Heroes: Thanks, But No Thanksgiving

Superpowered beings – they’re just like us!

In the latest episode of “Heroes”, we found out that they also stumble through awkward Thanksgiving dinners with their families. Of course, the turkey day gatherings on “Heroes” featured more time travel, arm slicing and attempted murders than real-life get-togethers. (Well, SLIGHTLY more attempted murders.)

Unfortunately, as with pretty much every episode of “Heroes”, there were two bad things for every thing the show did right.

For example, would anyone have objected if the entire hour focused on the Petrellis? Maybe that could have happened back in the days when this show was still a serious drama. If you recall, Peter and “Nathan” found out that the real Nathan had been killed and that Nathan’s consciousness was currently renting space in Sylar’s body. Angela Petrelli came over to spend Thanksgiving with her sons (it seems like we haven’t seen the great Cristine Rose in about a month). What followed was a series of tense and surprisingly heartbreaking scenes, especially when you consider how silly all of this material is.

At first she coolly lied about the dead body the brothers found last week in her not-so-secret storage shed (it was a shapeshifter, according to her) before eventually revealing that the main motivation for the Nylar switch was her guilt over not being able to save her son’s life. In the early years of this show, Peter was the more emo brother, but lately Nathan has (understandably) taken that mantle. He correctly surmised that whenever his mom and brother look at him they see the guy who murdered him. I think he was about to expand on that point, but Sylar broke through at that moment and reclaimed his body.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – god bless Zachary Quinto for being the one actor on this show who is enjoying himself. Sure, forcing Peter and Angela to sit and have Thanksgiving dinner with him was thoroughly silly, but he swung right back into super creepy territory when he planted that kiss on Angela. Right as he was about to saw her head open, Nathan reclaimed control of Nylar and flew away.

Oh brother! When Sylar made his big comeback I thought we were done with this nonsense. (Hallelujah!) Now it appears we have one or two more weeks. (Honestly, how long can this stretch this out?)

Noah was hosting his own Thanksgiving dinner for the Bennetts. Things got off to an encouraging start when we learned that Mr. Muggles was attending, but Lyle wasn’t. (Lyle sucks!) I also liked that the whole Lauren Gilmore (HRG’s co-worker who “went Haitian”) subplot from a few weeks ago wasn’t completely pointless. Apparently, he’s been following her all this time (whatever) and asked her over for Thanksgiving with Sandra and her new husband. More than anything, I like that no matter how much they’ve softened HRG this season, he can still be kind of a dick. (Lauren vs. Sandra’s new dog breeding husband – advantage Noah.)

Unfortunately, things spiraled out of control VERY quickly. Sandra was understandably jealous of Lauren, but it was absolutely reckless and stupid of her to reference Noah’s Primatech past with a civilian. Of course, a frustrated-with-her-inability-to-have-a-normal-life Claire (what else is new?) made Sandy look like a member of Mensa when she sliced her arm open and caused Sandy’s new hubby to faint.

Honestly, what are the show’s writers thinking? Thank goodness they brought it home in the end by having Noah invite Gretchen over for dinner, surprising Claire. (I like that he’s not even aware of the lesbian undertones there.) Not as encouraging is that Claire is headed toward the Sullivan Bros. carnival, even after her dad strongly warned her it could be dangerous.

Maybe, I’m just over anything involving the Sullivan Bros.

Samuel, who seemed to bring out his extra-heavy holiday guyliner, was still refusing to tell Hiro where he was keeping Charlie because, um, well there’s actually no good reason other that the show can’t pry Jayma Mays free from “Glee.”

The one interesting bit of info from the carnival storyline was the revelation that the rest of the carnies were apparently under the impression that Hiro was supposed to save Joseph’s life when he time traveled. To the surprise of no one, it was revealed that power-hungry Samuel was the one who killed Joseph. Although the scene where he accused Edgar was a bit rushed and confusing (why Edgar?!), there’s a little part of me that still thinks it’s super cool when Hiro freezes time.

Ah, Hiro. The character had made some progress after coming to terms with the brain tumor that no longer seems to be too much of a factor. Now he’s back to acting like an eight year old. Freezing time is cool. Throwing a whiny tantrum because Samuel won’t bring Charlie back is not cool. Turning away from a semi-nude Lydia like a clueless teenager is not cool, it’s stupid. Calling Samuel “Butterfly Man” is DEFINITELY not cool.

Also, why do Charlie’s whereabouts supercede everything else in this storyline? I know WE care about Hiro and his girlfriend, but why should the Sullivan Bros. crew have to sit on the knowledge that Samuel is a murderer just because Hiro needs to find his girlfriend?

Oh well.

So what’d you think of this episode? Lauren Gilmore?? Which writer on the staff is a Lauren Graham/Gilmore Girls fan? Finally, which crew would you like to join for Thanksgiving next year? (Ignore the fact that this show will likely be canceled next year.)