Pretentiousness makes an unwelcome return to Heroes with the seventh episode of the third season. You could see it coming from a mile off, with the title “Eris Quod Sum”. You know something is going to be stuck up it's own arse, when you have to translate the title from a Latin dictionary.
With Eric Doyle back at the Company, Claire and Sandra return home. But, as you'd expect from Heroes, their trouble is not over, as they discover Elle, the ex-company agent, overloading on her own electrical power. After a heated confrontation ending with a...um... water fight, Claire agrees to take Elle to Pinehearst, hoping they can teach her to control her powers.
This is the point that the bad writing kicks in. So far Heroes has managed to steer clear of bad writing, at least clear enough so that it wasn't so noticeable. But in episode seven, you'll really struggle to miss it. Whether it's the unintentional sexual innuendo, or just the poor attempts at witty dialogue – including an embarrassingly witless reference to The Wizard of Oz – it's clear that episode seven has some of the worst dialogue in the series so far. But, on the bright side, Peter exclaiming “You came for me” is unintentional comic genius.
At the end of episode six, you'll remember Peter Petrelli's powers were removed by his father, Arthur. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful that a powerless Peter will probably get a little less screen time. But in removing his abilities, they've thrown away the superb plot development, that was giving Peter Sylar's ability. Dicking around with good character developments seems to be something the Heroes writers enjoy doing – such as when Peter was imprisoned in the body of a villain, then taken out again the next episode – and it's starting to kill my faith in the show's plot. As if every time the show does something new and risky, it's inevitably going to wimp out. Maybe I'm just being cynical.
After confronting Nathan and Tracy while declaring that their fight wasn't over, Mohinder instead decides that, actually, it was. That'll be another opportunity for a superhero fight gone to waste, then. Escaping to Pinehearst with Maya, Mohinder agrees to work for Arthur Petrelli and help perfect the new formula, regardless of any hidden agendas. Considering Mohinder has been consistently bent over the lab bench and forced to fellate test tubes by the original Company for the past two seasons, you'd think he'd have learnt to stop working for these people. He must enjoy it.
Then there's Daphne and Matt, the Heroes love story, and for various it's quickly becoming as godawful as the Claire and West love story from the second season. Mainly because it's just so gosh darn cute that it's nauseating. That, and it's not nearly as entertaining as Daphne's bitchy Tinkerbell act from previous episodes. Still, at least we can make amusing size comparisons between her and Matt.
Eris Quod Sum is a weak episode, doing nothing to advance the series. It's a shame, the series looked like it was beginning to peak again. I guess that's Heroes for you.
2/5
Anyone else tempted to send Tim Kring an e-mail containing nothing but the definition of the word 'consistency'?
Would never come for Peter – tomdoodle16@live.co.uk
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