“Company Woman” is the second-to-last Heroes Reborn ever. Now that the series has been cancelled, there should be an extra feeling of closure and finality to the proceedings. Sadly, the exact opposite seems to be happening. While I’m sure the Heroes Reborn finale will have some kind of conclusion, “Company Woman” was a plodding and oddly-paced penultimate episode. Rather than focus mostly on Tommy and Malina’s joint venture to save the world, Erica Kravid was given a spotlight episode. I suppose it’s not the worst idea for Heroes Reborn to give their main villain a backstory but it should have happened at least three episodes ago.
Family Reunions
While everyone is freaking out about the end of the world and Erica being revealed to be a huge liar, Matt Parkman has other things on his mind. He is thinking of himself. Parkman breaks into Erica’s office with Taylor. Like the angry, sweaty, little big meatball he is, Parkman uses his mind control to have Taylor point a gun at her own head. This whole thing would be kind of compelling if Parkman wasn’t a complete caricature. Parkman gets want he wants from the exchange. Erica hands him his tickets to Gateway and Taylor’s head is not blown off.
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Before he leaves though, Parkman lets Erica know that Taylor is pregnant with Francis’ super powered baby. This causes Erica to have a flashback of her first encounter with an EVO when she was young woman. There was a doctor treating Erica’s dying father. The doctor promised Erica, he would save her dad with his powers. As “payment” for saving her father’s life the doctor rapes Erica. So I guess, that’s a appropriate, if not totally gross, super-villain origin for Erica.
Erica comes back to reality and tries to leave Taylor in her office. Tommy has gone missing (again) and Erica needs to give some harsh looks to some people. Taylor stops Erica, tapping into the powers of her unborn baby powers. She forces Erica at gunpoint to take her to Francis.
A Friend for the End the World
As mentioned, Tommy has decided that he can’t trust Erica, for what feels like the hundredth time in three episodes, and flees. Tommy uses his time travel powers to rescue his mother. Tommy takes her to the location he is supposed to meet up with Malina. Meanwhile, Ren shows up in Gateway and runs into Emily. The two quickly realize that they are looking for the same person; Tommy. They resolve work together to try to find him.
Luke comes up with the bright idea to get on the news to attract Tommy’s attention. First he figures that they have to drop the dead weight of Phoebe and Quentin. This sounds like a great idea but Luke somehow completely bungles it. Luke takes them out into the woods and Quentin and Phoebe escape. Luke tries to find Phoebe but fails. He only finds Quentin who decides to switch sides. Quentin vows to work with Luke and Malina against Phoebe and Erica. Quentin tells Luke that Phoebe is no longer his sister. This would also be compelling if Quentin wasn’t a complete caricature.
Erica Loses it All
Taylor realizes shortly that Francis is dead and has been for some time. Taylor is furious at Erica and draws a gun at her mother’s head. Since Erica’s memories can only be activated by guns being pointed at peoples’ heads apparently, she goes back into another flashback. Erica became pregnant from the rape of the doctor. She had the baby (presumably Taylor) and they lived a poor but happy life.
When the child got sick, Erica had to call the doctor who quickly recognized the child as his own. He was determined to take the baby and raise it on his own, away from Erica. Erica killed the doctor to keep her child for herself. Erica then finds Caspar (remember him?) and has him wipe everyone’s memories away, especially that of the child.
In present day, Erica tells Taylor that she is the best thing that ever happened to her. Everything Erica did was for Taylor and she just wants to start over, in the future. Taylor denies the offer leaving Erica alone. Erica does not have an attractive crying face.
Showdown at the Gym
Malina, Luke and (ugh) Quentin find a camera crew at Claire Bennet’s old high school. Malina uses her powers and grabs the attention of the news. Malina records a message for Tommy. Micah and Farah see the news broadcast and transmit it to anything with a screen. Tommy sees the message but so does Erica.
Farah, Carlos, Tommy and (ugh) Joanne all make their way to the gym. Tommy is accosted by Otomo who does some kind of weird crap that makes Tommy disappears. (We’ll touch on why in a bit. For now, just know this is just the tip of a very bizarre iceberg.)
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Joanne goes in guns a-blazing into the gym. Luke tries to protect Malina by standing in front of her, but she gets shot anyway. In retaliation, Luke, with his powers, disintegrates his wife into ash and that’s it. It’s not exactly as if Joanne deserved a good one but it is the most unceremonious death scene I’ve probably seen.
Malina isn’t really shot either. Somehow though she arrived after both Joanne and Tommy. Farah, using her powers, impersonated Malina. She stood in front of the bullet that was meant for Malina. So it was Farah, not Malina, who was shot. Luke tells Carlos to take Farah to a hospital. He’ll protect Malina.
Final Pieces of Business
Apropos of nothing we catch with Matt Parkman. He is driving carelessly trying to get word to his estranged wife that he has passes to Gateway. Parkman is on an empty street and a lamp falls into the edge of the road. So Parkman (comically) swerves out of the way and goes careering down the hill in his car. Trapped inside his car and feeling hopeless, Parkman starts to laugh manically. I think we’re supposed to be pleased by this development. I’m more just confused. Very confused.
Moving back a bit, it is revealed that Otomo was working with Erica. He trapped Tommy in the video game just like he did with Hiro. Ren and Emily, still together, make their way into the inner sanctum of Renataus. They watch as Erica has Otomo killed and they overhear the conversation about Tommy. They know that Tommy is trapped inside Evernow and that’s where things are left for the big series finale.
Heroes Reborn airs Thursdays at 8pm on NBC
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
