Running for Congress

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Running for Congress

One of the threads running through Heroes is Nathan Petrelli's campaign for the House of Representatives. Like many politicians, both aspiring and actual, he is a lawyer and thus has the right kind of background for the job. What is best about this campaign is that it helps to ground the series in a sense of reality. These people who suddenly have developed bizarre powers live in the real world. They have real lives, real relationships, and real duties. With the charged political climate that has come as a result of the Bush era, this campaign makes Heroes seem even more true-to-life.

However, the campaign is doing its fair share to strain Nathan's relationship with his brother, Peter. Of course, Nathan would say that there was no worse time for their powers to manifest than during the middle of the campaign, but nonetheless, they did. Due to the incident when Peter's powers manifest, Nathan found himself in a dangerous position. If he told the truth, everyone would think that he was a nutjob, and he would lose his chance to enter the big-time of politics. Or, he could say that, like his father, supposedly, Peter was suffering from depression, and his injuries were from a failed suicide attempt. After all, any sort of scandal can kill a political campaign. As a result, Peter becomes very mad with Nathan, as he is more concerned with his political future than what is happening to them. This tension continued to when the Petrellis had a reporter over for brunch. However, this incident came as a result of another of Nathan's politically-related woes.

Like many politicians and many people in general, Nathan has had his fair share of infidelities. The first, with Meredith Gordon, resulted in Claire Bennet, who, like them, has a special power. The second occurred during the course of the show and was with Niki Sanders, who was, at the time, under the influence of her other personality, Jessica. Jessica slept with Nathan in order to pay off a debt to the mysterious and ever-present Linderman, who was trying to get Nathan in his pocket. Shortly later, Nathan was kidnapped by Noah Bennet and the Haitian, though he managed to escape. This time period when he was missing might have been construed as time he spent sleeping with another woman, had Peter not stepped in during brunch. He claimed they had been in a depression clinic to help Peter and that they had to keep this fact secret. All these lies and scandals combined together would make life difficult for Nathan should they come out.

The most interesting thing about the campaign, however, is that Nathan's opponent has yet to be shown. It is also not clear as to which party Nathan belongs. So, despite the fact that his political campaign determines almost all his decisions, we have no idea about the actual details of the campaign. As a political junkie, I am a bit disappointed in that regard, as I personally would find more focus on the campaign to be very interesting. But Nathan's character still gets plenty of screen time, so there is no need to worry that he is not important enough. The unimportant person is the other candidate.

Aenedis
Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:03:51 +0000

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