Agree with many of your points and looking forward to posting some more detailed responses & comments later.

Yeah, I only recently noticed that parallel. It makes me appreciate Maya’s storyline a bit more, since it wasn’t quite just a dying-and-crying routine…but not by much.

True, very true. Heroes, no matter what, always gives at least one truly brilliant moment per episode. And the show also has a habit of giving great episodes in the second half. I suppose it’s just a matter of waiting now.

But I am still wondering if Maury’s out-of-character was as a result of that whole scene being a simulation created by Maury. By Arthur snapping Maury’s neck in front of Daphne, she became so shocked, scared, confused, and terrified that she would’ve killed her mother if Arthur asked her to afterwards. So maybe that whole scene was a ruse to show off what Arthur would do to his own right hand man if there was a descension in the ranks, let alone a small time recruiter like her…

Also, with Adrian’s underplaying or cryptic response… I think he has always been suspicious of Arthur possibly being involved in the car crash that paralyzed Heidi. We ALL assumed it was Linderman’s doing, but when Linderman healed Heidi it felt as if he was making penance for something he should have stopped. I think Arthur did it to his own son, and Nathan has always been so ashamed of himself for even thinking it could be true. After all, for those who read the novels, Linderman was always wary of Arthur, and in many ways afraid of him as well after his frightening actions during Vietnam. That’s just MY theory.

As for the mission statement, it is more complex and less straightforward.

I dunno about Arthur; I’m digging his scenes because of the way the villainy and menace are veiled with civility. It’s interesting that we saw this side of the character before we see the side of him a year earlier; in a way, the complication — whatever events took place over the past year that led up to Arthur’s current storyline — is our first impression and the basis for comparison. We don’t know what kind of archetype Arthur represents, if he even represents one at all.

Ian, intriguing point about the show’s new mission statement. I wonder how far mission statement is synonymous with the show’s slogan: was the show’s mission statement in Season One to depict ordinary people with extraordinary abilities? If so, what would this season’s mission statement be? “You can’t choose your family, but you can choose a side”? It’s an interesting point because the first season’s slogan was so clearcut and straightforward, whereas the irony about this season’s slogan is that it’s impossible to choose a side when the sides aren’t clearly defined. That’s the idea, of course, but I wonder if that murkiness in the mission statement (/slogan) makes it less immediately identifiable, and whether that in turn takes away some of the straightforward appeal of the show.

I’m curious about your take on “Fugitives” being darker — do you think it’ll be darker than “Villains”? Definitely a possibility.

And on Ashley Crow — yes, she’s indisputably awesome. There’s a character who bucked the archetype. I can think of no better example on the show, not even HRG.

ThePandoraRose — I love the point you raise about lineage and the manifestation of a synthetic ability. I wonder if this opens up potential to explore some of the minor characters’ backstories: we don’t know whether Molly’s parents were synthetically empowered, or whether even Molly was. If that’s the case, it ties in with Linderman arranging Micah’s birth, and how far ahead The Company planned to retrieve Molly from her home, assuming they planned to bring her back to a facility even before her parents were killed. Molly and Micah manifested much earlier, so I wonder what was different in their cases. That’d be a great reason to bring back Micah and Molly and look at how they fit into this story.