Heroes: Ok, I'm Done

It is with a great deal of sadness that I sit down to write my final “Heroes” recap.

Actually, there’s not that much sadness – other than how sad it is that a show that was SO good, and SO exciting in its first season could never get its act together.

I realize the whole “Heroes has been absolute crap since season 2” routine isn’t exactly original. However, I kept watching because I’m an intensely loyal fool. On top of that, even when the show got REALLY bad, I found its badness to be fascinating. However, as the show crawled toward its season 4 finale, I found myself dreading having to sit down to watch the show each week. It felt like a punishment. The badness wasn’t fascinating or even so-bad-it’s-good anymore – it was simply depressing.

Before I get to the season finale, let’s talk about “The Wall”, during which the show reinforced the idea that you CAN have too much back story. If you care to remember, this was the episode in which Samuel strapped Noah down in the hall of mirrors and forced Claire to see HRG’s less-flattering memories. Basically, it was a (bad) remake of the season 3 episode that had Parkman, Mohinder and Peter kidnap Noah and force their way into his mind.

The season 1 “Company Man” episode exploring Noah’s past is a classic. Every subsequent attempt to delve into Noah’s past has been an absolute joke. I mean, did we REALLY need to know that when he was “younger” (Jack Coleman is good, but couldn’t they spring for an actor in his 20’s here?) Noah was an aspiring playwright (eye roll) who sold used cars and had a wife who was killed (for no apparent reason) by a special. (At least they made his wife black just to mix things up.) Noah started tracking down people with abilities and was eventually recruited by the Company (welcome back Eric Roberts) and the rest is history. Pointless history.

The whole thing ended up being even more pointless when Claire revealed that, no matter what Samuel showed her, she was never going to turn on her dad. So basically this was little more than another excuse for the show to break out the black and white film. In the end, Samuel buried the two of them alive in his trailer so that she could watch Noah die slowly.

The other main storyline had Peter entering Sylar’s mind to try to free him from Parkman’s trap only to wind up stranded himself. I don’t know if I was being influenced by the show’s general chintziness, but these scenes felt less like a vast, barren wasteland and more like an abandoned Hollywood backlot. It’s too bad because I actually dug the idea of, arguably, the two most powerful characters on the show being completely helpless, but the show decided to take the therapeutic route and had Peter and Sylar work out their issues.

In the end, Sylar got the opportunity to personally apologize to Peter for murdering his brother, and Peter finally let go of the anger he’d been hanging on to and, consequently, let Nathan go. I thought the show would’ve been wise to explore the idea that, in Sylar’s mind, they spent five years together (which is probably more quality time than Peter spent with Nathan), but there was no time for that. They were off to save the day in the season finale.

They hit a VERY mild road block when Eli the Replicating Man showed up to stop them, under Samuel’s orders. This was the guy who couldn’t even hold on to Lauren in the previous episode. (Seriously, how did she get away from him? I guess they couldn’t afford to show it.)

Predictably, Peter and Sylar disposed of Eli and Sylar was able to (semi)convince Parkman that his motives were pure. Unfortunately, Parkman is one of MANY characters in the “Heroes” universe that could’ve probably sat out this season without being missed. (Hi Mohinder!)

Another one of those characters is Tracy. Ali Larter made what amounted to a cameo as Tracy (somehow) liquefied Noah and Claire’s underground trap and saved the day (never to be seen again). If you’ve read this recap before, you know that I think Jack Coleman is one of the best actors on this show, but I wasn’t really moved by his emotional final moments with Claire. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was top-notch. I just knew there was NO WAY the show would kill off a major character (that’s not “Heroes” style), so I didn’t get invested. I like Noah, but the character outlived his usefulness a long time ago, and dying underground with Claire (especially given what she does at the end of the episode/start of the new volume) would’ve been very poignant.

Unfortunately, another character that could’ve taken the year off is Hiro. I mean, talk about pointless. He spent a good portion of this season dealing with a brain tumor that was supposed to teach him about accountability and not abusing his powers before he died. Yet in this episode, his tumor is completely gone and he’s back to using his powers at will.

Ok, so the actress they got to play the older version of Charlie was adorable, but come on, “Heroes”! Could you really not get Jayma Mays to do a cameo?! “Glee” hasn’t been on for like three months and it’s not back till April! In a completely predictable turn of events, Older Charlie convinced Hiro to stop trying to make their life together happen, since she’d lived out her own fulfilling life that included a cute granddaughter.

The big showdown at the carnival ended with more of a whimper than a bang. For example, Sylar didn’t so much save Emma from Puppet master Doyle. He basically distracted Doyle long enough for Emma to be able to save herself. (I guess that counts.) Meanwhile, Claire, Noah, a mind-controlled Eli and eternal flip-flopper Edgar convinced the rest of the carnie folk that Samuel was up to no good, causing him to flip out.

Fortunately, Hiro and Ando showed up (I love how Claire was completely unsurprised to see them) and together they teleported all of Samuel’s people (his source of power) away. (I guess Ando’s “Red Lightning” power went back to being a “Super charger” power this week.)

As a result, Samuel was left alone and defeated. If we ever see him again (God help us), he’ll hopefully have his act together. Robert Knepper is a good actor, but he never could settle on what Samuel’s accent should be, the same way the writers didn’t settle on what Samuel’s motivations were and whether or not he should be a full-on bad guy until it was too late.

So that’s the end of the “Redemption” volume of “Heroes.” We were led to believe the story would center on Samuel and his group, but the person getting the titular “Redemption” turned out to be, well, Sylar, who had a passing relationship at best with the season’s main bad guy.

As is customary, we got a sneak peek at the next volume. (I WOULD say the producers are being overly optimistic in planning a new season, but NBC really has nothing these days.) Anyway, I have to give credit where its due – Claire revealing herself to be a special in front of TV cameras in a way that harkened back to her days as a Texas cheerleader was terrific.

The only problem is that I absolutely DO NOT trust this show’s writers to develop that idea in a meaningful or competent way next year. Assuming this show gets a next year.

As a result, I’m signing off as a “Heroes” watcher. Feel free to tell me “good riddance”, but I’ll just say I enjoyed (most of) my time writing about this show and some of the time watching it.

So what’d you think of this episode? Were you happy with how the season turned out? Finally, will you tune in for season 5?

Heroes: A Shot in the Dark

Though it wasn’t a (mostly-intentional) laugh-fest like last week’s episode, “The Art of Deception” continued building toward a season finale that (gasp!) may not totally suck!

Yes, yes, I’m aware that all “Heroes” season finales are required (maybe by law) to suck, but I’m still holding out hope.

I mean, it took most of the season, but Samuel has finally (and not a moment too soon) embraced his evil side.

The leader of the Sullivan Bros. carnival sensed a mutiny was on his hands after he decimated a good portion of a town. The rest of the carnies were looking to Lydia for leadership and Samuel needed to do something.

Fortunately for him, HRG was simultaneously planning an assault on the carnival. Claire went to visit her dad to try to make amends, but instead discovered her dad’s plans and went off to the carnival to try to warn them. To be honest, my favorite part of this sequence of events was Gretchen calling Claire out for constantly whining about wanting a normal life yet repeatedly putting herself in situations where she could get shot.

And that’s precisely what happened. Samuel claimed he was going to give himself up to HRG, who was crouched in a nearby hill with a sniper rifle. (The scene with HRG talking to Claire on the phone while he had her in his scope was sort of excellent.) Instead, sniper fire started raining down on the carnival, hitting Claire, Samuel and mortally wounding Lydia. R.I.P. Lydia – you were a sneakily important character this season that no one will actually miss. That’s just how “Heroes” rolls these days.

Samuel was able to pin Lydia’s murder on HRG (it was really the Replicating Man in those hills) and tossed him into the Hall of Mirrors. Meanwhile, Samuel also summoned Emma to the carnival to treat his gunshot wound. However, we know the REAL reason she’s there is to draw more “specials” to the carnival since, as Lauren helpfully reminded us, Samuel becomes more powerful when he has more people with abilities around him.

Once again, I can’t say how grateful I am that Samuel has gone into full-villain mode.

Which bring us to Sylar.

God bless Zachary Quinto for making this stuff entertaining. When Matt asked if Sylar was a part of his subconscious, Sylar replied with, “That’s SO two months ago.” It turns out that Sylar envied Matt because he could live a normal life with his powers (an interesting thought) and he wanted Parkman to somehow suppress all of Sylar’s abilities.

Two things: 1.) I’ve been over the idea of reforming/remaking Sylar as a good guy for a few years now, and Quinto’s performance is the only thing keeping me invested in anything this character does. 2.) Even if Matt had suppressed Sylar’s power, we all knew there was no chance in hell that would stick.

That’s why I actually really enjoyed it when Parkman trapped Sylar in his own brain (it makes me sad how they’ve squandered the potential of Matt’s power by making him such a whiny loser) and preparing to bury him alive.

Of course, Peter had to swoop in and ruin everything.

Personally, I thought it was interesting that Peter was dealing with his mom’s power and having those horrific dreams of the future. I think it sort of helps explain why Angela can be such a cold-hearted bitch. Anyway, there was no time for that because Peter had to save Sylar’s life, since Sylar is the person who saves the day in that Hall of Mirrors dream sequence (now featuring Doyle controlling Emma).

Peter went into Sylar’s brain to get him out and, by episode’s end, he was stuck in there. Unfortunately, Sylar’s brain looks like an eerily empty New York City street, so Peter might be looking around for a good while.

So what’d you think of this episode? Where did the Replicating Man get a sniper rifle? (Is he able to replicate those too?) Finally, why don’t you just admit it – you’d kind of forgotten that Tracy existed, right?

Heroes: The World vs. Hiro Nakamura

How low are my expectations for this show?

Are they on the floor? No, they’re definitely lower than that. The basement? The Earth’s core? Hell?!

Because, God (or Kaito Nakamura) help me, I enjoyed the latest definitely-bad-yet-thoroughly-enjoyable-in-its-own-ridiculous-way installment of “Heroes.” Mostly.

Let’s jump right into Hiro’s storyline, which had the Master of Time and Space, literally, on triall for his life.

Hiro’s brain tumor acted up early in the hour, transporting him to Charlie’s Texas diner, which doubled as a makeshift courthouse. Hiro was on trial for using his abilities for his own personal gain. His dad, Kaito (welcome back, George Takei), served as judge and Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei (David Anders) was the prosecuting attorney.

Of course, the idea of bringing back dead characters to interact with living characters as their lives hang in the balance has been done before (a particularly atrocious recent example was “Grey’s Anatomy” ferry episode), but “Heroes” had more fun than usual with the concept.

My two favorite things (other than the shout-out to the opening narration of “Quantum Leap”) were Anders’ performance (“Hello carp”), which I enjoyed even during the dark days known as “Heroes: Season 2”, and Zachary Quinto showing up as Sylar and absentmindedly testifying as to how many people he’d killed (“Ted……Sprague!”) as a result of Hiro letting him live in exchange for Charlie’s life.

Less successful was the result of the mock trial itself. It was determined that Hiro had ultimately used his powers for his own selfish motives, despite having noble intentions and saving the world (“twice!”). Hiro had even accepted responsibility for his actions.

Unfortunately, that’s around the time the show remembered that (Nathan Petrelli notwithstanding) they’re not really in the habit of killing off popular characters, even if they’ve long outlived their usefulness. As a result, we got a weird, slapped-together sword fight between Hiro and Monroe before Hiro got a new lease on life after interacting with his saintly dead mom. (Insert sad trombone sound.)

The season’s main villain had a similar “good news/bad news” situation with his storyline.

The good news is that Samuel has FINALLY gone full villain. It turns out that all (or most) of his efforts this year have been in the surface of recreating the romance he had with his beloved Vanessa. The scenes between Samuel and Vanessa were sweet and VERY well played by Robert Knepper and Kate Vernon. Unfortunately, Vanessa (correctly) pointed out that the idyllic cottage was really Samuel’s fantasy and not hers. This caused Samuel to flip out and cause a whole town to cave in on itself (maybe they’ll run into my expectations for this show while they’re down there).

The bad news is that, um, all of our main villain’s efforts this year have been due to him wanting to impress a girl he likes. All that talk about giving people with abilities a safe place to live appears to be a bunch of crap and a waste of time. This was almost as bad as when Jack told Kate on “Lost” that he wanted to detonate the bomb and reboot timeline for her. Blech.

Speaking of blech, that’s what I expected to do during the latest “Sylar creepily hits on Claire” storyline, but I’ll be damned if Zachary Quinto and Hayden Panettiere didn’t pull this off.

Sylar caught up with Claire at her college because the latest thing with Sylar is that he doesn’t want to end up alone and Lydia’s tattoo had appeared on his body and apparently told him that Claire is what he really wanted. The dialogue between the two was too cutesy by half (again, remember when Sylar was LEGITIMATELY scary?!), but the show did bring up an interesting point about Claire and Sylar’s similarities.

Throw in a nice twist – Claire confessing to Sylar how much Gretchen means to her while Sylar was disguised as Gretchen – and this thing didn’t turn out nearly as awfully as I thought I would. That is, of course, until the writers decide what other direction they want to yank Sylar in, and they give the currently-content Claire something fresh to whine about.

So what’d you think of this episode? How did Samuel emerge from his destruction unharmed? (Does he have teleporting abilities I’m not aware of?) What does Sylar want with Parkman now? Finally, where the hell is Tracy?

Heroes: The Great Escape

“I’ve had just about enough of your nonsense, Hiro.”

“Listen, the Sylar thing was a TERRIBLE idea – we all admit that.”

These are both quotes from the latest episode of “Heroes.” More importantly, they appear to be evidence that the show has finally become self-aware enough to acknowledge how downright brutal it has been at times.

Either way, “Close to You” was one of the funniest (on purpose) and downright enjoyable episodes of “Heroes” in a long time. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – this show would be served well if it came to grips with its own awfulness and embraced it.

Take the “Great Asylum Escape”, for instance. Not only is this entire sequence of events entirely unnecessary, but we’ve already seen how it turns out. (We’d glimpsed Hiro, Ando and Mohinder running through the swamp.) So why not have a little fun with it.

The episode’s MVP is undoubtedly James Kyson Lee simply for the line “I work in a cart factory” as a way of explaining why he was hanging around the cart with all the meds. Hiro and Ando had deduced that Mohinder was being drugged, which was preventing him from using his super strength to bust out. Since this show appears to now (officially) be a comedy, Ando had swallowed Mohinder’s drugs by accident and was tripping during the escape. Still, he was able to use his “red lightning” to bust open the door and, later, to fix Hiro’s pop culture-scrambled brain. (I guess it’s too much to hope that the show will make up its mind as to what Ando’s power is – is he an amplifier or does he blast people? Wait, I know – whichever’s more convenient!)

In fact, this storyline was such a triumph that I even found Mohinder bearable, although that’s probably because he was standing in for the audience (he was the one who complained about Hiro’s nonsense). The trio teleported out of Florida and into HRG’s living room for a perfectly-timed cock block.

Unfortunately, this brings us to the least successful part of the episode.

Now, I’ve said time and time again that Jack Coleman is the best actor on this show, but last night he was just bad. Maybe it’s because this feels like the 100th time he’s had to play some variation of “I’m so obsessed with my job that I’ve alienated all those around me”, but I found him to be distractingly over-the-top in this episode.

He’s still obsessed with finding the carnival and he enlisted Parkman’s help in tracking down Vanessa (Kate Vernon of “Battlestar Galactica), Samuel’s love. Parkman had settled into a comfortable life of watching Pixar movies (“Ratatouille” shout out) with his kid and the wife who barely seems like she can stand him.

As you can imagine, it didn’t take much for Bennett to convince Parkman to come along on a side mission. They got SOME info from Vanessa (she’d grown up with Samuel in the house he sinkholed into the ground and I’m assuming the cello Samuel gave Emma belonged to Vanessa) before Samuel and his replicating henchman showed up and whisked her away. For some reason, Vanessa was less than charmed by Samuel’s kidnapping, but he still thinks he can win her over. (In a related story, I’m doubtful he can win me over this season.)

Meanwhile, Parkman told Bennett to go home and try being a dad. He stopped by Claire’s dorm to make up with her and went home to make out with Lauren right before the Three Amigos popped in. At least it’s nice to see some of our core characters getting together again.

In the episode’s other storyline, the new best actor on the show (Milo Ventimiglia) had to deal with some hideously awesome dialogue. It looks like Peter will soon be drawn into the carnival. The compass tattoo appeared on his arm after Lydia once again expressed her desire for new leadership. Peter was later drawn to Emma after she played her magic cello and brought him to her apartment. (Booty call?)

While in Emma’s apartment (which magically turned into Peter’s apartment because Angela showed up a few moments later), Ventimiglia had to say things like, “My friend almost died because of a compass Just. Like. This.” Actually, my personal favorite was later on – after borrowing his mom’s power and seeing that Emma’s cello playing in the hall of mirrors was going to lead to about a 1,000 deaths – he went over to Emma’s place, said “Hi” and smashed the cello. (Just terrific.)

So now it appears like Emma will hook up again with Samuel in the carnival and that he’ll hook her up with another cello so that he can, um, kill 1,000 people. (If I actually cared about what Samuel was doing, I’d be even more frustrated.) Meanwhile, it appears Peter will be recruited to lead the carnie folk, while Sylar may be positioned as the only person who can save the world.

Whether or not you agree with the direction of the show at least this season is going…somewhere. Hopefully, there’ll be more fun episodes like this one along the way.

So what’d you think of this episode? Is Hiro’s brain tumor supposed to be gone? (I didn’t totally get that impression.) Is Matt Parkman a coward? (“Coward” is strong – I think of him more as wimpy than cowardly.) Finally, where the heck is Tracy? (Not that I miss her or anything – just asking.)

Heroes: Good Grief

“Heroes” came back this week from its month-long break, and I’m here to report that it’s…still not very good.

If you had told me going in that these two hours would have a 0% Mohinder/Parkman content (well 1% if you count the opening narration), I would’ve been giddy. Despite this happy development, the show’s laughably-bad writing and uninspired storytelling still outweigh the good.

I also wish I knew the show is SO intent on having the audience hate Hiro.

I mean, did Masi Oka not buy the show’s writing staff a nice enough gift after season 1? I guess they didn’t feel having him, literally, act like a child a while back wasn’t embarrassing enough, so they had to make him act like a moron.

It seems a combination of Hiro’s brain tumor and whatever Samuel’s dreadlocked friend did to him have scrambled his brain to the point where he’s regurgitating everything he ever learned from pop culture (more specifically Sherlock Holmes, “Star Wars” and Don Quixote). (Audible sigh) I’m just going to look on the bright side and praise the fact that the writers found a way to reincorporate Ando – he was the only one who could decipher Hiro’s ramblings – since the character hasn’t done a damn thing this year. It turns out that Hiro was trying to convey that they need to break Mohinder out of that mental institution in Florida (why Florida?), but since we saw the trio escaping at the end of last month’s fall finale, this whole exercise felt especially tedious and pointless. Also tedious and pointless? Bringing back Mohinder!

A good portion of the first hour followed yet another of Samuel’s recruiting trips. (He should’ve just recruited her when he made his pitch to Peter and saved gas.) Fortunately, he went to visit a character we’ve already met and who has the potential to play a larger role in the season’s main storyline. (Which NEEDS to get tightened and focused in a hurry.)

Samuel informed Emma that she could not only see sound, but that when she played the cello (that he sent), she could draw other people with abilities to her like a siren’s song. (Since young Molly Walker has apparently been written out of this show, having another character with the ability to locate people is mighty convenient.) Samuel used Emma to recruit a hobo who looked like Ricky Williams when he was REALLY into pot. Fortunately, the hobo cleaned up well and used his Miracle-Gro powers to seemingly build Samuel’s dream homeland for people with abilities.

Except that the show is obsessed with keeping Samuel firmly entrenched in the gray zone. I mean, honestly – would it be so bad if Samuel’s ONLY ambition was to build this homeland for his people? Sure, the character would still be part-villain (since he’s willing to kill for his goal), but at least his goal would be relatively pure.

Instead, we keep getting fed information that suggests Samuel is just a power-hungry tyrant. If that wasn’t enough, it now seems that another one of his goals is to reconnect with Vanessa, the love of his life who was referenced in a flashback sequence that featured his brother Joseph (who was much jerkier as a young boy.)

Anyway, just when Claire had decided that Samuel was a bad guy after some prodding from Lydia (I was pretty impressed by Dawn Olivieri in these two episodes – I hope they use her more), Samuel reveals his homeland valley and she’s back on-board with the carnival crew. So to recap, just when Claire was about to do something, she doesn’t. Which leaves us (the audience) nowhere. Then again, good on Claire for being able to overlook the fact that the Replicating Man (hey, his name is Eli!) spent most of that first hour stalking and terrorizing her under Samuel’s orders.

Then again, maybe the reason I’m annoyed about Samuel being stuck in the gray zone is because that’s basically what ruined Sylar’s character. Let’s be honest here – didn’t we like him more when he was all bad? Did we need to learn his sad back story (over and over and over again)? I LOVED that he showed up at the carnival ready to eat up some powers, but having him be “impotent” seemed like another gratuitous delay solely for storyline purposes. (It's probably bad that I was disappointed when Sylar did NOT kill him, right?)

Then I thought about it some more, and I appreciated the fact that the show was actually exploring what Hiro had told Sylar in the Texas flashback (that he was going to die alone). Unfortunately, I then started thinking about what sad shape “Heroes” is in that I’m actually delightfully impressed when this show displays ANY sort of continuity and I got sad again. Oh well, at least there was some shirtless Sylar for the ladies.

I realize I seem to be doing a lot of complaining (because I am), so here’s something good. I though the show’s transition from the first hour (ending with Claire getting the call about Nathan’s death) to the second (Nathan’s unnecessarily slow-mo funeral and wake) was very well done. I also thought having the flyover during Nathan’s burial was an excellent touch for our favorite flyboy senator. (I’ll even overlook the silliness of having Nathan’s illegitimate daughter make a dramatic entrance, while his ex-wife and kids get the long-distance camera shot treatment – come on, Rena Sofer, make a cameo!)

I’m also still digging Milo Ventimiglia’s Peter Petrelli this season. He basically did everything he could to get himself killed to avoid grieving. Sure, the hostage situation was COMPLETELY silly and very poorly staged, but Ventimiglia and Hayden Panetierre had some nice moments together. It was particularly nice to see the two bring up Claire’s ex-boyfriend West because I thought all characters were under strict orders to pretend like season 2 never happened.

Unfortunately, I don’t see Peter getting over this any time soon. Is anyone else feeling a special appearance by ghost Nathan telling Pete to let him go down the line?

So what’d you think of this episode? Why was there a stool in the Hall of Mirrors? (Think about it.) Will Noah and Lauren be able to find the carnival on their own since Edgar took off? (I’m actually liking them as a team.) Finally, what do you think Sylar’s wants with Claire?

Heroes: Better Nate Than Never

Ok, I’m assuming Nathan is dead for good this time.

(I’m also assuming I didn’t ruin anything with that first sentence because this episode aired way back on Monday and it’s not exactly a state secret that Adrian Pasdar has been removed from “Heroes.”)

If you’ve watched this show from the beginning, I’m sure you can understand my skepticism, given the fact that a Nathan Petrelli death/near death experience has been a yearly ritual during every season finale. (See: being fried by a bomb-ified Peter at the end of season 1, being shot in the chest by Future Peter at the end of season 2, and being ACTUALLY killed by Sylar at the end of season 3.)

Monday’s episode, “The Fifth Stage”, was this year’s semi-official “fall finale”, so we all knew what was coming.

Still, I’ll be damned if this episode didn’t make me care (going back to a key pilot episode location was a smart move), despite all the rampant ridiculousness.

The episode’s title, of course, refers to the five stages of grief. Peter was having trouble getting to stage #5 – acceptance. More specifically, Peter couldn’t accept the fact that his brother was really dead. As a result, he borrowed the Haitian’s power (this character has been more effective as a verb this season than as an actual person) and set about finding Sylar.

He didn’t have to wait long since cheeky Sylar – disguised as a middle-aged black woman(?!) – assaulted Peter before the two fought it out in a curiously abandoned portion of the hospital. (Another aside: has the Haitian’s power always been voluntary? I always thought his mere presence zapped people’s powers – although, clearly that’s not the case since Sylar chokeslammed Peter.)

In a nice change from the usual m.o. on this show, we actually got to see the two characters fight, even though it was basically a fist fight. Peter got the upper hand and, after trying to beat the living Nathan out of Sylar, erased the bad guy’s memory and got Nathan back momentarily.

Peter and Nathan took a little field trip to where it all began for them way back in the show’s first-ever episode. The brothers visited the roof that Peter jumped from to prove he could fly, and that Nathan jumped off to save his brother. The scene began promisingly enough with Nathan stating why he denied his ability to fly at first (“It was an election year”), but soon devolved into silly melodrama. Adrian Pasdar is a really good actor, but even he couldn’t sell Nathan’s momentary transformations into Sylar.

What WAS believable was the weariness in Nathan’s voice and his desire to rest in peace. He jumped off the roof and finally convinced his brother to let him go (nice job by Milo Ventimiglia in this scene too). I (and a lot of people) have been saying that this show needs to kill off characters for good, but I don’t really think Nathan should’ve been one of them. (How about Parkman, Mohinder, etc.?) Since I’ll miss Nathan so much, I’ll forgive the HIGHLY questionable green screen shot of Nathan falling and morphing into a smiling Sylar.

Here’s hoping the writers actually DO something with Sylar in 2010. Yes, Zachary Quinto is the only actor having fun on this show, but right now the character has no purpose (he hasn’t been a Big Bad since season 1) and is really just a clown. A clown who amuses me, but a clown nonetheless.

The show’s other subplot included Claire’s trip to the Sullivan Bros. carnival where she got the hard sell from Samuel.

Clearly, one of the season’s biggest mysteries has centered around what Samuel’s true motivations are. We’re about halfway into season 4, and it’s still not entirely clear what his ultimate goal is. (But then again, I’m kinda thick.)

He keeps selling the carnival as a place where people with abilities can live out in the open without having to hide their abilities, but I don’t think “living out in the open” means what he thinks it means. Maybe it’s me, but isolating yourself from regular society so that you could use your powers on the down low (it’s not like that telepath was openly messing with the minor league jerk) does NOT qualify as living out in the open.

Samuel also seems to be selling a peaceful existence, but hasn’t thought twice about sending some of his minions to commit crimes, including murder. (Edgar slicing up Danko.) Given that Samuel was more concerned about going back in time so he could see what was in Dr. Suresh’s film and learn of his immense powers instead of going back in time to save his brother, I’m going to say he’s full of it, and he’s merely gathering as many superpowered beings as he can to launch an assault (that the TV audience won’t get to actually see) on, um, someone.

It seems he’ll have Claire on his side. She joined the carnival after taking a backstage tour and tasting some amazing popcorn. To be honest, my favorite part was puppet master Doyle’s cameo (a hug?!) and Claire’s casual description about how he’d tried to have Claire’s mom shoot her. I could’ve done without the episode-ending twist that Claire, apparently is NOT the one they’re after.

Maybe Samuel’s really after Noah. Sure, the show pulled the “we’re not after Claire, we’re after Noah” bait and switch last month with Invisible Rebecca, but I wouldn’t put it past this show to go back to that well.

Other than dealing with Samuel’s “multiplier” minion (nice use of camera tricks), Noah didn’t do too much in this episode, other than try to further his relationship with Lauren Gilmore, who is starting to grow on me. (Especially if she continues to deliver genius/ridiculous lines like “I Haitianed myself?!” The show could use more of that INTENTIONAL silliness) The multiplier made off with Noah’s box of Primatech files – which was apparently out in the open for everyone to see…and labeled “Primatech.”

So what’d you think of this episode? Did the show give Adrian Pasdar a proper sendoff? (Assuming he’s really, 100%, for sure gone!) What are Samuel’s intentions? Finally, which character are you most and least eager to see again? (Did anyone else groan at the shot of Hiro and Ando apparently breaking Mohinder out of that insane asylum? Groan!)

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.)

Heroes: Invasion of the Body Snatchers

You’re not going to believe this, but the driving force this season behind Samuel Sullivan’s quest to gather as many of our beloved(?) Heroes as possible was – a stupid decision by Mohinder Suresh!

(Quick disclaimer: the following critique is directed at the way the character of Mohinder has been written, NOT Sendhil Ramamurthy. Sure, Ramamurthy is no Marlon Brando, but no actor – whether it’s Brando, Johnny Depp or Laurence Olivier - could make chicken salad out of the chicken shit material this actor has always been handed.)

This week, we got our annual “Why is this season’s bad guy doing what he’s been doing?” episode (previous installments have showcased Gabriel Gray, Adam Monroe and Arthur Petrelli). We knew Samuel Sullivan had killed Mohinder (yay!), but we needed to find out why.

One of the things this episode did really well was bring our core characters together in a meaningful way for the first time this season.

After some truly painful dialogue (“do you ever think about running away and joining a carnival?”) Tracy’s power started freaking out on her (for no apparent reason) and she went to find Noah for help. Instead, she ran into Claire who tried to calm her down and warm her up with some tea and a hot bath (Ali Larter in her underwear in T-minus 3…2…) Tracy ended up freezing Claire solid by accident and comically snapped her foot off while trying to help her. The only thing funnier was Noah’s “this is only a little weird” reaction upon seeing his daughter’s frozen, amputated foot on his coffee table when he came home. (It DOES make for an eye-catching centerpiece.) Even a little Jack Coleman is excellent.

As bad as some of the actual writing was, I liked the IDEA of Claire and Tracy putting aside their repetitive (and doomed) quests for a normal life and dish a little about their abilities. In the end, Tracy met up with Samuel and seemed to be on the verge of joining the carnival. With Gretchen seemingly out of the picture for good, can Claire be far behind?

Still, the team-up I enjoyed the most was the Petrelli Bros. reunion.

Over the last couple of years, Nathan and Peter’s relationship has been understandably strained, so it was great to see the Petrelli boys come together to help each other out as soon as they figured out their mom was up to her usual shenanigans. This was tempered only slightly by the fact that Nathan isn’t really Nathan at all, but that’s beside the point.

The Haitian tried to reveal the whole Nylar plot to Peter on the down low, but Peter brought Nathan along anyway (aww) to the creepy storage facility where they discovered – real Nathan’s body! Putting aside the fact that real Nathan’s body should have absolutely been burned or buried, this scene was very well played by both actors, especially Adrian Pasdar. (I’m not buying the whole “Angela kept Nathan’s body because she’s sentimental/emotional” explanation – the reason she kept the body in a storage facility that is easily accessible is because it was a hell of a lot more convenient for the writers to have Peter and Nylar stumble upon it. It’s stuff like this that keeps holding “Heroes” back.)

Anyway, the brothers went to find Matt Parkman after Nylar got a flash of a memory of him. Parkman was in critical condition in a hospital, but the Petrellis slipped by the INCREDIBLY distracted armed guard and into his room. After Peter healed him, Matt woke up and tried to get them to run away before Sylar jumped into his body. (If all Sylar had to do to take over Matt’s body was touch him, why did it take him so long to do it initially? Whatever!) With Sylar now in Matt’s body, he implored Nathan/Sylar to touch him so he could get his old body back. (Oy, my head hurts!) The two only grazed each other before both brothers had to flee the hospital.

Nylar (or was it Sylar? Or was it Nathan) tried to get Peter away from him, but Peter touched him and took his flying ability so he could keep up. I also wonder if Sylar didn’t take the opportunity to jump from Nylar’s body to Peter. That would explain why Nathan appeared to be in control of his own body by the end of the episode, despite clearly making contact with Mylar (Matt + Sylar)

I realize I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer. However, “Heroes” so often changes the rules of its own universe that things become as muddled as my last two paragraphs. (I mean, I SAW the episode, and they don’t make sense to me!) Characters in this show don’t do things because they make sense – they do them to manufacture conflict and to keep the story chugging along.

Which brings us to Mohinder.

Apparently he had a nice life (and a pretty wife) teaching in India. Still, his father’s findings from Coyote Sands decades earlier were nagging at him and (being Mohinder) he threw everything away. He was able to construct a compass that led him from India to the Sullivan Bros. carnival where we finally met Samuel’s brother Joseph.

We got a little back story when we learned that Joseph had dedicated his life to keeping Samuel’s power in check. Mohinder warned him about Samuel’s potential to become scarily powerful, but Joseph asked him to leave. Samuel, who had overheard Mohinder, followed him and killed him after Mohinder refused to elaborate.

Except that Hiro had successfully traveled back in time to stop Mohinder’s death (boo!). Oh well, at least the time-stopping effect is ALWAYS cool. I get that Mohinder wanted to stop Samuel immediately, but if Hiro wanted to stop him from going after Samuel in the past, why didn’t he just bring him back to the present? Why did he have to lock him up in a mental institution for eight weeks (not that I’m complaining, mind you)?

Hiro was able to salvage the film detailing Chandra Suresh’s work and Samuel’s birth, but it remains to be seen if Samuel will give Hiro back the love of his life Charlie. Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by Samuel’s motives. His confrontation with Mohinder was WAY too brief and I’m not exactly sure what he thinks he’s going to learn from the film that he doesn’t already know. Maybe, we’ll eventually see what turns him from such an angry, out-of-control guy into the smooth operator with the inconsistent accent.

So what’d you think of this episode? Am I being too critical of the show? (I don’t mean to be, it’s just that these inconsistencies take me right out of the show?) Is Sylar in Peter or Nathan’s body? Why did Hiro pick a mental asylum in Florida? Finally, have we seen the last of Mohinder? (Alas, I think he’s got an episode or two more left in him)

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?

Heroes: The Truth About Charlie

Fans who’ve been watching this show from the beginning don’t agree on much, but I think it’s safe to say we see eye-to-eye on at least one issue: we want this show to be as good as it was during season 1.

The writers and producers behind “Heroes” seem to actually be aware of this sentiment and - for better AND worse - have been happy to comply. After a mostly-disastrous second season (the writers’ strike was definitely a factor), season 3 brought the “Cold Wars” episode which played like an unofficial follow-up to the classic, HRG-centered “Company Man” episode from the show’s freshman season.

Monday night brought the show’s most shameless, “please watch and remember the good times” nostalgia-fest with “Once Upon a Time in Texas” and the return of Jayma Mays (pictured, right) as Charlie, who’s real super power is being absolutely adorable.
Here’s my problem. When I say that I want the show to be as good as it was in season 1, I don’t literally mean that I want the show go back to season 1 plotlines. (In fact, the overuse of the time travel device is, in my opinion, the biggest thing that has absolutely killed the show!) What I want is a return to the excitement, danger and “what’s going to happen next” feel of season 1. By repeatedly going back to the show’s glory days, “Heroes” is effectively sabotaging any chance it has of becoming a good show in the present.

That being said, I definitely enjoyed seeing Hiro interact with Charlie, as well as season 1 Ando (different haircut) and season 1 Sylar (aka Brain Man).

I’m not really sure why Hiro all of a sudden decided he could change the past and stop Sylar from killing Charlie (didn’t he accept the futility of altering the future when he failed to save that roof jumper in the episode called, um, “Acceptance”), but I went along with it because that’s just what we have to do with “Heroes” these days.

I liked the white hat/black hat joke, and I REALLY liked seeing old-school scary Sylar (although he WAS much scarier when he barely spoke at all during season 1). Initially, Hiro succeeded in saving Charlie’s life AND convincing his old self (“moron”) to make her fall in love with him, but then he learned Charlie would soon die of a brain aneurism.

Re-enter Sylar, who fixed the aneurism in exchange for Hiro’s knowledge of the future. However unlikely this deal really was, I rolled with it because I can believe that season 1 Sylar would be vain enough to want to know how he dies because he’d be convinced he could prevent it. Also, Quinto’s acting during the scene where Hiro tells him that he dies alone with no one mourning him was brilliant. (This guy is simply too good for this show now.)

By the way, while all of this was going on, we got a thoroughly unnecessary subplot with HRG and a partner who was blonder, whiter and decidedly less Haitian-y than the one we knew from season 1. She was played by Elisabeth Rohm and she tempted Noah into having an affair. I get that the writers wanted to show us that the shady, kidnapping season 1 Noah was a good guy that cared about his family. However, I didn’t NEED to see this character retroactively put in a positive light. I’m not saying he was cheating on Sandra, but I like the idea that he wasn’t as good a person then as he is today and this flashback somewhat robbed him of the transformation he’s undergone.

Oh well, at least this storyline introduced the phrase, “going Haitian” (having your memory wiped) into the lexicon. (Speaking of which, can we get a Jimmy Jean-Louis cameo – I mean we saw Isaac Mendez last night!)

After a brief bout of ungratefulness for Charlie (she was peeved that Hiro exchanged her life for all the people Sylar goes on to kill), Hiro and Charlie got their happily ever after. That is until Evil Butterfly Man Samuel kidnapped her and stranded her in time. (Samuel and his shady whatever is really getting to be a nuisance at this point.) I'm guessing she'll stay lost in time until Mays can get a break from "Glee" to shoot more scenes.

Turns out Samuel needs Hiro to join him so he can undo a terrible wrong – it appears that several weeks earlier Samuel was responsible for the death of…Mohinder! So, let me get this straight: a solid portion of this season has been dedicated to SAVING Mohinder’s life?!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So what’d you think of this episode? Why are Samuel’s people dying? (“Our family’s getting smaller, and our graveyard’s getting bigger?) Was Claire really THAT well endowed in season 1? (Nice to see the iconic cheerleading uniform again.) Finally, is it true what they say - once you “go Haitian”, you never go back?

Heroes: Slaughterhouse Four

Yes, “Heroes” has been “better” this season, but does that mean that it’s actually “good”?

I can’t fully go there because I feel every episode has only been about 66% good. Most of this year’s installments have been focusing on three storylines (which certainly isn’t a bad idea). Unfortunately, one of those storylines has been an absolute dog every week.

Best in Show this week goes to the Parkman/Subconscious Sylar saga, which only promises to be more interminable.

Poor Greg Grunberg. Not only has his character CLEARLY outstayed his welcome on the show, but it appears as if the producers insisted Parkman keep his shirt on in his love scene with Janice, while Zachary Quinto got to be shirtless when Subconscious Sylar was romancing her. (You know — because Grunberg is fat.)

Don’t get me wrong, I like Grunberg. It’s just that Matt has mostly lost the everyman quality that made him appealing in the first place and the writers now seem content to have him act like a Class A moron. I mean, what other explanation is there for Matt to actually believe that becoming a fall-down drunk (as a way of getting rid of Subconscious Sylar) was a GOOD idea? Though it was pretty obvious that SS was messing with Matt, the fact that Sylar is now in Matt’s body was a twist. (Notice that I didn’t say it was a “good twist” because it just means this nonsense is going to go on and on.)

A plotline I’m actually glad to see go on is Claire’s possible budding lesbianism. And, no, it’s not because I’m some sort of perv, ya pervs! It’s because “Heroes” is showing us that attention-grabbing kiss from a couple of weeks ago wasn’t JUST a ratings stunt. I liked how Claire’s initial resistance to Gretchen wasn’t so much because she’s a girl — it was more because entering into a relationship would jeopardize the “normal” life she’s pining after.

This storyline also gave us a bunch of nice moments, including Rebecca telling Claire, “You didn’t have to go all Buffy on us” when a bunch of sorority sisters tried to “kidnap” Claire and Gretchen for a Screamin’ Scavenger Hunt. Eventually, Claire, Gretchen and another pair of girls were dropped off in the middle of what looked like a “Resident Evil” game. Invisible Rebecca’s main goal was to kill Gretchen inside the abandoned slaughterhouse. Claire was able to save her, and Rebecca fled. The only thing I didn’t like about this storyline is that the other two girls didn’t get killed. I mean, one of them was annoying, and the other was bitchy — and they entered a room called “Kill House.” (Come on!)

Picking up from last week, HRG did his best to save Jeremy the Healer/Death Dealer, and the writers did their best to shoehorn Ali Larter into the proceedings. Noah had Tracy pretend to be Jeremy’s mom to get him out of prison.

In the midst of all that, Samuel (oh yeah, I remember that whole carnival thing now) wooed Tracy with the promise of a world where they would all be accepted. (I kinda wish Samuel would just do whatever it is he’s going to do already.) That promise looked more tempting after what happened to Jeremy.

A couple of hick deputies (the show wanted to remind us that they were in Georgia) kidnapped Jeremy, chained him to a car and dragged him down the street after Jeremy had accidentally killed another person. The melodrama and cheesiness of the accidental death sequence robbed it of some of its effectiveness, as did the fact that a person with abilities was basically outed and no one seemed to notice or care. (I’d probably ask questions about a guy who can kill people by touching them, even if I weren’t a reporter.)

Still, “Heroes” did show admirable restraint in the dragging sequence, by not actually showing us Jeremy’s death (although we did get the bloody aftermath). Once again, whatever feeling this may have evoked was undermined by bad writing. Aiming for poignancy, Tracy asked Noah, “Do you think we could ever just live in the open?” Noah responds with, “After today — no.” I get what they were going for, but a line like that pretty much sends the message that everything that’s come before (the company, Danko hunting heroes just last season) is insignificant.

So what’d you think of this episode? Has there been a “Heroes” episode you’ve TOTALLY loved this season? What was with the douche-y hat Sylar/Nathan (or whoever the hell he is) was wearing at the carnival? Now that Tracy is obviously on board, who will be next to join the carnival? Are there any abandoned slaughterhouses in your area? Finally, is anybody out there actually looking forward to Mohinder’s imminent return? (Bueller? Bueller?)

Heroes: Clean Slate

There’s hope yet.

Not so much for “Heroes.” There are still too many repetitive storylines involving characters that should’ve moved on a long time ago and ridiculous twists that exist only to advance the plot and create conflict rather than because they make sense. (Don’t get me wrong: I’m actually enjoying this season, but I don’t see how it can ever go back to being a seriously good show.)

What I’m saying is that there’s hope for Hiro. The character has been so misused and wasted over the last couple of seasons that I’m a little tired of making the joke about how Masi Oka could’ve sued the producers for defamation of character.

However, in “Tabula Rasa” (which G4’s intrusive and occasionally helpful on-screen graphic informed me means “clean slate”) we saw the traits that made us kinda fall in love with the character in the first place.

Despite the fact that he’s dying (yeah, right) Hiro was optimistic and grateful to have his powers. While Peter teleported off to recruit Noah and find a healer, Hiro helped Emma come to terms with her abilities. All Emma wanted to do was learn how to turn her power off, but Hiro taught her about the responsibility of having an ability and accepting what life throws at you.

Which reminded him of what the lovely diner waitress Charlie had taught him in season 1. With a newly rejuvenated (and non-annoying) Hiro, I’m really looking forward to the Hiro/Charlie reunion. (We got a glimpse at Jayma Mays’ stand-in at the end of this ep.)

While Masi Oka had been floundering until this episode, I’ve been immensely enjoying Milo Ventimiglia this season. Peter has a clear (slightly misguided) purpose this year, which is to save as many people as possible with as little fanfare as he can manage. He and Noah went out to Georgia to recruit Jeremy, a kid healer HRG knew from his company days.

I liked how eager Noah was eager to spring back into action after his failed job search. Unfortunately, Jeremy’s power had changed from healing to killing and he had accidentally caused his parents’ death.

If you think about it, there really was no reason for Peter to allow himself to get shot, other than the fact that Jeremy would be forced to go back from Death Dealer to Healer. That being said, the brief sequence where he froze Jeremy’s shotgun blast was great if only for Ventimiglia’s “that was cool” smile after Peter stopped time.

After Jeremy came though, Peter took his power and rushed off (in a truck) to try to save Hiro. HRG stayed behind to help Jeremy deal with his issues and Jack Coleman confirmed the fact that he’s the best actor on the show by delivering the line, “My power is understanding people like you” and NOT making me vomit. (In case you think Noah is being a little too earnest, he still helped Jeremy engineer a carbon-monoxide poisoning cover-up to explain the death of his parents.)

If wish I had any sort of enthusiasm for the umpteenth “Sylar is trying to discover himself” storyline. After joining the Sullivan Bros. carnival, Sylar still had no memories, but appeared to believe he was Nathan. (Credit should go to Zachary Quinto, who is good at playing many different things, including clueless.) At least the brief Quinto/Adrian Pasdar face-meld when Sylar saw the planes fly above was cool.

In the leading candidate for “Decision You’re Going to Regret in Three Weeks” Samuel decided that the true Sylar needed to be unleashed. He had Sylar ushered into a House of Mirrors where he got to relieve his Greatest Hits/Murders. This sequence was very effective and would’ve been even better without Quinto’s slightly hammy acting.

Later, he ran into the dick of a detective who was pursuing him (Ernie Hudson was basically cast to play “Dead Meat”, so I’m not going to look up the character’s name) in the same House of Mirrors. (What the hell was the detective doing in there by himself anyway?) Though Sylar stopped himself from killing Dead Meat (yawn) the increasingly jealous Edgar swooped in and finished the job.

Now it appears Sylar will stay with the Sullivan Bros. (and, specifically, super-skinny chick Lydia) for the time being.

So what’d you think of this episode? How do you like Samuel taking over Mohinder’s narration duties? (Say what you will about Mohinder, but at least his accent was consistent.) If it wasn’t Peter, who sent the cello to Emma’s apartment? (Could it be Samuel?) Finally, what’s Samuel’s ultimate plan for Sylar?

Heroes: Girl-on-Girl Action

Let’s jump right in and talk about “the kiss.”

Upon first hearing — and seeing, thanks to the NBC promo department widely circulating a photo of the kiss in the days leading up to this episode — that Hayden Panettiere would be locking lips with a female co-star, you probably thought it was a hopelessly desperate attempt by a once-popular, now-struggling show to get some attention. (I know I did.)

After watching the episode in question — titled “Hysterical Blindness” — I actually think it incorporated the kiss (which WAS an attention-getting stunt no matter how you slice it) in a clever way.

Claire and her fangirl/roommate Gretchen were being recruited by a sorority led by perky go-getter named Rebecca. Claire had been enjoying her newfound normalcy (and chocolate milk) so she was open to the idea of doing “normal girl” things.

I liked the speed-dating introductory sequence in which Claire realized how boring her life is (no boyfriend, dad sells paper, mom trains a show dog) sans her superheroic exploits. (Just like her dad last week.) Unfortunately, weird happenings follow Claire no matter where she goes. First, she found out that Gretchen had been doing extensive research on her online. Then, she was almost impaled during a sorority get-together with Gretchen being the only culprit in sight.

During the season premiere, I guessed that Gretchen had an ulterior motive for buddying up to Claire. Back then, I thought she might have a power and that she was probably involved in Annie’s murder. By last night, things were stacked so much in Gretchen’s favor that you KNEW she couldn’t possibly be the perpetrator. Instead, it turns out that Gretchen is simply “crushing” on Claire. (Is the show afraid to come right out and say she’s a lesbian? Would this make it easier to make the kiss a one-time thing?)

In the episode’s best twist, we learned Rebecca is part of the Sullivan Bros. carnival and has been using her invisibility to try and isolate Claire. Once we learned she was invisible, I think we could’ve all figured out that she was the one who almost impaled Claire, caused the book to fall on Gretchen’s laptop and pushed Annie to her death. Then again, “Heroes” isn’t the most subtle show, so we had to sit through a reenactment of all these scenes.

Speaking of the Sullivan Bros. carnival, there was a bit of movement on that storyline (for a change). Samuel announced that he had found a replacement for his brother Joseph. The only problem was that he had no idea who that was. I don’t mind a slow-building storyline, but we’re going to need answers on this carnie thing pretty soon. I’m feeling a flashback episode on the horizon featuring Joseph and the rest of the Sullivan crew’s exploits. I’m getting a little impatient with all of Samuel’s vague pronouncements.

Still, I think there’s plenty of hope. I liked how the carnival sequences were partly out of focus, giving off a cool feeling of disorientation. Then again, maybe the carnival itself has a life of its own. We learned it seemingly has the ability to raise stakes and move at will as it did to pick up its newest member — Sylar.

I’m going to skim a little on this storyline because I’m in a good mood and I don’t want to get into Griping Mode.

But honestly — Sylar has amnesia now? What’s the point? We all know where this is heading. Zachary Quinto is going to act meek for a couple of weeks, Sylar will feel accepted by the Sullivan Bros. crew at first before he remembers who he is and turns on them. The show seems to now be blatantly marking time until the power-hungry serial killer return.

This storyline also introduced “Ghostbuster” Ernie Hudson as a dick of a cop (a truly thankless role) and the sympathetic Dr. Gibson, who I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of. (And who may have a power — I’m especially thinking of Sylar asking her how she KNEW to believe him.)

Let’s get back to the positives. I’m really enjoying Deanna Bray as Emma, who is able to see sounds as colors. Super-speedy Peter saved her life and accidentally absorbed her power. (Quick tangent: if Peter has no control over which powers he absorbs, how come he didn’t absorb Samuel’s power when they shook hands a few episodes ago? Consistency, writers!)

Peter and Emma ended up bonding over their now-similar power. I actually liked the idea of a character having an ability that wasn’t necessarily superheroic and was really just lovely. This being an action/drama, that sort of went out the window when Emma was playing her cello at home and accidentally channeled the pretty rays of light into a powerful blast that cracked her ceiling. Oh well, that was a lovely harmless little power while it lasted.

So what’d you think of this episode? Which actor is being wasted more Ernie Hudson or Oscar winner Louise Fletcher as Emma’s mom? What do you think Hiro wants from Peter? Finally, which two same-sex characters would you like to see kiss next time the show needs a ratings boost?

Heroes: Digging up the past

Last week’s episode (smartly) focused on just a portion of our Heroes, so this week we got to see how the other half lives.

And if you’re Noah, you live a lonely, pathetic existence in which the week’s big adventure consists of you switching things up by ordering a pasta dinner.

This episode was called “Acceptance”, and, yes, there were many emo-esque musings (unfortunately, this show’s specialty) about denying one’s true nature and destiny before eventually coming to grips with it. However, there were also enough lively scenes and performances to keep things interesting.

The Noah/Claire scene in which she tried to encourage him to get a job (and a life!) was funny. I loved her running down his resume, and Noah gently reminding her that all that stuff was a sham and his real skills don’t extend too far beyond abducting people. You could tell Noah was down in the dumps because (for only the fifth or sixth time) he wasn’t wearing a suit.

Whether he wants to or not, things are about to get more interesting for HRG as he appears to be Samuel Sullivan’s next target. The most interesting thing for me about the brief Samuel scene wasn’t that there is dissention in his ranks (courtesy of Edgar), but that he appeared genuinely afraid of Noah. I didn’t expect that from a cool cat like Samuel.

We also caught up with Tracy this week, who was angling for her job back as an aide to New York Governor(/sleazebag) Malden. Apparently her brief death last year resulted in a bout of amnesia because she seems to have forgotten the fact that Malden thought of her as little more than a glorified hooker. She sought advice from Noah, but her character so far appears as aimless as ever (I want revenge! Ok, I’m over it) and the writers have done little to change my opinion that she should’ve stayed dead.

On the other hand, they managed to not make me COMPLETELY roll my eyes at every scene involving Hiro.

Yes, they’ve explored the futility of his time traveling before and more successfully (his failure to save Charlie the waitress in season 1). Also, the fact that he can travel back in time 47 times to save some office drone without creating any sort of major paradox is confusing given how much attention was paid to the butterfly effect in earlier seasons.

However, the fact that Hiro finally seemed to accept that he’s going to die (even if I haven’t — don’t buy it) and opened up to his sister about everything was encouraging. For the first time in a while he behaved like a grown-up. More of this please because, through all this, Masi Oka has remained one of the show’s most appealing performers.

Speaking of going back in time, remember when Angela briefly met with her mysterious friend Millie last season and asked her for help? Me neither. Ok, I barely remembered because Millie was played by Swoosie Kurtz in season 3’s “Cold Snap” and I thought she could have some excellent scenes with Cristine Rose down the line.

Last night’s episode certainly delivered in that regard.

Angela, up to her old manipulating tricks, brought some of Nathan’s old trinkets knowing Sylar possessed the ability to know the history of an object just by holding it. (Shame on me for thinking that power was useless last year.) Unfortunately, with Nathan’s memories came the fact that Nathan had been responsible for the accidental death of Kelly Houston, Millie’s daughter.

Overcome with guilt, Nathan confessed what he did to Millie who tearfully sent him away only to have him kidnapped, thrown in a ditch and shot by a henchman. In the show’s best sequence (other than the chilling shot of Kelly’s head hitting the side of the pool) Millie sat and smiled in Angela’s face during dinner as we simultaneously saw Nathan get abducted and murdered. Cold (Snap!)

But we weren’t done there kids. Apparently, the death of “Nathan” also allowed for the return of Sylar to his old body. My favorite thing about him rising from his shallow grave (pictured, left) was the fact that, even though his entire face was covered in dirt, Zachary Quinto’s eyebrows were still CLEARLY visible.

So what’d you think of this episode? Happy to have Sylar back to his old self again, or will you miss him harassing Parkman? Have we seen the last of Adrian Pasdar on this show? Finally, is there any way this show really kills Hiro off?

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?)

Heroes: Carnival Atmosphere

Since almost every primetime network show decided to come back last week, I didn’t get around to watching “Heroes” until Monday.

(The fact that the show is a molten hot mess as often as it is good probably also had something to do with me not exactly rushing to check out the season 4 premiere.)

Well I’ve seen “Orientation” and “Jump, Push, Fall” and I’m going to try to sneak my stream of consciousness thoughts online before the new episode airs. (FYI in case anyone cares: I’ll likely have my “Heroes” recaps online Wednesdays after the show airs on G4 because there’s just too much damn TV for me to watch Monday nights.)

Here are my thoughts on the “Redemption” storyline so far and on every major character.

I thought Samuel Sullivan’s monologue at the beginning while burying his brother did a nice job of setting the tone for the season. I’m actually looking forward to the flashback episode (God knows “Heroes” loves a flashback episode!) where we see Joseph and find out the origins of the rest of the Sullivan Bros. Carnial. I’m also thoroughly enjoying Robert Knepper’s charismatic, creepy performance as Samuel. (I’m also thoroughly enjoying his tiny glasses.) Finally, what do we think his power is? He obviously has some sort of telekinesis from the way he moved the dirt over his brother's grave, but does that explain his tattoo-manipulation skills?

Claire: Claire is in college and feeling liberated from not hiding who she is anymore – and I kinda dig it. Her professor reading “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” = randomly funny. Ooh, Facebook reference – current! Ooh, Guitar Hero scene - not quite as current. Ooh, Google reference - nevermind. I thought Rachel Melvin was incredibly effective as new roommate is Annie – she was so good that I’m not surprised someone killed her. Madeline Zima is also good as oddball Gretchen, who probably has a power and who knew Claire from the homecoming massacre in Texas. I was down with the Claire storyline until she stupidly let Gretchen drag her into a murder investigation and accidentally revealed her power.

Hiro and Ando: One of my main complaints last year is that the show no longer appears to have any idea what to do with Hiro – the premiere wasn’t too encouraging from a Hiro standpoint. First we see him and Ando running a “Dial a Hero” business. (Oh brother!) Since when did he use his power for profit? Eventually we got to the meat of his storyline - Hiro is dying from over-using his power. (Whenever Hiro got frozen in time, didn’t it seem like he was buffering?)

He ended up accidentally traveling back in time to the night he first learned he was destined to be a hero. Of course, since there needs to be some sort of dramatic connection to the new season, it just so happened Hiro learned of his destiny from a Sullivan Bros. fortune teller. (Too convenient or WAY too convenient?) Samuel also made a trip to the past (will Hiro become that sick old guy if he keeps using his power?) and tried to convince Hiro to change one thing about the past. In the end, he (literally) pushed him to make it so Hiro’s sister and Ando ended up as a couple in the present. Things are great now, but we all know that won’t end well. I’m also cautiously optimistic that something interesting will happen with Hiro once he hooks up with Samuel and Co. for good.

Tracy: Nothing against Ali Larter, but more than any other actor/actress, this is the one the show just needs to let go. I mean, she’s played Nikki/Jessica, and Tracy (who have all been killed) and there’s still a third triplet out there. Anyway, Tracy is back and looking for revenge on the Building 26 peeps who hunted her. Danko was next on her list, and as soon as Zeljko Ivanek showed up, I knew he wasn’t long for this world. (The same way season 2’s Bob wasn’t long for the world when he made a cameo in the season 3 premiere). I wondered why the writers kept him alive at the end of last year, and they actually did a good job of utilizing Danko to not only wrap up a storyline from last season, but to set up one for Redemption (the compass).

I’m also not completely hating the idea of HRG and Tracy teaming up as a “One of Us/One of Them” partnership. (However, I AM hating the hint of a love connection that we saw.) Speaking of which…

HRG: Noah Bennett is struggling without his family (you can tell because he has almost nothing in his fridge – same as Peter) and seems genuinely remorseful for all he’s lost. You can see he wants “Redemption” too. (I enjoyed seeing him temporarily partnered up with the Haitian too - I seem to recall some sort of ill-advised military coup in Haiti from last season – yikes!) Jack Coleman remains the best actor on the show, and it’s nice to see a character evolving for a change, which brings us to…

Peter: It’s probably bad that I couldn’t immediately remember what power Peter was supposed to have. He’s now working as a paramedic and it was GREAT to see him not being all emo for a change. He’s throwing himself into saving people. I really enjoyed the scene where HRG tried to warn him against being a loser loner. I also kinda loved the really cool fight scene between Peter and super-fast (Daphe’s dead, so we need a new speedster) Edgar, despite the fact that it was a little cheesy.

Nathan: I know it’s been six weeks in the show’s timeline since the memory wipe, but I thought the whole Sylar/Nathan switcheroo would go at least one or two episodes in TV land without a hitch. So far, it’s interesting because Nathan obviously isn’t quite himself, and he instinctively feels a detachment from the people close to him. It’s a detachment the real Nathan fought very hard to ignore. It’s also kind of sad to see Angela desperately trying to push him to be act he was before (not exactly Family Man of the Year.)

Parkman: Can’t really blame Matt for being jealous of the water guy – Janice doesn’t have the best track record in the fidelity department. Visions of Sylar are now haunting Matt. Oh brother! You know, it wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world for Zachary Quinto to sit out one or two episodes – absence DOES make the heart grow fonder. That being said, Quinto, as usual, is giving us a great, lively performance. Why is Quinto the only one actor on this show who gets to have fun?

Mohinder: Excellent use of Dr. Suresh in this episode. I could get used to this. In all seriousness, though he was referenced as the source of Peter’s new power, I’m sure he’ll end up playing some sort of part in this Volume. (Um, yay?)

So what’d you think of this episode? What do you think Samuel wants with the compass? (Obviously it has something to do with his wrist tattoo.) Who killed Annie? (Do we think Gretchen was involved?) Finally, did the season premiere hold promise for you, are you watching the show out of habit, or are you officially done with “Heroes”? (I’m guessing you wouldn’t be reading this if it’s the last option.)

Heroes: Same S---, Different Nate

Most people point to the second season of "Heroes" as the moment where the show went into its creative freefall.

(You can discuss amongst yourselves the varying degrees to which the show has clawed back from the depths of outright awfulness since that time. For me, that’s another discussion for another day.)

However, I like to think the decline of "Heroes" started just before that, with the season 1 finale. The entire season built towards an amazing showdown at Kirby Plaza featuring Sylar, an exploding Peter and the rest of the cast of characters. What we got instead was underwhelming and too-quick confrontation that left a bad taste in fans’ mouths over the subsequent summer. That bad taste only grew worse once the show came back for that notorious second season.

Flash forward two seasons (and three volumes) and we have the long-estranged Petrelli brothers, FINALLY coming together in solidarity as they prepare to face off with Sylar, the show’s most dangerous menace, in another season finale. As the brothers enter the room to take him on - the door closes?! Instead of seeing the fight for ourselves, we see Claire seeing the fight.

FAIL. I mean, God forbid we get to see something cool.

After the fight is over, Peter stumbles out and leaves the room with Claire. A little later Nathan is flung into the room and onto a piano. Nathan gets up, faces Sylar and after another awkward moment (honestly, a homeless cat could’ve done a better job choreographing this "fight") Sylar...we’ll get to that later.

All of this being said, I don’t think "An Invisible Thread" was nearly as bad as that season 1 finale, thanks to a couple of cool twists, and an awesomely tortured howl from Cristine Rose as Angela Petrelli. (Seriously, that howl may have been the best thing this season.)

In fact, I didn’t even think the non-fight was the worst part of the episode. I had more of a problem with the blatant stupidity demonstrated by some of the characters and by the writers for no other reason than to advance the plot to where it needed to be.

If you recall, we left our Heroes as they raced to Washington, D.C. Separately, Hiro and Ando, as well as Matt Parkman, wanted to stop Danko’s men in Building 26 once and for all. Meanwhile, the Petrelli-Bennett’s wanted to stop Sylar-disguised-as-Nathan from meeting the president, shaking his hand and being able to impersonate him.

Here’s a sampling of my "WTF/No way" moments from last night’s episode as they jumped in my head: WTF, Sylar can now move his vulnerable spot?! (This plot point is either a little too convenient or WAY too convenient?) Where the hell was Peter hanging out until the moment he found unconscious Nathan? WTF, why is Hiro’s body rejecting his power all of a sudden? (Other than to make us think he was the character who might die, of course,) WTF, why did Peter only absorb Sylar's shape-shifting ability when he touched him? No way does Claire believe for a second that guy is Nathan? (I guess a vague reference to Mexico IS enough to convince her, despite the fact that Sylar-as-Nathan was acting completely different) Oh wait, Claire has been an idiot for a solid year and a half now. No way Sylar would keep Nathan alive and lying on the floor for a prolonged period of time when he could just take his memory and his powers in about a minute. (What was his reasoning for this again?)

That reminds me of another disappointment I had with this episode. Last week, I was encouraged by the idea that Sylar (spurred by Micah/Rebel and unbeknownst to our Heroes) would use his politician-impersonating power for the good of other people with abilities. Of course, the writers COMPLETELY abandoned that idea and seemed content to have the character fall back into cartoon villain mode, though they also decided to ramp up the creepiness by having him hit on Claire. (Double ick.) I mean, Sylar’s a lot of things, but when did he become a pedophile?

Then there was the non-fight.

Look, I understand that a network TV show is never going to have the budget a summer blockbuster movie does. Also, contrary to popular opinion, I have an imagination and I don’t need to see every single thing. However, you can’t just have the build up this show has had in the past for certain confrontations and then cheat the audience. To be blunt, this show is NOT good enough in other areas (writing and acting) to deprive us of some eye candy. As far as the budgetary concerns, shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Supernatural" and even "Charmed" that probably didn’t have the resources "Heroes" does consistently deliver the goods in the action department.

I can see the dramatic reason for not showing the fight. The writers probably wanted us to wonder whether or not Peter was able to absorb Sylar’s power. If that’s the case, why not have them at least tussle in that room a little bit before the three fly off camera? Peter could then absorb the power during that time, eventually stumble back into the room and everything follows suit. (Including Nathan’s effectively gruesome death.)

Fortunately, the fact that Peter DID absorb the power led to the episode’s coolest sequence. Sylar got close enough to the president to shake his hand, but the president had been replaced by Peter in the limousine.

With Sylar incapacitated and Nathan dead, a few of the characters (and the writers) had an ingenious idea. Reasoning that Nathan would be essential to starting a new Company, Angela and HRG convinced Parkman (pictured, right) to wipe Sylar’s memory clean and make him believe that he was Nathan and that he’d been Nathan all along. I really liked how disturbing this twist was (Sylar losing his awful memories) and I liked the way it tied into Mohinder’s narration in the beginning (that I usually ignore).

In fact, the only thing I don’t like is that it once again shows the writers’ unwillingness to be completely done with a character/actor on the show. When the show was originally conceived, it was supposed to feature a rotating cast of characters, but since the original characters and cast became so popular, that became almost impossible to do. The result has been what has to be the record for non-deaths/fake deaths outside of the daytime soap opera arena.

By keeping Nathan alive, the show gets to keep Adrian Pasdar and Zachary Quinto’s services (while freeing up the latter/budding movie star to do other work). While this is a very convenient thing for the writers (and for both actors, whom I like) it once again has a faint whiff of cop out. The show needs to buck up and just kill one of these characters already without bending over backwards to find a way to bring them back. (Seriously, Adrian Pasdar has been killed or almost killed in three out of four volume finales, by my count.) That being said, this was BY FAR the smartest way the show has brought someone back from the dead.

Unfortunately, the memory wipe didn’t last as Nathan 2.0 is feeling a strange affinity toward clocks. Uh oh, time to call Parkman in for a brainwashing tune up!

So what’d you think of this episode? Were you glad to see Tracey back in the teaser for Volume V: Redemption? (It was a cool scene, but I saw "Obsessed" - there’s no way Ali Larter is THAT bootylicious.) Was there any reason to keep Danko alive? Is Claire of any use anymore? Will you be tuning in for "Redemption"?

Finally, thanks for following me along on these "Heroes" recaps. Like the show itself, I like to think they have potential, but more often than not turn out to be ridiculously, entertainingly bad.