Heroes: Past Imperfect

The Scene: John and Erica's living room at 10:02 p.m. after the couple had finished watching "Dancing with the Stars" and "Samantha Who."

John: So, you ready to watch "Heroes" on the DVR?
Erica: (Inaudible grumble.)
John: What?
Erica: "Heroes" sucks now!
John: I know, but I gotta write my recap for tomorrow.

And scene!

As usual, Erica tells it like it is. "Heroes" does, in fact, suck now. I wish this weren't the case, but it is. I welcome any one out there to convince me that I'm wrong because I WANT this show to be good.

Now, you may be asking yourself why I'd keep writing about a show that "sucks." I'd tell you that it's partly due to the fact that I still see a lot of potential with this show. I'd also say that I find it more interesting to write about a show that's not perfect all the time instead of filling column after column with effusive praise (that's probably the big reason I don't do "Mad Men" or "The Office recaps — I can hardly think of any bad things to say about them). Mostly though, I'm just the kind of person that can't quit on a TV show (or writing about it) once I've started. So, "Heroes" and I are stuck with each other. This is worse than writing recaps for the last stinky season of "24."

I had semi-high expectations for last night's episode. The show had taken a week off and I was excited to dive back in.

Instead, we got yet ANOTHER time-bending episode with almost no forward movement in the "Villains" storyline. For extra fun, the episode was framed with the exact same device from about a month ago when Parkman went on a spirit walk to the future. This time, Hiro went on a spirit walk to the past, while I continued to believe that dreaming about or envisioning people you don't even know if really stupid. (On a positive note, Hiro dreaming the entire episode meant he couldn't do anything colossally stupid.)

Fortunately, it looks like we're done with the spirit walks, since Usutu's head was forcibly removed from his body. It must've been a fellow "Heroes" fan sick of the flashbacks and flashforwards.

Still, the episode's biggest sin was that, despite taking an extensive look back at a few of the central characters (and Meredith), we learned almost nothing that we needed to know.

For example, while I've enjoyed Sylar's (pictured, right) struggle to reform this season, I don't feel that it was necessary to show him having a personal crisis about his powers at the start. The revelation that he had enormous guilt about killing for power early on just felt like the writers were straining to tie things together with the Sylar redemption storyline this year. Also, the fact that a woman's betrayal (Elle) helped push him to the dark side is pretty lame. I guess I just liked him better when he was a mysterious killing machine. I mean, nobody cared why Hannibal Lecter was the way he was ("Hannibal Rising" = blech!), and "Heroes" is threatening to become "Sylar Rising."

Still, I did enjoy seeing H.R.G. in cold, season 1, Company man mode for a bit and it WAS interesting to learn that the Company pushed Sylar into becoming a super villain. Hopefully, the reason for that will be revisited in a future episode. Oh, and I also liked seeing the emo guy get it.

Speaking of emo guys, I was thoroughly delighted to see Milo Ventimiglia break out Peter's emo wig for a few scenes in this episode. My second favorite thing about the Petrelli storyline was finding out just how evil Arthur Petrelli really is.

Last night we found out that it was he who ordered Linderman to kill Nathan (paralyzing Nathan's wife, Heidi, instead) because Nathan was threatening to reveal a link between Arthur and Linderman. We also found out that Arthur had been rearranging his wife's memories for a long time.

While, I never remembered Linderman being such a softie, the scene where he gave Angela the choice of knowing the truth by healing her brain scars was effective. Of course, once Angela saw what her husband had done, we found out why Arthur was out of commission for such a while — she poisoned him. While it was cool to see how Arthur almost died and faked his death for a while, I didn't really understand what the show was saying about Angela. She'll kill her husband to protect her children, but she'll repeatedly put those same children in danger (like letting Peter himself up and New York.)

Still, the biggest waste of time was obviously the look back at Meredith's past as a convenience store robber and Company agent. I mean, I like Jessalyn Gilsig a lot, but who the hell cares about Meredith and the fact that former Level 5 inmate Flint is her brother? I will say I was surprisingly glad to see Eric Roberts back as Agt. Thompson — I didn't realize I'd missed him. Also, I suppose the flashback illustrates how Meredith could easily transition into being Bennett's partner in the present.

Unfortunately, that doesn't come close to making up for the more stupid moments in the storyline. These include Thompson weirdly popping up in the same train car as the siblings after they escaped (I know he says he followed them, but still), the weird fire fight that ensued and the unintentionally funny train explosion.

Also, while I enjoyed how several of the episode's scenes were edited to tie in with scenes from season 1, having Meredith and Agt. Thompson's fight on the train be the cause of the wreck that helped make Claire a hero was WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY too contrived.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the episode ended with what was supposed to be a jarring scene as Arthur appeared out of nowhere and seemed poised to rip Hiro's head off too. Unfortunately, the reaction was less "wow" and more "WTF."

So what'd you think of this episode? Is the Haitian the most powerful hero? (Against other heroes he is, in my opinion) How is Hiro going to get away from Arthur? Finally, I'm being totally serious — tell me why this show doesn't suck.

(NOTE: I realize I used the "Past Imperfect" heading for season 2's flashback episode, but if the show can keep going back and doing the same things over and over again, then why shouldn't I re-use one column title, damnit!)