Episode Review: Chapter 20, Five Years Gone (SPOILERS)
By Sam | May 2, 2007 (3:20 pm) | More: Heroes Episode Reviews, Heroes Videos Multimedia Downloads
(Episode Review by the Fiendish Supervillain Mathsorcerer) — I was wrong. I thought last week’s episode was the best thus far … until I saw Chapter 20, “Five Years Gone”. Wow. It’s difficult to make me speechless, but this episode very nearly does it. You’ve been living in a dream world. You think it’s the year 2007, when in fact it is closer to 2012. When exactly we cannot say because we simply don’t know. We don’t know who struck first, but we know it was Sylar who scorched the city.
Erm…ok — enough of that.
You want dark and dystopian? Welcome to the New York — the world — of the future. The post-apocalyptic future that so many have dreaded for so long. Many, many things have changed, and the list of the fallen includes DL (which is real shame), Micah (which is an ever greater shame), Linderman, and Ando. This last revelation came as a great shock to Ando, I must say; it isn’t every day you find out you’re dead.
Future Sylar blew up after collecting both Claire’s and Theodore’s powers, you see. He was attacked, but survived, then blew up and still survived, plunging the world into chaos. Fortunately, Nathan stepped in to assume the role of President and helped lead both America and the world to a semblance of normalcy.
At this point, the shrewd among us have noticed one glaring plot hole — Sylar didn’t collect Claire’s power, at least not in our reality. This is where things get complicated, but don’t worry, because the rest of the episode stays just as complicated.
Although many science-fiction writers have given us alternate visions of the future before, and various shows have had “what if this happens in the future?” episodes, Heroes does them all honor by following in that proud tradition and pulls it off wonderfully, or certainly better than some other shows I won’t mention here.
Contrary to what you might think, Chapter 20 actually asks more questions than it answers:
When did Mrs. Bennet leave HRG? When — and why — would Hana switch her staunch position and begin working with HRG? When did Matt become so tough? Who gave Peter that scar? Why would Niki get involved with Peter, the President’s brother? Who is that pretty young waitress at the Burnt Toast with the long brown hair? Did Mr. Muggles ever win Best in Show? And finally, the question of all questions, the one that has been bugging all avid Heroes fans ever since the first episode: What is HRG’s first name?
(I would answer that last one, but I would probably be smuggled away by unseen forces and my review edited to protect you from knowledge too dangerous for mere mortals to possess.)
The only person relatively unscathed in all this mess is Mohinder Suresh. He gets to wear a better suit these days, and he’s sporting a little facial hair, but he is still trying to figure out the mechanism of the genetic differences that make certain people into gifted heroes. Of course, he’s not the person to ask about the dreaded “Plan B”, at least not when it comes to figuring out how to “control” the gifted population. Nathan, posturing as a President backed into a corner, has a difficult decision to make.
In a stroke of wonderful irony, of course, Isaac’s loft moves from being a place where a visionary foresees the futures to being a place where another visionary tries to piece together the past. The web that is this period in history is played out from one apartment.
That is good writing, let me tell you.
Despite Matt’s tough veneer as a Stormtrooper wannabe, he and HRG come to an understanding, helping the less-destructive supers remain in hiding. It’s also pretty easy to come up with fake computer records of one’s history with Hana doing the uploading. I wonder what special power little Matthew has, though? I always said Matt would wind up on top; he can call the President whenever he needs to, just like Jack Bauer. No, Matt isn’t that tough, though. Or is he? Yes, he most definitely did pull that trigger.
Since the episode has already aired, the spoiler that everyone had guessed (which means it really isn’t a spoiler), is that there are three mistakes on the list of Who’s Who Among the Dead in the future. First, Sylar isn’t on the list. Second, Nathan is on the list. Third, Candice is also on the list. Add those three things together and you get Sylar impersonating Nathan as President. After all, he does know how things work and is the most special person there is. Honestly, I wish I hadn’t seen that one coming — the element of surprise would be completely refreshing.
Hrm…I suppose I should say four mistakes — Claire is also on the list of the dearly departed. At least, she is now.
I was wrong about one other thing, now that I think about it. Matt does know that Sylar is pretending to be Nathan, which is why he does whatever he is told no matter how dirty it might be. It’s either that or have his brain sucked out and his power stolen.
No matter how you slice it, this is the climax, the pinnacle and crux around which this entire season has revolved. Once we wind up back in the fresh, clean NYC of today, the drive to stop the Bomb is redoubled. If you aren’t drooling for next week’s episode, then you aren’t watching the same show as the rest of us.
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Guys, it was HRG clearly who shot Nathan, why the heck would Peter do it? 
Yay! They're doing more promos. 
i think that people should leave them alone . i mean that is their
personal lives . i mean , ...
you're forgetting peter has hiro's powers
there is every chance he shot nathan to stop him telling the world
Dan on 2 May 2007:
I agree an amazing episode that raises more questions than it answers.
My questions:
If Peter can heal, how does he have a scar?
Last week we saw Peter heal as Sylar tried to open his head. Why can’t Claire do this?
Since Peter has Hiro’s abilities, what’s preventing him from going back and stopping Sylar? (especially since he obviously feels guilty for destroying half of NY)
Dan on 2 May 2007:
If the Haitian blocks powers and Peter can assume the powers of those he meets, when Peter meets the Haitian, who’s powers work?
AL on 2 May 2007:
The future shows peter with a scar as hero said in the first episode “You Look different with out the Scar” , i think this is because when he detonated destroying half of Newyork his healing power wasn’t enough to totally protect him but thats just my theory.
As for the Haitain i think he’s a telepath and he can block some one using there powers by stopping them mentally activating them but if he met peter he could block him once but then peter would have his ability so could block him.
But i just think its a cool show and its only getting better
Rabbit on 2 May 2007:
1) Both Peter and Sylar appear to only be able to use one power at once (for example, while Sylar did many things at once in the episode where he tried to cut open Peter’s head, they were all based on one power- telekinesis to hold thw tow men to the wall and ceiling, and tk again to cut into Peter’s skull).
If that’s the case, you could scar Peter by forcing him to use another power instead of healing the damage to his face immediately.
2) Peter going back: unlike Hiro, Peter has not done extensive research into exactly the right moment to go back - going back to the wrong time could be catastrophic, as has been implied by older-Hiro several times. Also, they imply Peter had some sort of ‘deal’ with Nikki not to interfere in events any more (the one he breaks when he goes to help Hiro and the others).
JoNy_SaTié on 2 May 2007:
For answering one or two of this questions, we would have to review all the episodes and to observe every single detail that we think is strange.
All of this events that don’t fix, have a relation with the change in the future.
Fuxsiloh on 4 May 2007:
[Part of the transcript from Episode 20, when Hiro, Ando and Future Hiro are in Isaacs apartment five years in the future]
Future Hiro: “I stabbed him[Sylar], but he regenerated.”
Ando: “Because he had the cheerleader’s power.”
Future Hiro: “Exactly.”
Future Hiro: “But if Peter saved her… Sylar can now be killed.”
OK, so it’s clear there are two timelines, let’s call them A, where Peter saved Claire and B, where Sylar killed Claire.
Future Hiro is from timeline B (Claire is dead which is why he couldn’t kill Sylar) and Present Hiro is from timeline A, which is why Future Hiro is telling him “Sylar can now be killed”.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love this show, but how does it make sense to have Claire alive in timeline B?
Furthermore, if Peter didn’t save Claire (which we are told he didn’t), then he would not have her power and thus, can’t regenerate. This explains why he has a scar on his face.
jessiicahh on 5 May 2007:
so is nathan dead ?? if he is that means in that episode it was sylar the whole time ! i knew it !
cuz nathan cant turn that evil !
damn sylar!
i hate the fact that sylar can change shape. its soo hard to tell if its the real person or not !
arghh this show makes me think toooo much
mary V on 6 May 2007:
I read thoeries about the Crane boy from ep. 20. It appears that he is the kid with the power of deoxygenation or turning into a crane. Do you believe that they will bring him back as a real HERO? He is a good actor and i think is the same kid who is going to be Young ben on LOST
PROTO_TYPE on 6 May 2007:
As far as I know the future Peter doesn’t have regenerating powers thus him not being able to heal the scar. Proof is Nathan didn’t know Claire existed and so does HRG. Which means Peter haven’t met her as well. But does it mean that Peter met Meredith ’cause he now has fire power, right?
Now, talking about Matt having known all along that Sylar has shape shifter to Nathan, why didn’t he just tell the Haitian about it and they can work together and stop Sylar? After all The Haitian has the power to stop anyones power…
Ryan on 7 May 2007:
Here’s how I see the whole mutiple timeline thing. Lets do what someone mentioned earlier and call Sylar killing Claire early on B, and Claire surviving (for a few years) as A. This episode is entirely based on the A timeline, Sylar didn’t have Claire’s powers but Peter was the bomb.
Every character experienced timeline A… except future Hiro. He is the only one that remembers what happened in timeline B before he went back and changed the course of events. Everyone else had their memory retroactively changed. For example, HRG doesn’t remember Sylar killing Claire at homecoming because in that timeline it never happened. I guess part of Hiro’s power is that he can remember what happened in the previous timeline which is why future Hiro is the only character in this episode that remembers timeline B.
So to answer Fuxsiloh’s question, Claire is dead because they are on timeline A.
kristina on 9 May 2007:
is claire alive after this episode? i was wondering since the title was Five years gone by…
i like claire’s character and i hate to see it if she dies in this series
MeateaW on 10 May 2007:
Okay; this might confuse people but hey, its a time-travel story, its bound to.
There are inconsistencies!! some things should not have occured.
There are actually 3 time-lines.
timeline A is the one where Hiro hasn’t interfered atall.
Claire is dead at homecoming, Peter doesnt have healing powers. Peter gets his scar and cant heal from it. Thats why he has a scar, and Future Hiro (FHiro from now on) would expect him to have a scar.
timeline B is the one where FHiro started interfering.
This timeline is the timeline of the episode “5 years gone.” ie this one.
Claire survived (until the end of this episode), Peter *should not* have had his scar!! because he saved claire! this is an inconsistency. Even though, it is in the past, this timeline exists only because Past Hiro (PHiro) hasn’t lived his future yet. So as he hasnt gone and stabbed Sylar, (yet!) then the future cannot yet be different. This is a time-line seen from PHiros perspective, it is the only timeline that PHiro can *go* to.
Timeline C is the one we are watching in the show.
it is the one where presumably Peter is stopped from exploding, and Sylar is killed. (presumably).
It is the one where Hiro will stop the events of Timeline B from occuring.
Timetravel stories are confusing. Especially for the writers, because they need to keep track of alot of different things. They often aren’t perfect because its very hard to spot those inconsistencies when you are in the story-writing loop.
PS. this episodes special effects were really disappointing. really put me off watching how un-spectacular all of Peter’s telekinesis was, and how unspectacular the peter/sylar fight was. (turned into a bucking door and light show? zzz)
Mathsorcerer on 11 May 2007:
Dan said “If the Haitian blocks powers and Peter can assume the powers of those he meets, when Peter meets the Haitian, who’s powers work?”
Well, Dan…that is one of those things about which we are not supposed to think. *laugh*
It all depends upon one thing–can the Haitian’s blocking ability block itself? The easy answer is “no”; in this case if Peter and the Haitian meet then the Haitian couldn’t erase memories while Peter couldn’t use any mentally-based powers because both are blocking each other.
The difficult answer is “yes”, because this would set up a self-referential loop with one blocker blocking another blocker but being blocked themselves by a blocker–ugh. Headache.
Fuxsiloh on 14 May 2007:
Wouldn’t Peter then have Hiro’s powers? Maybe he has the scar because he is from a different timeline. Maybe in the episode “Five Years Gone” FHiro is a ‘visitor’ from another timeline? This time-travel talk is tough - respect to the writers for even tackling it!
RightHandLeft on 22 May 2007:
Big question: If Claire didn’t die, how did Sylar get her power???
nathan on 18 November 2007:
Thank you MeateatW. You have gone some way to explaining a problem that has been worrying me for some time. Your timeline B is basically - for Hiro - the time line which would exist if PHiro were to die or just do nothing from the point at which he travelled. So in this timeline Claire is saved because of FHiro going back - which did happen in the experience of PHiro - but the bomb still goes off because no one - PHiro - has killed Sylar yet, or done anything else which would conclusively make the bomb impossible.
This does still leave a few problems. If Peter blew up then he had to have met and saved Claire in order to regenerate and survive the bomb. But if he saved Claire then Sylar cannot have had regeneration and could not have survived Hiro’s attack, which future Hiro says will definitely lead to the bomb going off.
So either the whole “save the cheerleader” thing was not as critical as Hiro believed (which would just be annoying considering how central this was in the early plot), or Claire cannot possibly still be alive in any timeline in which the bomb goes off!
I love the show (as you an see from how much thought I’ve given it), but I would have been more satisfied if the writers had dealt with this issue explicitly, because it’s just about the most important plot line in the whole of series 1! The problem is that time is inherently paradoxical!