I was pretty skeptical about Heroes Reborn. It seemed like a very lazy cash-in on the current trend of superhero TV. It was an opinion that wasn’t really swayed after several episodes. Now I’ve begun to recognize Heroes Reborn as something more and it has become one of my favorite new shows of Fall. Yet for Heroes Reborn rebounds into positivity, they have made a terrible error. An error involving the character of Quentin Frady and his new allegiances.
Evil Quentin Is a Bad Quentin
I understand what Heroes Reborn was going for with Quentin. I like the fact that there were consequences for Noah time-traveling. Noah’s recklessness caused problems for him in the future when he returned. It’s important for events to have stakes and Heroes Reborn certainly did that by turning Noah’s closest friend into his enemy. Everything around the twist of making Quentin a spy for Erica just feels like a terrible misfire.
Now I know that some Heroes Reborn fans think that Noah’s time travel adventures didn’t really change anything. Some believe that Quentin was always working for Erica and all that changed was he survived his attack by his sister. Others think everything is the same and Quentin just faked his death. Personally I don’t agree with either view, too many characters told Noah he changed the future in “June 13th Part Two” for me to think Heroes Reborn isn’t following through on that. Even if Quentin was always a Renautas spy though it’s irrelevant for the purposes of this discussion. It’s still a cheap twist.
It Goes Against Quentin’s Character
I’ll admit I didn’t like the character of Quentin before his “tragic” death. He was such a desperate attempt at a comedic relief character. Quentin was supposed to be a lovable loser when in actuality he was just a pathetic exposition spewer. Quentin’s entire motivation was saving his sister and that was a relationship viewers could only be interested in if they watched the Heroes Reborn web series.
That’s not my real objection with the twist. I’m obviously not happy Quentin is alive, because I don’t like the character and he annoys me. My problems go beyond simple dislike. Quentin being evil is a sloppy twist. It’s a really easy way to drum up drama and tension for the last few episodes.
I may not like Quentin’s character but I know working with Renautas and Erica is against everything the character believed in the old timeline. The only possible way that Heroes Reborn could convince us that this is in line with Quentin’s character is if they told his entire new backstory in flashback and that doesn’t seem likely. Heroes Reborn has twenty characters to juggle and only five episodes to wrap it all up. They also regulate Quentin’s old backstory to a web series so that doesn’t speak well for how interested they are in telling the story.
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Why Does Anyone Listen to Erica?
A bigger problem with the evil Quentin story is we really don’t know why anyone, not just him, would follow Erica. Erica Kravid suffers from Cliched Villain Syndrome. She’s ridiculously evil but she swears she is actually saving the world. Erica is ego maniacal power freak who is straight out of her gourd but she has seemingly legion of devoted followers. There seems to be no real reason for it.
Now Quentin is one of these brainless faithful. Maybe an unexpected benefit for the twist will be that Heroes Reborn can give an inside look to one of Erica’s lackies. We will be able to truly understand why they believe in Erica and what her greater plan really is, besides “saving the world”. Maybe I’ll end up being just as wrong about this Quentin twist as I was about Heroes Reborn in general. I don’t think I will though.
What do you think? Do you actually like that Quentin has turned double agent? Do you think it is a betrayal of the character? Do you understand why anyone follows Erica? When will Noah find out that Quentin is lying to him? Do you think Heroes Reborn has gotten better as it gone along?
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.
