Heroes Report: One of Them, One of Us

A little love for Poughkeepsie! Watch out all you bank tellers of Po-Town!

Finally, for the first time in who knows how long, I just watched an episode of "Heroes" that didn't feel forced in the least. As I hoped after that -- I'll use the word again -- haphazard first week of randomly setting up plotlines, the writers just took the ball and ran with it here. And while the first half of this episode wasn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world, I still felt like we were moving at a proper pace, which was a nice change from the previous year of episodes.

The only part of this episode that really didn't work, as far as I was concerned, was that bull in the china shop Future Peter, who can't vacate this series fast enough as far as I'm concerned. Everything about him is just goofy, right down to his scar across the front of his face, despite the fact that Peter heals from any wound. While I understand why the writers needed to have Future Peter show up and ruin HRG's plan of having body-trapped Peter save the day, it still came across as Future Peter not having a clue as to what situation he was intruding upon. Apocolyptic future or not, I still cannot believe any version of Peter would want to enable Sylar's "feeding."

Speaking of Sylar, for as contrived an idea this whole "Third Petrelli brother" thing is, I actually buy it coming from this show. Since the first season, we've had the idea of interconectivity jammed down our throats (which, to me, underscores the idea that this is natural evolution). So if everyone needs to be interconnected, Sylar as a Petrelli not only makes sense, but it helps fuel future Sylar/Peter interaction.

That said, I am more inclined to buy the idea that Momma Petrelli is only telling Sylar he's a Petrelli in order to gain control over him.

What I don't buy (and since it won't really come into play yet, I'm not holding it against this episode) is HRG's plan of waiting to find a weakness in Sylar in order to kill him. Mr. Bennett is too darned smart for this. He knows Sylar's powers, he knows Sylar can heal, he knows it's a matter of getting the drop on Sylar, not waiting to find out Gabriel Gray is, in fact, allergic to sunflowers or something. "Ooh, once he breaks out in hives, then I'll make my move!" This falls under the category of "HRG has to do this in order to go along with our haphazard storyline."

Here's what HRG's plan should be:

HRG: Come on, Haitian, let's go into Sylar's room.
Haitian: OK.
Sylar: Hey you two! Get out of my room, or I'll use my 19,000 powers on you.
Haitian: That's why I'm here.
Sylar: Aw, shucks, that was my weakness all along.
HRG: BANG!

Come to think of it, there was one more part of this episode's story that didn't quite work for me, and I only just realized it. Claire's trauma has never been given proper emotional weight. At first I felt like I didn't like that scene with Claire and Biological mother because Claire has never exactly been portrayed as a victim. She paid that rapist QB back with the car accident in season one. She threatened the company in season two... but, the more I think about it, the more I realize the whole incident with Sylar would have been EXTREMELY traumatic for her, akin to any normal high schooler getting raped in her own home. This may have come obviously to some of you, but to me, the show never fully sold it to me. I never really understood that that singular incident could change her so much. I think the writers really missed out on selling that emotional moment.

Oh, and I'm really liking Hiro's storyline right now. While it's far from the most important part of these shows, it's hitting the same goofy tone that made the character work so well in season two. And is there anything more perfect to break up two nerd friends than the affections of a pretty blonde?

OK, I think we're ready for the random thoughts:

1) Matter cannot be created or destroyed. So where was Peter's physical body while he was in Jessie's body? And if the answer is "his body was inside Jessie's, then does Peter have that hyper-sonic voice now? Somebody call Atilan!

2) Tracy's storyline has me VERY intrigued. Thank God this isn't a "yet to be seen twin" sort of story. Instead, could we be looking at very many Ali Larters all over the country?

3) Angela Petrelli is WAY TOO Two-Dimensional! In fact, too many characters have become two-dimensional.

4) Parkman's African Vacation is nice and all, but I miss him interacting with other characters, and I MISS MOLLY!

5) You know who I didn't miss? MAYA AND MOHINDER! Kill 'em off already! Or, better yet, kill Maya and return Mohinder to the genius he used to be!

6) Sylar's scenes from the preview make the next six days very very long.

7) Speaking of the preview, it seems Peter's going to be off on his own trying to stop the future, again. Wouldn't we much rather see him actually working WITH other characters?

8) My favorite part of the episode is when Lyle points out the obvious at the breakfast table "you're going to protect us... with fire?"

9) Apparently I only had nine random thoughts this week.

10) I would have MUCH MUCH MUCH rather seen Elle paired with HRG.