HEROES Recap: Landslide

Now that I’ve caught up on HEROES and became a huge fan of the show, I hate when I miss an episode. But that’s just what happened last night, and as a result I can’t read Julie sure-to-be-fantastic recap.  I need to get caught up on some MAJOR television viewing tomorrow night.  But feel free to comment away and show the love – I’ll read and respond to your comments when I et caught up tomorrow night.

“Landslide”
Original Air Date: 5/14/2007
GMMR Recapper: Julie

After the meeting with Ted, Peter, Parkman, Bennett, and Claire (isn’t it exciting how all the heroes are finallly coming together? I see a few of them in the same frame and I’m like, “Sweet!”), Peter manages to control his newly incendiary self, so Claire doesn’t have to shoot him, which is, as Martha would put it, A Good Thing. After a little tete-a-tete with her dad, Claire splits off to take flameworthy friends Ted and Peter to a secluded country spot where if they explode it won’t spell the end for everyone in NYC. Bennett and Parkman, however, head into Evil Primatech’s NYC HQ to destroy the tracking device we met last week — remember sweet little Molly?

Sylar, aurally gifted sneak that he is, heard all about their plans from around the corner and plans to follow Claire, Ted, and Peter as they head out of the city. Great idea, dimwit. Don’t you realize you can’t blow up the city if you never get the power of kaboom? You foolish, foolish sociopath. Way to angst about it and then walk head-slicingly right into your own fate.

Hiro and Ando, meanwhile, are on a mission to get their sword repaired. Good thing there’s an antique sword repair shop nearby. What luck! And if you believe in that sort of luck, you’ll probably believe that Hiro’s dad popping up at the store is just a coincidence too. (It’s not.) Ando thinks he’s there to talk Hiro out of his quest, so he’s particularly bummed when Hiro and his Papa-san head off to talk alone.

Things are hectic at the Petrelli house, with Linderman popping up to give Nathan one last “let your brother destroy the city, and I’ll scratch your back” talk. He does some pre-emptive scratching by laying his healing hands on Nathan’s wife (ew, not like that!) and getting her to walk again. Nice acting by Rena Sofer there. Satisfied that Petrelli will do his bidding, Linderman finally shows up to grab Micah for his parseltongue…er…ability to speak to computers. What’s that called? Machinese? Candice and Micah head to the polls to screw with the voting computers, resulting in a landslide victory for Nathan, who accepts his congressional seat at the close of the ep.

As for Hiro and Dad, it happily turns out that his dad’s in on the whole thing, and thinks Hiro’s ready to take on more responsibility. Hiro can kill Sylar, he just needs to learn some sword skillz, which his surprisingly badass dad can teach him. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Training montage! Well, not quite. But Hiro does end up effectively wielding a sword and getting his fight on. He also learns some boilerplate warrior wisdom: “To save what is important, I must be strong enough to cut out my own heart.” Yikes! Does that bode badly for Ando, who in the meantime has scurried off to kill Sylar on his own? Only time will tell.

Bennett and Parkman bump into DL and Jessica, who are heading up to Primatech HQ themselves in search of Micah. We get a nice cute meet from Jessica to Parkman (“Didn’t I throw you out a window?”) before the pairs split up in search of different adversaries. Bennett and Parkman head for the tracking device. They run into a bit of trouble from Thompson at first, but as he sneaks up on Parkman, Bennett takes him out with a great Buffy-style one-two combination. Observe.

Step One: A witty retort. Thompson, with a gun to Parkman’s head: “What am I thinking now, Parkman?” Bennett, with a gun to Thompson’s head: “Your last thought.” Step Two: Death, in this case, a pair of slugs to the head. Quick decision, good decision. Harder decision: whether to put a cap in Molly’s head, once they find her and find out she’s the tracking device. Bennett: possibly pro. He’s got a young daughter, but he’s all about the greater good. Mohinder: definitely anti. They end the ep with guns raised, Mohinder’s to Bennett’s head, Bennett’s to Molly’s head. Standoff!

DL and Jessica don’t manage to find Micah, but they do find Linderman, and they’re pissed. After all the trouble he went through to get those two crazy kids together to produce a Machinese-fluent little whippersnapper, this is the thanks he gets? He tries to make a deal with Jessica: 2 million bucks to take out DL and run away with her son like nothing ever happened. Jessica’s up for it, but Niki isn’t, and she finally makes her way back to the surface. Linderman won’t have it and goes to shoot Niki, but DL blocks the bullet…with his chest. Ay! The conniving menace turns his gun round to Niki, but DL comes from behind him to deliver a skull-penetrating, brain-annihilating blow to the back of the head. Peace out, Linderman, y’old silver fox. Bet you didn’t see that coming.

Things aren’t going so well for Ted, Peter, and Claire either. For starters, Sylar tipped off the feds and they came to pick up Ted, while Claire and Peter turned invisible and skedaddled. With Ted in transit, Sylar then flipped over the SWAT van and flipped open Ted’s head. Sick, and I don’t mean like “that’s a sick motorcycle”, I mean like I put down my chocolate-chip-oatmeal cookie when I saw it, and that means a lot. At the end of the episode, Claire and Peter have learned of Ted’s death, and Sylar has learned that he no longer needs to buy a creme brulee torch set from Williams Sonoma, since his hands can make fire just fine. Oh, frak. Just wait till next week…

What did I think of the ep? Damn good. I’d love to see more of the whole group’s powers (and am really hoping the finale comes through with that), but this episode was a lot of fun. Masi Oka must’ve had a fabulous time getting to sword fight, and it was nice to see a couple heroes and villains fall. Not that I crave bloodshed, just plot advancement. I think there’s a lot of good stuff to come, and I’m psyched to see it.

Julie is a GMMR recapper extraordinaire, but she also has her own fabulous TV website. Head over to TV and Sympathy to read more from Julie.