"Heroes" Chapter Three 'One of Us, One of Them' (2008)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Sergio Mimica-Gezzan

Writers:

Tim Kring (creator)
Joe Pokaski (written by)

TV Series:

"Heroes" (2006)

Original Air Date:

29 September 2008 (Season 3, Episode 3)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Noah Bennett is stunned when Angela Petrelli assigns him a brainwashed Sylar as his new partner to track down the escapees from the notorious Level 5...

Plot Keywords:

Psychopath | Depression | Attempted Rape | Comic Book | Genetic Science

Cast

Jack Coleman	...	Noah Bennet
Greg Grunberg	...	Matt Parkman
Ali Larter	...	Tracy Strauss / Niki Sanders
James Kyson Lee	...	Ando Masahashi
Masi Oka	...	Hiro Nakamura
Hayden Panettiere	...	Claire Bennet
Adrian Pasdar	...	Nathan Petrelli
Zachary Quinto	...	Sylar
Sendhil Ramamurthy	...	Mohinder Suresh (voice)
Cristine Rose	...	Angela Petrelli
Milo Ventimiglia	...	Peter Petrelli
Noah Gray-Cabey	...	Micah Sanders
Jessalyn Gilsig	...	Meredith Gordon
Ashley Crow	...	Sandra Bennet
Jimmy Jean-Louis	...	The Haitian

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

USA:TV-14

Company:

Tailwind Productions

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Claire and Meredith are in the container, Meredith users her fire ability to strip the oxygen from the air so Claire starts to asphyxiate. When Meredith stops the fire, Claire is suddenly able to breath again. Stopping the fire appears to have restored the oxygen to the air.

Quotes:

Noah Bennet: I told you to stay put!
Sylar: You told me that to make sure I wouldn't, didn't you?

Movie Connections:

References "Poketto monsutâ" (1997)

Least enjoyable episode this season (so far)

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Often I have found with Heroes that I like some of the character threads in an episode a lot more than others, in this episode I found every thread wanting. There was nothing glaringly wrong with the production values or the performances it was just the story I found unsatisfactory.

Matt Parkman wanders aimlessly around the desert with a character whose abilities match the deceased Isaac Mendez exactly, why reinvent the wheel. The artist from Africa even employs the same comic book style of art which seemed both incongruous and ridiculous. No real character development and only sketchy story development.

The escaped villains from the previous episode are either caught or killed in the very next episode. What seemed like a potentially interesting manhunt is over before it starts.

Peter Petrelli in an interesting twist was trapped in the body of one of the fugitives by future Peter in the last episode but once again instead of pursuing a potentially interesting idea it's resolved far too quickly.

Mrs Petrelli, whose motives have always been suspect jumps whole heartedly into evil territory in this episode by sacrificing a young woman to Sylar and then freeing him to find her son and hunt down the fugitives. For a brief period we are given the impression that Sylar is somewhat reformed but it doesn't even last an episode. Despite the fact everyone knows he's a threat he keeps getting these reprieves and people keep dying. While pursuing Peter, Sylar murders one of the fugitives and then inexplicably returns to his cell. The characters actions (both of them) just don't make sense.

Hiro and Ando do a slapstick routine and screw-up for the second week in a row, what a waste. One mistake is understandable, but this is just silly.

We find out Tracy Straus isn't another personality of Niki Sanders instead she's a clone or a twin and Niki died at the end of last season in the explosion. While Niki wasn't my favorite character this seems like a waste of the character arc.

Claire gets a strange object lesson from her birth mother Meredith Gordon which seemed entirely unnecessary and didn't achieve anything.

Perhaps some of the odd developments will be satisfactorily explained in the forthcoming episodes but it certainly seems like a stretch.