Review:

Would you look at that. They took out Peter and Hiro, introduced a new character, gave lots of screen time to Matt and Mohinder, and it ended up being the strongest episode of the season so far. Who would've guessed.

I don't know if that says more about the cast who don't usually get so much screen time, or more about how worryingly peripheral Peter and Hiro's story threads have become. You know that everyone's story threads will tie together in the end, and that everything will turn out to be relevant one way or another. But at this point, it was a delight to get an episode which focused on fewer characters -- and characters who, except for Claire, got less attention and less character work than anyone last season -- and gave those characters the attention they deserved. There are one or two problems, most of them in the Bennet thread, but those problems are blanketed by several extremely well-written, well-performed and well-directed moments, to the point where pretty much any problem could be overlooked.

And by "any problem," I do mean the entire Maya and Alejandro story, because it looks like Sylar's going to single-handedly save it from becoming unwatchable.

And by "any problem," I also mean West. No, I'm not kidding. The guy's still got a way to go before I find him likable, but he at least moved away from "contemptible" this week and got somewhere between "objectionable" and "annoying." Which is progress.

We start out in more or less the same place we finished off last week: Noah at Canine Central, studying the image of himself on the ground with a bullet in the eye while Claire's making out with Mystery Man.

The shot of Noah hastily closing the laptop as Sandra walks in brings back memories of the time he closed the portable DVD player as Claire walked in. Whether or not that was intentional, I don't know. I hope it is, because it would be an indication that the people writing this show have consciously brought the Bennet family dynamic full circle. If it's just a coincidence then the show has inadvertently brought this family back to the Secrets & Lies charade it was playing at the start of the first season. And it's one of the few things which dragged this episode down for me.

Noah asks Sandra whether Claire mentioned a boy. It doesn't seem like Sandra knows any more than Noah does, but based on the fact that she doesn't answer the question, and based on the fact that Noah challenges Sandra to explain why she doesn't think there's a boy, the only conclusion we can draw is that the No More Secrets Pact hasn't lasted very long.

Claire breezes in and asks whether dating is "forbidden" along with cheerleading and a social life. Which is a little selfish and obnoxious when you recall that those restrictions were imposed to ensure that no one would discover Claire's ability and either take her away to be vivisected or force the family to relocate, but it's also sort of understandable coming from a 16-year-old girl who only ever wanted a normal life.

I wish the dialogue could have been different. Something along the lines of,

"Claire -- look at this. This is a JPEG of me dead on the ground and you locking lips with a guy."

"Ew! That's sick!"

"It's predestined."

"Huh?"

"It's painted by someone who could see the future, which means that if you wear this cheerleading outfit and kiss this guy, or any guy, I'm going to get shot and die. And you'll be kissing the guy when I'm dead."

"My God, Daddy, that's terrible. I can't believe I'd be kissing him over your dead body. He's a terrific guy!"

"Who is he?"

"He's a guy you experimented on back in your evil days."

"Might he want revenge on me?"

"I don't think he knows you. Although he might have seen you when he nearly ran me over at school. Or you might have seen him because he nearly ran me over; that usually makes dads kinda mad as hell with the idiot driver."

"Nah, I didn't see him. But, look, invite him over so that I can meet him. I'll either beat the crap out of the little punk or develop an incredible bond with him. Either way, it helps that we're figuring this out together."

"I agree, Dad. We'll figure this out as a family."

Or, we can go with the Secrets & Lies. Because that always makes for great dramatic tension.

NOT!

You could argue that Noah doesn't want to scare his family with a prophecy about his death. Or that Claire doesn't want to put her dad in a situation where he's forced to confront one of his previous lab rats. But then, it's not like keeping his family in the dark will help Noah once the prophecy comes true, and it's not like Claire's going to be able to keep her father and West apart forever. So why the family isn't a little more open, especially after everything they went through last season, seems odd.

Claire: "Dad, believe it or not, there are people in this world who aren't out to get us."

Well, there was this one boy, but he got his memory zapped, and then he was written out and never mentioned again. It was sad.

It's also kind of sad that this wishful sentiment about people without a hidden agenda is going to be rather tragically disproven when West turns out to have an ulterior motive. Which, after this episode, I'm convinced he will.

Beautiful establishing shot of New York at night. As beautiful as the aerial shots we got in the first half of last season. More of these, please.

Molly's screaming scares me as much as her shrieking, but the way she apologizes for her nightmares is so endearing that she's kind of scary and adorable at the same time.

Mohinder sings Molly a lullaby. How To Make The Male Cast Hotter In Season Two -- Part VI.

Besides that, I don't know; did this scene need to be here? Molly's nightmares are getting worse, which we already knew. Matt and Mohinder don't know what to do about it, which we also already knew. And Matt's blatantly jealous of Mohinder's bond with Molly, which we again already knew.

Heidi took Nathan's sons to Washington and got a restraining order to keep him away from them? Damn, that's cold.

Were the bars on the school gate too much? It felt a little heavy-handed, but it also made for a neat literal barrier to go with the figurative ones.

Monty and Simon are named on screen in a scene which isn't a deleted scene from "Nothing to Hide." It looks like the show even got the same kids, although I'm not sure which is which. I think Simon is the shorter-haired one -- the one who's allergic to strawberries.

Nathan tells his sons that their grandmother's in the hospital.

Simon: "Is she OK?"

Translation: "I don't like her -- is she gonna get sick and diiiiie?"

Ominous foreshadowing of the week #1: Nathan promises he's coming home. And even though you can imagine the drama when Heidi took their boys and left Nathan, this scene does an amazing job of turning the disillusioned drunk into a well-intentioned father; part of it's that he visited his sons just to ask them to call their grandmother, and part of it's the attachment which Nathan has to his boys here, which comes across as so genuine that you wonder why it was limited to a couple of deleted scenes until now. I also can't help feeling bad for the guy for ever getting involved in the whole superhero drama when he could have been raising his sons and working as a congressman. This scene underlines how Nathan -- more than Claire, more than Matt, more than Niki -- had a life before his ability manifested, and how his life was destroyed by the repercussions which that ability had.

Part of it's also that Pasdar acts the heck out of this scene. I love how he gives this subtle wink to Monty when the kid doesn't want to leave his dad.

"Somewhere in Mexico": the Rogue demonstrates that it's highly suited to desert terrain. Also? The Rogue-stealing American's name is Derek. Which is great for the character, although you wonder why they went to the trouble to name him when he's going to be killed off within the hour.

Is the Rogue theft ever going to be explained? I mean, it's a moot point now that the driver's dead and all, but I'm still curious to know how Derek got the car, why he then took it to Mexico, how he was arrested, and why he then decided to drive all the way back again.

Anyway, the point of this scene is to establish that Sylar just happened to be holed up in Mexico, and that he just happened to find himself face-down on the dirt road which Maya and Alejandro were hitching a ride along. It's one of those twists in the story which feels less like Peter and Mohinder just happening to meet in a cab, and more like Peter just happening to find Claude on the Rooftop of Pigeonly Delight. And, yes, this is a story about Destiny bringing extraordinary individuals together. But my point is this is ridiculous. It's sort of like two strangers meeting in a diner in the middle of nowhere and later discovering that their parents were intimately involved.

Wait a second ...

The way the Sylar theme starts up when Maya and Alejandro turn him over on the ground screams "BE AFRAID!", although I'm not sure why Sylar would be gasping "Help me!" and not "Here, let me help YOU!", because this was probably the most dramatic moment of the entire Maya/Alejandro storyline so far.

Dana Davis plays Monica Dawson. This is really quite straightforward: she is awesome. The actress exudes charisma and enthusiasm and optimism, and every scene she appeared in this week was a pleasure to watch. Her enthusiasm comes across as delightfully as Masi Oka's did at the start of last season, the subtle difference being that it seems to have less to do with her ability and more to do with her outlook on life. Hiro's optimism was almost totally centered on his ability taking him away from his job and his life, whereas Monica's optimism here is centered on her willingness to work hard and make a difference for her family. And even though the implication seems to be that it's her ability which will help her to in the end achieve that, the fact that Dana brings such enormous hope to a character whose life is mired in tragedy says a lot about the character's spirit and the appeal of the actress playing her.

Kring? If you kill this one, there's going to be trouble.

The only disappointment in this story thread was Great Aunt Uhura, who got a smattering of lines and really didn't have much of an opportunity to shine. It's not like she needed to be vying with Monica for the audience's attention in every scene, but after the long establishing shot last week, I hoped for a little more characterization and a little more of an indication that she's the one who passed down an ability to D.L. and Monica. It could still happen, but as introductions go, this wasn't especially memorable.

But then, neither was the sock-stealing, and here's Angela, a season on, confessing to murder and getting cuffed and jailed.

I'm not sure I buy into Angela's guilt, mostly because she didn't seem to have anything resembling a conscience when New York was about to be leveled; but if the idea here was to convey how Angela's guilt over Something Terrible is the catalyst for her grief over Peter's death and her estrangement from Nathan and her grandchildren, the notion that her warped morality caught up with her just about works. It's another case of, "It doesn't make sense now, but wait five episodes and all will be revealed," which is starting to become a dramatic caveat on this show, but OK.

Props to Adam Kane for the directing here. The way the camera blurred around the edges while Matt was reading Angela's thoughts was nicely done, but also the way the focus was on both of their eyes and mouths to communicate the intensity in the scene. It's also a little disturbing that Angela's got this sad smile the whole time she's pleading with Matt to shut down the investigation.

Sophistication High. On a superficial note, can we please see more of Janel Parrish as May, because (a) she's totally gorgeous, (b) she's totally charming, and (c) she's totally cute. Which I realize are all variations on a theme, but please, show?

May: "Half of being a cheerleader is having guts, and YOU have got those in spades."

Yes, but that's because she can regrow those guts.

West shows up with his big goofy grin and plaid shirt. "I can't stop thinking about yesterday. It was so amazing. I finally have someone I can be myself with."

?

?!?

?!?!?!?

No sarcastic greeting? No witty one-liner? No rehearsed dialogue or bulls**t about robots and aliens? He was actually ... honest about how he felt?

Then Claire tells him she doesn't think they should "hang out" anymore, and the guy looks like he's just watched a kitten getting throttled ... And I found myself ... feeling sorry for West?!

My notes here: "WHAT THE *%@#?!"

Claire explains that her parents are "really overprotective about the dating thing." Which, well, with good reason, but never mind. The point is, Claire's doing her best to please everyone: she's trying to placate May by agreeing to think about cheerleading, she's trying to make Noah happy by distancing herself from the guy who was formally a jerk but who this week suddenly came across as substantially more likable, and even though there's a "Wah-wah, me-me-me!" tone when she tells West not to make this harder on HER than it already is, something about this scene ... just ... worked.

West gets insecure and wonders if it's because of the flying or the injection marks. But D'Agosto sells it as genuine vulnerability instead of neediness, at least to the extent that I wanted Claire to reassure him that it wasn't because of that instead of telling him, "ABDUCTED by aliens? You ARE an alien, jackass!" The fact that West also offers to talk to Noah earns him brownie points because it looks like the guy had the courage to face a problem directly instead of sneaking around it.

West: "I can fly! And you can regenerate! I mean, doesn't that tell you anything?"

Yes. It tells us that this show likes to come up with stupendous coincidences.

Nathan shaves. I can only appreciate this up to a point, but it seems to be the highlight of the episode for many fans, so I thought I should mention it. I do, however, feel slightly sorry for Pasdar for the rebuff which his effort got while trying to contribute to the How To Make The Male Cast Hotter In Season Two checklist.

Matt reveals that he knows Nathan can fly. Cool moment.

Nathan: "Are you reading my mind right now?"

Matt: "No. Yes. Sorry."

Good dialogue. Funny, but it also shows that Nathan's the one in control while Matt's the one fumbling.

Matt pulls out Superhoodie's Death Threat photo clippings with the S-helix scrawled on them.

Nathan: "I know this symbol."

Matt [smart response]: "Good! What does it mean?"

Matt [actual response]: "I think it's all connected! Everything! What you and I can do ... We're all connected!"

Nathan: "I know this photograph."

Matt [smart response]: "Good! How?"

Matt [actual response]: "Good -- because I need your help. I can't continue this investigation without you."

PING!

Matt gets his first Dumb As Award of the season for ignoring a guy who blatantly could have provided invaluable information and babbling on about how EVERYTHING'S CONNECTED! Shut up, Matt! When someone can supply information which you need, LISTEN TO HIM!

Nathan asks Angela to let him help her. Angela tells her son that she doesn't deserve to be saved. This was some seriously stellar acting from Adrian and Cristine. When Angela tells Nathan not to let his children hate him if he can help it, you can hear the tremor in the actress's voice. When she tells Nathan that she can't bear to lose another son, and he looks like he understands what she's saying, Cristine gives this little "It's for the best" half-smile. I don't know if that's Adam Kane's directing or the two actors just knocking another scene out of the park the way they seem to on a regular basis, but this scene was phenomenal. The look on Nathan's face when Angela gets cuffed in her wheelchair, like he's not sure where to file this between the death of his father, the death of his brother, the end of his career and the loss of his family, is gut-wrenching. Which I guess is saying a lot after these two came close to blowing up a city.

And the Rogue Journey continues.

I'd add Sylar's wife beater to the How To Make The Male Cast Hotter In Season Two checklist, but they already used it last season with someone else, so I'm not sure it counts.

Sylar explains that he was robbed (well, of his powers, by a sword through the gut ... I guess), and that he's been walking for three days. Maya gets this look that's like, "Aww, poor baby! Here, let me press this flannel to your forehead."

Alejandro doesn't trust Sylar AT ALL. The Disapproving Brother angle only makes the prospect of a Sylar-Maya romance even more probable, but never mind. Sylar tells them that he's going home to New York. I'm not sure if his plan was to go back to Mama Gray's apartment all along or whether he only thought of it now, but it works wonders with Maya because it's another stupendous coincidence.

Sylar asks Maya if she has family there. "No," she admits, "but I'm hoping to start one there -- with you!" OK, she doesn't say that -- but the expression does.

Sylar tells Maya that he's old friends with Chandra, conveniently leaving out the part about bashing the guy's skull in. But in light of Maya grinning so hard that her smile almost reaches her ears, and in light of Maya regarding this coincidence as a sign from God, Sylar has apparently discovered a way to be "special" without any ability of his own. I don't know if he's planning to tag along on this journey until he finds a way to recover his own powers and scalps the life out of Maya and Alejandro, or if he actually accepts that his evolutionary reign has ended and that he can only experience it vicariously. But the way he tells Maya his name with such sadness and regret made me feel sorry for the guy as much as I felt sorry for Maya for being taken in by this story.

At Burger Bonanza, Monica gives a rather delightful rendition of "I Will Survive." I'd just like to point that, while this performance is by no means the best rendition of the song ever given, there are worse.

Monica losing the management program was sad, but am I the only one who felt sorry for Camille? Maya spends most of this scene talking about HER family and HER dreams and HER life, but it doesn't seem like she really cares much about what Camille's dreams are. I guess it would have been wasted screen time, but it sort of paints Monica as someone who either isn't interested in her friends or doesn't have time to listen to them.

At Canine Central, Sandra gets a line which adequately captures her involvement in the Bennet story arc: "I thought for dessert we could go to that adorable place near the bus depot."

Lyle isn't blessed with a verbal response to this, but the "Eh, good idea" nod is equally telling.

It's not like I hoped for Sandra to be breaking into Primatech for confidential files or for Lyle to be sneaking into apartments to recover the missing Mendez paintings. But it would have been great if they weren't reduced to the cluelessness they suffered from for the majority of last season. They've earned a more prominent role than that, or at least one in which they aren't so out of the loop.

Noah's apparently so out of practice when it comes to covert surveillance that he can't even trail his daughter across a street without losing her. And, OK, it's not like he could anticipate a flying boyfriend, but can you imagine how bad Noah's going to feel when it turns out that he couldn't figure out what happened to Claire, but that a random neighbor who was filming a barbecue in his backyard just happened to catch the two kids launching into the sky?

Nathan brings Matt to Peter's apartment, where Nathan has a photo collection which includes the group shot of the Elder Supers.

Papa Petrelli "didn't seem to care too much" for Papa Sulu. Does Nathan even know what was going on with Angela? Matt remains silent on this topic, but blurts out that his ex-wife cheated on him, and that his son turned out to be Tommy McHenry's. Which is so unbearably sad after the scene when he found out about Janice's pregnancy that I can barely bring myself to say, "Matt? Buddy? The investigation? Serial killer on the loose? FOCUS!"

The revelation also raises questions about Matt's kid five years in the future, who we assumed was being hidden from the authorities precisely because he'd inherited Matt's super-genes.

Nathan wonders why Matt's sharing all this. Matt says he's only trying to help Nathan get to know him the way Matt knows Nathan. Which is an indication of invasive mindreading if ever there was one, but Matt really shouldn't feel too guilty: Nathan already knows what's going on in Matt's head.

Matt seems to blame a lot of his misfortune on his ability. He paints a picture of a successful career and a happy marriage and a baby on the way. I don't know if this oversimplification was supposed to keep it straightforward for new viewers, or if Matt's really this misguided, but it seems like he's twisting the story so that his ability wasn't the one thing saving his broken marriage and career, which, at least for a while, it was.

The photo of the Elder Supers? One word: PHOTOSHOP. I realize it would have been hard to have everyone already cast and on the set at the same time for this photo, but seriously.

Nathan helpfully identifies the Elder Supers we already know: Linderman, Papa Petrelli, Angela, Papa Sulu, Midas Bob, and Papa Deveaux. Papa Petrelli, curiously, doesn't seem especially interested in smiling for the camera. Maybe he's looking to the side because he's talking to someone at the same time, like, "Yo, I got better stuff to do than smile at a camera -- I'm a lawyer!" Or it's because the show hasn't yet cast an actor to play him in flashbacks. Or it's because Papa Petrelli is Kensei, and we'd immediately recognize him and it would ruin the mystery. Or it's because the lens in the photo would reveal the same horrific image which Nathan sees every time he looks in the mirror nowadays. I don't know. I'm just firing out every theory I can think of on the off-chance that one of them turns out to be correct. Then I can say I called it.

Unhelpfully, Nathan fails to identify the other five Elder Supers. There are a couple of ladies on the left next to Linderman and Deveaux, then two guys on the right, and Joanna Cassidy.

Did I miss someone, or is that 11 Elder Supers? Weren't there supposed to be 12 of them? We can only assume that the twelfth was too small to make it into the frame.

But Matt's seriously freaked because it turns out that one of the guys on the right is Papa Parkman. DUN-DUN-DUN!

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, we get a montage of images in the aftermath of Katrina. Short but thoughtful, and it tied in quite neatly with Monica wondering whether she's selfish to pray for a way out of New Orleans instead of praying for it to be rebuilt.

Camille provides further moral support, urging Monica not to think that God's punishing her, or that her loss is easy to get over, or that she should feel in a hurry to get over everything she's lost. It's well written and well delivered, but again, I can't help feeling sorry for Jeanette Brox for this thankless role which consists of offering a sympathetic ear and having no feelings or dreams of her own.

And now the scene on the Hollywood sign -- the scene which I unashamedly admit to being a sucker for. Not just because it worked in terms of lighting and music and dialogue, but because, on a basic level, it was romantic, and it said something about the characters and the fear they're forced to live with because of their ability.

The CGI was near-flawless. It's not like I ever wondered if they might have shot the scene on location, but I honestly couldn't tell it was CGI, not even when Claire jumped.

The reference to the oil rig was a nice nod to continuity, as was Claire's recollection of how she used to jump off it. Hayden makes a valiant attempt to emote here, justifying the lack of open discussion in the Bennet family with the implication that she's too emotionally closed off to talk to anyone about how her life fell apart -- even her own family. Which works if Claire genuinely felt she couldn't talk to anyone who didn't understand what it's like to have an ability; she has tried to contact Nathan, who's both family and a fellow super. You could also argue that Claire still hasn't gotten over the discovery that Noah worked for an organization which captured and tested individuals with abilities, and that he lied to his family for years about the work he was involved in; and that Claire doesn't feel like Sandra or Lyle would understand what she's going through (which, given the way they've been written so far this season, is hardly surprising).

But would Claire open up to a guy she barely knew, and who -- up until today -- had acted like a complete *%@#? Maybe West is just SO charming and SO suave and SO intuitive that Claire feels like she doesn't need to hide anything from him. Maybe the way he admits that he shares her fear of being discovered and her sense of isolation is so heartfelt that it wins her over.

Or maybe it's just the fact that he can fly, and that he has dreamy eyes, and that he challenges her to jump off the sign, and that Claire's still interested in pushing her ability to the limit.

I don't know. Whatever it is, the entire scene worked for me. It actually made me not loathe West, and it brought Claire back to the point where I could sympathize with her the way I did last season.

Then ...

West: "I know you can heal, Claire, but I never wanna see you hurt."

Oh, come on, could it be any clearer after that? Whenever they say they don't want to see you hurt, they really, really do. He's going to hurt her more than anyone ever has. He's going to break her heart, and he's going to turn out to be the lab assistant at The Company who digs the vivisection and can't wait to test the theories circulating message forums about whether Claire can survive (a) decapitation, (b) drowning, (c) the absence of a heart to pump oxygen to her brain, (d) an entire season in a lab with West.

But the kiss? And the camera pulling back as the two of them float upwards? That's one of the most beautifully shot moments the show has produced.

New Orleans. Micah takes the "P" out of "PPV." Is there any crime which Micah wouldn't feel guilty about using his ability for? I mean, if he diverted a few million into Monica's bank account, would he rationalize it by telling himself that he was only using his gift to help family get out of a tight spot? As cute as Micah is, I can't help wondering where the show's taking the character when it comes to developing a code of ethics on how to use his ability. It seems like he has more potential than anyone to abuse it for personal gain.

Does Micah try to "fix" Monica? The way the camera focuses on him resting his hand on her spine, it's not really clear whether he's developing a Very Special Bond with his cousin or trying to "repair" her broken dreams. Whichever it is, it's one of the more endearing things the character has done.

"Somewhere in Mexico": Goats! Who thought that up? That's brilliant. Way better than the bananas and the pineapples. Such a lovely detail, and it adds such authenticity. More of the goats next week, please!

Sylar puts a few meters between himself and Maya. Maya looks like she's going to give all of Mexico the oozing eyes if he doesn't come back right away; but, see, if she did, it'd at least explain how a newspaper "somewhere in Mexico" is still running with the twin's "homicidio" as front-page news. This must REALLY have been devastating.

Sylar: "Golly, they seem so ..."

Best line of the episode. And perfect delivery by Zach Quinto.

The bleeding ooze tears were much quicker this week; from the moment Maya panics to the moment Alejandro absorbs the darkness and the victim heals, it lasted about 15 seconds. Which is a hopeful sign that a ponderous routine we've endured for the past three episodes has been whittled down to the shortest time possible.

On the other hand, it might also be an indication that the show intends to subject us to a little Maya crying/victim(s) oozing eyes/Alejandro absorbing the ooze/victim(s) recovering EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

She wouldn't kill the goats ... would she?

Burger Bonanza. I get very confused. It was supposed to be, "Monica, it's dead tonight ...", but what I heard was, "Monica's dead tonight ...", which made me wonder if the manager planned to split the takings in the cash register with the robber in an alley and leave Monica in charge of the store when he was gone. Which, you know, would sort of make sense after Micah was trying to "fix" her dreams and all, so it took me down a false path ...

Anyway, the robber points a gun at Monica, and Monica totally freaks out, then finds the courage to 619 the guy through a glass panel at the counter. Which is all kinds of "Girl power!" and "Kick ass!", but also kind of to the character's credit for the way she reacted under pressure and was brave enough (or foolish enough) to confront an armed robber.

Did Monica consciously decide to apply the move she'd seen on TV? With the tomato (and with the piano next week), it seems similar to Peter when he first started absorbing abilities: it manifested without him realizing it. So, whether or not Monica realized she was going to 619 the robber or just struggle with him for the gun, I'm not sure. Either way, kudos to the show's writers for creating a character who, in one episode, managed to establish herself as upbeat, dedicated, responsible, noble, level-headed, strong-willed, and caring.

Canine Central. West advises Claire on how to become a better liar. Which is disturbing, but when it's countered by Noah lying about his trip to Ukraine, I'm not sure whether we're supposed to sympathize with any of these characters.

How hard would it be for the characters to be honest with one another?

Claire: "Daddy, I'm dating a guy who can fly and who you once bagged and tagged. Deal with it, 'cause he's not going to endanger us or force us to relocate."

Noah: "ClaireBear, I've got an image on my computer which predicts otherwise. Break it off or I'll die. I'm going on a trip to get more paintings. See you soon!"

I don't know what West would say. Probably something about how he loves vivisection.

Claire: "You're killing me."

Hah! Ominous Foreshadowing of the Week #2. Rejected alternatives to this line include: "You're holding a piece of my heart in your hands," "I feel myself healing inside when you sweep me off my feet," and, "My head's in the sky whenever I'm with you, but when we're apart, I feel like a part of me's missing."

Does Noah actually fall for the cheerleading cover? The way he reacts, it seems like he does, which means either Claire's becoming a more convincing liar or Noah's getting more gullible. Either way, it maintains the Bennet Secrets & Lies drama, which, sadly, was the part of this episode which I couldn't connect with.

At Chandra's Crib, we learn that Papa Parkman abandoned Matt when he was 13, and that Papa Parkman was a "criminal" who "stole a lot of money." Crime? Stealing? What would Matt know of these things?

More importantly, should we be asking how Matt got a job in law enforcement without a detail like this coming up in his background check?

This week's cool-but-trivial detail: the S-helix in Molly's eyes when she contemplates finding Nightmare Man.

Matt shows Mohinder the photo which Nathan gave him. Mohinder recognizes Midas Bob and suggests contacting him.

Read that last line again. It's a fairly sensible starting point.

Matt's response? "Yeah, whatever, let's do that -- AFTER we force Molly to relive her nightmare of the Ultimate Evil."

PING!

Chalk another one up for Matt for insisting on traumatizing the girl he's taking care of because he doesn't think Mohinder's plan is as quick or as cool as the Super-GPS System.

Mohinder rightly berates Matt for inflicting this level of fear and discomfort on a kid whose memory of her parents getting scalped and finding herself at gun point won't be fading anytime soon.

Matt: "But ... maybe facing her fear will help her to, you know, get over it? Or something. Let's try it and see what happens!"

PING!

That's a third Dumb As Award for Matt this week for speculating on how a traumatized kid should get over her worst nightmare, and for deciding that finding his super-powered, super-scary, super-evil, super-psycho father is worth mentally scarring a kid by forcing her to channel an ability he knows nothing about -- in a situation he knows nothing about.

Matt: "You know everything about daddy issues?"

Ouch!

And PING!

That's a fourth Dumb As Award for lashing out at Mohinder under the roof of the apartment which Papa Suresh lived in. And for acting like a d*#k to Mohinder when Mohinder's the one who saved Molly from the virus, and whose father was beaten to death by a super-psycho similar to the one they're apparently dealing with now. And for being jealous of Mohinder for being Molly's favorite. And for colossal insensitivity. That one's sort of a multi-pronged Dumb As Award.

Molly's brave enough to help find Papa Parkman. She narrows the search down to Philadelphia.

And then an exact building.

Which, all things considered, is pretty freakin' amazing. And between the photo and the criminal history, it's more than Matt had to go on when he raided Primatech.

No, Matt's not finished yet! He needs a floor!

Molly doesn't want to go in. Mohinder reassures Molly by telling her that Nightmare Man can't hurt her. (Oh, really?! Never mind.)

Molly pins Nightmare Man to the third floor. In a specific building. In a specific city.

AND MATT'S STILL NOT SATISFIED?!?

Come on, Molly! Get the apartment number!

Molly: "He knows I'm here, he's coming!"

Uh, Matt? You wanna call it a day? Or maybe, you know, LEAVE THE KID ALONE AND GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND GET DOWN TO THAT BUILDING IN PHILADELPHIA RIGHT NOW?

Nah, let's push the kid just a little further ...

She got the apartment number? Nine? Great! Now Matt's OK with her turning off the Super-GPS. You sure, Matt? You don't want her to get the make of the lock on the door?

PING!

PING! PING! PING!

Damn, that was fast. I didn't think we'd have a winner before Christmas, certainly not one who could win it with five awards inside of one episode. And my money was on Hiro.

This season's Dumb As Award goes to Matt Parkman, henceforth known as the Dumb As Parkman Award, for astonishing levels of recklessness, thoughtlessness, impatience, insensitivity, and downright stupidity.

Oh, and Molly's in a coma. Which scares the life out of Matt, but doesn't really make up for a rather horrific situation he just caused.

I'm docking half a point for Matt, and another half a point for the Secrets & Lies in the Bennet story thread, because although it was a little unclear in the season premiere, it's quickly going from disappointing to unbelievable. It's not dramatic or compelling, it's just frustrating, and it makes the characters look either unnecessarily dishonest or perpetually clueless.

Otherwise, zero complaints. Even the Maya and Alejandro thread came out all right after Sylar joined it. Monica got an excellent first episode, West was less creepy and a little more sincere, and virtually everything relating to the Petrellis and the Elder Supers was outstanding.

Welcome back, show.

4 out of 5