Oh thank God for that. For a second, I thought the last two episodes meant Heroes had gone to pants again – always a worry, it turns out.
But thankfully all is right with the world again, and we’ve just had another cracker.
Although I’m sulking now. Spoilers after the jump, assuming I’m not pouting too much.
Plot
As the episode title suggests, this one was mainly about Sylar, with everyone’s favourite serial killer (apart from Dexter) having something of an identity crisis since he absorbed that shape-shifting power. Who is he really? What does he want? Thankfully, his dead mum and Micah can help him with that.
Meanwhile, Ando and Hiro are squabbling again, but this time being amusing about it. New discovery – if Hiro’s touching someone when he freezes time, they’re not frozen any more and Hiro’s having some issues with his power.
Matt, now looking after Matt Jr, returns home to Janice and begins to wonder exactly how she can afford that new house of hers, and what kind of life he really wants – one of blissful happiness or one in which he helps people like he swore to do.
And Nathan finally decides to do something to fix the Sylar problem, even if it’s the stupidest plan imaginable. Whoops.
Was it any good?
Thankfully, yes it was. Some good direction, with none of the dragging of last week, some really good writing, and some real stand-out ‘Heroes moments’. We even get a corking cliffhanger, in which just about every hero gets rounded up by the terror police so they can be stuck in Building 26.
The main fun was with Sylar and his quest for identity, which was both helped and hindered by Danko. Sylar’s multiple personality disorder was more than a bit disturbing, and echoes what producers have said about the powers having a price. It’s also particularly interesting to see how many scary powers Sylar’s managed to accumulate again, some of which we’re still not sure about, including exactly what his regeneration powers are, since he now appears to be invulnerable.
Sylar’s interactions with Micah were also noteworthy, with Sylar helping our boy and Micah once again using the memory of his mommy to help other heroes find their truth path. Will Sylar work out what he wants to do in life by next week, I wonder? I’m thinking maybe, but I’m not sure we’ll like it, judging by the promo.
Similarly, Matt and Janice was season one-level character interaction, something that the writers have been working hard on of late. That felt like a proper relationship, rather than the forced relationship of Daphne and Matt. I’m hoping they go somewhere with it next season, and already there’s the hint that maybe Janice half-inched the diamonds from season one, which might not go down well with Matt when he finds out. But let’s see.
I said fun, but this was actually quite a dark episode, which I’m very happy about. With Hiro betraying Ando, Ando calling Hiro a fascist, Hiro discovering that his new power causes pain and nose bleeds, Sylar’s ever-increasing insanity, and seemingly all hope being extinguished for Claire, Peter, Mohinder, Nathan, HRG and co, it seems there’s just Micah and Matt on the outside to help now.
And Tracy. Sorry, sticking her in the “previously on Heroes” bit is insufficient. Now I’m sulking, as I promised last week. Still she’s back next week, hopefully to save the day with her scary-level powers, so at least the sulk won’t be too long.
Greg Beeman’s blog is a bit short this week, so not much to glean beyond this cute photo:
And here’s a promo for the finale. Looks cool – and why is Claire going to be cross, I wonder?
