Editors Notes:
Last week we thought Eli was actually Samuel, but given the context of these episodes we see this is the likeness of Todd Stashwick. They do look similar though.
Chapter Ten 'Thanksgiving':
Volume: Five
Written by: Adam Armus & Kay Foster
Directed by: Seith Mann
Original airdate: November 23, 2009
Synopsis:
Samuel watches the retrieved film of his birth, witnessing his powers working even before fully born. Hiro knocks incessantly at his door, facing off against him aggressively. Samuel tells him he could kill him but then he’d never find Charlie, ordering him to set the table for Thanksgiving.
Angela arrives at Peter’s and while he pushes her for information about what is going on, she refuses, telling him and Nathan to set up the table and she will talk with them at the dinner table. Peter tells her how they found Nathan’s dead body and she tries to cover it up as being a shapeshifter, but Peter pushes things further with the information he got from Parkman. Sylar/Nathan gets aggressive with Angela but she threatens to not reveal anything and leave if they continue. As they get the table, Sylar/Nathan has a momentary issue trying to maintain his Nathan face. Sylar/Nathan refuses to play nice so Angela finally reveals what happened. Sylar/ Nathan understands that he isn’t really Nathan, but Angela says he is, because he has Nathan’s mind and memories and that’s all that matters.
Sylar/Nathan calls Angela and Peter out on their behavior and how they know he isn’t their real family. Suddenly his power starts to go haywire as electricity erupts around his body until he falls down and rises up with Sylar’s face and forces them to sit at the table. Sylar taunts them as he eats, finally threatening them and starting to cut off Angela’s head but Nathan’s personality and mind starts to assert itself to gain control. After a battle between his two halves, Sylar/Nathan’s face shifts back to Nathan and he runs away, flying out the window. Peter tells Angela he will bring him back, and that while he wants Sylar dead, he wants his brother back alive even more.
Bennet talks with Claire on the phone while he shops for Thanksgiving, learning about Gretchen’s leaving. He begs her to come along because Lyle won't be there, and his ex wife is coming with her new boyfriend. Bennet bumps into Lauren while shopping and she gives him pointers on shopping since he’s clueless, and he rizzes her up, inviting her to the dinner as well.
As Claire shows up for the dinner, she tells Bennet she needs to talk to him, but they’re interrupted by Lauren, and then the arrival of Sandra and her new boyfriend Doug and their dogs. Toasts are given and awkward small talk had about how they each met their significant others until Claire finally reveals she is thinking about dropping out of college, something that sparks a heated argument between all involved until Claire finally pushes back against Doug’s cheery attitude by cutting her arm deeply and then healing while Doug passes out. Sandra and Lauren share a moment with Lauren telling her that this dinner was Bennet’s way of letting Claire know she has a family that loves her. Claire is surprised to see her dad is still pursuing people with abilities and tells him that no one understands what it is like to be someone with an ability. He warns her against Samuel but she pushes back against him until he reveals that he invited Gretchen to the dinner as well as she shows up at the door. As the day goes on, she and Claire catch up on things and Bennet asks Lauren out for a proper date. Claire heads out with Gretchen and asks her to go with her to find out where the compass leads.
Hiro sets the table with Lydia and he explains how Samuel broke his promise. Edgar questions where Joseph is if Hiro fixed the past. She takes him to her trailer and changes for dinner in front of him, explaining that she needs to be close to someone to use her ability. He understands that and by using her ability manages to activate his time travel power, taking them back to the past before Joseph was killed, eight weeks ago. They witness Mohinder leaving and then a confrontation between Joseph and Samuel in which Samuel gets angry at him for hiding his ability from him. Joseph reveals Samuel doesn't just have powers, but has the power to kill millions but refuses to tell him how, leading Samuel to use his powers to throw a rock at him and kill him. Samuel is distraught at his actions while Hiro and Lydia time travel back to the present.
Back in the present, Samuel starts the Thanksgiving festivities but is wondering where Lydia is, learning she went to find Hiro. She tells Edgar what happened despite Hiro begging her not to. At the dinner, Samuel starts talking of a traitor amongst them and Edgar steps up to accuse him of killing Joseph. Samuel turns it around, with Hiro unwilling to confirm the incident because he fears he won't ever see Charlie again if he does. As Samuel prepares to kill Edgar, Hiro stops time and tells Edgar he needs to get away to fight again another day. Later Samuel calls Hiro out on saving Edgar, but Hiro stands up to him, telling him that while he is powerful, so is he himself. Samuel doesn’t take kindly to the threat and calls forth the man who unlocked Sylar’s mind to his past weeks earlier and he grabs Hiro’s head. Hiro begins to experience flashbacks from the past few weeks until he finally comes to and says he must save Watson, and says beam me up Scotty before disappearing. Samuel and the man look on in shock, not understanding what happened.
Chapter Eleven 'The Fifth Stage':
Volume: Five
Written by: Tim Kring
Directed by: Kevin Dowling
Original airdate: November 30, 2009
Synopsis:
Lydia goes to Samuel and tells him that she knows the truth but given that she has a daughter to protect, she won't expose him. Eli interrupts them, having been called there by Samuel to be his new right hand man and for a mission to retrieve Bennet’s files on the carnival.
As Bennet goes over his notes on the carnival and the compass, Lauren shows up, offering to pick him up for their date. As they talk about his research, he discovers that Claire took the compass. Lauren offers to use her CIA contacts to try and find her by triangulating her cell phone signal. As they try to find further information, Bennet brings up their past together and how she mind wiped herself, shocking her. They are interrupted by Eli who uses his ability, creating duplicates of himself to enter the apartment. Lauren leaps into action, finding Bennet’s hidden gun and the two retreat to his bathroom where he has more weapons stashed away. When they exit the bathroom armed however, Eli is gone, along with Bennet’s files.
Angela goes to Peter and tries to get him to accept Nathan is indeed dead, despite what she tried to pretend. Peter refuses to accept it, and having called the Haitian in, copies his power and goes to find Sylar. As he enters an elevator, a nurse steps into it with him, greeting him, but then reveals himself as Sylar, lifting him up and holding him against the wall. He throws Peter when the door opens but Peter runs away, with Sylar stalking him round a deserted area of the hospital, complaining that Peter planned to inject him in the neck again to subdue him. Peter gets the jump on him and when Sylar goes to throw him aside with his telekinesis, he finds he can’t, and Peter attacks him., explaining he can cancel out his powers and erase his mind now. Peter uses a nail gun to nail Sylar to a board and continues to beat on him, telling him to give Nathan back. Sylar doesn’t give in, causing Peter to start to use his mind wiping ability to start to erase his mind and hopefully pull Nathan to the surface. Eventually, Sylar’s face shape shifts to Nathan’s. The two talk and Nathan tells him he’s tired, not just physically but tired of trying to hang on. Together they head up to the roof where Peter once jumped off, with Nathan saving him, just a few years earlier, reminiscing about everything. Nathan tells Peter that he isn’t really Nathan, that it’s Sylar’s body, and while Peter won’t believe it, Nathan tells him he can’t keep holding on. Nathan/Slyer surprisingly jumps over the edge of the balcony, but holds on, telling Peter that it’s over as he lets go and falls to his death below. Once he lands however, being far enough away from Peter, his powers kick in and he is healed, running away and escaping from Peter while waving sarcastically at him.
Claire and Gretchen make it to the carnival and are welcomed by Samuel and told to look around and enjoy themselves, telling them that he and his family move from town to town, making money with the carnival to live, until they can find a more permanent place to settle down in. He gives them some popcorn and tells them to not make any decisions until later after they’ve finished it all. They make their way to Lydia who tells them that people ask her questions and she shows them what they need to see. Claire asks if she is supposed to be there, and Lydia takes Claire’s hand as a tattoo of Claire appears on her back, and the title the indestructible Girl written below it. Lydia tells her this is what she desires. Gretchen is suspicious but Claire is impressed that everyone is able to live out in the open, not trying to hide their abilities. They watch as a man tries to win a stuffed animal by knocking down milk bottles, arrogantly explaining his prowess as a minor league ball pitcher but he misses every time, walking off frustrated. Claire tells Gretchen to watch the game runner’s hands and it shows that he is manipulating the ball so the man can’t win. As they continue to watch, the game runner allows a young girl to win a giant prize. Samuel shows up to invite them to visit behind the scenes where they all live and while Gretchen doesn’t want to, Claire is ready to see it.
Later, they see Samuel telling the carnival children stories, entertaining them. They discuss how the carnival people are exploiting their abilities but Claire only sees the positive side of it. They are interrupted by Doyle, who reveals that he tried to live a normal life but it just didn’t take, until he found his way to the carnival and is happier than ever, able to be himself, powers and all. Samuel asks Claire to tell the children a story of her own and while she’s reluctant at first, she eventually gets into it. Gretchen admonishes Samuel for playing with Claire’s emotions but he easily counters her arguments. Once Claire is done with her story, they are confronted by the man who lost his money earlier on the games, and he attacks Samuel for stealing his money with rigged games. He punches Samuel, but Samuel doesn’t defend himself, waiting until Claire steps in and confronts the man. As the man breaks a bottle and attacks her, he slashes her face, cutting her, but is shocked to see her immediately heal. Claire smiles as the man freaks out and runs away. Samuel explains to Claire that he didn’t defend himself because they are very careful when dealing with the outside world, saying the path of least resistance is sometimes the wisest. He tells her how he’s been raised his whole life to be a second class citizen and doesn’t want that anymore. He continues to manipulate Claire’s emotions until she finally tells Gretchen she is going to stay and not return back with her that night. Gretchen understands seeing how much Claire feels like she found a place she really belongs and they say goodbye, driving past a pick up truck that holds the dead body of the angry customer from earlier. Samuel talks with Lydia who tells him she isn’t sure that Claire will be useful to him, but he says it isn’t Claire that he is after. The next day, Samuel talks to the whole family, telling them he has found the area that will someday be their permanent home, a place where they will not be oppressed anymore, but not until they have gathered the rest of their family together with them.
Back-issues:
Kevin Dowling is an American director, writer and producer of features, television and theatre. His film debut was an Australian film called The Sum of Us, starring Russell Crowe and Jack Thompson, and it won 17 awards including "Best Feature" at the Montreal and Sydney Film Festivals, four Australian Critics Awards including Best Picture, and six A.F.I. nominations. He followed it up with the film Mojave Moon, starring Danny Aiello, Anne Archer, Michael Biehn, Angelina Jolie, Alfred Molina and Jack Noseworthy. He’s since been a working TV director on a lot of series, and a theatre director, including the stage adaptation of The Sum of Us.
Todd Stashwick plays Eli. He is known for several roles, most notably 12 Monkeys in which he appeared in the majority of the episodes as Deacon (the journey of a time traveler from the post-apocalyptic future who appears in present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will nearly destroy the human race). He has a number of credits to his name for animated movie and TV voices, such as Phineas and Fern, Tom and Jerry, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and even a live action version of Kim Possible. He’s also had guest appearances on shows like The Originals, Criminal Minds, CSI: Miami, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Curb your Enthusiasm, Weeds, Reba, Crossing Jordan, Warehouse 13, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Star Trek: Picard to name just a few.
Heroes EU:
Prodigals Part 2
Eli sends Tracy away from the Carnival — to an uncertain fate.
Prodigals Part 3
Tracy's mysterious mission for Samuel takes an unexpected twist.
Requiem for My Brother
A look at the man, the Senator, and the brother.
Bloodlines Part 1
Joseph's quest to find the root of Samuel's power goes terribly awry.
Bloodlines Part 2
Joseph meets up with Danko — and pays Arnold a fateful visit.
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