Heroes – “Five Years Gone” Recap & Analysis

Why ‘Five Years Gone’ was a Colossal Misstep

Honestly, this episode was a bloody mess. It was chaotic, confusing, in the end fairly pointless, and to be entirely honest with you I thought it was comic book television at its worst. It didn’t build any characters outside of those directly involved, considering that won’t be taking place after Hiro saves the day, and it was a return to the crowded attempts that the show struggled with early on.

‘Company Man’ was great TV because it was focused, isolated, well-made. It wasn’t a comic book come to life, but real television drama. Instead, ‘Five Years Gone’ was an incredibly frustrating attempt to pander to that audience through various constructs and theories that never turned into a cohesive story. This episode could have been Hiro’s ‘Company Man’, but instead it attempted to do FAR too many things without realizing that this doesn’t make for good television. Its conclusion was a rushed mess without resonance or meaning, instead of an epic showdown. It was just ridiculous.

I’d read ‘Five Years Gone’ as a comic book. As an episode, it just wasn’t good enough. For all the details, though, read on for the full recap.

We open right where we left off last week, as Future Hiro is none too pleased to be seeing Hiro. As we’re introduced to Chapter 20, Future Hiro notes that Sylar exploded the entire city. Future Hiro thought he had it beat, but apparently not so much. Future Hiro is trying to determine the precise moment to go to in order to change the future…and it was supposed to be the moment on October 4th with the moment on the subway.

This makes Future Hiro excited, because he learns that the cheerleader was saved. However, he notices that Hiro and Sylar have not yet crossed paths as his string theory style timeline shows. Sylar can be killed now, since he does not have Claire’s power. However, their celebration does not last long; homeland security breaks into the apartment, led by Matt Parkman, as the world became a dark place for superheroes. Hiro (Our Hiro) is captured by Parkman while Ando flees with Future Hiro. We learn that they’re rounding up heroes, and that the Haitian is still giving them some problems: as a result, F.Hiro decides to go to the only person who can help them: Peter Petrelli.

“HEROES”

We return to Ando and Hiro heading into a Las Vegas strip joint and discovering that his girlfriend is in fact Jessica/Niki. Which, gross. Peter, invisible at the bar, overhears as Jessica refuses to go along with Hiro’s plan to stop Sylar. Niki notes that she lost her son, which is kind of tragic, but she’s battling through the pain in her own way. And then they make out, and it’s weird. Peter’s scar, by the way, is located from his right forehead to below his left eye.

Meanwhile, Parkman is spending some time attacking Hiro for his terrorist actions while the Haitian sits by. Meanwhile, Parkman tries to read his mind, and discovers that in fact Hiro doesn’t actually remember any of the terrible things (Some sort of massacre in Raleigh, splitting up families) that he did. He calls President Petrelli, meanwhile, who is mildly enthused at the development but feels like it could be an important warning of sorts. The President has a visitor, Mohinder Suresh of all people, who is apparently the only person Nathan trusts. Ugh, that’s incredibly frustrating. Anyways, Mohinder and Nathan are discussing the relative failure of avoiding heroes from developing. Their population is increasing exploding, and people are anticipating another Sylar.

Mohinder, meanwhile, has his former words being twisted into genocide by the President, as they’ve run out of options. Mohinder points out that Nathan is one of them, but Nathan claims flying doesn’t matter. In the end, no one could reverse this. No one could stop this. And thus, they need to consider genocide. Harsh.

Parkman is continuing to attack Hiro for his information, and wants to know why someone like him would attack him in this way. Suresh, meanwhile, has magically travelled to New York in record time. Bennet, meanwhile, is spending some time testing small children as heroes with…oh, she had a name, I don’t remember it, but it was wireless girl. Anywho, Bennet and the woman are protecting heroes from the homeland security problems, and F.Hiro and Ando’s arrival is a serious problem for him. They want access to heroes he has helped into captivity: D.L., Candace, Molly Walker, etc. He is not swayed easily, but when F.Hiro mentions how he basically saved Claire’s life back in the day he reconsiders.

Meanwhile, Suresh is spending some time with F.Hiro’s string theory, while Parkman remains his cynical self. Mohinder is somewhat surprised to find himself in the timeline, as October 4th was a rather important moment for him as well consider he was standing there. And then he rushes off.

Meanwhile, back in Midland, Texas, Claire is waitressing with her brunette hair. Her boyfriend, meanwhile, or maybe her fiance…yep, fiance. Awkward. Anyways, she pays a bit too much attention to the President on the TV, and the creepy guy with glasses is back: this, of course, is Mr. Bennet. The fiance? Thinks he’s a stalker. We, of course, know better. Bennet is worried; someone knows that she’s alive (F.Hiro in this instance), and as a result it is important that she leave as soon as possible. She’s defiant, she wants a normal life with a picket fence and everything. We learn that Mrs. Bennet left at some point, and this is why she was allowed to return. Claire leaves him with his pie, and decides to take the bag left on the table.

Ando is currently curious as to where he is right now, in this future. F.Hiro skirts the question, but there’s something he needs to tell him…in this case, it doesn’t come out since Parkman totally tazers his ass. Meanwhile, the whole two Hiros thing freaks out Parkman long enough for Peter to waltz in and take out all of the guards, freeze time, and then escape with Ando and F.Hiro. And stares down Parkman. It was badass.

Bennet, meanwhile, was the one who tipped off Parkman (Who gets around, how is he travelling all this way exactly?), and we learn that Parkman and Bennet have a deal of sorts: they each know about Claire as well as all sorts of things. Or something. It’s far too confusing, and makes no sense. Short story: Claire’s location is known to Parkman, and Wireless girl is dead on the floor. It makes no sense.

Claire, meanwhile, wants to elope to escape the evil men chasing her. She’s promising to tell Andy everything, which seems sketchy…but he’s going along with it. And he just needs to get his things. Of course, Parkman is sitting right there. Holy crap, are these people timeshifters. This episode is impossible to follow.

Back with Hiro the prisoner, mohinder is questioning him. He claims that Isaac’s last comic was wrong, and that Hiro didn’t kill Sylar, which is a serious problem. Speaking of serious problems, Ando is facing one right now; Peter lets him know that Ando died in the blast. And, unfortunately, Hiro became a different person. He’s going all of this in order to save Ando, more than saving the world. And now Nathan is in New York. In Isaac Mendez’s broken down apartment. Nathan wants to go ahead with genocide…and this episode still makes no sense. Nathan’s plan is to fake a cure, and then when it kills everyone it will be Mohinder’s fault, and the people will grieve and get over it. Um, okay? Sounds sketchy. Parkman is now entirely across the country, and…okay, now Mohinder is being asked to kill present day Hiro.

Claire, meanwhile, is spending time in the Petrelli mansion. Nathan gives an annoying father speech, and Claire is none too pleased with his actions regarding heroes. Claire gives an angst-ridden speech about who is really special in the end, and Nathan says something about Candace allowing him to be president…and then Nathan is TOTALLY SYLAR?! Uh, what the hell? Ugh. They better pay this off.

Ando spends some time ogling Hiro’s sword, as he wakes up from his tazering and spots him. They have a little best friend spat, ending with Ando mentioning how he’s sort of dead. Hiro is nostalgic about the old times, while Peter and Niki/Jessica spend some time chatting about it. She dances under the prior name, and Peter notes that Jessica is gone. D.L. is gone. Micah is gone. And she needs to accept her loss. Peter, meanwhile, is convincing her that fighting is important…and Ali Larter still can’t act. Peter comes clean, and notes that the bomb was him: he killed Micah, he killed others, but it was all a lie. Nathan lied to protect Peter, and now he feels obligated to help Hiro…and then Niki gives him an ultimatum of sorts…and they head off to fix things.

Nathan stands at what I guess is “Ground Zero Heroes addition,” while Hiro prepares to meet his injection and Niki remains pretty pissed. Nathan discusses sacrifice while F.Hiro and Peter decided to stage a ruse of sorts. F.Hiro does some crazy sword work, Peter throws his weight around, and they move upstairs into the Haitian’s zone. There’s a speech here, but it’s that bullshit cure speech straight out of X-Men. Meanwhile, F.Hiro travels up the elevator alone as Mohinder prepares the injection. Nathan purports: The World is saved.

The elevator is empty when it reaches the top floor, and then Mohinder shows his true allegiance by stabbing the Haitian with the needle…which Mohinder sees within Isaac’s last comic. Mohinder is a tiny bit shocked at this development, but feels he needs to know the right thing to do. Hiro needs to get back, but doesn’t know how, and F.Hiro can’t help him now that he’s been shot. Nathan is a bit concerned at these developments, as Peter holds them off…and then Nathan flies away. Holy crap. Hiro is having issues seeing his own death of sorts, while Nathan and Peter have a brotherly showdown. Of course, he’s not his brother at all. Sylar is certainly still alive, and certainly still angry with Peter. They then proceed to have a crazy Fire/Ice battle. As Mohinder holds the door, Hiro is able to flash them back to the present day in a rather magical fashion. To his destiny.