Part 38
It Take a Village
Part 4 of 4

As a youth, the Haitian looked up to his father, Guillame.  Guillame protected the village from the corrupt government forces of the Tonton Macoute.  But Guillame learned that his son might be an even greater threat.  He had to make a terrible decision…

Today we conclude the backstory of the mysterious Haitian. 

When we last left off, the Haitian was about to be struck down by his father, who viewed his ability-stopping ability as a curse.  As we begin, Guillame has begun attacking his son in an effort to rid himself of this poison.  Ever wanting the best for his father, the Haitian is prepared to die for him. 

Before Guillame lands the killing blow, however, his son reaches out and touches him briefly.  Suddenly, Guillame is flooded with memories…memories of the birth of the Haitian, of watching him play, of fishing with him, etc.  This stays Guillame’s hand, and he collapses in tears.  He apologizes, saying that he has “forgotten the ground”.  He gives his son the “snake and the crane” necklace, then, as the Haitian walks away, Guillame learns to fly again…he throws himself off the mountain.

The Haitian returns to his village with his father’s final command ringing in his ears: “Give peace to those I have forsaken.  Bury my shame with your own hands…so when the crane comes to you with the promise of sun and clouds, you never forget the ground.  Never forget.”  He tries to restore the people’s souls, but what’s gone is gone, and he sees no other option than to literally bury their shame. 

At this moment, a young Thompson shows up.  He is shocked to see what the Haitian has done, and, seeing his necklace, asks him if he is special.  The Haitian, speechless, doesn’t respond.  He simply draws an image in the dirt of a hand pulling memories out of a person’s head.  Despite everything that his father told him, he takes hold of Thompson, the metaphorical crane, and flies away.

Chapter 37
It Takes A Village
Part 3 of 4

Guillame has used both his influence as a spiritual leader and his mysterious powers to defend his people against the corrupt forces of the Tonton Macoutes…until the day that his powers failed him.  Despite a shameful defeat, Guillame manages to inspire his people again.  Unfortunately, as a child, the mysterious Haitian didn’t realize he was behind his father’s downfall…

This story arc has been one of the stranger ones that we’ve seen, and this installment continues the trend.

When we left off, the Haitian was being beaten severely by his father.  He inadvertantly lashed out with his powers, ripping out his entire village’s souls, causing them become empty shells.  When we pick up this week, he and his father, Guillame, are trekking through the jungle.  When the Haitian asks where they are going, his father tells him they are cursed, and must go to make amends.

After they make camp, Guillame is not very talkative.  The Haitian tentatively asks his father if he hates him.  He pauses, and then begins to tell a story that his people tell about a snake and a crane.  In the story, the snake is very ambitious, but is tired of crawling around on his belly and eating insects and mice.  One day he sees the crane, who is carefree, and could fly anywhere.  The snake is envious, knowing that he could accomplish great things if he could fly.  So one day, he goes to the lake where the crane likes to drink, and swallows the bird whole, taking his wings.  (It should be noted here that while he is telling this story, Guillame is drawing the symbol that has become very familiar to us.) 

The Haitian says that that is a good thing; the snake got what he wanted.  His father agrees, but follows up with the question, “What good is it to fly if you have nowhere to go?  Once he had the power, the snake lost touch with the ground.”  He compares himself to the snake, saying that the Loa (gods) have given him great power, power with which he could control nations, and he uses it to “get them high and sleep with their women”.  That is what they are to make amends for.

The next morning, they make their way to the “Crossroads”, an altar surrounded by skulls, with an axe lying nearby.  When there, the Haitian questions his father about what they are doing there.  Guillame drops his machete, ordering his son to pick it up.  When he turns, he has covered his face in blood from the altar, and is holding the axe in his hand.  With a crazed look, he says that, since he lost touch with the ground, the Loa cursed his seed, and sent him a son to punish him.  Now he must cut out the “poison” to remember the ground, so he can fly again.

This arc is turning into an interesting twist on how people in different cultures interpret their powers.  I’m looking foward to see how this one wraps up next week.

The Easter Egg this week is a behind the scenes shot of Bennet and the Haitian.

It Takes A Village
Part 2 of 4 

As a young boy, the Haitian grew up idolizing his father, Guillame, a powerful spiritual leader.  Guillame led his people to stand against the Tonton Macoutes, the vicious and corrupt Haitian militia.  Wielding a powerful mental attack, Guillame defended his people and was their hero…until the Haitian’s own abilities became active…

When we last left off, Guillame had been holding off the Tonton Macoutes when his son, the Haitian, interrupted and, unknowingly, blocked his father’s power.  In this installment, the Macoutes have overtaken and ravaged the camp.  Guillame is strung up, still alive, forced to watch it all.  He is shamed, and no one will move to cut him down, not even his own son.

Later, back in his home, Guillame is bathing the wounds that he suffered at the hands of the militia.  He is planning to make sacrifices to Ogun and Legba so that his powers can return and he can lead his people.  When the Haitian offers to help him, his father becomes enraged, forbidding him to be anywhere near him.  The Haitian doesn’t understand, of course, and goes with his friends to make an offering himself for his father, praying that he will have the strength he needs to be made whole again.

Guillame is addressing his people.  He knows that the people see him as a fraud, and are ready to turn against him.  Using his power, he gives them all peace and joy again, causing them to break into dance.  Watching from a distance, the Haitian is overjoyed that his father’s power has returned.  When he begins to emerge from hiding, however, Guillame’s power begins to falter again.  Seeing that he has been deceiving them, the people begin to turn against Guillame, calling him a fraud. 

Completely enraged, Guillame begins to beat the Haitian mercilessly.  With each blow, the Haitian feels more and more shameful, and that shame, fear and love for his father shoots out, cutting through everything around him like a machete.  When Guillame finally stops beating his son, he turns to see that the Haitian’s power has, it appears, stripped the people of their souls, leaving empty shells.

To be continued…

The Easter Egg in this installment is a behind the scenes pic of Hayden Panettiere and Ali Larter.

I didn’t know for sure if these were going to be continuing over the summer hiatus, but it appears that we’ll continue to have the online novels to give us our weekly Heroes fix.  Joy!

It Takes A Village
Part 1 of 4

Who commands the loyalty of the man known only as “the Haitian”?  Though he partnered for years with Noah Bennet, the man in horn-rimmed glasses, the Haitian turned against him to aid Claire, Bennet’s daughter.  Then, he seemed to betray both to Claire’s grandmother, Angela Petrelli.  Does he take orders from her…or answer ultimately to an even higher power?

This arc covers the backstory of the Haitian.  We begin way back in the episode “Collision”, where Parkman has just been kidnapped.  The Haitian is wiping his memory, and Bennet notes that some of the ones they wipe smile.  In a bit of foreshadowing, he comments that he would be interested to know what it must feel like.  The Haitian tells him what it feels like to take the memories:  “Sometimes it’s like picking flowers just after a spring rain…sometimes, like reaching into the moist soil of freshly dug graves.  Grubs biting at your fingers…”  Nice.  “…Sometimes it’s like dancing…but always, it reminds me of home, and my father.”

With that, we flash back to his village in Haiti.  The land is dying, strangled by the Duvaliers, and people everywhere are starving.  But the people in his village are happy…dancing.  Some believe that it is because of their faith, but he knows that it is because of his father, Guillame, a Houngan, or a priest.  When the Haitian is out with his friends, they are discussing how much they love his father, raving about how he should be the president of Haiti, or even the U.S.  One of the boys says that he has real powers, and that he is special.  Suddenly, a gunshot pierces the air.

The Tonton Macoutes, a gang of thugs under control of Duvalier are back in the village, and are looking for Guillame.  He comes out, ready to stop them with his abilities.  While his power is never clearly defined, it appears that he can impart feelings on others.  This is how he managed to keep his village prosperous.  Now, using this power, he holds off the gang members with feelings of horror.  Everything is going well until the Haitian runs up behind him and yells, “Father!”, distracting him.  One of the men turns and shoots Guillame.  We close with him lying on the ground, looking up at his son and saying “You…what did you do to me?  What did you do?!”

A quick thing to notice about this chapter…around Guillame’s neck he is wearing a pendant which any Heroes fan should recognize.  Also, a little Easter Egg in the Flash version(which I haven’t been including up until now…sorry), features a behind the scenes shot from the filming of the finale.

Check back next week for the next chapter!

Click here to get caught up on last week’s installment. 

Chapter 34

The Death of Hana Gitelman
Part 2 of 2

As the fate of the heroes is revealed, Hana Gitelman learns that she too plays a vital role in these stranges of days.  The mysterious man in horn-rimmed glasses has given her an cominous challenge, one which could prove to be the death of her…

We begin with a flashback to Hana’s childhood.  Having just lost her mother and grandmother, she is standing on the roof of her house in Tel Aviv.  She genuinely believes that the umbrella she is holding will allow her to float to the ground when she jumps, which, of course, it doesn’t.  She has flashes of, after the fall, her father telling her to be careful, her teacher telling her to be respectful, and her drill sergeant telling her to be obedient.  So now, having done all of those things, she still has a gun in her face in present day China.

She makes quick work of the guards, taking them all down.  Suddenly, someone from the Chinese government comes in, apologizing to her.  She has used her manipulation of electronic data to forge herself some documents saying that she is an engineer from Israel, and is on the space flight as a method of renewing diplomatic relationships between the two countries. 

So, having made her way onto the into space, she finds herself able to communicate with the isotope tracking satellite in place.  She sends out a message for it to self-destruct, but it has defenses in place that she was not prepared for.  It sends out a virus that somehow crosses over into her physical body.  Knowing that she cannot take out the tracking system with her powers, she takes matters into her own hands, throwing herself at the satellite and knocking it out of orbit, sacrificing herself in the process.

We then flash forward two days later.  We are in Las Vegas, at the home of Niki and Micah.  Through their conversation, we find out that DL has survived the ordeal at Kirby Plaza, and is at the hospital, which is where Micah wants to return.  Niki tells him that the doctors are taking care of him, and that he will be fine.  Micah can’t sleep, though, and he gets up and goes online.  The chat goes like this:

MicahSanders500: “I don’t know what I would do if my dad died.  How did you feel when your mom died?” 
SAMANTHA48616E61: “Lost. Angry. And it did me no good.  It took me a LONG TIME to learn that.”
MicahSanders500: “Thank you for chatting with me.  What’s your name?”
SAMANTHA48616E61: “My name is Hana Gitelman.  But, you can call me Wireless.  And the truth is, death is never quite what you expect it to be.  It might seem like an ending, but really…”

And we close with this final frame, which I want as a poster:

Months ago, we were introduced to the character of Hana Gitelman, the former Israeli soldier who had the ability to ‘hear’ and send electronic messages with her mind…a walking Blackberry, if you will.  She drove the fantastic ‘War Buddies’ story arc a few issues back (check out the recaps here and here).  They really seemed to set her up to be a big new character, with a special short intro run by NBC, and even a brief appearance on a couple of episodes a few weeks ago.  In the comics, HRG helped Hana discover her abilities and put her to work for the company, making her believe it was the CIA.  I’ve been hoping that she will make the crossover to the show full-time, but will she survive?   

THE DEATH OF HANA GITELMAN
Part 1 of 2 

Hana Gitelman has fought all her life.  In most of her battles, there was a clear distinction between friend and foe.  But the man in horn-rimmed glasses has always proven to be the exception.  Once her mentor, he betrayed her, fooled her into doing his dirty work.  Against her better judgement, she has taken up his cause again.  But as she delved deeper into her assignments, she found only more reasons to question their uneasy alliance…

This was a super-long issue.  Most of the novels have been around 6-7 pages, but this one clocks in at a whopping 13.  We begin with a beautiful image of Earth with all of its satellites.  As we move in closer to one of the satellites, we find that it is searching for Hana.  Then we find that she is being held at gunpoint (the image at the top of the post).

Flashback three days.  Hana is in a park somewhere between New York and Texas.  The gang consisting of Bennet, Ted and Parkman come up to her, and Bennet tells her that they have to talk.  Hana pulls a gun on him, saying that she wasn’t sure if she trusts him anymore.  When he tells her that he is just trying to give them a normal life again, she snaps back that her life was never normal, thanks to him.  Finally, she gives in, asking him what the job is.  He tells her that the company has two tracking systems in place, and that he and the gang are on the way to NYC to take out the “Walker System”, but she needs to take out the “Isotope System”, which is located on a satellite.  After saying that there is no way that she can bring down a satellite, we flashback again…

One year ago, near the top of the world.  Hana and Bennet are climbing a mountain in a snow storm, and Hana is having a surprisingly hard time, considering how easily it comes to Bennet.  He says that up where they are, the electronic messages “buzz around like flies - and you’re the fly paper.”  She is suddenly overcome, and discharges a huge electronic burst, which she will later find knocked out many cell phone and internet services across the globe. 

Back in the present, Hana goes out to spend her one last night of freedom partying and finally enjoying life before she goes on this mission that she will apparently not return from.  She then sets out to find the place where she can communicate with the satellite, but she cannot find a good spot anywhere.  Eventually, she finds a rocket on a launchpad in an undisclosed Asian country.  She begins to make her way to the rocket when she is surrounded by five armed guards.

I’m a little more excited about this story than I was about the previous couple of weeks’.  We’ll be back next Monday with the conclusion.

Where we left off:

In the world where the bomb destroyed New York, Peter Petrelli helped Future Hiro free inmates held unjustly in a Prison.  One of them, a caged and frightened Niki Sanders.

They were steps away from freedom, when they ran into an incapacitated Future Hiro, held at bay by three formidable guards…

Sorry that this was a bit late…I’ve been trying to find a way to make this one worth the write-up, but this 2-part arc has been just filler, I think.

When we last saw our heroes, Peter and Niki have just come upon three ’special’ guards, one who can run on walls, one with super-strength, and one with the ability to shoot lightning.  When we pick back up, the last guard begins to fry Peter, Emperor-style.  The Jessica side of Niki kicks in, and she takes out the guy frying Peter, allowing them all to fight back.  She finally drop-kicks them using her super-duper pole dancing abilities. 

With that, the newly freed ’specials’ make their way to freedom, and a special facility in Texas (the ‘Underground Railroad’ that Bennet was running).  Peter offers to help Niki track down her family, but she says that she doesn’t have a family anymore. 

And that’s about it.  Hopefully, as we head into the big episodes over the next few weeks, we’ll have some substantial updates.

One of the big surprises in last night’s episode was the revelation that Peter and Niki had become romantically involved.  This week’s online novel deals with how these two came together. 

Hiro and Ando jumped to a world where the bomb ripped apart New York City.  Where special people were scapegoated and treated unfairly.

In this world two characters we knew independantly, Peter Petrelli and Niki Sanders, became lost souls who found each other in the wake of the tragedy.  But how did this unlikely pair meet?

We open a little bit over a year after the bomb went off.  Hiro and Peter are journeying through the forest toward a penitentiary where two hundred specials are being kept.  Using their respective powers, they break into the fortress and release the prisoners. 

At the end of the cell block, there is a big steel door, holding an obviously very dangerous prisoner.  Peter uses his exploding powers to open the door, and finds Niki being held captive.  Looks like she must have given them some troubles to get locked under such heavy security.

They make their way out of the prison…right into the waiting arms of Director Parkman’s task force…made up of what appear to be specials that we’ve never seen before.  One is a woman that seems to be able to run on walls, one is a big guy that has Hiro hoisted up (maybe he has super strength) and the third has electricity coming from his fists and is levitating above the ground.  It is revealed that the prison was simply a setup to catch Hiro and Peter, and it appears to have succeeded.

Nothing really seemed to happen in this issue, but it serves as a set up for what looks like a great one next week.

Click here to check out the whole thing.

If you are completely averse to spoilers, you might think twice about reading this.  It deals with some points that we should be learning more about next week.

We open in a devastated New York, five years in the future.  Hiro is battling what appears to be police officers, and his internal dialogue tells us that he is trying to save one of his own.  Having finally gotten rid of them, he tells the girl he was defending, ‘Sparrow’, that the curfew is on and she needs to get off of the streets.  This jives with rumors we’ve heard that in the future, our heroes are hunted, specifically, after the blast. 

Hiro returns to his hideout, which is Isaac’s old apartment.  He has to change what happened.  We come to find out that, after having five years to manipulate time, he has come to understand it.  He has found that time is not a straight line, but rather the interconnection of multiple lines, hence, the strings last night in future Isaac’s apartment, and the name, String Theory. 

We begin to get an idea of what happened when the bomb went off.  Sylar was the bomb, and Hiro tried to stab him, but he still detonated.  Sylar was able to regenerate, though, because he had killed Claire and stolen her healing power.  Hiro makes his decision that, if he can keep Claire from being killed, he can stop the bomb.  So he travels back…meets Peter…thus, “Save the cheerleader, save the world.”

Upon returning from the past, he finds that New York has still been ravaged by the bomb.  Confused, he returns to his apartment, and meets his past self in the final scene of last night’s episode.

These issues have been getting better and better, I think, and this one definitely continues the trend.  We get some good flashbackiness and some good setup for next week’s episode, also called String Theory.

Chapter 29 - War Buddies - “Call to Arms”

Where we left off:

With the help of Mr. Bennet, the mysterious man in horn-rimmed glasses, Hana Gitelman has just begun to connect the dots between Mr. Linderman and the various heroes from across the globe.  The trail has led to a secret file within the Pentagon itself.  But from his days of Vietnam, Hana realizes Linderman’s plans have taken a decidedly political turn…

There wasn’t a whole lot to this installment.  I thought we might learn a bit more about Linderman’s and Petrelli’s plans, but they’re still playing their cards close to their chests.  Instead, after the past four chapters have been comprised of an extended flashback, we’re back to the present.  The man that Hana slept with and then stole his ID card wakes up, and, finding said items missing, calls the Pentagon, saying that security has been breached.  As security sweeps the Pentagon searching for her, she sends an IM from her one night stand, saying that the card has been found.  With the threat past, she slips out and escapes. 

So, with the knowledge that Linderman is in Vegas, she heads that way to find him.  On the way, she uses her power to tap into his computer system and discovers his notes about rigging the NYC Petrelli election (why do criminals always store incriminating evidence on their computers?).  We already kind of knew this, but this is new information to our heroes.  So now the duty falls to Hana to send a call to arms of all of the hacker friends/resistance types that she has been establishing, asking them to help her unrig the election.

And you can help, too!  Just head on over to http://www.samantha48616e61.com/index.shtml.