The Second Coming/The Butterfly Effect

[meddow]

I'd read the term 'shark jumping' mentioned a lot in discussions of these episodes, and a lot of people seem to have gone off the show. I am…hopeful. Really, I didn't think it was bad at all.

What made me want to throw things at the TV last season was the fact that so much of the plot would have been resolved if the characters just talked to each other. With these two episodes, I can't think of a single time where one character didn't say something important to another character. Hiro told Ando about evil!Ando, Bennet told Claire exactly what he was up too, Future!Peter confessed to Nathan. Communication! At last! And they even had Claire ring Peter.

Add onto that, the writers seem to have clued onto the annoying things about most of the characters. (I say most, Mohinder hasn't improved). Claire's decided to be less of a victim and take control of her life, Bennet's found something to do with himself other than protect his family/his own ass, Sylar's been separated from Maya, Hiro's back with Ando, they've teamed Milo up with the better actors and Nathan has apparently decided he's tired of hanging out in the gutter.

Saying that, so far I don't like Tracey - in fact, Tracey makes me miss Nikki - and I've not warmed to speedy girl either. And Mohinder and Maya's storyline is bad bad bad bad bad. Please end it now and either give both characters a purpose of kill them off. And if Maya is pregnant, I will throw things.

There was a hell of a lot of stuff happening though – they've gone a bit too far with speeding up the pacing. It really needed to slow down.

Other stuff with bonus caplock:

• THEY KILLED BOB! I liked Bob. *Cries for Bob* And he didn't even get a decent death.


• Elle seemed slightly…off. I can't put my finger on why.


• Angela called future Peter and idiot. Yay for Angela


• Level 5 – where all really dangerous people with abilities are kept…and Noah Bennet. Dude doesn't have powers and he made L5. HE IS THAT BADASS


• Not only that, but he's decided to go back to the Company on his own violation to save the world. Hurrah for Bennet finally meeting the bigger picture. He is so Batman (but without the morals)


• However, not near enough Bennet.


• Sandra got on the name, place title thing. Is that a first for her? Yay for Sandra moving up in the world (I do adore Sandra).


• I miss Micah and Monica and Nikki


• More of the Elle & Bennet team please


• Finally we know Angela's power


• The Nathan finds God thing wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. It still wasn't all that great, but he seemed capable of talking about stuff other than God, like sex. He hasn't changed that much.


• Nathan and Linderman are most excellent together


• Matt's little African diversion was also much better than I thought it would be.

On the final bombshell: I think she's lying. This may be a little backflip my brain has taken to stop it from being fried by the sheer plot lunacy. I mean, even for a show with superpower's it ridiculous. But how cool would that be if she was lying? Angela spends most of a season pretending to be Sylar's mother to control him, and then it gets out she's been lying all along.

And this season, because I can, I've decided to do a statistical analysis of a subject close to my heart
Episodes: 2
Shirtless Scenes: 1
Chances of fanservice: 50%

(Last season it was 8 shirtless scenes in 11 episodes - that's a 73% chance of fanservice. 45% chance of Peter getting his shirt off)

Next week it's written by Joe Pokaski, who wrote Fallout, Five Years Gone and Cautionary Tales, all of which would make it onto my top five episodes, so I'm looking forward to it

Comments

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

I was happy about Mohinder's shirtless scene. Until, you know, Maya showed up. DAMN HER. WHY CAN'T SHE BE DEAD? It pisses me off, too, because well before that, he totally gave her the brush off and I thought we'd get something happening in India for the half second that lasted between him trying to get rid of Maya and her basically trying to kill him to get him to do what she wanted.

Dude doesn't have powers and he made L5. HE IS THAT BADASS
I need an icon of that. *nod*

I have to say, though, I'm the complete opposite of you when it comes to Nikki/Tracey. I've always been supremely annoyed by Nikki, so Tracey was kind of refreshing. Nonetheless, I'm really, really curious to find out what happened to Micah and Monica.

The Matt diversion was amusing for two reasons--at first, simply because for a long time I really disliked him (see: all of season one), so the sadist in me was kind of enjoying watching him flip out. But secondly, the turtle thing. That was just hilarious.

And yes, about Nathan--I was so relieved when he started talking about normal things. Not that God isn't normal, but considering how non-religious the show has been, it's good to know they didn't stray into over-emphasizing Nathan's new appreciation for religion by turning him into a prophecy/ritual/etc. obsessed nut.

I'm sad about Bob, too. Everyone else might be able to come back, but not the ones Sylar kills. And poor Elle. You know she's totally going to get Angela Petrelli back someday.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I thought Maya was better written than last season, but yes, she is annoying. And I'm not all that pleased with Mohinder after last season so pairing the two together and then giving them a lame storyline...gah! Even shirtless!Mohinder doesn't make it worth it.

I'm curious to see how Tracey becomes a villain, as she was in Angela's dream. But I just don't like her so far.

I find I like Matt more as this show goes along. I didn't like him in season one either, but his story line has improved, and him being smart and figuring out who the shooter was was quite fantastic.

And I was so relieved that they didn't throw Nathan's characterization completely out of the window with his religious storyline. So often religious = nutjob. And while he does have an imaginary frenemy now, he's clearly mostly sane.

I'm hoping they do something interesting with Elle. I'm not sure what Angela was thinking unleashing her on the world like that.

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

*nod* Yeah, Mohinder has a lot to make up for. He's always been my favorite, honestly, but he has really been straining my patience lately. I just about snapped when he and Maya...you know. There was a lot of me yelling at the TV: "MOHINDER YOU BASTARD! YOU gorgeous, shirtless, BASTARD! GET AWAY FROM HER! DAMN YOU, MAYA!" And then when he woke up and was all "my skin is all weird and funky now!" I was all "That's what you get for sleeping with her! Superpowered STDs! FIND A CURE FOR THAT!"

...yeah. I should probably back away from the TV a bit.

And also--okay, so Elle shorted out the system that was keeping them all in lockdown in L5, but...they didn't have a backup? A backup for the backup?

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Is that a purely Peter based calculation on shirts coming off, or any character at all?

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Any character at all. However, of the 8 shirtless scenes in season 2, 5 of them were Peter. Since he was only in 9 episodes, that's not a bad effort.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Haha, excellent statistics there. I'm quite happy for the majority of shirtless scenes to be Peter, actually.

[prettyannamoon.livejournal.com]

I think Angela's lying too - if Sylar is really Angela's son, I'm afraid it will be a jump-the-shark moment for me. It would be totally cool if she's lying, given Sylar's heap of Mommy and Daddy issues, and Angela's ability to play people. And it makes soooooo much more sense than Angela disappearing for nine months or more (cause, um, wouldn't Nathan at least remember)?

*crosses fingers*

[meddow.livejournal.com]

It would be kind of sick and twisted to pretend to be someones mother like that, but it would be a refreshing twist on a very old and much overused plot reveal.

*crosses fingers also*

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

Noah doesn't have powers? What's the glasses changing locations in a second thing about?

I always liked Nikki. I thought Jessica being out of control was an arc that went on too long, but I liked Nikki.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

The glasses have superpowers? They can also fix themselves when they get broken. Either that or the Company's been keeping spares.

It's such a shame because she was just getting in control of her powers and utilizing Jessica's skills and Micah was this close to talking her into becoming a vigilante and then the get rid of her. We had all of this excruciating development and we got all of five seconds of pay off.

(Plus I would have thought it would be cool if Nikki's power was to pick up the powers of dead people she'd been in contact with in life, like Peter but more morbid - and then she could haven Jessica's strength, DL's phase ability and Linderman's healing and she would totally rock. Opportunity wasted though).

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

Oooo, I LOVE that idea for a power.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

MORBID POWER OF AWESOME, yes.