Heroes #17 "Company Man"

[kerravonsen]

Whoa! That was a good episode.

Yay that Claire's mother actually had some spunk and something worthwhile to say!

Yeah, I'm not surprised at the nature of the cloak-and-dagger business; all ruthless and arrogant and self-righteous. Very us-versus-them. Very CIA. Keeping the world Safe For Democracy (that is, safe for their paymasters).

Golly, Hiro's dad is part of the Company! That raises many questions.
Is Hiro his biological son or not?
Did Hiro's father suspect that Hiro would have powers? Is that why he hid him away as a clerical worker?
I can't remember whether Hiro actually told his father what he can do; if he did, then Hiro's father is protecting Hiro. Which means he really does love him, just in a stonefaced way.

So, we find out about Claude.

The presence of Claude and Hiro's father does indicate that it's an international group, not just US. Though that doesn't preclude it being US-based.

It doesn't surprise me that Claire is on the run, just who she's on the run with. I thought she'd end up on the run with her biological mother.

What I didn't quite follow is what the Haitian said about why he didn't erase Claire's memory. Does it have something to do with the Funky Symbol? Note that in the flashback, the Haitian already had his pendant, and he was already pretending to be mute. But that doesn't explain why Jessica has it tattooed to her back.

So, is Parkman going to end up working for The Company? Even working with HRG? If so, I expect that his first task would be to interrogate HRG.

The feeling I get about the atmosphere of The Company is that some people, it sucks in with idealism, but if one is "one of Them", then one soon gets the message that one is barely tolerated, and for only as long as one is useful and toes the line. A Sword of Damocles hangs above, and if it falls, one ends up strapped to a gurney inside a grey concrete box. Or dead. A choice between being a tool or a threat, but in either case, an object, something not accorded the status of "human".

What happened to the girl who could read radio signals? Or is she the same person as the BossMan said was "very promising"?

As usual, please don't spoil me for episodes I haven't seen.

Comments

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

So you saw baby Hiro! And you've now caught up with me so I'll have to stop reading your posts.

Hiro didn't tell his father what he can do, just that he was to save the world. I doubt his father suspects, unless he knows enough about the genetic pseudo-science stuff to guess.

The symbol seems to have no rational explanation. Clare doodled it on her book, Jessica has it on her skin, it's on the sword Hiro wants etc, so maybe it's a sort of unconscious manifestation of brain weirdness. The proliferation of gifted people seems to imply though that the whole human race is changing, but I might be wrong.

[kerravonsen]

So you saw baby Hiro!

Oh, is that what you meant by "baby Hiro"? He wasn't a baby, he was a little boy. Still cute, though. 8-)

The proliferation of gifted people seems to imply though that the whole human race is changing, but I might be wrong.

It's a bit difficult to be able to judge what the percentage of gifted people is, because we're being shown a skewed proportion of them. Even if the ones we've seen are a representative sample, we still don't have enough data.
- Claire's mother was gifted, and had one child, also gifted
- DL and Nikki appear to be both gifted, and have one child, also gifted
- We don't know if Mr. or Mrs. Petrelli were gifted, but they appear not to be. They had two sons, both gifted. Unless, of course, the reason why Mr. Petrelli was so depressed was because he was gifted and saw his gift as a curse.
- We don't have sufficient data about Hiro. What seems most likely is that his father and sister aren't gifted, so we have a gifted child of non-gifted people -- but it's also possible (we have no data) that (a) Hiro was adopted by Hiro's father in the same way that Claire was adopted by HRG (though I guess that orphaned babies are probably not that common -- are they?)
(b) Hiro's mother is gifted
(c) Hiro's father is gifted and he's concealing it (not very likely, though)

Why did Hiro's father repeat to HRG that "this is not a request" that he adopt Claire? Was that because it provided a way of keeping track of a suspect child?

Another interesting thing in this episode was that they seemed to expect that gifts don't manifest in childhood, but later.
-

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm going mainly by Hiro being gifted, I suppose. If his parents aren't, it seems unlikely that he'd be unless there's a high proportion in his generation.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Why did Hiro's father repeat to HRG that "this is not a request" that he adopt Claire? Was that because it provided a way of keeping track of a suspect child?

That's how I understood it.

Another interesting thing in this episode was that they seemed to expect that gifts don't manifest in childhood, but later.

Not from birth, anyway. We saw Peter, Nathan, Matt, and Hiro at least all discover their powers in adulthood, and Claire discovered hers in her teens. Of course, we don't know about everyone. But they'd be very difficult to hide from the public at large if they started at birth.

And I'm sorry, but naming the invisible guy Claude is just too meta for me, even if I do love both him and all the Star Trek/comics meta with Hiro.

[kerravonsen]

Not from birth, anyway.

But Claire did -- isn't that how she survived the fire?

And I'm sorry, but naming the invisible guy Claude is just too meta for me

It didn't strike me as meta -- he called himself "Claude Raines" as a deliberate reference, yes, but what's wrong with that? It isn't his real name, he just used it once as a bitter joke. Since we don't know what his real name is, I'd rather refer to him as Claude than "the invisible man played by Christopher Eccleston"...

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

I was fine with him calling himself that as a joke, but don't others call him that within the show? Though perhaps I'm mistaken about that, I don't remember for sure. But he's definitely called Claude on the Web site, and it does that 'jolting me out of the story' thing.

And I don't think that can be how Claire survived the fire, otherwise HRG's organization would have known she had a power, rather than wondering if she had one that would show up later. And if she'd been healing unnaturally fast from childhood injuries, HRG would have known. Nobody goes through childhood without a few scrapes and bruises, at least.

[kerravonsen]

Though perhaps I'm mistaken about that, I don't remember for sure. But he's definitely called Claude on the Web site, and it does that 'jolting me out of the story' thing.

I recall reading an interview with Christopher Eccleston where he was talking about this role, and he referred to the character as "Claude". But I really don't think anyone has called him that within the show. He doesn't have a name -- or, at least, we haven't been told his name. So, lacking a name, what are they going to call him? I expect all the scripts say "Claude" because it's easier. Likewise the website.

And don't blame the show for what's on the website!

And I don't think that can be how Claire survived the fire, otherwise HRG's organization would have known she had a power, rather than wondering if she had one that would show up later.

We have a few different datapoints on this.
- the newspaper article says that everyone died.
- Claire's mother assumed that everyone died except her.
- I can't remember exactly, but I think the Haitian said that Claire's mother was dead; therefore it seems likely that The Company thinks that Claire's mother is dead; in which case, The Company thinks that everyone died except Claire.

It must have been some fire.

The Company could well have put about that the baby died, so that they could steal it.

But it still doesn't answer the question of how Claire survived the fire.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Ah! You finally got to my favorite episode. Though I think I like the one we had this past week nearly as much.

Golly, Hiro's dad is part of the Company! That raises many questions.

LOL. Ever the analytical Kat. Everybody else I know just went, "Awwwwww, baby Hiro! He's so cuuuuuuuuuuuuute!"

[kerravonsen]

LOL. Ever the analytical Kat.

Yeah, my brain keeps on ticking over. 8-)