Heroes: That's Cold

Even when “Heroes” hunkers down and delivers a good episode with plenty of emotion, cleverness and action, the show still can’t get out of its own way.

That being said, the good outweighed the bad last night in “Cold Snap”, an episode which is much better enjoyed if you don’t think about it too much.

I’ve never, EVER bought the Matt/Daphne romance, so I was happy to find out that Daphne herself wasn’t buying it either in the episode’s best sequence.

The couple(?) was finally reunited towards the end of the hour. To gain Danko’s trust, HRG and Angela had agreed that HRG needed to deliver the elusive “Rebel” to Danko. HRG suggested to Danko that they let Tracy go because Rebel had contacted Tracy recently and he believed Tracy would lead them right to Rebel.

During the “escape” (I’m stupid, so I honestly couldn’t tell if HRG/Danko were letting her go on purprose or if Rebel helped Tracy escape — I’m going with Rebel broke her out, but Danko didn’t try too hard to stop it), Tracy went to the creepy Nosetube room where the people with abilities were being kept. Apparently, she only had time to release regular cast members. Since Tracy is only out for herself, she was about to ditch Parkman, Mohinder and an incapacitated Daphne, but ended up escaping thanks to Parkman.

Matt and Mohinder rushed Daphne to a hospital where he gave the doctors his ex wife’s name and made up a story about a hunting accident.

Later, Daphne woke up to a bright, pleasant room and plenty of flowers because Matt had apparently convinced people that she was Gwen Stefani (because all bleach blonde skinny edgy white chicks are the same). Daphne was annoyed that Matt had automatically reverted to using his wife’s name and did what she does best — ran away. Matt caught up with her in Paris on top of a similar building to the one Nicole Kidman hung out at in that Chanel commercial. He revealed that he flew there(?!) before taking her on a “Superman” ride and attempting to convince her to stay with him.

Unfortunately, none of the stuff in the previous paragraph actually happened.

If you want an example as to how ridiculous “Heroes” has gotten, I’ll tell you that I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that Parkman could now fly, but was totally ready to shrug my shoulders and roll with it. THAT’S how ridiculous this show has gotten and that’s how low my expectations are. GREAT job by the writers for a couple of touching, dreamlike sequences that contrasted perfectly with Matt and Mohinder sitting in that gray-toned hospital room after Matt finally let her go. (I still don’t totally buy that Parkman could’ve believed someone he hardly knew and who wasn’t into him at all was the love of his life.)

At first, Daphne looked like an ungrateful beyotch after Matt had risked his life several times to save her. It was a great twist to have those scenes merely represent Daphne’s (totally justified) doubts about their spirit walk-based relationship, and her desire to have Matt move on with his life. For that reason, I think it was worth it to temporarily bring Daphne back from the dead — only to kill her again. I thought it would’ve been interesting to see her clash with Parkman’s ex-wife Janice, but then I remembered that Daphne didn’t really love Parkman, so that confrontation would’ve probably been lukewarm at best.

Oh yeah, did I not mention that Parkman’s ex was back in the picture. After some more truly embarrassing scenes for Masi Oka (this poor guy) and James Kyson Lee in which Hiro and Ando yelled at Baby Parkman thinking he was Big Parkman, the two finally realized it was Parkman’s son. They also realized the baby had the power to make things work. (Including the TV which inexplicably showed the footage of Parkman with a bomb strapped to him on a loop.)

Shortly thereafter, Janice arrived home for some more weirdness. For someone who was alone at home with two complete strangers and her young child, she seemed more annoyed than frightened (WTF). Hiro and Ando explained what was happening, right before some government guys showed up to kidnap Baby Parkman. Ando unleashed a HADOUKEN! (has he always been able to do this? I thought his power was just complementary) while Baby Parkman fixed Hiro, allowing him to stop time. Apparently, he wasn’t able to fix him all the way, so Hiro wasn’t able to teleport and, instead, had to transport Ando and BP 12 miles in a wheelbarrow.

I like that Hiro has his powers back (well one of them at least), but introducing Parkman Jr. and re-introducing Janice Parkman seems like a weird, random way to do it. Out of all the characters from season 1 I would’ve like to have seen return, Janice Parkman is probably not in the top 100.

Now, Micah would definitely be in the top 10, especially since I’d pegged him as “Rebel” a long time ago. I’m not patting myself on the back TOO much, since the show didn’t seem that concerned with keeping the “Rebel” reveal a secret — Noah Gray-Cabey’s name was in the opening credits. (Maybe one day we’ll find out how Micah knows so much about everyone — he must talk to a LOT of computers and cell phones — or maybe we won’t. I’m ok either way.)

Once I got over the fact that he looks almost exactly the same (but sounds totally different) I was able to listen and find that Micah still had a soft spot for females that look like Ali Larter. He knew Tracy wasn’t his mom, but hoped that she’d have some of Nikki’s goodness. In the end, Tracy redeemed herself by freeze framing her own body and all of Danko’s men (in a cool special effect) while allowing Micah to escape and wreak more revolutionary havoc. Danko then shot the Ali Larter-shaped ice sculpture, ending Tracy’s life.

Or did he? I know that Tracy’s face blinked on the ground, and the possibility exists for a T-1000-style assembly. However, I think more likely Tracy is done with the show, but NOT Ali Larter. Wasn’t there supposed to be a third sibling to Nikki/Jessica and Tracy running around out there?

Finally, Angela Petrelli was running for her life through most of the episode. For a character that’s usually in complete control, it was nice to see Cristine Rose get a chance to play frazzled. I liked the scene where she saw about five seconds into the future (how weird would it be to be able to do THAT?) and eluded capture. Eventually, Angela swallowed her pride and asked her snooty friend Millie (guest star Swoosie Kurtz) for help. Millie (who’d gone through her own interrogation) tries to get Angela to turn herself in, but eventually ends up giving her some cash.

The bad guys eventually caught up to Angela in an elevator and had her trapped. Fortunately for her, Peter had busted in to the elevator and flew her to safety. Sure this was (kinda) cool, but how the hell did Peter know where Angela was? (Was he flying around the city watching her all day?) How did he get into the elevator shaft AND open the top of the elevator so quickly? Also, where the hell did he fly off to after he picked his mom up (does the elevator shaft not have a ceiling?) Oy, see what happens when you think about this show too much?!

So what’d you think of this episode? Did you miss seeing Claire or Nathan? What was the significance of the extended scene of Danko shaving in the beginning? (I’m thinking it was just to contrast how sloppy HRG — with his facial cuts and umbrella-forgetting — has become with how together Danko is.) Do you think Tracy is really dead? Finally, was it my imagination or wasn’t Sylar hanging out in Danko’s apartment at the end of the previous episode? What happened with THAT? Are we supposed to assume he was the one who delivered Doyle to Danko? If so why would he do that?! (Uh oh — I’m thinking about things too much again!)