Heroes Season 4 -

Issues With . . . Heroes (Season 4)

No matter how much you may be enjoying the show, there are certain questions that get raised over the course of a season. Here are our issues (so far) with Heroes Season 4.

Episode 12 "An Invisible Thread" (airdate 4/27/09)

--This season had so much promise. It started with a literal bang, and despite my reservations about the general fugitives theme, you can do a lot with the concept of superheroes on the run. Unfortunately, they didn't. And so, the season ended with a bit of a whimper. Sure, there were some cool moments in the finale, and (unlike others) I'm not quite ready to give up on the series yet. But this whole season seemed to wander around without much structure or energy.

--So we finally get an epic battle wherein a newly repowered Peter takes on Sylar, and what do we get to see? Claire peeking through a crack in a door and a lot of blue light. Fail, Heroes producers. Massive fail. Way to telegraph that you're just too cheap to give us the special effect necessary to a kick-ass fight.

--I notice that we do get to see Matt Parkman use his powers all the time. I guess that's the benefit of having a very economical power, special effects-wise. But if you shoot electricity out of your hands, all we ever get to see is a little bit of glow before the door slams shut.

--Credit where credit is due--Peter taking down Sylar via the Presidential shape-shift was very cool. It made me wish that the whole season had been composed of moments like that.

--Why exactly was it necessary to use Sylar as Nathan Petrelli to clean up the whole mess. We just saw Peter shape shift moments before. So wouldn't it be both easier and smarter to kill Sylar while you have a chance, have Peter pretend to be Nathan Petrelli just long enough to sort things out, then have Nathan disappear?

--So it looks like we're in for yet another season of screwing around with Hiro's power. The poor bastard. I know it's dramatic and stuff to make using his power threaten Hiro's life/health. But I just want to see Hiro freeze time and travel through time and space. I think we've all been through enough as far as Hiro's subplots go. Just let the poor guy do his thing already.

--And they're starting The Company again. Good to know that the lessons everyone learned this season lasted a good 2-3 minutes.

--So we've managed to combine the jerkiness of the two greatest assholes on the show, Sylar and Nathan, into one personality. Fantastic. Because what Sylar really needed was more arrogance. And now we have Sylar running around thinking he's Nathan. Yeah, I can't imagine how that could possibly go wrong. Do Angela Petrelli and Noah Bennett suffer from memory loss or have they forgotten that everytime they plan something like this it goes horribly awry and generally threatens the well-being of the planet?

Episode 11 "I Am Sylar" (airdate 4/20/09)

--I don't know why I'm supposed to be impressed that Sylar is having yet another identity crisis. He's only had one every single season. I suppose that it's somewhat novel that he's not freaking out over whether he's a bad person for killing people. (I believe that he has finally caught on that the answer to that particular ethical conundrum is, "yes.")

--I'm sure that actors love playing roles where they get to experience a split personality and have multiple intense scenes where their different personalities argue with each other. But for the viewer, not only do the Sylar/Mom scenes seem indulgent and lengthy, but we begin to wonder when he's going to start plotting to take the ring from Frodo.

--Micah's rebel persona is one of the more interesting and fun plotlines so far this season, and Micah is one of the few heroes who unabashedly uses his powers. This probably explains why we saw so little of his story this season.

--Boy, Hiro has really been a jerk for the past few seasons. It actually makes me miss overly-idealistic destiny-obssessed Hiro. Lately, all he has been able to do is screw things up and be mean to Ando. I hate to say this, but maybe he needs to go on an epic sword quest again or something. Anything to keep him away from poorly-conceived plans that are guaranteed to end badly.

--I continue to be awed by the "secret" anti-mutant agency and its ability to bend the laws of time and space. Apparently they have the time and resources to move on a scattered group of heroes at unpredictable and remote locations all over the country. Clearly, they got a huge chunk of the stimulus funding.

--If I had to describe this season in 9 words, I would call it, "the season where Nathan is repeatedly a stubborn ass." Clearly, he has learned nothing from this whole experience. Otherwise, he wouldn't ignore all the good advice of Bennet, Peter, and his mother and fly off alone to deal with Sylar and the President. I still don't understand where Nathan gets the idea that he can deal with dangerous situations. He's got the "flight" part of fight or flight down, but his offensive capailities are pretty low. Unless he's just going to paralyze everyone with his Blue Steel glare.

--Overall, I'd say that this was a better episode than last week, though strangely slow and lacking the set-up you'd expect for a next-to-last-episode-of-the-season. I am pretty excited to see what happens between Sylar and Danko next week, as it was very confusing to me that Sylar continued to put up with all of Danko's bossiness. You knew that eventually Sylar would going to turn on him. And of course, it's going to be good.

Episode 10 "1961" (airdate 4/13/09)

--Flashback episodes have generally been one of the strengths of this series--an efficient way to tie up loose ends, answer niggling questions, and so on. This works a lot better, however, when there are open questions to be answered. And I don't recall asking, "Whatever happened to Angela's little sister?" Until last week, I didn't even know she had one. I assumed that she sprang into this world a fully-grown manipulative adult with two bickering sons.

--One of the most important ways that this show is very un-Lost-like is in its lack of unanswered questions. I can't think of a season to date that has so little true mystery. Of course, I do have some questions, but they're mostly of the, "Why the hell isn't anyone staying true to the character?" variety. No one was wondering what was up with Coyote Springs--and even after getting most of the backstory, I'm still not sure why it was important for us to know about it. Yeah, the Company started from it, but since all of them are dead now (except Angela), it wasn't exactly a pressing issue.

--We got a lot of, "This can never happen again," out of the Coyote Sands experience, but I'm not sure what Li'l Linderman, Deveaux, Angela, and Bob experienced that was worthy of that level of drama. Yes, Alice freaked out and inadvertantly helped start a massacre, but the teenaged Company gang didn't know about that yet. From what we saw, they were mostly subject to boring 1950s-era science and big hypodermic needles. I hate needles as much as the next guy, but isn't that a bit of an overreaction?

--Is Alice supposed to be a little slow? If I had talked to my little sister like that, I would have gotten back a nice big scoop of attitude, not a bunch of quivering tears. Granted, my sisters couldn't control the weather and shoot me with lightning when I pissed them off. If so, maybe I would have adopted a super-calm, be-nice-to-the-unstable-girl tone too.

--We know that Nathan and Peter can fly (and take passengers, accounting for Claire and Angela). And Noah is just a damned resourceful guy. But how on earth did Suresh manage to get all the way from the East Coast to the Southwest without being detected by the government mutant hunters? I thought that they were hooked into every traffic camera and computer system in the country and possessed unlimited funds and manpower to pour over all that information in order to track and locate major characters. How convenient that they decided to take a break so that we could see Suresh overact all over the desert.

--We've learned that the experiments out at Coyote Sands came under something called "Project Icarus." What on earth would possess someone to name their operation "Project Icarus"? Was "Project Abysmal Failure" already taken?

--So after all of this, we finally get to meet Angela's sister, and . . . well . . . maybe I missed something, but I got a whole lot of nothing out of the encounter. She's mad that Angela left her and lied to her? Shocking. And I don't want to seem mean, but 50 years is an awful long time to hide underground just because your sister told you to do it. Hell, 50 minutes seems too long. I'm all for family loyalty, but maybe Alice should have shown a little initiative at some point.

--One thing I really did enjoy out of this episode was the absence of Sylar's stupid and annoying antics. So you can imagine how disappointed I was when he showed up at the very end, impersonating Nathan at a press conference and being nothing at all like Sylar at any other point in this show. Since when does Sylar take stupid, reckless, easily discovered risks? (I know that he has a history of imitating Nathan, and the fanboys are probably wondering whether this points back to the Save the Cheerleader scenario from season one. But Sylar already has the cheerleader's power, and nothing he does makes any damned sense anymore. It's almost as if the writers realized that Danko isn't much of a villain and have been hyping up Sylar in order to create a better climactic ending.)

Episode 9 "Turn and Face the Strange" (airdate 4/6/09)

--The term that is used a lot by people disappointed in the turn that Heroes has taken is, "just like Lost." I have tried to defend the show from that claim, and I continue to think that on a technical level (though not an emotional one) I'm still mostly right. Unfortunately, this isn't because Heroes has reversed its slump. Rather, it's because it feels like the writers are so desperate to avoid making Lost-like mistakes that they're making all sorts of other mistakes in the effort to recapture the lightning of the first season.

--Take Sylar, for example. Please. We have seen Sylar go through all sorts of character journeys in the last 3 seasons, suggesting that there's more to him than the hungry murderer. But I guess psycho-murdering Sylar was what everyone loved in season one, so that's we have once more--no matter how little sense it makes. And without Peter as a foil for him, we're robbed of the excitement of an ultimate battle. Having Sylar as a shape-shifter doesn't give us a feeling of tense surrealism. It gives us a feeling of nagging irritation and a desire that they would stop messing around and just get on with the plot already.

--I can only assume that they will take away Sylar's powers or have him turn good again because he's now so powerful that it's illogical for any existing character to be able to defeat him. Frankly, things are getting so soap opera-ish that I wouldn't be surprised to see Sylar's good twin show up, or have him go into a coma and wake up with amnesia.

--I still can't believe that Danko has risen to the level of Chief Mutant Hunter based on merit. Maybe he's the First Lady's nephew or something. His operational security is laughable; he's being manipulated by the most dangerous mutant on earth; heck, he's not even smart enough to wait until after he leaves his girlfriend's house before trying to kill Matt Parkman. Dude, even a total moron knows that trying to shoot someone in your girlfriend's house is going to strain the relationship.

--I could not care less about Noah Bennet's marital difficulties. Not even a smidge. He's an interesting, exciting character, but it wouldn't matter if he was James Bond himself. Bickering with one's wife is nothing but a yawnfest.

--The only good thing about the reprise of season one is that finally (!!!) I'm interested and excited about Hiro's plotline. Thankfully, he's not longer whining about his destiny and power. He's back to being boyish and appealing. Welcome back, Hiro. I can't tell you how much we missed you.

--I'm betting Nathan and Peter are wishing that one of them had the power to psychically dig holes. I was wondering why Angela Petrelli was making them dig up the mass grave rather than just saying something like, "There's a mass grave right underneath you and here's why . . . ." On the other hand, maybe she's just tired of listening to them argue and figured you can't fight with your brother when you're digging up a mass grave.

Episode 8 "Into Asylum" (airdate 3/30/09)

--On the bright side, it seems like Claire has definitely had a mini-makeover. Her make-up is not as heavy and her hair seems slightly more modern. Thank God, since she has been working the same look since season one. I didn't think that invinceability extended to blue eyeshadow and cheerleader hair.

--The bad news is that I had plenty of time to determine that Claire has a new look because, once again, she dominated the episode. I guess last week's Claire-lessness was just a mini vacation. Though to mix things up, this time she spent most of the time whining at Nathan (on the lam with her in Mexico) instead of whining at her mom and dad and life in general. You could argue that Nathan has been such a dick this season that he deserves it, but what did we, the viewing audience, do to bring this on ourselves?

--We also learned that Claire doesn't get drunk because (according to her) her regenerative abilities protect her liver from the effects of alcohol. I guess her natural stupidity protects her brain. Lets just take a moment to appreciate the silliness of that explanation. (Don't you just hate it when all your drinks go right to your liver?) I can accept that somehow her invinceability extends to an inability to get drunk, but maybe Claire should hold off on those advanced genetics books until she finishes some Biology 101 classes. (I hate to admit this, but all I could think of during the drinking contest scene is the fact that Legolas from Lord of the Rings can't get drunk either. I know this has nothing to do with anything at all, except to point out that neither Claire nor Legolas are any fun at parties.)

--I really could have done without Peter's emotional scene in front of the statue of Jesus. All that was missing was a little flashing sign at the bottom of the screen that said, "Emmy Moment." And of course the end of his speech was accompanied by a mysterious wind that blew out all the prayer candles. And of course, they were saved from capture by the fact that Noah Bennet saw them but didn't reveal where they were hiding. I guess I should just be glad that they didn't include a kindly old priest with a thick Irish accent to say something profound and oddly relevent to Peter before they left the church.

--By the way, the Petrellis are probably right up there with the Corleones in the list of the worst Catholic families ever.

--Isn't it funny how, when we need to have a scene involving fugitives hiding in a church with sentimental meaning, it turns out to be a Catholic church? I guess it just wouldn't have the same power if Peter gave that speech in the corner of a Unitarian meeting room: "Why do you let these things happen, Universal Being Whom We Must Each Follow In Our Own Unique Way?"

--I thought we were going to get a plot line where Sylar toys with Mr. Evil Mutant Hunter, culminating in a kick-ass fight scene. Instead, we seem to be getting old, undeveloped, murders-for-powers Sylar. Again. Could that facet of him be any more played out?  The last few seasons had me feeling optimistic about Sylar. We saw shades of grey, an intriguing future, and a desire to be loved and accepted. Things that made him interesting and human instead of a 2-dimensional monster. But now we're back to the monster version of Sylar, and (quite frankly) it's a bit boring.

--Oh, and by the way, if we're going back to Sylar being impossibly powerful, then they had better restore Peter's multi-power ability. Because watching Sylar become impossibly powerful and evil with no realistic foe isn't fun. It's just frustrating.

Episode 7 "Cold Snap" (airdate 3/23/09)

--What the hell, Heroes writers? Daphne's dead. No! Wait! She's alive! No! Wait! She's dying! She's alive; she's dead; no, alive; no, dead. Did you really put us through all of this so that we could just get a more touching death scene with Matt? Because it's not as though this particular plot thread added much to our understanding of what was going on. It was sweet and all when Matt was trying to implant happy visions in her head, but the whole thing was just a big emotional jerk-off.

--So, in retrospect, it seems kind of obvious that Rebel would be Micah, given that all of his actions involved manipulation of technology. However, I'm guessing that Angela Petrelli and Noah Bennet aren't solid on Rebel's identity. I'm pretty sure the only line between morally gray and actually evil in this show is the willingness to kill or capture a kid. I know I was hoping that Rebel would turn out to be Bennet--I guess I just want him to go on and do something unambiguous for a change.

--As soon as we saw the ex-Mrs. Parkman alive and well and being dragged away from Li'l Matt Parkman by the shady feds, I couldn't help but think that Matt now had one too many women in his life. Alas that this was a bad sign for Daphne too.

--I could not be more grateful to Li'l Matt for restoring Hiro's powers. I started to feel optimistic as soon as we saw what the baby's powers were. At long last, Hiro might go back to doing some cool stuff and stop pontificating about what it means to be a hero. Now, I beg that all Hiro has to do to get his teleporting ability back is change a diaper or something. I don't think I can take another epic sword-related quest. --Oh dear, we're running out of Ali Larters.

--Though it was cool to see Tracy freeze-out the garage. The great big blinking clue that I missed about the identity of Rebel was how interested he was in Tracy. Considering that only Micah and the Hana Gitelman chick (briefly glimpsed in season one) had this kind of facility to manipulate electronics, I'm surprised that Angela and Noah haven't recalled that they once used someone with just that kind of ability to rig an election for Nathan, after which the city of New York was going to be incinerated by Peter. Me, I would remember that kind of thing. But then again, maybe they're just so busy that they can't remember every single time they've plotted the deaths of millions of people for political gain.

--One of the best things about this episode? No Claire. No whining about how difficult it is to be invinceable. No flouncing around about how no one understands her. The lack of teenage angst and its accompanying hair flipping was very, very nice.

--Peter sure likes to wait until the last minute for those daring escapes, doesn't he? A little planning and preparation from some of the heroes, and maybe everything doesn't have to be done as the clock ticks down to zero.  Not that Angela didn't deserve to sweat a little, of course. How exactly is she going about saving her sons again? Is she going to use her incredible power to make snooty comments and go to lunch?

--While Li'l Matt Parkman is restoring abilities, could we get him to spit up on Peter and restore the multi-power absorption ability? Because I want to see some wicked ass-kicking, and I want it now. At present, Sylar is the only one who can deliver. And he's busy being psycho and hunting the hunters. (Though I am enjoying Big Matt's Jedi mind tricks. I would be doing that all the time if I had that power. I wonder if it works over the phone? If so, I can tell you how I'd be paying all of my bills.)

--Not being an unbalanced sociopathic mutant hunter, I can't claim to know how they think, but if I was the type of paranoid guy who had a talking alarm on my front door, I wouldn't be so casual about the fact that someone snuck into my apartment and tied a dangerous marionette guy to my wall. That's the kind of thing that would make me worry a bit. But maybe I'm just not cut out for unbalanced mutant hunting.

Episode 6 "Shades of Gray" (airdate 3/9/09)

--Wow. Some interesting stuff in this episode. Some tiresome (mostly because certain things have been tiresome from the beginning), some exciting. I do hope that this means that I won't have to complain about the slow pacing again until next season. Though I won't hold out the same hope one dumb plot points.

--And speaking of dumb, how about that Nathan Petrelli? Honestly, couldn't Angela have passed down just a teeny little bit of her craftiness to her son? Instead of calling this season "Fugitives," they could have called it, "Nathan Exhibits Stupid, Borderline Retarded, Behavior." From his ham-handed secret government agency to his weird (and apparently temporary) attack of zealotry, almost nothing he has done this season has made any sense. I would say that it isn't consistent with his character, but I have no idea what his character is anymore. Oh, and as far as Nathan giving away his power and ending up on the run from his mutant hunter--I told you so. (PS--When a psycho mutant hunter is determined to expose your hidden flying power, standing in front of large windows while he has a breakdown just after you fired him is not the greatest idea.)

--I'm not sure what to make of the fact that seeing Mr. Evil Mutant Hunter confront Angela Petrelli gave me a moment of comfort. Because at least Angela could handle him. --I wish that, having decided that they wanted to make some kind of Nazi-like analogies with the secret mutant-hunting government agency, the writers would have pursued this in a way that made a little more sense.  A slower build-up perhaps, rather than the immediate race to full-fledged hunting and incarceration. Because then I wouldn't be sitting here wondering where they got their staff from. I can grant the existence of a psycho obssessive, even if I don't understand quite how he managed to rise to the position that he did. But the idea that he has a room full of soldiers who are willing to blow up a chunk of DC on his order (including a Senator and a bunch of policeman) in an open plot to frame Matt Parkman really stretches credibility for me. Even Cobra footsoldiers showed more moxie and independent thought.

--Lots of mystery about who Rebel is, but even though Nathan seemed to give Tracy a hint that it could be him (the mention of hope), I really, really don't want that to be the case. Because then the Nathan plot, which isn't exactly logically sound to begin with, will make no damned sense at all.

--Sylar finally meeting his dad was probably the bright point of the episode. I'm not sure whether it really answered any burning questions we might have had. We don't really know more about Sylar's origins other than the fact that his Dad had the same basic power that he did. And the same lust for blood and power. The suggestion, planted by Papa Sylar, that they both tended to go after weak game was interesting, though I think you could make the argument that it's not entirely accurate as far as Sylar is concerned. Sure, most of the powers he stole came from (relatively) weaker people, but he was also the one who killed Arthur Petrelli.  The suggestion that Sylar has learned from his father that there is no satisfaction to be had in hunting the weak is both promising and troubling. I have no interest in seeing Sylar turned back into a total monster. He has always been more interesting when his two natures are at war, and he wants to be a better person.  But I will also admit that when they showed him lying in wait for Mr. Mutant Hunter . . .well, that was pretty damned awesome.

--I was very glad to see a hint of resolution to the question of what happened with Parkman's ex-wife and possible child. This was actually left grey enough after season one that I didn't consider a dropped plot point--it seemed reasonable enough to assume that the baby was part of the changed future and that Parkman left his wife for being an annoying, adulterous slut. But sending Hiro and Ando to watch over mini-Parkman was a cute move. Even more so in that it saved us from a potentially dreadful scene where powerless Hiro tries to storm the incaceration unit.

Episode 5 "Exposed" (airdate 3/2/09)

--And, as predicted, things are finally starting to heat up. We even got to see people using their powers in interesting, bordeline cool ways. I maintain that the pacing problem is an inherent flaw in the chapter format that the show uses, but it's also not a necessary flaw. For now, I'm grateful that we're getting through the set-up and on to the action, but I wish that subsequent seasons could get past the early plot manipulations and stay with character development. And cool powers of course.

--We all knew that there was going to be a moment when we got to see Underwater-Breathing-Guy do his thing, but only those who are good at figuring out inevitable plot developments guessed that they'd tie it to the eminently predictable kiss with Claire. For what it's worth, I mind him a lot less than the flying guy that Claire was mooning over in season two. Incidentally, it's cool that he can breathe underwater, but his current occupation suggests that he's not that fast a swimmer. How much does that suck--you don't need to breathe while swimming, but you're still not as fast as Michael Phelps?

--Claire's mom isn't an idiot. This is good news, and yet I thought her memory was swiss cheese from all of the memory-erasing the Company (and the Hatian) pulled on her. They've never really ironed out how that works, though I guess it conveniently just erases specific things without affecting your knoweldge of how to make fake IDs or the recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

--Just wanted to point out that we still haven't heard a peep about Nathan's wife and kids from season one.

--I guess we're starting to see the Nathan character arc where he realizes that he's made a huge mistake that has gotten beyond his control. I'm guessing that Nathan doesn't get to see a lot of movies or read a lot of books or he would have seen this coming.

--You know, when I set up my super-secret extra-constitutional government agency and charge it with illegally rounding up a specific group of American citizens, I'm going to make extra sure that I don't place a murderous sociopath at the head of the rounding-up division. I guess you could say that I just like to go the extra mile. (Honestly, how has this guy managed to rise so high in the government service? Did no one notice that he is a megalomaniac with no regard for human life? It's not like he tries to hide it. Hell, he even looks like a crazy, murderous asshole.)

--It was good to see that someone is finally dealing with the obvious questions about the public and the news and the concept of human rights. If I recall, the Homeland Security lady told the Attorney General about it a few weeks ago, but I guess the AG is a busy guy and forgot about it. It's not like a massive administrative scandal and constitutional nightmare would hold his attention.

--Legal geek note: I love how anytime anything needs to happen in TV-land that requires a flight of fancy regarding constutional rights, they fall back on the Patriot Act to explain it. I can understand why they don't care for it and don't want to read it, but you can't actually apply it to everything under the sun.

--I'm really intrigued by the Sylar plot thread now. At first, I didn't particularly care about his parents and was in partial agreement with Luke that it didn't really matter. But the bombshell that Sylar's dad sold him to strangers and then killed his mom (using a power similar to Sylar's) is pretty dramatic stuff. Generally, I don't like the trend of having to explain every villain through a horrific childhood, but they've turned Sylar into an interesting and slightly sympathetic character, so I'm curious.

Episode 4 "Cold Wars" (airdate 2/23/09)

--I guess it's asking too much for Peter or Parkman to make a little trip to the local ACLU office and file an injunction against the continued Heroes round-up. Do they even have an ACLU in the Heroes universe? This is one of my problems with sci-fi stories that appear to take place in the real world, only with the minor leap of fantasy (like the existence of superpowers). If this is the real world, then why aren't people reacting in a rational way (e.g. challenging the legality of secret government round-ups of unoffending citizens)? And if it isn't the real world, please tell us so that I don't waste time wondering why no one is reacting rationally.

--By and large, I like the Heroes storytelling structure. Unlike the pure continuation model (where the storyline continues to unwind and introduce new threads throughout all the seasons) that most dramas have or the self-contained model of most mysteries/procedurals/crime shows (where mini-stories are wrapped up in each episode, though some bigger plotlines may thread through the series), Heroes does an interesting split where each season is a new chapter. So we have (mostly) the same characters throughout the show, but each season presents and then winds-up the majority of the story for that season. Thus, the first season was the story of discovering powers and the New York explosion, the second season/chapter introduced the older generation and stopped the killer virus, the third chapter was the foiling of Arthur Petrelli's plan and stopping the Hero Serum, and we're now in the midst of the story of the government round-up. Every season answers most--though not all--of the questions raised in that season. Unfortunately, this format means that every season has to establish its new story and questions at the beginning of the chapter, which leads to frustration. The characters seem dimwitted and occasionally act in inexplicable ways. The opening episodes seem terribly slow and overly focused on building up the plot and suspense for the rest of the season. And I start to lose patience and faith with the format. I think that we're nearing the end of this interminable build-up, and if I'm right, we'll see the pace and interest level pick-up a bit soon. God, I hope I'm right.

--I've always like Noah Bennet. Ok, not always. I didn't like him when it looked like he was the bad guy--so for the first 2/3 or so of the first season. But I can't say that he's as mysterious as they try to make him. It's pretty obvious that he's: a.) the craftiest and possibly smartest character in the show; and, b.) his motivation is based on his own desires and wishes. Why do the writers act like this is so hard to understand? Bennet wants to protect Claire, protect his family, and do well for himself. He generally agrees that it's necessary to keep an eye on potentially dangerous Heroes, but is willing to compromise any and all of his beliefs in service to his wants (like protecting his daughter). Frankly, he's the only one of the characters in this show who makes sense and is consistent in his motivations. I don't need to see Bennet's backstory. I need to see who beat Nathan with the stupid stick.

--I can't even go into how annoyed I am by Nathan. I just keep telling myself that they're being true to the blindness and ego of most politicians, and that's why Nathan has turned into such a moronic ass.

--So Daphne is alive after all.  I can't say that this is all that much of a surprise. After I got over my anger from their killing Daphne, I started wondering why they weren't making a bigger deal about it.  Heck, there was a long, involved plot point last season establishing how happily-ever-after Matt and Daphne were supposed to be, and even though these things don't necessarily carry over from season to season, this seemed like the kind of thing that would. Not to mention that Matt's character was taking the whole thing a bit too well.  Parkman may not have known Daphne was alive, but the writers responsible for his dialogue clearly did.

--I hope the fact that Daphne is still alive will bring Matt back from being such a stupid jerk.  He spends the whole episode being a prick and sending people on dangerous errands spawned by Bennet's memories--which ultimately results in their getting caught--albeit briefly--by the ridiculously large and well-equipped anti-mutant task force. (Seriously, how much funding do they have? They're so large and plugged-in that they probably got their own section in the Stimulus Bill.) You could argue that Mohinder was being whiny and wimpy about not letting Matt hurt Bennet during the mind-reading episodes, but what did Matt really learn that was so damned helpful? That there were other people besides Nathan pulling the strings? Congratulations. Considering that there's an entire newly-formed government agency hunting you, I figured you could probably have put that together without reading anyone's mind.

--It's pretty obvious that Bennet and Angela Petrelli are up to something regarding his work in the mutant round-up. And Bennet is clearly some kind of mole or double agent. Currently, I'm wondering if the "Rebel" sending messages to Claire and Hiro is one of them. How cool would that be?

Episode 3 "Building 26" (airdate 2/16/09)

--Well, I think we've pulled back from the brink of total disaster with this episode, though it's too early to rejoice that everything is going to be o.k. With the last episode, I had the sinking feeling that we were headed down the sad, scary valley of the shark-jump, but while this wasn't even close to an awesomely amazing episode, it did at least halt the march towards suckitude that was visible in the previous episodes.

--It was nice to see someone finally raise issues of human rights and Constitutionality with Nathan, even though the Homeland Security chick who did so isn't exactly in the running for the ACLU's Woman of the Year. Totally ready to shut down Nathan's operation for the pretty obvious and gross violations of human rights and criminal procedure, she does a complete turnaround after seeing Tracy freeze some guy to death. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be a chilling (ha!) thing to witness, but functionally, it's no different from a guy shanking a prison guard, so it wouldn't shake the convictions of anyone who believed what they were saying--as opposed to someone who was raising a minor plot obstacle so that we could witness how crazed and obssessed Nathan's mutant hunter is.

--While I find Sylar's new sidekick, Luke, more or less phenomenally annoying and uninteresting, I am enjoying the chance to listen to Sylar have dialogue that doesn't revolve around threatening other characters and/or sawing people's heads off. It looked briefly as if Sylar was going to slip back into the Season One monster, but I now have high hopes that we're going to continue his character development instead. Gator6C pointed out last week that Sylar's is one of the most interesting storylines as present merely because he's the only one who is still experiencing character growth rather than slipping into a caracture of himself of turning into a two-dimensional plot feature.

--So it looks like the Dell Toughbook is the preferred laptop of the shadowy extra-Constitutional government agency in charge of rounding up mutants. Take that, Mac! I guess the Mac just doesn't have the "apps" necessary to wage a covert war on American citizens.

--Lots and lots of drama in the Bennet household, though I can't really blame Mama Bennet for kicking Noah out of the house. I would probably be a little disappointed with my husband under those circumstances as well. Though it does look like lying to your family and making a deal with the devil pays well, anyway.  If I find out that a huge chunk of the stimulus package is going to keeping Tracy in heat lamps and buying the Bennets a new SUV, I'm going to be pissed.

--I know that Noah Bennet is supposed to be one of the biggest mysteries in the series, but frankly, he's one of the few characters whose motivations make perfect sense to me.  He joined the Company because he believed in what they were doing on some level (and probably still does). At some point, his whole concern became protecting his daughter and family from external dangers--at one point that was dangerous mutants like Sylar, but it later changed to whatever villains are fueling that particular season. All along (like now), he has made deals and compromises to keep Claire out of the hands of people who would hurt her, and in return, he gets a big mountain of pouty attitude.  So yes, I find Claire to be a bit of a pain in the ass under the circumstances.

--So the guy that Claire saves from the comic book store can breathe underwater. A very cool ability that he is inexplicably not using at all. But how exactly is this guy supposed to be such a threat to national security that it's worth spending two whole teams of federal agents on the manhunt to bring him in? What's he going to do? Not drown on you? Ooooooooo, scary. And this is what ultimately continues to annoy me about the Nathan subplot. It has been made clear to us that there are lots and lots of people with abilities out there, and he's really planning to incarcerate them all? Together? Hey, I've got a great idea!! Let's put all of these people with potentially dangerous superpowers all together in one place!! But only after we take away their freedom and make them really mad at us first!! How could that possibly backfire?

--Hiro has learned yet again that he doesn't need his powers to be a hero. Fantastic. Maybe the lesson will stick this time and we won't have to endure any more tedious journeys of destiny from him. And you know what would be even better? If he could do something cool like . . .oh, I don't know . .. travel through time and space or something.

--By the way, how did Hiro and Ando get from Alabama or Arkansas or wherever that plane crash was to New Delhi, India? I was under the impression that they were wanted fugitives. That kind of thing tends to put a crimp in the ability to book plane reservations.

--I've been assuming that "Rebel" was Peter, but since Peter is hanging out with Parkman and Hiro and Ando are being sent to save Parkman, maybe it's someone else. And that opens up a lot of interesting possibilities. It seems a little organized to be Sylar's doing. It would be very cool indeed if it were Noah Bennet, trying to undermine Nathan and Co. I guess we'll just have to see.

Episode 2 "Trust and Blood" (airdate 2/9/09)

--Oh, Heroes. I like you. I really, really do. I've tried to give you the benefit of the doubt in some of your sillier turns and plot twist. I only cursed the Claire/flying boy romance about a dozen times. I stuck with you throughout the comedy of Hiro's boneheaded errors that passed for the third season. But you are really, really trying my patience with Nathan's current direction. What the hell is going on here? We have established over several seasons that there are bad and dangerous "heroes" out there. We have Sylar as our own personal psycho. Heck, the Primatech building had an entire wing devoted to incarcerating dangerous mutants. And yet, Nathan and the federal government are devoting ridiculous amounts of lives and resources to track down the small group of heroes that we know for a fact are no danger to anyone. (And two of them aren't even American citizens. Hell, they nabbed Hiro in Japan, for God's sakes.) These people have inarguably saved the world on more than one occasion, and yet Nathan is totally focused on rounding them up. Why? I know he's crazed with power and ambition, but this is even too stupid for him.

--And speaking of stupid, what is with the over-the-top mutant hunter? Exactly what branch of government did Nathan dig him out of? Because I can't think of a single branch where he would have cleared even the initial psych evaluation. If he ends up turning on Nathan and Nathan somehow ends up on the run with all the others, I am going to be beyond annoyed.

--Primatech and Mama Petrelli have managed to successfully investigate, kidnap, and occasionally incarcerate different mutants for years and years. Between Angela and Noah Bennett, you probably have the world's two foremost authorities on successfully and quietly capturing mutants. So when it's time for Nathan to do the same, does he ask Mom for pointers? No, he creates the world's most incompetent strike force. At least Mom made a point about this at the end.

--I'm so mad about Daphne. I liked her. A lot. She was cute, she had a cool power, and she even liked having it. And she restrained some of Matt's more annoying tendencies. And the way they killed her was beyond lame. Though frankly, I'm mad that they killed her at all. And memo to Matt: when you have the power to see the future, and you see the person you love being shot at a particular place, maybe the first thing you should do when you find them in that place is . . . I don't know . . . move somewhere else before you start talking to them about your plans. If I knew that my husband was going to be shot in front of a McDonalds, I wouldn't meet him there and then have a 4 minute discusision about whether we should use the drive-through. We'd friggin' go somewhere else first and then discuss our dinner plans.

--So is Sylar totally a homicidal psychotic or is he just cold and cruel? Because when he's not needlessly psychotic, it's easy to like him a bit. After all, he gets almost all the good lines, and his efforts to find out who he is are interesting. But it does get a little tiresome to see him constantly sawing off heads--especially when he doesn't really have to do that anymore. Just from a practical standpoint, leaving bodies in your wake isn't a good way to avoid eventual detection and a bullet in the brain, and Sylar is certainly smart enough to know that. And I am intrigued by his new sidekick. It has potential. Of course, that includes the potential to be a dumb sideplot, but I'm being optimistic.

--It's hard to describe the chill I got when I heard that Hiro believed it was his destiny to find some sword and regain his powers.  It was not a good chill. More like a, "Oh, Jesus, not again," chill.

Episode 1 "A Clear and Present Danger" (airdate 2/2/09)

--Well, at least we're off to a rousing, non-boring start. Say what you will about plane crashes, unconstitutional arrests, and sinister government agents, but they do tend to make things exciting. Another bonus is that they help move things along quickly enough that most of the Heroes don't have the opportunity to showcase their more annoying qualities. So quantitatively less whining from Claire, awkward goody-two-shoesing from Matt Parkman, and naive stupidity from Hiro were also much appreciated.

--Which is not the same as having entirely removed said annoying qualities from the main characters. Hiro probably gets the "most improved" award, as his naive enthusiasm is now focused on impractical dreams of being the Alfred to Ando's Batman rather than using his ability to hand over vital life-and-death material to evil people. Matt Parkman seems to have been responsible for all of the, "I want a normal life," whining for this episode. I don't know why this is something that all people with superpowers in television/films/literature/etc. feel the need to say every 10 minutes. I have a normal life. It's really not all that. Enjoy your damned abilities, you whiny bastards. And, of course, when it comes to whining, no one can outwhine Claire, who began the episode by bitching about the opportunity to go to an Ivy League college through her family's influence. Boo friggin' hoo.

--Claire's continued determination to be an active crime-fighting, ass-kicking hero has continued into the new season, where I continue to ask why she is putting us through this. Apparently, immortality and invinceability aren't enough for one person. And I'm not sure where she gets her conviction that she can be a one-woman assault force. Sure, not dying is useful, but it's not much help in taking down Sylar.

--Why is Claire so obessessed with Sylar coming after her again anyway? I mean, it's nice that she has seen enough TV and movies to know that it doesn't matter how many burning buildings you drop on the main villain, you're not going to take him out that way. But Sylar doesn't need to come after her. He already got what he wanted from her.

--Speaking of Sylar, it looks like they might be headed to another season where we kind of root for him. And I can't say that I have an objection. Sylar and Peter are really the highlight of the show. It would be nice to see them kick ass together without one of them being totally psycho for once. And though I'm getting a little bored with the sawing-off-the-top-of-people's-heads-thing, it's still a lot of fun to watch Sylar use all of his abilities to take down someone. I liked it when it was Nathan and I liked it even more when it was Nathan's goon squad.

--On the whole "rounding up the mutants" plotline: I've complained about this before, as it's somewhat formulaic and difficult to do without getting too heavy-handed and political about it. And I can't give the producers a very high grade for their efforts in this episode. They weren't X-Men movie bad about it, but there were moments that gained a big internal eye-roll. Like the speech from the Iranian guy about rounding up people who are, "different." Very subtle, Heroes producers.  Did you rule out flashing the words, "timely political analogy," on the screen over and over again?

--Ignoring the practicality of rounding up and detaining large numbers of American citizens for a moment--why on earth are they rounding up the good, law-abiding Heroes first? Even if I could grant that Nathan has a point about dangerous powers and risks to the country, how exactly is that helped by incarcerating the few people who have no interest at all in using their powers for evil? You'd think he would have put his first efforts into rounding up the dangerous, psychotic, evil, or criminal ones.  Lord knows Angela Petrelli or Noah Bennet ought to have some kind of list of those guys lying around somewhere. Instead, you focus your efforts on all of the good guys . . . and Sylar. Great idea, Nathan. I can't see how that could possibly backfire on you.

--Gee, I wonder if all of the stars are going to survive the plane crash? Oh, and since Peter can fly, why is he so frantic about not getting sucked out of the plane? If anyone (aside from Nathan) is going to be ok after getting sucked out of a plane in mid-air, it's going to be Peter.

--If that plane ends up crashing on a deserted tropical island full of polar bears, smoke monsters, and mysterious hatches, I'm going to be really pissed off.