Stop the virus. Save the world.

*spoilers, of course*

Okay that wasn’t the tagline for the season, but it’s pretty much what was going on…sort of. There was the problem with a deadly virus being let out, but also heroes who HAD it, but also some new characters that were introduced that didn’t have much to do with the plot.

Season two takes place four months after the incident in New York. Nathan and Peter are believed to be dead, but hey they’re not. The Bennet family moved to California and Matt and Mohinder are raising Molly together (unfortunately not “together,” but technically Molly has two dads.)

Hiro is in 1600 Japan meeting his hero Takezo Kensei, a famous character from a popular Japanese legend. Takezo isn’t what he appears to be and because of Hiro, he becomes the person everyone knows. Honestly, when this started I thought Hiro would become Takezo (and in a way he did,) but I assumed Takezo never existed and Hiro was actually the legend. Turns out he’s a British guy who can’t die, like Claire, but for him he can’t die period. 400 years later Hiro is surprised to see him still alive and killing his father (that he does want revenge for.)

The story arcs are all over the place. In the first season it was fun watching these people discover and control their powers, however, this season seemed more jumbled. For the most part everyone is connected in some way (whether they want to destroy the virus or they already have it.) As for the new characters, we learn about their powers but they aren’t in a big way connected to everything like last season.

Not that I don’t like the new characters. I found Maya’s power of..death? (poison emission) pretty cool. Although when she meets Sylar (who I already hate) I just find it a bit blah. Of course he doesn’t reveal who he really is and they form some kind of romantic relationship only for her to find out the truth. Oh and he kills her brother who knew the truth (of course.)

I was a little confused by the virus. Many of the heroes were infected by it (apparently they had it inserted into them by the big, bad Company,) but Peter travels one year into the future and finds out the virus can affect everyone and kills 93% of the population. Why this was created in the first place I have no idea. Every original member of the Company was against it except Takezo (known by Adam in the future,) and they lock him up for being insane. When he does get out he tries to kill everyone because they locked him up (revenge, of course.)

Peter, damn Peter, believes this guy wants to destroy the virus and puts a fight up against a lot of his friends. (I’m also trying to figure out how he survived exploding. Apparently a bullet through his head will kill him permanently but actually becoming a bomb? Nah.)

Oh and Claire has a new boyfriend, West, who just creeped me out at first. He was so into Claire and was always there. He went to her house late at night to give her a book and stared into her house while she tested a part of her ability she never had before (regrowing limbs.) Turns out he also has an ability, to fly (I thought Claire would be a little suspicious since her dad could fly.) They eventually become a couple and you can tell West cares about her a lot, but the relationships in the season weren’t my favorite part (except Hiro and Yaeko, I liked them a lot.) But Peter has this fling with a girl named Caitlin who is eventually left in the future. Like I said Maya and Sylar were I guess supposed to be something…I prefer the ability part of the show.

I sound more negative, but there are a few things I liked. I liked that Matt’s mind reading ability became more enhanced and he can actually control people’s thoughts. For some reason I liked Elle, the girl with the electricity who is part of the Company that her dad runs. From what we’ve learned so far her past is pretty dark. She’s very sadistic and a little crazy which I don’t always like with characters, but I like her (I may regret saying this.) She’s obviously on the bad side, but I feel like she questions it from time to time. Nathan was also a bit more likeable this season.

There were teary moments as well. When Hiro’s father was murdered I was sad, but when he went back to try and save him, I started to cry. I love Hiro so obviously I don’t want to see him upset, but he and his dad (George Takei by the way) had an emotional moment when he told Hiro he was meant to die and he shouldn’t try to change it. Noah had a moment of death (How did I know he wouldn’t die? Because he’s in the Heroes Reborn previews,) but Claire’s reaction is pretty heartbreaking.

Also Nikki had a storyline, but unfortunately it wasn’t as interesting as the first season. We barely see any other personalities, she doesn’t use her powers, and she spends most of her time at the Company hoping for a cure for the virus. However her fate is up in the air when she’s in a burning building that eventually explodes. Whether she survives it I’ll have to wait and see.

Oh and Sylar has the virus and can’t use his powers, boo hoo.

The season ends with Hiro locking Adam in a casket underground (I found funny), Peter destroying the virus, Nathan ready to expose his powers to the world only to be shot on live TV, and Sylar uses Claire’s regenerative blood to heal himself from the virus.

Compared to season one this wasn’t as good, but I still enjoyed it. I did read there were problems while developing the story and this also went on during a big writer’s strike at the time, so the episode count was cut back. I could have been more invested, but it was entertaining enough to keep me watching (sometimes I did skip through scenes/plots I didn’t care that much about.) All in all it wasn’t the best, but I didn’t hate it either.

Although, next season is called Villains and I’m looking forward to that.