Save the Cheerleader, Save the World – When Heroes Blew the Hatch

I’m known around the halls of CliqueClack as an unabashed Heroes fan (Though, I’ll openly admit to being out of my right mind most of the time, as I’d have to be, in order to still be a fan at this point). I had been hearing about the show in early 2006, and then got caught up in the hype during the summer. The show started strong enough, revealing more about the characters over the first couple of episodes. When Tim Kring and the gang Blew the metaphoric Hatch was when time stopped for a confused Peter Patrelli, and a figure appears and says to him, “My name his Hiro Nakamura. I am from the future. I have a message for you.”

Just the concept of Future Hiro blew my mind. Lets just put it out there: He’s a badass. I mean, he carries a sword, walks with a swagger, and has a (surprisingly) cool pony tail. What’s even better is when you compare where he came from: Hiro, as we knew him at the time, really was a child in a man’s body. Imagining the trials that would face the innocent, and shape him into the warrior that we met in the subway car gave the show a depth that we hadn’t yet seen, and wasn’t limited just to Hiro. The passing mention of Peter’s scar broadens that possible future out to more and perhaps all of our heroes.

Peter’s meeting with Future Hiro, as the Internets quickly dubbed him, happened at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth episodes. At this point, our heroes were still trying to figure out their new found powers. Claire was driving cars into walls, Peter is finally getting the idea that he can copy other people’s abilities, Parkman was trying not to act like a bumbling fool, and Nikki was thinking she was going batshit crazy. My favorite character, Hiro, was acting like a bumbling fool, but was getting the job done despite that. The childlike Hiro was quite a contradiction to the man that Peter would meet, and whom would give the message, “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.”

Most of the time, when we talk about Blowing the Hatch, we are generally discussing how the narrative of the show is affected. In this case, however, the “Save the Cheerleader…” message became a part of the larger part of the television lexicon. The catchphrase was hijacked by the NBC Marketing team, and became synonymous with the show itself, up to and probably surpassing “Who Shot J.R.” levels, arguably helping the show’s popularity quite a bit.

Sadly, abusing the concept of looking for answers in the future played a big role in the critical and popular downfall of the show. So much so, that producers have promised that it won’t play a major role in plot arcs again. It’s unfortunate that they latched on to such a great concept and played it again and again. When we were first introduced to Future Hiro, it was a much different story. His cryptic message about saving a (to Peter) mysterious cheerleader began the act of pushing the individual heroes to their collective fate, and helped push new viewers to the show.

Clacked by Ivey West
on Jul 10, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT