Heroes: Feeling Powerless

Last night's episode of "Heroes" had almost no forward movement.

That was inevitable, given that the previous installment revealed that this year's Big Bad is Arthur Petrelli, head of Pinehearst Industries and father to Nathan, Peter and Sylar. We also learned that he's the one who wanted the formula to create people with abilities and that he's assembling a team of baddies to help carry out his orders.

On this week's episode, "Dying of the Light," Pinehearst was still recruiting special people it hoped to turn into bad guys, Meredith was still in danger after falling prey to Puppetmaster Eric Doyle, and Hiro was still acting like an idiot.

But you know what? I liked this episode of "Heroes."

What the episode may have lacked in plot advancement, it made up for with some solid humor mixed in with some genuinely creepy moments.

Since there were more positives than negatives, let's just get the bad stuff out of the way first: Peter is annoying.

The character that was once the heart of this show is now regularly met with eye rolls by my girlfriend Erica and yours truly whenever he's onscreen. Peter's nosedive started during the subpar second season and hasn't really stopped. I get that his character is crucial to the "Heroes" universe, but Milo Ventimiglia's attempts at acting tough and bad (as he struggles with Sylar's power) are mostly laughable. His fight with Sylar as he busted out of Level 5 should've felt like a bigger deal, but it hardly registered. I also get that he and Sylar are supposed to have done a sort of switcheroo this year, but Sylar's half of that storyline is approximately 400% more interesting.

The most interesting Peter-related development is that now we kind of have an idea of how he gets that scar in the future, after his pop sucked his powers away from him (including invulnerability). Here's hoping a now-powerless Peter will be more interesting. I'm also hoping to see Forster do a little more next time out. He's a non-traditional choice to play an eeevil mastermind (unlike say Malcolm McDowell as Linderman), but I like that he seems approachable enough to hug — until he sucks the life out of you.

Peter was actually Arthur's second victim, after literally sucking the life out of Adam Monroe earlier in the episode. Well, he sucked the immortality out of him, forcing him to show his age. This was an oddly sudden-death to a relatively important character and it was also a shame because I enjoyed David Anders in the role. Monroe's death, along with Bob's death in the season premiere and the disappearance of Monica, is part of the producers' ongoing plot to have us forget that season 2 ever happened. You'd better watch your back Elle.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the episode. You'll also notice I didn't include Mohinder's storyline in the negatives! Sure, I still think it was a mistake to give the one prominent "normal" character powers and make him like everyone else, but I'm learning to enjoy his storyline for the cheesy, "Alien"-esque storyline. I'm also really enjoying the little rattlesnake cues on the soundtrack when he's obviously thinking about attacking someone (this week Nathan and Tracy briefly joined his collection). Also, Maya had no dialogue this week, which is a good thing. On top of all that, there was honest-to-goodness forward movement in his story, as he was recruited by Daphne on behalf of Pinehearst, which may hold the key to curing him. I just like him better as a hapless reptilian killer than I did as a hapless dumb scientist.

Despite her painfully awkward scenes with Parkman (can't that character catch a break), Daphne had a very interesting arc this week. First, she showed disapproval at how Hiro could so easily kill his best friend. During her subsequent recruiting trips, we found out Daphne isn't so much eeevil as she is out to make some quick cash. Of course, her romance with Parkman will surely lead to some audible groans from viewers at home, but I was grateful that the show took time to give Daphne some development (a luxury on this show). I was also grateful that they had Parkman bring back the turtle with him. Altogether now: "thank you, turtle."

Things weren't looking so promising for Hiro at first. I guess the guy already had a joke shop in mind which had an exact replica of the store he carries around AND fake blood in case he ever had to pretend to kill his best friend. After that nonsense, I thoroughly enjoyed Hiro and Ando's hunt of the precog, African Isaac. The bit where Hiro saw himself getting hit by a shovel, then travelled back in time ("One Minute Before Hiro Got Hit") only to get outsmarted again, was one of the show's best this year. It also brought back the clever humor which Hiro's character used to provide.

Not so funny, but equally effective, was the hostage situation with Meredith. Although, I'm not quite sure why Claire thought that pointing a taser at a guy who can control your every move would work, Doyle's scenes were genuinely creepy and the show found a smart way to have the three overmatched women take him down (staging Claire's death). I know Doyle is caught, but I get a feeling we haven't seen the last of that character.

A more interesting throwaway moment was H.R.G. asking Meredith to be his partner. First, his wife Sandra (pictured, left) has to deal with feeling like she's being replaced by Meredith as Claire's mom, now she's going to have to deal with Meredith being her husband's new partner. I think there's potential there, and I hope the show explores that instead of having Claire make another pouty face at H.R.G.

So what'd you think of this episode? What does Parkman's turtle mean given his relationship with Daphne? Is HE the Turtle to her really fast girl with the trendy HAREcut? (I'm SO sorry about that.) What's going to happen to Peter now? Finally, can ANYBODY stop Arthur Petrelli now? (Paging, the Haitian. Please report back to the show.)