Heroes Report: Villains

OK, so apparently I was pretty zonked out from a severe lack of sleep over the past week, because I fell asleep not long after last night's "Heroes" finished and didn't wake up until noon.

But, I'm here now to offer a few thoughts on last night's episode, "Villains." And the most predominant thought was What was the Point?!?

We've seen this formula before, at least a couple of times. "Heroes" likes to set up grand ideas, only to take a week off to show a little bit of the past to better inform viewers of current situations. Well, does anyone feel better informed?

Here's what we learned:

1) Elle apparently has had the hots for Sylar, and had a hand in his creation. But how believable is that given the interactions we've seen between the two characters? And how believable was her character here, given how much of a freaky, sheltered, unfeeling badass she was before the end of season two?

2) HRG apparently is a major reason for him becoming a monster... have we ever seen him guilty for this in the least while Sylar stalked his daughter? If anything, this only painted HRG, the Batman of the show, as an unfeeling monster.

3) And by the way, could we make Sylar look anymore innocent?!? What good is his redemption anymore? Suddenly, the most imposing force on the show for over two seasons has become nothing but a mindless pawn. Let him keep one of his balls, please!

4) Meredith is apparently the sister of Mr. Blue Hands Flint, and apparently Eric Roberts tried to make her an agent. First off, why would the agent want someone who can set fires? Second, how ineffective was Eric Roberts as an agent? He was just running around with that craptastic collar of his making a mess of things. And Third, Did we learn ANYTHING worthwhile about any of these characters?

5) Finally, we have the Petrellis. And yes, I suppose we did learn a couple of interesting tidbits here: Linderman was never manipulating Daddy Petrelli. Daddy Petrelli tried to kill Nathan, not Linderman. Linderman had the hots for Mommy Petrelli. Mommy Petrelli was the one who "killed" Daddy Petrelli.

That about do it? Yeah? Did we need AN HOUR to tell all that?

And all the while, these minuscule scenes were padded by other scenes that tied into the pilot. Had we been given more revelations in this episode, I'm sure this would have come off as slick and creative. Instead, it just felt cheap and lazy.

In the past (no pun intended) when "Heroes" has flashed back to show details of the past, it's been informative and felt genuine. Here, I felt like (once again) these writers were scrambling to reshape the past to better fit their half-assed new plans.

Meaning, once again, instead of getting creative, unique storylines in the future, we're going to get the same forced drivel we've been dealing with for some time.

And if you think this is harsh, I just slept for 12 hours. I'm in a great mood!