Contains Heroes Reborn Spoilers
Heroes Reborn returns after its (very long!) midseason break and doesn’t waste any time in throwing the audience back into the action. The main characters assemble to join forces in the race against time to try and save humankind from the imminent threat of the approaching solar flares.
This week’s episode focuses on tying up the majority of the character’s story arcs, which makes the story a lot more cohesive. Luke and Malina run into Quentin and his sister Phoebe, guarded by a couple of clones, hell bent on killing Malina. Tommy sends Katana girl to the clinic to help even out the odds there and Carlos and Farah find and rescue the evos at the clinic, freeing Micah in the process, who in turn broadcasts the truth about Erica to the World.
Send in the Clones fast pacing makes up for the slow start at the beginning of the season, but I can’t help but feel this episode is just a catalyst for moving the pieces along for the upcoming finale. It doesn’t help that the momentum the show was building was halted by the really long Winter break, I had pretty much forgotten what had happened in the previous episode while sitting down to watch this instalment.
We were treated to some great scenes in Send in the Clones, in particular the Katana Girl and Harris Prime showdown and also Micah’s reveal of the Mohinder propaganda footage to the whole of the World. I’m also really glad that they’ve developed Luke’s character; he really suits the role of protector to Malina. Zachary Levi is a great actor and they were woefully under-using him at the start of the season and gave him some terrible lines. I’ve also enjoyed Matt as the big bad leader at the clinic; just when you think he was going to switch sides he defies expectations and shoots the Hatian in the ear and kidnaps Taylor! Matt has completely gone off the deep end; you can see his utter desperation and wow, he is pretty menacing. He reminds me of a camp version of the Jessica Jones mind control baddie Kilgrave!
I really felt the absence of Noah Bennet in this episode though. Just where was he teleported to?! The strength of the main characters in Send in the Clones really highlights the weaker ensemble though, in particular the very one dimensional characters Erica and Phoebe, who have to be some of the worst villains in the whole Heroes universe. The questionable special effects also reared their ugly head again in this episode; both Phoebe and Malina’s powers are just terrible and there was a hilariously fake prosthetic head at one point!
However bad the writing and special effects are though, I do genuinely enjoy the show and am looking forward to the finale. The closing shot of the main characters driving to Odessa really ramped up the anticipation next week’s episode. But how are the heroes going to save mankind from the solar flares? I really do hope we get a strong and satisfying end to Heroes Reborn as the season has had it’s fair share of bad writing and missteps.
★★★
