Heroes: Mother Knows Best

Zzzzzzz (jolts awake)! Sorry, I fell asleep watching Sylar continue to try to find his father.

I actually liked this last episode of “Heroes” (though not nearly as much as “Cold Wars”) so I figured I’d get my complaints about Sylar’s incredibly dragged-out, probably-insignificant-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things storyline out of the way first. And no — having Luke comment on how tedious it is does NOT make it any less tedious. The only cool part was the spray of red blood in Sylar’s black-and-white flashback after his dad killed his mom shortly after selling him.

Still, the question remains. Why do we (and Sylar) need to meet Sylar’s (third or fourth different) father? Who cares? A lot of people have argued that the Sylar character has long outlived his usefulness and effectiveness, and watching him detached from the main action this season (so far) I’m inclined to agree that the writers are struggling to find a way of keeping him around.

The rest of the episode was considerably more entertaining as Parkman and Peter used the information they gathered from HRG last week and set about rescuing Daphne. They also received help from the mysterious “Rebel” who had already contacted Claire and Hiro, and extended his (or her) reach to include Parkman and Peter. They got the address for the headquarters of Nathan’s operation and a heads up that they were about to be captured. Meanwhile, I became a little more convinced that the “Rebel” is the electronically-inclined Micah, despite the fact that it doesn’t really make any sense.

Further proof that this show doesn’t really take itself too seriously was Peter and Parkman’s break in at Nathan’s headquarters. Peter borrowed Parkman’s power and the two set about mind-controlling every henchman into doing their bidding. (Bonus points for having Peter admit controlling minds was fun.) The whole sequence was kinda stupid, but fun. The two also downloaded incriminating footage of people with abilities being detained and threatened to expose it to the mainstream media. Parkman allowed himself to get captured so that Peter could get away with the evidence. Sure, Peter couldn’t fly anymore, but he’s still faster than Parkman, right?

Peter tried to arrange a trade: the incriminating footage for Parkman and Daphne. However, Danko wasn’t very interested in making a trade and, in the least surprising turn of events, instead tried to set Peter up. Fortunately, HRG (who’s outwardly behaving like Danko’s new BFF) mentally warned Peter, who fell off the side of a building before flying to rescue. At least that’s what I thought — that the show had changed the rules about Peter’s power again — before my girlfriend Erica pointed out that Nathan was the one who’d flown in and saved him. I honestly did NOT get that, even during the scene where Nathan, Peter and their mother were standing together right afterward. This is why I have to have someone smarter than me when I’m watching TV.

At the end of that scene Peter DID borrow Nathan’s power and flew away. Nathan was going to fly after him, but Mrs. Petrelli stopped him and told him she’d had a vision of the future and that he needed to be ready. Earlier, Mrs. Petrelli had also flat out denied that she was rebel, claiming that she doesn’t know the first thing about computers. I don’t believe that Angela is ignorant about anything, but I DO believe her when she says she’s not “rebel.” However, I like to think she either knows or has a good idea as to who “rebel” is.

Maybe Angela’s vision had something to do with Danko strapping Parkman with explosives and dropping him off somewhere in downtown Washington, D.C. At first, I was confused as to why Danko would do this (it seemed out of left field), but then I figured that he’d seen the painting Parkman had done and remembered he’s willing to do anything to make the heroes look like dangerous threats — including blowing up a whole lot of innocent people. The painting appeared to inspire Danko’s nasty plan.

I also liked watching again how the characters continue to be trapped in self-fulfilling prophecies. I know Parkman’s sweetheart is in D.C., but if you think you’re going to be responsible for blowing up an entire city, you HAVE to stay away. (Especially when your “relationship” is BS and chemistry-free in the first place.)

Meanwhile, at the other side of the country, Claire continued to hide Alex. You remember Alex, don’t you — the impossibly good-looking comic book store geek who also has the body of a swimmer.

I’m actually going to lay off this storyline for a two reasons: 1.) My girlfriend has a major crush on Justin Baldoni, who plays Alex, and has tossed me and Zachary Quinto aside instantly to stare at him during last night’s episode (it’s like I wasn’t even there). The guy is likable enough to not have me dwell on the fact that his character is creepily macking on a 17-year-old, so I’m not going to hate too much out of fear that I come off as Mr. Jealous Guy. I’m even going along with the underwater pool kiss (pictured, right) to give Claire oxygen while they were hiding from bad guys. Sure, it was really dumb, but it was also a really creative way for the characters to have their first kiss.

2.) The episode let Ashley Crow, as Claire’s mom Sandra, shine. I loved that the character turned out to be a LOT smarter than anyone in the audience or in her family (except for Mr. Muggles) ever thought. I also liked the absolute glee and cunning Sandra displayed in helping Claire’s new (boy)friend get away. The mother daughter scenes between Crow and Hayden Panettiere were particularly strong. More of this please, and less of Claire’s melodramatic/badass poser garbage.

In the end, the creepy puppe tmaster guy showed up asking for Claire’s help, temporarily destroying my theory that the show is trying to pretend Vol. II and III never happened. That was something I genuinely did NOT see coming.

So what’d you think of this episode? Do you care at all about Sylar’s dad? (If so, please tell me why I should?) Any new thoughts on the identity of “rebel”? When will we see Alex again? Inquiring minds (Erica’s) want to know. Finally, will Nathan have to cut the blue wire or the red wire to disarm Parkman’s bomb?