The Heroic Life

When one of his forgotten abilities suddenly manifests, Peter and Caitlin get thrown into a crisis situation. Suresh, Matt, Nathan, Niki and Bob band together to fend off the “nightmare man’s” attack. Despite Claire’s best efforts to keep them apart, West learns that the man who kidnapped him as a child is her father. Meanwhile, in feudal Japan, Hiro and Kensei’s legendary journey takes a dramatic, final turn.

american preview:

canadian preview:

2. maya: your power is ridiculous and you deserve to have your brain eaten.

3. monica: although you are cute, i really don’t like southern accents.

4. mohinder: you are an idiot, and if it weren’t for you and your crappy decisions, the world would be safe.

5. bob: there’s no more room on this show for any more pudgy white fellows.

6. west: there’s no more room on this show for any more flying men. and i don’t trust you.

7. kensei: sure, hiro stole your girl, but he’s so cute and enthusiastic. i don’t see how you could stay mad at him, let alone betray him to white beard.

8. caitlin: you have such a large forehead, sylar probably wouldn’t even be able to cut your skull open.

9. matt: stop whining about your wife. she made a cuckold of you. move on.

10. matt’s father: see reason number 5.

i realize if my dreams were to come true and these characters did get killed by sylar, there would practically be nobody left on the show. those who would remain, however, are the only ones anyone really cares about. and whose brain, dear reader, would you most like to see sylar consume?

i must say, dear readers, that i am very pleased with tonight’s episode. i found myself giggling like a school girl at times, unable to control myself. most of all, though, i enjoyed the theme that ran through the episode: the line between right and wrong. every one of our heroes crossed that line.

claire and west use their powers for mischief and personal gain by making debbie look like a drunken fool, claiming to the police that claire died at the hands of a flying masked man. as i predicted earlier, this storyline was boring. i still don’t trust that west fellow. however, i did enjoy the moment where claire calls HRG up and they both lie to each other on the phone. ah, scrumptious dramatic irony. if romeo and juliet taught us anything about dramatic irony, we can predict that there will probably not be a happy ending here. and what’s with HRG and the haitian acting like some common thugs? tsk tsk tsk. i expected better from them. or at least form the haitian.

hiro gives in to temptation and makes the move on yaeko, as ando reads about his exploits. of course, kensei sees this and ends up betraying them to white beard. this leads us to believe that hiro has ruined the history he sought to repair. however, at this point my brilliant fiancee theorized that hiro will probably replace kensei and take on his historic and heroic role (there is definitely going to be a samurai style showdown between the two because we saw it in one of isaac’s paintings). thus, the stories about kensei that hiro enjoyed as a boy were probably actually about hiro himself! if you didn’t guess it by the exclamation point, this is one of the points in the episode where i was grinning like an idiot.
maya* is convinced by sylar to willingly use her powers to kill so that they can escape the self-proclaimed border patrol. although i’m still greatly unimpressed by maya and alejandro*, i must admit that teaming them up with sylar makes for an interesting dynamic. seeing as how the company helped to rejuvenate sylar, perhaps the reason he doesn’t have powers is because they were preforming tests on him with the virus. it will be interesting to see how he gets his powers back (which i’m kind of hoping will occur soon because i really want him to kill off maya and alejandro).

suresh is just about the only character who makes a stand on the right side of the moral line by refusing to inject the virus into monica. alas, bob decides to reward suresh’s upright decision by pairing him with a seemingly brainwashed niki. suresh just can’t win. but frankly, i’m not sure if he should.

the episode concludes with peter and caitlin* traveling to montreal, only to find a note from “adam” (presumably the same one bob mentioned). they are then somehow transported–probably from hiro’s ability–into next summer where they find that ny has been evacuated. everyone loves a good future episode.

as i said, i was happy with this episode. seeing a darker side of our heroes is always an interesting thing. and of course, the anticipation as to how their selfish choices will catch up with them will be an even more interesting thing to see in the upcomming episodes.

*the character’s name does not appear in bold because i do not like him/her and therefore will not the character by doing so.

“West convinces Claire to teach head cheerleader Debbie a lesson after she deems Claire too ordinary to join the squad. While Suresh faces a serious moral dilemma with the Company, H.R.G. pays his Russian mentor a visit in an effort to locate Isaac’s last prophetic paintings. Meanwhile, nearing the U.S. border, Alejandro becomes increasingly uneasy about Sylar’s intentions, especially towards Maya. Peter and Caitlin’s search for a mysterious doorway he painted ultimately leads them to a surprising place. In feudal Japan, while attempting to repair history, Hiro struggles with his feelings for Kensei’s ‘princess’ Yaeko.”

my predictions:

1. the claire storyline will be boring.
2. as you can tell from the preview, suresh’s dilemma is whether or not he should participate in the company’s experimental procedures with the virus. based on the fact the preview also shows him smashing a stool through a cabinet, i do not think he agrees to follow their instructions. but then again, he has shown himself to be quite the idiot in the past.
3. HRG’s mentor is someone from the group of 12.
4. when isaac died i was curious as to what would drive the plot, since in the first season this was the job of his paintings. however, the writers have found a way to continue to rely on this device via his “lost” paintings that HRG is searching for, as well as the fact that peter also has this ability. with that said, i think that the mysterious doorway he painted will lead him to his father (who probably isn’t actually dead).
5. hiro will confess his feelings to yaeko and they will have many little japanese children, each possessing a power more remarkable than the previous.

and the canadian preview…

per usual this season, this episode left much to be desired. granted, i suppose that when you spend your ENTIRE week looking forward to something it only very rarely lives up to your expectations. i believe the problem is an ironic one. there are simply TOO MANY heroes. there are so many storylines now that even with cramming five or six into one episode, the plot barely moves. at all.

matt and nathan continue their teamwork this week as they fly to philly (what what) and meet matt’s long lost father, aka the nightmare man. and of course “the nightmare man” is yet another pudgy white guy. it was rather interesting, however, when he revealed to matt that the power only starts with the ability to read minds but then progresses into…well, i suppose into whatever he does with matt and nathan (in a way it seems very similar to the deceased candice’s powers of illusion). it is this type of revelation that makes me giddy to watch future episodes of heroes. on a side note, i’m pretty sure the funniest part of this episode is when matt justifies nathan’s sidekickery by saying that he can fly them there faster, to which nathan replies, “i’m not a cargo jet.”

monica learns more about her powers of muscle mimcry, which is only slightly interesting to me at this point. micah helps her learn about her powers by referring to an issue of 9th wonder that makes me wonder if she doesn’t eventually become st. joan (seeing as how isaac’s other comics were prophetic). personally, i think these new orleans scenes are merely insulting piles of crappy acting. but then again, it may be that i just don’t like southern accents.

mohinder makes an all-star decision to give molly to the company so they can help her. clearly, he is an idiot. while at the company’s hq, we encounter nikki, whose storyline is shrouded in mystery. what is she doing there? is she really seeking help for her multilple personality disorder? i thought she kicked that at the end of season 1 when she was able to use her superstrength without jessica? perhaps she is under their control somehow? and is DL, like tupac, really dead? i can’t stop using question marks?

hiro remains in feudal japan to try and make it with yaeko. i don’t see how he’s having so much trouble with this, seeing as he can stop time. but, perhaps that’s inappropriate. and illegal. seriously, though, this storyline is troubling me greatly. i don’t really understand WHY he is there. i understand he says he has to make kensei into the hero he is supposed to be, but i still feel like this is a ginormous waste of time/story. it seems to me as if the writers didn’t really know where to go with his character, so they just banished him to the wings of history to await a more opportune moment to enter the real storyline. and if they’re going to set him in feudal japan, there should be at least two samurai fights a show.

finally, peter messes around in ireland with a girl that isn’t nearly as hot as simone was. as much as i love this character (or at least his powers), this storyline is also kind of sucky right now. i preferred him when he was out to save the world, because it allowed me to see him use his powers. peter almost meets the new character, elle, but she’s called home by her father (who i’m guessing is bob? or nathan. nathan seems to be everyone’s father). i feel like the network overhyped her character, because her power isn’t really that impressive. i thought it would be something so magnificent that my head would explode. however, it is just electricity. with that said, she must have crossed peter’s path sometime in the last four months, seeing as how peter also has that power.

top five things i’d like to see in next week’s episode:

5. hiro step back into present time, after kicking white beard’s ass
4. peter becomming peter again
3. mohinder discovering that he has a power
2. matt learning to use his powers in a new way
1. sylar killing off maya and alejandro because their powers are mind blowingly lame.