An Invisible ThreadI think its safe to say that after a season of highs and lows the season finale and final chapter of the “Fugitives” volume, “An Invisible Thread” turned out to be pretty damn entertaining. Written by the series creator Tim Kring, a task he assigns himself for the first and last episodes of a volume (although he did write most of the first season), the episode reminded fans why we watch the show (for “blow your mind” surprises) and utilized facts from the past that were forgotten throughout the season such as how:
1. During “Villains” Mr. Petrelli taught Sylar how to acquire abilities without cutting open the victim’s skull or murdering them.
2. Sylar is a professional con man and has fooled almost every character in the show throughout the first two seasons into believing he was someone other than himself.
3. During “Villains” Mrs. Petrelli fed him the ability to know an object’s history by touching it.
Beginning with Sylar revealing to Danko that the shape shifting ability allows him to shift his insides, making his “off button” pretty much hidden forever, Sylar then framed Danko for murder and continued to assume Nathan’s identity. Upon meeting up with Claire he reads what her necklace has seen and cleverly fooled her into believing he was Nathan as well as further conning her into believing he didn’t want her to follow him because he worried about her safety, only truly knowing she would beg to tag along, proving he is a master of this trade. When he reveals his true identity to Claire during his pursuit of the president, Sylar makes use of the puppet master’s ability, one in which he acquired without killing the puppeteer. While Claire is in his control he explains how the two of them are immortal, reminding us that this show could essentially have a season set 80 years in the future with Claire and Sylar still battling alongside a cast of completely different characters. When Nathan and Peter save Claire and square off against Sylar the fact that they decided to film the fight through Claire’s point of view (behind a door) really pissed me off and was my only complaint for the episode. After the fight it is revealed that Peter has lost his ability to fly but Sylar gained the ability (leaving you to assume that when Peter touched Sylar to nab an ability Sylar took flight from Peter). The “blow your mind” surprise was that Peter nabbed the ability to shape shift from Sylar and used this to trick Sylar into believing Peter was the President, the only way to defeat an immortal, lightning throwing, flight capable opponent.
When Sylar killed Nathan I can’t say I was as surprised as others may have been because I did see it coming. By having Nathan dead this essentially makes Sylar temporarily dead as he is now “brainwashed” into believing he is Nathan, and besides, Bennet didn’t know where Sylar’s “off button” was, so he couldn’t kill him. How else could the show allow Zachary Quinto, the actor who plays Sylar, some time off to film movies such as the future installments of “Star Trek” without killing off their best character. Now that everyone aside from Parkman, Mrs. Petrelli, and Mr. Bennet believe Sylar to be dead (by burning the original shape shifter’s “Sylar body” in front of everyone), and Nathan to be fine, this makes it so all next season Nathan can just be Nathan (I mean Sylar can even fly now) with minor hints of a Sylar remnant, and when they are ready to bring back Sylar in full they always have that option.
I don’t exactly know how I feel about Hiro in general. Apparently out of all the characters with abilities he is the only one who suddenly is inflicting personal pain by using his ability. Most of this season it felt like Hiro was wasted screen time for another character. If Hiro can’t time travel OR freeze time then what is the point of him being on the show? This kind of makes you wonder how much longer the writers intend on keeping him around. When he froze time during the Bennet and Danko handshake upon starting back up Bennet realized it was Hiro and said his name like Hiro was some legendary hero and magically Bennet had me thinking Hiro is cool. Ultimately it is Hiro who saves the day for the entire race of people with abilities and saves Bennet’s ass by taking out Danko. How did Hiro go from being the biggest waste of time character to everyone’s hero in one episode? If you think about it, Hiro fixed the entire “Fugitives” story arc but due to all the Sylar/Nathan drama this fact escapes your memory.
So with “Fugitives” complete and “Redemption” on the horizon for September it looks as if there will be a new government funded company headed by Mr. Bennet, Nathan, and Mrs. Petrelli. Sylar for some time will believe he is Nathan due to absorbing all his memories. Tracy Strauss did just as I said she would in my HerOeD for “Cold Snap”; “I think its safe to assume she will make like the “T-1000” in “Terminator 2” and liquid re-group, alive and well”. Tracy could end up being a minor villain next season (think her hunting Mr. Bennet), she did tell the agent that he was number four, admitting to have been hunting them one by one. According to the newspaper’s headline Nathan is shown reading at the end of the episode, “Fourth Mysterious Drowning Baffles Authorities” may refer to her being more of a water manipulator than an ice queen. Soooo five months, really, come on man that sucks.
Overall 9 outta 10
Crying that it's over for now? Email Nick and tell him you'll miss him at lanalogue@gmai.com
