Review:

Not a total train wreck, but a significant step back after last week.

There were redeeming points: the Shanti Virus edged forwards, one of the twins finally reached New York, and Hayden and Ashley Crow again delivered some excellent performances. But then, even those virtues were mired in problems. Hiro figuring out that Adam's trying to release the virus in the present doesn't make any sense, Maya doesn't even need to get to New York as urgently as she did before, and Hayden and Ashley's performances lost a lot of their impact because we know they're grieving over nothing.

Even the good parts weren't that good. And I haven't even gotten to the bad parts. And when I say bad, you know I mean clunky storylines and weak dialogue and bizarre character behavior. And Maya.

Still, like I say, there were redeeming points.

The opening possibly-a-dream-but-possibly-also-really-happening sequence rocked my world. Beautifully shot, surreal, and unsettling.

Love how that was done; the buildings even tilt with the soft focus.

This whole sequence is hilarious for the way it drives home how, despite the havoc the Shanti Virus will wreak, Peter's response throughout is pretty much,

"CAITLIN! (...and the rest of the population.)"

"CAITLIN! (...and billions of other people.)"

"CAITLIN! (...and, you know, mankind.)"

The fact that Peter (and the show) haven't forgotten about the character is reassuring, but the way Peter puts Caitlin ahead of everyone else? I don't know if it's meant to be romantic, but it seems like Peter's not too concerned about the rest of the population as long as he saves his girlfriend. It's difficult to sympathize with a character whose perspective is that narrow.

Peter finds himself back in the Montreal Junk Room and tells Adam about the Shanti Virus. Ominous music plays. Adam gets The Expression of Villainous Scheming.

Is Adam lying about The Company developing the virus from Shanti's illness instead of creating it? He's got no reason to lie about that, so we can assume the virus really did start out as an unintentional sickness rather than an artificially-developed bio-weapon. It's not essential to the plot, but it's good that the detail was thrown in.

What does start to hurt the plot, already now, is the way Peter never stops to ask how Adam knows so much about The Company and its history. I mean, from Peter's perspective, Adam's some random schmuck who was bagged and tagged and locked away by The Company because he wanted to go public with his ability. The fact that Peter just accepts Adam's knowledge about who engineered Shanti's sickness as a weapon and exactly how and when that happened seems a little ... dumb. But, like a lot of things this week, it's just one of those things we're supposed to buy into.

The important thing is that Peter realizes what needs to be done:

"We need to stop the virus -- AND SAVE CAITLIN!"

"(...and, you know, other people too.)"

Canine Central.

That's an intense way to start a scene no matter who's pointing the gun, but when the focus shifts and you realize that it's ...

Mama Bennet? ...

... it becomes even more intense. And I'm surprised some jittery network exec didn't freak out and censor the shot, because having a character who started out as a clueless dog-loving ditz get to the point where she's aiming a gun at a man in front of her son and daughter is genuinely disturbing.

Ashley Crow plays crazed remarkably well. The one thing I kept thinking throughout this scene was that it's about time the actress had a chance to work with the kind of material she only ever really got to work with once on this show, when Claire was shot in front of her.

Lyle? He sort of ... stands there with his arms folded ... and tries to look menacing with his arms folded ... without dialogue.

NBC, have you ever considered using this in place of the actors on your shows? Because if you're so uptight about paying the wages which your writers deserve, I don't see why you couldn't make a saving on recurring actors who are limited to glorified extras.

And Heroes? Please give Randall Bentley more to do.

Does Bob know Mohinder used Claire's blood to revive Noah? Stephen Tobolowsky brings the "pretend" sincerity he's so good at, but I couldn't figure out whether Bob honestly meant what he said about Noah being "a true friend," or whether Bob even knew he was offering his condolences for the death of an employee who was at that moment being transfused in a Company lab. It's not like the plan wasn't to "take out" Noah all along, but something about Bob's morose eyes seemed earnest enough here.

Bob gets into his car looking visibly rattled, so I'm tempted to think his reaction in the house wasn't entirely false. The whole Elle-in-a-sling-is-assigned-to-spy-on-Claire story is amusing, but it's also a little disappointing to see how small and ineffectual The Company has become. Most of the first season, The Company was embodied by Bennet, the Haitian, and Eden, but you got the impression they were an extension of a much larger and more influential organization.

This week, you get the sense that The Company doesn't extend that far. You'd think they'd have benched an employee who screwed up her assignment as completely as Elle did. You'd think they'd have assigned a dozen field agents to watch a super as valuable as Claire. Hell, you'd think they'd have strapped Claire down and started filling test tubes with her blood right in front of Sandra if it met their objectives.

You would NOT think The Company would be limited to a father, his incapacitated daughter, and a recently-recruited and deeply-misguided scientist.

But then, I'm not sure whether the dingy cell where Mohinder revives Noah is unfortunately cheap or intentionally sparse. It might be to convey the sense that Mohinder saved Noah without The Company's knowledge in a facility which wasn't being maintained. My guess is it's sadly a limited budget preventing the show from reviving Noah in the kind of high-tech lab which Matt woke up in.

I also spent most of this scene trying to figure out where Mohinder took Noah. Is this still Costa Verde? Is it the Hartsdale lab? At least with Matt's lab, the show intentionally maintained the mystery with a caption that told us the location was "unknown." It seems like the show doesn't even care about details like that anymore.

What's great about this scene, though, is Mohinder's conviction about The Company's capacity for good.

"I was once Dumb As Mohinder, but now I am D-E-F-I-A-N-T!"

Is Mohinder a fool to think he knows better than Noah? Of course. But it's satisfying to see Mohinder flip the bird at his former partner and defend his decisions so passionately. The fact that Mohinder believes he's the doing the right thing -- and that he's willing to challenge Noah's experience with The Company so brazenly -- shows how far he's come since the idiot who, not three episodes ago, had no idea what to think or who to trust. He's still an idiot, but he's a delightfully decisive one.

Mohinder: "Your recovery has proven this blood has tremendous regenerative properties."

Wait, so this was just a test to see if Claire's blood would work on the virus? So Mohinder wasn't even all that bothered whether Noah survived a bullet to the eye? I never thought I'd say this, but Mohinder has become one ruthless, cold-hearted badass.

Dawson Superhome. Damon contemplates how much he could make out of selling Micah's 9th Wonders comics, and Monica figures out why Clark Kent wears glasses.

That pretty much sums up this story thread.

One glimmering virtue emerges:

I love how Ali Larter's performance knocks me out every week; how she'll always bring a tiny nuance to her role that brings her mediocre story to life; how she can give this nervous little smile that shows how afraid Niki is to tell her son she's dying, but that she's even more afraid she won't be able to fool him into thinking she'll pull through.

Tragically, in spite of Larter's performance, the scene goes down the drain.

Niki starts off on the "ohmygodImissedyoueverydayeveryminuteeverysecond" spiel, which isn't really a spiel, but the dialogue's so weak that it feels like a spiel.

Micah goes to get "something to make [Niki] stronger," and Niki tells him, "We cannot waste another nanosecond." Which is terrible dialogue, but it's made even worse by Niki delivering the line WITHOUT MOVING HER LIPS. Great editing, show. This actually threw me. I started wondering whether this was a dream sequence, or whether Jessica's voice was inside Micah's head when Niki wasn't talking, or whether it was a flashback with a Niki voice-over or something. It was so sloppy that it became misleading.

That's not the worst part, though. This subplot about the medal actually damages the intensity of the rest of the episode. The importance of the medal is a subtle tribute to D.L., I guess, and if the focus had been on Niki and Micah's grief over D.L.'s death it would at least have had some resonance with the loss Niki and Micah were feeling. But the amount of time a STOLEN BACKPACK gets in an episode intended to set up events for the finale and draw the story arcs to a close is shocking. A story about a medal, thoughtful though it is, doesn't gel with a story about a virus that wipes out mankind and a daughter's devastation after her father's been murdered. It slows those stories down. It's not season finale material, or even volume finale material. It's mid-season "Wouldn't-this-be-a-fun-subplot-adventure?" material.

You know what makes this storyline seem at least a little better?

This:

And if you thought Maya's scenes were torturous until now, brace yourself for scenes that will REDEFINE the word torturous.

CHEERS!

Maya: "I almost feel normal."

Sylar: "After you see Dr. Suresh, you will be."

Maya: "... And then Alejandro and I can go back home."

Isn't she wanted for murder? For resisting arrest? For assisting in the escape of a convict who later turned up dead while his Nissan Rogue went back and forth across the U.S. border?

Yeah, they can go home. Along with a

PING!

Dumb As Parkman Award for ignoring the homicide warrant.

Sylar: "What if Alejandro could go home now?"

Maya: "I need my brother..."

YES!

Maya: "He's..."

...your brother!

...the one who loves you!

...the one who's always been there for you and taken care of you no matter what!

Maya: "...the only one who can stop me."

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?

There's selfish and ungrateful and disloyal, and then there's just DUMB.

Sylar: "Do you love your brother enough to let him go?"

Maya [with a "How-can-you-ask-me-that?" laugh]: "Of course!"

No! No, Maya! You've grown up with your brother and know him and trust him and love him and went on an immeasurable journey with him, and now, when you're on the verge of answers you wanted, YOU'RE GOING TO SEND HIM HOME?

Maya's eyes blacken, Sylar collapses, and then ...

Maya [elated]: "You were right! I did it!"

That's great! Could you try it again a few times ON YOURSELF? You know, just to be sure?

Maya doesn't, but she's convinced she's now in complete control of her ability. Which (a) basically makes Alejandro pointless, (b) basically makes all of Maya's victims pointless, (c) basically makes Maya's trip to see Chandra in New York pointless, and (d) basically makes everything we've sat through for the past 10 episodes pointless.

But, hey, CHEERS!

At Yamagato Empire, Hiro realizes that healing from injuries = immortality.

?!?!?!?!?

Stupid us! How could we not have realized Claire will live forever! And that Peter will live forever! And that cellular regeneration leads to immortality! That's just so ... obvious.

NOT!

But Hiro makes this incredible deductive leap because the plot won't work if he doesn't, so shut up.

Searsmont, Maine.

Peter finds Joanna Cassidy, and she's all, "You lost?" And he's like, "I know you're Victoria Pratt, you worked for The Company, there's a virus that'll kill everyone in less than a year, it's about to be unleashed, please help me." And she's just, "WTF?!", because she clearly wasn't clued in to Linderman's crazy art collection. And Peter's all, "No paintings! I've seen it with my own eyes!" And then Victoria herds Peter inside the house with a shotgun, which is disturbing, but the fact that she's concerned about Peter's prediction is the first hint that Victoria might be one of the non-bats**t-crazy ElderSupers.

At Yamagato Empire, Ando's "like a hamster making a nest." Frankly, Ando as a hamster seems preferable to Hiro as a badger who says "Chuffa chuffa." But then, I thought Maya meeting goats was cute, so what do I know.

Papa Sulu 30 years ago! Well, sure, if Papa Sulu was a bodybuilder in his youth and underwent drastic surgical alteration before he settled down with Mama Sulu. I know I shouldn't complain because any ElderSuper flashback is better than no flashback at all. Just saying, Heroes casting department -- WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!

Hiro discovers that Kensei is Adam Monroe, and that Papa Sulu ordered Adam's incarceration 30 years earlier. He gets the date and address of Adam's incarceration and resolves to "do this." I'm not sure what "do this" means -- whether Hiro meant he needed to go back in time to find Adam, or whether he just needed to find out why Adam was locked up in the first place. But he teleports out of Yamagato Empire and leaves Ando lamenting that he's been ditched "again." Here comes another five episodes of contemplation, video games, and visits to the Kensei Fan Club.

A cardboard cutout for Ando, please!

Hiro visits Company Medical in 1977. This is so exciting, people! Just think, Hiro could ditch this Company conspiracy garbage and join millions of nerds rejoicing over the birth of a sci-fi phenomenon!

The actor playing Young Papa Sulu does his best to imitate his older self's cadence and intonation. It comes out less like George Takei and more like William Shatner. You know, with the random affected pauses for dramatic effect? "You betrayed ... everything ... we stand for ... by releasing a virus ... that could kill ... billions ... of innocent people."

Young(er) Adam speaks normally, explaining that man's "disregard" for the environment and propensity for war meant he needed to "make the hard choice for the greater good." Which sounds a lot like Linderman, but it's subtle enough that you can believe Kring & Co. slipped it in to make it sound like Adam was the one who talked that way and that it rubbed off onto Linderman. Good writing, and good continuity.

Hiro watches the confrontation, then scampers through the hall and eavesdrops on Young Papa Sulu's conversation with Young Victoria. I'd point out that Hiro's probably being caught on surveillance cameras, but it's not like The Company ever actually uses its cameras, or even switches them on.

Young Victoria worries over the devastation Strain 138 could bring and pulls out of the project. This raises all kinds of questions about the other 137 variations on the Shanti Virus, but also makes me wonder how Victoria and Angela could have remained on such good terms that it would take Matt's Parkman-whammy to force Victoria's location out of Angela.

Aaaaaand again, the most interesting questions come from the ElderSuper backstory.

In the present, Peter glimpses Victoria's newspaper clippings that chronicle Angela's confession to the murder of Papa Sulu. Peter's like, "Huh?" And Victoria's just, "You look like your mother," instead of, "What kind of son comes back from the dead and gets his memories back after four months and DOESN'T EVEN CALL HIS MOM TO LET HER KNOW HE'S OK?"

In light of the discovery that his mother's been jailed and an ElderSuper's responsible for the virus which kills most of the general population, Peter focuses on what really matters.

"There was a woman ... Caitlin ... If you just tell me where to find the virus, I know that I can save her."

"(...and, you know, everyone else.)"

Victoria's so bowled over by this story that she gives Peter a false location in New Mexico. Peter tells Adam the good news so they can rush off to destroy the virus, even though they have no clue how to safely dispose of the virus once they find it.

Victoria puts bullets in both of them. You wouldn't think a bullet to a villain's chest -- a villain who can instaheal -- could be so shocking. But it happens so suddenly that your immediate reaction -- before "Oh, he'll regenerate, it's cool" -- is "Oh %#*@!" And Peter, in a parallel to Mohinder's "I Love The Company" loyalty, blindly ignores Victoria's suspicion of Adam and pwns her to save his friend. Which, Aww, but also, Oh, Peter, REALLY.

Romantic Picnic Getaway. Alejandro goes online, visits the New York Chronicle, and learns that someone stumbled onto Mama Gray's corpse.

Maya bursts in and tells her brother about Sylar's success in helping her control her ability.

I'm not sure why every scene with these two lends itself so well to images, but you can't deny that these actors work hard to bring their scenes to life. It's kind of sad that they're trying so hard.

Maya holds a copy of the article with the headline "LOCAL MAN WANTED IN MOTHERS [SIC] MURDER."

Maya: "I don't believe it! It's not true!"

Sylar doesn't even try to deny it. And Maya's reaction is ...

Well, it is quite sad, so you can't begrudge Maya for crying over this. But Sylar?

^ ^ Moist eyes?

Real grief or pretense? He's twisting the truth and manipulating Maya's reaction, and he seemed indifferent to Mama Gray's death when he was painting the apocalypse in her blood. But there's a part of Zach Quinto's performance here that's really quite convincing -- so convincing that you wonder if you're supposed to buy into it.

"Fooled you!"

The hands on her shoulders! The eyes on the back of her scalp! The fallen angel turning a sister away from her brother! It's ... dumb. You feel bad for Peter for the way he's duped by Adam; you can kind of admire Mohinder's conviction while Bob's playing him; but Maya being manipulated into sending her brother away? Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel bad for her or sympathize with her -- I actually hope she suffers a slow and agonizing scalping once Sylar gets his powers back. And I feel sorry for Alejandro. Not because he's now facing the prospect of retreading hundreds of miles on his own with only a smattering of English and no money and no one he can trust, but because he has such a colossally impressionable sister who could be persuaded to abandon the brother she's grown up with for an infatuation with a stranger she met on a desert road.

In Maine, Adam ties up Victoria while Peter ignores her claims of Adam's duplicity. Again, I'm very tempted to give Peter a Dumb As Parkman Award, but you could argue that between four months in a cell next to the guy and the debt of gratitude he owes him for healing Nathan, Peter's loyalty to Adam is close to unshakable.

Then Peter does get a moment of uncertainty:

And HERE'S what earns Peter a

PING!

Dumb As Parkman Award, because if the guy was smart enough to mindread Victoria, you have to wonder why he never acts on his uncertainty by mindreading Adam. Chances are Adam's trained his mind to resist all mindreading, especially after recruiting Maury, but the fact that Peter never even tries to get a read on Adam is surprising; after this scene, we know there's a hint of uncertainty creeping into his mind.

Adam unties Victoria, counting on Victoria's attempt to shoot Peter as a justification to shoot her. Which is one hell of a risk to take because if Adam had paused for a moment longer and if Victoria had shot a moment sooner, Peter would be dead.

Instead, we say bye-bye to Joanna Cassidy as Victoria Pratt. That didn't last long. I'm a little disappointed that Peter didn't insist on giving Victoria a transfusion and healing the bullet wound, but the implication is that Peter doesn't have time for anything if it doesn't involve Caitlin. It's also rather saddening that he walks out of the house and leaves Adam to decide whether to cover the corpse or let it fester. It's as if Peter's becoming so accustomed to death that he isn't even fazed by it anymore.

Dawson Superhome. Damon returns home after letting Micah's backpack get stolen by a gang of kids. Micah starts beating the crap out of Damon until Niki and Uhura break them apart.

Micah: "We need to be heroes!"

As in, "We need to be Heroes"? I don't know if there's any meaning behind that pun, but the show does need to be Heroes. And soon.

Niki: "Being a hero is what got your father killed."

No, Niki forcing D.L. to come to her rescue after flushing her pills and running off to a coke dealer in L.A. while possessed by an alternate personality is what got him killed. What kind of spin has Niki put on D.L.'s death?

Alejandro visits Sylar at the Romantic Picnic Getaway.

Alejandro: "I'm taking my sister!"

^ ^ In English! Aww!

Sylar and Alejandro scuffle. Again. And then Sylar stabs Alejandro with a knife and Alejandro dies. And ... that's it.

Let's be thankful we didn't have a chance to get attached to the guy. If we had, the way this was handled would have been even more tragic.

Farewell, Alejandro! We felt like we knew you. You loved your sister. And had the ability to absorb the Tears of Death. And got married to your girlfriend after four months because it was romantically impulsive. And were computer literate. But not particularly good at stealing cars.

And ... that's pretty much everything we knew about you after 10 episodes.

You know the best way to distract us from a badly-written, badly-edited death?

Uh, yeah, that'll do it.

Plus points for continuity: he still has the stab wound in his chest. Minus points for the way Sylar apparently strips and showers within about 10 seconds.

Maya resolves to send her brother home in order to "protect" him. This, it seems, extends to not even saying goodbye to him. And, sure, Sylar probably told Maya her brother had already gone. But the fact that she actually fell for that idea? That she'd be cool with her brother leaving without saying goodbye and fending for himself as he headed back down to the U.S. border, across Mexico, through Honduras and back to the Dominican Republic where his friends and wife were dead and where his sister was wanted for murder? That's what Maya does to "protect" her brother?

There's a point where you have to ask whether someone who's being manipulated is mentally deficient. At this point, the plot stops functioning. It stops being a plot and devolves into farce.

Ten episodes in, having tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, having tried to reserve judgment, I have to ask: WHAT WAS THE POINT?

What has this storyline achieved? Has it raised any significant questions? Has it put forward any meaningful themes? Has any of it tied in with the larger story?

Those aren't rhetorical questions. As always, feel free to let me know what I've been missing. I don't think I've been unfairly harsh on this storyline in previous reviews, but I'm at a point where I can't see how it's going to connect to the show's central story arcs. There's nothing that could redeem this storyline and justify the attention it's gotten. It sapped screen time which could have gone on Matt's separation from Janice. Or Nathan's separation from Heidi. Or Niki's experiences after she checked into The Company. Or Noah's collusion with Mohinder. Or Matt and Mohinder adopting Molly. Or Sandra and Lyle asking Noah about his job at The Company. Or West's life at home and his relationship with his parents. Or Ando's effort to return to a normal life in Tokyo. Or Monica discovering her abilities. Or D.L. joining the fire department in Las Vegas before he died. Or anything -- in any shape or form -- relating to the ElderSupers.

Or even a day in the life of Mr. Muggles.

And, truthfully, it's painful to say that, because it goes without saying that a lot of people put a lot of effort into planning and realizing this story thread. The problem is the Maya/Alejandro story has been so far removed from the rest of the show and turned out to be so totally pointless that I'm not sure why it was here in the first place.

ANYWAY, we cut to Canine Central, where Claire's unpacking the wind chimes which send a signal to the Haitian. Which is another nod to continuity, but also makes you wonder what happened to the Haitian after he and Noah returned from Ukraine.

Claire's recollection of her various injuries was amazing. Great dialogue, and one of the few moments in this episode that stand out as memorable. Convincingly delivered by Hayden, and believable from a character whose physical invulnerability would make her complacent about healing from any kind of pain.

Claire asking the Haitian to wipe her memory of Noah is an intriguing "What If?" You have to wonder if it would last more than a few minutes after the way Peter recovered his memories; given that Noah's what matters most to her, and given that every part of her life leads back to him one way or another, it's not like anything -- short of sending Claire to Ireland -- would keep her memories from immediately restoring themselves. Still, the tragedy's in the idea that Claire would want to forget her attachment to her father.

At the Former Apartment of Clairvoyance, Mohinder concocts a cure for Niki. Bob continues to plug the advantages of "a safe way to remove the abilities of dangerous individuals," which suddenly makes me wonder whether Bob was the middle-man back in the 70s. I mean, if he wasn't on the Kaito/Victoria anti-virus team, and if he wasn't on the loony Go Adam! Linderman/Angela/Maury team, chances are Bob was the liberal who wanted to placate both sides and safely develop a way to restrain out-of-control supers.

But then, he's also the dad who pushed his daughter's ability until she snapped, so he could very well be closer to the Raving Loony Team than the Sane & Skeptical Team.

Bob asks Mohinder what he can do to regain his confidence, which is odd, because until now Bob pretty much issued orders and put up with Mohinder's complaints and protests because he knew Mohinder would end up doing what The Company wanted. This moment lends credibility to Mohinder's new-found conviction because it implies that Mohinder really does have an influence on Company directives.

Does Bob actually care what Mohinder wants? Probably not. But the fact that Bob's even trying to gauge Mohinder's state of mind and give the impression that he cares underlines how important Mohinder is to The Company. Which, if nothing else, gives Mohinder some leverage to bargain his way into effecting real change in the organization. It's disappointing to see a company that seemed so formidable at the start of the show be reduced to something so malleable, but it's great to see Mohinder gain some influence in The Company.

Dawson Superhome. Monica dresses up as St. Joan and lets Micah tag along to retrieve D.L.'s medal.

The iPod which Bob gave Monica contains footage to enable effective B&E skills. Hilariously, it doesn't provide an effective exit. Or it does, but Monica doesn't bother to study and imitate that.

The break-in sequence was nicely done; good stuntwork, good music, and it brought a sense of urgency and drama to a thread which felt pretty slow this week.

Then ... Dilemma!

Monica retrieves the medal, the comic, AND the backpack. The gang pulls up outside the house with their van and SUV. This is so straightforward that it warrants a multiple choice. Does Monica:

(a) put the medal and comic into the backpack, put the backpack around her shoulders, surprise the gang with a 619 and then run for her life,

(b) introduce herself to the gang, explain that the medal is a memento of a kid's dead father, and that it'd be the cool thing to let her leave with it,

(c) take the medal, leave the cumbersome backpack, wait until the gang's inside the house, then exit by the roof, the way she came, or

(d) hide on the ceiling with comic AND backpack AND medal, and ... wait until it's convenient to climb down.

The fact that Monica froze with terror when the kids found her on the ceiling isn't hard to buy into; she's got several guns pointed at her and she's terrified. But the fact that she gathered everything in her arms and opted for the ceiling plan at all when there was a clear escape route out of the house the way she'd gotten in? That's just ...

PING!

Dumb As Parkman.

Costa Verde Beachfront.

Beautifully shot. It's difficult to connect with the emotion in the scene because we know the family's grieving over the death of a man who's alive, but it is well shot.

The problem here is that, beyond the visual element of the scene and the quality of the performances (and, truthfully, Hayden's performance here bordered on wooden), this scene lacked the impact it should have had. It's going to lose all resonance when Noah shows up alive, so you're essentially left waiting for Noah to break out of the Company cell and return to his family. In the meantime, you're not sure why you should share any grief or regret with the characters.

Elle sits in her car slurping a Slusho until Claire sees her, then fumbles for the car keys and spills the Slusho. Which is idiotic and extraneous and contributes nothing to the plot, but it makes Elle look so adorably hapless and unfortunate that you feel sorry for her when Claire slams her against the car and smashes the window.

Scary role reversal; you wouldn't think there'd be a moment when Elle became the helpless and powerless one and Claire became the violent and threatening one.

Too cool. Gross, but too cool. I love how the flesh in her hand pushes out the glass the way Peter's chest spat out a bullet. It shows consistency in the ability.

Another cool detail in this scene was Elle's lightning bolt necklace. Not important to the story, but a nice detail for the character.

Claire decides she's going to avenge her father and bring down The Company by revealing her ability to the world.

Oh, Claire.

First, it's a plan Simone came up with. And all Simone plans are bad.

Second, it's not like no one's ever tried the same thing and been branded a nutjob for it.

Third, as you've pointed out, you'd be a guinea pig for the rest of your life.

Fourth, and mostly because Claire couldn't possibly know about two of the previous points, it's insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane.

Sylar calls Mohinder on his cell phone. Subtle nod to continuity with the Zane Taylor charade, as well as providing a truly scary moment for the former villain: threatening Molly to Mohinder over the phone while making it seem harmless to Maya who's standing next to him. Tense, unsettling, and well thought out. It's the first scene with Sylar all season that I'd describe as genuinely worthy of Zach Quinto's talent.

Matt left Molly with a babysitter while he went to find Victoria? As in, a non-superpowered, un-clued-in, run-of-the-mill babysitter? He left Molly with a babysitter when he knows The Company wants to exploit her ability and that she was only just beginning to recover from a nightmare-induced coma inflicted by Matt's father?

PING!

Dumb As Parkman. And Matt earned it without even appearing in the episode.

Do NOT leave your superpowered foster-daughter with a babysitter while you go on a wild goose chase looking for an ElderSuper!

Yamagato Empire. Hiro returns and wakes Ando from his nap. He knows that Adam wants the virus at the Primatech Fun Factory.

Did I miss something? Hiro discovered that Adam tried to release the virus in 1977, that he was locked up for it, that the virus was stored in Odessa, that Adam's now free, and that he killed Papa Sulu.

And therefore Adam's again planning to release the virus?

Seriously, I need someone to spell this out for me because I'm sure I missed something. I'm not saying every trivial detail had to be explained, but this isn't the same as "regeneration = immortality." This is a key development in the plot which relies on solid deductive reasoning from A to B to C, and Hiro just made a jump from A to C that would be IMPOSSIBLE with the scant information he has. Hiro has no way of knowing that Adam's still trying to release the virus, or that Adam only just broke out of The Company, or that Strain 138 is even still stored at the Odessa Primatech facility. All he knows is there was a strain of the virus stored there, that Adam once tried to release that strain, and that he just killed Hiro's dad. That IN NO WAY adds up to Adam suddenly returning to a plan he attempted 30 years ago.

Primatech Fun Factory. Adam and Peter walk in, time freezes, and Peter finds Hiro standing behind him just like he did when they met on the subway.

This was the one moment in the episode when I sat up and said wow. The way the camera circles Peter the exact same way it did when Peter met Future Hiro, and the way it's staged so that they're standing at the exact same angles they were when they met on the subway -- that's so vividly reminiscent of "Collision" that I had to say wow.

Hiro and Peter are reunited. Peter wants to know why Hiro teleported away and never came back when they were facing off with Sylar at Superhero Square. Hiro wants to know what happened to Peter after he was about to explode. And what happened to his hair. Peter wants to offer his condolences for the death of Papa Sulu, and, based on the clippings he saw at Victoria's house, whether his mom might have had something to do with it. Hiro wants to know whether Peter's really in league with a murderer, or whether he's perhaps playing the murderer in a devious scheme that'll eventually lead to his downfall. Peter wa-

Nah, screw that. Let's not bother having anyone communicate. Let's just have Hiro tell Peter that Adam killed his father, then have Peter refuse to let Hiro kill Adam, then ...

Dun-dun-DUN!

This is going to be intense!

He's ready to kill Peter!

He's starting to run!

He's running!

He's still running!

Uh, still running!

You maybe wanna grab a drink or something? Plenty of time.

He's still running, trust me.

What can I say about this one, folks? If you enjoyed it, great. I tried to, but as the penultimate episode of the volume -- and possibly the season -- this was a disappointment. Maybe we weren't supposed to compare it with "Landslide"; between the smaller volume and the writers' strike, maybe this can't be compared with the show's format last season, and maybe we can't expect a tight script and a fast pace and a sensible focus on the central story arcs.

But then, most of that's stuff I'd expect in every episode, not just the episode leading into a finale.

I'm docking points for the leaps in logic which Hiro's storyline demanded just for it to work; for the lack of communication between Peter and Hiro when they met; for the emptiness of the Claire storyline that involves grieving over the death of a character we know is alive; for the attention given to the Micah storyline involving a reminder of a character which the show spent most of the season ignoring; for the way Alejandro was killed off and written out; and for the sheer, unimaginable stupidity which Maya demonstrated this week.

That's pretty much enough to drag this episode down to a 1 out of 5. What saves it is a decent opening sequence, a couple of neat details and nods to continuity, some good acting from the cast, the ElderSuper flashback, Mohinder becoming more assertive, and the potential of Peter and Hiro facing off before they figure the situation out together.

All in all, that raises the quality just above "Kindred," although not by much.

I wish I could have been more positive as the volume draws to a close, but however you look at it, this doesn't inspire confidence for next week's episode.

2.5 out of 5