Review: Heroes Reborn (Season 1, Episode 9)

We start this episode with the ominous narration of Mohinder, as he discusses time and how decisions change the future. The voice-over accompanies footage of past events, clearly meant to make us think of Noah’s actions in the last two episodes and how they might have affected the future for all the characters. We are then shown where everyone is, as Luke and Malina are in a car together, Taylor is in a hotel room and Carlos and James Dearing are travelling together.

Tommy and Emily are as adorable as always, reinforcing their place as most beloved couple in this show, through their young and innocent love, naive as it may be. As an audience member, it is particularly hard to witness their naivety now, as we know more about Tommy then he does himself and following last week’s episode, we are aware that he has a bleak and painful future ahead of him.

We finally see the present day reunion of Tommy and Noah and it is nothing like when they met in the past. Unlike in the previous episode, when Tommy knew who he was and who Noah was to him, in the present day reunion he is just shocked and upset. This is totally understandable and perhaps an even more natural and believable reaction than before. Though he initially seems unhappy to discover he has Hiro’s powers, he soon comes to embrace them, as he stops time to save Emily’s life in a scene that is very reminiscent of when Hiro first used his abilites.

Taylor’s storyline takes an interesting turn, as she meets with the group know as HeroTruther, taking her further into the evo world and away from her mother. However, HeroTruther are not initially sure if they can trust her, leading to an interrogation scene which results in Taylor truly redeeming herself and winning the hearts of the audience. In stark contrast, Erica continues to be a hateful and intolerable individual who seems even more crazy than before. Much of her role in this episode takes place in her home, where she seems constantly connected to a wine glass, only taking time out to randomly shoot a deer. While this seems like a bizarre decision for the producers to make, it highlights how unhinged she has become, despite her claim that everything is going smoothly and that the loss of Hiro Nakamura isn’t an issue.

In the most shocking turn of the episode, we discover that a beloved character from the past is actually ‘the director’, acting as the prison guard for all the evos who are kidnapped and taken to the Sunstone Manor. While we might have loved him in the past and hoped that he was on the right side, this favourite character has changed, warped into something cold and heartless. As the audience witnesses how he treats Carlos, we can’t help but dislike him intensely. 

This episode does not disappoint, as it throws all of our characters into each other’s paths and interlinks the storylines in enjoyable and surprising ways. With perhaps the most tense cliffhanger so far, it will certainly be interesting to see what occurs next week.

Heroes Reborn airs on Tuesdays at 9pm on 5STAR.