The Butterfly Effect (302)

[cshawzye]

It was a huge surprise to me. I'm not sure if I like it though - That's like the biggest plot-twist cliche'.

I kinda felt the same way at the end of the episode. Hopefully they'll pull something out of it and turn it around from the cliched. Here's to keeping my fingers crossed.

Well, this has been an awesome start - except Super Manhinder is pushing me a little. Although, he is falling apart - literally - so I wont hold it against him. LOL

I'm completely excited for super Mohinder! I've been wishing he had some kind of power since I started watching the show. The fact that it's "self-inflicted" (so to speak) and that it seems to be backfiring is rather interesting, imo. Can't wait to see more.

I'm also looking forward to seeing where they take Ando this season.

The season definitely looks like it's going to be awesome.

[Wolf O'Donnell]

Anyone else thinking the ending with Syler is a rip off of the third Summers brother thing from X-men?

[Shan Bruce Lee]

Spoiler:

She was with Angela Petrelli at the end of the ep. Petrelli basically 'fired' her from the Company, and told her to go find a new life.

Ah now I remember that, thanks.

[Shan Bruce Lee]

I like the fact that Mohinder has powers now. That last scene with him was crazy.

[Thermonuclearboy]

Harumph.

You know, I honestly have to say that I'm getting sick of the "the world's gonna end unless we do something...AGAIN!" storyline. I mean, how many alternate futures where the world blows up are we going to see?

And Mama Petrelli....geez, is EVERYONE related to her somehow?

And I always assumed that Peter absorbed that dreaming power from that terminally ill guy he was caring for in the first season. Wasn't that his power?

[Buddhawasanancient]

Anyone else thinking the ending with Syler is a rip off of the third Summers brother thing from X-men?

...or how about the fact that one of the new villains is an older, gray-haired German with Magnetic Abilities? Ummm, can anyone say Magneto? I loved the Ep but that anoyed me a bit. Along with the WAY TOO OBVIOUS Sprint drop, the EXTREMELY liberal use of Time Travel early on, and the fact that Claire's birth mom had to show us her fire..AGAIN.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Buddhawasanancient:
I guess I'd have to see whether Peter in Jesse's body has Peter's powers or Jesse's. If it's Peter's powers my theory might be correct, if not oh well. The other theory I read online was she was a third sister to Nikki and Jessica, separated at birth.

Getting confusing now haha.

Sorry if I confused ya, I do that to myself constantly especially when it has to do with theorizing about this show. lol. Basically what I was saying was the person being transplanted to the new body would have to keep the powers they had before in order for my theory to play out since Nikki had Super Strength and now the person in that body has Cryokinesis. So to test that I need to know whether Present Peter has his own powers now, or Jesse's. I hope that makes more sense...Also in the first part where I said Peter switched himself out, I meant Future Peter switched Present Peter with Jesse, so when I said "himself" I was partially right. lol...

[flameling]

I think that it will be interesting to see how future Peter will save present Peter. I like that Mohinder is now "Spider Suresh" it's a good change for him.

[Ancavge]

the ending part didnt suprise me as i was already aware of that, but i wonder if that true and she not just lying for some reason.

[tophatmadhatter]

Mohinder Uluru...probably not.

[entil2001]

(Note: This review covers the second half of the two-hour season premiere event. The first half was covered in a previous review.)

The season premiere was all about setting up the plot threads for this third volume (“Villains”), regardless of how ridiculous some of the required plot acrobatics might have been. But sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice one episode’s credibility in the hopes of breathing new life into a concept. With a little cribbing from the best stories of comic book history, the writers might have done just that.

Villains are always fun, and whenever a band of heroes is brought together, the bad guys follow suit. The Company’s little dungeon, a fixture since the first season, is the site of a Sylar-induced breakout, and now some of the most powerful and socially repugnant metahumans are on the street, killing and pillaging without a care.

It takes some time to get there, and the theme of the episode is “unintended consequences”. Future Peter tried to do the right thing by killing Nathan, but his actions set events in motion. Angela Petrelli is more than happy to blame him for everything, but as noted in the review for the premiere, the coming apocalypse seems to be the result of a convergence of several issues.

In particular, the breakout at the Company was the result of Elle’s failure to stop Sylar. Sylar managed to get his hands on Claire, and subsequently, had the power to invade Level 5. Elle intervened, and the result was the breakout. That seems to be more an indictment of Elle’s unusual upbringing and lack of judgment than anything Future Peter might have caused. And how exactly is Angela’s decision to toss Elle out on her own going to work out well?

In an interesting twist, Sylar does not get away during the breakout, and Angela seems to have plans for him. Not only that, but according to her, it’s a family issue; Sylar is apparently another Petrelli brother. At this rate, the Petrellis are going to be as large and dysfunctional as the Summers family from the “X-Men” books.

On the other hand, it’s building up the rivalry and parity between Peter and Sylar more than ever, and the writers have once again set things up to delay that inevitable confrontation. The real Peter is stuck with the villains; if Sylar goes after them, and eventually he will, then the two will battle. Future Peter is the wild card, but if Sylar is pursuing the villains, it’s possible they’ll be allies rather than foes for a time.

Claire, on the other hand, is well on her way to becoming a villain. Her ability to experience pain was a touchstone, however disturbing as that might sound. She could at least pretend, on some level, that she was human. One has to wonder if Sylar did something intentionally to set Claire on her current path. Whatever the case, she’s losing perspective very, very quickly, and her descent seems assured.

Mohinder appears on the same path, but the state of his transformation might delay any true villainy. One would also imagine that it would delay the release of the metahuman serum long enough for the villains to expose the presence of the metahumans on their own. Future Peter may have changed the precise circumstances, but as Angela, Hiro, and Magical African Minority Man can attest, the future is still looking dark and dreary.

Speaking of Hiro, he’s being ridiculous with Ando. Ando tosses out a few good explanations for what Hiro saw in the future, but Hiro is being rather stubborn with his own interpretation. Will it ever occur to him that his distrustful attitude might be the main reason why Ando eventually turns on him? It’s a fairly old story, after all.

Still confusing, however, is this business with “Tracy”. Not only does she claim not to be Nikki (or Jessica, for that matter), but she also has this unexpected freezing power. That power seemed to be a bit of a shock to her as well, actually, which just adds to the confusion. The mystery is more annoying than intriguing, so the writers might want to shed light on this sooner rather than later.

That would certainly fit into the theme of “unintended consequences”, like much of this episode. Then again, the writers usually manage to throw some twists and turns in each arc, so the truth will likely be more complex. Whatever the case, this episode was a modest improvement on the premiere, and I can only hope that trend continues.

[ShadowMaat]

I actually found myself a bit underwhelmed by the premiere. I know Kring & Co. said they were going to make up for last season's fumble, but if this is an example of what's to come I'm not sure I'll stick around for the outcome.

Many things were predictable or at the very least unsurprising and I gotta say I wasn't all that shocked by Mama Petrelli's "Big Reveal" at the end.

I think part of my problem is that it's starting to remind me of the final season of 4400 (or at least the three or so eps I watched before bailing). Nathan's religious epiphany was disquieting and, sorry to say, boring. That road has been traveled so many times already and I really don't see why TPTB have to go down it again. The return of Linderman was a brief surprise (more in the "why bother?" category than "OMG!", but his only appearing to Nathan was a no brainer. The religious overtones and the "brain friend" were both used on 4400 (and BSG, for that matter).

Mohinder creating a serum that will grant powers to anyone (just like in 4400) was... disappointing, but I can't say I'm surprised. Nor will I be surprised if it turns out to have terminal side effects in some of the recipients. I'm sad that he took the serum himself AND that he wound up with something as trite as super strength/enhanced stamina although his obsession with chocolate milk and the egg sacs things growing on his back do lead to some hope that those abilities are merely the traits of whatever monster he's going to become. For some reason I keep thinking of The Fly although the hanging upside down thing also put me in mind of Beast from X-Men. Methinks Mohinder won't turn out nearly as pretty as Hank did, though.

I do like that Future Peter now gets to bear witness to the mess he's made. It's a shame time travelers aren't given a handbook explaining why changing the timeline is a Bad Thing. This isn't the first time something like this has happened and I doubt it'll be the last. Someone should also explain to Hiro that blaming someone for something they're going to do in the future is stupid, particularly since there are a million ways that things can change between then and now. Treating the person like a bad guy, however, is more likely to guarantee a bad outcome than to prevent it.

Not sure what to make of Not-Niki. The explanation that she's been body switched sounds reasonable, but opens up a host of questions, mostly relating to the nature of powers. Do you keep your power no matter what? Do you gain the power of the body you're in? Do you gain a new power? Although given that Pete didn't fly off (or poof out) as soon as he got the chance seems to indicate he doesn't have his own powers.

Also, just out of curiosity, didn't one of Molly's parents have the cryokinesis thing? Does this mean that powers repeat or is this a variant of that power or what? I mean, her parents were pretty clearly dead. Not sure how you can come back from having your brain scooped out. Speaking of which....

I SO CALLED THAT!!! Finally after all this time I am proven right: SYLAR DOESN'T EAT BRAINS! HA! I told you! He understands how things work just by looking at them... and can obviously manipulate his own inner clockwork to reflect what he sees.

Anyway, I thought the rest was kinda meh although I'll be curious to see how Matt does with the Walkabout dude. I was convinced he'd been booted to Fourecks Australia and kept looking for drop bears kangaroos or something. The painting and the guy with the visions reminded me strongly of the Creator dude Rincewind met in Last Continent.

I wonder why Future Peter trapped Pete in the body of a powered inmate but dropped Matt in the middle of Africa? And both in contemporary times? If I really wanted to make sure someone couldn't interfere I'd move them in time as well as space. Or even just time. Send Matt back to deal with the Dinosaurs of New York-to-be.

[mr_kennedy]

another awesome episode

does nikki have a unique power for each personality she has? or is this a different women alltogether

i love the whole hiro doesnt trust ando storyline

cool seeing bruce boxelteimer again

is linderman alive or dead?

[knowsfords]

I think that Linderman is dead, but that was Linderman from the past appearing before Nathan using someone else... Arthur Petrelli

I'd bet that Papa-Petrelli's power is the ability to appear to anyone at any time without anyone being able to see you, which explains Peter's trip in S1... And I bet he can take hitchhikers with him.

[Easter Lily]

I thought I saw William Katt's name pop up during the credit roll but I don't remember seeing him. Did anyone catch a glimpse of him?

Altogether a decent opening two parter. I really wonder about Mrs Petrelli... whether she isn't just a master manipulator. I can't wait to see where they go with all that.

[Buddhawasanancient]

OK. I watched these 2 eps again last nite on the ol' DVR and I noticed something I didn't the first time. So right before Nikki/Tracy freezes The Greatest American Hero, he calls her an Ice Queen. Maybe that has something to do with her power. Maybe it's not Cryokinesis but something like suggestive manifestation where she manifests a power based on what people say to her?!? I don't know, it sounds pretty out there but there's gotta be a connection between the Ice Queen comment, and TGAH in frozen pieces on the floor.

Another thing I noticed was when Noah was showing Claire the computer files of the Level 5 inmates you could clearly see some pretty interesting info if you pause it. It seems as if they break them down into 4 distinct categories: Biological, Cerebral, Elemental, and Temporal/Spatial. It had Knox listed as Enhanced Strength: Cerebral, Flint as Pyrokinesis: Cerebral (although I think that was a mistake and he shopuld be listed as Elemental. Fire is an element, no?), The German was listed as Magneticism: Elemental and Jesse Murphy as Sound Manipulation: Elemental. So if we applied this to the Heroes we know we'd get Hiro: Temporal/Spatial, Claire and Adam: Biological, Parkman: Cerebral, etc. I don't know, I found this new way of categorizing them, fascinating...