Synopsis of 5×12: The ensemble cast gears up for the finale by converging on a location that isn’t the one where they need to be.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Trust is one of the most complex of human concepts. Trust is easy to lose, difficult to garner, and too frequently thrown in directions it doesn’t belong. Some are reticent to trust, and their continued isolation only furthers their idea that pushing others away is the proper course of action. Some trust too quickly and in the wrong direction. Once trust is gone, it is hard to earn back. Except in abusive relationships, where trust is continued or strengthened despite all evidence that the contrary should take place.
![[NBC]](http://www.nerdophiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/NUP_171854_0609-470x313.jpg)
And then, almost exactly thirteen minutes in, they ruin it.
From the moment that adult doctor’s hand landed on that little girl’s lap, “Company Woman” shifts into a pile of unwanted garbage. It’s instantaneous. That one little moment, and the episode stops being quality. All at once. I have truly never seen anything like it. The tension was building, the potential burning, the chance at redemption imminent. And it vanished. Just like that.
![From left: NBC, the American public. [NBC]](http://www.nerdophiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/NUP_171854_1027-470x313.jpg)
It is official now that Heroes is not coming back. It was announced just days ago. Reborn was a trial run. And critical and commercial destruction has labeled that trial a failure. This is the effort unfortunate enough to air right after that news, and it is the perfect effort to illustrate exactly why.
![[NBC]](http://www.nerdophiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/NUP_171854_0133-470x313.jpg)
Heroes Reborn was never able to hold the floodgates of its own idiocy. It had some bright ideas, but like a hangman who couldn’t tie knots it was terrible at execution. Heroes as a series is a high school valedictorian who went to college, experimented with one too many drugs, and threw away their future. Just look at that gym shootout. The maneuver with Farrah and Mawlina makes no sense. Luke scorching his wife to a pile of smoldering ash (after their entire plots and flashbacks were about their crumbling marriage) is shot with the cold unfamiliarity of a similar moment played for laughs. There is no last minute bit of drama. Just a long distance shot of a lady burning up.
Heroes Reborn is terrible, but it will only haunt me for one more week. I suppose that is the most I can ask for.
I also have a podcast about Heroes called 9th Blunders available here and here.