Heroes: The Panic Room

This week on "Heroes" we met a few more superpowered characters we'll marginally care for, while some of our favorites got pushed to the side — so it's like any other week on "Heroes" this year.

I don't really consider myself one of those spraining their ankles jumping off the "Heroes" bandwagon, but I call it like I see it. The latest episode, "Fight or Flight" was a step back, providing little to no forward progress on major storylines.

Even in the episode's most interesting scenes — involving Parkman and Nathan's — (Nate-man?pictured, right) visit to Parkman's mind-reading dad — I still don't really know too much more than I did going in. Sure, it was pretty cool to find out that Parkman's powers (and maybe others) can be developed and expand, and that little nightmare room scenario was pretty cool, but in the end it turned out to be a big tease as Parkman's dad easily got away. Also, why do you suppose Nathan's nightmare biggest fear involved a destroyed NYC? Didn't he already stop that from happening? Didn't make sense to me.

Maybe I'm just slow — actually, I'm definitely slow since my brother, my girlfriend and her brother all understood the fact that Nathan and Parkman were actually fighting each other before I did — but we still don't know if Parkman's dad is indeed Molly's boogeyman or if he's, as he claims, marked for death like the others.

At least Nate-man actually went somewhere. Poor Masi Oka is still stuck puttering around picturesque fields as Hiro is still stuck ancient Japan for no good reason. What are "Heroes" writers thinking? "Hmm, this guy is clearly our most popular character and breakout personality from the first season — let's stick him away from everyone else and not have him do anything for three weeks. I'm sure fans'll love that." Meanwhile, the writers are struggling to keep Ando involved as he visited an expert in some truly ineffective scenes to try to decipher a small sliver of paper from ancient Hiro and I got bored writing this sentence. I won't waste any more words in this paragraph since no one really cares about any of this garbage. Yes, I know I just did. Must. Stop. Now.

Let's talk about Mohinder instead (yes, we have to). After nagging Parkman a bit more (what a shrew!) he (stupidly) took sick Molly in to the Company over Mr. Bennett's wishes. Later while Mohinder was talking to Bob, the Company guy, Nikki, who'd been seeking treatment for the virus, came out of nowhere and nearly choked Bob to death, leading to the best joke in the hour. Not from character in the show, but from Erica, who threw in a perfectly timed "don't tase me, bro" as Mohinder took Nikki down. Two things occurred to me during this scene: 1) Nikki is still on this show? 2) I wish we were watching what Mr. Bennett and the Haitian are doing in Ukraine instead of this stuff.

In the end, Mohinder paid a visit to Monica, who, we learned is a Copycat (solid superhero name) who can imitate anything that she sees (doesn't have to be on TV). Since the writers decided to ruin Hiro's character, I'm actually kind of glad to see at least one character experience a bit of joy in discovering their new abilities, even if it leads to a cheesy double-dutch scene. I also enjoyed this storyline because it's good to see Micah become friends with someone, ANYONE. Then Mohinder showed up.

Then there's the Peter Petrelli saga. As he learned after opening the overly fancy memory box, that is, in fact, his name. Unfortunately, an electric young blonde named Elle arrived in town looking for Peter (well, that's where he got THAT power). After toasting the brother of Peter's new girlfriend (I admit I don't know any of their names because I've taken a mental nap through many of Peter's scenes this year), she was inexplicably pulled off the investigation.

I realize Kristen Bell is supposed to be a pretty good actress (I never watched "Veronica Mars", so I can't say for sure), but I did not care for her performance last night. Bell basically slinked through the episode acting like she figures a typical "badass girl" is supposed to act like, and it came off as just that — an act. It wasn't very good. Claire oozes more badass than this chick. (Speaking of Claire, come back! And bring Sylar and Mr. Muggles with you next week!)

The problem is that, except for Parkman and Nathan's murder investigation, none of these storylines have really gone anywhere. For example, I know Kensei's symbol is important (it's the mark of death for each of the older heroes who's kicked the bucket), but isn't it time we already moved towards that? Also, in the first five weeks, the show has jumped around from the boring Wonder Twins driving, um, somewhere, to Claire wanting to date a vaguely stalkerish guy, to Peter hanging out in a pub, to Micah in New Orleans, all with no relation to each other.

The first season did a better job of at least dropping hints to the main character's connections. I'm still hopeful things will pick up soon with Peter going to Montreal, Bennett and the Haitian in Ukraine and Hiro moving on to — nevermind, two out of three ain't bad.

So what did YOU think of this episode? Who is Elle's "daddy" who pulled her away from the chase for Peter? It's got to be Bob, right? It'd be cool if it were Mr. Bennett, but it's got to be Bob, right? Am I complaining too much about the show (or not enough)? Finally, does it make me a bastard to say that Peter's Irish girlfriend is just not pretty enough for him? (sorry, but it's true) I think I'd rather see him back with Fergie.