- Heroes was a completion of a two-parter last night, with the eclipse that robbed all the heroes (and villains) of their powers still casting its powerful spell over everyone. The most dire consequences were for Claire Bennet, who was found at the end of last week’s episode by her mother as she bled out from a gunshot wound suffered while without her power to heal. Claire’s father, H.R.G., thought he had treated the wound and stopped the bleeding, but he was wrong. That left Sandra, Claire’s mom, to rush her to the hospital. She did so despite H.R.G. insisting she didn’t because if Claire’s healing powers returned, they would have to explain them. However, H.R.G. was out trying to kill Sylar and Elle, the ones who attacked Claire and were responsible for her being shot in the first place. Going back to the house where the shooting took place, H.R.G. found Sylar and Elle getting cozy after apparently hooking up, so he took his chance to fire shots at them from across the street using a rifle with a telescopic sight. However, he still missed and a firefight ensued in which H.R.G. shot Elle as she and Sylar fled. He spent the rest of the episode trying to track them down by following the trail of blood dripping from Elle’s leg. That quest took all three to a local convenience store, where Sylar tried to treat Elle’s wound using bandages right off the shelf. When he suggested splitting up to evade H.R.G., Elle insisted they stick together. To do that, they headed down to the store basement, where Sylar tricked Elle into a freight elevator and sent her down another floor to keep her out of harm’s way. He then tried to fight H.R.G. one-on-one and lost, with Elle riding the elevator back up just in time to see H.R.G. slit Sylar’s throat with a box cutter and leave him to bleed out and die. However, chasing down Sylar and Elle meant that H.R.G. couldn’t be at the hospital when the doctors began asking questions about Claire’s gunshot wound and called the cops. Nor was he there when Claire’s hear rate crashed and she actually died after being sliced open in an attempt to revive her. Nor was he there when she was pronounced dead and came back to life in the morgue when the moon cleared from in front of the sun, ending the eclipse and giving everyone back their powers. But before that could happen, each of them went through a trial of their own. In Haiti, Peter Petrelli and the mysterious Haitian must mount a rescue mission to save Peter’s big brother Nathan, who has been captured by the Haitian’s brother, a local warlord with the superpower of impenetrable skin. Nathan is being held in a small village as a prisoner with a woman who is also a prisoner and being sold into slavery. Peter and the Haitian storm the village and manage to subdue the Haitian’s brother, who is also without his powers because of the eclipse. That gives them enough time to get away, but when the Haitian’s brother’s men discover him bound and unconscious, they come after Peter and Co. Peter volunteers to stay behind and fight, fending off the soldiers with a rifle before pretending to surrender when his ammo runs out. That proves to be a ruse and as he is being apprehended, Nathan and the Haitian ambush the soliders and take them out. This too happens around the time the eclipse ends and everyone has their powers back, so Nathan flies full speed at the Haitian’s brother, slamming him into a car. The Haitian then uses his power to inhibit and remove the powers of others to take his brother down, apparently killing or badly disabling him. That leaves he, Peter and Nathan free to go on their way. Nathan does so but stuns Peter by informing him that he plans to go back to New York and join up with their father’s plan to create a formula that can give powers to literally anyone. Nathan believes doing so can combat evil in the world, but Peter disagrees and is left in his brother’s wake, both literally and figuratively, as Nathan flies off into the sky. Out in Lawrence, Kansas, Matt Parkman is fighting a battle of his own, trying to be there for lady friend Daphne as she attempts to cope with life without powers. It turns out that before she got her power, she suffered from cerebral palsy and couldn’t walk without leg braces and canes. In her current state, she wants nothing to do with Matt, despite him trying to be there for her. He is left to go in search of pals Hiro Nakamura and Hiro’s buddy Ando, with whom he teleported to Lawrence. Hiro and Ando are at Sam’s Comics, reading back issues of 9th Wonder, the comic book by the late artist and painter of the future Isaac Mendez, killed last season by Sylar. The comics are supposed to help Hiro get his memory back after it was taken by Arthur Petrelli, but instead all they do is convince Hiro that he doesn’t want to advance beyond the mentality he currently has in which he believes he is still 10 years old. He sees all the horrible things that happen to him as an adult and refuses to grow up. But thanks to some advice from one of the owners of the comic book store (Seth Green), he changes his mind and decides to do what is necessary to regain his memory. That means he must follow the story in the newest issue of the comic that has him traveling back in time with Claire to the rooftop on Manhattan 16 years ago when Kaito Nakamura gave baby Claire to H.R.G. to raise. Taking Claire there also helps Hiro save she and her family from Sylar and Elle, who have their powers back and come looking to kidnap Claire per Arthur’s orders. When Hiro shows up, he teleports Sylar, Elle and Claire away one by one. He drops Elle and Sylar on a beach nearby, where they talk about their future together and appear ready to hook up again when Sylar confesses that he hasn’t really changed and that he is still a monster. He slices open Elle’s head, as he does with all of his victims, as she screams into the empty night air. Meanwhile, Hiro and Claire make it to the rooftop in Manhattan and watch the scene between Kaito and H.R.G. unfold, just as the comic says. The last story line for the week is Dr. Mohinder Suresh, still trying to explain the effects of the eclipse to Arthur. When he can’t, Mohinder attacks his “guard”, flame-thrower Flint, knocks him out and goes to see the love of his life, Maya, who left him after he began morphing into a scaly, insect-like monster after injecting himself with an incomplete version of the formula in order to get powers. But just as he reaches Maya’s door (in New Jersey? She runs away and stops in….New Jersey?), the eclipse brings back his powers, scales and all, and Mohinder flees rather than allow Maya to see him face-to-face. Back at Pinehearst, Arthur assures him that they will find a cure and that the eclipse was a test to reveal who they truly are, powers aside. So tune in again next week, when the drama continues….
- Damn. Who saw this coming, other than everyone….well, assuming any of us had bothered to pay attention, we would have seen it anyhow. Fact is, no one outside a smattering of parents and young girls have bothered to pay any attention to the WNBA in the past….well, however many years the league has existed. It isn’t televised regularly on any major network, it isn’t covered in the mainstream media and on the sports landscape, it’s behind the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, PGA, MLS, NASCAR, Indy Car, college basketball, college football, college baseball, track and field, pro tennis and pretty much any other spot you can think of. The only reason the WNBA still exists is htat the NBA continues to subsidize it as some sort of charity project, an homage to women’s sports that most women don’t even care about. But if you need further evidence of the WNBA’s irrelevancy, look no further: the Houston Comets, the team that won the first four WNBA championships is disbanding. And why is such a successful franchise shutting down? Well, because
new owners could not be found for the team. Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander (nearly all WNBA teams are paired with NBA teams in the same city, like a pair of concrete shoes on the feet of their NBA brethren) sold the team to Houston businessman Hilton Koch last year and because Koch wisely had no interest in the Comets, the WNBA took over the franchise earlier this year. According to league president Donna Orender, a new owner needed to be in place before the end of the year if the Comets wanted to stay in business. Some say it’s the sluggish economy, I prefer to say it’s the sports gods administering some well-deserved amputation to an unnecessary appendage on the sports landscape. Whatever the cause, Orender announced this week that the franchise will fold. "It's a sad day for me personally and, of course, for the city of Houston," former Comets Coach Van Chancellor declared. Maybe for you, Van, but not for the rest of us. Well, you and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, who for some reason holds out hope that the Comets can be saved. "I hope all the people that follow the Comets will rally and help us find a buyer to help them for not only this season, but next season," Emmett said. Mmm hmm, sure. Who is going to buy this mess? You could slap the Comets on eBay with a “Buy It Now” price of $5.50 and you won't find any takers. I just wish the NBA/WNBA would take this as a sign, that if one of the original WNBA teams from 1997, a team that won the league's first four championships, is going under because it’s a financial sieve, the rest of the league should just close up shop and go away too……
- When you have a good protest or riot going, what do you want to do? That’s right, kick it up a notch, take it to another level, light a match and burn that mo’fo to the ground! The protesters blockading international flights into Bangkok understand this principle, which is why they have threatened to draft in more demonstrators as the standoff with authorities enters its second week. Way to be, People's Alliance for Democracy, way to show that you are not merely satisfied with leading good protests, you want great protests. To boost numbers at the airports, the PAD plans end an occupation at the Thai prime minister's main offices, where demonstrators have camped out since August 26, and divert demonstrators to the two airports. Not that the airport protestors are in huge need of help, as they remain in control after the six-day standoff at the main Suvarnabhumi international airport. PAD supporters continue to block the highway leading to the facility and have done something very impressive by setting up checkpoints using everyone’s favorite dangerous, hazardous protest accessory, razor wire. They have also incorporated abandoned cars and baseball bats into their act and at this point, police appear unwilling or unable to move in. Heck, the strongest move the police have made in recent days is flying a helicopter over the airport Monday afternoon, dropping hundreds of leaflets telling protesters that the government wants to resolve the crisis peacefully. The PAD continues to declare that it will not withdraw until the government resigns because the current administration -- led by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat's People Power Party (PPP) -- is a proxy government for one-time Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The airport blockade is definitely hurting the Thai government, as on average, 60,000 tourists arrive at the airport every day and each day it remains shut, it loses 50 million baht ($1.4 million) in income. So keep it up, Thai protestors, fortify your position, dig in with your baseball bats and abandoned cars and throw up some more razor wire, you guys rock…..
- Albums to Avoid is back with a surefire Hall of Famer: the new disaster/abortion/nightmare/insert-your-adjective-for-really-really-bad-here of an album by the insane, un-talented pop hack Britney Spears.
In a development that can only be described as catastrophically bad, Spears is releasing an album for the second straight year. You may remember that last year, she released the disastrously awful “Blackout" an album whose only connection to blackouts was causing one in anyone who tried to listen to the plethora of shi**y songs on it. Keeping with the theme of one-word album names (probably simpler for Spears, who aappears to be just above Jessica Simpson and just below a bag of rocks on the IQ scale), she is now back to inflict more pain and suffering with “Circus.” No, it has nothing to do with the most obvious target, the circus that is her daily life (at her own doing), no, the album highlighted by a title track that is basically a vehicle for Spears to attempt to brag about her skill as a whip-cracking sexual ringmaster. The rest of the album is basically just a grab bag of crap, with her producer-writers calling the shots and taking the album wherever they want. Producers Dr. Luke and Max Martin run the first half of this nightmare, bringing their B game to mindless, gawd-awful dance tracks like "Shattered Glass" (pronounced glah-ee-ass) and the imbecilic "If You Seek Amy". Then, near the halfway point the album goes in a different, but equally awful, direction. The second half is filled with what I assume is intended to be subtle, polishe pop (gag) music. Yes, it’s an electro-pop album, one of the worst kinds there is. Whether it’s the Danja-produced "Blur," the revolting "Mmm Papi" (with Spears unleashing her littlest-girl voice in what I think is supposed to be a turn-on but just isn’t). Oh, and there’s even Spears’ abysmal attempt at a ballad - "Unusual You." Yes, this album runs the gamut of awful songs and styles, one of the biggest Albums to Avoid I have ever seen and quite frankly, a Hall of Fame-bad album…..
- Must be nice to be Pete Carroll, knowing that you are so much better than your crosstown rival that you can allow sartorial decisions like the color of your game uniforms to be more important than needing vital football staples like timeouts. In case you haven’t heard by now, Carroll’s USC Trojans will be taking on their L.A. rivals, UCLA, this Saturday. UCLA is the home team for the game, meaning they wear their home blue uniforms and USC wears their road white unis, as mandated by the NCAA. Or so it’s supposed to be….but it won’t, because Carroll has decided that in spite of the rules, his team will wear their home red jerseys and willingly forfeit the one timeout per half that the NCAA rules will penalize them for wearing the incorrect uniforms. Carroll says the move is an homage to the last time the Trojans and the Bruins both wore home jerseys -- the Trojans in red, the Bruins in blue and gold -- back in 1982, when the schools shared the Los Angeles Coliseum. "I just thought it was a really cool tradition," Carroll said. He also insisted that the decision in no way is meant to disrespect UCLA. Uh huh, sure it isn’t. You may or may not believe that, coach, but rest assured, it is extremely disrespectful to your opponent. Saying you don’t need two timeouts I basically saying, “We’re so much better than you that we can give up two timeouts and still beat you by five touchdowns.” Why stop there? Give up all your timeouts, agree that the USC coaching staff can’t use radios and headsets and must communicate only via carrier pigeon, play every down with ten players and spot UCLA two touchdowns while you’re at it. Seriously, that’s how unconcerned Carroll is about losing those two timeouts. ? "I don't care about it right now," Carroll said. "I think it's the fun thing to do, and I think the fans will appreciate it over time." He added that this decision and reviving the tradition of both teams in home uniforms is something he discussed with former UCLA coach Karl Dorrell and with current coach Rick Neuheisel. It’s always been said that Carroll is a slightly arrogant guy who thinks he’s a cut above the rest (which is record seems to back up), but now he’s just getting blatant, obvious and showy about it…..and I like it…..
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