If the season 2 of — Heroes’ episode — The Line’ could be summed up in a single word, that word would be — corruption’.
Heroes season 2 is beginning to escalate. Last night’s episode, The Line is laying the foundation for the — looming crisis’ that the various heroes will have to try to avert is some sort of plague that may wipe out 93% of humanity — but was more interesting to me in this episode is the underlying theme of corruption. Can the variousHeroes be corrupted? Are they already?
In a word, yes.
Claire’s boyfriend, West, uses his ability to fly, and Claire’s ability to heal at superhuman rates, to — punk’ the obnoxious head cheerleader — and have her suspended, making room on the cheerleader squad for Claire. When Claire questions the rightness of their actions, West justifies them because, after all, because of her abilities, Claire is superior to the normal, human cheerleader. Not because the cheerleader’s petty, obnoxious or controlling. Because Claire has an ability that the — human’ doesn’t. For me, that was the most chilling moment of the episode. Claire is being slowly seduced by this boy — and I don’t mean sexually. He’s leading her to lie to her father (and family in general), being deceitful, and now causing serious harm to another person — and justifying it because she’s — special’ — all too reminiscent of the Nazi philosophy of the last century. I have to admit that I’ve disliked the character of West since he was first introduced, but that’s probably because he’s boyfriend material — and I have 4 daughters. Now I have a legitimate reason to dislike him — and fear his corrupting influence on Claire.
Likewise, Claire’s father, Noah Bennet (the horn-rimmed glasses man) faces his own test — and fails. He’s in Russia, interrogating his former mentor about the location of the remaining paintings of Isaac Mendez — that foretell the future. With the help of the Haitian, a man who can steal memories, he tortures the man until he gives Mr. Bennet the information he seeks — and to cover his trail, Mr. Bennet pulls out a gun to murder him. The man cries out that he’s offering Bennet redemption, and that if Bennet murders him he’ll be condemning himself to Hell. Bennet kills the man and admits that he knows he’s now damned. Mr. Bennet has never been a — nice’ person, although his love for his family has been much of the motivation (and thus the reason for the audience to see him as a sympathetic, flawed character) — and this cements that fact. He has — crossed the line’ as have most of the characters this episode.
Sylar corrupts Maya, and goads her into murdering a group of Minutemen-style vigilantes who are patrolling the U.S.-Mexican border. Just a quick note — these — Minutemen’ are armed with guns, threatening the passengers of the car — Hollywood’s version of the Minutemen is frankly not accurate, and the biased portrayal took me — out of the moment’ while watching due to that — a pity.
Hiro gives in to his love in ancient Japan, causing his hero to (seemingly) betray them both — although I suspect that we’ll see that as part of a larger plan next time. Hiro corrupts both Takezo Kensai and the timeline by his actions.
Last, but not least, Mohinder Suresh is tempted by — Bob’ to inject Monica Dawson with a modified virus that Bob thinks will take away her abilities — although it’s close, Mohinder refuses to cross that line, and stands up to the Company.