“You’re going to help save the world.”
By Amber Dowling
Warning: full spoilers follow for the episode below.
It only took half the series, but Heroes Reborn brought viewers into the heart of the matter Thursday night when we went deep into Renautas headquarters to finally learn what devious plan Erica had for humanity. Turns out, killing seven billion people was exactly what she had on tap. Because you know, everyone needs a clean slate now and then.
And so the miniseries brought us back to the heart of the original show, in which it was up to the Cheerleader to save the world—notably from a super evil antihero and company warfare. Here we’ve got 12-year-old Tommy who has replaced Claire as the most important hero we know of to date, although his genetics or why he’s been chosen for the mission remain unclear. It was no shock to learn that Tommy was adopted (that was pretty much solidified last week when his blood test revealed he wasn’t a match for his mother), but now that he knows it means certain truths can finally be told. That is, if he stops his adolescent hissy fits and sticks around long enough to hear them. Darn those kids and their disappearing acts.
Meanwhile Malina, the other youngin’ charged with saving the world, got a hard dose of reality when her mentor was shot and she was forced to continue her mission on her own. I kept expecting her to finally open that envelope and reveal a picture of someone important, but of course we still have five episodes to go and if Heroes is good at one thing it’s teasing out the plot as far as it can go. But hey, at least she wasn’t caught by Harris, his evil clones, or the power sucking spider-person they brought along for good measure. Here’s hoping that envelope will be opened next week, so that she can finally burn it and avoid the information from getting in the wrong hands.
Speaking of the wrong hands, Luke seemed to have a heavy episode of soul searching following his reveal to Joanne. We were treated to a trip down memory lane including sailboats and recordable books that lasted perhaps a little too long, but served to bridge evil Luke from vengeful Luke from atoning Luke. By burning the house down he’s making himself go completely out on a limb, although where he’ll head first remains a complete mystery. Perhaps he’ll find himself in California helping Carlos.
Ah yes, the Luchador. Given the fact that he has no actual powers it’s interesting to see how he’s coping in order to fight with the best of them. His Iron Man inspired suit isn’t my favorite costume choice, but at least it makes his participation in fighting gun-wielding LAPD officers a little more realistic. (If we can even use the term realistic in this sense at all.) Now that we know Dylan Bruce’s character is actually an Evo those two could be quite the matchup. After all, we all know how much Paul sacrificed for the greater good in Orphan Black, guys.
That brings us to Katana Girl, one of the most controversial characters of the new series. While it’s an interesting play to bring fan culture and gaming life into the show, there are just too many similarities to Hiro’s original storyline to be ignored. Thankfully we weren’t treated to another video game simulation in “The Lion’s Den,” but we sure came close. I mean, who smashes through glass like that without even a nick? It seems inevitable that when Masi Oka does guest star on the series – sometime in the next couple of weeks – he should be brought into contact with Katana Girl. Although given that the November Sweeps episodes are titled “June 13th” Parts 1 and 2, and we learned for a fact that Hiro died that day on Thursday, he may be reserved for flashback episodes only. Here’s hoping not, because they newbies seem just a little too familiar.
“The Lion’s Den” featured plenty of reveals as we finally learned Renautas’s big plans for the futures and just a little more of Tommy’s background—at least enough to keep that hook going into next week. Viewers were also treated to another complex twist when it was revealed Dylan Bruce’s character has secret powers of his own. But overall the episode set up plenty of stories that featured a been-there-done-that vibe. Not helping the situation was the Lucador’s new armor, which is strikingly similar to Iron Man’s, or the massive amount of time spent on Luke’s backstory with his now-dead son.
