Heroes Discussion: “Once Upon A Time in Texas”

With rumours aswirl that Heroes will not have another season, the show takes us back to its intriguing, ratings-scoring early episodes with a new installment rife with time-travel paradoxes and more than a little reminiscent of Back to the Future II.

I’m busy this week, so we’re just having a discussion. The episode, Once Upon a Time in Texas, raises a number of questions, including:

  • We’re already in an alternative timeline in the series, one where Ando married Hiro’s sister. Wouldn’t that fact have already changed the events of the first season? Why does Ando still accompany Hiro? Or is this a parallel timeline?
  • If this is a parallel timeline, how can changing the past hold any meaning?
  • How do physics work for a person who remains active while time has been frozen? Seriously, this raises several problems.
  • Mohinder Suresh has returned. Did anyone want this to happen?
  • Okay, so I laughed at the Mothra reference. Anyone else?

5 replies on “Heroes Discussion: “Once Upon A Time in Texas””

  1. My biggest question is why Hiro didn’t take Charlie in the future since he knew that Peter was getting a healing power to try to save him and could have saved Charlie too. Its really really frustrating when the first though you have about what should happen next on the show doesn’t even occur to the character….

    Oh and when they finally kill off Hiro after keeping Sylar alive at all costs, I’m done watching. Hiro is a great character and his character has received great character development throughout this series, only to be continually reset back to bumbling idiot by the writers over and over. Hopefully the storyline for Hiro with the carnies will be good, but with Mohinder appearing right away, it doesn’t give me lots of hope.

    Also, I like the Sylar possession of Parkman angle. I wouldn’t mind seeing a New Sylar vs. a possessed Parkman battle with Parkman losing. Again, the writers continually reset Sylar’s character too, and its grating.

    • My biggest question is why Hiro didn’t take Charlie in the future since he knew that Peter was getting a healing power to try to save him and could have saved Charlie too.

      This stems from another inconsistency in the show; presumably, Hiro has no control over his powers. He unconsciously ‘ported to Charlie in the past; Butterfly Man explictly says “You’re getting control back” when Hiro takes them right to the carnival. However, Hiro has shown fine control over his powers when he ‘ported repeatedly to stop the Japanese office worker from exposing his arse.

      The show is on a thin thread; may have to come off the DVR schedule and then just watch it on Hulu if the mood ever strikes. Not sure if the series will ever find its way back to what made the first series great.

  2. Obvious missed opportunities, the reset button, and poor handling of time travel. The strong points this season have been character-driven, but we didn’t see much of it this week.

    On another note, is Hiro’s Spidey/MJ reference to be taken at surface value (since a mainstream audience knows that Spider-man and MJ are an item in the movies), or does it have an ironic meaning (since they stopped being an item after Brand New Day)?

  3. Heroes already lost the conflict battle on my one-tuner DVR. Wouldn’t even be watching it if it wasn’t on Netflix Instant Queue (and Hulu) a day later, at this point.

    The Hiro issue is the same one with any serious plot involving time travel: no matter what you do, you can always come up with a way that a time traveler can fix what’s wrong. Heroes is down the same rabbit hole that makes every Star Trek time travel episode horrible. I firmly believe that the only way to make such a premise work is with tongue in cheek (see current Doctor Who and even The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy–the Brits seem to have figured it out).

    The events of this episode and the next one (which I’ve yet to watch… too many other interesting things queued up in front of it) may be shark-jumping material, but the ultimate warning sign came a few episodes ago. Did anyone think there was genuine artistic intent behind Claire’s roommate planting a big sloppy kiss on her?

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