The Dope Box TV Blog

Heroes, The Eclipse Part 1, NBC TV series, Episode Recap & Blog

Arthur does some cloudy-iris prophecy sketching, revealing that Claire is gonna die and everything is about to change. Frankly, I thought the sketch looked inconclusive. It merely showed her bleeding and being carried (which is not an unfamiliar visual for us). Highly unlikely that they’ll ever kill her off. She’s far too integral to every facet of the show.

Interrupting Gabriel’s electro-slinging lesson, Arthur requests he go retrieve Claire. Non-Sylar snaps right to it, eager to prove himself. Elle volunteers to go, seemingly to look out for Gabie-poo, amid raised eyebrows from both men. They end up at a rental car agency where Elle has told the owner her companion is a serial killer. Her reasoning for this action is a bit muddled. She wants to see if Gabriel is a “monster or a boy scout.” Is she now daring a guy with a problem controlling his hunger to slice open people’s brains?

In super gooey news: Suresh is mad that they haven’t figured out how to cure him yet. He continues getting scaly and emitting stringy glop from his pores. It’s like he’s turning into a combo of Spiderman and the Fly, except he’s kind of an a-hole.

In the meantime, Noah has taken Claire to the abandoned house to train her. Finally! Too much of the show is taken up by Save the Cheerleader plotlines; it’s time she learned to save herself. She asks her father why things always happen to her. A question we’ve all been asking for a couple seasons now. Noah starts the lesson with a little floorboard swinging and she asks if this is a Tai Kwon Do technique. He replies, “No, it’s baseball.” So I guess she has to start carrying around large blunt objects. Do they make a holster for that?

Ando disrupts the Daphne/Parkman lovers quarrel (“You don’t trust me!” “Uh, sure I sort of do!”) to get help. Hiro still thinks he’s ten years old and would much rather hang out with the nodding turtle than participate in hero activities. Daphne has an episode of self-doubt and vanishes. The boys figure out that she went to her childhood home on a corn farm (of course) and blink their way after her. By the time they arrive, the eclipse has started, making them lose their powers. Parkman finds this out the awkward way when he tries to influence Daphne’s father’s mind and ends up looking like a head-tilting spaz. Accepting defeat, he trudges back into the corn field where Hiro inspires him to try again by throwing corn in his direction (huh?). Daphne’s dad leaves, Parkman pledges his love through the closed door. When he enters, he sees Daphne in leg braces and crutches. Is she devoted to Arthur because she thinks he’s responsible for giving her the gift of speed, thereby healing her busted up legs?

Nathan and Peter spent this week slogging through the jungle, looking for the Haitian, arguing with each other over who is the most needy and spineless. Hmm, tough call. When they locate the elusive Haitian, he tells them they must find his murderous brother (at least this sibling isn’t a Petrelli). Since they’re lost, have no powers, and are now competing with each other for the biggest tough guy trophy, they agree. Unfortunately for them, finding big bad bro also means finding a team of his soldiers who are armed with automatic weapons.

Elle and Gabriel/Sylar (can’t exactly refer to him as either since he’s sort of a mix now) find Claire. It’s the only fight scene I can remember where no one has any powers. Seeing Gabe/Sylar flicking his fingers to no avail was kinda funny. It shows how much they’ve all become dependent upon their powers. The rumble ensues, Noah bashes G/S around, Elle shoots the Cheerleader (she’s been itching to that for a while, eh?), Noah smacks Elle with a floorboard and carries his wounded daughter to safety. He tells his wife they can’t take Claire to a hospital since there will be questions. Shortly after he leaves, Claire becomes comatose and bleeds out. Uh-oh.

Back at the abandoned house, Gabriel screams like a sissy as Elle resets his bones. He’s relieved to be human since the hunger isn’t plaguing his senses. Elle feels guilty for pushing him to be naughty. And…they make out while Noah spots them through the scope of his gigantic gun.

This episode had a lot of heroes wondering… “What’s happening to us?” Why did most of them have so much trouble figuring out the eclipse was the cause?

“I hate heroes.” -Sylar

It’s Coming Heroes, NBC TV series

Saving the day, Ando makes Hiro blink to escape the clutches of Arthur (who was momentarily distracted by the eclipse painting on the giant rock). Instead of having his powers completely removed, he has been mentally reverted to age ten. So he’s extra bratty, thinks about waffles a lot, and uses his control over the space time continuum for pranks (ketchup in some guy’s chair, tying shoelaces together, unscrewing salt shaker). Ando does his best to train Hiro to use his powers. They end up in a comic store where they find an issue of the magical comic book of prophecies: “9th Wonders!” An eclipse is coming, y’all!

Arthur tells Gabriel (which I will henceforth refer to him as…until he starts dissecting brains again) that his hunger is not about killing; it’s about power. Gabe is locked in a dark room with a disgruntled, sparking Elle who is chained to the wall and pissed about him murdering her dad. She does her best to fry his ass but he’s indestructible and…nice? He’s gone all psychotherapist on us, telling her she needs to get all her anger out. It’s obvious she is suffering since she can’t get control of her power. Using empathy as his tool, Gabriel touches Elle and she’s fixed. At first, I assumed he’d taken her powers away, until she starts giving him electro-slinging lessons. The way they were giggling and touching each other seems like clear foreshadowing of a blossoming romance. So, is she the mommy of his future little boy? Does this mean the demise of Sylar and emergence of pure Gabriel? Hopefully his wicked sense of humor survives the assimilation.  

Decapitated head guy, Usutu, appears to Parkman and leads him to comatose Angela. Parkman goes inside her mind but finds her unable to escape her mental imprisonment. Fake Daphne appears and gives him a stab in the gut which makes him bleed in reality (someone will have to explain that one to me). Real Daphne then transports inside Angela’s mind to save him and profess her love. The sappy scene inspires Angela to convince Arthur to free her on account of her being such a lovable gal. And he does (whuh?).

I guess it was inevitable that Peter and Claire would have to be back on the show. Peter continues trying to save her except now he’d like to stop her from becoming a future homicidal brunette. In one scene, Claire’s uncle Flint (who she doesn’t know is her mom’s brother) fights with Claire’s uncle Peter…but no one says uncle. Instead dummy shoots a fireball at a gas leak, P and C get away. Will someone get the cheerleader a gun? A sword? Some ninja stars? Girl needs to learn self-defense.

There is a mini family reunion in Angela’s hospital room. Peter, Claire, Nathan, Parkman, and Daphne are told by newly conscious Angela that the formula requires a human catalyst. And, of course, it’s Claire.

Nathan and Nikki/Jessica/Tracy/Whatever had some scenes too but I tend to tune out when she comes on the screen. Enough resurrecting her, already. I look forward to her future death scene.

“Last time I tried to tell anybody anything like this my brother came back from the future and shot me. Twice.” –Nathan Petrelli