Review:

No, I'm not making that last part up. I wish I was because it's just plain bizarre. And there's a lot of stuff like that this week: stuff that wouldn't make any sense if you thought about it rationally. Would Angela really send an unstable agent into the field just because he's her son and has good survival instincts? Would the Haitian really collect a formula capable of destroying the world on his own without any support? Is Matt's life really interesting enough that someone could spend their life painting it?

Thing is, the episode's such guilty fun that it's hard to care.

We open where the previous episode left off: Angela visits Sylar in The Basement and tells him the mother of all secrets. And I know Cristine Rose mentioned in interviews that last week's reveal was the "icky" part of all this, but come on:

This? ... is just ... ew.

Angela laments that she ever gave Sylar up for adoption, which raises all kinds of questions about whether Angela wanted to raise Sylar and didn't get a say in it, and whether Zimmerman's "creation" project involved planting supers in different environments to see how the individuals and their abilities would adapt. Alternatively, it's all just one giant mindfrak with Sylar. Which, judging from the way Sylar's on the verge of hyperventilating during this scene, is having the desired effect.

Angela tells Sylar that Bridget Bailey's going to "feed" him, except the way Cristine delivers it, it's not so much "feed you" as "feeeeeeeeeeeeeeed you." Great delivery, and great ambiguity as Angela's stepping out of the cell and walking away from The Basement, because her look of pride is only slightly offset by the "Aw, shucks, it had to be done" look she gets when Bridget starts screaming. I don't know if that makes Angela the unconscionable Company Woman who's happy to lose a few employees if it means sending Sylar on missions and getting the job done, or if she's just the misguided mother who disapproves of her difficult son's vices but knows there's nothing she can do about them.

V.O. Mohinder monologues about "the search for self" and whether "the hero or the villain inside us win[s] the day" as we cut to the Ice Fortress, where Tracy ...

... goes cryo on a bunch of roses, most of whom are like, "Thanks, b**ch! What did we ever do to you?" Cool effect, and a cool way to establish how Tracy's the antithesis of Niki, confronting her ability and pursuing the truth instead of running away from it.

We cut to the Villainous Four in a location that, according to the chyron, is Poughkeepsie, New York.

Beautifully shot, and, with hindsight, driving the knife even further into the wound when you realize this is all the opportunity Francis Capra will have to play Peter. If the plan was to kill Weevil off within three episodes, it's not like a lot of viewers were going to forget it was Present-Peter in there; and if the plan was to tie the Villainous Four's storyline with Noah's and Sylar's so quickly, it's not like viewers would bash it for being removed from the central arc the way the Ireland storyline was. Capra could easily have played Peter-in-Jesse.

The Villainous Four enter the bank, and the Heist of the Villainous Four begins. The German Magnetoes the blinds shut, Flint goes blue-pyro, and Present-Peter just sort of stands there looking dumb, probably wondering what he'd rather be doing instead of holding up a bank.

The Company Man returns to The Basement to trade quips with the Company Woman.

Angela: "You can take the man out of The Company ..."

SNIP! Edited because this script is awesome!

Sure, she could have finished the sentence and it would've only added a few seconds to the running time. But why bother when we know how the sentence ends and when Noah doesn't have the patience for it? For all the criticism you can heap on this episode about the way a lot of it makes zero sense, Joe Pokaski's script is a 5 out of 5. Quick, snappy, well-crafted, and above all a script that sounds natural in the mouths of the characters.

There's some verbal jousting over "our Claire" that speaks volumes about the proprietary contest between Noah and Angela, and then Angela tells Noah that the Haitian's "on a pick-up assignment." And even though it's kind of hard to buy that Angela would send the Haitian on a monumental mission like this by himself, particularly after the numerous times he's double-crossed The Company and played its various factions against one another, it also jars quite startlingly with the Company's "one of us, one of them" policy that we're now reminded of. You could speculate that Angela's stockpiling her supers to sustain Sylar at snack time, but the non-supers? You would have thought Angela would send one of them to Berlin along with the Haitian.

Noah rattles off the old "one of us, one of them" policy, and I can't help thinking the reason they put this reference in here was to remind us of the good-natured pigeon-feeding Bearded One that Noah tried to kill so long ago -- specifically to contrast Ol' Doctor Fantastic with the latest replacement:

I love how Sylar's got this little "Whoopee!" half-smile while Noah's more:

"YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!"

We return to the Heist of the Villainous Four, where Peter's telling the hostages to keep their heads down. Again, I'm convinced Capra could have delivered exactly the same line to the same effect, but it's a cool detail that Milo can communicate how commanding and assertive he is with lines at the same time as conveying how insecure and freaked-out he is with expressions.

The German Magnetoes the safe open and declares with pride, "Es ist offen!" Aw. And I know I'm not supposed to "aw" that, but honestly, I'm struggling to understand what made these guys Level 5 material. I mean, The German beat up the car driver last week, and, OK, he pulls a gun on Knox this week when he realizes he's been betrayed; but besides that, am I the only one who's not getting a Worst-of-the-Worst vibe from this guy? I get the impression that he's really only interested in taking his part of the money and disappearing. We were supposed to believe that these guys would cause "unimaginable destruction to the world." It could be intentional on the show's part, particularly in a volume parading its goal to bring ambiguity to every character's actions, but I couldn't help thinking that some of the actual villains weren't intended to be as sympathetic as they come across. Even Flint nearly going pyro on some random member of staff in the bank only half-succeeds in making him monstrous, mostly because Blake Shields has such an affable presence that he transcends the role he's playing. You can believe he'll torch the occasional guy he meets after he's taken his money and run, but I can't see him destroying the world, and I'm not sure why we should loathe a guy with a penchant for the occasional torching when we laugh off Angela's willingness to feeeeeeeeed her psychokiller son.

We go from that to the eggs and bacon and waffles at Canine Central. Great thematic contrast, but also a great visual set-up for the wholesome family life that Claire's about to give up. Well played, writers.

Sandra asks Claire if she's ready for school. Claire tartly replies that she's not going, and it suddenly occurs to me that it's really only been a couple of days since the drama last season, and I wonder if we're meant to assume that West is still at school and waiting for the superhero crapstorm he was expecting to begin as soon as Claire went public about their abilities. I think the main reason it occurred to me was because Claire's petulant tone and expression here brings back everything that failed with her character arc last season.

Mercifully, the Bratty Claire moment is brief, and Meredith rescues the scene by coming to Claire's rescue and offering to explain to Sandra that when you're "like" them --

Sandra [dialogue]: "Meredith, I'm thrilled that you're here to protect us but I know how to talk to my daughter, thank you."

Sandra [translation]: "Who gave you permission to speak?"

... And Meredith understandably withers before this demonstration of power. I wouldn't have guessed Ashley Crow could be so scary, but I also kind of wish we could have heard Meredith finish her sentence: was she going to say that having an ability makes you feel like the rules don't apply to you, or that a normal life is pointless? Again, props to Pokaski for a brilliant script because the whole point of Claire's storyline this week is to set up why she can't go back to a normal routine and a normal life, but it'd be interesting to get a graphic novel to embellish what Meredith's experience has taught her about having an ability and how that affects her relationships with non-supers.

We cut to the Midas Study.

Beautifully shot, and a scene that's electric because it puts the show's most complex characters together. As with the Sandra and Meredith dialogue, the brilliance is in the tone and the subtext: Sylar's defensiveness when he points out that scalping Claire wouldn't kill her, like, "Dad, it's not like I crashed the car, I just dented it," and Angela's weariness when she reproaches Noah for pointing his gun at Sylar, like, "Noah, I told you to finish your homework and take out the trash 10 minutes ago." I can't tell if that's Sergio Mimica-Gezzan's directing or the actors just nailing their characters and their motives in this scene, but it works.

Noah: "Your solution is to send a psychopath after the psychopaths?"

Great dialogue. Blunt, succinct, and self-parodic in the best possible way. You hear it, and you know the writers hear the audience saying it's nuts, even though they're going to go ahead with it anyway.

Angela: "He's been misunderstood. He just needs structure."

I wonder what Sylar's victims would say about that, but I also wonder if we're meant to trust Angela's assessment of Sylar or write her off as delusional. The way Sylar seems to respond to her, you almost believe she can control him. It doesn't make sense; you would have laughed at it last season, or even last week when Sylar was slicing Claire's head open. But the scene is so well played and the performances and dialogue are so carefully delivered that you struggle to care. You laugh because it's genuinely funny rather than because it's absurd.

Hiro and Ando teleport to Daphne's location in Berlin, which turns out to be a movie theater hosting a Buster Keaton midnight special ... which is either hilariously appropriate to the slapstick simplicity of this storyline, or completely random. Daphne promptly shows up at the entrance to the theater, and Hiro's all, "Nemesis!" Which is intended to be funny, but it underlines everything that's ruining this storyline. It's a reminder that Hiro's first priority is to give his life meaning by convincing himself that he's a hero on an adventure, and that the second priority is to retrieve The Formula and, you know, save the world. It's also a little sad that Hiro's having to overdramatize his meeting with Daphne and pretend he's a hero after the real heroism he's demonstrated in the past. As weak as Hiro stabbing Sylar was, he was taking a life to prevent Sylar from taking more. As lame as the entire feudal Japan story arc was, it led to Hiro burying his hero alive. And while you got a "Yatta!" after the first instance and morose puppy-eyes after the second, both of those were preferable to calling a superfast thief "nemesis" and offering popcorn to a guy who's just been conked over the head.

It's not that they need to remove the comic-book undertones altogether, just that the show needs to dial them down if they don't want Hiro to look like an idiot.

Now, all of that said, this:

... is adorable. And telling. Not because of anything Hiro does besides letting Daphne adjust his glasses, but because you realize what's carrying Hiro's storyline is the charm and energy of the supporting players: the intrigue behind the Haitian's mission, Ando improvising with the plan, Daphne offering popcorn in the theater. When Daphne adjusts Hiro's glasses, she's not just adjusting his glasses: she's usurping one of Hiro's trademark mannerisms. Essentially -- and probably without realizing it -- the show is saying that Hiro has lost what made him unique and relying on the characters around him to keep him unique.

Hiro loses his time-freezing and teleporting, and Daphne loses her speed and shows us that her normal run is a lot like Phoebe's. Which I'm going to assume is an intentional nod. It's possible that Brea Grant really is that uncoordinated, but I'm going to go with the theory that Daphne's ability comes to her so effortlessly that she doesn't need to try. It also adds a little depth to the medallion Hiro found last week, because if she was a clumsy and awkward kid before twelfth grade then getting her ability and becoming superfast and graceful would be like winning the superpower lottery.

The deactivation of abilities can only mean ...

Welcome back, Jimmy Jean-Louis!

Canine Central. Claire finds Meredith standing outside the house.

Am I the only one struggling to buy Meredith's good intent? I don't doubt that she cares about Claire, but the way she manipulated Claire and Nathan during the first season needed to be addressed here, if only with a couple of lines. Jessalyn Gilsig does a solid job with Meredith's portrayal as the streetwise less-a-mom-than-a-big-sister to Claire, and it's an effective way to foreshadow how Claire will emulate this hardened personality and become the leather-clad gun-toting Future-Claire. But we don't know how much Noah and Sandra know about the extortion, the money-grabbing and the way Meredith tricked Nathan into nearly never meeting Claire. Less a criticism than an oversight, but there was a conversation that needed to be had about how much the family can trust Meredith.

Claire asks her Cool Mom to teach her how to fight, which is kind of a slap in the face to the Normal Mom who raised two kids and a show dog and accepted her human-vivisecting covert-organization husband and self-regenerating adoptive daughter for who they were. Just saying, if that's not an uphill struggle worth learning from, I don't know what is. But if Claire wants to learn how to kick guys in the groin, she should try this.

Nathan braves the Ice Fortress to ask Tracy why she skipped his swearing in. Tracy brings up the way Nathan called her Niki Sanders the other day, then shows him the footage of the wild night her double spent with Nathan at the Corinthian and demands to know who she is. I'm going to take a wild stab at this: could her name be Niki Sanders?

Tracy: "Tell me what you know about her."

Oh, Tracy, don't go there. The show's lost enough viewers as it is.

The Heist of the Villainous Four continues. We learn that Knox called the cops to alert The Company and lure Noah to the scene. Which works out pretty well for him, but it's a plan that relies on a lot of variables: Knox couldn't have known that Angela would release Noah from his cell, he couldn't have known that Noah would stick around to recapture the inmates if Angela did release him, and he couldn't have known that The Company would even hear about the heist unless it was run by people who actually follow the news ... which, judging from the scene coming up, wasn't an option that Angela had considered.

The German balks at Knox's plan because all he wants is to take his share of the money and leave. Which, again, really doesn't strike me as the scheming of a mastermind bent on world domination so much as a quick and easy escape plan.

Knox explains that the scared hostages are "powering [him] up," which provides a solid rationale for why he wanted to carry out the heist during the day. The fact that the German also pulls a gun on Knox at least partly explains why Knox kills him and only beats on Weevil later on, although the bond between Knox and Weevil is also developed in this week's graphic novel, even if the majority of viewers have no way of knowing that.

Knox puts his fist through the German. And by that, I mean he actually ...

... puts his fist through him.

They killed The German? But I was saving the Sauerkraut jokes!

Damn, that was quick. I guess they'll need to thin the herd pretty fast if they're planning to show us all 12 of the escaped inmates, but I figured these four guys would be the focal group. I didn't think they'd off two of them and imprison a third so early in the season. It screams "We have a plan!", which is reassuring, but it also gives the show a chance to reinforce how ruthless Knox is. Which, again, is partly in the details -- particularly Knox casually wiping the blood off his hands with the German's jacket -- but also Jamie Hector's embodiment of the role, because the guy's so charismatic and plays Knox with such volatility that the scene comes to life every time the camera cuts to him. You're afraid for the camera man because you're not sure if Knox is going to pat him on the back and tell him he's doing a good job or rip his head from his shoulders and use it as a football. After a scene like this, you realize why he's the villain who ends up in Angela's dream after the other ones fade away.

We return to Matt and Usutu in the Desert of Clairvoyance, although you'd be forgiven for forgetting this story thread existed because it's so far removed from the others.

Matt and Usutu are walking. Yes, it really is that exciting. Matt's starting to look seriously blistered from the sun, which earns the make-up department a couple of points. It's also kind of funny that rescuing Matt from this scorching sun is at the absolute bottom of Future-Peter's checklist of Things To Do before he returns to the future.

Usutu continues to blather about how it's not right that Matt's here, and how he was told on his spirit walk as a boy that he was destined to paint Matt's future ...

Read that again. It's just ... horrible. Not the storyline itself (although that's pretty bad), but the level of torture inflicted on this guy. Can you imagine dedicating your life to painting Matt? The traffic directing, the coffee ice cream after sex, the leaky pipes?

We get a glimpse of the tedium Usutu was saddled with when he got this gig:

It's amazing, it's even got Greg's Herculean hands and Adair Tishler's perky little nose. Usutu probably decided that if he was stuck with painting this garbage he might as well do it accurately.

Usutu: "This I painted when I was a boy. I'm not a boy anymore, Parkman."

Did anyone else just find themselves humming the chorus to Britney's "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman"? I'd do a multiple choice for what's on Usutu's walkman, but you're only going to need one guess.

The highlights of Matt's life: the Superhero Square Showdown ... when Matt got shot with his own bullets. And the time he got thrown out a window. And the time he got his mind-reading frequencies jammed while trying to read Peter. And those are just the highlights. Poor Usutu.

Midas Study. Sylar puts on a suit and slicks his hair back, and looks ...

Doubtful? Conflicted? Remorseful? Repentant? Guilty?

One of those. Or he's just playing Angela.

Angela consoles her boy, telling him it's not his fault that he's a murderer and that it's just his ability; and that he has a hunger that he can't control, which, at least on some level, I guess Angela can relate to.

It goes without saying that Angela wanted Sylar to buy into this, but a more interesting question might be whether the show wanted us to buy into it. I'm not sure whether we were expected to buy that Sylar's a victim of his own ability and that, if you took his ability and his "hunger" away, he'd be a decent guy. Angela's obviously manipulating him, but is the show trying to manipulate us? Is it trying to persuade us that a psychopathic serial killer is "misunderstood" and good on the inside? Or is the message that the abilities corrupted a man who was rotten on the inside from the beginning, and that no amount of conditioning or rehabilitation could "fix" him? If we're pausing to think about that, I think the show's playing the moral ambiguity motif the way it wanted to.

Gehen wir ins Kino! I know I shouldn't ask, but do you think Hiro and Ando bought tickets to this screening? We see the Haitian with a ticket and Daphne probably sped past the usher, but I have a hard time believing Hiro teleported to an exchange bureau to cash a few euros. Criminal. Moral ambiguity indeed.

Daphne and Hiro exchange not-so-witty banter, although Daphne's as amusing as ever when she says she doesn't care if the world ends as long as she gets paid, and when she demonstrates how separable Hiro and Ando are. But Ando telling Daphne that Hiro's his best friend and that they'll "never leave each other's side"? Aw. He probably doesn't realize how he just jinxed their friendship, but we do.

Desert of Clairvoyance. Matt looks at more paintings of his life, I continue to feel bad for Usutu for such a thankless calling, and we finally discover that a painting of Matt with a cute-looking blonde and a baby ... isn't going to happen anymore. I wonder what else in Matt's life isn't going to happen anymore, and whether painting what isn't going to happen might actually be more creatively rewarding for Usutu than painting what does happen to Matt. Usutu blots out this family portrait, plugs in his headphones and starts off on the glazed-eyes mania. And, I kid you not, Shenkar's wail when this happens is DEAFENING. Did someone in the editing room think we wouldn't realize this is a momentous moment in Matt's life? (Side note: this clearly constitutes a highlight in Matt's life -- I wonder if Usutu can paint Matt watching him paint Matt?) Did they need to clobber us over the head with a musical accompaniment so loud it could shatter windows just to convey that This Is A Very Important Moment For The Character? Because I think we got that part just fine anyway.

Heist of the Villainous Three. Sylar does a remarkably convincing job of masquerading as FBI Agent Hanson, chastising cops for failing to adhere to barricade regulations and throwing in a free decaf for Noah. Which, aw, but also wow: for the nod to AudreyClea, for the ingenuity Sylar demonstrates, for Noah's disbelief at the way Sylar threw himself into the role, and for the switch in the role that Zach usually plays. It's not quite as funny as Hiro trying to communicate with Nathan in broken English at the diner back in "Hiros," but it's on that level. Hilarious, delightful and surprising.

Knox agrees to let the hostages go in exchange for Noah.

Sylar: "You do realize they're not gonna let you out alive?"

Noah: "Well, that's very touching -- a monster cares about my well-being."

Sylar: "You're so concerned with proving you're better than me that you're willing to get yourself killed."

Noah: "I am better than you."

Great dialogue, and great delivery. You watch a scene like this play out and you almost wish the story arc wouldn't end so we could get more like it. The actors bounce their lines off one another so fluently and the tone between them is so bizarrely familiar, you wish every episode could have scenes like this: snappy verbal sparring between two complex characters, villains trying to be heroic, ordinary people being extraordinary without abilities; this is what makes the show great.

Tracy visits the Dawson Superhome. She finds Niki's surprisingly uncharred body in a casket and meets Micah. Micah follows the Season Three Honest & Forthright Trend and skips to asking Tracy about her ability and telling her about his and Niki's abilities. Which moves the plot along, but also somehow makes Micah even more adorable when you remember he's grieving and an orphan and still trying to help a stranger -- mostly because she looks like his mom, but probably also because he encapsulates what it is to be a hero.

Micah technopaths his way through the web and establishes that Niki and Tracy were born at the same hospital on the same day and with the same doctor. And, again, even though you know this scene is basically just functional -- "Tracy finds her double and learns who can give her answers" -- Micah's bond with Tracy is so poignant that you realize what this show lacks because of the character's absence.

Heartbreaking. And after a scene as moving as this, I defy the show to justify why Micah and Monica were written out while a glorified big kid like Hiro gets to stay.

Um Mitternacht im Kino! We learn that Mrs. Sendhil Ramamurthy is a Company Agent, which is all kinds of awesome. The Haitian meets her behind the movie screen and spends about fifty billion years scrutinizing Angela's half of The Formula, either because he doesn't trust Agent Ramamurthy, or because he has a photographic memory and knows he'll need to reproduce the document after it inevitably gets stolen. Either way, the Haitian finally verifies its authenticity and starts to exit the theater. But he didn't finish watching the movie!

Then:

... the show's ability to surprise us is redefined. Future-Peter being the shooter? Tracy being an ice queen? Angela being Sylar's mom? They all pale in comparison: ANDO'S PLAN TO PWN THE HAITIAN WORKS!

To recap, Daphne's adjusting Hiro's glasses, the Haitian's supplying general charisma, and Ando's doing the thinking for Hiro. And ... for some reason Hiro's still the center of this story thread.

A lot of useless yammering between Hiro and Ando ensues. Daphne finally snatches The Formula and zips away before Hiro can teleport after her. The Haitian has regained consciousness and is mightily peeved. The popcorn is funny, but after an episode that reminds us how tired the Hiro slapstick farce has become, it's also a little sad.

Heist of the Villainous Three. Knox interrogates Peter-in-Weevil while Flint administers obligatory punches to the gut. Noah is brought in and strapped to a chair.

Knox: "You took away my life!"

Noah: "You're a criminal, Knox."

I love how Coleman delivers that with the same I'm-just-a-paper-salesman tone he used with Matt and RadioTed back in "Company Man." It says a lot about the way Noah communicates with a super who wants revenge on him, but also reminds us how calm he can be in a crisis situation. Great consistency in Coleman's performance.

Peter-in-Weevil insists that "NO ONE DIES TODAY!" and lets out the EchoSoundWave ... which looks a lot less impressive than Echo's did. It's understandable given the budget concerns which Beeman mentions in his blog this week, but also a little mystifying given that the webisodes are made with a fraction of the show's budget. Maybe time constraints factor into it, but where Echo's ability was an elegantly-conceived, progressive ripple, this is a blur with papers getting blown about.

Peter-in-Weevil KO's Flint with the first wave and is in the process of unleashing another less-than-stellar EchoSoundWave on Knox when Future-Peter shows up and freezes time. I wonder if he found out about the heist by watching the news the way Noah did. It doesn't seem like he absorbed Molly's ability at Superhero Square back in the Season One finale, although I can't see why he wouldn't if he got D.L.'s phasing ability. But then, Future-Peter using the SuperGPS to find Present-Peter is like trying to find himself on a map, which would probably confuse the hell out of the ability until it said, "Hey, quit screwing around with me! I'm for finding other people, not yourself, you idiot! I'm ashamed to be one of your abilities! Unabsorb me RIGHT NOW!"

Future-Peter surveys the scene and gives Knox a loooooong and meeeeeeaningful glare. This tells us there's An Important Backstory for these two. [Note to editors: this was achieved WITHOUT a deafening Shenkar wail.] Future-Peter then pushes Present-Peter out of Weevil. Which, like the EchoSoundWave, could have looked better, but it's veiled in the awesomeness that is two Peters meeting while time is frozen and bickering about what's wrong with the world.

The two Peters teleport away from the bank, leaving poor Noah to fend for himself against Knox and Flint AND Weevil. Thanks a lot, Peters! That's the last time Noah does either of you any favors. You could have at least tied the villains up and locked them in the safe.

Knox is about to pummel Noah when Sylar shows up. Knox gets TK'd to a standstill, Weevil gets the TK Choke, and Flint gets shot by Noah. And on the one hand that sucks because these guys were supposed to be about 10 times more villainous than Sylar, so neutralizing two of them while Noah gets a clear shot at the third is a little disappointing; but at the same time this scene is such a vindication of Angela's belief in Sylar and it's such a thrill to see the look of surprise in Sylar's own expression when he realizes he's doing a good job. In the end, plot points be damned. When you see that knowing half-smile between Sylar and Noah, you don't care if it makes sense or not. It's too much fun to care.

Meanwhile, somewhere near Canine Central, Meredith persuades Claire to step into a cargo container with her.

Cool effect, and if the scene itself weren't so disturbing I'd be relishing the prospect of reviewing a scene in which two gorgeous blondes get hot and sweaty in a container. The jokes end there, though, because Meredith going pyrokinetic on Claire until she thinks she's suffocating is both brilliant and seriously messed up.

The flashbacks to Claire getting scalped at the house help to bring the horror to life, but they're also relevant to establishing why this scene is effectively a continuation of the scene at the house. If Claire's trauma from that experience is what causes her to become so angry, these two scenes set up the character's arc for the rest of the volume -- and, in all likelihood, the rest of the series. As a way to establish the psychological damage done to Claire, this is about as intense and unnerving a way to do it as the show could have come up with. I'm not sure if it's ironic that the money-grabbing, manipulative bio-mom is the one to force Claire to confront her anger and admit that her core motive is vengeance; but the fact that the super who Noah assigned to protect Claire is the one who convinces her that her old life is over seems laden with irony, particularly when Noah's half of the duo who caused the fire that brought Claire into his care, and particularly when it's his career in The Company that put Claire in danger in the first place.

Each episode this season has had at least one outstanding scene for Claire: the scalping at the house, standing in front of the train, now being tricked into thinking she's suffocating and admitting her goal isn't as altruistic as she claimed. What's remarkable is how believably each scene sets up the character we met at the start of the premiere, and how easily that lets us buy into Claire's darkness in the future. It's also remarkable for the way it sets up Claire's agenda to be the same as Knox's: a victim driven to revenge on the person who made them feel helpless.

The scene continues at Canine Central, where Meredith apologizes to Claire but tells her she "did it for [Claire's] own good."

... Which Claire doesn't seem to agree with, and which I'm not sure I agree with either. If there's a flaw in this storyline, it's in something that's overlooked rather than flatout nonsensical. I can buy into Meredith's love for Claire, but I think the episode needed to develop Meredith's motives for fireboarding Claire: did Meredith want Claire to confront her sense of helplessness or her anger? Was Meredith trying to placate Claire's sense of violation or harness it? Was the idea for Claire to accept what happened and return to a normal life (as she says in this scene), or was it to spur Claire on to act on her need for revenge? I struggled to get a handle on the way this storyline was resolved because it was left so open-ended. Meredith was portrayed as shrewd and smart and perceptive in this episode, so the idea that Claire would deal and move on once she'd been forced to confront her rage seems oddly naive. The look on Claire's face throughout this scene -- even when she's smiling -- telegraphs the can of worms that the scene in the container opened, and it's strange that Meredith -- for all her shrewdness and intelligence and perception -- wouldn't realize that.

It's also strange that Meredith would fall for the cheerleader-sleepover-retreat story, but that's just plain Dumb As Award material.

Point being, I hope the show expands on Meredith's motives for the scene at the cargo container. To say it was for Claire's "own good" doesn't go far enough, not when the experience obviously screwed Claire up even more. Meredith zeroes in on Claire's sense of entrapment when she's in the container, and she points out that Sandra "smothering" her will only make Claire push back even harder, but I don't think the show expanded enough on Meredith's aim when it came to confronting Claire's sense of entrapment and claustrophobia. Which, in an episode with the Deafening Shenkar Wail, is both surprising and strangely delightful, because it leaves you wondering what to think instead of having the Correct Conclusion smashed over your head.

The Heist of the Villainous Four concludes ... without an actual heist. And without any of the original four who enacted it. This is because one of them got super-suckerpunched, one of them gets shot and taken back to his Basement cell, one of them escapes, and one of them, as we now learn ...

... gets a bloody nose? Or a bleeding lip? Maybe? Come on, show, you didn't need to kill 'em all this fast.

Bye-bye, Weevil. We wish you'd had more to do on the show besides playing Milo's reflection.

We draw to a close. Tracy visits Reseda to track down Dr. Zimmerman, who unfortunately is not played by Robert Picardo, although it would have been such an awesome Star Trek shout-out if he was. Zimmerman mistakes Tracy for "Barbara," although it could also have been "Barbra," which would explain a LOT. Perhaps in line with references to the way Linderman "arranged" Micah's birth in Season One, we learn that Tracy is the one from Beverly Hills -- one of several who was "created." Dun-dun-DUN!

Aw! You know you should ask what a copy of 9th Wonders is doing in Africa, or at least in Chatsworth, but as with so many delightful touches in this episode, it's difficult to care.

Matt eats berries, listens to Britney, and ...

... gets the Isaac clairvoyance? Are they kidding us with this stuff?

Oh, hell, we had Andrew Hanson and Claire getting fireboarded. I don't care what they come up with anymore.

V.O. Mohinder monologues about our search for self, for answers and for purpose. Nathan turns to the Bible. Claire takes the Rogue with a stack of Noah's Primatech folders and disappears, and Angela puts Sylar back in his cell, although she's not looking disappointed with him so much as optimistic. Who can blame her; Sylar saved her from having to sacrifice another Company employee.

And Hiro and Ando are Sylar's cellmates on Level 5, which undermines the villainy of the Level 5 inmates quite considerably, but also lacks suspense because you know that any guard posted there will let Hiro out the moment he threatens to recount his storyline from Season Two.

Or even his storyline from this season so far.

I'm docking points for the Hiro slapstick. Otherwise, close to perfect. A near-flawless script, some superb thematic work, and some wonderful and surprising comedy.

4.5 out of 5

Review:

It's not like they fixed everything, but this episode was a significant step up from the premiere when it came to consistent character behavior, coherent storylines and development of the volume's predominant theme.

We start out with a great scene but preface it with a device that generally sets alarm bells ringing in viewers' heads: the soft, melancholy piano. This will be Searingly Beautiful Television, it tells us. What raw and cathartic anguish awaits us? What new heights of emotional resonance will it scale?

Sandra sweeps glass from the floor at Canine Central while Claire sits in the shadows and resembles an inanimate object. You wouldn't immediately think of that as a dramatic achievement, but when you realize that most of Hayden's acting on the show involves some kind of movement or animation on her part, acting like a statue becomes a performance in itself.

The other part of the scene that plays so well is Ashley Crow's restraint as the distraught mother: Sandra says how angry she is, but we don't see her shouting or sobbing or looking like she's about to start pounding her fists on the table; which is the perfect way to play it, because bottling up what everyone's feeling somehow conveys the family's sense of violation much more intensely than over-the-top hysteria would.

Leather-clad Future-Claire shooting Future-Peter was good. Two great actresses doing their thing and opening an episode with material as disturbing as this? It's unbelievable. It's not like the show should start with the aftermath of pseudo-rape every week, but a hard-hitting scene like this encapsulates everything that made this episode good: strong acting, well-written and well-delivered dialogue, and the ramifications of what these characters are going through.

In the context of the show's backstory, you also have to wonder whether Sandra even realizes how much she empathizes with Claire and how this conversation would have gone if Sandra hadn't been Haitian-whammied after the last time Sylar came into their home.

Claire cuts herself on a shard of glass and doesn't feel a thing. Again, the brilliance is in the detail: subtle acting from Hayden when she conveys her dismay at not feeling pain, and from Ashley when Sandra winces at the wound; it could be a maternal instinct, it could just be that the sight of the blood makes her want to puke, but either way it's a world apart from Sandra watching Claire plunge her hand into a pot of boiling water and West pinching Claire's ear to see if it hurts. This sets up Claire's sense of isolation from humanity so much more effectively than contemplating whether or not to cut off her toe.

Meanwhile ...

Angela has a prophetic dream. Which is the same one she had in the half of Season Two we never got to see, but it looks so great and it's so deliciously creepy that I'm thrilled the show worked it into the new season.

Hiro gets stabbed with his own sword, Matt gets his throat slit, Noah gets shot, Peter's stomach gets ripped open and Claire gets beheaded. I wonder if Sylar would be so confident about the instaheal ability after seeing that last one.

But he does! Sort of. He shows up in the dream to place his hands on Angela's shoulders, and is anyone else totally flashing back to every time Angela ever did that exact same thing with Peter and Nathan? It's the kind of nuance that gets buried beneath the rest of the awesomeness in this sequence, but looking back, you can see how the show worked in details like this to build up to the Sylar/Angela reveal.

It's already been shot down in interviews, but the resemblance is uncanny. I could easily buy the hint in the graphic novels that these two were related.

You have to wonder how reusing this footage changes the original idea behind it. Chances are this was supposed to be Jessica instead of Tracy. Or maybe the plan was to bring in a new personality all along and Tracy really will turn into a badass during this volume. I hope so because Ali Larter's proven how good she is at playing evil, but the flipside is that you have to feel bad for an actress who's essentially grappling with her fourth character on the show and now possibly having to turn her slightly-sleazy political advisor into an out-and-out villain. Ali Larter must be looking at every actor on the set with irrepressible envy for the way they can build their characters' voices and mannerisms over the seasons.

As with the Adam/Tracy shot, great way to put a new villain side-by-side with an ElderSuper and integrate the new villains with the previous ones. It's intriguing that Knox is the only one of the escaped Level 5 inmates in this dream. It could be that the other convicts will be caught or killed before they become precog-dream-worthy, or that Knox is by far the most vicious of the lot. If you're cynical, the reason that Weevil, Flint and The German aren't here is probably because the show hadn't conceived or cast them when they shot this sequence.

Angela wakes up from her dream and goes straight to the Apartment of Hospice Luxury to blame Future-Peter, who's not bothering with the Present-Peter visage while he's tying strings around the apartment the way Future-Hiro did.

As with their scene in the previous episode, the actors exude the characters' hostility. Angela is courteous enough to knock at the door before she comes in, but the glare she gives Future-Peter as she steps through the door is priceless.

Future-Peter: "There are things I know. Things you can't see, MOTHER. [Perfect condescension.] I've seen what you become. [Raised eyebrows that speak volumes.] I've seen what you do."

What she does? In the future? I have my own theory, but I wonder what he meant by that.

Future-Peter acts like he doesn't care whether three million people die as long as it's no one he knows and cares about. Angela pounces on this and brings up the subject of someone he does know and care about -- "someone like C-..."

C-?

C-C-C-?

^ ^ Currently suffering existential oblivion in a nonexistent alternate future!

You could poke holes into the plot and ask how Angela knew Claire had been scalped when she hadn't yet taken the reins on the Company and didn't apparently have anyone watching the house. I guess she could have dreamed it, but that'd be dreaming that the granddaughter she claimed to care about was getting her head ripped open, and I have a hard time believing even Angela could foresee something like that without trying to intervene.

All of that said, this brings up a nifty twist to Future-Peter telling Claire to stay in Costa Verde instead of coming to Odessa to transfuse Nathan; presumably if she'd packed her bags and left the house sooner she would've been long gone by the time Sylar got there, Sylar wouldn't have gotten her ability, the Company agents would have tasered and captured him without any problems, and history would have unfolded the way it originally did. So Future-Peter screwed up history just by telling Claire to stay at home.

Oh, no. It's that time of the episode, folks. Be brave. Here we go.

Maya visits the Apartment of Clairvoyance. Notice how the camera's focus starts with her chest area. Not a big deal, just saying. There's also some discussion to be had about Maya's expanding wardrobe; is she buying these vibrant orange tops and designer capri pants a couple of days after her brother died, or does Chandra's Crib just happen to have these items stashed in the closet for special occasions? Matthinder shippers and fanfic writers, you know you want to go there.

"Dr. Suresh?" Aw. I choose to believe it's a sign of admiration and respect rather than a hint that Maya enjoys "playing doctor."

You want to be happy for the actor. I can't remember many occasions when Sendhil got to do stunts, or even smile on this show, even if he's only smiling here because he's deranged. There's almost as much to be praised about Sendhil's performance as there is about Milo's: the overt confidence, the arrogant swagger, the nervous excitement. You look back on the way Mohinder's story thread dragged throughout so much of the first season and you want this storyline to make sense. You wish it could have been developed over a few more episodes so that there could be a solid rationale behind the character turning into this.

We learn that Mohinder has increased strength, agility and energy. And that he can work a Spider-Man wall-scaling sequence on a TV budget. And that Sendhil's been working out over the summer until his six-pack's ready to compete with Milo's. It's largely to Dania's credit that Maya gets through almost all of this scene maintaining eye contact with Mohinder.

Mohinder reassures Maya that it's only a matter of time before he figures out how to reverse abilities as well as create them, which is sort of sad because -- coupled with Sylar's promise to help Maya find Chandra -- the implication is that Maya will (per Maya Character Facet #4) fall into the arms of anyone who says he can help her.

Aaaaand here we are! The hands! The hair-stroking! The earlobe-fondling! The tearing off of the vibrant orange top! The rampant making out on a work surface! It's time for "Dr. Suresh" to finally "help" Maya with a thorough "examination"!

We return from the opening sequence to Matt in the desert.

^ ^ Pretty!

Besides that, there really isn't much to comment on in this story thread, so we're going to get it out of the way right now: Matt walks and walks and walks and walks and walks, and it's hot, oh it's hot, it's unbearably hot, and Matt's thirsty, so thirsty, he's so thirsty and hot, he can't go on, and, ooh, vulture! And eventually he collapses. That was riveting. Then Matt wakes up and a turtle tells him to use the root of a plant for water, which is funny, but then we realize it's not the turtle talking but in fact the awesome Ntware Mwine, who's totally wasted in this episode because first he's forced to plug Sprint and then he's forced to ask Matt whether he knows Britney Spears, which either says that a guy's pop culture knowledge in an African desert is 10 years behind, or that Kring's knowledge of pop culture is 10 years behind, which isn't really the point of the scene, but, anyway, the important thing we learn --

-- FINALLY! --

-- Is that Ntware's character Usutu knows Matt's name and has Isaac's ability to paint clairvoyant images. And that Matt isn't supposed to be in the desert. Which, duh.

Meanwhile, near Canine Central, Sylar's merrily strolling through the suburbs with his little red folder, the sun is shining, and a cheerful guitar strums over the soundtrack.

"No, no, no, you idiots! It's all wrong! I want something meaningful! Something with contextual relevance and theatrical impact! I WANT BROADWAY!"

We never get to know the characters on the screen, but it's a subtle nod to the graphic novels that we find out how this encounter with Sylar derails the life that Gael and Bianca would have had if they hadn't been killed here.

It's not like he would have come quietly, but to be fair, he is putting his hands up like they asked him to, he is backing off as they approach, and he doesn't get much of a chance to follow their instructions and get on the ground before they start plowing taser probes into him.

Between the cheerful guitar music and the perspective from the camera in the car, this whole scene was played for laughs. The goal in the previous episode was to make us hate Sylar as much as possible, and it seemed like that was still the goal at the start of this episode. This sketch is funny, but I can't help wondering whether it would have been more effective as a serious scene, one where we knew Sylar was destroying two people's lives and ensuring they'd never get a chance to raise a family and grow old together. There wasn't an obvious way to do that because we weren't introduced to these Company agents on the show and a couple of lines of dialogue weren't going to make us care much about them. But if the show wanted to vilify Sylar, showing how he destroys two people's future together would have been as effective an approach as any.

Welcome back, Midas Bob!

Welcome back, Ellectro-Entity!

Bob blames Elle for letting Sylar escape with the Mohindaire Cocktail and taunts her with recollections of emotional neediness after Mama Bishop died. This screams for explanatory flashbacks, but it also underlines how far the character has come from the Slusho-slurping sex kitten last season, and how psychologically complex the show has managed to make its Company cautionary tale.

Yamagato Empire. Hiro hires "discrete" [sic] private detectives to scour the scene and find Daphne's fingerprints, and we learn that Hiro has trust issues after witnessing Darth Ando work the Force Lightning on Future-Hiro. The "discrete" detectives identify the thief and her address, and Hiro and Ando teleport to Speedy Maison, where ... Oh, God, they actually stuck a CG Eiffel Tower in the background? Oh, show. Why stop there? Why not have some poor extra cycle past the window with a beret on his head and a baguette and a bottle of wine under his arm?

We cut to Boxleitner HQ, where Malden seems to have changed his mind about Nathan being his guy. The about-turn isn't as bad as some of the character's dialogue (among the most painful auditory inflictions, I kid you not: "God and politics -- risky bedfellows!"), but it's the first real glimpse we get of Tracy and the way Ali Larter's playing her. The whining and helplessness are gone, the dangly earrings are gone, and, perhaps sadly, so are the limb-ripping and nightstick-snapping. Instead, there's a no-nonsense briskness to this personality's stride and an impatient forcefulness to her mannerisms. And ...

... She's blatantly manipulating Malden with the batting eyelids and mischievous smile and irresistible charm.

All of which are to Ali's credit. I don't think the twinkle in Tracy's eyes is entirely the character: Ali genuinely seems to be relishing the chance to step into a new role, and a lot of that translates to the subtlety of the performance.

William Katt gets his cameo as the Greatest American Hero to ever end up as a slimy reporter. It's an awfully brief role which I wish could have been longer, but it does afford the show some continuity with the lasvegasniki.com storyline, and it does give Tracy the chance to threaten Katt with, "You run this story and I will hunt your ass down and destroy you." Which makes me go from merely liking the character to adoring her.

Costa Verde Beachfront. Claire restarts the Jackass Mutilation Tape and we witness Attempt #7:

It brings back everything that was great about Claire's character arc in the first season -- her confusion and despair -- but also ignores everything that was bad about her arc -- the selfishness and the bratty rebellious streak.

Beeman wonders on his blog what people thought of the effects sequence. One word: wow. Beautifully shot, to the point where I would never have guessed that the Peter portion was digital; the grainy quality of the camera helps, but the entire sequence as Peter flies in and pulls Claire from the track is so smooth that you can't tell where the stunt ends and the CG begins.

Also, one of the best snippets of dialogue of the night:

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? Trying to get hit by a train!"

We have an emotional moment between uncle and niece ...

... Which I don't want to ruin.

Paire shippers, rejoice!

Claire bemoans the way she can't defend herself and the way she's "just a victim." In Claire's defense, she did thwack and knife Sylar until he nearly bled to death.

Then Claire wins a

*PING!*

Dumb As Award for asking Peter to "teach" her to fight Sylar.

"What should I do, Peter?"

"Well, this ... is the TK Maneuver. And this ... is the Ellectrobolt. And this ... is the Supersmash. And this ... is the Levitation Slam. And this ... is the Nuclear Overload."

"Oh. I don't know if I can do any of those things."

Tracy visits Nathan at the hospital and gives millions of adoring fans the chance to see a cheeky Pasdar grin. As with Sendhil, it's such a rarity on the show that you want to smile with it. Then Nathan recalls the "pretty good time" he had with Niki and sees the blank expression from Tracy, and Adrian captures Nathan's disappointment so perfectly: his words sputter to a halt and you can't help laughing because he's so pitiful, but you also laugh because you know this personality won't be able to resist Nathan any more than the other two could.

Then Tracy takes a step forward to introduce herself, and the way this is shot ...

... is just phenomenal. It's beautiful on a surface level, purely because the way the light and the shade play across Ali's face is so photogenic. But when you think of the symbolism behind it, with the whole split-personality backstory and the hero/villain dichotomy between Niki and Jessica, you have to applaud. I don't know if that's Beeman or Goodman or Lieberman's magic, but whoever came up with that deserves a bouquet.

At the Midas Study ... THERE'S A CELLO SIGHTING! And then ... Damn, it's bye-bye to Midas Bob.

I'll let slide that Sylar went from West Coast to East Coast in, like, less than an hour. I'll even let slide that he found the Company facility so easily, because the first explanation that springs to mind is that these idiots were dumb enough to print Noah's Badass Villain profiles on company-headed paper and led Sylar straight to the address.

But Bob? Ned Ryerson? That's almost as unforgivable as killing off Papa Sulu! Midas Bob, who flew around the world to recruit Mohinder and reached out to Niki and loaned Monica an iPod.

Farewell, Bob! Your scenes were a pleasure to review!

Elle looks like she's somewhere between choking and gasping on the sight of her dad in the chair. Kudos to Kristen for the way she played this, because it was the first scene since the one where she gave her mini-bio to Peter to convey how completely the actress has gotten under the character's skin. The way she plays it, it looks like she's not just grieving -- she's grappling with grief itself. I'd love to see a flashback that embellishes that, because we don't know if Elle's ever really cared about anyone besides her parents, so we don't know if she even realizes what she's supposed to feel when she finds her father dead.

Elle goes down to The Basement and immediately releases Noah. Sylar shows up to TK Elle to the ground. It's telling that he lets Noah shoot him repeatedly instead of TK'ing the bullets in mid-air or the gun out of Noah's hands to begin with. It could be that he wanted to test Claire's ability with bullets, but more likely he just wanted to demonstrate Claire's ability to get a reaction out of Noah, which is further evidence that he likes to mess with the Bennets' heads before he tries to trap or kill them.

Was there any chance that Sylar was going to scalp Elle? The tension and suspense are built effectively enough that -- at least for a moment -- you wonder. It's hard to believe the Sylar piano theme would be playing if this wasn't a triumphant moment for the villain, or that the writers would have Peter-in-Weevil going as berserk as he is in his cell -- beating the windows and bellowing at Sylar -- if something seriously bad wasn't about to happen. But then, that's the idea.

Elle goes Uber-Ellectric, Sylar gets KO'd, and the doors in The Basement all open. The out-of-it perspective as Elle regains consciousness was an interesting choice by Beeman; it works because we're left feeling as powerless as she is, and the whole "less-is-more" horror approach plays into these villains seeming scarier. It's a little disappointing that we don't know who breaks out: we get a glimpse of Weevil and Knox and The German, and a blurry image of the one who's going to turn out to be Eric Doyle, but I wish we'd at least gotten a look at the rest of the villains who are going to cause that "unimaginable destruction."

Here's where the tone of the episode backfires. Comic relief is great, and balancing out an episode as intense as this with a few jokes works in theory, but when you go from Elle's short-circuit and the worst of the superpowered population on the loose to this:

... You know something's gone wrong. The transition from a scene as involving as the previous one to a scene as lighthearted as this one falls flat. It's great that Hiro admits why he's so mistrustful towards Ando, but it's impossible to get lost in the narrative because you're so much more invested in the characters from the previous scene. You know you should care what happens in Daphne's apartment because The Formula needs to be retrieved, but you don't, not when it's peppered with Catwoman jokes and humor about gold bars and medallions; all you want is for the scene to be over so that you can find out what happened to Elle and Noah and Sylar and Peter-in-Weevil.

We cut to Nathan at the hospital. Nathan tells Peter that he's been offered a position as a senator. Peter congratulates Nathan with a bordering-on-deadpan "That's incredible." I'd love to know how it all went down in Future-Peter's original timeline: whether Nathan went public about his abilities and still got the job, and whether Peter's totally unenthused because it's the start of Nathan orchestrating the mass superhero culling; or whether it's just that Peter really doesn't give a crap about Nathan's political career because something else is going to happen to make any decision Nathan makes now a moot point. Or maybe Future-Peter just doesn't give a crap about politics.

Like Hiro with Ando, Future-Peter comes clean with Nathan by revealing the scarred Future-visage and admitting he's the one who shot Nathan. Milo and Adrian deliver stellar performances, but what works in this scene is the way the whole timeline-altering end-of-the-world issue is second to the betrayal issue. The focus isn't the damage Future-Peter causes to history or the impact Nathan's speech has on the superpowered population; it's Future-Peter's guilt over lying and trying to kill his brother, and it's Nathan's willingness to forgive that because Peter -- no matter which timeline he's from -- is still his brother. It's the family conflict at the center of the drama that makes the story so compelling.

Nathan calls Tracy to accept her offer, Katt shows up next to Tracy's car with footage of Nathan and Jessica at the Corinthian, and then:

There's a new Ice Queen in town!

Peter swooping in to save Claire from a train? ... was good. Elle going Ellectric in The Basement? ... was great. Tracy going cryokinetic on the Greatest American Hero? Now THAT? ... is awesome.

It feels like less of an homage to Terminator than an appropriation, but it's so cool that it almost makes it OK.

We return to The Basement and learn that they've pretty much got the place back under control. Which is kind of a shame because I would have wanted to see what happened as the inmates left the building and moved onto the streets, at least more than I would have wanted to see Ando picking up gold and Hiro reading the inscription on a medallion.

Angela visits The Basement before Elle has a chance to test the brain matter/wood chipper theory on Sylar. It suddenly occurs to me that Angela might not even know how her son was locked up in this building for months after exploding over New York. Probably another detail from Season Two we're supposed to forget, but I wonder if that would make Angela more or less ticked off with Bob and Elle right about now.

Angela: "With your father's death, the chain of command falls to me."

Bob outranked Angela? I always figured the Petrellis were second only to Linderman and that Angela just didn't care about day-to-day operations within The Company. Apparently Angela was closer to Papa Deveaux and Papa Sulu's level, which still seems to be higher than Maury or Victoria and the rest of the Lesser ElderSupers but nevertheless comes as a surprise. I don't care if they've shelved every other idea from Season Two -- that "1977" episode needs to happen!

Elle: "I ... we ... caught Sylar."

Again, great delivery by Kristen. You wonder why Elle paused to rephrase it, but it's delivered so naturally that you buy Elle's insecurity.

Angela: "Good for you!"

Hilarious at the same time as infuriating. You hate Angela for being so insensitive, but even more so for treating Elle like a child.

Was Elle doing such a shoddy job as a Company agent? She struck me as a little reckless when it came to Ellectrocuting an Irish pub owner, and she failed to zap the guy who's about to be revealed as Angela's son, but to only have stayed because Midas Bob was sticking his neck out for her? That's harsh. She doesn't seem any more incompetent than the other agents we've seen -- on the show and in the graphic novels -- so I'm going to go with the theory that Angela had a prophetic dream on her way to The Basement and realized she needs to release Elle in order to fix what's happened. It's also the only way I can reconcile Angela releasing an unstable Company agent into the world when she's likely to blab the truth to the first person who listens and Ellectrocute the first person who looks at her the wrong way. I would have expected The Company to have a firm procedure in place for agents who want to return to a normal life. It probably involves killing them.

With the central drama resolved, we return to Speedy Maison. Daphne shows up and looks mightily p**sed about Hiro holding her medallion. Hiro teleports around the room, Daphne reveals that The Formula's behind the Mona Lisa, thereby awarding Ando a

*PING!*

Dumb As Award for not looking around the apartment thoroughly enough. The outcome is that Daphne runs off with The Formula.

So, at the end of this episode, how has the Hiro story moved beyond where it began? Hiro started out looking for Daphne because she had The Formula, and he's still looking. He found her because the detectives got him an address, and now he can find her because he's attached a tracking device to the medallion. Which is nice and all, but does anyone get the sense that this story thread is lacking momentum? Daphne's an entertaining character, but she needs more to do than chasing Hiro around an apartment for a medallion.

Mohinder wakes up in the Apartment of Clairvoyance and discovers that -- dun-dub-DUN! -- he's becoming ...

... part of an appropriation of The Fly! Now all we need is for Maya to blow his brains out. Don't do it, Heroes!

Noah returns to Canine Central. I can't figure out if we miss the tearful reunion because Noah's so busy gathering his files, or because everyone's so freaked out from that last time Noah came home that he's not even going to ask if anyone's happy to see him.

Claire randomly comes down the stairs and there's an Aww! moment. Noah cryptically tells Claire that "something" has happened, which immediately sets alarm bells ringing after a season of Bennet Secrets & Lies. To everyone's amazement, Noah follows suit with Hiro and Future-Peter and reveals everything about the Basement Cons and their abilities. We learn that Knox has the ability to absorb fear and convert it to strength, that Flint is a blue-flame firestarter, that The German is Magneto, and that Weevil ... is really named Jesse, but that he's also apparently so bad that Noah doesn't want to tell us about him. His profile says "Sound Manipulation," which may or may not be Echo's ability from the webisodes. Again, the show seems to be very cagey about revealing these characters; I hope we find out at least a little about them before the volume's over.

Claire begs Noah to let her be proactive and courageous and idealistic and help bring the Basement Cons in. Which brings her a step closer to becoming Elle, but also leads to a shock when it turns out that Noah and Sandra are happy to leave Claire under the protection of ...

... Mommy Firestarter?! Which, yay, but also huh?, because this skipped over a whole bunch of questions that really need to be answered. As far as we know Noah didn't even know Meredith was alive, so how he found her or contacted her is anyone's guess. It seems like next week's episode goes into a lot more detail about the vibe between Meredith and Sandra, which is a relief because you wonder how Sandra could be OK with Claire's biological mom dropping in and undermining her. You also have to wonder how Noah settled on Meredith as the model protector for Claire instead of the Haitian. Not a plot hole by any means, but definitely a development in the story that brings up a lot of questions.

Future-Peter shows up at The Basement, presumably with the intent to remerge Present-Peter's consciousness with Present-Peter's body and be all, "Hey, Past Self, it's me! Well, shucks, I screwed up history by making Sylar invincible, but hey, no one found out! And I saved Claire from getting hit by a train! And I decorated your apartment with string! It wasn't a total waste of a trip! Laters!"

I couldn't help wondering how much Future-Peter knows about the bond between Angela and Sylar. When he says "Sylar" here, it's not clear whether it's an exclamation along the lines of "My mortal enemy!" or whether it's more "My brother!"

Angela doesn't care one way or another, she's just appalled that Future-Peter chose Weevil as a vessel for Present-Peter's consciousness. Which I'm not sure I agree with, because Francis Capra's an ideal choice to portray Peter as bewildered and anguished and desperate to warn his family about the impostor posing as him. Only problem is he doesn't get much of an opportunity to do that. The moments at the gas station with Weevil's reflection show that the actor's obviously capable of playing Peter, but for whatever reason all we see of the person inhabited by Peter's consciousness is Peter. It's not necessarily a bad move to show us Peter when everyone else sees Weevil, but it would be nice if Francis Capra got a chance to play more than a reflection.

Peter finds himself not quite himself, then gets mixed up with a group of morally questionable associates involved in morally questionable activities. Recycled plot device? Pretty much, although this one does come across as a lot more compelling than the last one.

Flint torches some random woman at the gas station and The German beats the living daylights out of some random car driver. And Peter ... just watches this happen? I guess he could be so confused about the bodyswap that he's too disoriented to intervene, but he was coherent enough to phone Nathan so it's not like he's completely zoned out. Maybe he figured it was too late to save the burned-to-a-crisp lady or that he wasn't strong enough to take on three superpowered cons at the same time. Or Peter's just an idiot who couldn't make up his mind what to do. You decide. Whichever explanation is correct, I thought it was puzzling.

And so we come to The Big Reveal. Angela steps into Sylar's cell, accompanied with solemn choral music that tells us something gothically chilling and momentous is about to take place. Angela loosens Sylar's restraints and assures Sylar she can give him "what all boys crave from their mothers." Which isn't really an admission, but Angela's eyes here?

There's a concern and sincerity in that expression that goes beyond metaphorical maternity. There's warmth in that look, which is so unusual from a character like Angela that if there's a caveat to undo what Angela says, it's going to feel less like the show played us and more like it misled us.

"My name is Sylar, and you are not my mother."

"Oh, but I am, dear. I am."

^ ^ On-screen reaction imitating our reaction?

You can hear the collective THUD! of jaws hitting the floor across the nation. It's not the story that shocks us, it's the fact that the show was willing to stoop low enough to go there at all. I predicted that Peter and Sylar were brothers back in "Parasite," but the catch is I WAS BEING SARCASTIC. I didn't think they'd actually resort to soap-opera tactics in order to keep the principal villain relevant.

Is there a catch? I hope so. I hope it turns out there's a DNA-splicing test-tube twist that culminates in a mass Parkman-and-Haitian-Whammy-induced conspiracy in which no one ever had a clue that Sylar was related to Peter and Nathan. Because that would suck, but it would be less desperate a maneuver than making Sylar a Petrelli and a brother to Peter and Nathan.

I'm not counting this against the episode. It's lifted right out of daytime soaps, but I'm putting faith in the show that when they say "Nothing's what it seems" they really mean it.

Besides the slow pace of the Hiro and Matt threads, this episode had almost nothing working against it and almost everything working for it. My complaints are mostly about what we didn't see, and in most cases the weaker parts we did see are only weak because they're starting out slowly. This episode continued the thematic work that the premiere began, it showcased some terrific performances from Milo, Kristen and Cristine, and it recaptured the emotional resonance that made the first season so compelling. It made us care about the characters and their predicaments, and it made us want to see where the story goes next.

4 out of 5

Review:

We're back, folks! Welcome to a third season of Heroes and a third season of episode reviews from HeroSite.

Previously on Heroes: a whole bunch of ordinary (but genetically blessed) individuals discovered they had extraordinary abilities. New York nearly exploded, a virus nearly wiped out all of mankind, and lots and lots of family drama ensued.

That's pretty much the past two seasons, although in the interests of clueing in new viewers and everyone that forgot who had which power and who was related to who, NBC kindly provides us with a one-hour Countdown Special before the two-hour premiere. In this, we learn that the upcoming volume is titled "Heroes: Villains," which is not to be confused with Heroes and Villains, although you can imagine the way video store owners are milking that confusion for all it's worth. And it would be kind of funny if everyone on this show had historical code names. Sylar could be Napoleon, Peter could be Spartacus, Claire could be Attila the Hun ...

Anyway, the Countdown's all about letting us know that this season's supposed to be pretty good. If the first two episodes are any indication, there's reason to be cautiously optimistic. The best thing you can say about the premiere is that it gets right to the central storylines, it's fast-paced, and it's obviously been well thought out. The worst thing you can say about it is that there's a LOT going on in the first hour (and I shudder to think how it must have looked to new viewers), that certain characters are still getting shafted with either weak or near-nonexistent storylines, and that the show's falling back on a lot of the same plot devices it used in previous seasons. Also, Maya's still around.

A word of caution before we start: for readers outside of the U.S., please be aware that the first two episodes aired back-to-back here and that you'll find references in this review to the following episode. If you haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled, hop off the train until you've checked it out.

That said, on we go.

Future-Peter's running like hell! You can tell it's Future-Peter because of (1) the slicked back hair, and (2) the big-ass scar, which still hasn't been explained, but whatever.

Helpful captions tell us that it's Manhattan, New York, and that it's four years in the future. And I know there's all kinds of discussion to be had about how this future compares with the other future we've seen, but I stopped following the plot round about here:

Sure, the brunette thing's been done, the "black leather = baaaaad person!" thing's kind of overused, and the "hooker look" ... well, yeah, that's valid.

Who cares. She looks GORGEOUS!

Future-Peter finds himself at gunpoint. I'm not sure why this gets him so panicky. Between the instaheal option, turning invisible, letting the bullet phase through him, TK'ing the gun or the bullets across the warehouse or -- as turns out to be the solution of choice -- freezing time and teleporting out of there, it's not like Peter wouldn't have a dozen escape methods.

We learn that this future is similar to the one in "Five Years Gone": superpowered individuals are being hunted and herded and vivisected and forced into hiding. Future-Claire reminds Peter that she's "different" and "SPECIAL," and I kind of have to put that in italicized block capitals because there's just no other way to convey the venom Hayden spits it out with. Great delivery and, in retrospect, great echo of Sylar's words at Canine Central after he scalps her.

"Sorry, Peter. I always loved you."

Oh, come on! That's a niece talking to her uncle? Are you kidding me? I don't care how innocuous those words look on paper. The way she says it? That's no niece talking to her uncle. That's a reason for everyone who ever wanted the show to retcon the Petrelli family tree to celebrate. Paire shippers, rejoice!

Future-Claire shoots, Future-Peter freezes time and the bullet stops in mid-air with a plume of smoke behind it. Very cool. It loses a little of its impact after we've seen Sylar TK a bullet to a standstill, but that's the first of many instances this week of, "It worked in Season One and they're using it again."

Future-Peter removes the gun, teleports away and time restarts.

Am I the only one surprised at the way Future-Peter's flying by the seat of his pants here? It seemed like the shooting last season was planned and timed pretty methodically, but the way it plays out here -- he just happens to find Future-Claire with a gun he can use to shoot Nathan, he just happens to find a hat and a coat at the police station to disguise himself -- he's making it up as he goes along.

But here's the problem with making it up as you go along: you end up winning HeroSite Dumb As Awards!

*PING!*

Chalk one up for Future-Peter for the most extreme and unnecessary solution he could come up with.

Nathan takes two bullets to the chest and Future-Peter returns to the closet where he hides his gun behind a box of GRR ILLA Drum Liners. Inside joke? He then runs with Present-Peter in hot pursuit. As we later learn, this is the moment when Future-Peter morphs into Present-Peter and ... switches Present-Peter's consciousness into Weevil's body and inhabits Present-Peter's body? And, what, Weevil's consciousness is still in Francis Capra's body and just submerged beneath Peter's? Or did Future-Peter teleport Present-Peter's body AND Weevil's consciousness into LimboLand and are they just floating around out there until Future-Peter works this bodyswapping whammy again? That needed a little more explanation.

Nathan's brought into hospital, and at this point ...

... Peter looks like this is eating him up. He pleads for forgiveness in the following episode and it's hard to buy that being devastated over shooting his brother is just an act, but Milo brings a lot of nuance to the scenes when Peter's watching over Nathan -- at the hospital and later at the chapel -- so I think you could argue it both ways. I love how Peter's waiting outside the operating room and almost-but-not-quite rests his hands on the wall before he buries his head in his hands and collapses. It's a carefully layered performance, but I think it's also difficult to know what Peter's thinking when he asks the doctor whether Nathan's "gonna make it." You have to wonder how much he's secretly hoping Nathan won't make it.

Nathan being brought back to life: Ghost Linderman working the Be Healed Whammy? Future-Peter working the Be Healed Whammy after unknowingly absorbing Linderman's ability as a kid? Or just classic Petrelli Brotherly Bonding workings its magic? You decide. Whichever it is, for reasons yet unestablished, Nathan lives. Which, AWESOME! But it also kind of kills any suspense that death has on this show. Unless we follow the off-screen drama and know that the actor got a gig on another show, there's really nothing to keep the writers from bringing anyone back now. If it isn't The Magik Blood, it's the Be Healed Whammy. And if the person working the whammy's dead themselves -- well, there's an unestablished plot device to fix that too. Heroes has beaten Death!

Opening credits. I'm delighted that Cristine Rose is finally a cast regular but dismayed that Dana Davis and Noah Gray-Cabey are nowhere to be seen. Sucks to be Monica and Micah.

Yamagato Empire. Hiro sits in Papa Sulu's office and messes around with the clock. He wants a purpose in life, a chance to prove that he's a hero and a chance to save the world.

So, basically, he's where he was at the start of Season One.

You could take it as a throwback to the pilot. It strikes me as more or less a negation of everything that happened to Hiro over the past two seasons. After what's barely a couple of months in Hiro's life, the implication is that he's ready for new adventures and ready to move past everything that happened. "Everything" being losing the love of his life (the first one), putting a sword through someone (and, for all Hiro knows, killing them), betraying and blowing up his childhood hero, watching his father murdered by his childhood hero, and finally burying his childhood hero alive.

You'd think that Hiro would be a little less cavalier about playing with the clock; I get that it's meant to be funny, but in this kind of context, with this kind of backstory, it comes across as callous, particularly when Hiro's sitting in his dead dad's office. But you'd also think that Hiro would welcome a little normality in his life. The implication after Season Two was that Hiro was ready to go back to his old life. Judging from this scene, that didn't last long. Instead we get him playing with the clock and telling Ando he's bored. Woohoo.

What sounds like a sitar *twang* tells us this is A Scene Intended For Comic Relief. Ando enters the office calling Hiro "sir." We learn that Hiro owns 51% of Yamagato, and that Papa Sulu obviously screwed over sister Kimiko.

OR DID HE?

"Two hundred and fifty million in cash"? They don't say whether it's Japanese Yen or U.S. dollars. If it's Yen, it's barely $2m. (Check it!). Which isn't peanuts, but methinks Kimiko's happily living on a tropical island she bought before Hiro even thought of the inheritance.

Hiro reminds Ando that he "saved the world ... twice." I can't figure out if he means the time he didn't kill Sylar or the time he teleported Adam out of Primatech and left a highly contagious strain of the Shanti Virus about to smash on the ground. Either way, Hiro leaves out the part that involves him inadvertently manufacturing the crises he then has to overcome: chances are Kensei wouldn't have been so p**sed off if Hiro hadn't stuck around in 1671, and chances are Tokyo wouldn't be exploding this week if Hiro hadn't opened the damn safe.

Canine Central. Claire packs a bag, presumably planning to call Sandra a few hours later and be like, "Hey, Mom, I'm going to New York to transfuse my Bio-Dad after he got shot ... No, Mom, they haven't caught the shooter yet ... Yeah, Mom, I'll be careful ... Well, I think if he blows my head off I might not regenerate, but the show's getting a little hazy about that, so we'll tempt fate ... Love ya!"

Then ...

Dun-dun-DUN!

So calm! So composed! So civil!

Sylar: "Bet you've been wondering where I've been since you saw me last. Let's just say I took a little detour from my career path ..."

Is that what they're calling Season Two in the writers' room? Nice euphemism!

"It's all behind me now, like a long night after a bad taco."

He's summing up our reaction to Season Two PERFECTLY!

The great thing about the chase through the house is that it never descends into camp horror. Claire never comes across as clueless just to fit the conventions of the scene. You can praise the lighting and editing and staging of this scene, but what stood out for me was the way it was paced. It never felt overlong or overplayed.

Chandra's Crib. I know I shouldn't ask, but the cricket bat -- Mohinder's or Chandra's? You have to wonder. It's almost as awesome as Midas Bob's cello.

Maya gives Mohinder the literal equivalent of the pain she inflicted on us last season. "I'm so sorry! I thought it was Sylar coming!" A not unreasonable assumption, but Maya and Mohinder seem to forget it later on.

With Molly on a plane to some unknown destination, Maya gets up in Mohinder's face, all assertive with her heaving bosom, and says -- and I swear I'm not paraphrasing this -- "Now we can finally get started on my examination." Whoa, there, Heroes, easy with the dirty euphemisms! Mohinder backs off and replies, "Yeah ... um, about that ... I really am in no position to help you." Geez, they're REALLY fueling the fanfic fires. The Matthinder shippers are going to love this.

Mohinder says there's nothing left for him here and that he's packing his bags and returning to India. It's definitely Maya standing in the room with him, but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was Eden and that this whole scene had been lifted word-for-word from early Season One.

Besides the deja vu, what bugged me about this scene was that Mohinder's once again leaving when his reason for coming back the first time hasn't changed. He still needs to stop the superpowered psychokiller on the loose. He still has the ability to track people with abilities and warn them. He still has connections to a Company with the resources he needs to continue his research. It's difficult to feel any investment in this scene when you know it ends one of two ways: either Mohinder goes back to India, naps in an office at a university in Chennai and dreams of a boy with a soccer ball for a few episodes before changing his mind and coming back to New York, OR ... he never leaves in the first place. Either way, it's a recycled plot device, and -- worse -- it's an UNCOMPELLING recycled plot device. It's also compounded with the development that Mohinder's no longer saying goodbye to someone with a firm handle on her coercion whammy; he's now saying goodbye to someone with an uncontrollable ability that poisons everyone within a one-hundred-yard radius. And HE'S GOING TO JUST GO BACK TO LECTURING AT A UNIVERSITY?

Come on, show. This is dumb. It's ...

*PING!*

Dumb As Mohinder!

Or rather it's still just a generic Dumb As Award until Mohinder wins it on five separate occasions, but it's definitely looking like Mohinder's on course to reclaim his Season One title from Matt.

Maya is distraught. "I came all the way from South America to find you!"

And her brother died along the way from fatal stab wounds!

So did several border patrol guys and a couple of police officers from the Tears of Death!

And a car thief from a fatal blow to the head!

And a couple of viewers from sheer boredom!

DO SOMETHING, MOHINDER!

No, he can't help. So, what, he expects Maya to get a job at a local store and try her best not to kill everyone around her?

Maya is outraged. Her eyes turn black. It's Character Facet #5!

Mohinder is fascinated by this near-death experience. Maya explains that it happens when she's [Facet #1] scared, or [Facet #5] mad ...

... But not when she's [Facet #2] contemptuous or [Facet #3] guilty or [Facet #4] naively infatuated. All of which will be demonstrated over the course of the first two episodes of the season. She's working with the whole palette here.

Mohinder has a Eureka! moment and twigs that something about a sympathetic nervous response and neural pathways is connected to abilities. It turns out that the superpowered population owe their abilities to their adrenal glands. This comes out of leftfield and seems to negate a lot of the Human Genome Project stuff the show came up with during the first season. Plus, it goes without saying that there are a million instances on this show when supers used their abilities and weren't the least bit worked up or upset, so how their adrenal glands trigger their abilities is beyond me. I'm hoping it's just that this went over my head and I need to give it the benefit of the doubt, because the alternative is that the writers are saying, "Whatever, the plot demands it, thus it is so."

Yamagato Empire.

Papa Sulu! Welcome back, George Takei! They can bring you back from the dead anytime they want!

"If you're watching this, then I am dead ... And it's all your fault because you made Adam angry 400 years ago by stealing his girl and then you let him throw me over a rooftop and, you know, I was only trying to be profound with all that talk about Destiny! You were supposed to save me! What kind of son are you? That's it, Kimiko's getting everything!"

OK, maybe he doesn't say that. But he should!

"I have left you my fortune ..."

I love how Hiro gives a little bow to the TV screen when he hears that. I don't know if that's a Masi improv, but it's a neat touch.

Hiro is saddled with "a sacred duty," one that involves harboring "a dangerous secret."

Oh, dear God, Papa Sulu's going to tell Hiro about the affair with Angela, isn't he?

Hiro's sacred duty is ... to never open the safe! Which, of course, he immediately does.

I'm not awarding that a Dumb As. Papa Sulu rigged the safe to open with Hiro's fingerprint so obviously he wanted Hiro's curiosity to spur him on. This whole Tokyo-exploding thing is still Hiro's fault, but it's not like Papa Sulu didn't indirectly help to put it in motion.

Hiro gets a look at The Formula:

... Which apparently is part of this volume's end-of-the-world storyline. Papa Sulu then rambles about protecting this half of The Formula with a Chosen One with pure blood who can be The Light that safeguards The Darkness. All of which is intriguingly (/exasperatingly) cryptic and effectively sets up the story arc for the next 12 episodes.

The Formula disappears from Hiro's hands and Hiro freezes time.

Beautiful effect, and an ability in a character that's beautifully owned by Brea Grant. I was fully ready to hate this character. The Hiro/Daphne Batman/Joker analogy grated my last nerve when it was used for the billionth time over the summer, mostly because it never rang true and you could tell right away that Daphne was going to be an antagonist rather than a villain. I'm pleasantly surprised because she comes across as charming and refreshingly direct here. I can still see this being a reverse-Elle and Daphne going from quick-witted and snarky to obnoxious and petulant, but Daphne's a lot less annoying at the outset than Elle was.

Hiro introduces himself, straightening his posture and placing his hands on his hips. Masi improv? Again, seems like something he'd come up with.

Hiro asks Daphne if she moves "fast," and Brea Grant gets this delightfully insulted look. And then glares a bit. And then asks whether time would stay frozen in Tokyo if they both went to Bangkok, which is a question I've been wondering since way back when Hiro was making origami cranes. Yeah, Daphne's cool.

And getting cooler when she decks Hiro. Given the way Hiro's been acting this episode, I wonder whether the writers wanted us to applaud Daphne for it.

Odessa Police Department. Peter returns to the GRR ILLA liners to retrieve Future-Claire's gun and, presumably, shoot Nathan again. Matt finds Peter searching for the gun, realizes that Peter might be an accomplice to murder -- or, somehow, a suspect -- and ... steps into the closet with Mr. Superpower and ... closes the door? Without backup? That's really dumb.

Dumb As Parkman, you might say.

*PING!*

It really is going to be a battle between the two heavyweights this season, isn't it?

Future-Peter jams Matt's mind-reading frequencies the way Maury did and teleports him away. The remarkable part of this scene is in the detail: the way Milo staggers his performance as he drops the Present-Peter charade even before he morphs back into Future-Peter; you can see how Peter's smile dissolves and his head tilts down and his eyes narrow. Again, subtle acting. It's also a cool sequence for the way Future-Peter TK's Matt towards him rather than just reaching out to grab him, and for the way the teleporter remains where he is while the teleportee gets whisked away.

Nathan visits a chapel and, driven by delirium as near as I can tell, speechifies about God, our hopes and dreams, and how we can only make our lives meaningful if we work together.

It goes without saying that Heroes operates with religious undertones. I think it's always done a solid job of not letting the undertones become overtones, but this is a remarkable turn for the show -- and for Nathan as a character -- because it effectively turns the biggest non-believer into a believer.

It seems like the "delirium" part is what's crucial. If Nathan's in his right mind then the epiphany carries real weight and suggests that the most cynical and power-hungry guy can find faith and redemption and a higher purpose for his ability. On the other hand, if he's just delusional -- or, worse, putting on an act -- then the show's essentially dismissing the idea that the characters' abilities on this show can be God-given. Not that the same thing hasn't been implied in the past; between Adam and a couple of the graphic novels, the implication is that these abilities evolved over millennia; between the Haitian and now Maya, the implication is that God doesn't grant salvation before nature or scientific progress do. And with the whole Formula storyline now being set into motion, the angle the show's taking seems to be that it's less about God and more about DNA-splicing.

If nothing else, it's an interesting acting challenge for Adrian. It's bold of the show to bring a religious motif to the forefront at the same time as pushing the opposite angle with the Formula storyline, but I wish we hadn't been left with a message that seems to boil down to, "People with abilities only attribute their ability to God if they don't understand the science behind their ability, or if they're delirious and the ghost of a dead guy tells them Divinity brought them back."

The episode cuts from a religious motif to a scientific one that involves tyrosine, dopamine and cortisol. It all sounds ... plausible. Can anyone vouch for this stuff?

Then ... Oh, no.

Gaaaaaaaaah!

You know where this is going, people! You can see it coming A MILE OFF, but being prepared for it doesn't make it any less obscene or any less unbearable. Please, show, STOP! There's a superpowered psychokiller out there! Maya's brother was just murdered! MAYA was just murdered! Mortal danger! Lethal abilities! I'd expect this kind of idiocy from Maya, but Mohinder? FOCUS!

There's chemistry between them, no doubt about it, but that doesn't mean this makes sense. There was chemistry between Mohinder and Niki. There was chemistry between Mohinder and Matt and Mohinder and Noah. IT DOESN'T MEAN THEY SHOULD MAKE OUT!

Off topic for a second:

Lizard-Mohinder lives!

Mohinder has prepared another Magik Cocktail: this one will give anyone an ability. Maya's all, "Hey, GIVE an ability? What happened to, you know, REMOVING MY DAMN ABILITY?" But Mohinder doesn't seem to care much about that. I'd say it's "out of character," but right now I'm stuck on "totally bizarre."

Canine Central. Claire's still trapped in the closet.

It's possible Sylar didn't get back all of his abilities from the Mohindaire Cocktail last season. It would explain why he doesn't liquefy the chain on the closet door or TK the door from its hinges altogether. I like the theory that Sylar already knows he's going to catch Claire and that he's deliberately taking his time and savoring the experience. It's debatable because Sylar's generally a "Get in, scalp 'em, get out" kind of guy, but we've seen him leave Noah alive in a Company cell instead of killing him, and we've seen him terrorize Sandra before he decided to kill her. You could argue that he wasn't interested in harvesting an ability from either of them, but I think Sylar has a fixation with this entire family that goes beyond taking Claire's ability.

Folks, if you're squeamish or eating while you watch this episode, look away during this scene, 'cause ...

Dayum!

We learn that Sylar acquires abilities from his victims by poking around the inside of their brains and ... looking at them? But that he definitely doesn't eat the brains or take them to a shrine or anything. Which is a defining moment for the character as far as a lot of fans are concerned. Frankly, I didn't care one way or another. Future-Peter's scar? The truth about Papa Petrelli's death? Mr. Muggles's special ability? Those are questions I want answers to. I can appreciate why people loved this, and why they loved the "Eat your brains? Claire that's disgusting!" line, but to me, it felt like fan gratification. There's nothing wrong with a token to the fans, but there should be a point to it. Giving Daddy Bennet a first name made sense because he was going to stick around and needed more than a second name and "HRG," but did we need to know what Sylar did with the brains?

This scene saddles the show with a villain who's now close to invulnerable, but also -- and perhaps more importantly -- with a character who's now emotionally and physically numb after being traumatized by an experience that borders on violation. I think the show was brave to go there at all, but the way this was written and staged, it's hard to ignore the implication behind Sylar breaking into Claire's house, getting what he wants from her, leaving her distraught and walking away feeling proud of himself. Given the theme of the volume and the revelation that Sylar's a Petrelli, it seems like that was a challenge the show intentionally set itself: to make us wonder what's worse than a serial-killing pseudo-rapist, whether Sylar can be forgiven, and whether he can be redeemed or reformed. I'm not sure how I feel about the show going there in the first place, but, at least creatively, it's bold of them to film a scene like this with the express intent of then challenging our disgust and hatred towards the character and attempting to overturn that antipathy.

Props to Hayden and Zach for the way the way they played this scene, because you can see how Hayden's playing Claire as bewildered at the same time as horrified, and how Zach's playing Sylar as civil at the same time as monstrous. I love how Sylar's actually considerate enough to return Claire her scalp and to close the door on his way out. That's a testament to the actors' skills, but also to the distance their characters have come since the show started, because you wouldn't have imagined a scene like this when they made "Homecoming."

Sylar: "I couldn't kill you even if I wanted to."

Claire has a "WTF?" face, and so do a lot of us, because, hey, tree root? Shard of glass? Bullet to the head?

"You can never die. And now, I guess, neither can I."

Settles the debate about whether or not Claire's ability extends to immortality, but also forces us to ask whether the show's writers are making this up as they go along. If Adam or Claire or Sylar's brain matter goes through a wood chipper, they're dead. I don't see how the show can get around that, so I'm just going to assume that Sylar's wrong.

Maya visits Mohinder at the Apartment of Clairvoyance and implores Mohinder to destroy his research.

"No, we're doing this for SCIENCE! For HUMANITY! For