Journeyman, Chuck and Heroes

This blog entry could really be entirely devoted to Journeyman because I have three words for you:

Best. Journeyman. Ever.

It was actually a sad night for Heroes, because Chuck and Journeyman were both so much more interesting and different, while our friendly superheroes continue to move forward at an astronomically sluggish pace.

But we’ll get to Chuck and Heroes later, right now…I’m all about Journeyman. So much happened in this one that I’m having a hard time containing myself.

*Remember, spoilers as always in these recaps…read at your own risk!*

Journeyman

So last week when we left Dan Vasser, he was being watched by Aeden Bennett, some pedophile he put away for six years. The guy was released and had one thing on his mind: Revenge.

What else happened last week? Jack found out about Dan, only to have it all erased because the timeline changed due to Dan screwing around on his own and not sticking to the “plan.” Somehow, whoever is controlling all this “traveling” doesn’t appreciate you going out on your own. I have a feeling these people doing this to Dan and Olivia are from the future and are trying to mold some kind of perfect world.

And we know now that it’s obviously not just them doing the traveling. The FBI agent (the dead one now) was doing a heck of a lot more than just investigating some stolen cash. He knows what Dan is up to…and one of his final words when Jack asked him if it was all about money:

“They always need cash…it trips them up.” He says it to himself, almost as if Jack isn’t there.

Erie. Chilling. Who else knows what he is/was up to? I highly doubt he’s the only rogue FBI agent suspicious about this. We know that carrying cash with them at all times is vitally important, and this guy just realized it finally.

The entire episode kept me on the edge of my seat. There were so many tense moments and great moments that I never even looked to see how much time was left.

Dan gets sent back to 1980 in the nick of time after being shot, is patched up with some horrible anti-biotics and then is told by Olivia that he needs to complete his assignment here. That him being shot is nothing compared to what will happen. Not sure if we’re still going to see ramifications or not, but other than Katie being held hostage, not much else happened to him.

But he realized that his assignment is 10-year old Aeden, locked in his room, being mentally abused by his father after his mother left home. This pain lingers with him all his life and obviously made him who he was. Yet this one moment with Dan, who he helped bandage up after his gunshot got worse with infection, was the task Dan was there to do. His struggle with outright killing the kid or helping him was genius and moving.

In the final moments between Dan and Aeden in the present, the knowledge of what happened in 1980 brought tears to Aeden’s eyes, and maybe even a few from mine. It was a powerful scene, with Dan on the edge, knowing what he had say to help Aeden finally accept his pain. Again, the writers keep this show fresh and away from the formulaic style that it could have gotten trapped in. The ending here was awesome and nerve-racking.

Yet that scene wasn’t even my favorite of the episode.

Jack is talking to Dan’s boss and he sees Olivia, who is sent to find Jack and tell him to help Dan. When Jack sees her, he just stares. The pieces had almost fallen into place after the FBI guy showed him evidence of Dan being in the past and the present wearing the same clothes, but seeing Olivia was the last click into place.

He goes to her and the way they move into the elevator and just stare at each other was awesome. A great scene, with Jack finally knowing and moving to action to find Dan. I don’t know how they do it, but the show just rose a few levels in quality after that moment. They could have done it countless ways, but seeing Olivia like he did was perfect.

And the end of the episode, with Jack apologizing for taking so long to come around was moving as well. I’m almost afraid the show hit its high point and can’t get any better, but I’m just being pessimistic.

The killing of the FBI agent was convenient of course, but I highly doubt that’s over with.

Please NBC…don’t cancel this show. If you renewed Chuck and Life, do the same for this. It’s really the best thing you have going on Monday nights right now.

Chuck

So the last 2-3 weeks of Chuck have really made the show more appealing. They got away from the formula of “Chuck Flashes And Then Gets Caught and Then Bailed Out” which is a good move for the show.

Morgan has a girlfriend and the whole thing between Anna and Ellie during Thanksgiving dinner was pretty funny. Morgan was getting annoying, but I had to admit, the Buy More stuff they do on the side is pretty hilarious. The Black Friday preparations and then the opening of the doors was great. I loved Morgan’s two buddies at the store who were hiding under the counter.

I have one word for you: Pineapple!

(It’s the safe word to evacuate the Buy More…which of course was used. I bring it up only for something later…)

So Bryce is alive…some people thought he might be a clone of Bryce, but it doesn’t seem like that’s true now. He knew a lot of things about him and Chuck, including the Klingon language they both spoke (nerds). In fact, that language saved Chuck at the end.

We saw Sarah and Chuck kiss last week, which came with a bomb about to blow up which turned out to be Bryce in a cryo-chamber. So now Sarah is torn in two with Bryce headed out to eliminate the Fulcrum group that got him killed and then saved his life thinking he had the Intersect in his noggin. Who will she choose? The end with her looking at her crappy phone and then the iPhone left us hanging.

By the way, how funny would it be if Casey and Captain Awesome did a white-water rafting trip together?

Heroes

About halfway through this episode, I wanted to yell one word:

Pineapple!

Help! Evacuate!

So many…so many…too many stories. The cheerleader, the copy-cat, Adam and Peter, Hiro and Adam and Peter, Suresh and Noah, Sylar and Maya, Maya and dead brother, Sylar and girl-locator, Nicki and Micah…should I go on?

I am too invested in the show to give it up, that’s just how I am (although I did call it quits on CSI this year). But I wish they could find a way to spice things up. It’s just so slow at times.

The best parts of the show include Sylar and Peter, yet Sylar has been absent for a few episodes in a row and now that he appeared last night, it was awesome. He kills Maya’s brother and totally manipulates Maya. You know he’s just licking his chops to cut her head open and steal that power.

Adam is a good bad guy, but Sylar is the best ever. More of him would do this show wonders.

And we find out that Adam isn’t really out to save the world unless it’s in his own, messed up way. Hiro sees him 30 years ago trying to steal Virus 138 and realizes Adam has some warped sense of history and death. Victoria Pratt, who lasted barely an episode, also confirmed this, causing Peter to have some second guessing to do.

One clue though that may have gotten overlooked: Hiro heard Victoria in the past say that Adam had to have had help in order to know where the virus was. Is it Bob? Is he trying to find that virus too? Or find a cure for it so that he can be saved, yet help eliminate the world?

I think that’s it actually. It’s like the X-Files, if you remember that plot. Find a cure to save yourself, even though you escort in the means of death for everyone else. We’ll see if that pans out.

Hiro appears at the end, stops time and is ready to cut off Adam’s head, but Peter is in the way. To be continued. Apparently Adam tells us that if you lose your head, “there’s no coming back from that.” Wonder how he knows? Or did he just make it up so he could kill Victoria? Still that explosion back when he was Kensei probably should have evaporated his body, so I doubt losing his head kills him.

And Suresh brought back Noah, something not surprising, kind of saw that coming. Noah is still not happy though, and despite the full recovery, he appears to have lingering pain.

The final note is that Adam realized his plan succeeds since Peter saw the future and told him the 90%+ of the worlds’ population is gone.

After all that, it seems like a lot of stuff happened last night, yet it really felt like nothing. None of it was shocking. And also, the acting in this episode was pretty bad…Claire makes me laugh, even though she’s trying to be tough by punching through a window. I couldn’t keep a straight face.

There are two things to look forward to however: Two of our heroes should be dying next week, and if Adam and Sylar team up, that could be a wicked duo.

What I want to see is a showdown of huge proportions between Peter/Hiro and Sylar/Adam. That would really save the show for me. They need to have a big battle, show some powers and explosions. A large scale skirmish. You have Sylar and Peter with massive powers, and they need to show them off. Let’s get going!

So I’ve rambled on for far too long. What did you think of the episodes? Was Heroes better than I thought? Wasn’t Journeyman awesome? Do you still like Chuck?