Review:

This is an episode that you want to say kind things about. It rocked on so many levels, and if you weren't digging too deep, none of the inconsistencies were that big a deal.

Maybe we weren't supposed to dig too deep. Maybe "Parasite" was supposed to be watched as entertainment. As pure entertainment it was a success, and an amazing way to draw the show to a close before a hiatus. Take any scene and there's something jaw-dropping or unexpected going on. Take any moment in the episode and there's the same intense drama and break-neck pace which the show has maintained throughout the season.

I want to stop there. I really do. Like I say, as pure entertainment, this kicked ass in a way that so far only "Homecoming", "Fallout" and "Distractions" have.

But then one looks beneath the surface and problems start to appear. Problems which don't necessarily drag you out of the story, but which grate, and which accumulate bit by bit. Actions which lack a motivation. Behavior which lacks a rationale. Parts of the plot which are glossed over or ignored because the show's trying to weave every story thread into one episode.

My issue here, I guess, is that this isn't on a level with "Company Man". It's not even a follow-up to "Company Man". It isn't the same character piece which that episode was, the one which went deep into the heads of the characters and explored what they were thinking and what they were feeling. This episode forsakes character development in favor of unexpected twists and jaw-dropping cliffhangers.

Which isn't a bad thing. It just doesn't match the emotionally involving drama of last week's episode.

Part of me doesn't want to look for the problems in this one. Firstly because the people making this episode obviously put a lot of effort into crafting it. Secondly because I love the show. If you thought this episode was the best of the season, chances are you're going to hate this review (and that's assuming you didn't already hate the rest of them). I thought Bennet's character arc in "Company Man" was flawlessly written, but I also thought it was largely undone this week. I thought Malcolm McDowell rocked as Linderman, but I also thought his introduction this week was a disappointment.

And Claire? I'm Claire's biggest fan. Even I thought the show turned her into a caricature this week.

The details:

In the apartment of clairvoyance, Peter and Isaac are kneeling over Simone's body, trying to process what's happened. Isaac's all, "Hey, you get that I was aiming for YOU, right?" And Peter's like, "Yeah, thanks for that." Having clarified his intent to murder Peter, Isaac then asks him if there's something he can do for Simone. "She's dead," Peter observes. We noticed. But I think Isaac's wondering if Peter can use his Spongeman powers to save Simone.

"She's dead."

"Yes, but can't you go back in time and stop it?"

"She's dead."

"OK, but can't you extract the bullet and impart your insta-heal power to revive her?"

"She's dead."

"I hear you, dude, but maybe you could be the miracle man and come up with some wizard power to compensate for my lousy aim?"

"She's dead."

She's dead, Jim!

*THWUMP*

Peter carries Simone to the bed. The camera goes soft-focus as Peter looks into Simone's dead eyes. Simone's dead eyes stare back. And for a moment I felt something bordering on sympathy. Not because I felt particularly bad about Simone dying, but because it became clear how deeply Peter cared about Simone. It's likely just amazing acting from Milo, but Kevin Bray deserves a lot of praise for the way he directed this scene.

Isaac blames Peter and fires a few bullets. Peter turns invisible and darts out of the apartment. Isaac's left with a corpse, a smoking gun and a conscience like a lead weight. And Santiago figures he's not going to let Peter take this week's prize for Most Sensitive Male, so he starts bawling. And instead of over-the-top, it comes across as heartfelt. The character goes from shock and grief to anger and despair, and the way he breaks down is almost enough to make you forgive him for shooting his ex-girlfriend.

Casino of mobster machinations. I don't know when we switched from the Montecito to the Corinthian, but it's a different hotel/casino/gallery/center of ancient artifacts. As we learn, though, this is Linderman's conglomerate of schemes and hobbies.

Hiro's on his merry way up an escalator. He's stopped by security, who have been told to kick the guy out. How do they know which guy to look out for? Who knows. They must have been told to look out for any Japanese dude with a painting on his back.

Requisite Hiro comedy: Hiro being kicked out of a casino. How novel! It's not like we saw that, what, fourteen episodes ago?

Primatech factory of fun. Daddy Bennet gets stitches for the gunshot wound. He doesn't remember anything since he brought Sandra home from the hospital.

So the Haitian only wiped one day from his memory.

Tell me you weren't disappointed by that. Seriously. Tell me you didn't hear that and think, "Is THAT it?"

I'm not saying he should have lost every memory of Claire. Or even that he should have lost every memory of Claire's ability. But to only take away one day seems a little small-scale after the grand sacrifice he seemed to be making for Claire last week. "Go deep"? One day! Wow! The Haitian really came through for Daddy Bennet.

This killed half the impact of the final scene in "Company Man": the Haitian towering over Daddy Bennet, dramatic music, heartfelt tears. And then one day being wiped, the gunshot wound being stitched back up, and Claire asking how soon she can go home.

Curiously, we don't find out whether Lyle really did have his memories wiped. Would Lyle be up to the kind of subterfuge Sandra demonstrates this week? He's probably one step closer to a subdural hemorrhage.

The Company enlists Matt to detect such subterfuge. They don't seem to know that Daddy Bennet managed to mislead Matt last week. Or they figure Matt's still more reliable than hooking Daddy Bennet up to a lie detector and interrogating him. But they seem to think it's fun to keep Matt around while his wife sits at home wondering why her husband abandoned her to run off in the middle of the night.

No, wait, that's not even brought up this week. It's just something to ponder.

"But Otto, it's irrelevant."

Sure. But don't you think Matt deserved more than this? Don't you think that if this twenty-second cameo is as much as the character gets, it's almost better to leave the character's fate until a later episode? I'm no fan of the Matt/Janice story, but I would have preferred to see this scene play out when the show was ready to look at why Matt was so anxious to get back to L.A.

Missy Peregrym? I don't care what anyone says. I thought she played the part perfectly. The people who say the character's a b**ch are right, but isn't that the point? Isn't slapping Matt round the head supposed to make her vindictive and malicious? I'm in the minority here, but I thought that was part of the charm.

"Somewhere along Route 290," the Haitian takes Claire to safety. He mentions that Claire hasn't said anything all day. Then Claire asks how soon she can go back to her family.

This a day after that gut-wrenching conversation in the car when Daddy Bennet said he didn't know when Claire would see her family again.

This a day after that unbearably moving scene on the bridge when Daddy Bennet told Claire this was goodbye.

This a day after Daddy Bennet took a bullet to ensure his daughter would be safe.

"So when can we go home?"

"Claire's scared and upset!" But hasn't she been scared and upset since the show began? Hasn't she consistently demonstrated courage and maturity beyond this?

"She doesn't trust a guy who wiped the memories of her friends and family and put her mother in hospital!" But doesn't the fact that he didn't wipe HER memory count for something? Doesn't the fact that he's been honest with her since they met count for something?

"She's a teenager who doesn't want to abandon the life she knows!" But doesn't she understand that being vivsected by her father's organization is going to end badly?

The Haitian tries to tell Claire as much: that The Company would do stuff which her insta-heal wouldn't bring her back from. It's also worth noting that they'd now do some pretty scary stuff to the Haitian for going rogue. And no one seems remotely grateful to him for sticking his neck out to protect this kid.

So the Haitian's reminding Claire about the sacrifice which Daddy Bennet made, and Claire realizes what she's been caught up in. Her response (and I'm not paraphrasing this): "Great! Thanks, Dad!"

Is it believable? It was. In the show's pilot episode. After 18 episodes? It's like Claire's character arc never happened. It's like the moment when she threw her arms around her father on the bridge never happened. It's like the realization that her father's deceit and manipulation were part of a misguided attempt to protect her never happened.

Believable? At a stretch, yes. But more obviously, it's bratty, self-centered and ungrateful.

Petrelli HQ. Nathan gets a visit from two FBI agents. They want to talk about the first of this week's Pre-hiatus Shockers: Nathan's part of an operation to bring down Linderman, and has been for the past six months.

As with most of the story this week, in some ways it works, in some ways it doesn't. Nathan's decision to expose Linderman rings true, if only to avenge his father's death and Heidi's accident. That said, it brings up problems with the plot: Linderman wanted Nathan dead for taking on a case which would put him behind bars, but now, even after he knows that Nathan was working with the FBI and about to kill him, Linderman wants Nathan to win his run for congress and end up in the White House. Inconsistent motivation or devious plotting? You decide.

There's also the whole issue of Nathan's bid for congress collapsing when it turns out that he was funded by a mobster crime boss. Given that it would likely be front-page news and that the circumstances surrounding Linderman's arrest would inevitably lead to the guy who made it happen, Nathan's financial ties to Linderman would probably cost him his career.

But then, that's the part of Nathan's arc this week which works so effectively. His decision to work with the FBI (and later his decision to kill Linderman) stems from a sense of nobility. You could argue that it's his opportunistic side which in the end wins out over nobility. Or that Nathan decides his family's immediate safety is more important than putting Linderman in prison. Whichever is true (if not both), Nathan's motives, and the twist itself, play out believably.

Peter un-invisibles himself in the office, and Nathan's like, "Bro, long time no see! Thanks for NOT calling and NOT writing and NOT letting me know you didn't splatter your brains all over the sidewalk after we thought you leaped out a window!" And Peter's just, "Yeah, I've been busy turning invisible and provoking a guy into shooting his girlfriend. Sue me."

Or not. What we get instead is more emotional, and it's extremely well performed by both actors. Peter's trauma comes across as sincere. Nathan's sympathy for his brother comes across as heartfelt, even though you wonder whether Nathan's wish to cover up Peter's involvement in Simone's death has more to do with himself than Peter. When Nathan tells Peter it's "not the time for [him] to get noble," it seems less like concern for Peter and more like concern for his political campaign when it turns out that a Petrelli was charged with murder.

Daddy Bennet returns to a hotel room. Sandra tells him that Lyle's watching pay-per-view in the other room. Daddy Bennet doesn't find it worth his time to greet his son, even after learning about the messed-up stuff that went on during the day that was wiped from his memory. Lyle really is the neglected child.

The dog ringtone on Sandra's cellphone was very cute. Someone at NBC needs to make it available for download at the show's website. I'll bet a million fans would download it.

Daddy Bennet's about to run off on a one-man quest to track down Claire when Sandra plays Puccini and tells him not to. And boy, is this a vindication for the character. Here, for the first time, we see why Sandra didn't need to be repeatedly memory-wiped until it gave her brain damage. We see that she could have kept up the charade, and that no one at The Company would have suspected a thing.

And in spite of knowing everything, you'll note that Sandra doesn't express a trace of bitterness at the man who deceived and endangered his family. She actually seems to absorb the truth rather well. It's why I hope Sandra will keep her memory. Not just because it would be liberating for the actress to play a clued-in character, but because it's evident that Sandra, like Joyce on Buffy, could handle the truth just fine.

So Sandra shows Daddy Bennet the note he wrote to himself: "CLAIRE IS WITH FRIENDS. DON'T GO AFTER HER." What, no doodle of a Pomeranian? Not even a pair of horn-rimmed glasses in a corner of the page? Daddy Bennet must have been in a hurry.

Missy Peregrym shows up to snark about how she pegged Daddy Bennet as the John Denver type. She's cute AND witty. She spots Sandra in the apartment and gets this look that's like, "Meh, not bad, but a guy like you could do SO much better." I hear what everyone's saying about how terribly the actress played the part and how it brought back memories of Nora Zehetner struggling to play Eden during the first few episodes. Maybe it's just that Missy Peregrym's gorgeous, but I don't think she's anywhere near as bad.

Apartment of dead lizards. Lizard-Mohinder croaked while his owner toured Montana. Mohinder continues working on Papa Suresh's super-powered algorithm. He shows Sylar the list of names he's been working from. Now, at this point Mohinder KNOWS this is the killer who's scalping individuals with abilities. Isn't it dumb to give a list of names to the guy who can memorize them and track them down? Maybe it's a fake list, or maybe Mohinder was so confident about incapacitating Sylar that he didn't see any danger in showing him the list. But with retrospect, Mohinder just gave Sylar the information he needed to find every individual Papa Suresh ever documented.

Oddly, even though Sylar sees the list and could have used Charlie's info-absorb to commit all the names and locations to memory, he later demands to see the list again. Plothole or unexplained detail? You decide.

Mohinder rattles on about genes and base pairs and DNA. The gist is that Mohinder's a long way from figuring out how to expand his list of names. Somehow, Sylar's spinal fluid later overcomes this and allows Mohinder to identify new supers. As with the dialogue at Zane's apartment in "Run!", it hints at a story device that would ensure new characters and new abilities on a regular basis. It's why I'm now convinced that Mohinder's going to survive, at least until he's had a chance to pass his research on to another of the main characters.

Mohinder drugs Sylar's tea, the camera goes soft-focus, and we get this week's Pre-hiatus Shocker #2. Mohinder's not the dimwit we thought he was. He caught on that his companion's a scalp-slicing serial killer with super-powers.

As with Sandra, it's a vindication. Not because we ever assumed Mohinder was dumb as a post (although for a couple of episodes it seemed that way), but because he now demonstrates a much darker and more devious side to his character. He inevitably screws it up by monologuing, but in a way that's incredibly apt. It shows that Mohinder is less a shrewd captor than a thinker and a talker, and that a villain as exquisitely well-written and well-acted as Sylar will eventually exploit his enemy's weaknesses.

Hotel of scum and villainy. Hiro's sitting on a bench outside feeling hopeless. Nathan appears.

Let me get this straight. Nathan just hopped onto a plane and traveled from New York to Las Vegas, and Hiro was sitting outside the Corinthian the whole time? There's some really bizarre stuff going on with the sequence of events this week.

Anyway, Hiro sees Nathan, and he's all, "FRYING MAN!"

Again.

Nathan even covers Hiro's mouth, like, "Dude, we've seen it a million times already! It's not funny anymore. It's just embarrassing."

It's cute, I'll give it that. But it loses its humor every time we see it. Hiro needs new jokes.

Hiro and Nathan have this surprisingly subtle exchange about how it's better to "go it alone" and avoid endangering the people one cares about. Nathan's all, "When we first met, I thought you were a crackpot." And Hiro's like, "Yeah? Well I thought you were a mean b*****d!" And then Hiro says now he knows better, and that in reality Nathan cares too much. And Nathan gets this expression that's like, "Nah! Let's not get carried away."

At an unnamed airport, the Haitian's still doing his best to protect Claire, forging passports and creating a new identity for her. Claire's response? You'd think it would be along the lines of, "My hero! How did you falsify documents so quickly? Why are you willing to fly across the world with me? How would I have survived without you?"

Instead, it's more, "Ew, I don't like my name! And I don't like flying to a strange country! And I don't like everything suddenly being different!"

The Haitian's contemplating another eight hours of this, wondering whether he might upgrade to business class to get away from Claire. Even more admirably, he resists the temptation to grant Claire her wish, get back in the car, drive back to Odessa and hand her over to Thompson. He even offers to make Claire forget it all, which at this point would be a blessing for the character and for us.

Then the Haitian realizes what Claire REALLY wants. Free from her overbearing father, this is the perfect opportunity to go visit her big ol' crush in New York.

Does the Haitian know Claire and Peter are related? Given that he's taking marching orders from Mommy Petrelli, you'd think he would. The Haitian tells Claire that Peter's "not in a position to be responsible" for Claire, or even himself. Especially when agents for covert organizations sneak up on the guy and try to shoot taser probes at him.

Hey, does Mommy Petrelli know about THAT?

Claire gets this petulant look on her face, and the Haitian's like, "Kid, you can kiss the Renault goodbye, you are SO riding a bicycle in Marseilles." So Claire nabs the Haitian's boarding pass and passport, leaves him at security, bins the boarding pass and passport, and bails.

In one swift stroke, Claire (1) disobeys the wishes of her father, the guy who took a bullet to protect her, (2) abandons the guy who'd been entrusted to look after her, and who'd done a pretty good job of it so far, (3) wastes the money the Haitian spent on last-minute flights to Europe (Mommy Petrelli will probably reimburse him, but whatever), and (4) acts like a childish, rebellious brat.

I adore Hayden, but WHAT was the show doing with her character this week?!

Apartment of clairvoyance. NYPD check out Nathan's anonymous call. It took until Nathan had flown to Las Vegas before the cops decided to investigate an alleged murder? A statement about ineffectual law enforcement or another instance of bizarre chronology?

The detective tells Isaac that the neighbors heard an argument and gunshots. Then Simone miraculously appears at the door, everyone's like, "What the *%@#?!", and the detective apologizes for the intrusion and leaves.

Uh, OK. So the anonymous tip about a murder is bogus, but the gunshots aren't worth pursuing?

Candice's ability to assume different images in the eyes of the people around her is revealed. A number of you pointed out that she also made the corpse on the bed disappear while she was in the apartment, and that it only reappeared when Candice reassumed her own form. Meaning Candice can not only create the illusion of being a different person, but also bend people's perception of their surroundings.

Daddy Bennet appears at the doorway, and he's all, "My, you're very useful!" I can't tell if he's as enthused about working with Candice as he seems, or if he's just pretending to be so that no one at The Company suspects he wants out. But then, that's the weird part of this scene. Daddy Bennet's assignment seems to be to cover for Isaac and throw off police suspicion. It's also apparently to remove Simone's body and remind Isaac that he needs to keep painting.

All of which works fine, if you figure The Company places as much importance on Isaac's clairvoyance as Linderman does. But here's the problem: it's Daddy Bennet himself. The guy's basically acting like the Company Man, the way he did before last week's episode; like he's immersed in his job and his duty, and like he doesn't feel an ounce of sympathy for the person who's clearly traumatized by inadvertently murdering his ex-girlfriend.

Is Bennet playing along to fool Candice, or does he really feel nothing for Isaac? He comes across as pretty stone-hearted in this scene. After learning that he got a memory wipe of events which involved sending his daughter away and telling his wife everything, you'd think he'd be more sympathetic.

House of superheroes. Jessica and Micah play "Heavenly Sword" on the PS3.

Read that again. See if you can spot the problem.

No, not the part about playing a PS3 before the console had come out. Or the part about a game which hasn't been released yet.

It's a character problem. It's Micah not wondering why the mom who resorted to internet stripping to pay bills and who turned herself in for murder to protect her son is now playing video games and telling Micah he doesn't need to go to school.

This is the kid who could tell that it wasn't his mom on the other end of a phone; who was intuitive enough to realize his family needed a cash injection from a bunch of ATMs, something which STILL hasn't been addressed.

My point? Micah's not stupid, and Jessica's not that good at impersonating Niki.

Micah leaves for school. D.L. asks Jessica whether she thought he "wouldn't find out." Jessica feigns confusion, and D.L. reveals the photo of Adrian Pasdar. And Jessica's like, "Yeah, can you blame me for having a photo of Adrian?" And D.L. can't.

D.L. says he found the photo on his pillow. Ooh, dirty! But more importantly, D.L. finds a photo left on his pillow, then asks Jessica if she thought he wouldn't find out. What kind of sense does that make?

Then Jessica asks if D.L.'s been going through her stuff.

Didn't D.L. just SAY he found it on his pillow?

Seriously, how late at night was this dialogue written? Chris Zatta does a solid enough job with the script, but this scene feels very shaky.

Jessica explains that she agreed to be a "dealer" at Linderman's casino, but that she won't do anything she doesn't want to. Like, say, spend the night with Pasdar in a luxury suite.

D.L. kisses Jessica and walks off, but the expression on his face tells us he's not buying this. And neither am I. Because if Niki's around long enough to get a photo of Nathan from a drawer and leave it on D.L.'s pillow, doesn't she have enough time to do something a little more substantial? It's totally this week's Unsolveable Dilemma when Niki can't decide whether to

(a) write a meaningful note, along the lines of "NIKI AIN'T WITH FRIENDS. GO AFTER HER."

(b) scream at the top of her lungs, "I'M JESSICA! I'M A PSYCHO-KILLER! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!"

(c) relaunch www.lasvegasniki.com, this time with D.L.'s semi-nude participation, or

(d) leave a photo of Pasdar on D.L.'s pillow, which doesn't say anything except that Jessica (like many) is fond of appreciating the guy's features, and (possibly) that she's been contracted by Linderman to kill him. And you'll note that D.L. doesn't exactly press her on this particular detail.

Also? This scene was a seriously brief appearance by Leonard Roberts and Noah Gray-Cabey. It's like Matt's cameo. It doesn't need to be here. Which is kind of sad, and reflects kind of badly on the characters when they're so peripheral that their scene could be taken out without affecting the plot.

Apartment of sadistic torture. Mohinder straps Sylar to a chair and pumps him full of curare. He claims it "induces paralysis of the brain." I suck at stuff like this; I gather it would have made it impossible for Sylar to sit upright in the chair or move any muscle in his body. But it leads to two seriously excellent scenes for Mohinder and Sylar, so I'm almost willing to let it slide. Viewers who know exactly how curare works might not.

Mohinder pulls out a tuning fork, strikes it on the table and gets sweet revenge by watching Sylar cry out in pain when the fork's next to his ear. And yes, I hear what everyone's saying: there's no way Mohinder could have realized that Sylar was killing the supers with the aim to acquire their powers. But hey, imagine Mohinder in the car trying to take his mind off the gruesome image of Dale's blood-spattered corpse by turning up the radio, and imagine his confusion when Sylar starts screaming in agony. It probably wouldn't add up to power-stealing, but it would have set alarm bells ringing in Mohinder's head.

So Mohinder's relishing the moment, watching Sylar suffer and denouncing him as a parasite which needs to be killed. And suddenly we're thinking Mohinder might not be the good-natured, altruistic scientist he was always made out to be. Despite the composure he showed in "Unexpected" when he was talking about it outside the motel, he might be intensely p**sed off with the guy who murdered his father.

Both actors knock this scene out of the park, but Sendhil Ramamurthy deserves particular praise. He brings out this sadistic delight at torturing his father's killer. He's right to, even though it effectively turns a softly-spoken, mild-mannered guy like Mohinder into a hateful tormentor; and despite the role reversal, with Mohinder becoming the torturer and Sylar becoming the victim, we sympathize with Mohinder. Because after everything Sylar did to the characters we were attached to, he's justified for it.

Las Vegas Center of Mendez Masterpieces. Claire on the autopsy table and Peter hovering in mid-air look very cool.

Anonymous Curator Guy inspects the dino-painting and points out that it's been ripped and reassembled. Hiro grins like an idiot and says the painting is "very special," all the while thinking how much trouble Papa Sulu might have just caused. But Curator Guy doesn't mind too much, and disappears to fill out a receipt for Hiro.

Hiro darts to Curator Guy's computer. Among an array of drawers stacked up in the gallery, CRM-114 holds Hiro's miracle power-energizer. Neat throw to Clockwork Orange.

So Hiro's climbing a ladder to the drawer, and I swear he's literally about to grab the sword when Curator Guy reappears and is all, "Dude, I've got 754 lackeys who'll pounce on you. You remember the Burly Brawl in Reloaded? That's what this is gonna be!" And at this point you figure Hiro will be like, "Forget you!", grab the sword and teleport out of there. Only for some reason he DOESN'T seize the sword he's spent the last six episodes searching for, and decides to CLIMB BACK DOWN.

I'm sorry, but WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?

About the most laughable hindrance to Hiro getting the sword that the show could come up with.

Ando showing up in a security guard's uniform was delightful. I know it's contrived and that Ando's the deus ex machina, but when Hiro and Ando bearhug and you see how thrilled they are to be reunited, you can't help smiling.

Apartment of dramatic role reversal. Mohinder lays off the torture to work on Papa Suresh's algorithm. He isolates four genes and solves the superhero meaning of life. Sylar says he didn't ask for any of this. Mohinder scoffs, and I think we're supposed to scoff too. But Sylar's right. Chances are Gabriel Gray would be repairing watches right about now if Papa Suresh hadn't waltzed into his shop and put ideas into his head about being "special."

Zach Quinto gets this amazing moment when he bellows at Mohinder, "Give me that damn list so I can sink my teeth in." You can see a tear of exasperation rolling down his face. Awesome performance from Quinto, particularly when he then reverts to his quiet, introspective voice. It's brilliantly written, but it's also a brilliant actor who makes us believe what a crazed psycho Sylar is.

Mohinder says he's fulfilling his "duty as a son" by avenging Papa Suresh's death. Props to whoever came up with this sequence, because it was one of the most subtly crafted of the episode: Mohinder pulls the trigger, and the camera pulls around to show the smoke drifting up from Mohinder's revolver and the bullet hanging in mid-air in front of Sylar's head. Awesome.

Apartment of clairvoyance. Isaac goes back to being a junkie and paints the image we got at the end of "Don't Look Back" when Hiro visited Meester Eeezuk and found a brainless corpse in the apartment. A nod to continuity, and a hint that Isaac's fate hasn't changed in the course of events since then.

Which is eerie, and oddly fatalistic, because it suggests that nothing the characters do makes any difference to the outcome: by the look of it, Isaac's still going to be scalped, Hiro's still going to fail in his mission, and New York's still going to explode.

Nathan and Niki meet again. Nathan doesn't waste any time, jumping at the opportunity to throw Niki onto a bed. I'm not sure if he's trying to overpower her, seduce her or give the FBI something more fun to listen to than a Japanese guy calling Nathan the "FRYING MAN." As Niki points out, that last one won't count for much because they're dead. And Nathan should trust her. Especially after the last time she slept with him for Linderman's viewing pleasure.

That never comes up when Nathan and Linderman meet, does it?

Daddy Bennet returns to Makeshift Canine Central. Candice-as-Sandra says he's "back early," which is kind of funny after the guy just flew to and from New York. Between him and Nathan, the characters on this show are clocking up a scary number of air miles this week.

Candice-as-Sandra fools Daddy Bennet into betraying his secret. Poor guy. How could he not suspect something was up when the ringtone wasn't the same? The really sad part is this would have been such a touching scene between Bennet and Sandra if only it had been true. When Daddy Bennet tells Candice-as-Sandra that he never knew he could talk to her like this, that he was sure she'd be "furious" for all the "lies and deceit," it's like they're reconciling.

But now Thompson's totally in the know. And you'll note that we again don't see Lyle, so there's no way of knowing if he's been thrown into a holding cell at Primatech or if he's still in the next room watching pay-per-view.

And what happens to Mr. Muggles at the kennel? Will the kennel keep him? Will The Company continue to pay for boarding, or will Mr. Muggles end up with Blue Dog Rescue?

Corinthian Center of Divine Celebration. Hiro gets his sword. Handel's Messiah echoes across Las Vegas. Masi delivers his "Yatta" with greater panache than ever. I'm betting he's even more thankful to finally get the damn sword than we are.

Hiro's powers are promptly restored. How? Who knows. Who CARES? I'm just so grateful that this tedious quest for the sword has finally drawn to a close.

Hiro now teleports Ando along for the ride, and doesn't even need to make the scrunched-up face to do it. They teleport to the Rooftop of Pigeonly Delight. The pigeons gave up waiting for the Bearded One to return and planned to fly off into the horizon. Sadly, they were nuked before they got the chance.

New York's a wasteland, but you can just about make out cars on the road and a crane working in the distance. And the Empire State Building's still standing on the left. So even though Hiro says he "failed," the impression we get is that part of the city has survived, and some kind of clean-up effort is already in operation at this point.

Hospice Nurse's apartment of luxury. Claire tracks down Peter's address. I can sort of buy it after she managed to track down her bio-mom. She needed Zach's help back then, and here she finds the address on her own. A hopeful sign of initiative and maturity, especially after an episode acting like a whiny kid.

Mommy Petrelli answers the door. Cristine Rose can really be scarily austere when she wants to. Big shout-out to the French-speaking fans who watch the show: Mommy Petrelli's telling the Haitian that Claire's finally safe, no thanks to him. And the Haitian's telling Mommy Petrelli that he did everything he could (and ain't that the truth), and that Claire would have found her way here sooner or later.

Pre-hiatus Shocker #3. The Haitian's working for Mommy Petrelli. And Mommy Petrelli now demonstrates that she's really not the heart of stone she seemed to be in "Run!", because she pretty much embraces her role as Grandma Petrelli when she looks at Claire and gets this kind-hearted smile. The cold-as-ice charade melts, and we realize Grandma Petrelli might have known about Claire for a lot longer than Nathan did.

And Claire just stares back at Grandma Petrelli, trying to absorb the horror of the situation: the stud who saved her at Homecoming is related to her? Why, Heroes, WHY?

Hotel suite of gratuitous male-female violence. Nathan decides that instead of accepting Linderman's offer or running away, he could shoot him. Niki agrees, hands Nathan her gun, and tells Nathan to deck her so that Jessica "knows she's not in control."

Doesn't imminent danger bring Jessica out? Isn't that how the Jessica defense mechanism always worked? And even if the Niki/Jessica balance is now so messed up that it doesn't hold true, what does Nathan giving Niki a black eye accomplish? I mean, besides vilifying Nathan? I'll skip the social commentary, but I'm not clear why it needed to be here, and I'm not sure what purpose it served in the story.

Nathan gets escorted to the hotel kitchen. Thankfully, he doesn't find Missi Pyle sobbing her eyes out in the hope that some unsuspecting fool will earn himself this week's Gullible As Ando Award. Instead, we get Malcolm McDowell chopping onions.

I'm still grappling with why this didn't work for me. Was it McDowell himself? No. The guy's suitably disturbing, even when he's rambling about vegetables and pot pie and the therapeutic merits of cooking. Was it the way the character was portrayed? No. As much of an eccentric Architect/Oracle mish-mash as it was, I think it was the right way to go. Better than having the guy sit behind a desk in an office surrounded by guards with M16s and samurai swords.

It could just be that the character's been referred to on so many occasions, and there was no way the reality was ever going to live up to the sinister image we imagined.

I think it's simply that we don't see why Linderman commands such power. We don't see why this guy would have mobsters shaking in their boots and super-strong dual-personalities working for him when they could shoot him in an instant and work for themselves.

The guy clearly has access to vast information and resources, and he's clearly got connections to super-powered individuals who enable him to accurately predict the future. But why this guy inspires such fear and respect is something which I don't think comes across here.

To be fair, it's something which could easily be fixed in the next episode or the episode after. But the fact that it was played down in favor of making the guy "rational" and "civilized" seemed like a conscious choice by the show. And to me, it ended up detracting from Linderman's menace. McDowell brings that across with eyes and demanor and sheer charisma, but I'm not sure the set-up allowed it to come across as intensely as it should have. We see him convince Nathan not to shoot because Nathan's too afraid for his family and because he's won over by the future which Linderman promises him. But how and why this guy is the one who controls that never comes across.

But Pre-hiatus Shocker #4: if Linderman's correct, Nathan's going to survive the next two years and end up in a position where he's "a heartbeat away from the presidency."

You can hear Pasdar fans squee with delight. If nothing else, it's a strong hint that the guy's going to be around until at least the third season.

That's unless Linderman's talking garbage.

Apartment of telekinetic torture. Peter visits Mohinder to talk about what he can do to help Peter NOT provoke guys into firing guns in their apartment. He finds Mohinder stuck on the ceiling and dripping blood. Then Sylar throws Peter against a wall, grabs him by the throat, starts slicing his scalp open and ... No, the end of the emo-bangs? REALLY?

And in seven weeks: more hairstyle changes when Claire becomes a brunette.

Overall, there was nothing especially wrong with "Parasite", and there were a ton of things working in the episode's favor. It's in the unfortunate position of being benchmarked against the previous pre-hiatus episode, and I'm not sure it was as extraordinary as "Fallout". It's also in the unfortunate position of following up what was in many ways the finest episode of the season, and in terms of subtlety and nuance, "Parasite" doesn't compare with "Company Man".

Is this a turning point for the show? Undoubtedly. Hiro's powers are restored, Mommy Petrelli's connection to the Haitian is established, and Linderman's finally introduced. And Daddy Bennet opening up to Sandra, Mohinder taking revenge on Sylar, and Nathan struggling to decide whether to kill the man who put his wife in a wheelchair are all extremely well-written and well-performed moments for the characters.

I wouldn't single out a particular weakness in the episode, although there are a lot of minor ones, mostly as a result of the story being rushed and every character being forced into at least one scene because the show felt like it needed to before a hiatus. In a way, I wonder whether it wouldn't have been better to make "Company Man" the closing episode before a seven-week break.

That said, this is a remarkable hour for the show, setting up the story threads that will lead up to the finale and leaving us with several amazing cliffhangers.

4 out of 5