Hooper Reviews Heroes: Fugitives - Episode 7

Heroes Season 3
Volume Four: Fugitives


Episode Seven: "Cold Snap"

What Happened:

Bryan Fuller returned with "Shades of Gray," but this week he really lets 'er rip.

First off, you can tell the writing duties have shifted, providing more specifics for camera shots, as the direction of the episode was superior to what's come before. Technically, it was better than anything this (half of the) season.

One of the parting shots last week was of Sylar in Danko's apartment, while Danko was present. This episode opens with Danko shaving and we see his routine, the meticulous nature of it, until the door alarm goes off ("The front door is open," chimes a voice). Grabbing a gun, he makes his way through is apartment to the entryway, closing the door. It's then, as he stalks into this living room, that he sees the present Sylar left him: Doyle, the Puppetmaster, all trussed up and unconscious with a note: "My gift to you."

HRG ducks around honking cars in stalled traffic and gets into a Angela Petrelli's car. With Nathan and Peter both flapping in the wind, it's up to the Company Man to keep the Angela's secret agenda on track. They back and forth about how HRG needs to give over a big fish to Danko, she suggesting Rebel and HRG offering up...her. She does him a favor and gives him her umbrella; he does one right back and says "don't go home." Theirs is a peculiar, but dynamic relationship. Spymaster and spy.

And he did, fortunately, leave her on guard. Shortly after he leaves, she asks the driver why they've stopped and as he's answering, plainclothes agents yank him out of the car and reach in for Angela, too. Then she jerks awake; it was one of her visions. She leans forward and tells the driver not to stop, ah, but there's construction- His door opens and he's pulled out, but she's long gone, having ducked out. She sidles up to a businessman. Silly me, what a day to forget an umbrella, can I share? she coos.

Danko has Mohinder brought to room marked "Human Resources; it's the storage room for the drugged heroes, including the mortally wounded Daphne. Thinking he's been brought to help her, Mohinder demands she be taken to a hospital. And then he's zapped and hooked up; remember, he was about to work with Nathan. HRG is offered a "ta da..." gift by Danko - the Puppetmaster, who did unpleasant things to Claire and Sandra. Danko claims he caught him. HRG offers to snag Rebel in return, by letting Tracy go and using her as bait. If the plan goes awry, she can always be killed in "self-defense." Tracy is briefly shown concentrating and breathing out frosty air...under the heat lamps.

Across the country, Hiro and Ando find themselves taking care of Matt Parkman, the baby and not the telepath sci-fi'ed back to infanthood. Turns out Janice Parkman (the two-timing ex) had her a baby boy - Parkman's. The two don't know what to do. Save Matt Parkman, was their quest, but this isn't their Matt Parkman to (want to) save. Hiro wants grandeur, Ando thinks there's more to the situation and the baby turns on the TV (look, adult Matt Parkman in a bomb vest on the news!). Hiro turns it off. This goes back and forth as our Japanese duo argue, with Hiro finally unplugging the TV (bad Baby! No TV for you.). It's only when Baby Matt turns the TV on...while it's unplugged...that Hiro and Ando start paying attention.

After Angela's escape, over in Building 26, Noah hangs up the phone and says she escaped. Probably tipped off, fumes Danko. She is clairvoyant, reminds HRG. And then the lights go out. "Rebel, rebel," quips HRG.

Tracy's heat room is shut off and she freeze-breaks her shackles, leaving through the unlocked door. Rebel guides Tracy through B26 to "Human Resources." She unhooks the important people (Matt, Mohinder, Daphne) while leaving the rest to rot. That she did that is impressive for her selfish character. Matt mentally blocks them from the guards they run across and, once on the street, Tracy ditches them. Matt carries Daphne to a hospital, Mohinder in tow.

Things move quickly. Matt gets Daphne into a hospital, nudging the doctor's gray matter so he won't report it as a gunshot wound. Matt and Mohinder stay with her.

Tracy slips into a department store and is in a dressing room, stealing clothes (creatively freezing off the security tags) when instead of a helpful assistant knocking (a different size?), it's HRG chiding Tracy that she should've stayed with the telepath. She threatens the wicked cold snap she's been building up; HRG thinks his drawn gun would finish her before the cold got him. A battle he doesn't want to fight. Lead me to Rebel, he claims, and he'll let her go - still on the run, but with a chance.

Hiro stars packing a bag for the baby; they will take him with them. Ando wonders if Hiro is so cold to the baby because of his own strained childhood: distant father...departed mother. It's then that Hiro tells Ando that he held his mother as she died when traveling back into the past (see Season Three, volume 3: Villains). He's trying not to cry, to be brave for the baby (of course nearly making Ando cry). Someone enters the home, breaking their Moment. They pull an ET and hide in the baby's closet, but Janice knows they aren't babysitters and gets a bit testy. When they start in about Baby Matt's power, she starts to believe they are genuinely there to help. Ah, but then the door again: agents.

They need Janice and Baby Matt for questioning. But he's just a baby.... She realized the danger Baby Matt is in and goes with the agents, saying they can get the boy from his babysitters. The agents clearly don't believe her and storm the house. Baby Matt brushes a hand against Hiro's face. Ando shoots his red lightning against the agents with forceful effect, only to get a gun butt to the face.

Hiro, previously powerless, freezes time. Yatta!

Turns out the "go/ignition" power of Baby Matt's works with people, too. Unfortunately, the touch only brings back the time freezing, not teleportation, so Hiro has to put Ando in a wheelbarrow and cart him twelve miles to the bus stop before restarting time. Toddler Touch and Go. Hurm.

Tracy passes an ATM that speaks her name, gives her money and a receipt that lists a Union Station locker containing ID and a boarding pass. She hops in a cab. Micah, watching from the sidelines, follows her.

So to be clear: Micah is Rebel, helping the nasty tart that looks like his mom. Can this end well?

Angela meets her friend Millie for lunch, seeking help. Well, she won't get it...at least not without receiving a tongue-lashing about her bizarre behavior since Arthur's death. Angela doesn't want to hear it, she's trying to help her boys and needs cash, clothes, a car. But Millie says then turn yourself in. That won't work for Mrs. Petrelli. She gets up to leave, but Millie relents and forks over all her cash (several hundred); Angela grabs her umbrella. Walking down the street later, she spots some plainclothes and tries to elude them, only to realize she's in a closing ring. Ducking into a hotel, she gets into an elevator before getting nabbed. Instead of going higher, the agents bring her car down. Just before she stops, she hears a thud on the car's roof. The doors open and Peter is there. He flies away with both of them.

Daphne wakes up, healed, and leaves the hospital. To Matt, she says their relationship was a mistake and she's going back on the run. She won't slow down for anyone.

At Union Station, Tracy opens the locker and gets the docs. Micah reveals himself and his role, to Tracy's chagrin. She tells the kid this was set-up to get Rebel - him. Micah wonders how she can be so selfish. He sets off an alarm so they can slip out. They walk through a parking garage, and Micah makes it known he thought, from her political bio, that she was altruistic. Maybe a few years back, but not now, she replies. Danko's forces make some noise and close in. Tracy asks Micah to talk to the sprinklers and get them to go off - and then to run. "Stay ahead of the ice."

Sprinklers drenching her and a squad of commandos, Tracy steps out from behind a car and walks to the middle of the garage. The others circle around her, pinning her in, guns drawn. And then she freezes everything. It isn't a quick freezing flash but works in waves, icing them more and more as she pushes the cold snap out of her. She even freezes herself solid, though she still lives. Micah escapes before the cold reaches him. Danko emerges after the "attack" has stopped and shoots Tracy in the chest, shattering her. HRG comes to his side and looks down (sadly?). A chunk of Tracy's face - her eyes, forehead and the top of her nose - comes into view. A tear runs down from one eye...and it blinks.

Daphne is in Paris when Parkman catches up to her, telling her he knows she loves it. How did he get there so fast? He flew. How'd she get there? Ran on water. And then he starts to actually float and offers her a view of the Eiffel Tower few ever get. She takes him up and they fly together. In the air she figures out this is all an illusion, and she's still in the hospital bed dying. Paris, the argument, reconnecting - it's all to give her a better end than what she got. And because he refuses to let her go. She asks him if he'd do her a favor. Anything. "Fly me to the moon." The jet off up in the sky and then across, a straight line to the moon...that becomes a flat line on the heart-rate monitor. Mohinder consoles Parkman.

Peter and Angela stand in the head of the Statue of Liberty and he asks her what she wants to do now.

To be continued in "Into Asylum."


***

Daphne and Tracy are dead, the latter only until the writers can work in a way to rebuild her. Daphne's death, while sad, is OK. She wasn't adding anything to the story and her relationship with Parkman was pretty contrived (ok, he sees them together in a possible future that also has Sylar a doting husband in oven mitts? Nah. That's like hoping Sandra Bullock and Keanue make it as a couple after Speed). And her power wasn't even used to its fullest offensive capacity.

Hiro has confronted his grief, and with Ando and a new mission, perhaps he can become more of the courageous man he only mimics now.

Danko isn't happy with HRG, but at least got to kill a hero.

Micah is Rebel, the communications hub of a future heroes movement. But is he mature enough to be smart with who he contacts and to accept orders? He's smart, but just a kid.

Angela and Peter might be forming the nucleus of a resistance - brains and power.

No hero is in chains who we care about, but Sylar might be aiding the "enemy."

***

Next week, Sylar propositions Danko...to be his partner (dun dun duuuuun!!!).

Heroes: Fugitives
Episode One: "A Clear and Present Danger"
Episode Two: "Trust and Blood"
Episode Three: "Building 26"
Episode Four: "Cold Wars"
Episode Five: "Exposed"
Episode Six: "Shades of Gray"


-Hooper