May 9th, 2007
Episode Review: Chapter 21, The Hard Part
(Review by MathSorcerer) — I’ve seen several comments about Chapter 21, “The Hard Part” that were decidedly negative. “Lame”, “a let-down”, and “just filling space until the season finale” were some of them. Nothing could be further from the truth; these people were simply not watching the episode with a critical eye and an open mind. “The Hard Part” was a character-development episode, during which we get insights into several key personalities; it is the kind of meat-and-potatoes episode that gives us characters worthy of discussing in the first place. After all, it’s characters make the show, not actions or pseudo-science or fake future technology.
“The Hard Part” is where the cast of Heroes find themselves, and is a loose reference to the part of the mythical Hero’s Journey sometimes described as “it’s always darkest before the dawn”. Morpheus tells us in “The Matrix” that “there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path”. Walking the path is “The Hard Part”. Heroes is all about people walking that path, whether they want to or not.
Based on what he saw in the future as shown in Chapter 20, “Five Years Gone”, Hiro is determined to kill Sylar in order to prevent him from exploding, but unfortunately Hiro doesn’t have the personality of a killer. Even after he has stopped time and Sylar is completely vulnerable, Hiro’s emotions stay his hand and lead to a power failure. Sylar even tells Hiro, “Kill me! Do it!” But he simply cannot. Not only does Hiro not have what it takes to kill another human being, but also he doesn’t want to become the bitter anti-hero that his future self becomes.
Many people also seem to find it difficult to believe that Sylar has a mother. Erm … he is a human being, after all. Of course, like many of us, his relationship with her isn’t the best. There seems to be some father-related issues, and I suspect the father left or was abusive to both Sylar and his mother when he was around. Sylar’s mother now dotes on him too much, and is the source of his “I want to be special” mentality. When he demonstrates exactly how special he is to her, her reaction is fear rather than fascination. It is this interchange between Gabriel and his mother that makes Hiro pause — he sees that Gabriel is a human being, not just a bug to swat.
The other reason “The Hard Part” is more pivotal than some folks might think is that it marks a turning point for Sylar. Early in the episode, he is genuinely concerned that his actions might hurt many thousands of “innocent”. This shows that for all his posturing he is still somewhat grounded in reality — killing one person (for whatever rationalization, “natural selection” as he calls it) is one thing, but destroying a greater portion of a city is something else altogether. However, by the end of the episode he realizes that by exploding he will become the most special person for real, and he begins to embrace his destiny, not fear it. Now all he has to do is find Theodore….
Now that I mention it, fulfilling or embracing one’s destiny is also “The Hard Part”. Nathan is beginning to learn this, as he is told that getting into office isn’t necessarily because he deserves it, but because other people want him there. That has to be an emotional letdown — to achieve a measure of greatness only because of someone else.
The Triumvirate seems to have embraced their destiny quite easily, though. Linderman, Mrs. Petrelli, and Mr. Nakamura (Hiro’s father) want the explosion to happen! For a while I thought Mrs. Petrelli opposed the other two, but in a rare twist of fate I was actually wrong. I suspect their goal is to force a struggle between normals and supers, but that isn’t a very original plot, and I would hate to think that about writers who have come so far.
Mohinder finally seems to have fulfilled part of his destiny: he found the cure for Molly Walker’s condition, the same condition his sister had years ago. According to Thompson (portrayed by Eric Roberts), Molly is the only one who can stop Sylar. Exactly how telelocation can stop Sylar is anyone’s guess, but that cannot be her only ability, or there is some unexplained aspect to it.
HRG, Matt, and Theodore, who has put aside his hatred of HRG now, are advancing to stop “the Walker system” that is capable of locating supers. I wonder what they will do when they realize that the System is a little girl? For them, “The Hard Part” will be stopping her.
Combined with last week’s episode, Heroes has matured very quickly. Seriously, one month into the show I was beginning to wonder if it would actually go somewhere and do something other than introduce characters. Fortunately, the writers stepped up to the plate and have developed a very mature product. Character depth, tough situations calling for difficult choices, taking a stand for your beliefs — Heroes has covered the topics that help define a great show.
