Once Upon A Time In Texas (408)

[Demoniser]

Mmm damn good episode

Its proof that some of the best stories involve hiro, he's just such an interesting character. I'd much prefer an episode focused on him rather than Bennet or Claire which i find incredibly boring most of the time. (Teenage Angst and Shady men in glasses only go so far before its boring).

I was on the edge of my seat wishing for everything to turn out, especially when Sylar was fixing Charlie, i half expected him to turn on Hiro while his attention was focused on Charlie (Never turn your back on a serial killer lol, especially one with super powers).

As i said i was on the edge of my seat waiting for it to all turn out but had a feeling it wouldn't be so simple and bang there we have it, Charlie lost in time although as soon as i saw her name tag on the ground i thought Samuel had let Sylar kill her seeing as hes at the carnival anyway. Samuel is one heartless sob and i really hope this little arc turn out to have a happy ending with the rescue of Charlie.

To sum up

- Hiros cat and mouse, awesome, having the balls to 'play' with Sylar, tense stuff.
- Seamless integration of past episodes events/content into the time travel stuff. It fit together nicely.
- Sylar fixing Charlie, interesting, but how can he 'see' she has an anursysm or hiro has a tumor by just looking at her? Surely if he can see whats going on with stuff like that which is happening in the brain then he doesn't have to slice a persons skull off to get their ability? Surely he could just look at anyone he wanted to 'learn' their power so to speak, plot hole, writing goof perhaps?
- Samuels manipulation of Hiro, i hope he gets whats coming to him

[knowles2]

Mmm damn good episode

Its proof that some of the best stories involve hiro, he's just such an interesting character. I'd much prefer an episode focused on him rather than Bennet or Claire which i find incredibly boring most of the time. (Teenage Angst and Shady men in glasses only go so far before its boring).

I was on the edge of my seat wishing for everything to turn out, especially when Sylar was fixing Charlie, i half expected him to turn on Hiro while his attention was focused on Charlie (Never turn your back on a serial killer lol, especially one with super powers).

As i said i was on the edge of my seat waiting for it to all turn out but had a feeling it wouldn't be so simple and bang there we have it, Charlie lost in time although as soon as i saw her name tag on the ground i thought Samuel had let Sylar kill her seeing as hes at the carnival anyway. Samuel is one heartless sob and i really hope this little arc turn out to have a happy ending with the rescue of Charlie.

To sum up

- Hiros cat and mouse, awesome, having the balls to 'play' with Sylar, tense stuff.
- Seamless integration of past episodes events/content into the time travel stuff. It fit together nicely.
- Sylar fixing Charlie, interesting, but how can he 'see' she has an anursysm or hiro has a tumor by just looking at her? Surely if he can see whats going on with stuff like that which is happening in the brain then he doesn't have to slice a persons skull off to get their ability? Surely he could just look at anyone he wanted to 'learn' their power so to speak, plot hole, writing goof perhaps?
- Samuels manipulation of Hiro, i hope he gets whats coming to him

No Sylar never had to cut people heads open to learn there power, he could simply absorb them like peter but he evil and does the head cutting opening thing anyway for fun. This was demonstrated last season.

Extremely good episode.

[boyd22]

i just hope they dont end up doing to Charlie what they did to that Caitlin character from season 2...which is leaving her stuck somewhere in time and never hearing anything about the character again...although Caitlin was stuck in a alternate future, they never even tried to explain what became of her...

[Aerilon]

you sure he was unconscious? he looked awfully dead to me...he had what appeared to be bullet holes in him...

To be honest, I wasn't really focusing on his body.

Though it the timeline is restored, and Samuel has indeed killed Mohinder, it would explain the actor leaving the show...

No Sylar never had to cut people heads open to learn there power, he could simply absorb them like peter but he evil and does the head cutting opening thing anyway for fun. This was demonstrated last season.

By all accounts, Sylar only learnt that he had the empathy power after he met Arthur. As far as Sylar knew, he had to cut people's heads open in order to get what he wanted.

i just hope they dont end up doing to Charlie what they did to that Caitlin character from season 2...which is leaving her stuck somewhere in time and never hearing anything about the character again...although Caitlin was stuck in a alternate future, they never even tried to explain what became of her...

Thats one girl we're never going to see again. All being that future doesn't exist anymore, Caitilin is simply 'gone'.

You'd have thought, the minute Peter had the time travel ability again, he'd be like "oh crap, best go rescue Catilian."

[Madwelshboy]

i just hope they dont end up doing to Charlie what they did to that Caitlin character from season 2...which is leaving her stuck somewhere in time and never hearing anything about the character again...although Caitlin was stuck in a alternate future, they never even tried to explain what became of her...

I guess it will depend on if they do plan on following it up and if her schedule allows for a return.

[entil2001]

This was billed as a much-anticipated episode, and it certainly had its allure. The Hiro/Charlie episodes were some of the best of the first season, and I was interested to see how the current version of Hiro would manage to interact with the old timeline without causing massive problems and changes. Add Samuel to the mix, and things get really complicated.

Right off the bat, there is one thing that irritates me. As much as I love Samuel as a character and I enjoy his cryptic machinations, his plan doesn’t quite fit with the way that time travel has been treated in previous seasons. The writers always made a point to show the past as relatively immutable and the future as to be determined. This is definitely not the case with this season, especially since Samuel is pushing Hiro to change things.

Some things clearly have been changed over the course of the series. Hiro’s original six-month relationship with Hiro is an obvious example, and Hiro’s adventure in historical Japan in the second season caused certain ripples. But this is on a much more substantial level. Maybe it’s just the fact that Hiro used to insist on preserving the timeline, and now he is not. And maybe it’s because time travel is a storytelling crutch that the writers can’t seem to avoid.

That said, I think it’s very interesting that Hiro would go so far as to manipulate Sylar into curing Charlie and then resuming his reign of terror. While it seems extreme at first glance, and therefore out of character, I would argue that it speaks to how important Charlie always has been to Hiro. People do terrible things for love, and this proves how far Hiro will go for her. And that, in turn, makes sense of Hiro’s decision to fall in line with Samuel’s desires.

I was wondering how Mohinder would factor into this season, and why he hasn’t made an appearance yet. I suppose we now know why Mohinder has been out of the picture. It makes for a nice twist, even if I personally haven’t missed Mohinder one bit since we last saw him. I get the feeling this will integrate the carnival with the rest of the known “Heroes” world a bit more, and that would not be a bad thing.

It was also great to see Charlie again, even if she looked noticeably different from her original run in the first season. I’ve also gotten used to the actress on “Glee”, so it took a moment to adjust. Considering how the episode ends, I have to wonder if Charlie is supposed to appear again later in the season. If not, maybe she’s trapped in the same temporal limbo as Caitlin, Peter’s erstwhile girlfriend from the second season!

Even with the time travel-related annoyances of the main plot, it was much, much better than the Noah/Lauren material. I really have no idea what the point of that was supposed to be. I understand that the writers enjoy going back and retroactively adding details to the story, but there should be a rule that such changes/additions be value-added.

There is a certain attempt at counterpoint between the Hiro/Charlie and Noah/Lauren relationships, but it doesn’t seem to matter beyond that ephemeral purpose. If Lauren never appears again, what was the point? And beyond that, did Lauren have an ability? We never see one in play, so it seems to contradict the long-standing Company policy of using normal/metahuman partners.

Episodes like this play a dangerous game. They harken back to popular moments from the heyday of the series, and remind us of all the things we loved about the show in the beginning. Yet that also tends to remind us of how the show has fallen from grace from those heady and fascinating days.

[ZeroPoint]

Since changing timelines is okay now for Hiro I had a question:

After Charlie was taken and Samuel said the old guy put her away, why didn't Hiro blink again to the carnival an hour ago, find the old guy and kill him, or find Samuel and blink him into a box?
Or to ask another way, why didn't Hiro jump back a few minutes and keep Charlie from being kidnapped? If he could, he'd leave Samuel in the past without an exit.

Is there anything directly keeping Hiro from jumping to where Charlie is now and saving her now? He seems to be able to think of a person and port to their location.

[boyd22]

Since changing timelines is okay now for Hiro I had a question:

After Charlie was taken and Samuel said the old guy put her away, why didn't Hiro blink again to the carnival an hour ago, find the old guy and kill him, or find Samuel and blink him into a box?
Or to ask another way, why didn't Hiro jump back a few minutes and keep Charlie from being kidnapped? If he could, he'd leave Samuel in the past without an exit.

Is there anything directly keeping Hiro from jumping to where Charlie is now and saving her now? He seems to be able to think of a person and port to their location.

no, theres nothing actually preventing him from doing that...but hes had trouble getting back to Charlie the first time...he teleported back to the present and for some reason, he was unable to travel back and save her...

[TBA]

Hiro can't do that because he has no real control over his time-jumping, it's just his emotions overwhelming him and then he jumps to that place/time.

[Aerilon]

Something to ponder... I can't remember his name, but Samuel's time traveling friend died. This we know. We also know what he died of; a brain tumor. To be quite honest, I can't see how a time traveler can die of a brain tumor. Isn't the answer simply? Jump years into the future, where there is a cure, get the cure, then pop back...?

[ZeroPoint]

Hiro can't do that because he has no real control over his time-jumping, it's just his emotions overwhelming him and then he jumps to that place/time.

Disagree. Like trying to get her back isn't emotionally overwhelming? It's the perfect time. He looked downright pissed when Samuel said she was being held. He's had quite a number of frivolous jumps.

And for Aerilon: Good point. That and Hiro is doing real well jumping all through time now when he was just recently in a hospital bed after collapsing to meet Noah/Peter. It looks like the carnival doesn't have a healer, or nobody thought that Sylar might be able to remove/reduce the old_guy's tumor like how he helped Charlie.

[boyd22]

can't believe this didn't hit me till earlier but, i think its likely the person Samuel and his "family" was burying in the season premiere is probably Mohinder...

[TBA]

I thought it was Samuel's brother they were burying?

[boyd22]

I thought it was Samuel's brother they were burying?

you're right, my mistake...i forgot they already mentioned Samuel's brothers name, Joseph....

[Phenix]

eh... I just got around to watching this show on my DVR. I'm glad I finally got one.

I did not like this episode. I enjoyed Hiro's role but HRG and his gf was pointless. I can not see any value to HRGs storyline. And I believe you can argue that Hiro's story broke w/ previously stated Heroe's lore... I don't know. I'll watch it now b/c its on my DVR but I'd never sit through commercials to see it when it airs.