Heroes 3X23: 1961

Harrison Ford*: Mythology
This episode was good. You know why? Mythology. Want to hear that again, Writers? Mythology. Back story.

For the first time since the second season, we got some background on the world of Heroes, and I'll take that anytime over boring BS about Sylar's dad and spending time on not-nearly-as-clever-as-the-writers-think metaphors for characters' personalities.

And there's still plenty more mythology to explore: how did the original Coyote Sands group of four expand to include the other Company founders? How did they find other Specials? How did long-lived Adam and the Kensei symbol get involved? Where did the "one of us, one of them" rule come from? At what point did the founders decide to operate as a de facto Justice League, and what, exactly, led them to stop? What motivated the creation of the synthetic powers formula, and what ramifications did it have on the founders? What led to the various factions within the Company, with Linderman and Angela deciding on the "blow up New York" plot from the first season?

Any one of those questions could spawn multiple episodes, and any one of those episodes will be better than anything involving Parkman's ex-wife or another round of the Claire/Bennet "I love him/I hate him!" cycle.

Wesley Snipes: No zombie Specials
Gentlemen of Leisure reader Joseph and I were speculating after the last episode that perhaps Angela was having everyone dig up the graves because they were planning on creating an army of zombie Specials. Sadly, this turned out to not be the case.

Tommy Lee Jones: Angela's explanation for digging
On the one hand, Angela's stated explanation for the digging (looking for some evidence of her sister) was pretty lame (I mean seriously, what did she expect to find after all those years?).

On the other hand, any explanation for a character's behavior is better than no explanation.

Wesley Snipes: Angela's melodrama
Most of Angela's cryptic present-day dialogue pertaining to what happened at Coyote Sands wasn't, once the whole story had been told, equal to what actually happened.

Harrison Ford: Communists vs. Terrorists
I liked how in the 60s young Angela asserted that people with powers weren't "communists" just as characters in the present day often say that having powers doesn't automatically make someone a "terrorist." How the times change, yet don't...

Tommy Lee Jones: Lost
Anyone else think:

Coyote Sands=Dharma barracks
Crazy Alice=Crazy Rousseau

Wesley Snipes: No Aerial dogfight
When Peter flew off in a huff and Nathan went after him, Mrs. Teebore and I both exclaimed "cool, maybe we'll see them fighting in mid-air."

Needless to say, before the words had even passed our lips, we realized what we were saying and that we were watching Heroes, which meant that wasn't going to happen.

Harrison Ford: Self-reflection
It was nice to see the show acknowledge both Mohinder's questionable behavior in the last volume and Claire's ping-ponging desires throughout the show in their dialogues with Peter, Nathan and Bennet, respectively.

Wesley Snipes: More at Coyote Sands
I would have liked for the implicit events at Coyote Sands to have been a little more explicit. If Coyote Sands was a place where Mengle-esque experiments were being done on Specials, as was implied by several characters, then I would have liked for that to be more clear. Not that I need gruesome details, just some confirmation that the implication is correct.

Also, the final fate of Coyote Sands could have used a few more minutes of screen time. As I understand it, after Alice lost control of her power and the shooting started, things escalated to some kind of Specials vs. Army confrontation in which all the Specials in the camp were killed and dumped in the graves the Petrelli's were digging up. Assuming that's the case, I would have liked for that scenario to be confirmed more explicitly somehow.

Tommy Lee Jones: Sylar's shapeshifting power
In the first episode with the shapeshifter, it was suggested that a physical connection must be made between the shapeshifter and the person he wished to impersonate (for example, the shapeshifter seemed to go out of his way to shake Danko's hand).

However, Sylar is now impersonating Nathan, and I don't believe the two of them have ever interacted, let alone at any point since Sylar acquired the shapeshifting power. Should we then assume that physical contact with a subject is NOT required for the shapeshifter to take that form? In which case, why create the impression that contact is needed?

Tommy Lee Jones: Easter Eggs
After the Coyote Sands riot started, Alice hid underneath Building 26: simply a nod at Danko's headquarters, or a hint towards a relationship between Coyote Sands and the current Building 26 operation?

Also, young Dr. Suresh mentioned Dr. Zimmerman, the person responsible for giving Ali Larter's triplet characters their powers. Combined with "Project Icarus," the name of the project Dr. Suresh was working on at Coyote Sands, it seems that the work the Elder Heroes did with synthetic powers originated from the government's similar work in the 60s.

*Key:
Harrison Ford: Things I liked about the episode.
Wesley Snipes: Things I did not like about the episode
Tommy Lee Jones: Questions, comments or other non-qualitative items about the episode.