Four months after the catastrophic events that
nearly destroyed the world, much has changed in the
lives of our heroes. Claire Bennet (Hayden
Panettiere) and her family have moved
from Texas to California in the hope of escaping The
Company, an immense organization that intends to
"document and study" her abilities. Her father has
warned her to stay under the radar and not draw any
attention to herself, something that proves
difficult when she is forced to give up the one
thing she loves most: cheerleading. Struggling with
staying "normal" in the eyes of her classmates, her
only friend comes in the form of West, a young man
who finds her more than a little interesting. And
that's before
he witnesses her re-growing one of her limbs! He too
has a secret and ties to her past. Claire knows her
father will not approve of her dating and conceals
it from him. Fortunately, he is too distracted to
notice -- he has teamed up with Mohinder (Sendhil
Ramamurthy) to bring down the Company
from the inside. Given a new position as their
resident geneticist, Mohinder intends to do
everything he can to sabotage their attempts to find
and experiment on anyone with super-human abilities.
His job takes him all over the globe, and prevents
him spending much time with Molly -- the little girl
he and Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) have taken under
their wing. Molly has the power to pinpoint the
location of anyone she thinks about, down to an
apartment number -- but is tormented by nightmares
from a frightening, evil man who invades her dreams.
This troubles Matt, who has recently managed to pass
his detective's exam and is attempting to move past
his recent divorce. One of his first police
assignments is to solve the murder of a visiting
Japanese diplomat. The man is Hiro's father ... but
Hiro (Masi Oka) has tumbled four hundred years back
in time only to discover the ancient hero of his
favorite boyhood stories is a drunken coward (David
Anders). Rather than return to the present time,
Hiro decides to do everything he can to put things
right. Peter Perelli (Milo Ventimiglia) has lost his
memory and been discovered chained in a cargo box in
Ireland. Niki (Ali Larter) is undergoing treatment
for her split personalities in The Company, and in
Mexico, young Maya (Dania Ramirez) is stricken with
a deadly power capable of destroying everyone she
comes into contact with. The only person who can
assist her in controlling this is her twin brother
Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz). Hoping to make it to New
York and recruit Mohinder into helping them, after
reading his father's book on genetics, the two
unsuspecting young people encounter a mysterious man
who agrees to help them across the border. Little do
they know he is a serial killer named Sylar (Zachary
Quinto)...
The reaction to the second season of the popular
series was mixed and many consider it to be "weak."
That is understandable given that it aired in the
midst of the writer's strike and has only eleven
episodes. The writers set out like the former season
in constructing an elaborate mystery and then wound
up having to wind most of it up in a short amount of
time, which means it suffers as a result. I don't
think however that this hampered the series much --
unfortunately, there is less time spent on
individual stories and some characters are far
under-used, but the continuing character development
is magnificent. There are more new characters than
mentioned here, most of them with fun ties to the
original characters, but viewers were frustrated
with Sylar losing his powers. I found it an
interesting dynamic and loved his scenes with Maya
and her brother. There is a certain amount of charm
and menace to them, especially since the audience
knows his ultimate intentions. The finale is also
terrific and features a showdown between him and a
new face, Elle Bishop (Kristen Bell). One of the
better creations from the writers, she's only a
little less psychotic than he is and has many great
scenes. There's also several guest appearances by
Nichelle Nichols (fans of the original
Star Trek
will recognize her as Uhura).
I liked that we got to see Claire explore a romance
and thought that her boyfriend was very sweet. Hiro
also is involved in a love story but it has a more
bittersweet conclusion. Out of all of them, Peter's
plot seems to be the most lackluster (well, his and
Niki's -- she is hardly present for most of the
season) and there is one "filler" episode that
seemed a bit too predictable for its own good. I'm
also sorry that the mystery surrounding the "evil
man" in Molly's dreams was cleared up so fast, but
there are still some hilarious and great action
moments woven into the progression of the plot --
Hiro's reaction to various things, Sylar and
Mohinder coming once more face to face, and our
introduction to Elle's super power (can we say
"crispy"?). I liked most of the new faces, too.
There's also much less content this time around --
various individuals are shot and some of them are
killed; one takes a bullet to the eye and we see the
crater it leaves in his head. Claire deliberately
cuts off her toe to see if it will grow back (we
don't see the actual severing) and continues to
survive dangerous accidents (she breaks her leg, is
shown crumpled "dead" on a flight of stairs, and
picks glass out of her hand). There are numerous
fistfights and near-fatal accidents. Characters are
slammed, punched in the face, stabbed, and dropped
from great heights. Blood spatters on several
occasions but is not nearly as prolific as in the
first season. There's a mild scattering of
profanities. Various characters share passionate
kisses. It's implied that Peter is intimately
involved with an Irish girl. Maya bursts in on a
bride making out with her former boyfriend on her
wedding day. Her power causes people's eyes to turn
black and something like ink to run out of their
eyes; many individuals suffer this fate.
There is a continuing emphasis on faith. Maya is a
devout Catholic and is occasionally shown praying or
making reverent references to God. She attempts to
atone for her sins by temporarily becoming a novice
in a convent. Another hero attends church regularly
and talks about praying and her belief in God. Maya
is accused of being possessed and a servant of the
devil due to her abilities. There are references to
evolution and whether or not this is the next stage
in human advancement. Characters posses the ability
to foretell future events. One or two episodes felt
tedious but for the most part the storyline carried
us along at a decent pace, introduced us to some
fantastic new characters as well as continuing the
journeys of previous ones, and culminates in another
dramatic finale that leaves us hankering for more.
It's safe to say that I have become a fan. It's hard
not to once you get to know these people. I also
shed more than a few tears on their behalf. Go into
it with the knowledge that not all of them may make
it out alive.
