Heroes: Everybody Dig In

...and now the show is back to being stupid.

Oh well, it was a good run while it lasted anyway.

Except for incredibly strong performances by Jack Coleman (HRG), Ashley Crow (Sandra Bennett) and Greg Grunberg (Parkman) in “Turn and Face the Strange”, the show mostly went back to the lazy writing and nonsensical characterization that has plagued “Heroes” the last two seasons.

Last night, Sylar and the writers were CLEARLY having fun with the character’s new shape-shifting trick. However, instead of hunting people with abilities, Sylar set his sights on making HRG’s life a living hell. That turned out to be a good idea since it had taken HRG roughly 10 minutes to figure out the dead body from last week was not Sylar.

Complicating matters was the fact that Mrs. Bennett was in town to talk face-to-face with her husband (since Noah was avoiding her calls) after their daughter had fled the country. Sylar first disguised himself as Danko and introduced himself to Sandra. Later, he disguised himself as Mrs. Bennett and crushed HRG’s heart by serving him with divorce papers. Sylar was so pleased with himself that, when he transformed from Sandra back to himself in an alley, he didn’t seem to mind the fact that he was wearing women’s clothes.

I WILL commend the writers for doing a good job in conveying the sense of paranoia Bennett is now feeling — ANYONE in any given scene can be Sylar. This all led to the episode’s (season’s?) most devastating scene with HRG holding his wife at gunpoint and slamming her facedown on a table until a call about Mr. Muggles’ (how I miss you) medication proved that she was his wife. Well, she won’t be his wife for long after that display.

It was at this point that I wished the writers would make up their minds about HRG. Is the brilliant company man so stressed and paranoid now that he can’t think straight enough to immediately recognize his wife’s forged signature? (I’m not married, but I could easily pick out my girlfriend’s signature on anything.) Or is he still in-control and canny enough to fool Danko into admitting Sylar was alive? (LOVED that he went in without the glasses.) Oh no, wait, he’s back to being desperate enough to shoot a man he was only “pretty sure” was Sylar before running away and hilariously knocking over a few people. Turns out the guy HRG shot WAS Sylar, but by that point all the shape shifting was starting to hurt my head. (Hopefully, the writers won’t lean on this storytelling crutch so much that it breaks.)

Besides almost getting Sylar killed, Danko had to deal with a revenge-obsessed Matt Parkman.

It’s not Greg Grunberg’s fault that I never, EVER bought his “love” for the late Daphne, it’s the writers’ fault for basing that “love” on some vision from a silly spirit walk. As a result, the motivation behind Matt’s revenge kick felt faulty and difficult to believe from the start, as did the idea that he could ever actually kill someone.

Matt’s quest to hurt someone Danko cared about led him to Alena, a hot Russian who, according to my girlfriend Erica (and anybody with eyes), was WAY out of Danko’s league. (I believe my exact thoughts were, “Why would she be into someone who looks like a corpse?”) It all made sense when Alena was revealed to be an escort, but then it all went back to not making sense when it turned out that she DID care about him. (How bad are the rest of her clients that humorless Danko/Jacob is the one she falls for?)

After marching Alena to Danko’s apartment, Matt threatened to kill her, but (despite Grunberg’s terrific emotion and intensity) he couldn’t go through with it to the surprise of no one. Danko turned and shot Parkman, but fortunately, Hiro appeared at that very moment to stop the bullet and wheel Parkman to safety. It was also at that moment that I called “Bullshit!” (I get that Mohinder had told Hiro what Parkman was doing, but how in the hell did Mohinder or even Hiro know Matt’s exact location, and how did Hiro know to freeze time before he went in — once again, BULLSHIT!)

Of course, the less said about Hiro (and Ando) the better. In addition to fixing things, last night we found out Matt Parkman Jr. had the power to stop things from working — like all of Hiro and Ando’s scenes — when he’s not happy. Does anybody remember when Hiro and Ando were credible, fallible, well-meaning, noble characters? Now, they’re just clowns (make the face, Ando!) At least, the funny southern-accented Japanese truck driver Sam Douglas was SUPPOSED to be a joke.

The episode ended with the Petrellis/Bennetts meeting up in Coyote Sands. There, they will dig up a secret to the past (regarding a “Project Icarus”) revealed through Angela’s dream and through a mysterious file belonging to Mohinder’s father that nobody had heard of until it became convenient to reveal it just now.

Sigh. At least it was good to see so many of the core original characters together and united toward the same goal. Despite the rampant stupidity this week, I’m interested to see next week’s episode (titled “1961”) to find out just what that goal is.

So what’d you think of this episode? Didn’t Matt Parkman Sr. forget about his revenge kick and switch to happy-daddy mode a little TOO quickly when he met his son? How scary is Sylar when he’s dressed in drag? (Ok, at the very least the outfit was bisexual.) Finally, what secrets are buried in Coyote Sands? (Keep digging.)