Heroes: Work is Torture

You know the "Hiro-in-feudal-Japan" storyline is dragging when princess Yaeko asked him "why are you still here?" I think that's what everyone who counted Hiro as his or her favorite character (like me) last year wants to know.

At least last night's episode, "The Line", brought some forward progress and some dark turns. Of course, that was counteracted by more silliness and repetitiveness, but, hey, nobody's perfect.

Since I was talking about Hiro, I'll stay there. I enjoyed the moment where he basically said "what the heck" and unfroze time to kiss Yaeko. I also like that Kensei discovered Hiro's "betrayal" and has now gone to the dark side. When Hiro and Yaeko teleported out of the (lame) battle, I thought for a second Hiro had accidentally taken them back to the present. I guess that was just wishful thinking and would've been interesting — so, of course, that wasn't the case.

Seeing that I routinely space out during the feudal Japan scenes, I hadn't realized that Hiro had become Kensei's trusted friend, and had reawakened something within the British drunk. Of course, it's too bad for Hiro that now that Kensei actually cares about something, he's probably not going to use it in the most productive way. So now, Hiro has to fix the past (again), though it's still not quite clear why he was still around to screw it up to begin with.

Also, the Ando scenes in the present as he deciphers the scrolls have got to stop. The forced attempts at humor and James Kyson Lee's (over)acting are painful to watch.

Anyway, what I really want to talk about is Mr. Bennett, who was in Ukraine with the Haitian to ask an old colleague about the series of paintings that seemingly end with his death.

Jack Coleman (pictured, left) killed it in this episode. If it wasn't already clear that he's the best actor on this show (as I've said many times), this should've confirmed it. I've gotta give credit to the writers too for coming up with that not-outwardly violent, but effective method of torture which involved wiping cherished memories away. Coleman was especially good fielding a phone call from Claire in the middle of his interrogation and casually lying to her (to be fair, she was lying to him too) and at the end when, having the information he needed, he decided to kill his old mentor just to be sure. This is a guy who'll do ANYTHING for what he thinks is right, no matter what the cost.

Meanwhile, Mohinder is a guy who'll do anything that seems like a good idea at the time. First he grudgingly accepts injecting Monica with a virus that could take away her ability (or kill her), then he decides not to and take Molly away from the company, until he changes his mind again and decides to stay. I mean, she's still as sick as she was before, so why not take her? In the end, Bob spared Monica a little too easily and even gave her an iPod to learn new skills. I still have a bad feeling something is going to happen to one of the few new additions I like.

I don't quite hate the wonder twins as much as I did in the beginning now that they're with Sylar. I just don't understand what the point of this storyline is, and more specifically, the point of Sylar. Apparently, he's lost his power and he's accompanying the twins under the guise of leading them to Dr. Chandra Suresh (who Sylar killed). So, what exactly is his plan to get his powers back?

Also, how come Maya , who got in touch with her dark side with help from Sylar, can speak decent English, but her twin brother, who you figure is very close to her given the nature of their powers, can't? Methinks Alejandro DOES speak English and he's just keeping his cards close to his vest for now.

The episode ended with Peter and his Irish girlfriend who I don't care enough about to find out her name in Montreal, where Peter received a vision of a decimated New York City (is there any other kind on this show) a year from now. From the previews, it looks like it was due to a virus (probably the same one Bob is carrying around), but mostly I liked this scene better when it was Peter's dream about being the bomb (literally, not like black people use it) in an empty NYC from last year. (Nice song choice, by the way, by whoever made that video.)

So what'd you think of this episode? Who's this Adam guy referenced by Bob the company guy and Peter? Couldn't Claire and West come up with a less elaborate plan to get her on the cheer squad? (I see an evil turn for him soon...he enjoys messing with people a bit too much) Are you looking forward to what looks like another "future" episode? Finally, is there any chance at all that partnering Mohinder with Nikki will make him interesting?