TV Detail:
Heroes review. Episode 304 "I Am Become Death"

The star of Season 3 definitely seems to be the hubris of our heroes. First Hiro, bored without a mission, creates one of his own by ignoring his father's single command as clearly as Adam in the garden of Eden. Now, it's Peter Petrelli's turn to play Anakin Skywalker. With all his constant whining, I'd always figured him for a Luke. But in Epsiode 304, he recklessly veers towards the dark side in an effort to save the world. Like Henry Paulson or Ben Bernanke, when catastrophe looms, the hero urge makes "doing something" irresistable, even if the cure might be worse than the disease.

Again, when pride's not working overtime, time-travel is at the root of all evils. Future Petrelli travels back in time to warn his present-day self not to make the same mistakes he did, but then steers him towards a whopper—tracking down Syler, who in the episode's best twist, is now Gabriel, the loving father who's learned to control the "hunger" for power that made him a psycho-killer. Now present-day Petrelli has escaped back to present day with that same, new hunger—which you have to assume is how he turned out so evil in the future. Hmmm... there's some sort of mind-blowing feedback loop in there, but I think I already saw that in Donnie Darko.

Meanwhile, Suresh doesn't want to be left out of all the fun and tries to give himself super-powers. When the guinea pig becomes some sort of creepy nocturnal reptile, though, the scientist realizes... wait for it... his own hubris. Only future Parkman seems immune to the ugly sin of pride, content with his new super-fast wife, human GPS adopted daughter and new baby. But present-day Parkman just went on a vision quest assisted by a Carl Jung-reading nomad, and now must follow his inner turtle to save the world. Here's hoping he doesn't get tripped up by pride along the way.

Related Links:
Heroes Episodes 301 & 302 "Villains" review
Heroes Episode 303 "One of Us, One of Them" review