So remember when I wrote that post about how Heroes is all about daddy issues? Let’s check in on them this year, shall we? Since I wrote that post we basically found out that all the heroes’ fathers (and one of their moms, because their dad is dead and it’s all Oedipal) founded a Shady Organization that might cause the end of the world.

So that’s pretty persuasive.

In other news (spoilers up to this week’s episode, if you’re behind):

  • It turns out Parkman’s dad is not only psychic and evil, but he actually abandoned Parkman when he was young. Which kind of explains his anxiety about not fucking up his own (possible) baby (at least in his nightmare when his wife is all “You left us even though you psychically heard me say that the baby might be yours”), and also his compensating attempts to be a good fake co-dad to Molly. Also, he realized that he can control people’s minds and it is totally turning him into his father, and he should feel bad about that.
  • Mohinder: has mostly sublimated his daddy issues into fake fathering Molly and one time having a hilarious fight with Matt about their daddy issues. That and running around acting like an idiot and totally changing his mind about which side he’s on every two seconds and apparently hiring the Worst Baby-Sitter In The World who leaves his daughter with a serial killer.
  • Nathan: So, even though he and his brother saved the world through the POWER OF LOVE, he still got all sad when it turned out his brother fake died. So he abandoned his roles both as a law-maker and a father to become a bearded alcoholic. That is really all that his happened with him this year, he is basically eye candy and an occasional exposition machine. (The whole intimation that Hiro’s dad and Claire Angela might have had an affair is really fascinating. Because it could kind of mean that Hiro is a secret Petrelli brother. Maybe that’s why he has powers and his sister is just a silent, competent businesswoman?)
  • Hiro: just buried his dad. It was sad, because Hiro can travel through time so he tried to save him, but then he realized that you have to let go of the father and learn to live without paternal authority and be a man. Oh, he also went back in time and met his childhood hero (and I thought, ancestor) Takezo Kensei, who turned out to also have magic powers. Oh, and then Hiro stole his girlfriend and set him on a path of evil that has led us to the whole plague issue we’ve got going on now. (Also I think the fact that he’s named Adam is a pretty obvious hint that he is like the “real father” of all the heroes; normally I would say that that’s a stretch, but who knows?
  • Claire: Her daddy issues have been pretty boring this year. She had a boyfriend that her dad didn’t want her to date–supposedly because of some kind of magic future painting, but I think that is kind of just a fictional ruse for Noah’s Oedipal (edit: well, Electral) jealousy. Actually, it’s a lot like Oedipus myth, because in the story, it was the prophecy that Oedipus would kill his dad and marry his mom that made them leave Oedipus out in the wilderness, so that when he met his dad he didn’t know that was who he was killing and he didn’t realize that nice lady he married was his mom. Just like it was Isaac Mendez’s prophetic painting that made Noah so paranoid about Claire dating, and if Noah hadn’t been so paranoid about her dating, then they never would have gotten into the situation where Claire had a secret boyfriend and also showed her hand in trying to get on the cheerleading squad, because she was only doing it to fake out her dad.
  • Elle and Bob: They are interesting, because Elle has been pretty obviously set up as the anti-Claire, in that her dad turned her over to the Company and they totally screwed her up. They are pretty obviously equivalent in last week’s Blonde Exchange (band name!). I think we will see lots more of Elle’s daddy issues in the future.
  • Micah and Nikki: Aw, so they lose their family’s dad, not from getting shot like you originally think, but because he was a fireman. Everyone knows that a fireman in 21st Century America is like the best kind of hero you can be.

I probably should have posted about Peter and Sylar, too, but they don’t have any new issues since we last checked in with them.