Fugitives: Good or bad?

So I won’t waste time with putting it nicely, it was clear to most fans that Villains was terrible. The show had defiantly lost it, it really needed to go back to its roots, because face it, it was losing fans fast. The ratings dropped and the show was under threat, so did Kring deliver with Fugitives?

Being in Britain, I watched the episode on my Tuesday morning free period, the morning after it premiered in America. I was blown away, A Clear and present Danger was defiantly a masterpiece compared to the crap they gave us for Generations and Villains, no doubt about that. With the betrayal of Nathan and everyone being round up and shipped off the Volume opener was a big hit. The ending with the plane crash; awesome. Noah betraying Mohinder to his new buddy Danko? An amazing little plot twist, the whole thing was just, well fantastic.

The following week viewers tuned in for the second installment, Trust and Blood. Aftermath of the plane crash, no deaths unfortunately, though we got a better look at Danko and Nathan’s agenda. As well as meeting Luke, the microwave boy. It was a pretty good episode, not as good as the previous one, but better than it could have been. Daphne was shot, making fans wonder if she was alive and we learned about Claire’s free pass. In my opinion this was the episode before things went wrong for a few weeks. The scene with Agent Simmons in the Campbell’s home; genius. Some of Quinto’s best acting on the show to date. I was psyched up, only to be disappointed by Building 26.

Building 26, not much really going for it. Tracy killed a man, Nathan justified his plans to the president, Sylar and Luke rode round in a car, Claire saved Alex thanks to Rebel and Hiro and Ando ran round in India. Though give it a fair comment, it did have some hilarious Sylar and Luke moments, my personal favourite being: Luke. You really got to stop trying to be my friend, or I'm gonna kill you." I didn’t think things could get worse until Cold Wars aired.

Cold wars, so unpopular with the viewer’s one of the writers, Christopher Zatta got sacked! The episode focused on HRG and his involvement in Nathan’s plan, Peter tried to shoot Danko, Mohinder was kidnapped and a close ally was shown to be alive. Now, the episode did more for plot development than Building 26 but seriously, the silly Mohinder twist made no sense. It’s no wonder he got canned.

Exposed on the other hand was a complete turn around. We had Claire sneaking Alex out of Costa Verde and Eric Doyle appearing in her kitchen. With Rachel Mills having an appearance and Sandra making fake ID’s. A fun episode, lots happening, and the invasion of Building 26 resulting in Matt having a bomb strapped to him? Fantastic, great cliff hanger for the next episode, not that it really lived up to much.

Shades of Gray, so here we come to the most hyped up episode. Why was it hyped up? Oh yeah, the reunion of Sylar and Samson after we found out Sylar’s mother was murdered by ol’ Sammy and Sylar wanted his head. And when it came to it? Quite literally the most terrible thing ever. Because the “father-son epic battle” was “just a myth”. So after being worked into expecting a huge battle where Samson kicked arse but Sylar bettered him we got Sylar leaving his daddy “alone to die of his sickness” because he’d got the answers he wanted. It made me ask why Heroes can’t just kill someone, then surprise, surprise the news hit that John Glover would be returning. I think every fan wanted to snap at this point. Nathan and Matt disabled the bomb on time, avoiding what could have been a double death and Danko exposed Nathan by pushing him out of a window. For helping Doyle Claire lost her free pass only for Nathan to rush over and save her from the agents. A wasted episode in my opinion.

So then we got Bryan Fuller’s return advertised as a “classic” we discovered who Rebel was, of course, no one was shocked to learn it was Micah Sanders. So Tracy, Matt, Mohinder and the slowly dying Daphne all escape Building 26. Tracy decides to turn a parking lot into a huge freezer with herself becoming an ice cube Danko shattered, the “death” however was false, as usual, but this time Fuller told us countless times. Wa-hey for keeping it a surprise. So we were promised to real deaths, and this episode delivered one as we said goodbye to Daphne Millbrook in the cheesiest illusion Matt has ever conjured up. Which brings Cold Snap to and end and brings us onto Into Asylum.

Mainly a Petrelli episode with a bit of Syko. Peter and Angela hide in a church and we hear the same old “I’m sorry Peter...” speech. Nathan gets pissed up in Mexico trying to obtain money and when he loses Claire saves the day. Nathan gives an “I’m sorry...” speech which turns out to be the result of his drunkenness. The Syko scenes however made up for the sickly sentimental Petrelli family scenes. We had Sylar and Danko teaming up to take down a shape shifter, again, Zachary Quinto had some fantastic lines “He’s a better you than you!” being one of the most memorable ones. The episode finished on a high with Danko and Sylar convincing Bennet Sylar was dead.

Turn and face the strange saw the Syko partnership develop. With Sylar assuming the identities of Danko and Sandra Bennet, which lead to the hilarious scene of Zachary Quinto parading round in ladies clothing. We also saw the hilarious scene of Noah attacking the real Sandra and Matt screwing Danko’s relationship with Alena up and Hiro made Ando pull a face and gave Matt his baby. Mohinder discovered his fathers old files and Angela invited everyone to Coyote sands to learn the truth about her past. Funnily enough it linked in with Chandra’s files.

So 1961, hyped up, stirred by the writers, made out to be epic; did it deliver/ Bollocks did it. No plot development until the end of the episode, a fifty six episode long plot hole about socks was the only thing that satisfied me. In spite of that the guest cast who played the young founders did do a fantastic job, they really were amazing and despite hating the episode, I look forwards to their performances when they guest star next season. Now with Angela’s crazy sister plot covered lets move on to the last two episodes, which for me saved this rather rubbish volume.

I Am Sylar. So I’m really only going to discuss Sylar’s identity crisis, as it was the hilarious basis of this episode, and it was amazing. So Sylar started to crack, couldn’t control his DNA, and blew his death cover-up. Afterwards, using Agent Taub’s body he took his mothers things from the police and went a bit crazy morphing between the two of them only to be disturbed while he was having fun by Danko who had cornered Rebel. Sylar then helped Micah out of this tough spot then went even more crazy, plotted to become the president, took on Nathan only to get stabbed in the head by Danko which didn’t kill him because he moved his “sweet spot”. Personally I’m dreading to think where he put it.

So we move on, lastly, to An Invisible Thread, the best episode of the volume by far and arguably the best season finale. Peter and Nathan thwarted Sylar’s plans, Sylar made a sick proposal to Claire and then Matt made Sylar think he was the now dead Nathan Petrelli on Noah and Angela’s orders and now nobody thinks the old villain is alive. An exciting episode, a good finish, with Fuller’s influence all over it. Then the preview of Volume Five? Seriously epic, Tracy made a splashy return and has new powers, she’s up to no good as she murders ex-Building 26 Agents, and Nathan displays a Sylarish ability which totally blows Angela’s master plan.

All in all a disappointing Volume, until the very end, though with recently sacking two of its best director’s, I’m not sure how the next season will pan out and have growing concern for the show.