“The world has been uneasy. This is the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for. Ladies and Gentlemen…E.P.I.C.” -Erica Kravid
As much as I liked the premiere, Under the Mask was a bit all over the place. The show introduced us to a lot more characters with special powers but I have to admit that I am quite confused with where they are going with the story.
I did, however, like what Renautas did with Molly Walker. Those epically hilarious glasses are the perfect weapon in locating any Evo and it’s going to be almost impossible for anyone to hide in plain sight now. Still, this episode was the equivalent of getting lost in a dark forest. I understand that there are a lot of stories and a lot of characters but Game of Thrones never seems to have a problem with these types of things so Heroes Reborn needs to take a lesson.
Heroes was always at its best when it was dark. Sylar was such an intriguing and horrific character from the original but so far we haven’t been introduced to any really dark Evo’s yet. Sure there is a great mystery that needs to be unraveled but let’s focus more on one Evo at a time rather than time jumping all over the place like Hiro Nakamura.
Hope this review is the perfect medicine to go with your steak and eggs. Enjoy the recap, fellow Evo’s.
Hot And Cold
Quick, grab a pair of your newest E.P.I.C. shades and put them on because you’re going to need them in order to catch up with every single Evo on this show. There was a lot going on in Under the Mask, so let’s start with the Evo’s who didn’t play much of a role in this episode.
The episode begins all the way up in the arctic with Malina hanging out with her invisible spirit guide who is extremely cryptic. It looks like Malina is changing the weather, much like Storm from X-men, but who really knows at this point. All we really know is that Malina needs to be ready for the impending disaster and that it’s probably really cold in the arctic.
Malina’s spirit guide tells her to hurry the F up because they are running out of time and that was pretty much all we saw of these two Eskimos.
We also caught up with Joanne and Luke who are road trippin’ across the continental United States in hopes to murder every Evo alive. Their car ends up dying so they are stuck on the side of the road and it looks like Luke is coming down with a fever…or is he?
They have some breakfast at a local diner and that is when things get interesting. Luke has a change of heart and decides that he doesn’t really want to continue murdering Evo’s. Also, anyone else craving steak and eggs right now? Noms.
Yup, Luke definitely has powers. This is easily one of the better story’s being told so far and I think having one of these Evo-hating murderers actually have a power of their own makes the story that much more interesting. I also think that Luke is going to start struggling with the whole ‘murdering Evo’s’ thing now that he is realizing that he might be one himself.
Of course, the fun didn’t end with steak and eggs. After returning to their motel, Luke isn’t feeling too hot. But wait, he’s actually feeling super hot because apparently his ability is connected to the sun or something along those lines. Your guess is as good as mine but I did do a little research and apparently he’s able to generate radiation from his body but has little to no control over his ability because he’s been repressing it for a majority of his life. At least we now know why he prefers his eggs sunny-side up.
Going Out On A Limb
This is hands down the worst story line this show has ever produced. Miko is at Yamagota Tower in Tokyo and makes short work of those guards from the premiere. She can’t unsheathe her sword either because that means she’ll be transported to the video game universe. It was inevitable that she was eventually going to be brought down and I already can’t stand this entire story. We also meet Harris (Prime), who either has the ability to clone himself or Renautas is doing this for him. Or he’s a cyborg created by Renautas? Does any of this make sense?
Ren finds his way into Yamagota Tower to track down his new obsession, Miko. He ends up taking a picture of Erica Kravid (more on her later) and finds a way to snag someone’s key card and make his way up the tower.
Meanwhile, Miko is being interrogated by Harris. He mentions something about an accident where someone died but Miko doesn’t remember any of it so Harris decides that chopping her arm off is the best solution. Ren wanders into the conference room at just the right time and this gives Miko the opportunity to do this:
Then shit got really confusing. Harris gets up and his arm regenerates and also some new Harris gets up off the ground. What in the fuck just happened?
So either Harris is some kind of cyborg clone that was created by Renautas or his ability involves cloning himself every time he regenerates? This didn’t make a whole lot of sense, show. I’m guessing that when he regenerated his arm back, this also had the effect of creating a clone from his limb that was on the ground. How’s that for a shitty power! Sure, having a clone would be pretty sweet but having to chop off your own limbs to create them is a bit of a downer.
Ren and Miko finally escape Yamagota Tower and immediately decide to head to America since that is where Erica is headed. This is beyond ridiculous but hey, let’s just roll with it and see what happens. At least we didn’t have to play video games this episode.
Power Struggle
Out west, Carlos is still debating whether it is a good idea to dawn the El Vengador mask and it’s definitely a terrible idea considering the fact that he has no powers. His nephew, Jose, is pissed that he’s not keeping his dad’s shop open so Carlos tells him to get lost and heads off to spy on an Evo who is being hassled by some bounty hunters who are trying to capture Evo’s. Apparently that is a thing in this new world. They end up throwing their hostage out the window but she escapes since the ability to fly is a popular ability amongst our Evo friends.
Carlos ends up making a noise, possibly because he’s the worst super hero ever, and the bounty hunters chase him through the abandoned building. Luckily for Carlos, his pastor friend enjoys randomly hanging around creepy abandoned buildings for no apparent reason. He is able to transform both of them into smoke and they avoid capture from the bounty hunters.
I guess that’s a cool power but it is definitely not on my ‘want’ list. Later on, Carlos puts on the El Vengador costume and finds the flying Evo from earlier and her buddies and warns them that they are in serious danger. The bounty hunters show up with the intention of capturing the Evo’s but they all escape before being found. Carlos stays behind, however, and attacks the head bounty hunter in charge. The only problem with this is that Carlos has no powers and this bounty hunter dude does. So Carlos ends up getting his ass kicked and should have never put on the El Vengador costume in the first place.
This whole El Vengador story is ridiculous. Carlos is an absolute moron for putting the costume on. He better find a way to get some powers and fast or I don’t think he’s going to last very long. You would think that if his brother had abilities, so should he. Maybe he just hasn’t discovered his ability yet? Either way, he’s giving El Vengadouche a bad name.
Tommy Boy
We catch back up with Tommy and his mom who are still hiding in plain sight. Tommy is off to a party so he does what any teenager would do and lies to his mom about where he’s really going. Like Kyle’s mom from South Park, Tommy’s mom is a bitch and refuses to let him get his party on. Luckily for Tommy, however, he has the best ability ever if you’re a teenager who wants to party.
Tommy teleports his way to the party where his crush Emily is also hanging out. He’s enjoying his new found popularity after helping Brad with his step-father and getting his party on like any normal teenager does. But Tommy doesn’t like beer which is totally not cool. Another thing that is not cool is when your mom shows up to the party which is exactly what happened. She confronts Piggy Bank with a gun since he’s being all creepy by stalking her teenage son and wants to know why he’s following them.
She also wants to know if he’s a sex offender but Piggy Bank reveals that the world is going to need Tommy soon and they will need his help. Of course, Tommy’s mom is way too paranoid and tells Piggy Bank to get lost. I don’t get why she is so concerned considering her son can TELEPORT himself out of any situation. Relax, mom!
She also decides that they should move to another town and Tommy is not happy about this. Tommy…you can teleport anywhere! Who cares where you go, it makes no difference. You also probably should have used your power right before you and your mom got into that nasty car accident at the end of the episode. I’m willing to bet that Tommy’s mom doesn’t make it out alive. Unless, of course, he teleports them to the hospital. You’re drunk show, go home!
Google Glass E.P.I.C. Edition
Meanwhile, Noah and Quentin find a car and take off to find Molly Walker. Quentin is all bitching about his gunshot wound but this isn’t Westeros so the likelihood of him dying of an infection is slim to none.
Noah finally takes Quentin to the hospital but something is up. Noah finds out that he was at this same hospital on the day of the terrorist attacks in Odessa. His memory has clearly been wiped so he is trying to put the pieces together. I personally think the guy with the penny’s, Piggy Bank, was responsible for his memory loss. It’s certainly not out of the question.
Noah continues to run around the hospital with a gun and eventually gets to the security room. He looks up some old footage from June 13th but it looks like there has been a time jump of some sort. Noah immediately thinks it’s Hiro doing his thing and he is probably right. Noah also sees footage of him with his daughter Claire, who is now a dead body. I’m as confused as ever when it comes to this. Last week, it appeared Claire was still alive and now it appears she’s dead. If she’s dead, the world is totally fucked, right? And how did she die considering her power was to regenerate? Answers please!
We also catch up with Molly and the mysterious duo that captured her now have names: Taylor and Francis. They want to transport her to Renautas HQ in Colorado and apparently Molly doesn’t like flying so they shut her up with a tranquilizer dart.
We also meet Erica Kravid, the CEO of Renautas, who also happens to be Taylor’s mom.
They are trying to find a solution to the so-called Evo problem and they want to unveil E.P.I.C. Think Google Glass with the updated ability to see and find Evo’s. The only problem is that they cannot implement the technology without Molly Walker, the human GPS.
Molly eventually wakes up and starts playing mind games with Taylor by telling her they are going to kill her boyfriend Francis (the guy with telekinesis from the premiere). When they arrive at Renautas, Taylor and her goons are distracted by Noah and Quentin after Noah punches Quentin in his gunshot wound so they can distract the guards. Dumbest distraction ever and totally unnecessary.
Noah confronts Molly and wants her to come with them but she immediately refuses and something strange is definitely going on. Why would Molly refuse to go with Noah? Obviously something happened with Noah before he had his memory wiped and they better find Hiro so he can explain everything. Molly refuses to go with Noah, however, and Renautas takes her into some room so they can digitize her power by plugging her into a machine.
Erica finally makes her presentation for the brand new Google Glass E.P.I.C. Edition and it really sucks to be an Evo in attendance since they can easily locate you. This is likely going to cause major problems for Evo’s everywhere so long as they have set a reasonable price for these shades.
It also looks like Harris has been sent to the Arctic to track down Malina and her spirit guide but we have no idea why they are looking for her. Obviously they’re going to end up in America at some point but they better hurry up and get there because nothing is going to be explained until they do.
So what did you think of Under the Mask? Do you dislike Tommy now that it’s known he doesn’t like beer? Do you have any crazy theories about what in the hell is going on? Let us know in the comments.
The Verdict
This episode was all over the place. I admit I have enjoyed some of these stories but Carlos, Miko and Noah/Quentin seem to be the same old Heroes. There is still hope though because we still haven’t seen the likes of Hiro, Parkman, Mohinder and Micah and I cannot wait until these characters are back in the mix.
The fact that Tommy doesn’t like beer is enough for me to dislike this episode alone. I do admit though, watching a powerless Carlos get his ass kicked by that Evo with super strength was pretty damn funny. An idiot with no powers decides to dawn the mask of El Vengadouche who was SHOT AND KILLED even though he HAD powers is stupidity at its best. At least we didn’t have to watch Miko and Ren play video games. That was a plus, right?
I still want to know more about Piggy Bank and Malina and truly believe this show would be so much better if we got to spend more time with these mysterious figures instead of watching Tommy teleport his way to a party and Noah/Quentin bumble around Renautas. With the introduction of E.P.I.C. though, I think shit might actually start to hit the fan.
Lastly, don’t forget to vote for your favorite Evo below and I have added Luke and Harris to the list. Thanks for reading Evo’s.
Mikey (Dis)likes It 