Heroes: It's About Time

See! NOW we're getting somewhere — and it only took about six weeks.

By the end of "Out of Time" (the latest "Heroes" episode, NOT the underrated Denzel Washington vehicle) Hiro was back in the present with Ando and a few of the heroes actually banded together and used their powers (imagine that!)

Let's get the Hiro saga out of the way, which actually came to a pretty satisfying conclusion last night. I'm talking about Kensei fully taking his turn to the dark side before he was temporarily vanquished by Hiro, as well as the farewell scene between Hiro and Princess Yaeko, in which she promised to spread the good word about Kensei to maintain the integrity of the space time continuum (a concept she grasped pretty easily considering she's from ancient Japan).

Now, I'll admit I'm slower than most viewers, so I thought it was a neat little surprise to have Kensei show up in present time as the latter day Adam Monroe that had been referenced last week. Turns out being invulnerable also makes you somewhat immortal (which I can buy) and that Monroe/Kensei is the one who formed the company. He's also the one who appears to be hunting down the older generation of "Heroes", using Matt's dad Maury as his blunt instrument. Quick aside: has there ever been a scarier/more badass character with a less scary name? Whenever Matt would tell people to hide in fear from "Maury" (pictured, left), I cracked up.

Speaking of the Parkman's, Greg Grunberg now has the episode he'll probably submit to the Emmy people as he had a tearful bedside scene with Molly AND overcame his daddy issues in the same hour. I like Parkman. The guy's been dumped on ever since the show started, so it was good to see him find confidence and develop his own power. I'd be interested to see what happens if other heroes decide to develop her powers.

Claire might not have a choice but to be exploited for her powers, since Mohinder's blood is no longer a cure for the heroes-erasing disease known as the Shanti virus in the future (named after his sister). Nikki infected herself with the virus (for some reason that I still don't understand) in the middle of a Nightmare Man/Maury-induced hallucination which briefly brought back Leonard Roberts as D.L. (I kinda miss that guy).

Since I don't really see Mr. Bennett handing over Claire to be the company's lab rat (is that why he gets killed?), I'm assuming Nikki doesn't get cured and turns out to be patient zero in the future world Peter got a peek at. There, he was separated from Caitlin, but met up with his mom, who helped fill in the blanks in Peter's past (and revealed that Nathan dies in this possible future scenario).

Now Peter is face to face with Kensei, Hiro is back with Ando and next week's preview promises to provide even more answers. Maybe we'll finally find out what the purpose of the wonder twins!

So what'd you think of this episode? Who else hopes Peter's girlfriend (who my sources tell me is named Caitlin) is stuck in the future? Why was Peter sent to Ireland by the Company in the first place (maybe to hook up with Caitlin)? How did Peter's mom survive the apocalypse (and the person hunting the oldest generation of Heroes)? Could she have a hand in it, the same way she did with the bomb? How much longer until flying West is fully evil? Two weeks? Three?

Now that Mohinder's blood is no longer a cure for the virus, he's officially useless — so, they can kill him off, right?! Seriously though, who do you think he's shooting in that portrait? Could he be the one that puts a cap in Mr. Bennett? Finally, does the White Beard we kept hearing about in ancient Japan = Linderman?

The fact that I REALLY want to know the answers to all these questions (and a few I haven't even thought to ask) is VERY encouraging.