"Heroes" Chapter Five 'Tabula Rasa' (2009)

Director:

James Chory

Writer:

Tim Kring (creator)

TV Series:

"Heroes" (2006)

Original Air Date:

19 October 2009 (Season 4, Episode 6)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Under Samuel's guidance, Sylar starts on a path to rediscover his true identity. Hiro helps Emma accept...

Plot Keywords:

Cult Favorite | Explosion | Death | Shape Shifter | Prison

Cast

Jack Coleman	...	Noah Bennet
Masi Oka	...	Hiro Nakamura
Adrian Pasdar	...	Nathan Petrelli
Hayden Panettiere	...	Claire Bennet
Zachary Quinto	...	Sylar
Milo Ventimiglia	...	Peter Petrelli
Ellen Greene	...	Virginia Grey
Deanne Bray	...	Emma Coolidge
Ray Park	...	Edgar
Dawn Olivieri	...	Lydia
Carlease Burke	...	Nurse Hammer
Mark L. Young	...	Jeremy Greer
Ernie Hudson	...	Captain Lubbock
Robert Knepper	...	Samuel Sullivan
Harry Perry	...	Damian

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-14

Company:

Tailwind Productions

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Hiro stops time to make Emma disappear in front of the audience in the hospital and she walks through the frozen in time sound-colors, the sheet she had been holding and which should be frozen in time/space, moves to the right behind Hiro.

Quotes:

Noah Bennet: I know about your power.And I know you are not a killer.You are a healer.
Jeremy Greer: If you come ONE STEP closer I swear of God I will shoot you!

Nice.. nearly like that Lost episode!!

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Tabula rasa (AKA blank slate) refers to the epistemological thesis that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge. In short, this episode centers on Sylar's state of mind as his memories will be unraveled. However, the episode not only centers on Sylar but also on other characters which I'll tell you more about later.

Whilst Hiro is in a hospital, Peter vows to make sure to find a cure by asking HRG (or Mr Bennet) about a cure. He asks Emma, the deaf hottie, that Hiro will tell her all about abilities. Seems like a boring start, but before you know it, our favorite villain, Mr. Samuel appears on screen. While Mr Samuel brings back Sylar, Sylar often seems dazed and confused as to who he is. He picks up the name Nathan and this shows that he's not really Sylar... well, mentally not Sylar.

The next scene however is a drag. Claire unexpectedly asks her father for quarters so she can leave her clothes. Wait-- did I miss something? What happened to that unexpected lesbian kiss? She didn't even feel awkward at all! Our villains realize that Sylar is not Sylar mentally whilst HRG and Peter decide to visit a 14-yo-old healer so that Peter can 'copycat' his powers and heal Hiro (which would seem weird since Peter would get Hiro's powers and it'd be impossible to cure Hiro then) The next parts get really interesting. The villains try to bring Sylar back slowly and they first try to make him realize about his powers. Samuel seems ever determined to return Sylar's powers back.. YAAY! One of my favorite quotes from him are: "Do you wallow in self-pity, or do you learn to use the gifts God gave you and command fear and respect, and defend against those who would do us harm?" HRG and Peter decide to visit the healer, but everything seems devastated. The way the greenery was destroyed was beautifully portrayed IMO and we realize that the boy turned into an unintentional killer.

Meanwhile, Sylar sees his true self-- killing his mother and other victims. The usage of the House of Mirrors was truly good to see but maybe the projector could be a bit better. The montage of the manslaughter was like a homage to our evil villain Sylar and it brings so many old Heroes memories back! Ahh, those days.

Back in the healer's house, Peter stops time and accidentally gets shot by the healer, who turns everything he touches to death. Peter is on the verge of death but after conviction from HRG, the healer turns back to his true powers.

In the hospital, things get pretty childish. Hiro, as childish as he ever is, tries to convince Emma that she has abilities and teaches her about it (which is where we can use the term 'tabula rasa'). It was definitely slow but it shows us that abilities are good, no matter the harm they possess.

In the end, we see Sylar face-to-face with the cop chasing him. Sylar looks freakishingly tormented when he tries to injure the officer. He decides to leave him, but Edgar, the swords-guy, slices him like Elektra herself! The end turns out to be pretty okay. Sylar becomes baptized into the Sullivan (or villains) family. Samuel knows how good Sylar is, though he may be an amateur and in the next few episodes, you'll definitely expect some Samuel-Sylar moments. Hiro also realizes that he has to save everyone he can and then Heroes does something unexpected: they dig up Season 1 stuff and Hiro decides to save Charlie, the waitress who met Hiro in Texas. How about saving Caitilin from the future now, Peter? This episode was pretty good. The fact that Heroes is digging up Season 1 material makes it promising. The Sylar-Samuel moments seem very good and I'm hoping that we can see more footage of them together, working against the good guys. Unlike the previous episode which seemed to be like another episode from Gossip Girl (the kiss was so lame!), this episode promises to meet its Heroes standards. It shows that many characters now face a new life and it will keep you waiting for the next episode.

Adapted by VeRdiKT from Blog.Addic7ed.com