What if I was to tell you that you had to sit through an episode of "Heroes" without Hiro or Peter — is that something you might be interested in?Well the answer is probably no, but last night's episode "The Kindness of Strangers" managed to be pretty compelling without a single appearance from two of last year's main characters. I'm not going to say that the show is "back," but it's heading in the right direction.
That includes some forward movement in the "Molly's Boogeyman" storyline after it was revealed that the man in Molly's dream is Parkman's father (just go with it) who is also apparently a member of the older generation of "Heroes". Unfortunately, we're still being treated to laughably bad junk like Mohinder and Parkman playing house with Molly Walker, who had been stuck in "I'm having nightmares about the boogeyman mode" since the season started, but now seems like she's trapped in her own mind. I think I'll enjoy her more this way. Also, I bet Parkman is happy to get out of the house and away from that nag Mohinder.
Speaking of laughably bad, I realize this show intentionally models itself after some comic books in its style, but some of the dialogue is just embarrassing sometimes and makes me groan out loud. I'm thinking of West telling Claire "I know you can heal, but I never want to see you hurt." Awwwwwww...geez! I'm still not 100 percent sold on West as a good guy (or Nick D'agosto as a good actor), and their "dates" just seem more ridiculous to me than sweet, but I have to give credit where credit is due — Hayden Panettiere is carrying these scenes. She's a very good actress and, along with Jack Coleman as her adoptive dad, she's carrying this show during this early-season swoon.
Any scene with those two has become the best thing about the show (Mr. Muggles optional) because that family just CANNOT stop lying to each other. Claire now has to pretend she's cheerleading instead of dating West, while Mr. Bennett/Butler will have to think of an excuse to go to Ukraine (the Ukraine is weak!) after the Haitian informed him of the location of one Isaac's eight missing paintings.
Meanwhile, down in New Orleans, we were introduced to yet another hero as Micah's cousin, Monica Dawson (pictured, top right), dispatched of a would be robber by doing her best Rey Mysterio impersonation (points subtracted for not finishing the guy off for the pin with the West Coast Pop). It seems that Monica has some sort photographic memory that lets her perform feats she's seen. All of this would've been interesting enough without the forced references to Hurricane Katrina that kept popping up, but this is a new character I can see myself caring about (unlike Micah's other male cousin, who is just a horrible child).
Even the Wonder Twins were more interesting this week, though I'm 100 percent sure it's because they ran into Sylar this week. I was under the impression that Sylar was completely isolated from the outside world after (the apparently now dead) Candice/Michelle had taken him to that shack, but apparently all he had to do to get away was go for a REALLY long walk. It wasn't long before he found out the twins were on their way to find Chandra Suresh (who Sylar murdered) and that they have great power themselves. I bet Alejandro's going to wish he'd left Sylar dead pretty soon.
So what'd you think of this episode? How do you like your Nathan? Beard or no beard? (No beard!) Are Erica and I the only people who completely forgot that Nathan has kids? Could Nathan's mom be any creepier? (By the way, Cristine Rose is the second or third best actor on this show) Do you agree that this episode was an improvement and will the show keep the momentum going when Peter and Hiro's static storylines come back?
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