In Heroes Reborn June 13th Part 1 a lot of things are revealed, not least of which is just who “Tommy” and Malina really are. Their true identities come to light and we finally learn just what happened at Odessa. A face from the past shows up at the start of the episode; Angela Petrelli (mother of Nathan and Peter) who tries to warn Mohinder Suresh that Erica Kravid has been lying to him and to the world.
While the long awaited arrival of Hiro Nakamura heralded a new turning point and allowed Noah to try to stop the Odessa bombing, there were too many “butterflies” and things could not be altered.
Claire dies, twice in essence, but gives birth to twins who will save the world. Now at least the origins of Tommy (Nathan) and Malina are uncovered and the source of their power explained to a degree. Hiro sends the two babies back to 1999 (his line of “partying like its 1999” was priceless) and once again the whole question of fate and time travel becomes either an issue or a brilliant plot point.
On a sidenote, the scene from the previous episode where Claire and Tommy are in Paris and she shows him “The 9th Wonder” comic book in French reveals a foretelling of this week’s information about who the boy really is. She finds the comic and the title is “Nathan Visits the Future” and Claire tells him the character on the cover looks like him. In keeping with the lore of the verse thus far, it is him.
Tommy is Nathan, named for his uncle, by his grandmother. While this whole thing feels a little like the novelty song, I’m My Own Grandpa, it also points out the whole Hiro “fate” and time changing conundrum.
At the start of the new series, Hiro is apparently tricked into the game Evernow where he cannot used his evo powers to escape. Evo game designer Hachiro Otomo (Hiro Kanagawa) grabs hold of Hiro (Masi Oka) and, like the character he designs; “Katana Girl,” the designer can enter into his own game and this allows him to trap Hiro there.
On a sidenote, Hiro Kanagawa is one busy performer with appearances in iZombie, Dark Matter, The Returned, The Whispers, and a number of other televisions shows on top of the 2014 Godzilla.
As well as Hiro being trapped at the time of the Odessa Summit explosion, Tommy (Nathan) and Malina are shown as teenagers, which means that they have already been sent back to 1999 by Hiro to save them from Erica Kravid. In essence, proving that Hiro’s assertions that fate cannot be changed means that the explosion was never going to be stopped and that these two teens will in fact save the world.
All this before the second part of June 13th even airs. There have been grumbles about this new look at Tim Kring’s verse not following the first season of his previous show Heroes. Viewers who were expecting a “season five” of the first show, should stop watching now. They should also remember that, for the most part, the series never really had the same appeal or excitement level after the first season.
Too many new characters introduced in season two detracted from the show. This meant a watering down of the verse and even detracted from the only real interesting storyline of the second season, Hiro’s time travel back to the days of Kensei, whose sword he is attached to in the first season.
Of course the entire sphere of time travel, even without Hiro’s butterfly paranoia, is tricky at best and really just so much smoke and mirrors. For instance, Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) is not only occupying the same space, a no-no according to most time travel films, he is about to interact with himself as well.
This episode sees Phoebe’s transformation, Dennis’ disappearance and the “apparent’ death of Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy). As some viewer comments on the IMDb message board, why did Hiro save Mohinder only to let him die moments later. The easy answer is the butterfly theory of Hiro’s where seemingly if it is one’s fate, it cannot be changed.
This means Mohinder was meant to die, which then begs the question, why is he still “narrating” the episodes? The point is this…Does it matter?
Not really.
Heroes Reborn is clever, witty, full of twists and turns and has some epic moments in it. Example: Katana Girl and the ability to enter the video game Evernow by pulling the Kensei sword from its scabbard. This is imaginative telly and viewers who cannot enjoy the show are definitely “over-thinking” it.
The series airs Thursdays on NBC. Tune in and see the second part of June 13th and see what Hiro does next in the tale of Nathan and Malina. Do not forget, that at the end of the episode we see Nathan celebrating his birthday with mom (the nurse at St Judes) who gives him a cupcake with a single candle on it. Is this an allegory? Watch the series and see.
Mikes Film Talk 