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Bryan Fuller's return to Heroes brings some much needed resolution.
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Warning the following contains spoilers.
I’ve kind of had the feeling for quite a while now that NBC’s Heroes has been building to something. However, a season and a half is a really long time to build. The second season was disrupted by the writer’s strike, and so I had hoped that the third season would take us right into the big payoff. However, it seemed like they weren’t quite done building. So for another half of a season I found myself watching and wondering if the cast was too large for a serial show. Perhaps LOST is an anomaly.
"Cold Snap" marks the return of writer and producer Bryan Fuller from his stint with the cancelled show Pushing Dasies. One has to wonder, if this episode was just the culmination of so much buildup, or the pure magic of Bryan Fuller.
For weeks I’ve been wondering about the identity of the mysterious Rebel. It was completely gratifying to see the return of Micah, and in such an important role. The show has really been missing something without the hopeful determination of that character. Micah’s return softens the blow of Tracy’s loss in the way that no other character could have.
The death of Tracy Strauss was almost reminiscent of the death of Ali Larter’s previous character Niki. Poor Micah just keeps watching his mother make the ultimate sacrifice. I guess that’s probably the point of Heroes though, being a hero is never really easy. It’s sad to see Ali Larter leave, but there’ s always the chance she may appear again later.
Hiro’s powers have returned to an extent thanks to Matt Parkman’s son. Hiro has always been a staple of the show, and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen the character that we initially fell in love with. He’s either been a child trapped in his adult body or bereft of his powers for so long that I had really forgotten how much I liked the character. Hiro has always been the embodiment of the hero concept, and I was never really comfortable with the changes that had been made to his character.
Still, the defining moment for me was when Matt Parkman is holding Daphne in his arms, flying over Paris. When she reveals that she knows that it’s just Matt using his power, and how much he loves her there’s a sense of impending disaster in her look. As she asks him to let her go, it’s hard to believe that she’s really asking him to let her die. Even as she’s asking him to fly her to the moon before she goes I was fighting the realization, and only accepted that she was really dying when the droning of the heart monitor and Matt’s agonized reaction left no room for doubt.
So much happened in this episode that I can’t say that Heroes has needed a smaller cast. Rather it really just needed some movement. Could it have been accomplished without all the setup? I can’t say for certain. Still, I find the faintest glimmer of hope that Bryan Fuller is a good omen and that the show will continue to be event filled rather than dolling out tiny unsatisfying bits for episodes on end.
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