Episode Report Card Erin: B- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT We Can Be Heroes, Just For One Day.
By Erin | Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.24.2006
Greaso tosses Nikki onto the bed and says that fifty grand is a lot of money and Nikki's all, uh, dude? Try thirty. But this is the mob, not the Bank of America, so they're not really sticking to the original amount that Nikki "borrowed." Nikki tries to reason with them, using Micah as a bargaining chip. Greaso isn't really the fatherly type, so it doesn't work on him. Instead, he makes her a little business proposition: he's going to give her a chance to lower her debt a little. You know, via the whole taking off of the clothes, thing. Nikki gets his drift and starts angrily taking off her clothes in the least alluring way possible. Greaso just laughs and laughs and laughs as Fatso films the entire thing. Nikki rubs her face again, which is quickly becoming a signal that she's undergoing a little... pressure. She's about to take off her jeans when she catches a glimpse of her other self in the mirror. Greaso smacks her down and she immediately gets up and tells him, "Screw you." That's not really the hot naked action he was hoping for, so he punches her lights out and we go to black.
Meanwhile, in a Tokyo train station, Hiro's trying to convince his work buddy that he can, indeed, bend time. His buddy humors him and asks him that, if he really does have this power, what's he going to do with it? Join the circus? "No one ever got laid by stopping the second hand of a clock," he rightly says. Hiro just enthusiastically says that, as he learns to use his powers, he'll learn to bend space, too. Then he'll be able to teleport himself anywhere on the planet. "Like Star Trek?" says the friend. "Like Star Trek!" agrees Hiro. Dudes? There are, like, a billion other, better, teleportation references than Star Trek, okay? Nothing will ever beat, "Beam me up, Scotty" sure, but damn, I think the writers need to page through Netflix and do a little research. "Every hero must learn his purpose," says Hiro. "Then he'll be tested and called to greatness." At the end of this statement, Hiro does this totally adorable flourish with his hands like he's making his "superhero" pose. I am totally in love with his character right now. It's just so refreshing that he full-on believes in his superpower. His buddy is not so pleased with him and says that he needs a stiff drink. Or ten. "Beam us up, Scotty!" he says with a grimace as Hiro continues to pose like a superhero.
We head on over to a Tokyo lounge where we're supposed to believe that the Chinese Backstreet Boys from YouTube fame are performing an impromptu revival of their famous hit. Only we're in Japan. And they're... Chinese. But, whatever, it's a funny little moment. Hiro and Buddy are sitting at a table as Buddy gets increasingly drunker and drunker. There's one thing I know about certain Japanese businessmen: they can drink until they're so drunk that they don't resemble human beings anymore. It's awesome. Hiro is giving Buddy a lecture on how everyone thinks time is a straight line, the shortest distance between two points. But, he says, time is actually more like a circle with a line through it. Hiro says that every ten-year-old dreams that they have magical powers and now he actually has them! "I'm not a loser anymore!" he says. His enthusiasm is infectious. Buddy asks Hiro again what he's going to do with his power -- like, is he going to get lots of money for it? "A super hero doesn't use his power for personal gain," says Hiro. Buddy's all, bah! What good is it for, then? I mean, can you teleport yourself into the girls bathroom? Hiro looks over his shoulder at the line outside the entrance. He says that, if he had to, he could teleport into the girl's bathroom just fine. Buddy challenges him to do it while he goes to grab more beers. Hiro says he's going to do it, dammit. Then he closes his eyes, breathes, and opens them in this really comical manner like he's driving lasers into the ladies room.