Heroes 4-2 “Ink”
Peter’s alarm goes off at 5:45, but he’s already up and pacing the floor. There’s a knock at the door and asks Peter if he’s the guy who saved that cop. Peter confirms that he is, and the man hands him an envelope. Yes, Peter got served, as the kids say. Oh man, is Peter being sued by somebody he saved? You know, that’s a cool idea.
At 6, another alarm goes off, this time in the bedroom of a woman we don’t know. This alarm makes a horrible noise and flashes and pounds, and even causes the lights in the room to flicker. She wakes up, which is understandable, but is not shocked by this, which is not. She notices her faucet is dripping, and despite the dramatic music, she fiddles with it to stop the drip. I sure hope that was setup, and they weren’t actually implying that a dripping faucet required its own music cue.
Matt’s on a stakeout with his partner, waiting on a warrant. He’s all edgy but can’t explain why – probably his partner wouldn’t get the “the ghost of my arch-enemy is hassling me”. Once they have the warrant, Matt’s partner asks him if he can keep it together. Matt assures him that he can. They bust down the door to find an empty room. They go through the rooms, finding nobody. Well, except Imaginary Sylar.
Sylar’s actually kind of helpful when he tells Matt that there’s a drug dealer with a gun in the closet, and he ducks out just in time to avoid getting hit. Hey, that’s interesting. So is Sylar pointing out things that Matt, as a cop, should have noticed? Or is Matt using his powers without knowing it and scanning the area telepathically?
Back in Claire’s dorm, Bennet swings by for a visit. He grunts when Claire hugs him, because of all those busted ribs from last week. They talk about Annie’s suicide, and Claire talks about how she’s adjusting. Bennet invites her to lunch.
As Claire freshens up, a shirtless dude walks past. Where the heck does a girl brush her teeth that she might encounter towel-clad guys? Gretchen pops in and chews her out for ignoring her and not talking about that whole “pushing your bones back inside you” thing. Gretchen keeps asking questions about her powers, and Claire denies everything. She follows her back to her room, and Bennet invites her to lunch as well, and there’s a weird tension. Does she have a power? That would explain why the guy who’s had access to a database of ever Hero in America might look at her weird.
In the drug house, Matt’s tossing the house to find the drugs. Sylar gets in Matt’s face and tells him to use his powers. Once again, Sylar points out clues and Matt finds a stuffed rabbit, which leads Sylar to tell him that the house isn’t a drug house, but is used for “something a lot worse”. Oh man, tell me they’re not going there…
At work, Peter gripes about the lawsuit to the woman who turned off the water faucet earlier. She ignores him, as we all would do. Finally, he realizes that her earbuds aren’t plugged in. I take this to mean that she’s deaf, but Peter somehow takes it as an insult. She knocks her coffee mug off the desk, and there’s a red flash when it shatters. He starts to help her, but then he gets the file he needs and runs off. This scene brought to you by “Peter being a dick to a deaf woman, Inc.” He steps into the Physical Therapy room, and asks for William Hooper. Only, the guy in there is Samuel.
Peter doesn’t recognize him, but Samuel pretends to be the guy Peter saved from a bus crash. Samuel says Peter was negligent and dislocated his shoulder. He says he can’t work now, and thus can’t feed his family and needs “some empathy”.
In another room, the deaf woman is talking to a doctor, and the doctor explains that she might have a crossed synapse that’s allowing her to see sounds. The doctor tells her (Emma) that she could be treating patients, but she’s just totally disengaged. Emma answers that she doesn’t like how people treat her when they realize that she’s deaf. Given how Peter acted, she might be right.
Bennet takes the girls to an Indian restaurant, and they react like it’s the Bataan death march, because they’re jerks. There is clearly some Chicken Bhuna on that table and I’m jealous. There’s this really passive-aggressive fight about keeping secrets, and I hate everybody in this scene who is not Bennet or the waiter.
At the worse-than-a-drug house, Matt argues with Sylar about the rabbit right in front of the suspect. Sylar tells Matt that he’s never going to be loved. Matt digs around and finds an X-acto knife (actually a box cutter, but I’m pretending this scene makes more sense) and a magazine with words and letters cut out. Oh, I think we have a kidnapper! That’s not as bad as what I feared earlier.
While Gretchen’s in the bathroom, Bennet chews out Claire for letting her powers slip. He says he’ll call in the Haitian, but Claire assures him that she can take care of it herself. Quick, name one thing in four seasons that Claire has actually taken care of by herself! Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Matt demands that the guy tell him where the girl is, but he denies that there is a girl. He reads his mind and finds out that she’s under the stairs. Matt finds a dead body and starts beating the hell out of the guy, but when his partner looks, there’s nothing there at all. In fact, there’s no ransom note and no stuffed rabbit. That? Is messed up.
At the hospital, Peter’s buddy tells him that the hospital will hang him out to dry. He even suspects that Peter is causing accidents so he can be the first on the scene. You know, that seems like it would be too difficult to really be worth it.
Samuel shows up in Peter’s empty apartment, and he manipulates one of the press clippings to put himself in the photo of an accident. I seriously don’t get this – he manipulates earth and ink? I like the idea of manipulating the picture, I just don’t get how he’s able to do it. Anyway, Peter comes home and heads straight for the picture. Sure enough, Samuel’s leaning against the bus, holding his shoulder.
In the dorm hallway, Gretchen apologizes for being so pushy. She explains that in junior high, people made fun of her for being bulimic. Claire takes this to mean that it was a mean rumor, even though it’s pretty clear that’s not what she’s saying at all.
Outside the hospital, Peter tracks down Samuel and apologizes for doubting him. Peter promises to make it right. Samuel asks if he’s ever lost a brother, and Peter says he hasn’t. He doesn’t know about Nate’s actual death, but considering that Nate had two fake deaths previously, he does know a little something about the feeling. And then, the person in the world who is least able to process and understand their emotions, gives Samuel advice about how to deal with his feelings. Samuel says he’s dropping the lawsuit and thanks him. Samuel leaves, and as he walks out, he passes Emma.
Emma is watching a cello player on a park bench, which is not something that I realized happened, and there’s a red glow around the instrument. He then gets up and leaves his cello, without even locking it, and she plucks at a string. It turns blue. She plays the cello and produces a gorgeous light show. And she’s playing so well that people (including Peter) are gathering around to watch her. She runs away when she realizes that everybody’s looking. I’m not kidding here when I say that was a really good scene. It was a cool idea and well-executed, and it’s the kind of thing that reminds me of how good this show can get.
Samuel is waiting outside the gate of a mansion, which is cracking me up because I saw The Invention of Lying last night. Trust me, it’s funny. Samuel tells the woman who came to the gate that he grew up there. Father was the butler, mother was the maid. I don’t know how I feel about workplace romances…
Since there’s a dinner party going on, the woman doesn’t want to let a stranger in to prowl around her mansion. That’s probably a pretty good policy. Samuel looks all creepy but walks away.
Claire and Gretchen are happily chatting away about Claire’s powers. Damn, they bonded fast. Gretchen asks for a demonstration of the powers, so Claire hands her a blade and she cuts Claire’s hand open. Do you think that everybody wants to hurt you so they can watch your healing powers? That would explain why Wolverine is always so cranky. Bennet calls, and Claire immediately tells him that she’s taken care of everything and it’s going to be all right. Bennet lets her get out her prepared speech, and then apologizes for being so harsh. After the call, Claire invites Gretchen to be her roommate. OK, we’ve all heard where this storyline is going, right? Because I’m not going to spoil things, but NBC was pretty open about this over the summer.
Back at the maybe-a-drug house, Matt’s partner is trying to find a way out of this pickle. By the way, this is one of those scenes where G4 runs viewer responses all over the screen, and I see a basic lack of understanding here. People seem to think that Sylar is trapped inside Matt’s mind. The way I see it, and what I think was made clear before, is that Matt is imagining Sylar out of guilt. He didn’t absorb Sylar’s brain into his own, he’s tormenting himself. Like Baltar on Battlestar Galactica – that wasn’t the real Six, it was Baltar’s psyche making up a Six. Anyway, Matt uses his powers to make his partner think that the beating was in self-defense. Oh, that’s a bad road to go down.
Peter arrives at an accident scene – it’s the mansion which somehow fell into a sinkhole. Why, that would take some sort of earth-moving powers! And then there’s a pain in Peter’s arm, and he sees that he now has the compass tattoo, and it’s spinning wildly.
This episode had some cool stuff, really. Boring Claire story aside, I think we’re in pretty good shape so far.
Oh man, G4 is showing Lost now! Did you guys know that Christian’s white sneakers appear in the first scene of the first episode? That’s how you plan a meta-plot, people!
