“Into Asylum”: Heroes Review

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WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS!

I’ll be perfectly honest. I didn’t like last night’s episode entitled ‘In Asylum’ for a number of reasons (that are probably more personal than substantiated). All Heroes episodes can’t be gems, but I was expecting a little bit more than some of the subplots that were presented. Action took a back seat this week and emotional melancholy took its place.

Let’s start right from the get-go. Claire and Nathan Petrelli in Mexico? Okay, I realize that Homeland Security has every camera in the continental US pointed at these heroes. But what does that mean if you can fly? Couldn’t Nathan have taken Claire to an isolated cabin in the woods or one of the thousands of towns in the US to seek refuge? Putting that aside, why did Nathan participate in a drinking game at all if Claire could simply absorb all of the alcohol into her bloodstream in the first place. For one of the only instances where we get Claire and her biological father together in one room I felt no sense of tension or drama between these two characters as biological father and daughter.

Let’s shift to Peter Petrelli and his mother hiding out in a church. Now maybe I nodded off for a second while watching this episode but how was Noah and his team actually about to find Peter? However, one high point of the episode we do get is two of the best acted scenes of the season. Nathan’s soliloquy to Jesus (and how he feels his powers are a burden more than anything out) and his mother’s confession to her son as they’re hiding out in the confession booth. Just superbly acted scenes by two gifted actors. In my opinion, this was the only reason the writers decided for them to hideaway in a church. What we don’t get is any secret tidbits revealed by Peter’s mother, even in their most desperate hour. This could’ve been done better this far into the season, but this whole subplot seemed rather pointless on the whole.

Then we get to meat and potatoes. Or at least what was supposed to be the meat and potatoes, the encounters between Danko and Sylar. In this episode, Sylar and Danko decide to team up in order to capture a shape-shifter named Jenkins. For something like the last ten episodes Sylar has been the hero on Danko’s top list. Yet almost instantly we see his character go from hating Sylar to his becoming his partner under the guise that Sylar will round up all the other fugitives still out there. This plot seemed very inauthentic to me, no doubt for some it was downright implausible. Here’s a suggestion, if you’re a shape-shifter don’t change into the person pursing you, or in this case don’t be chased by the person pursing you and then revert into the partner of the person chasing you. I can’t trust Danko’s character at this point, there’s absolutely no foreshadowing as to whether or not he will betray Sylar, in fact he even says it straight right to his face.

This episode was without a doubt one of the weaker episodes for its many plotholes and poor use of characters. While last week’s episode (‘Cold Snap’) had a few minor details to sort out, ‘In Asylum’ simply just fell off the wagon for me, especially so close to the season finale.