Heroes – What happened at Coyote Sands?

This week we were treated to a little trip back in time, to 1961. That is both a good, and bad, thing. On the positive side, the history lesson describing how ‘the company’ was originally formed was a welcome bit of back story, and it was fun to see the OG heroes as their younger selves.

Unfortunately, the way it came about left the viewers in the same position as Peter, wondering why the hell we are digging all of these holes, and why couldn’t Angela just tell the damn story. Or, put more simply, it was a little slow. There was plenty of story left on the table that a little more pace could have thrown in. Still, it was a worthwhile endeavour as the merry band of heroes now has a concrete goal as they race toward the finale.

It wasn’t the most well paced of reveals. After two weeks of hinting at Angela’s dream, and what seemed to be a good 18 or 20 hours of digging, Peter finally called Angela out. “Why are we here?” There was an answer coming, but it did leave quite a bit to be desired. Much was made of the fact that what was happening at Coyote Sands is what led to the formation of the company, but examples were few and far between.

Chandra Suresh actually being at the camp, instead of just studying it after the fact, came as a surprise. But what exactly was he doing there? What was the government’s interest in people with abilities? There was plenty of room in the episode to expand on what was really going on at Coyote Sands. Instead, we got a lot of talk that just kind of went in circles, and often avoided the obvious issue, rather annoyingly. Case in point, Angela saying that they kept the secret hidden for 50 years… and nobody adding, “Until NATHAN fucked it all up.”

That’s probably the thing I’m struggling with most in this entire story. Nathan’s part in it has never made sense. How is it that everyone is just so quick to forgive him in this? He created a government task force to hunt them down. And now, “Oops, my bad” seems to be a sufficient apology. If you are willing to just roll with the Nathan punches though, it does all work out for the best in the end. Heading into the home stretch, the heroes have a clear goal – righting the wrong and taking the heroes back off the map. It seems an impossible task, given how involved Danko’s operation has become, but it’s a task that Angela, Deveaux, Linderman, and Bishop were able to complete once before.

I’m a little mixed on Alice. I really like Diana Scarwid (Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls), so it was great to see her in the role. And you have to appreciate the level of detail going all the way back to “Genesis” with the shoplifting of the socks. But the scenes with the young Angela and Alice mostly left me thinking that there are about a million more things going on at Coyote Sands that are more interesting than learning Angela’s pet name was Banana. Dr. Zimmerman only rates a cameo?

Finally, if there is one thing the Heroes writers have mastered, it’s that they always leave you wanting more. Even if you agree and think that the action was a bit stilted at Coyote Sands, how can you not want to see next week after that shot of Sylar/Nathan on the television?

Clacked by Brett Love
on Apr 14, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT