half of the “June 13” two-parter.
Heroes Reborn spoilers continue below.
After weeks of the “how could Claire actually die” question lingering over Heroes Reborn, viewers finally know the answer: Nathan’s abilities cause him to absorb Evos’ powers, meaning that he shut down Claire’s healing abilities and caused her to die in childbirth. Of all possible retcons for the woman who can’t be killed, this one actually worked pretty well, especially since we know Nathan is a Petrelli.
We also now know why Noah needed his mind to be wiped: it was to save Claire’s children, but not in the way we might have assumed. Turns out Parkman (Greg Grunberg, reprising his role from the original Heroes series) was working for Erica and Renautas, and Harris was pressing him to get information about Claire’s babies from Noah. The Penny Man came in just in the knick of time to wipe past Noah’s memory before he was forced to give up need-to-know information.
Those were the two biggest reveals as Heroes Reborn wrapped up its trip back in time, but the episode overall connected most of the series’ lose ends in continually satisfying ways. We learned why Katana Girl was created, we learned who Nathan’s dead father was, we discovered why Carlos has such a chip on his shoulder and we finally got an evolution for why Joanna turned into the horrific person she is in the present day. Heck, we even found out how Noah met his current love interest (she was the first person he saw after the Penny Man dropped him off post-mind wipe).
For Katana Girl, Hachiro Otomo created her out of the game to get revenge against Erica and send her on a quest to save Hiro, which would eventually culminate in this time loop. Hachiro’s abilities allow him to take people in and out of the game, which remains one of the more interesting new elements of Heroes Reborn, even if it doesn’t always land right. After he died, she waited to go save her father in the game, which is the storyline we pick up with her in the premiere.
In the past/present of 2014, Hiro and Anne had fallen in love and raised Nathan so he had an awareness of his powers, his parentage and his destiny. Hiro explains how Nathan can only absorb one power at a time, and the current power is time travel (which is the same ability we meet Tommy with). However the show doesn’t explain why Nathan didn’t absorb Harris’s power when he attacked him (maybe it would only work with Harris Prime?). Hiro went down fighting the Harris’s, and sent Nathan and Anne away to protect them. Part of that involved the Penny Man wiping Nathan’s mind, which is why we started with the clueless Tommy back in the series premiere.
We want to hear it.
As for Carlos, he knew Farah, the woman who was tasked with protecting Malina, during their time fighting the war, and he received a medal of honor because of an action she did. They were in a relationship but split up, and he couldn’t live with taking the credit for her actions, especially since the world was so anti-Evo. (Hence the drinking in the school assembly presentation back in the pilot.) Farah went on to take a position protecting Malina on behalf of Angela Petrelli, who foresaw the world ending in front of a clocktower in Odessa, Texas with only Malina and Nathan able to stop it.
Speaking of anti-Evo, “June 13 – Part Two” showed rather than told Joanne’s dark turn into the murderous, vengeful woman who we met in the two-hour premiere. Though seeing the way her grief transformed her did allow the character to be somewhat more sympathetic, nothing can save just how awful Judith Shekoni’s portrayal of Crazy Joanne has been/will continue to be.
Many characters who seemed like they were due for longer arcs but died fairly early on in Heroes Reborn’s run were given a second chance in this two-parter, and it finally felt like the series fell into the rhythms it was always intended to. This was a great hour of TV and had a midseason finale-type feel (there are five more episodes this season) that brought together all the elements that had been working in the weaker earlier episodes. The twist at the end where Quentin is still alive and actually working for Erica fit well into this reinvigorated version of the series that is speeding toward its finale, and even if we never see Molly again, her arc was completed in a satisfactory manner.
Heroes Reborn has had plenty of flaws, but if it can keep up this momentum and solid storytelling for its last five episodes it will end up being a satisfying return to the Heroes world. “June 13 – Part Two” landed all the important notes as it tied up pretty much every lose plot thread that it left dangling in the first seven episodes. Best of all, it actually delivered a reasonable explanation for why Claire lost her powers and died.
