My constant campaigning for more Elle has not born fruit yet, although at least Peter used her power in this episode. I’m going to call that foreshadowing, because I’m optimistic like that.
This week featured one of the best jokes in Heroes history, as well as a great “Holy Crap!” moment or two, so let’s get down to business.
OK, Matt put his Spirit Turtle in a box and took it on the plane. Matt’s very literal, isn’t he? I don’t think it counts as following your guide if you’re carrying it, though.
Well, we’ve got a good explanation for last week’s stabbing. Hiro didn’t freeze time, like I thought. He jumped back in time and then returned at the exact moment he left. That’s why Daphne didn’t spot the shenanigans. She knows when he freezes time, but if he appears and disappears at the same time, she probably couldn’t follow. I like that Daphne was disappointed in him, though. She really doesn’t mean any harm.
Now, I liked Sandra teaming up with Claire for an adventure, but “One of us, one of them” probably isn’t the best thing to say to your daughter. Still, two years ago the poor woman had massive bruising on her brain, so the fact that she doesn’t forget the dog’s name every twenty minutes is an accomplishment in and of itself. And this Doyle guy? That guy’s creepy. Mind control’s a skeevy power to begin with, and when you’re a perv who can manipulate people’s movements, well, I’d rather not spend any time with you.
It’s Knox and Sark! You know, he’s been on the show for a full season now. I think it’s time to stop living in the past and call him “Adam Monroe”. Yes sir, I think it’s time for us to move on to a bright future full of adventure. And so Knox brings Adam Monroe to Arthur Petrelli, and we see a rare show of fear from Monroe. What the heck does Petrelli do? Holy Crap! He killed Adam! With a touch! Damn, that was unsettling. Farewell, Adam “Takezo ‘Sark’ Kensei” Monroe. You got to be the coolest bad guy around on two different shows and we look forward to seeing where your evil turns up next.
As is more clear later, Pa Petrelli seems to be a power leech. Instead of copying powers, like Peter does, he actually steals them. When Sark lost his healing, he aged 800 years in about ten seconds. This is a scary power for somebody to have.
Fake Linderman definitely has some sway over Daphne. What are they holding over her? I don’t think she’d want to be involved in any of this if she had a choice. She seems to realize she’s working for the bad guys, but her heart isn’t in it. She’s very value-neutral – she doesn’t enjoy evil, but she isn’t going to put herself at risk to right any wrongs. The scene with Matt is pretty nice – I don’t know if he saw more of the future than we did, or if he’s just deeply lonely, but thinking of her as a “soulmate” at this point is a bit of a stretch. I’m not saying I wouldn’t jump to the same conclusion, mind you. And I’m assuming that we’ll all be spending some time at www.pinehearstresearch.com.
Nathan and Tracy visit Mohinder’s Lab of Creepiness. I totally picture Nathan reassuring her “No, this guy’s cool. Nice guy, actually.” And then he’s all spider-y and psychotic. Just see if Tracy will ever meet one of your friends again, Nate! Sure enough, he drugs them the first chance he gets. You know, if he had one lightbulb in the place, people would notice the human husks stuck to the wall much more quickly.
Daphne busts into Level Five with no difficulty whatsoever to give Sylar a card. Interesting that she actively recruits Flint, but just passes on some information to Sylar. Of course, this is all probably very deliberate on Petrelli’s part. He’s not ready for Sylar yet. By the way, we now know six of the twelve villains who escaped from Level Five:
Knox: Still on the loose
The German: Deceased
Jesse Chambers: Deceased
Flint: On the loose again
Stephen Canfield: Deceased
Eric Doyle: Re-incarcerated by the end of the episode
So that leaves us with six villains we’ve never seen. I think we’ll be seeing them in the Pinehearst Army sooner than later.
Peter wakes Sylar, and it’s always fun when these two are together, especially since they’re starting to cross paths on the Hero / Villain Continuum. It’s really not fair of Peter to demand that Sylar tell him how his future self learned to control his hunger, since, you know, future.
In Africa, Hiro sees a painting of a nuclear explosion in Costa Verde, which we know is caused by Sylar exploding. There’s also a man standing over a man in a suit who’s lying in a pool of blood. Guys in suits in the paintings almost always turn out to be Nathan, but we don’t have enough to go on. And then, the second best joke in Heroes history. Hiro sees the painting of Usutu bonking him with the shovel. Next, Usutu bonks Hiro with a shovel. Complete with a cartoon sound effect! Ha!
Over at the World’s Skeeviest Puppet Show, Sandra thinks pretty fast on her feet. You don’t marry Bennet without learning a trick or two. She did a good job of distracting Doyle, despite being in way over her head. Unfortunately, Doyle ends up ensnaring Meredith, Sandra, and Claire. Hey Claire, from here on first, taze first and ask questions later.
And now, the best joke in Heroes history. Hiro jumps back one minute in time to see a different painting of Usutu bonking him with the shovel, and then Usutu bonks him with a shovel, gets up, and bonks the other Hiro with that shovel. Awesome! There’s no problem that Usutu can’t solve with a bonk on the head.
Daphne, who’s very busy this week, brings Mohinder a card, too. Mohinder is officially a villain now. It’s a great moment for Daphne when she figures out what he’s up to, and then expresses her disappointment but doesn’t do anything to save those people. Right there is Daphne’s character in a nutshell.
The Russian Roulette scene with Claire and Doyle is insanely creepy, and unfortunately, my sound crapped out halfway through. Hopefully they didn’t answer any major questions in that scene. It was well done, though, and I especially liked Sandra’s hesitation to shoot her invulnerable daughter. It’s not like it would be easy to shoot your child, even if you knew it wouldn’t actually hurt her. Nicely done, and impressive work from everybody. It also leads to our one scene of Bennet this week. A little stingy, you know? Just because Mohinder finally got an interesting storyline doesn’t mean he should be taking screen time from HRG!
You know, Sylar’s embraced Angela as his mother a little too quickly. The man’s got mother issues. You could tell him a lamppost was his mother, and he’d electrocute anybody who looked at it funny. Peter can’t even get to Angela’s mind through her coma – also, I was very proud of myself that I realized the Pinehearst logo was a mirrored version of the symbol that popped up in Season One, but it turns out I was only a couple minutes ahead of Ando on that one. Peter goes off the deep end and just pounds on Sylar – note that Sylar really doesn’t even defend himself. This is the New Sylar, people.
Tracy proves herself to be more useful than Niki ever was, when she figures out how to free herself from Mohinder. And yeah, he’s gone Full Villain now. I think poor Nathan and Tracy are in over their heads here. Actually, any fight involving superpowers means that Nathan gets his butt kicked or runs away. Poor guy.
Another nice scene with Matt and Daphne. Daphne’s clearly unsettled by this guy who knows too much about her. But here’s what I like – Matt doesn’t read her mind at any point. He asks her questions and waits for an answer. He wants to know why she’s working for Pinehearst. He could pull the answer out of her head if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. He might be getting off that path of corruption he was headed down last season. That’s what peyote and stalker love does for you!
Poor Hiro is always being tested. Usutu has big plans for our buddy, and he’s got a painting of the Villains. We can clearly see Petrelli and Knox, and somebody who looks like Bad Dad. There’s a dark-haired man whose identity isn’t clear. Most likely he’s a character we haven’t seen yet, though it’s possible that he’s Mohinder. Hard to tell. And then there’s a picture of men hugging. Why would that be significant?
Oh, yeah. Peter faces down the assembled villains, and then Pa Petrelli steps in and takes every single one of his powers. Crap. Not only does that put Peter in a bad position, but Pa Petrelli’s got some serious powers now. Electricity, pyrokinesis, telekinesis, invulnerability, flight, invisibility, radioactivity, super-strength, intangibility, time-travel, teleportation, and some other stuff on top of that. Does this mean he also has Sylar’s hunger? Because he doesn’t seem like the type who’d try to, oh, fight the bloodlust.
So it’s not looking good for the good guys. Those of them who are still good, that is. Bennet’s going to have some work on his hands cleaning this mess up. And you know he’s going to be the one to clean it up.
