HEROES REBORN: “June 13th – Part Two” Reveals The Complicated Truths of Time Travel

A Story Reborn

The show made us believe that it planned to re-write itself halfway through and in that delivered its strongest (and most obvious) twist. A common rule of time travel is to think twice about your actions in the past. Knowing the future — and making attempts to alter it — may actually set it in stone.

So while the journey of the last two episodes didn’t really change the narrative’s course, it did give us all the answers we needed to understand why certain things had happened. It also generated some of the series’ best and most interesting dramatic action, making Heroes Reborn worth the viewing investment once again.

One of Heroes’ strengths was its ability to weave characters and their various stakes together, in seen and unforeseen ways. With “June 13th: Part One” and “Part Two,” Reborn has continued that tradition and allowed the narrative’s web to drive the plot. While past episodes haven’t been as informative as the last two, the show’s sharp change in direction helped viewers understand its greater purpose and worth outside of simply being a Heroes semi-reboot.

This episode we learned how Noah and Molly ended up on the hospital camera together, how Noah ended up losing his thoughts — and why, as well as the true fate of the world and who really set that bomb off on June 13th. Viewers discovered how Miko ended up out of the game and how her father disappeared. They also witnessed how Tommy became Nathan and then Tommy again, and why Casper has been following them all this time. Finally, we got the EVO hunters’ origins stories first hand, though the strength of that plot line — and its necessity — is waning and remains unclear.

Having the opportunity to see how things transpired for Luke, Joanna, and their son should have made their story more compelling. In reality, it felt like a series of contrived events generated by the writing to give their characters purpose. The real threat has been shown to be Erica and her plans, but the series presented Luke and Joanna as the initial villains. It has to justify their plot B existence, except that the chemistry between the actors isn’t clicking the way it should. Not to mention the convenience of the events — and violence of their first kill — left little time or room for empathy. Instead, it was one of those less fun “well that escalated quickly” moments.

Hindsight is twenty-twenty, but so far Reborn hasn’t been 100% on keeping its surprises surprising. That includes its decision to make Tommy Claire’s son. Tommy’s transformation to Nathan was preceded by quite a few clues. His storyline and its centrality from the beginning have resembled Claire’s role in the original series. His powers and Casper’s watchful eye also radiated a “great(est) power” vibe for the character.

His sister’s larger role, however, was a much better-kept secret. As was Hiro’s role in bringing Nathan up, Miko’s creation and Quentin’s turn. The show has had some hiccups so far this season, but perhaps an unyielding ability to surprise shouldn’t have been expected. With a show that contains this many timelines, characters and plots, Reborn may be doing the best it can. And these past two episodes proved that “the best it can” isn’t so bad.