Heroes: Head Games

Zachary Quinto is probably the best and worst thing to happen to this show.

On the plus side, he’s always been one of the better actors on the show, but he’s clearly the BEST thing about it right now. As I mentioned last week, the writers (for some reason or other) have decided that Sylar is the only character that gets to have fun (remember when Hiro and Ando were fun?), and Quinto has taken that ball and run with it, considerably livening up what is mostly an overly self-serious show.

Watching Sylar (whether he’s really there or a representation of Parkman’s psyche) torture Matt is simply gold, despite the fact that neither of these characters really have anything new to offer the show. (And haven’t for a while.)

And there’s the rub — Quinto is so good, that it’s now almost impossible to kill him off. If we’re being completely honest, the character would’ve been much-better served if he had been season 1’s Big Bad and nothing more. Instead, the show will likely keep flip-flopping him between being a good and bad guy, being alive, dead or a figment of someone’s imagination until NBC decides to pull the plug.

Quinto will keep delivering the goods, but, unfortunately, we’ll keep rolling our eyes.

Sylar is still hounding Matt Parkman to return him to his old body. At first, he appeared to be assisting Parkman during a drug raid-turned-possible-kidnapping situation (pictured, left). Eventually, he tricked Matt into believing the drug dealer had killed a little girl (shades of how we first met Parkman — rescuing Molly from, well, Sylar in the pilot), forcing Parkman to use his power to make his partner forget about the innocent little instance of police brutality.

We learned that Parkman has been battling an addiction that he’s led others to believe is drugs, but we all know is really his psychic power. I just think that it’d be a lot easier to get into Matt’s addiction storyline if we’d actually SEEN him struggle with over using his power. (Then again, this is the program that wouldn’t show us a climactic fight season during the last season finale, so what did I expect?) More encouraging is the idea that Sylar may be pushing Parkman toward the dark side and into becoming more like his father Maury. I’m not expecting the show to develop this angle, but I can always hope.

Last night’s episode, “Ink”, focused on only a few of our regular characters. With such a large cast, I generally think this is the way to go (except for season premieres and finales where I like everyone to be involved).

Samuel Sullivan continued his quest to lure our beloved(?) heroes into his carnival. Last night he set his sights on Peter. Samuel posed as a man who was suing Peter for saving him a bit too roughly from a bus accident. Samuel really just wanted to meet Peter himself and see if he’s worthy of “replacing” his brother.

What I like about the Samuel character is that he’s technically positioned as this year’s Big Bad, but, so far, he doesn’t seem entirely evil. He obviously really liked that Peter was a good person. Still, let’s not kid ourselves — this is a guy who caused a house full of richies to collapse because they wouldn’t let him come in and have a look around the place he grew up, so he’s not ALL good. Also, we learned that his power involves manipulating the earth, but how does that explain the ink? (I’m guessing the ink is some sort of soil-based substance.)

I’m still digging the new, non-emo Peter. The character (and actor Milo Ventimiglia) seems more at ease and it’s very appealing. Although the lawsuit turned out to be a fraud, the idea that his heroic exploits were doing more harm than good was interesting. Instead of being thankful, his paramedic buds are envious and suspicious, which makes sense given how cynical we’ve become as a society.

Peter also crossed paths with Emma, a deaf woman who has the ability to see sounds. I have no idea where the show is going with her, but actress Deanne Bray gave a strong performance (it’s probably bad that some of the episode’s best, non-Sylar lines were subtitled and came courtesy of the deaf woman) and the cello scene in the park was kinda beautiful.

The Claire storyline was considerably less successful.

I know I’ve made fun of Hayden Panettiere’s acting in the past, but her performance has actually been good this year, as has Madeline Zima’s as Gretchen. The problem is that last night’s events should NOT have been happening. Having Claire get caught using her healing power was a stupid way to drum up drama at the end of the season premiere and little more than an excuse for the awkward lunch scene between Claire, Gretchen and HRG.

I was actually on HRG’s side — Claire was being stupid, and it was time to call the Haitian to erase Gretchen’s memory! Claire begged her dad to let her handle it, and eventually told Gretchen the truth about her power.

I like the idea that Claire is opening up and attempting to become more comfortable in her own skin, but why did she have to act like a moron to get there? Couldn’t she have eventually come to trust Gretchen (instead of being almost forced to admit the truth, since Gretchen wasn’t backing down from her hounding?) Oh well, here’s hoping Claire doesn’t let herself get hit by a car, just to see what it feels like, and get spotted by someone else.

So what’d you think of this episode? Who do you think Samuel will come after next? Anyone else get a lesbian vibe from the “let me see it” scene between Claire and Gretchen? Have we heard the last of Annie’s murder (or suicide)? Finally, when Claire admitted she missed her mom, dad and, “even Lyle”, did anyone else wonder, “What about Mr. Muggles?” (Or was that just me?)