Mr. Linderman: I was a lot younger than you when I discovered my power. And there were others too, like me, who discovered theirs. We were all confused, and we found each other. Together, we tried to make a difference to the world. And for a while, we did. It was beautiful. And then some of my friends, they lost their way. They used their powers for personal gain. And all the good we had done, well it amounted to nothing. And I learned that healing one person at a time was just not enough. We needed something.....something to pull it down on course.....something big!
A 9-11 like event that will unite humanity through fear? A united sense of hope couched in a united sense of fear? A politician who will take advantage of the situation, in order to create a "better world"? After the jump, a brief recap of yesterday's episode, some speculation & maybe a spoiler or two.....
I did one of these after the last episode aired seven weeks ago, and there seemed to be quite a few fans around, so I thought I would do it again. Chapter 19: .07% begins the final five episodes of the first season & the "Save The Cheerleader, Save The World" arc of the show. When the show left us seven weeks ago.....
- Claire Bennet had made her way to New York, and found her grandmother who was revealed to be the employer of "The Haitian").
- Nathan Petrelli had made his way to Las Vegas, and was being offered a deal by Mr. Linderman with the payoff being the Oval Office.
- Sylar had both Mohinder & Peter Petrelli cornered.
- Mr. Bennet had been tricked by the shapeshifter/illusionist Candice Wilmer into revealing his betrayal of the Company & its orders, when she assumed the appearance of his wife.
- Hiro had recovered the sword he needed to restore his power, but he & Ando had found themselves in a future New York, post nuclear explosion.
Last night, a fair amount of
Mr. Linderman's reasoning is revealed. Or was it? Could his
"idealism" be a ruse to get Nathan's support? Well, you'll have to keep watching to find out.
Recap
Among the plot developments in last night's episode.....
- Mr. Linderman claims his intentions are "humanitarian". That he and others (hinted & implied to include Mr. Nakamura and maybe Grandma & Grandpa Petrelli) once united as "heroes" to help the world, and somewhere along the way something went wrong. He now believes that through killing half the population of New York, he can unite the country & world through fear. He justifies this action by saying it would only be .07% of the population, and it's an acceptable loss when compared to the lives of 6.5 billion people. Linderman tells Nathan that he will be the leader the people look to, and using Isaac's paintings as proof, this will be the circumstances that brings Nathan to the Presidency.
- Mr. Bennet is being held by his former associates. Candice again tries to trick him by assuming the appearance of Claire, but Mr. Bennet sees through it. He then aides Matt Parkman & Ted Sprague in breaking all of them out of the facility. All three men then decide to go to New York, in order to bring down the computer network that tracks all of "The Company" subjects. It is revealed in their conversations that Mr. Bennet did not know (or it was erased from his memory) that his true employer was Mr. Linderman, and he is basically "middle management" at the Company.
- Grandma Petrelli pleads with Claire to go away, and get clear from the entire mess. She claims that she has known about her sons abilities for some time, and that her & her husband knew about Claire from the beginning. Mrs. Petrelli also strongly implies that she has abilities as well.
- Nikki/Jessica is ordered by Linderman to hand over Micha to him. She refuses. However, Candice assumes her appearance & tricks Micah into going with Linderman. Linderman greets Micah and asks him "How would you like to save the world today?"
- Peter confronts Sylar at Mohinder's apartment.....
- Thinking Peter is dead, Mohinder carries his body to his Mother's home. Nathan races home to find Peter's dead body lying in the living room. At first, Grandma Petrelli councils Nathan to hide Peter's death until after his election. Nathan doesn't even want to think about that. It's not until Claire notices the glass shard in the back of Peter's head and removes it, that Peter is able to use Claire's healing power to revive himself.
- Nathan tries to come to terms with Claire. He asks Claire to go away for a week, until after the election. After that, she can come & become part of the family.
- Isaac completes his "9th Wonders" comic book & delivers it to a messenger, along with a sketchbook. It's not long after this that Sylar finds his way to Isaac's studio. Instead of being afraid & in terror, Isaac is content. He tells Sylar that "you can't fight the future" & that he will be defeated & die. Sylar uses his telekinesis & throws Isaac to the floor while impaling him with paint brushes. Isaac remains content & confident, saying he now knows his part in this, and he's already shown them how to stop the bomb & kill Sylar. He reasons that in doing this, he finally gets to be a hero. Sylar then begins pulling his head open, killing Isaac & absorbing his power. Sylar is later shown painting a more twisted version of the painting showing Nathan in the oval office.
- Hiro & Ando are five years in the future, in a post apocalyptic New York. The skyline is mangled mess, but there is reconstruction occurring in the distance. Hiro takes the scene as evidence they will fail in their mission to save the world. Ando asks Hiro to just transport them home. Hiro disagrees, reasoning that they can investigate & find out where they went wrong in the past in order to save the world. Hiro wrongly believes the timeline has been changed to where Isaac should still be alive in 2012. Hiro & Ando decide to go to Isaac's studio, in order to get information about the bomb. When they arrive, news articles & post-it notes hang from clotheslines representing points along the timeline. Hiro & Ando hear a noise, only for it to be revealed as the future version of Hiro, standing with his sword drawn......
Tidbits & Speculation
Mr. Linderman's purported plan & reasoning is very similar to the main plot of Alan Moore's "Watchmen". In "Watchmen", superheroes & vigilantes have been outlawed except for those licensed as government agents. A former hero named Ozymandias, seeing the futility of masked vigilantes saving one person here or there when compared to the bigger threat of things like nuclear war, creates a plan to unite humanity. He brings together a team to genetically engineer a fake alien monster which is teleported into New York City, killing half the population. Ozymandias believes the event will bring an end to nuclear tensions between the Soviet Union & the United States, while giving all sides a new alien threat to unite against.
Isaac giving the messenger his sketchbook as a gift might be another "Watchmen" reference. In "Watchmen", Rorschach is killed when he refuses to go along with the cover-up of Ozymandias' plan, since it's reasoned that if the truth got out it would only destabilize the peace that came about from the event in New York. "Watchmen" ends with it being revealed that Rorschach sent his journal, containing information about Ozymandias' plan, to a tabloid which is just about to publish it.
The idea of a political leader and his movement exploiting disaster to gain power was also at the heart of another Alan Moore story: V for Vendetta.
The painting Sylar creates after he's stolen Isaac's power has a Van Goghish appearance to it. It also mimicks the official White House portrait of President John F. Kennedy.....
Next week's episode, set in a future where the characters have failed to stop the threat to New York City & the world, might be a reference to X-Men's Days of Future Past storyline.
The titles of the final 4 episodes are......
- Five Years Gone
- The Hard Part
- Landslide
- How To Stop An Exploding Man