Heroes: Body Control

(Sigh)

It seems like every time “Heroes” is on the brink of doing something awesome, the show does something to undermine itself.

Let’s jump right in and talk about the thoroughly unnecessary Mylar storyline. If you’re just tuning in, Sylar(‘s consciousness) turned the tables on Parkman last time and invaded his body, leaving Matt to helplessly follow along as Mylar made his way to New York.

In the episode’s second-biggest twist, this stuff turned out to be pretty entertaining! I enjoyed the combination of editing and acting by Zachary Quinto and Greg Grunberg in conveying Sylar walking around in Matt’s body (with its questionable upper body strength). Matt(‘s consciousness) retained his own brain-bending abilities (it’s easier if you don’t ask) and had the advantage early. Sylar regained the upper hand by reminding Matt that he’s willing to kill people and started committing murders in Parkman’s body.

Parkman finally got tired of getting owned throughout this entire season and decided to commit a murder of his own – his own! (The redundancy police just arrested me.) He forced his body to bait the cops into shooting him (pictured, left), technically resulting in both a murder and a suicide! Sacrificing himself and killing Sylar(‘s consciousness), would’ve been a fantastically noble end for a character that has long outlived his usefulness.

Except that the writers cut to an ambulance where Parkman (presumably back in his own body) was clinging to his life.

(Double sigh)

Fortunately, the other two storylines were somewhat more satisfying.

Peter has been going around using his new healing power to save as many people as he can. Predictably, this is taking a physical toll on him. (When’s he going to learn that he can’t save everyone?)

Emma didn’t need her power to help anyone out. (Not that her power would’ve been much help.) She used her medical school dropout (go back to high school) background to help out at the hospital after a grisly train wreck. By the end of the episode, she seemed resolved to go back to school and help people that way. It’s interesting to have a superpowered person on this show help people by NOT using her abilities, but I wonder how they’ll keep Emma involved in the show.

Even better was the Claire/Noah storyline, which crossed paths with Samuel and his endless quest to creep up on people.

I liked that the writers didn’t completely ignore the fact that those two annoying sorority girls SAW Claire get impaled during their scavenger hunt. That problem was quickly resolved when Claire called Noah and the two girls “went Haitian.” (I love that phrase now, and welcome back Jimmy Jean-Louis.)

I also really dug the fact that Gretchen was extremely and appropriately freaked out by the fact that Invisible Becky was trying to kill her. (“What if she’s here waiting to kill me…invisibly?”) I felt pretty bad for Claire when Gretchen left, even after Claire took stronger measures than baby powder to keep her safe. I feel bad, but I really can’t blame Gretchen.

It was around that time that Samuel showed up for his next stop in his seemingly interminable recruitment tour. He gave Claire his “come be accepted” pitch, while Noah went to the sorority house to track down Becky.

This was around the time that the episode unleashed its best twist. All this time, the reason Becky had been targeting Claire is to get to Noah, who was responsible for the death of her father. (I should’ve seen it coming, since it was Noah’s face that had shown up on Lydia’s back a few weeks ago.)

There were some really good father-daughter moments in this episode between Claire and Noah. (I liked the little smile he gave Claire when she asked Samuel if he really believed she’d trust him more than her dad.) It’s a good thing they had those moments because Noah was a few seconds away from killing Becky when she ambushed them in the end of the episode. He ended up sparing Becky and Samuel’s life and Claire went back to her lonely dorm.

Oh, I almost forgot – Adrian Pasdar is back! (For now.)

So what’d you think of this episode? When is Zachary Quinto going to cut his hair? (The way it constantly falls all over his face HAS to be annoying.) Why was that little girl passed out all by herself? (At least she was helpfully unconscious in a storage closet.) Do you think we’ve seen the last of Gretchen? Finally, does this show have the guts to kill Parkman for good?