My favorite episode of Heroes is the season one classic, “Company Man.” At that point, we’ve still got no idea who Noah Bennet was. Hell, we didn’t even know his first name. All we knew was that he had a daughter (whole family, really) and a job that were incredibly hard to reconcile on any given day. What we did know is that HRG would walk through fire for his daughter, and what we learned is that she would walk through fire for him, too. They proved early on that their relationship was central to how this show would evolve over the years, and this week’s episode proved that that is still the case.
Claire has had some fairly annoying moments in the four seasons that Heroes has been on the air, but in her defense, she’s was an immature kid dealing with an incredible situation. Her father hasn’t been exactly what you can call an anti-hero, but at the same time, he’s not exactly been a good guy either. What they’ve had in common, however, was an unwavering love for each other (“Unwavering?” Well, what kind of love doesn’t have bumps?), even when they haven’t trusted each other.
Their relationship this year has shown that both of them have matured. Noah is showing an unheard-of amount of trust in Claire’s decision making, even going as far as allowing Gretchen to keep her memories, now that she knows of Claire’s abilities. The former cheerleader has also grown up. She’s continues to have this naive fearlessness, but she’s also calling her dad for help. They’ve grown closer since Claire went to college, which is a bit backwards from how that normally works. Regardless of how they’ve built on this connection, it’s great that they have.
Samuel is going to try to drive a stake between the two of them, and by the rules of dramatic television, it might work for a while. Claire will be reminded of the work that her father did to the determent of people like her, and will get all whiney about it. But, eventually (and by “eventually” I totally mean before the end of the season), HRG will prove himself again to her. Because, as he said, when his daughter calls, he drops everything.
On an unrelated note, Heroes brought back the old CliqueClack Live-Blog term that we all loved, “Heroes dead.” Which, for what it’s worth, means that the chances that Matt is actually dead are about as good as my Redskins winning the Super Bowl this year. There have been rumors of deaths all season long, one that has been fairly well confirmed. I won’t repeat it here (because, really, the info is not that hard to find), but I suspect that that death won’t be the only one we see this year.
Clacked by Ivey West
on Nov 09, 2009 @ 23:14 EST5EDT
I would hope that Claire doesn’t fall for any of Samuel’s “he doesn’t understand people like us” crap, considering she’s had plenty of people try to manipulate her before, she’s well aware of Noah’s dark deeds, she knows that some special people are dangerous psychopaths rather than instant family, and she even tried to make a career out of bagging and tagging herself.
I should have known it would have happened, but the show missed an opportunity for two really meaningful deaths. Parkman’s storyline is done, and I really don’t need to see killer Sylar get his abilities back yet again. The sacrifice could have finally been a real win for Parkman, and Quinto could still play Nathan/Sylar. And since when could Texas cops with shotguns and semi-autos fail to kill a suspect with that many shots at close range?