Review:

Some episodes stand up to repeat viewing better than others.

Heck, some shows stand up to repeat viewing better than others.

I'm not the craziest fan. I tend to watch most episodes two or three times, not counting the times I'll go back to specific scenes when I write about them. But I can understand why fans would watch every episode of this show 10 or 20 times and marvel at how well crafted they are.

This episode? It's something else altogether. Virtually all of the 17 episodes which have broadcast so far have been exceptional, but my guess is this will be the one that defines the show's first season.

Is it an emotional 40 minutes? Yes. Is it over-the-top? No, never. And that's how this ties in with repeat viewing, and the way fans are going to react when they re-watch the show for the 20th time. There's no way we can look at Claire and Daddy Bennet the same way again. The cheerleader who complained about her power and longed for a normal life is gone. The shady guy in a trenchcoat who showed up at Papa Suresh's apartment and scared the life out of Mohinder in a taxi is gone.

If someone had suggested at the start that we'd get an episode like this, I'm not sure we would have believed it. If someone had suggested that Claire and her father saying goodbye would reduce 14 million viewers to tears, it would have been laughable.

But that's what Heroes achieved this week, and it's a testament to the show's success in writing characters that the audience could latch on to. Claire has gone from whiny and obnoxious to determined and endearing. Bennet has gone from sinister and inscrutable to caring and well-intentioned.

Is that in itself a surprise? No. A lot of shows have allowed their characters to grow beyond the way they were conceived. The surprise is the way this show managed to achieve it so quickly, and the way it achieved it without ever allowing the transition to feel hurried or forced. "Company Man" turns Bennet's portrayal upside down and challenges assumptions we made about the character at the start. The genius is that instead of contradicting those assumptions and rewriting the character's backstory, this episode provides a solid rationale for his actions. It outlines how conflicted the character has been since we first saw him raiding Papa Suresh's files in India.

For this character, at least, it's part of what will make the 20th viewing so rewarding.

The scene-by-scene:

Canine Central. The camera focuses on a framed family photo on the wall. Bennet's hand rests on Lyle's shoulder. He was once the loving family man. And the consummate liar and mind-wiper and vivisection endorser.

Mr. Muggles scampers down the stairs. It's cute, and oddly fitting in an episode which centers around the Bennets. The camera follows Mr. Muggles's journey to the back door. Mr. Muggles yelps diligently while RadioTed melts the lock off the back door. "I may be small," the dog says, "but I faced off with the serial killer who's gonna slice your scalps off! Kiss my furry ass, idiots! Also, could you melt the door to the dogfood? Thanks!"

RadioTed and Matt enter. RadioTed picks up the dog. Was I the only who was sure he'd nuke the dog? It would have been the most effective way to vilify RadioTed, although there are a ton of instances this week which make him a villain. I'll get to that.

There's some weirdly morbid humor here, and in such a dark episode I'm not sure whether it was supposed to offset the grief or emphasize it. But RadioTed checking the dog's name tag and fondling the dog's neck is really sad. It's a sign that he was once a loving guy with a normal life. Probably a lot like Bennet before he took up vivisection.

Matt starts tinkering around with Bennet's computer, presumably because his IT skills match his talent for plumbing. Matt's talking about how they're gonna "bag the smug sonuvabitch at his paper factory" after extracting the My Nefarious Plan files from his PC. This scene confirms what a lot of you suspected last week: these two are winging it without any kind of plan. It's why it's fairly easy for Bennet to manipulate them later on.

Matt and RadioTed see Daddy Bennet and family getting out of the car. Matt shows moderate guilt about apprehending Bennet in front of his family, and I'm slightly less inclined to berate him for pointing a gun at Sandra and Lyle last week. You'll note that this week he keeps the gun trained on Bennet the whole time.

As per last week, Lyle's leading Sandra upstairs and Claire's mouthing off at Bennet for being such a creep. Matt and RadioTed ambush them in the hall, and we get this giant "Blame Bennet!" session: Matt's furious about losing his job; RadioTed's furious about being nuclear; Claire's furious about having a lying, mind-wiping, wife-hospitalizing creep for a father. But hey, imagine the look on Mr. Muggles's face while he scoffs the contents of the kitchen. One member of the family still loves the patriarch.

Daddy Bennet stands there, like, "I'm not who you think I am, I'm just a paper salesman ... Oh, and YOU? Dude, you totally got yourself fired from the LAPD by blabbing about covert organizations and by raiding paper factories without evidence. And YOU? You were nuclear before I ever went near you, moron! And YOU? Kid, show some gratitude, you'd have been locked in a lab and dissected if I hadn't been covering for you!"

RadioTed's all, "Don't mess with the glowing hands!", and Matt realizes his partner might not be as rational and easy on the eyes as AudreyClea. Chances are they won't be discussing the state of Matt's marriage over lunch.

But see, this is the scene that reverses the characters' portrayal. Matt's gone from the guy who impulsively ordered the SWAT raid on a hunch to the guy who'll holster his gun and tell everyone to calm down. RadioTed's gone from the grief-stricken guy who lost his wife to the crazy guy who's hell-bent on avenging his wife's death.

Matt I can buy into, mostly because it seems like he's learning from his mistakes and wants to use this opportunity to get answers from Bennet. But RadioTed? The guy who went for picnics in the rain and listened to the "American Beauty" soundtrack? The one who Recap Guy described as "an extraordinary hero"? He starts out belligerent and confrontational this week, and he finishes up vicious and murderous. You could argue that he's so desperate and embittered that he doesn't care if he nukes everyone, but to go from checking Mr. Muggles's name tag to that seems like an enormous jump.

Flashback #1. It's 15 years earlier. Bennet meets Eric Roberts in an office. The flashbacks are in perfunctory black and white (which isn't as trite as you'd think), and Bennet's sans horn-rimmed glasses and looking extremely boyish. The Jack Coleman fanclub squees with delight. He's totally hot, with or without the glasses and a couple of extra wrinkles under the eyes.

Boss Roberts is 'Thompson' according to the graphic novels. I'd call him 'Boss Roberts', but it's like 'Daddy Bennet'; it'd just get cumbersome in an episode which involves the character so heavily. So I'll stick with the character's 'real' name even though it's never mentioned in the episode.

Thompson makes Bennet the RM for Primatech Paper. Bennet gives this little speech to Thompson about why it's OK to be a liar, like, "People are teacups, they're scared and stupid and don't wanna know about all this cool evolutionary stuff, but I do, so sign me up already!" And Thompson's all, "Ah, good! So you're down with the whole 'morally gray' angle? Like, I need you to be down with the vivisection and the kidnapping and the lying to your family, get me?" And Bennet's just, "Yay to this! When do I start?"

The organization is finally established as well-intentioned yet fundamentally corrupt, bringing individuals to labs with a vague goal of 'helping' them or protecting the population. And in a way that's the source of the ambiguity, because it's easy to justify an unethical organization if the aim is to monitor and regulate individuals who could use their power for theft, arson, coercion, memory alteration, evasion of authorities and nuclear pseudo-terrorism.

Thompson tells Bennet that he'll have a partner, "one of them," because that's how The Company keeps its staff "honest." Fantastic Claude materializes. He's wearing a suit and he's clean-shaven. The pigeons wouldn't like him this way. Bennet launches out of his chair and gives the "Holy s*%#!" reaction which Claire gave when she woke up on an operating table with internal organs on display. It's a lot like the opening scene with RadioTed and Mr. Muggles: an intensely dark plot veiled with light humor.

In Present-day Canine Central, Bennet's trying to tell Matt and RadioTed that he doesn't know what they're talking about. Matt decides to tell Sandra and Lyle what Daddy Bennet does to his victims: "He abducts people! He drugs us! He injects us with I dunno what!" And Sandra and Lyle are all, "Huh?" I'm not sure what Matt hoped to achieve by telling them this, but the implication at the end of the episode is that everyone's memory except Bennet's is intact. Meaning Sandra and Lyle now know about Claire's insta-heal, and about Daddy Bennet's covert project. If nothing else, it'll give Sandra a chance to be more than a dog-obsessed ditz and Lyle a chance to be the character he became for about two scenes in "Nothing To Hide".

Matt begins reading Claire's thoughts, figuring out that the Haitian's the one who makes people forget and that Claire's the only one in the family who knows what's going on. Claire betrays her father by affirming that he's "not a paper salesman." RadioTed's all, "Nyah! She's not daddy's little girl anymore!" Behind the malice is the basic premise of the episode: Claire's importance to Bennet, and the lengths Bennet will to go to for his "little girl." And it totally creeped most of us out in "Don't Look Back" when he used that phrase. Here, it's a reminder of how dramatically the characters have changed in such a short space of time.

Matt and Claire meet in Daddy Bennet's study. RadioTed gets saddled with looking after the mom and kid. Claire's thinking how she might run for help, and Matt's all, "Don't even try it, kid!" And Claire's all, "Wow, you can read thoughts?" Matt replies that it's "something your dad did to me." I can't figure out whether it's the character being intensely dumb, or whether the show wants everyone with an ability to be extremely confused until Bennet stamps his foot and shouts, "DON'T YOU GET IT? YOU ALREADY HAD THE FRICKIN' ABILITY! I DIDN'T MAKE YOU THIS WAY!" In any case, Matt doesn't seem to remember finding Molly Walker and hearing AudreyClea tell him about Sylar.

Matt tells Claire, "I've seen some weird things." We feel for him. The hot psycho-chicks with super-strength. The pregnant wives who berate him for $40k diamond rings. AudreyClea in the men's locker room. Yes, this has been a bizarre journey.

Matt mentions the "stuff" Claire witnessed at homecoming. And I know it's only in the script to get Claire thinking about Peter, but it was a subtle way to show Matt empathizing.

Sort of.

Actually, when he says that, he's unwittingly reminding us that Claire went through a lot worse, a lot younger, and without the kind of training Matt would have received before joining the police force. So Matt whining about the "weird things" he's seen is kind of hilarious when he's standing next to the 15-year-old who's been mutilated on a dozen occasions, who watched her best friend have her scalp sliced off, who witnessed her friends and loved ones getting their memories wiped, and who's been pursued through her school by a serial killer.

Hear THAT, Parkman!

Flashback #2. It's 14 years earlier on the Rooftop of Pigeonly Delight. The pigeons haven't been born yet. Bennet's asking what'll happen to a baby they found. Like, will The Company perform strange experiments on her? Claude's ticked off with the imbeciles who sent him and Bennet to apprehend a firestarter.

Thompson takes Claude aside, presumably to tell him that he needs to watch his partner very closely now that he's raising a firestarter's daughter. Bennet walks past a table where Kid-Hiro's playing a GameBoy. It's one of those brick-sized models from the early nineties. Plus points for the authenticity. Bonus plus points for the memories, because it's exactly like my first GameBoy, and I totally remember turning up the volume and everyone around me looking like they wanted to rip it out of my hands and smash it against a wall. Good times.

Anyway, Kid-Hiro's in New York. Papa Sulu's part of The Company.

Uh, whoa. Back up a moment.

PAPA SULU'S PART OF THE COMPANY!

It's one of those amazing revelations which brings up a million questions. Was Papa Sulu the boss? Does he have an ability? Does he know about Hiro's ability? Does he know where to find other supers? Does he want Hiro to get involved with the supers which his organization is tracking? Does he still work for the organization? Is Yamagato part of The Company, or has Papa Sulu now retired?

Papa Sulu's role is now intricately linked with Bennet's and Claire's. More importantly, his role is crucial to establishing that Bennet never wanted to adopt a child, and that Claire's arrival wasn't the godsend he made it out to be in "Seven Minutes To Midnight".

So Bennet's making small talk with Papa Sulu. In Japanese. And Coleman comes off even more smoldering than before to millions of adoring fans. Bennet's like, "I really wanna throw your son off the rooftop to see whether he and his GameBoy can fly, but I'm too polite to say so." And Papa Sulu's all, "Ah, fatherhood changes a man." Bennet: "Yeah, whatever." Papa Sulu: "No, you don't understand. I'm not being sententious. Here, TRY IT FOR YOURSELF!" And he drops BabyClaire into Bennet's arms.

Bennet: "But ..."

Papa Sulu: "Nuh! Not a request! Take the baby or I send you to Qo'noS and feed you to the Targs!"

Bennet: "I speak Japanese, not Klingon."

Papa Sulu: "Insolence! The Cardassian torture tactics we'll use when you attempt to shield the child will be merciless!"

Bennet: "Huh?"

Papa Sulu: "Don't get too attached to the kid. If she ends up with an ability she's going under a microscope and getting the scalpel. Have fun!"

Bennet looks like someone who just had a baby handed to him. Coleman plays the scene perfectly. He's shocked, he's incredulous, he's indignant, and he wants to know how Papa Sulu just foisted fatherhood onto him as an extended assignment.

Is it a cute scene? Of course. It's adorable to see BabyClaire stroking Bennet's chin, it's adorable to see Bennet's reluctance to become an adoptive father, and it's adorable to see Kid-Hiro adjust his glasses at the tip of his nose the way Masi does every week. And yes, it doesn't make sense that Kid-Hiro or the baby would be so young at this point in the timeline. But even when the scene is solely played for the "aww" factor, it succeeds so wonderfully that the enjoyment overcomes the inconsistencies.

I'm less bothered by the age inconsistencies than by Sandra's reaction when Daddy Bennet returns to Texas with a baby in his arms.

"Sandra, I've brought home a child!"

"Sweetie, where did it come from?"

"Err, look, isn't she cute!"

"Darling, you found a baby while you were traveling on business for a paper factory?"

"Err, we need diapers! And baby food!"

"She's 18 months old. She's on solids by now."

"Whatever. Get to the store and let me figure out a plausible explanation for bringing a baby home from New York."

"That's alright, my love. We'll adopt her. We'll fabricate the adoption papers, feed some story to social services and pretend we decided this together."

"You're not angry that I made this decision without you?"

"Why would I be? She's a beautiful baby. I don't care where you found her or who the parents are. She's perfect."

"Sandra, darling, try not to get too attached."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. She might suddenly catch fire or something."

"Sweetie, what are you talking about?"

"Err, baby rattles! Crib! Mr. Duck or Stegosaurus?"

"Darling, wrong show!"

"Oh, shut up, you KNOW it would be Stegosaurus."

"Wait, I think girls would prefer Mr. Duck."

Present-Day Canine Central. Claire's carrying the "Blame Bennet!" placard. He put her mom in hospital, erased her brother's and best friend's memories, lied to his family, and now apparently adopted her as part of a long-term freak analysis.

Sandra tries to weigh in, telling Claire not to talk to her father this way. But Claire's seething with hatred, and it takes Hayden's performance to a level above and beyond the scene in "Distractions" when she told him he wasn't her real father. You'll note that here, she doesn't even use 'real'; now, he's just not her father.

Matt and RadioTed are busy winging it. Do they let the family go? Are they here for a cure? Do they just want to scare the life out of Bennet's family as payback? Then Matt reads RadioTed and realizes he intends to kill everyone if there isn't a cure.

Can I just remind everyone that the Previously's described this guy as "an extraordinary hero."

Just saying. Don't ever trust the recaps again, folks.

Matt tries to read Bennet, but Bennet catches on to this and translates all of his thoughts into Japanese. Funny, and a moment when Bennet's resourcefulness and creativity shine, but also a neat way to resolve what a lot of us wondered: whether Matt's ability involves converting unarticulated feelings into thoughts, or whether he simply hears the words which form in someone's head. Now we know it really is just a case of Matt picking up the coherent words and sentences. Bennet's thinking about grabbing the gun under the mantelpiece, but by screaming "SAFE" and "BOOKCASE" in his head he's able to mislead Matt.

Bennet grabs the gun and points it at Matt. Matt overpowers him without too much trouble, but RadioTed decides it's time to start kicking Bennet repeatedly until Sandra becomes hysterical. An extraordinary hero seals his portrayal as the villain of the episode. I don't care if he's vengeful over the death of his wife. This was gratuitous. This was beating a guy on the ground in front of his wife and kids. This was the scene where RadioTed went from a misguided ends-justify-the-means hero to a violent thug.

RadioTed points Bennet's gun at Sandra and rants about how it'll be "poetic justice" to kill Bennet's wife with the gun of the man who killed Karen. Poor Matt's still trying to calm everyone down, even though it's fairly obvious now that RadioTed's on a murderous rampage whether he gets a cure or not. Matt reads Bennet telling him to shoot Claire. So he does. And Claire's dead for about the seventh or eighth time.

Bennet feigns grief and anger. He even warns Matt that there's a "right hook coming." And I know we're not supposed to laugh in such a grim scene, but that's such a cool detail. Bennet's using his thoughts as a method of communication with Matt. It's stuff like this which makes me sure that Bennet and Matt will end up working as a team. As implausible as it is that Matt would agree to work with an organization he loathes, his scenes with Bennet shine. And for a character who spent large portions of this season without anything remarkable in his story arc, this is a ray of hope.

Bennet and Matt take Claire's body to her bedroom. Fortunately for the plot, RadioTed's content to guard the mother and son. And Bennet's all, "Dude, thanks for shooting my daughter!" while she sputters back to life and regurgitates a bullet. And Matt's like, "Damn, this is SO the ability I needed when I was a cop. Buddy, can you make ME indestructible?" And Bennet explains for the millionth time that he didn't make anyone anything. Claire, fresh from a visit to the afterlife, gets right back to waving the "Blame Bennet!" placard. "You run a freak factory! You ruin people's lives! I'm calling the police!" And Bennet's like, "ClaireBear, I just saved our family. The Geico Caveman was about to put a bullet in your mother. Ease off with the hate, would you?"

Then Bennet reveals how he blatantly flipped a middle finger at The Company by hiding Claire's insta-heal power, and his actions appear in a different light: the way he stole the Jackass Mutilation Tape, the way he wiped Brody's memory, the way he wiped Sandra's memory again and again until it gave her a subdural hemorrhage. It doesn't redeem the character, but it challenges the way we've looked at him from the start. He's been trying to ensure that Claire wouldn't alert anyone to her ability.

Matt suggests that Bennet and RadioTed go to Primatech to get "proof." RadioTed decides to stay at the house where he can "do more damage," but you have to wonder whether Matt was counting on this. Was the plan to take RadioTed to Primatech, then sedate him and strap him to an operating table? Or did Bennet intend to sedate him at the house, kill him and tell Thompson that it was a life-or-death situation? Doesn't make much difference either way, but it seemed a little convenient that Matt and Bennet wound up as a team while RadioTed was left to guard the family.

Flashback #3. 14 years earlier. Thompson visits Canine Central and learns that Sandra found the gun and sedation kid and thinks her husband's a serial killer. It hasn't occurred to her that he might be a baby snatcher.

Bennet reassures Thompson that he'll do what he's always done - what he's told. It's essentially what his character arc this week is about: Bennet changing from "company man" to "family man," hiding his daughter's ability because he loved her too much to let her go. It's what makes his decision to kill Claude so tragic, because Claude takes the same moral stand that Bennet later takes.

So the Haitian's been wiping Sandra's memory for 14 years?! No wonder it turned Sandra's brain to mush. Interestingly, the Haitian was already wearing the frilly 'S' pendant he's worn since "One Giant Leap". Which probably has no bearing on the plot, but it makes you wonder how the symbol on Kensei's sword came to be a pendant on a kid's neck in Haiti.

Matt and Bennet arrive at Primatech and head to the lab which Matt's SWAT team were unable to find. I'm surprised there was no reference to this; you'd think Matt would be all, "Aw, so THIS is where we forgot to look!"

Still, plus points for detail. Love the clock which says "Odessa - The Right Place in Texas." Every time the show returns to this set there's some neat subtlety like that. Whoever built this set and whoever's making the props deserves praise.

Matt asks Bennet whether the plan is to lock RadioTed away, wipe Matt's memory and "pretend to have a happy family again." It's like Bennet's line to Thompson about doing what he's told: incredibly well written because it encapsulates the enormous strides forward that this episode takes. There's no way the show can return to its previous set-up after this. There's no way Matt can go back to fixing leaky pipes. There's no way Bennet can go back to working at Primatech while supervising the operation in the back rooms. There's no way Claire can go back to classes and homework and cheerleading. It's part of the genius of this episode: it's intensely character-driven, but it also moves the plot forward to a point where it's impossible to move it back.

Then we get one of those scenes which everyone has a theory on. Bennet meets the Haitian at Primatech, grabs him and throws him against a wall. The Haitian gets this look that's sort of, "When did you get the courage to throw me around?", "Do you realize what I'm going to do to you in return?" and, "Oh, so you finally caught on that I didn't wipe your daughter's memories?" I can't figure out which it is. Maybe it's all of them. Maybe next week Thompson's gonna pull up a chair and a bag of popcorn while the Haitian reorganizes Bennet's face.

Anyway, the cryptic dialogue:

"I answer to someone whose instructions supersede yours."

"In this company?"

"In your daughter's life."

I honestly don't know which theory to buy into. Some of you think he's talking about Daddy Bennet as opposed to Company Man Bennet, which works. Some of you think he's talking about God, which would tie in with his reference in "Godsend" to abilities being a gift from God.

Then there are some really amazing theories about Future-Hiro and Future-Peter going back in time and ordering the Haitian not to wipe Claire's memories. And that's after Future-Peter heads over to the bridge seven years earlier and, while invisible, telekinetically pulls the trigger on Bennet's gun, shooting Claude to preserve the timeline and ensure that Claude is disillusioned enough to be wandering the streets of New York when Present-Day-Peter gets out of hospital and needs help controlling his power.

I'm not saying any of that's far-fetched. This show has demonstrated that it's thinking outside the box. But if I'm going to avoid throwing a Mr. Muggles theory into the mix, I'd say this is one of those instances when the simplest explanation is the correct one. If the Haitian isn't talking about Daddy Bennet or God, he's either talking about a character whose connection with Claire hasn't yet been established, or a character we haven't yet met.

Flashback #4. It's seven years ago, and Claude has become a "security breach" for hiding a super-powered individual. And even though he knows that Bennet's been ordered to kill him, Claude gets into a car with him and cracks jokes while they drive to a bridge in the middle of a valley. Bennet demands to know who Claude's hiding, spouting out garbage about acting against the company's interests. And Claude's all, "What about Claire? Are you going to hand her over when her ability shows up?" And Coleman absolutely nails the scene when he hears that and gets this expression. It's like it conveys everything: his pain, his uncertainty, his resolve to do his duty, his resigned acceptance that he won't be able to do his duty.

Some of you are convinced that Bennet didn't pull the trigger. Truthfully, I'm not sure how anyone could have doubted it. Bennet looks shocked, sure, but he's shocked at himself. He's shocked that he pulled the trigger and put a bullet in his friend.

But here's a theory, and here's where it relates to Claire and Bennet's self-doubt: even before Arkush and Coleman confirmed it in the commentary, the moment when Claude asks Bennet about Claire sets up why Bennet pulled the trigger. Bennet realizes that Claude's right. It's his unwillingness to accept the truth which makes him shoot. By killing Claude, Bennet's trying to quell his doubt about whether he'll be able to hand Claire over. Bennet's trying to ignore the fact that Claude was right to question The Company's ethics.

It's like Lex beating the life out of Duncan in the "Reunion" episode on Smallville. When Lex is beating up Duncan, he's basically beating himself up: he's projecting his self-loathing onto the person who made him admit to it.

This is the moment when Bennet begins to realize that he doesn't agree with the work he's involved in, that his attempt to stay emotionally distant from Claire won't succeed, and that there's no way he'll ever bring himself to give Claire away. Claude forces Bennet to admit that to himself, and it's Bennet's despair which makes him pull the trigger.

Claude takes the first two bullets, staggers a bit, manages to turn invisible, and tips himself over the bridge to the forest below. Bennet plows a couple more bullets into the space where Claude was standing, and fans have a blast with the fan-fic which involves Invisible-Future-Peter flying down to catch Claude and telekinetically extracting the bullets. Because there's no other way Claude could have survived two bullets at point blank range and a fall off a bridge.

You'll also note that Bennet didn't have his thermal goggles to hand. Which could be because he didn't anticipate needing them, or because they weren't standard issue at this point, or because it's a plothole necessitated by Claude's importance to the story seven years later.

Present-Day Canine Central. RadioTed hears a noise upstairs and goes to investigate. He finds Mr. Muggles, who unwittingly provides a diversion while Claire sneaks into the house by the back door to rescue mom and brother. And Sandra and Lyle are all, "What the...?!" while Claire unties them. And Sandra thanks God profusely.

Ashley Crow brings a disturbing realism to all of her scenes this week, and it's what saves them from feeling over-the-top. Every reaction and every emotion rings true. Sandra never gets a moment to absorb what's happening, so when RadioTed throttles Claire and Claire insta-heals, Sandra gets this look that's half shock and half acceptance, purely because this entire scenario has probably been so surreal for her that nothing fazes her anymore. Superb acting from Ashley and Hayden throughout, particularly when Sandra's insisting that Claire's a miracle from God.

RadioTed realizes that Matt knew about Claire insta-healing. Matt and Bennet return to the house with a folder which apparently constitutes "proof." I'm not sure whether RadioTed was going to run off to read it, or whether Bennet hoped it would placate him while someone stabbed him with the tranquilizer, but it leads to Bennet finally telling RadioTed in no uncertain terms that he didn't give anyone their ability, and that there isn't a cure.

Which, I guess, is how the "inhibitor" which Mohinder mentioned outside the motel last week will feature.

It's not clear whether Bennet knew RadioTed's ability would accelerate, or even how The Company identifies supers in the first place, particularly when individuals like RadioTed aren't displaying obvious symptoms when they're first bagged.

Moreover, didn't anyone realize that RadioTed had become a significant threat, that he couldn't control his ability, and that he needed to be brought in again? It seems like The Company's fairly ineffectual about monitoring its test subjects after they've been released. Chances are Matt would screw up a bunch of times when it came to using his power, but eventually he'd learn to live with it the way Dale did. RadioTed on the other hand was never going to adjust to turning stuff to ash. You have to wonder why the one organization who knew about his ability never twigged that there was a problem and never hauled him back to one of their cells. Or even took him to Nevada and dumped him in the middle of the desert. The ultimate goal of the organization is ostensibly public safety, but when they don't seem to have any clue that a walking nuclear bomb is in L.A., you have to ask whether the operation they're running is particularly effective.

Bennet tells RadioTed that he decided to release him. Meaning, up to a point, that Bennet's complicit in Karen's death, and that RadioTed's right to blame him. It doesn't justify the genocidal thoughts running through RadioTed's head or the way he sadistically kicked Bennet or the fact that he was willing to put a bullet through Sandra's head. But it validates RadioTed's anger.

Ironically, it seems to have been the alternative to killing RadioTed, meaning Bennet was going to be responsible for someone's death one way or another. Every line of Bryan Fuller's script this week is exquisite, but this portion of dialogue jumped out at me as especially well crafted.

Thompson shows up at Bennet's back door.

Well, OK. It seems like an amazing coincidence that he showed up at exactly the right time, but you could reason that Bennet called Thompson (as Thompson later mentions he did), and that Bennet had already reported the Haitian as the "security breach."

Thompson entering by the back door?

Uh, he suspected the Haitian would be holding Bennet hostage?

It shouldn't be the viewers' job to fill in parts of the story that don't make sense. That's the writers' job. There's room for speculation about loose ends, but then there's justifying parts of the plot which require some kind of rationale. As it stands, Thompson didn't have any clear reason to sneak into the house by the back door. It's dictated by what the plot requires, and it glares rather unfortunately.

What's worse is that Thompson didn't have any clear motive to shoot a radioactive individual without knowing what would happen. But it leads to pyrotechnics, so who cares about the finer points of the plot.

Strobing lights ensue. Random objects in the house catch fire. Everyone gets thrown around by the force of the explosions. RadioTed's mightily peeved and roaring his head off, although it seems the radiation he's emitting doesn't leave anyone in the vicinity with severe burns or radiation poisoning.

The house is a different story. Apparently the two sets which were used for this scene have been taken down. One can appreciate why, because it's not like this house was going to be salvaged.

Bennet realizes he'll never get close enough to sedate RadioTed. Claire volunteers to undertake syringe-stabbing duty while her dad joins everyone else outside the house. It's a milestone for the character because it's the moment when Claire makes the leap from spoiled brat to heroine. You could argue that she's demonstrated a heroic streak since "Genesis", but when her decision to dive into the train wreck was motivated by a wish to see whether she could escape it unharmed, it's less about saving people and more about testing her ability. This was the first time Claire acted selflessly. This was the first time she was willing to sacrifice herself to save her family and avert disaster.

Does it make Claire a heroine? I'd say yes, although the counter-argument is that she knew she'd survive, and that she knew she was never in any real danger.

More pyrotechnics. There are explosions in the house. The front door flies off its hinges and rockets across the lawn. Kudos to everyone who pulled that stuff off, and praise to the poor saps who spent six hours on the make-up for a singed Hayden and a couple of doubles.

Claire emerges from the house looking like Anakin on Mustafar, then gradually insta-heals as she's walking towards her father. Cool effect, although I'm not sure what the neighbors standing on the street make of it. Maybe they're too far away to realize what's going on, or maybe the Haitian will return to carry out a mass mind-wipe of the neighborhood.

Anyway, we get this beautiful shot of the family wrapped in one another's arms. The camera circles around them and reminds us that even though the framed photo at the start of the episode is gone, the group standing here is the same family.

Then Bennet realizes that Thompson's standing there, and instead of throttling the guy for just setting off a chain reaction that ended in his house blowing up, Bennet gets this look of mortal terror.

Primatech Factory of Fun. Thompson's apparently been fed a story about how Claire was colluding with the Haitian, and how Bennet had no idea about her ability. Thompson's all, "Well done for identifying a security breach! You know what'll happen now!" And Bennet's like, "You bet I know!", but in a voice that says "*%@# YOU!" Whether Thompson picks up on this or not isn't clear. I'd say he does, and I'd say he already knows that Bennet was playing him, which is why he's got this half-smile when he asks Bennet how long he thinks the Haitian had been hiding Claire.

And RadioTed survived his nuclear meltdown and finally gets to be locked away and kept from harming anyone else. Thompson looks like a creep when he's standing behind the cell and mwa-ha-ha'ing, but it's what The Company should have done all along if it wanted to serve the public's interest and contain RadioTed.

Matt's unconscious on an operating table and hooked up to a bunch of monitors, as per "Collision". How anyone approached Matt and sedated him without him hearing their thoughts is beyond me. But if Missy Peregrym wanted to tranquilize me, I'd totally give her my full cooperation. So let's assume she worked her seduction whammy on him.

What!? That's not a spoiler! It's not a spoiler to say that Missy's seductive!

Bennet drives Claire to the same bridge he shot Claude on, only this time it's to meet the Haitian and ensure that no one in The Company can locate her.

There's this whole debate about how extensively the Haitian wiped Bennet's memories. Some of you think Bennet now has no memory of Claire; or that he remembers everything up until the point when Claire began the Jackass Mutilation Tape; or that he remembers everything except where the Haitian is taking her.

I'd say the last of those is the most likely, purely because it doesn't seem like Bennet cares whether or not Thompson knows he's been played. Thompson could find out that Bennet knew about Claire's ability for months, but chances are he already does, so it's not like getting his memory wiped of Claire's ability would make Claire any safer. The way to ensure that no one finds Claire is to wipe every contact and distant relative that Bennet would suspect she'd turn to, and to wipe every location that Bennet would think to look. It would also mean removing every contingency plan he ever made with the Haitian and every hideout either of them knew about. That way, when Thompson hooks Bennet up to a lie detector and pumps him full of drugs to extract the truth, Bennet won't even be able to point him in the right direction.

Whichever prediction turns out to be accurate, I think we can all agree that the final three scenes between Claire and Bennet were incredibly well written and acted. I know a lot of people weren't in tears until Claire wrapped her arms around her dad and told him goodbye.

Me? I was already bawling when they were in the car and Bennet told Claire that he tried to be the best dad he could.

It's not that the dialogue or story are particularly elaborate. There's just a part of Hayden and Coleman's performance which is so sincere that it knocks you down.

We get Flashback #5, three years earlier, when Claire picked out a pair of horn-rimmed glasses for her father and learned that she was adopted. Again, kudos to Fuller for an outstanding script and to Arkush for directing the scene so effectively. But in the end, it's Hayden and Coleman who make the scene so believable. It's Coleman who conveys Bennet's struggle to tell Claire that he isn't her real father. It's Hayden who conveys the character's shock that Bennet isn't her real dad, that she doesn't know who her biological parents her, but that she loves her dad no matter what.

And then the scene which had pretty much everyone in tears. Claire pleads with her father to find another way, Bennet tells the Haitian where to fire the bullet so that it won't kill him, and Claire turns around and covers her ears.

I think the crew making this show would be the first to admit that this could have gone horribly wrong. It could have turned out contrived and melodramatic. It could have lost all resonance because we know it isn't goodbye, and that eventually Claire and her father will be reunited. On paper, I'm not sure how anyone could have been sure it would work. But it does, and it's an overwhelming triumph for the people producing this show and the actor and actress who brought these characters to life.

Flawlessly written. Superbly acted. Intensely thought-provoking. Deeply heartbreaking.

The absolute best this show has to offer.

5 out of 5

Next week: Nathan and Jessica trade punches, Hiro gets his sword, and Linderman reveals his silvery locks. And dear God, someone please tell me it's not true. They aren't really bringing Simone back, are they? That's just some weird dream or astral projection or something, right?