Heroes Revisited

Written Tues. Nov. 14th, submitted: Mon. Nov. 27th

Ok, you don't have to believe that I wrote this earlier, but here it is.

My early expectations for plot have not gone completely askew, and my initial look at Heroes has not really gone wrong with respect to the general direction of the show, however, I now must admit, ahem, I did not stop watching at 3 shows. Nope; I am now addicted. I am totally ready to save the Cheerleader. We have now gotten a glimpse into the world of the Dad.

He was not who we expected now, was he. There are moments still when he makes the blood run cold as he looks through windows on what’s going on with the other characters. He is always looking through windows, and wears those signature glasses with the wire and black rims, his time period showing no love of modernism and no need of upgrading his appearance to please others. He is always spying, looking in, but as we know now more fully, manipulating and adjusting, and deeply involved in the race to discover the identity and whereabouts of Syler.

Syler, the dark one, the murderer, and demonic-like figure of mystery. We have been set up with a definite line of demarcation between the good and evil, and now that there is a time and a date attached, a showdown of sorts it seems. Next week is supposed to reveal at least the character and nature of this evil being, although I’d feel safe to say at this point not the total purpose of Syler (because there are quite a few shows left ).

But back to the Father. His smiling and knowing protective outer cover will probably come out at some point as well. The mother is absolutely oblivious, I’m sure, her and Mr. Muggles. If she’s in on it I am going to quit watching. But the wide-eyed girl helper who is involved with Mohandas Suresh and the painter and seems to have the gift of persuasion, and the quiet dark man that always seems to be the backup for the Father and “cleans people out” of their memory, while at first all seeming to be the suspected evil scourge, now seem more to the point to be the very good guys themselves.

So ok, now I’m going to go off into speculation. Before, I had estimated that this would be one more piece of postmodern mishmash with a pluralistic and pantheistic god omnipresent in the background, neither good nor bad but shifting in perfect harmony with the tides of metaphysical force and subatomic energy. Along with that is the basic atheistic materialist belief that the people involved are all subject to the domination effect of evolution, and that given it’s course we all can evolve in our abilities, and that sooner or later there could develop in us, by the pantheistic god’s effect and the shifting of the planets (notice the eclipse motif in the painting by the heroin addict, and the appearance of an eclipse in the second adventure, also of note the obvious circular planet effect in the show’s title sequence) a wave of supranormal abilities, shifts in time and space, and physical interactions through the body and minds of certain individuals, few at first, and then growing into a pandemic. The conclusion that the story seems that it has been heading for philosophically is that we are all superheroes, and if we can tap into the great metaphysical force all around us, nurture belief in the human mind, and believe in the triumph of goodness in the human person, then we can “evolve” into better mankind. I still pretty much believe this.

Notice please the fairly consistent pattern of duality in the characters. There are many who have a dark side, an unseemly persona, and personal weakness, even if it’s as simple as Hirohito’s naiveté’, or as deeply disturbing as what looks like demon possession by the painter, or the dual-personality of the blonde mother. And the surprises never seem to stop popping up as to who has abilities; take for instance DL, the blonde’s husband “escaped” from prison and “appearance” in the house. Seems like the eclipse brought on a wave of the supernatural.

So my early estimation was such, but now I’ve gotten a slight glimpse of something more. This is where the writing of the show is getting deep, and me, I’m always digging it seems deeper than may be there. I have this strange, almost supernatural ability it seems, as a media critic, to see beneath the layers of lens flares, special FX, and rhetoric. Hmm, maybe I’m growing in this ability?

Let’s just imagine for a moment that the Father is a type of God. He has an investment in the Cheerleader because she represents innocence and good, kind of like the Church. He is doing everything he can to protect this relationship and keep it intact, whole, like a family. He seems to have near omniscience, and omnipotent ability in getting around and getting to the right people. He certainly knows much more than Dr. Suresh ever knew. And here is where I think the story may go in another twist – I predict that the older Dr. Suresh is not really dead. He simply had to go into hiding and is working with the Father.

I still stand by my early prediction that this group of Heroes will band together to form a “league” if you will of working heroes, and now I believe that the Father will be their leader, and that their arch enemy will be this Syler, along with maybe many others that are also evil but less talented in their abilities, just like the good guys grow and learn about their talents and learn to harness them.

So we have a couple of metanarratives within the scope of the story already, and 2 of them very familiar with American culture: the story of the Church, and salvation and a watching over by a benevolent God cast against an unspeakable evil which wishes to destroy it, and also the Cheerleader as a type of America the Beautiful, and the preservation of freedom and purity. But these are narratives which I believe in the end the story of Heroes will try to enclose or envelop within the supposedly larger narrative of the godless mass of pantheistic physical nature, the yin and yang of balance, and the consummation of complexity and chaos theory. Will one win out over the other? We shall see.