After the emotional mini blockbuster that was Company Man, Parasite resumes the usual format of flitting from one character to another. Which, though frustrating, is just the way it has to be when you have such a sprawling cast. And offers up a few nice little moments.
After what seems like a trillion years, and with the help of an (impossibly) conveniently placed Ando, Hiro finally recovers his magic sword of destiny. Hopefully now we’ll start seeing him continue on his journey to being that time travelling samurai who gave birth to the best cheerleader-based catchphrase in the history of the world, and stop running around in circles doing nothing much in particular.
Nathan’s meeting with the oft-talked-about-never-seen Linderman makes for a curious mix of underwhelming predictability and semi bad-assness as Nathan is offered a choice by the seemingly omnipotent businessman. Like the super cool Mr. Bennet, I’ve always thought Nathan to be capable of operating in a morally grey area, a refreshing contrast to his brother’s constant whining about Doing What’s Right.
Meanwhile Mohinder, displaying an uncharacteristic degree of intelligence, competence, and sheer bad-assness, finally realises the complete stranger he’s been living out of his car with for god knows how long, isn’t the man he claims to be. On discovering Sylar’s true identity, he takes action, and when Peter – still reeling from the timely death of boring Simone – arrives on the scene, things go from bad to worse as Sylar gains the upper hand, resulting in a grisly cliffhanger…
On the whole the episode feels a little disappointing, if only because Company Man proved that with the right focus, these characters can really shine. When they’re dotted about and with very little screen time, things do seem to drag and not really connect (even when Claire happens on ANOTHER implausible and frankly quite ridiculous connection between two of the characters which I personally found neither shocking nor remotely interesting). We’ll just have to wait and see.
