Heroes 1.02: Don't Look Back review

AIR-DATE: 2/10/06

Written by: Tim Kring

Directed by: Allan Arkush

Starring: Greg Grunberg, Danielle Savre

The One Where: We learn of
Mr Sylar…

Synopsis
In New York, Hiro
discovers his life playing out in
the comic book 9th Wonders, the
work of Isaac Mendez. When he
tracks down Isaac he discovers a
corpse with the head sawn off
and is promptly arrested…

While Mohinder meets Eden, a
friend of his father, Claire has to
stand by as a rival cheerleader
takes credit for the fire rescue.
She learns that the tape of her
exploits is missing; later we see
her adopted father watching it…
We also meet Matt Parkman, a
beat cop at the scene of a serial
killing (more headless corpses –
the work of someone named
Sylar, Suresh’s Patient Zero). Matt
has the power to hear people’s
thoughts and finds a missing girl.
Niki’s reflection provides her
with a map and a car. As she
disposes of the bodies of the
thugs in the desert she discovers
a buried skeleton. Meanwhile,
Peter confronts Nathan, who
confesses that he can fly – as
they talk, Peter discovers that
he’s hovering above the ground…
As the cops interrogate Hiro,
he learns that he’s five weeks into
his own future. It’s then that a
huge nuclear conflagration
engulfs New York…

Review
It’s part of the comic
book dynamic that every
superhero is defined by a
supervillain, and here the world of
Heroes darkens considerably with
the introduction of Sylar (just
how grisly are those shots of the
sawn-off heads?). Hiro’s still
hilarious – dig that Merry Marvel
Marching Society reference – and
that’s one hell of an ending…

Dialogue
Claire:
“Cheerleading is hard work…
hard, treacherous work…”

Nick Setchfield