So here we have two series, one which shows that you can actually do episodes with major revelations without the world coming to an end, and one in which I've more or less given up on EVER finding out what the hell is going on, and am just grateful that we've finally had a character episode that I was really interested in. Spoilers follow:
"HEROES"--Okay, this is how it's done. Hats off to Claire's dad, typically known as HRG (Horn Rimmed Glasses), who has evolved into the most fascinating complex hero/villain on prime time. This episode simply does everything right, from the startling reveals that yet somehow made perfect sense (HRG used to be partnered with Claude; Hiro's father is in this way deeper than we originally thought), to the little moments (a younger Claire helping daddy pick out his signature eye wear). On the one hand we've seen HRG do some truly terrible deeds, but on the other hand, we've seen him overpowered by such paternal devotion to protecting his adopted daughter that he's willing to sacrifice literally everything in order to protect her. Simply fantastic episode.
(By the way, I chatted with Stan Lee at the convention and he told me that his cameo in the previous week's episode was literally cut in half. His second line as the bus driver was a cheery and enthused, "Well...get in!" and then he closed the door with great dramatic emphasis. I think that just would have made that episode a hundred times better, don't you? Maybe we'll see it on the DVD release.)
"LOST"--Oh. Thank. God. No Others. No cages. No endless rain. No sturm and drang and operating rooms. No Jack, which I never actually thought I'd be grateful for. Instead finally an episode focused on Hugo, my favorite character (and not just because Jorge Garcia took the time, even though he was "off duty," to sign an autograph for Ariel during the waning hours of San Diego.) If Locke was the soul of the show...at least, before they apparently forgot he was around...Hugo has been the heart of it. The episode didn't advance the overall "What's up with the island" plot one iota, but nothing has for weeks and, as noted, I've pretty much given up on the idea of anything doing that. So now my attitude is, at least give me interesting character stories, 'cause otherwise I'm switching to Comedy Central or just reading a book. And "Lost" comes through, with the morbidly hilarious (Hugo's warnings of imminent danger are ignored by a know-it-all news reporter who then gets wiped out by a meteor that annihilates her, Hugo's old boss, and his newly purchased chicken restaurant), brilliant casting (Cheech Marin as Hugo's dad: Best dad casting since Hiro's), and a portentous ending that signals the return of, at last, Mira Furlan, the mysterious French woman who is making absolutely no effort to effect a French accent, which is fine by me. I just like seeing her on screen again.
One hopes that this week's episode signals a return to character-driven stories which feature characters I actually care about (did we ever find out how Locke lost the use of his legs?)
PAD
Posted by Peter David at March 1, 2007 08:55 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingThat review about sums up my feelings about the epsisodes. And no, we've never found out how Locke lost use of his legs.
LOST
When Hurley was convincing Charlie to come with him I had a sense of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Then the cliff and the death ride, just loved this episode.
I had a thought on the end of LOST. We see Hurley in the Mental Hospital and it has all been in his mind. Libby, Jack is his doctor. Charlie is an orderly. Just had that thought. If they pull that it will be like Civil War #7.
I agree with you about Heroes, but I thought this was one of the worst episodes of Lost yet. They even managed to make Sung Hi Lee un-sexy. A few weeks back I had such high hopes that they were back on track after a brilliant episode by Drew Goddard (does he write any other kind?), whom I consider to be TV's Peter David (or is it the other way around). Anyway, I thought it was just a pointless (nearly insipid) episode.
BTW, BSG had a great ep on Sunday. I love that they're exploring class tensions and the structure of pre-holocaust Colonial society, and - unlike the earlier union scenes set on New Caprica - the worker tensions didn't feel forced or false.
Didn't they do one of the flashbacks on Locke in the first season showing him working at the toy store, then at the hospital talking about something falling on him? Or did I just infer that?
Hugo's boss lived and went to work at a box company also acquired by Hugo, where he was Locke's boss. :)
But I agree - that ep was a ton of fun! And I gotta have my HEROES!
We haven't been told exactly how Locke lost the use for his legs, but according the the Entertainment Weekly article that ran before the show came back, that mystery is to be revealed soon. (Wikipedia says that the 3/21 episode has a Locke flashback, so that might be it.)
I really did enjoy this episode of LOST. Partially because the episode wasn't set up to be as portentious as other recent ones and therefore didn't disappoint with regards to the whole show's mythology (of course, part of that blame has to go to whomever's creating the next-episode promos...) and partially because Jorge Garcia covered a range of nuanced emotion here--sad, angry, hopeful, determined--that a lot of other folks don't get to act.
And I loved him bucking up Charlie with the "Let's look death in the face and say, 'Whatever, man.'" Hurley's a bit of a tortured soul, so I sure wouldn't want to be him, but I'd want him to be my best friend for sure...
(Incidentally, among the other mysteries I wanna find out has to do with why his nickname is "Hurley"...)
[i]I had a thought on the end of LOST. We see Hurley in the Mental Hospital and it has all been in his mind. Libby, Jack is his doctor. Charlie is an orderly. Just had that thought. If they pull that it will be like Civil War #7.[/i]
Actually, that's more like Pam finding Bobby in the shower.
And while Lost has annoyed me so much that I won't bother to watch it anymore, that ending would totally invalidate the entire series. It would affirm that we've wasted several years of our lives staring at this convoluted piece of go-se.
Which really would get the point across, I guess. But anybody who's not insulted by this waste of an hour would be after that ending...
Besides, haven't they already done that on St. Elsewhere and Quantum Leap?
Miles
I missed all but the last 10 minutes of Lost last night, but watercooler talk was that was all I needed.
Heroes. Whew, right off the bat of that episode, the boyfriend and I looked at eachother and said "Whoa." Very instense and very cool. Totally agree with Cowboy Pete's review.
Oh btw, I know everyone's always suggesting MORE shows, BUT I have to put a plug in for Supernatural on Thursday nights. That show has some great characters, specifically the two brothers, and two weeks ago, it had me laughing like I haven't in a long time.
I don't think they did it on St. Elsewhere or QL, but they did it on "Newhart" to hilarious effect.
They also had an episode of "Buffy" where she kept flashing to a life in which she'd had a breakdown after the original (movie) gym fire and had been in a mental hospital since, hallucinating the whole Slayer thing. Led her and the audience to question which was real. Didn't really resolve the question, either.
Mira Furlan is Croatian, hence the lack of accent. Everyone (show characters included) refers to her as the "French woman" despite the fact that the only time she's spoken French or had a French accent is on her recorded transmission. She's clearly not French.
As for Hurley's boss, Randy Burgess, he didn't die in the meteor accident. According to the official Lost podcast, Hurley felt sorry about the Chicken Shack incident and gives him a job at a box company as Locke's boss.
No, QL had a GREAT ending. It didn't invalidate the show, or cop out with a dream ending.
"Didn't really resolve the question, either."
Actually, I think it did. The final scene in the episode, was of the asylum, and the doctors saying "Well, she's gone" or "We lost her" or something to that effect.
It makes NO sense to have her revert back to the asylum and yet be in a catatonic state (the bad guys had been defeated at that point, and all was well in the Buffyverse) but it makes perfect sense if the asylum was the real reality.
Not an opinion popular with the fans of the show, but brilliant in this casual viewers opinion.
Re "Lost":
The scenes with Roger had me cracking up. Especially when Roger and Sawyer are sitting side by side against the van.
Speaking of Sawyer, I was halfway expecting him to violate expectations and share some of his newfound... stuff when he returned to camp after the outing with Hugo, Charlie and Jin.
(And Roger. We can't forget Roger.)
But true to form, he kept it all for himself. So I guess he violated my expectations about violating their expectations. I'm not really sure why I thought he might share this time, but I did.
The ABC announcer kept going on about how this was a "don't miss" episode; that if you don't see it you won't know what everyone's talking about. Just a... slight exaggeration there, huh, Mr. Announcer? I enjoyed it, but it was far from being an "arc" episode.
Similarly, last week, they talked about revealing three big mysteries. Except they didn't. We see that the children are alive (but we've already been told that, several times). Cindy's still alive, but in and of itself, that information doesn't really mean anything.
And we know what Jack's tatoos say. And that's the one _big_ mystery that's been the lynchpin of the whole show. Now that we know the answer to that question, everything makes sense. All the pieces fall into place and the scales are lifted from our eyes. Right? Right?
By the way, PAD, Hugo's old boss, Randy, is outside with Hugo when Mr. Clucks is annihiliated. It's the newswoman's cameraman who buys the farm along with her (and why is the phrase "bought the farm" a synonym for death? How do the farmers feel about that?). In flashback chronology, Randy still has to go on to become Locke's boss.
And no, Locke's injury has never been explained.
As to "Heroes", I really liked the episode. However, when Mr. Bennett's boss saw evidence of Claire's powers, part of me expected Mr. Bennett to have the Haitian remove that knowledge. If I'd been in Mr. Bennett's shoes, I'd have given that option serious consideration.
On another note, Claude must have known why they stopped on the bridge in the flashback scene. You'd think he'd have done a Lamont Cranston the moment he got out of the van, and not waited until he was in a position to be injured.
Unless we're supposed to think the incident was staged for the benefit of someone watching nearby. But that seems a bit of a stretch. Especially since Mr. Bennett appeared to express genuine surprise in the present day (in last week's episode or the one the week before) that Claude hasn't joined the choir invisible.
One more thought about "Lost." A friend and co-worker tells me that the producers are working toward a definite conclusion by year five, one that'll wrap everything up and explain all the mysteries. He said they'll start answering questions to keep from losing more viewers and/or regain lost viewers. Perhaps they will start answering questions, but we'll see whether they answer all of them, and if they do so satisfactorily.
Now I'm not a TV producer, but if I was one, and my show utilized serialized storytelling, I'd follow the J. Michael Straczynski model: Know where your story's going to go from the beginning. That way, whether you take the high road or the low road (or switch roads), you'll still get to Scotland.
Rick
Knowing that the episode was called "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" kinda killed the surprise of the opening scene for me (though I was surprised to see the woman playing Tanaka, because I'm pretty sure that it was Playboy model Sung Hi Lee).
I though most of the episode was boring, and typifies how constantly inserting new chapters of characters' backstories in between previously seen ones seems like wheel-spinning. I saw no value in any of the flashbacks, and Cheech Marin was utterly wasted. The appearance of the van was also an example of another problem of the show, that the island is essentially like Harry Potter's Room of Requirement.
The best part of the Hurley aspects of the story was when the van started to work, and the four characters were enjoying a drive, though I didn't see how it tied into the flashbacks.
I thought the Desmond episode of Lost 2 weeks back was the best episode they've ever done. Nobody seems to acknowledge the Watchmen/Dr. Manhattan nod and it drives me absolutely crazy.
And I can't defend the Jack episode. It was bad. Really bad. This last heartwarming episode gives me hope.
But in regards to finding out what's on the island, how long does everybody expect the show to go on? Remember Twin Peaks when we found out who killed Laura Palmer? After that it was like, "*yawn* glad that's solved, what's on NBC?"
Point is, they have to drag it out to the bitter end and ABC wants at least 4 seasons of this stuff. So I've been expecting to not fully know what's going on till at least halfway through season 4.
Humans are an impatient species.
As for Heroes, I've only been watching it because Superpowers are my weakness. The acting is generally pretty atrocious. Specifically Peter, Suresh and Niki/Jessica. Since they weren't around on Monday, I REALLY enjoyed that episode.
Oh, and they just cast Linderman. I won't spoil it, but HOT DAMN! It actually one-ups George Tekai as Hiro's father!
No, we haven't found out about Locke's legs yet, but we're supposed to this season.
QL had a GREAT ending. It didn't invalidate the show, or cop out with a dream ending.
It doesn't make it a dream, but the final network inserted cards about Sam never returning home pretty much invalidates the whole premise of the show.
I liked Lost in that for me it was a "fun" episode. I like the scene where Hurley gets the van running enough that I was even able to ignore the obvious questions as to how the vehicle (obviously after many years) somehow still had tires that looked to be not even a little bit low on air, some gas in the tank, and enough oil in the engine to still serve its lubricating purpose. Or did I miss something and they had some mechanics tools and air/gas/oil scavenged from inside the hatch?
I understand how the show is getting frustrating for many and share many of those frustrations. However I've been on the ride this long and am still curious about where it's all leading or how things will be explained (even as I doubt that any one---or handful of---explanations will ultimately satisfy). But until and unless something better comes along in the time slot I'm sticking with it...
Agreed on QL, I absolutely HATED the way they ended that. Nice to know Sam either forgot he had a wife waiting back home or changed the past so he didn't have her waiting for him...
Good to see the Roundups again. I've really been jonesing for them, especially since the last couple of Battlestar episodes had some stuff that I would have liked a professional writer's input on.
I totally agree about Heroes. This was a great episode. It was actually an atypical episode since it didn't jump around between different stories at all, just one thread over a farily short period of time. I guess this story was so big that they needed the episode to focus a lot more. And yet it still tied into other characters outside of the Bennet family. Nice.
I'm not sure we even know how much Clair's Dad gave up. Did the Haitan just take out the parts of his memory about hiding Claire and planning to help her escape? Or will her Dad think that he actually was the heartless agent who never got attached to the girl.
I love that at first it seemed like he was giving up his life to protect her, but now it seems like he's giving up his love for her. That's even worse.
"On another note, Claude must have known why they stopped on the bridge in the flashback scene. You'd think he'd have done a Lamont Cranston the moment he got out of the van, and not waited until he was in a position to be injured."
I figured he had a bullet proof vest with some blood squibs. Come on, he was shot five times and then he fell off a bridge? Noooo. He already admitted that he was in the office with HRG when they ordered his death. He knew what the trip to the bridge was for.
So he probably planned on getting shot and hoped that it would be to the chest, not the head. Then all he had to do was fake getting shot, fake falling off the bridge, and then fake falling as he turns invisible in time to hang onto the edge and wait for HRG to walk away.
Now that they've introduced Roger, he'll "just have to" have a flashback episode of his own. I can see Ben, "alas, poor Roger, I knew him well Jack." Lost has been just one let down after another and spends 40 some odd minutes telling absolutely nothing that couldn't be revealed with one or two lines of dialog. I agree that the promos are become blatant exaggerations of the don't-miss-this-or-else nature of the past few shows and I'm just going to quit now and rent the dvd so I can skip the flashbacks and watch the 5 minutes per episode of new content.
On the other hand, Heroes has done a remarkable job of telling back stories, new stories and providing inside-jokes, and wow moments. Last week, I actually cheered when The Repeater (Pete. P) threw Dr. Where off the building and dove after him. And Claire once again proves that she is way more than a cheerleader to be saved. The one thing that has been a cop-out so far is they have yet to exactly explain how Sylar is getting the other's powers and putting it in himself. Since powers seem to be genetic, if Hiro wasn't adopted then what power does his father and sister have?
The scene last week with Peter flying and carrying Claude really was clasically heroic looking. He's getting really powerful.
Right now he can move stuff with his mind (offense), heal (defense), paint the future (detect trouble), and fly (mobility). Plus whatever else he's absorbed along the way. He's pretty much ready to put on a cape a fight crime.
The only thing that bugs me about the show is how everyone with powers is referred to as a "Hero". That's actually just a problem with the narrator who recaps the episodes, but it still bugs me. The nuke guy should not have been referred to as a hero.
crane,
I'd be entirely unsurprised if Hiro's sister and (especially) his father didn't have any type of extra-normal powers. Actually, I'd be shocked if Hiro's father had any powers. I just don't see the higher-ups in the shadow-organization allowing powered guys to be in charge.
David, I can see your logic about Hiro's father, but why not Hiro's sister? If one kid has power the dad doesn't know about, then why not the other?
Even though I can't see the lieutenants in the organisation having powers, I could see the very highest guy having powers. Maybe even mind control powers to help him control everything. Then Nikki/Jessica would snap his neck and there'd be some big crisis.
My prediction for the end of Lost...
Closeup on Jack's eye, snapping open. He's on the plane, and there is extreme turbulence, like it's going to explode or something.
As he scans around the plane, we see various cast members, but not necessarily just as we've seen them on the island. Some just like, some a bit different. (Like Claire already having given birth, Kate and the Marshall as a couple instead of her being his captive, Jim and Sun made up to be in their 70s, etc.) In the back, some of the Tailies. In First Class, some of the Others. All of them waking up due to the turbulence, looking around confused, with "Don't I know you, didn't we..." looks on their faces.
Then the turbulence stops, the captain announces impending arrival in Los Angeles, please return to your seats, blah blah blah.
After they land, a whole bunch of references to the island. Peanut butter, Dharma logos, billowing black smoke, Virgin Marys, Driveshaft muzak. etc.
(No, seriously: a huge shared dream. And either on the plane or in the airport, Patrick Ewing comes out of the bathroom. Just so we can hear screams erupt all over the country.)
This was the most involving episode of "Heroes" yet. And the reason it was involving were the sixteen episodes that preceeded it, that some people said were so "slow." Thank God that NBC had the patience that Fox wouldn't, to let a series develop.
In addition, did it occur to anyone that this was the first time Claire Bennett (or Benverine) was truly heroic? Most of the time she's taken injuries, but only incidentally; healing herself after a football player breaks her neck or throws her down to rape her isn't heroic. But what she did at the climax involved self-sacrifice, and to the benefit of someone whom she had learned to hate.
Finally, I'm putting down some chips. I say that sometime before this season ends, Niki/Jessica will die. She has to. She has killed. Technically speaking, Jessica did the killing, but Niki shares that guilt, since she didn't try to stop her; she's as weak and indecisive as the Democratic Party. The only way Niki will be able to stop Jessica is the Jean Grey Phoenix solution; she will have to put herself in a fatal situation that Jessica can't survive.
This will add a bracing shot of sacrifice and sorrow to the series. It also sends home the message that was learned a few episodes ago; psychiatry doesn't cure a damned thing.
Man, that Quantum Leap finale...I remember reading those cards and thinking, "Wow, that's nice for Al 'cause he just got to spend the last umpty-ump years with the woman he loved instead of being alone, but it kinda sucks for Sam (y'know, the hero of the show?) and his wife, who will never see each other again."
Is it my imagination, or is Claire healing much, much faster from more and more severe injuries as she uses her power more? She must have been burned near to a crisp by Ted's near-meltdown, but she was able to walk away immediately and had healed completely in the time it took her to walk from the front door to where her family was standing.
David, as many B-movies have done, (i.e. Equilibrium and Ultraviolet, I'm sure there are others but I can't recall them just now, those two were from the same director so go figure he uses the same plot device) the best place for a person with power to hide is at the top. What better place for a supernatural to hide then in control of the very organization that is set up to hunt his/her kind down. Ultimately the "secret" of the Heroes will come out and will they be embraced or hunted by the public? Is that why future Hiro carries a sword?
"Thank God that NBC had the patience that Fox wouldn't, to let a series develop."
Well, not exactly. NBC's patience is based completely on the fact that Heroes has been getting really good ratings. They don't give a damn about the show being paced fast or slow, they'll cancel a show with bad ratings just as fast as FOX.
Just as the cast and crew of Studio 60.
I remember the St. Elsewhere finale (and indeed most of its entire run)with affection - the idea that EVERYTHING from day one has been inside the mind of Tommy, the autistic boy, didn't invalidate what I'd watched - it was actually quite touching and hopeful.
QL - not so much. I liked the idea, but I'd have tweaked the last line of the script to the slightly more palatable "Sam Beckett HAS YET to Leap home..."
crane wrote: "Now that they've introduced Roger, he'll 'just have to' have a flashback episode of his own."
No bones about it. Of course Roger has to have his own flashback. And in a bit of irony, it'll turn out he's the real Sawyer, the one "our" Sawyer has been seeking since childhood.
Bladestar: Regarding Quantum Leap, yes, Sam forgot he had a wife back home. That was established at the end of the fourth season premeire, "The Leap Back." A lightning strike had caused Sam and Al to change places as leaper and observer. Sam was in the waiting room at Project Quantum Leap and Al was in 1945. Sam remembered- and was reunited with- his wife, Donna as the QL team worked to retrieve Al. In the end, with Al unconscious and facing imminent death, Sam decided to leap into him, sending Al to the present. He was confident the team could then retrieve him.
He was wrong. 'Cause, otherwise it would've been a really short season. In the last scene of the episode, Al tells Donna that Sam has forgotten having been home, and he's forgotten her as well (or at least that they were married). She instructs Al not to tell Sam about her, because it would interfere with what he has to do.
While Sam did mention the simultaneous leap he and Al made, in a later episode, he never mentioned Donna again; so it's unclear how much- if anything- he remembers about his trip home.
On the other hand, as much as I liked Quantum Leap, it didn't always adhere to its own continuity. As I understand it, the original idea was that when Sam leaped, it was essentially his mind/soul/spirit/whatever leaping into people (and trading places with them), while his body remained in the "present." That's why he saw other people in mirrors, because he was literally in their bodies. At some point that changed to the idea that Sam is physically leaping through time and transposing with others; and that for some unexplained reason (some sort of "aura", I think he once called it), people saw him as those people.
I suppose the change came about because someone realized that if Sam really was in the body of, say, an old man, he couldn't accomplish some of the physical feats the script required.
Rick
P.S. Speaking of transposing, in the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", did Kirk and company beam into their counterparts'clothes, or did their spirits/souls/minds/whatever undergo the transposition?
Crane wrote: "What better place for a supernatural to hide then in control of the very organization that is set up to hunt his/her kind down."
In the Highlander TV series, Methos, the oldest immortal and one believed to be a myth, infiltrated the Watchers at some point in the past, and got himself assigned to the Methos chronicles. As he told McLeod (paraphrased). "I'm in charge of finding myself and I make sure it never happens."
Likewise, in the Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold", Spock tells Hengist that if he is (or is possessed by) Redjac, his position as chief administrator is an ideal one in which to kill with impunity.
Rick
I thought this week's Heroes was kind of cheesy, actually, but I enjoyed it anyway. Lost was just stupid and pointless, especially coming after what preceded it. I love Hurley/Hugo, but this was like a season 1 episode, not something they should be wasting our time with now.
And the finale of Quantum Leap was just the most depressing thing ever. He never returned home?! Geez! So, what, he just kept leaping until he died of old age? That's like... the worst thing I've ever heard.
Not sure if this has come up anywhere here or anyplace else. but once I found out what his name was, I figured everything that has happened to the people on Lost is based around Locke. A wheelchair-bound guy that suddenly regains the use of his legs, he'll find a way to get there. But that was actually my second point. I think Locke is the reason because he's actually the Key.
Get it? You'd use the Key to unLocke the secrets of the show. I might be reading too much into it, but knowing the symbolism involved in this show, I don't think so.
(I also have seen entirely one episode since the end of the first season, so if I did just tell me to go make more movies to put on more websites.)
I meant (if I POINTED OUT SOMETHING EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS...)
Sorry, everybody. Typing and playing Boggle Jr. with my son. Sometime watch me try to walk and chew gum.
Quote..
It seems a lot of the heroes powers amp up based on emotions. You could make the case Claire was pretty dang emotional at the time.
I am SOOOOO glad I never started on "Lost". I'm equally glad that I DO watch "Heroes".
Well, for me anyway, I enjoy any episode that focuses on Hurley. I have the feeling when everything is said and done, Hurley is going to prove to be one of the more important characters to the underlying structure of the show. I believe he will be a lynchpin to what ultimately happens in the show.
So far, I can’t say I’ve been disappointed with the second half of the season on Lost. I liked the Juliet episode, I really liked the Desmond episode and the Jack episode was okay. If anything, the Jack episode just reinforced how headstrong the character is when making decisions (even when they’re bad ones).
My understanding is the whole Locke losing his legs thing is supposed to be dealt with over the next few episodes.
I’m glad they finally just put the whole Alex thing front and center. I thought the pacing of that was a ponderously slow.
You know all of the tailies except for Bernard are gone now (aside from the ones who were actually captured).
I have something I want to throw out there though about Lost: Outside of Goodwin, have any of the Others actually killed someone? Taking that one step further - has anyone else noticed, whoever has killed someone usually winds up dead somehow themselves?
Echo killed two of the others and was killed.
Goodwin killed one of the tailies (Nathan) and was killed.
Ana Lucia killed Goodwin and Shannon and was killed (Michael).
Ethan kills Scott and is killed by Charlie.
Michael offed Ana Lucia and Libby and is gone from the show.
Now, Charlie killed Ethan, Sawyer killed one of the others in the season ender last year, Sun killed Colleen and Juliet killed Pickett, does this mean that each of these characters are marked now and will pay the ultimate price of their lives for their transgression?
Just curious.
Still, I am really enjoying the show. I think ABC dropped the ball in that they are not rerunning the show on another night giving viewers the opportunity to keep up with a very intricate storyline.
Heroes.
Loved it!
Best part was Claire walking out of the house at the end of the episode. Spectacular visual! Loved them developing Claude’s back-story, finding out he was HRG’s old partner was just perfect! The show is getting even better if it’s possible. The only thing they need to avoid is getting bogged down by mythology the way the X-Files did or by broadening their focus to wide the way Lost has.
Wow, three shows to discuss:
HEROES: So, is there anyone on the show who *isn't* superpowered? All the main characters are (except maybe Mohinder -- was the kid from his dreams a manifestation of his power, or another super reaching out to him). Then so is Nikki's husband. Then so's her son. And judging from the trailer for next week (and if you consider this a spoiler, stop reading this paragraph), so is Simone. It's starting to look like the world of Normalman, where the person without powers is the only special one.
Actually, Mr. Bennett (who has no powers and is one of the most menacing -- how's that for turnaround?) was developed very well this episode. His solution to the problem was painful (giving up the very memory of his daughter) and perfect (even if his boss suspected him, how to get past the amnesia?). I'll bet Claire goes looking for Peter (who did save her life) and, in a future season, Claire winds up facing her father as an opponent who has no idea he's after his (to him) former daughter.
LOST: Umm, if they reveal what's really going on with the Island, the show's pretty much over. While this season's been pretty grim -- except for this episode and Desmond's, the focus has been on the conflict with the Others -- we've also learned a lot more about the Others: Most of them don't want to leave the island, they are in contact with the outside world, and they're pursuing some type of experiment. (My guess: They're after some types of genetics or human enhancement -- remember how strong Ethan was? -- and probability control involving the numbers that spook Hurley so much.) But it was fun to see Hurley somehow finding both humor and hope from what could be the most hopeless character on the show. After all, who else feels so doomed?
(BTW, isn't Trisha Takanawa (the reporter who died in the chicken store) also the same name as the "Asian reporter" from FAMILY GUY?)
And for the mention of QUANTUM LEAP...
While I enjoyed QL, it had quite a few problems. First, to paraphrase MISERY, they cheated by changing what happened from the cliffhanger to the "continuation" in the next episode. I felt that Sam had a ridiculous advantage over the people whose lives he temporarily occupied: It's not as hard to be blind or a reporter or missing one's legs if you have someone from the future able to see for you, talk to you, and tell you what happened in the future, or if you're a martial artist who can doesn't have the bodily impairments of the "host." As for the finale... through the WHOLE SERIES that yearning voiceover at the opening told us how much Sam wanted to return hime, then at the end we're told he could have gone home anytime -- and never went home. Bleh.
Pretty much agree with you Peter on both "Heroes" and "Little Miss Sunsh...", sorry "Lost" ;-)
I guess I'm one of the few people who really liked the final episode of Quantum Leap. My feeling at the time was that there would always be people who would need help. The final thing that truly made Sam a hero was when he accepted that it wasn't about leaping in hope of getting home, it was about doing the job that needed to be done. Him going home would be like the Lone Ranger hanging up his mask.
Posted by: Rick Keating
...and why is the phrase "bought the farm" a synonym for death?
'Cos back in like Civil War days (or more recently) soldiers would talk about how "when this lousy war is over", they were gonna get themselves a little farm and live there happiuly after...
So it became an ironic way to refer to Not Getting Home - just a little farm, about seven foot by two by six...
(Just as the phrase "seen the elephant" referring to having been in actual combat refers to an old joke about an old farmer whose last words while dying in some absurd accident are "...I don't care - I finally seen the elephant!")
I get the feeling that the ending of "Quantum Leap" was a giant upraised finger to the audience that had abandoned the show. The ending prevented any sequel from being put together, and made everyone feel miserable about Sam Beckett's ultimate fate.
And despite the praise Harlan Ellison heaped on the show as being "a sense of historicity," the cheapness of the production values in most of the episodes, and the desire to make the things goofy, and the mandate that history couldn't be changed (after all, JFK still died) crippled the show.
And think about this - what caused history to "go wrong" in the show? Why did Sam have to go back and change these things? And if history had been changed, how could anyone tell? These are questions that were asked and answered in a whole lot of other time travel stories; didn't Belasaurus bother reading any of them?
Uh, guys, little detail here? About HEROES? Yes, overall a very good episode. Until about the last five minutes.
Everybody but Cheerverine ought to be either dead, or dying from radiation poisoning. We KNOW that the ka-boom guy was found because he gives off the stuff. We know his wife died of cancer just being around him in his 'normal' state. And there he was in critical mass mode giving off enough energy to trash the house. NO WAY should those people be right as rain. Unbelievably sloppy on the part of the writers of an otherwise fine series.
And what about Matt and the ka-boom guy being back at the paper factory at the end? Uh, cops/firemen on the way (you could hear the sirens), tons of witnesses, no Haitian to wipe peoples' memories. So how did they get kidnapped and brought back? Ironic then that one of their best episode is also one of the worst because of these two jarring flaws.
Details ... yes Peter looks to be VERY powerful. Which may be why it might be he and not Nikki/Jessica who'll buy it next time. And why Hiro will have the sword. It gives Hiro a focus for his power which can then be taken away from him. Otherwise, if one thinks about it, he becomes nigh-on unbeatable.
And, yes, count me as one of those who LOATHED the QUANTUM LEAP ending. Here I'd been rooting for Dr. Bennett to finally put the burden down and get back to his wife and friends, only to learn that it ain't gonna happen. Well that shot the whole series down for me.
>Him going home would be like the Lone Ranger hanging up his mask.
Poor analogy. As far as we know Lone Ranger doesn't have any family/loved ones. He's got a sidekick and he's with him most of the time. Even at that, the Ranger gets some time off to just 'be'. If nothing else, he needs time to obtain silver and manufacture more of his trademark bullets. Dr. Beckett didn't have that luxury. Immediately a crisis was over, he was off to another. Can you say "burn-out"? Particularly silly given the time travel nature of the series. Whether he leaves this second, or in a month, he can still arrive at the appointed time.
Ok here's some questions that have been answered on Lost that apparently a lot of people have missed:
1) Locke's dad is the Saywer that James our (Sawyer) is after.
2) The doc. (Jack) and Claire are half-siblings.
3)The smoke monster and the visions people see are connected.
4) The others are not memebers of the Darhma Initiative. Darmha employees refer to the "others" as hostiles.
5) The others are competing/warring against the Darhma Initiative.
6)The work being done on the island is for viral and genetic research.
7)The others do have contact with the outside world, can leave the island, and have a submarine.
8)There was a civilization on the island (perhaps long dead) before The Darhma Initiative ever went there.
There are even more reveals but I'm too tired to remember them all now. This info comes from the TV epsisodes, (having both season's box-sets helps) and the lost website. The anwers are there people, you just have to pay attention and look for them.
The show wraps in 2 years and the producers are mapping out when each remaining mystery will be answered during the final 2 seasons.
Season 3 is the turning point as more answers then questions have finally started to appear.
No comments about Eric Roberts in "Heroes" this week? Seriously, how much plastic surgery has that guy undergone?
By the way...small pat on the back for myself. I didn't get all of the details correct, but I did predict months ago that Claire would be instrumental in shutting down an overloading nuclear situation. Granted, I thought it would involve New York and a nuclear reactor, but given the amount of information we had at the time, it was a reasonable guess.
PAD
Most of these comments were already made, but just to get it out there.
The QL finale made it seem pretty obvious that Sam not only had his swiss cheese memory repaired, but that he had control of the leaps.
He would have remembered his wife. Also, since he's travelling through time to help others, why can't he take a vacation and leap home? Or even close to it (say a few months or week off from the "current date"). A problem that needs fixing on Aug 17, 1956 is still going to be there for Sam to leap to, what's the rush?
And if Sam never returned home (and they also kind of imply he doesn't contact Al ot the others again, what happens to the people he leaps into? If they leap into the waiting room, does Sam really feel comfortable locking the Project Personnel into permanent full-time work like that?
And does Al ever actually end up meeting Sam and hitting the rock bottom that Sam pulls him out of if Sam fixed the situation with Al's first (and now only) wife?
Sorry, gotta go with my original, "That sucked" opinion on that finale.
Dr Jeff to be fair Eric Roberts mashed himself up in a car accident. the plastic surgery wasn't for vanity reasons.
Starwolf.
As for the radiation sickness? I'm gonna say that they have better anti radiation treatments in the heroes universe. Ted's wife wasn't aware she was
succumbing to cancer due to long term exposure.
As for getting Ted, there was a follow up behind Thompson with fake fbi credentials.
Mr. David,
Yes, you did predict that. My hat's off to you because I thought they were going to create some situation that required Claire's presence to load Peter up with the ability to survive shutting down Ted with everyone's powers combined. Now it looks like Peter may be the guy who's going to kaboom.
Starwolf,
I'll grant you that everyone there should have received a lethal dose of radiation. I don't know the specifics of how it works, but I'd expect them to be getting really sick pretty soon if something extraordinary doesn't happen. However, even if they start dying from cancer in a month, that still leaves them available for the rest of Season 1, which all takes place in the time up to when the Big Boom happens in November. Granted, I don't think they're going to do that, but Bennet's the only character that I'd really miss out of the whole lot of 'em that were there.
I can extend my willing suspesion of disbelief to Matt and Ted being in custody at Primatech. The cops show up and Bennet's boss flashes some kind of Homeland Security credentials. He tells the cops that this was some kind of terrorist act, calls in his own Haz-Mat team to clean it up, and (of course) sneakily sedates Matt before the authorities actually arrive and simply announces that Matt and Ted are his prisoners.
Or even more believable, he had backup ready to storm the place in case he found what he was expecting in the Bennet house, but he couldn't send them into the deathtrap it had become. However, they were still in place to clean up the mess.
Of course that's all just a conjured up explanation for the shorthand meme that secret government organization can make people disappear into their custody whenever they want. I can accept the story point that Matt and Ted are going to end up in custody after what they pulled and Bennet's organization is going to pull whatever strings it has to to make sure that they're in THEIR custody.
Heroes changes in season 2
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=40354
The trouble with Bennet's people being a government organization is Hiro's dad. He's obviously high ranking in the organization which would make it more of a covert Interpol type group than a specific government's initiative.
We find out about Locke's legs next week during his back story.
In two/three weeks we also find out about Claire and her "relation" to Jack...
And Hurley's "boss" did not die in the meteor, he went to work at the box company (that Hurley owns) and harass Locke.
On thd QL-finale front, something I just remembered.
When Sam leapt to talk to Beth, he didn't appear to leap into anyone. Does he even leap into people at that point to "fix" time?
"Poor analogy. As far as we know Lone Ranger doesn't have any family/loved ones. He's got a sidekick and he's with him most of the time. Even at that, the Ranger gets some time off to just 'be'. If nothing else, he needs time to obtain silver and manufacture more of his trademark bullets."
Analogies aren't poor just because every single detail isn't the same. Off time to make bullets? When you get to that level of detail, you could just as easily say that Sam had the better deal because he got laid every now and then and the Lone Ranger never did. Both statements are irrelevant to the analogy because the analogy, like every analogy ever, wasn't claiming that every single detail was the same. Analogies show that one specific thing is the same.
I stick by my analogy. Every Lone Ranger episode started with an intro explaining that his fellow law officers had been killed in an ambush, and every Quantum Leap episode started with an intro explaining that Sam always hoped that the next lead would be the leap home. But was that what the shows were about? Would the Lone Ranger have stopped helping people if he'd ever caught those ambushers?
To me, and you're welcome to disagree, Sam fully became a hero when he accepted that what he was doing was more important than his own personal wants.
To me, and you're welcome to disagree, Sam fully became a hero when he accepted that what he was doing was more important than his own personal wants.
Thank you! I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought that way. Sam wants to go home, but he wants to help people even more (even if he doesn't realize this consciously). After 5 seasons, I would not have accepted Sam suddenly becoming so selfish.
The radiation in Heroes:
I get what people are saying about how much damage the characters should have taken from the nuke guy. I spent a lot of the episode thinking, "You're sterile, and you're sterile, you're definitely sterile." At the end I also thought about everyone getting cancer.
Then Claire walked out of the house and I didn't care. Peter's book on How to Write for Comics has a section on how people will accept anything as long as there's a happy ending. I'm one of those people. I totally knew the danger those people should be in, but I'm willing to accept them being OK because that ending was so great.
Great blog post.
So, in the blockbuster mini-series comic that pits the characters of Lost against the characters of Heroes, what would the pair ups be? It all happens on the Lost island, so the Lost heroes gain random Island mystical powers, of course.
Issue 1: Hiro vs Hugo (who has the power to randomly call down near fatal bad luck to those around him, and manifest a bathrobed sidekick/minion/imp named Dave to assist him). (spoiler: they realize they are both so cool, they quickly become friends and team up, much to Dave's irritation)
I thought the end of Quantum Leap was well done. Funny thing is, my first Philcon, I bought a bumper sticker that is still pinned to the back of my desk that read "Mr. Data, precisely what did you mean when you said 'Oh, boy?'" We thought having Sam Beckett on the bridge of the Enterprise would be cool.
Who'd thunk it?
>I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought that way. Sam wants to go home, but he wants to help people even more... After 5 seasons, I would not have accepted Sam suddenly becoming so selfish.
So ... firemen and cops are selfish, unheroic sorts because they spend time with their families/loved ones? OK, Sam had a midlife crisis and changed vocation. It still doesn't add up. Someone with multiple PhDs to his name, who can conceive and bring about the amazing [multiple!] technologies involved in the Quantum Leap project would do a lot more good in a lab than bouncing around helping an individual or three here and there. Imagine, for example, Dr. Banting having decided to give up medical research in favour of becoming a family doctor in the slums. Yes, he'd help people who needed it. But how many thousands/hundreds of thousands would die of diabetes because he hadn't gone on to make his insulin discoveries?
And even if the argument can run the other way (say family doctor Banting saved the life of some slum dweller whose future offspring discovers a cure for cancers) Beckett can be of much better use in recruiting and training other Leapers (for want of a better word) via the Quantum Leap project than the existing system where people are thrown cold into it with no idea of what they are doing or why. And he'd still be available to handle especially delicate/tough cases. All the while being back home at least much of the time. A win-win scenario as opposed to the one handed him at the end of the series where he has a loving wife who never sees him again, and his life's work probably gets dismantled as [if I recall the voice-over correctly] they never see or hear from him again and whomever foots the bill probably would get tired of throwing money away year after year without getting any results to show for it.
Long-winded (sorry) way of saying that even if the mysterious force(s) controlling his leaps can't do the work for themselves, and they need selfless individuals to do it for them, there's still a difference between selflessness and intelligent, efficiently applied selflessness.
>"Mr. Data, precisely what did you mean when you said 'Oh, boy?'" We thought having Sam Beckett on the bridge of the Enterprise would be cool.
Fans have come up with lots of amusing possibilities. I honestly don't know who first suggested this one (apologies to Mr. David if I read it here years back) but having Sam appear only to see a bunch of kids run screaming from him, so he looks down sees he's holding a roaring, blood-spattered chainsaw ... "Oh boy..." Yeah, I'd pay to see that. So OK he'd probably have leaped into a horror film actor's body, not a real killer, but his expression then - not to mention when he hears someone yell "Cut!!!" would probably be quite memorable. 8-)
"So ... firemen and cops are selfish, unheroic sorts because they spend time with their families/loved ones?"
I don't think Yogzilla meant that at all. Yes, Sam going home is selfish in the same way that Odysseus was selfish. That doesn't mean a certain level of selfishness is bad. "Selfish" just might not be the best word because it has loaded connotations. I don't think anyone here would say that Firemen aren't doing something for themselves by spending time with their families, and I don't think anyone would say that it's wrong for them to do that.
Sam was in a position at the end of Quantum Leap to either continue doing important work that helped people or go home. He couldn't do it as a day job then go home to family at night like Firemen and Cops can, so I don't think Yogzilla's comments meant that Yogzilla believes Firemen and Cops were unheroic.
My view is that Sam going home would have been a reasonable ending, but Sam giving up his life to help everyone was a *selfless* ending. That's heroic in a tragic way, even if it isn't everyone's favorite ending.
"Issue 1: Hiro vs Hugo (who has the power to randomly call down near fatal bad luck to those around him, and manifest a bathrobed sidekick/minion/imp named Dave to assist him). (spoiler: they realize they are both so cool, they quickly become friends and team up, much to Dave's irritation)"
Claire vs. Locke: Two characters capable of incredible healing powers face-off. Plus who does the Island want to whin and what inscrutable thing will it do to end the fight and make Locke's life more confusing?
Isaac Mendez vs Desmond: Can Isaac paint a picture before Desmond gets a precognitive flash? Will one of them just shoot the other?
Finally, HRG Bennet vs Ben of the Others: The Battle of the Bens! Which one of these mysterious characters is more mysterious? Whose hidden organization has more covert resource and secret influence with the goverment? We'll never know because the hidden Powers That Be of the Island and the Heroes Universes will never let us know how the conflict ended. They'll just hint that Hiro's dad is part of the Hanzo Foundation.
Jason M. Bryant wrote: "Would the Lone Ranger have stopped helping people if he'd ever caught those ambushers?"
He did catch Butch Cavendish- on both radio and TV. He decided, however, that there were still men like Cavendish who needed to be brought to justice.
Rick
If Sam occasionally going home to visit family, loved ones and friends makes him selfish, then there's no real help for you, especially when, as pointed out, Helping someone June 1, 1975 12:55 AM isn't going to be affected by taking a houor or two off when he can just leap in AT June 1, 1975 12:55 AM.
Sam became a machine and not a person when he abandoned the people who'd been busting their asses to help him and "save" him and his wife.
The character became "tarnished" and less "human" and/or likable at the moment, and suddenly harder to give a damn about.
(I put human in quotes becase thare are plenty of non-human characters that are are admirable and likable and "give-a-damn-aboutable" )
Giving up on his own people when it wouldn't hurt him to at least set the record straight and say "Hey, I control the Leaps now, don't need you guys to worry about it anymore, go ahead and live your lives. I appreciate your efforts." makes him actually even more selfish, he abandoned the people that were trying their damnest to help him.
[I still say Enterprise should've ended with the blue door opening and AL saying "Captain John Archer must be a descendent of yours, Sam, but it looks like your work is done, you can leap any time now." And then he hands Porthos a dog biscuit and leaps out...]
Posted by: The StarWolf
As far as we know Lone Ranger doesn't have any family/loved ones. He's got a sidekick and he's with him most of the time.
Minor fanboy pickiness: the Lone Ranger has a brother (deceased - the leader of the Ranger company wiped out almost to the man in an ambush, from whence the nome de guerre "Lone Ranger" - the sole survivor) who had a son (the Lone Ranger's nephew Dan Reed).
Who had a son: Britt Reed, the Green Hornet.
Making the Green Hornet the Lone Ranger's great-nephew. First example of this sort of dynastic-superhero stuff i know of in popular culture.
This is 100% canonical (as Anna Russell says "I'm not amking this up, you know!"), BTW, established in the first respective first episodes of the two radio programs, which originated at WXYZ, Detroit, where they ran back-to-back.
Mike - You're an Anna Russell fan? As a certain little Brasilian sparrow of my acquaintance is wont to say, "I approve". As for The Green Hornet being descended from the Ranger's family tree, I was not aware of it - thanks - but it certainly spawned even greater examples of that genre. Note how Philip Jose Farmer - an author I usually don't much care for - had a lot of fun concoting family tree diagrams for his Tarzan and Doc Savage 'biographies' which were so complicated, they resembled more a diagram of the Tokyo transit system than a typical genealogical chart. In them, he had not just Doc and Greystoke related, but The Shadow, The Avenger, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Lord Whimsey, Monk Mayfair, Moriarty, Wells' Time traveller, Fu Manchu, and lots of others.
"Making the Green Hornet the Lone Ranger's great-nephew. First example of this sort of dynastic-superhero stuff i know of in popular culture.
This is 100% canonical (as Anna Russell says "I'm not amking this up, you know!"), BTW, established in the first respective first episodes of the two radio programs, which originated at WXYZ, Detroit, where they ran back-to-back."
Oh, definitely. The Hornet was conceived as a modernizing of the Ranger. The parallels are obvious: Both masked men with memorable firearms that they use in nonlethal fashion. The Hornet's means of conveyance is named after a horse and has a color in its name. Both have non-Caucasian sidekicks with similar names ("Tonto," "Kato") who are pretty much the brains of the outfit. Both have famous classical music pieces as their signature themes ("William Tell overture," "Flight of the Bumblebee.")
PAD
Mike Weber said (re the Lone Ranger's and the Green Hornet's familial connection): "This is 100% canonical (as Anna Russell says "I'm not amking this up, you know!"), BTW, established in the first respective first episodes of the two radio programs, which originated at WXYZ, Detroit, where they ran back-to-back."
Yes, it is 100 percent canonical that Britt Reid (the correct spelling of his last name) was the son of the Lone Ranger's nephew, Dan Reid. However, unless I'm mis-reading, your quote above seems to be saying that this relationship was established in each program's first episode. Not so. For one thing, The Lone Ranger debuted on Jan. 30, 1933 on WXYZ radio, and The Green Hornet debuted three years later, on Jan. 31, 1936. What's more, it wasn't until the Green Hornet episode "Too Hot to Handle", broadcast on Nov. 11, 1947, that Britt Reid learned that his father rode with the Lone Ranger.
There was never a Lone Ranger episode that made a connection with The Green Hornet because, obviously, the Green Hornet's adventures lay decades in the Lone Ranger's future. However, both shows (as well as Challenge of the Yukon (AKA Sergeant Preston) used the same repertory cast; and, in point of fact, John Todd, who voiced Tonto on The Lone Ranger, also voiced the elderly Dan Reid on The Green Hornet.
And speaking of Tonto, the familiar story of how he found the ambushed Texas Rangers, nursed the lone survivor to health, and that survivor taking on the persona of the Lone Ranger is actually a bit of retroactive continuity. The radio series began in media res, with the Lone Ranger already Lone Rangering, and Tonto already his partner. We learned how they met on the Dec. 7, 1938 episode, "The Origin of Tonto." In that flashback episode, narrated by someone called "Cactus Pete", The already established Lone Ranger rescued Tonto from death (twice) at the hands of a crook. The first time the bad guy tried to Kill Tonto for getting in the way of his schemes; and the second time to make him the dead (and thus unable to refute the "evidence" in another man's death.
The now official story of how Tonto and the Lone Ranger had been childhood friends, and were reunited when Tonto found the injured Ranger at Bryant's Gap came about later. It was broadcast on the 15th anniversary show, dated June 30, 1948. Why they didn't have the anniversary show in January, I've no idea.
That same, now-familiar origin subsequently appeared in the the Clayton Moore TV series in 1949.
Rick
"Finally, HRG Bennet vs Ben of the Others: The Battle of the Bens!"
Wouldn't wanna see that, meself. Ben there, done that.
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Posted by Rick Keating
Mike Weber said (re the Lone Ranger's and the Green Hornet's familial connection): "This is 100% canonical (as Anna Russell says "I'm not making this up, you know!"), BTW, established in the first respective first episodes of the two radio programs, which originated at WXYZ, Detroit, where they ran back-to-back."
Yes, it is 100 percent canonical that Britt Reid (the correct spelling of his last name)
I knew that. Just checking if you did.
was the son of the Lone Ranger's nephew, Dan Reid. However, unless I'm mis-reading, your quote above seems to be saying that this relationship was established in each program's first episode.
No, you're not misreading, but the source i'm remembering may have been misleading.
That is, it stated that they rean back-to-back, and implied - at least to my reading - that they began at the same time.
Not so. For one thing, The Lone Ranger debuted on Jan. 30, 1933 on WXYZ radio, and The Green Hornet debuted three years later, on Jan. 31, 1936. What's more, it wasn't until the Green Hornet episode "Too Hot to Handle", broadcast on Nov. 11, 1947, that Britt Reid learned that his father rode with the Lone Ranger.
Again, i recall the source i originally picked it up from as saying that it was the first episode of Green Hornet that established it; either a misimplication (on the author's part) or a misinference (on my part).
However, believeing that the two programs originated at the same time, i meant that the establishing bit was in the "Green Hornet", not in both programs.
As i recall, it quoted dialog between Britt and his father about a painting of a masked man that hung in their home's foyer...
I read it about thirty-five years or so ago, and was going strictly on memory, so, either the source was flat wrong (unlikely), it phrased the information badly (possible) or i misremembered the details while recalling the salient fact.
Thanks for the correction.
Finally got to finish watching LOST. Definitely the best episode for quite a while.
Not much I can say about Heroes that hasn't already been said, except that a lot of people seem to be figuring on Nikki's death. I don't think so. She's in Peter's visions, along with DL and Micah. I'm betting on Jessica getting pulled right out of her head by the Haitian.
-Rex Hondo-
Mike Weber said: "As i recall, it quoted dialog between Britt and his father about a painting of a masked man that hung in their home's foyer..."
You recall correctly. There was such a conversation. And strains of the William Tell Overture played during their talk. I suspect the painting was in the living room (or some other such room) and not the foyer, but I'd have to listen to the episode again to refresh my memory.
Oh, and in my post above, it should have said the second time the bad guy tried to kill Tonto it was to make him the dead scapegoat in another man's death.
Rick
Now, it's been a few years since I last heard a Lone Ranger episode (the AM station that used to play radio shows at 9pm every night stopped doing so sometime while I was out of town), but I'm virtually certain that I recall one episode in which the listener was actually introduced to Dan Reid. (I'm also pretty sure that this whole thing wasn't written until after the introduction of the idea on Green Hornet...)
Of course, if I am wrong, I fully expect to be corrected here (and if Mike's the one who knows, I also expect to be excoriated for my error, a criticism of which I'll have to be informed by someone else because I stopped even trying to read his posts early on).
Rex Hondo, unfortunately you misinterpret those visions. Niki/Jessica is in Peter Petrelli's dreams because she happens to be alive at the moment he is dreaming. Remember that he never met her; she is just a bit player in his dreams. If Niki takes the courageous step and kills herself to kill Jessica, the only real way out of her dilemma, she will no longer appear in his dreams.
And as far as we know, the Hatian, or Scary Black Man as he should be called, can only make you forget facts. He can't do anything with multiple personalities as far as we know. But then again, neither can psychiatrists. There's no other way out of the problem. Niki/Jessica has to suicide, or someone has to kill her - perhaps, as the old Hollywood werewolf legend has it, she must be killed "by someone who loves her enough to understand."
Possibly her son?
Thomas, there's no more evidence to support your theory about Peter's dreams only showing people currently alive than mine that they will play a part in events to come.
Also, even if the Haitian can only remove memories, the Jessica personality was created in order to cope with events in her past that Nikki wasn't "strong enough" to deal with. Remove those memories, and you remove Jessica's power over Nikki, if not remove her outright.
-Rex Hondo-
Anyone who thinks that the entire Lost series will end up being a figment of Hurley's imagination has missed the point somewhere: the Lost creators have already dismissed the idea and even played it out to their intended ultimate extent in one episode last season.