Heroes "Dual"

The mid-season finale starts out with an amazing monologue given by Syler. Much like the name of the episode it is about the Dual nature of the world. Right vs wrong, good vs evil, science vs destiny. It was chilling to hear a lovely rant about the nature of the world coming from the lips of a serial killer. In other words it was awesome.

This was the end of the chapter, the end of an era. "Villains" is no more and "Fugitives" begins. But I suppose I am getting ahead of myself.

Highlight the rest to read the spoiler laden review. But for those who don't want spoilers allow me to say this, it was one of the best shows heroes has had this season. Lot's of twists and turns, emotional stuff, and finally we can see where the plot is going.

The story begins with Peter looking distraught standing near his fathers body. Nathan shows up and there is this minute where you almost see their entire relationship dissolve. Nathan plays the hero a lot, but you can't forget how he described himself in the first season, the man is a shark. He is cold and ruthless, quite frankly I wish Peter would have shot him. Naturally, Peter being the good guy that he his would never be able to do that to his own brother. Peter just punches him, leaving his brother poised to wake up at a very inconvenient moment.

Meantime at Primatech it appears as if Syler finally got around to watching some horror films, and picked up a couple of ideas from "SAW." A group of people locked in a poorly lit, almost abandoned building, with a serial killer who keeps toying with them at every stage. It's not exactly original, but it's damn effective. Syler does lots of bad things while trying to work out his mommy issues, and seems to be really picking on Claire. In some strange way he identifies with her, he even goes on an EMO rant about how they can never be hurt but they can be heart broken

*Emo Tear*

All joking aside it is pretty creepy. Syler knows how to play to each persons weakness. Well all except Angela, that woman may not have a weakness.He keeps tempting each character trying to get them to turn against each other, in so many ways trying to prove that anyone could be as bad as he is. Or perhaps maybe he was trying to prove to himself that he is not such a terrible monster. He leaves quite a death toll: a few guards, the puppetmaster, Meredith, Echo, and probably someone else too. The big points go to Claire for stabbing Syler in the back of the head with some glass, though it remains to be seen if he died or not. Did I mention there was an explosion.

Onto another story. Hiro is stuck in the past without his powers. Ando, Matt, and Daphne come up with a plan. Daphne will steal the serum and give it to Ando in the hopes that he will develop a time traveling power. Their reasoning is that Matt always wanted to know what other people are thinking, and Daphne who was crippled wished that she could run, so perhaps people get their powers based on what they truly desire. Yet when Ando takes the serum he does not end up with the powers he wanted. I seems as if another fan thoery may be at play here, some believe that people get their powers based on their personality. Ando gives this theory great credence. Ando, already everyone's favorite sidekick gets a power that truly makes him the best sidekick ever he has the power to enhance other peoples powers. He is able to enhance Daphne's speed enough that they are able to time travel and get Hiro.

There is another thing that is important to note about Ando's powers. Remember all the way back at the very beginning of this season Hiro time travels to the future and sees Ando shooting him with red sparks. Hiro assumes that this is Ando trying to kill him but this may not be the case. Ando's red spark power seems to enhance a persons power, maybe he just gave heey really want in life. It's a theory I have seen on the forums before, and perhaps it is still true. Ando focuses on getting a time traveling power, but he ends up with something else. One fan theory is that people get powers based on their personality's, and what happens to ro a jolt but I somehow doubt that the power is fatal. I really hope that this is the case, while the two may argue sometimes I know that Ando could never betray Hiro.

Oh yea back to what happens with Peter and Nathan. Peter goes to wreck the lab and get rid of the serum, he gets unexpected help from the "Villains" Flint and Knox. Mohinder gets hit with enough serum that it seems to make his icky skin condition go away, and the Mohinder fangirls rejoiced. Some people die and there is an explosion. Just before the whole place goes up Peter injects himself with the serum, and takes Nathans flying power and zooms himself and his brother out of the place just in the nick of time.

Thus begins the new chapter

Sadly Nathan continues to be a douchebag. He tells the government about the existence of "dangerous" people with powers. Provides lists to the government, and from the preview it looked like some serious Guantanamo Bay torture shit was happening.

There was this one haunting and incredibly powerful image in the preview of the next chapter. It was of prisoners in their orange uniforms, chained up, and with bags covering their heads. As they sat chained together unable to speak you could see them holding hands in solidarity.

I don't want to see this happen to the characters, but I see this as a necessary step in several directions. For one the future is a very difficult thing to change, since season one there have been visions of heroes being hunted down by the government. Eventually they had to address the issue, this time it's not about saving the world it's about saving themselves.

Perhaps more importantly this new "Fugitives" chapter allows the creators to say a lot about political issues currently facing the world, or situations which have happened before. It seems like the heroes are being rounded up into camps similar to that of Nazi Germany, and the scenes of prisoners with bags over their heads was reminiscent of those taken at Abu Ghraib. I'm expecting issues of discrimination, torture, and even terrorism to be brought up in the next chapter. One of the reasons why Sci-Fi is such an important genre is that it can create worlds that allow us to better examine our own political structures and moral issues.

Allow me to make a prediction. I'm expecting the show to take a dramatic turn, I think the next chapter will actually be a lot darker then "Villains". However, with the new writers on board, and much of the time travel issues gone I expect "Fugitives" to be a great improvement on the current season.