Review:

Would you look at that title? I'd say Star Trek still holds the record for most pretentious Latin phrase ever used for an episode title, but this is a worthy runner-up. Interestingly, that show also tried to "humanize" its villains and "complicate" its heroes. By the time the show limped to its conclusion, it had turned its original villains into pitiful lackeys, undermined its central villains with the idea that galactic enslavement was understandable if the motive was "simple self-preservation," and kind of made us hate ourselves by revealing that a covert organization on Earth resorted to biological warfare to wipe its enemy out.

None of which is relevant to Heroes, of course, but it goes to show that the whole "moral ambiguity" thing goes back a long way -- at least in the TV universe -- and that it can end up undermining villains who were content to be villainous and weren't really interested in having understandable motives until someone in the writers' room thought it'd make for good drama. Which may or may not apply to this show when it comes to Sylar, Arthur or any of the other characters. But whether this show's characters are being rewritten purely for the sake of drama -- and whether that's damaging their character arcs in the process -- is an issue worth raising, particularly after an episode like this, where the ostensible villains seem a lot more sympathetic than the heroes, and where characters you thought you knew turn out to be characters you barely recognize.

Whatever. Let's be thankful Maya's gone.

Previously on Heroes: Claire scrutinizes one of those ubiquitous Pinehearst calling cards at Doyle's Lair of Puppet Torture. I can't recall seeing this in last week's episode, but I wasted the next ten minutes trying to remember whether Claire ever saw that card. She did because Stephen showed it to her two weeks back, but it's not clear whether this is Stephen's card or whether Papa Petrelli was trying to recruit Doyle for Team Pinehearst. Not a huge deal either way, but it's intriguing and would make for a great graphic novel if it isn't picked up on the show.

Desert of Clairvoyance. Ando implores Hiro to go back in time and figure out the backstory to Usutu's painted villains. Given the repeated blows to the head which Hiro suffered last week, Hiro would probably be better off trusting his friend's judgment than his own, but he does have a point when he insists it would only make things worse. Then again, Hiro generally makes things worse no matter what he does, so I'm not sure it would hurt to go back and tell himself, "Do not open the safe! Ask father who would steal The Formula! And pay for the cinema ticket and fake sword!" But he doesn't.

Usutu gives this little speech about "evil forces" and "the dark sun" and "choosing a path," and while it probably would have sounded great after Hiro got the glazed eyes, it smacks of reject V.O.-Mohinder material, and it seems a little too early in the episode for something so heavy, especially in a story thread consisting largely of comic relief. To switch from the shovel and one-minute teleportation to something so ominous feels jarring: you're not sure whether to take it seriously or laugh.

Mohinder's a white dude! Now we know Usutu has a sense of humor.

Mohinder is angry. Nathan and Tracy have "ruined everything." I'm not sure what there is to ruin, but Mohinder sees the steam rising from Tracy's cryo-hands, and the vibe in this scene reverses so abruptly that it pulls you right out of the story: Mohinder suddenly gets this wary look, Tracy gets this almost-confident look, and Mohinder backs off and says he was only trying to "help Maya." Which, while laudable because it minimized Maya's dialogue over several episodes, feels very inconsistent. The way Mohinder rips open the cocoon and busts through the skylight is a neat effect, but everything driving Mohinder is underdeveloped. Putting Maya in a cocoon doesn't seem to have furthered Mohinder's research in any way, and it never seemed like Mohinder giving himself an ability and cocooning a neighbor and a random drug dealer was about helping Maya. Or if they were, that was never clear enough. You can see what the show was trying to do, but Mohinder spent a quarter of this season seeming less like a misguided fool for love and more like an instinct-driven zombie.

We cut to Peter at the Helix Compound, where we're supplied with a montage of images which we've already seen, but which serve to bring up to speed any viewers who either didn't watch that episode or didn't remember it. I think this could have been lumped in with the rest of the footage in the Previously, but we do get one new image from Papa Petrelli's funeral a year earlier:

And, as gorgeous as Cristine Rose looks in every scene, I feel obliged to point out that she looks about 20 years younger in this flashback. Which is probably a combination of a distorted dream and Angela applying heavy make-up to cover up grief (even if it's not grief over the death of that "deeply flawed" magnificent b*****d), but perhaps it also says something about the enormous toll that events in the past year have taken on her. After a tragedy like this, who wouldn't be up for a bout of sock-stealing?

Peter wakes up from his expo-conducive flashback to discover he's cuffed to a stretcher in a cell. And while Arthur's choice of literature is in itself a subtle nod to character, the fact that Arthur stayed with his son seems like the first of several instances when Arthur comes across as less of a megalomaniac and more of a concerned father.

Peter asks Arthur if his abilities are gone forever, and ...

... his look of dismay is surprising. We've never really gotten a hint of whether Peter values his powers for their own sake rather than for self-defense. The look of vulnerability he gets in this scene is like an echo of the guy who was thrilled to discover he could fly when the show began.

Arthur tells Peter they'll make sure the future he saw never happens -- and call me crazy, but he seems genuine enough. A little stubborn and warped, but not cold-as-stone malevolent to the point of not caring that the world ends. We don't even know for sure whether it's Arthur's plan that causes abilities to become widespread and the planet to break in half.

Peter's "not interested" in hearing what Arthur's doing. I'm interested, and I wish Peter would shut up long enough for Arthur to explain his plan, but Peter's hostility towards Arthur is one part of the storyline that seems consistent with the backstory: in "Six Months Ago," Peter proudly pointed out that he finished school without his father's money or support. Between the two sons who actually knew that Arthur was their father, it seems like Peter was always the one with a little less admiration and a little more resentment, even before he found out that Papa Petrelli was behind a superpowered conspiracy.

Claire and Sandra return to Canine Central, Sandra asks if Claire's OK, and Claire's like, "Yeah, I think so, but it's funny after everything I've been through and blah-bla-blah-bla-blah-bla-blah and me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me ... [edited due to time constraints?] ... and oh, by the way, ARE YOU OK? 'Cause I can imagine how getting kidnapped by a deranged puppeteer and being forced to shoot your daughter would be hard on YOU as well."

Sandra heaps praise on Claire for her strength and courage and OMG-general-amazingness, and I have to wonder what the show's trying to achieve here. Even if I didn't find Claire self-centered to the point of being contemptible in this episode, I have to wonder why the show is trying so hard to glorify the character. When you get speeches like this two weeks in a row, it's more than a sweet moment where a parent tells their child they're proud of her. When a character's saintliness is rammed down your throat so overtly, it invites you to disagree with the sentiment and look for reasons to dislike the character.

The house lights start flickering. Run for your lives! It's a monster with the ability to wreak horror-movie cliches from hell! No, wait, it's Lyle! He wanted to go to the other side! He had to know what was there! He needed to feel loved! It's a plea for attention!

Claire finds Elle surfing the web. So Lyle got fried because he was trying to stop her from checking her e-mail? Hayden tries her best to look menacing, tilting her head forward and glaring upwards. It doesn't quite work, mostly because we know Claire's anything but a badass at this point, and because we know Elle's a whole lot scarier.

Elle goes Ellectric on Claire, and Claire ...

... looks like she's trying to say "Do your worst!", but it comes across as more "Look at me, so smug, don't you wish grandpa would suck the arrogance right out of me?"

We get the next best thing:

It's almost as cathartic as Hiro getting thwacked over the head. Shouldn't Claire be on fire? Or at least a little burned? Elle singed a guy to cinders the last time she pulled this trick, so is the voltage weakening as the ability becomes more unstable, or is Claire so "smoking hot" that the show can overlook continuity? Do they love her too much to burn her?

Lyle douses Elle with a bucket of water.

Cool effect, and props to Lyle for doing what's in all likelihood the most useful thing he's ever done on the show.

The moment when Elle collapses in the corner was beautifully captured, and probably the strongest moment of the episode. The drowned-rat look does a lot of the work, but so do the desperation in Elle's eyes and the nervous nail-biting before the scene cuts away. As awesome as the chick fight and Ellectro-zapping and dousing are, the way Kristen Bell makes Elle look like a cornered animal reinforces the way the performances will always outshine the visual effects.

Helix Compound. Arthur apologizes to Mohinder for keeping him waiting. There's nothing remarkable about the dialogue, but the fact that Arthur bothered to apologize says something about his civility. As TV mastermind villains go, he's one of the politest.

Mohinder exposits about how his goal all along was to remove Maya's ability and "end her suffering." And, unwittingly, ours.

Then the show does it for us. It introduces a well-written, well-performed, charismatic and compelling character who invalidates five episodes of bug-related garbage by stepping in to take hold of Maya and sucking the suck right out. Which, as far as I'm concerned, makes Arthur the greatest hero this show ever created.

Arthur gets a little twinkle in the eyes and something resembling a smile. And again, I'm not sure what we're supposed to think when the megalomaniac villain turns out to be the most carefully-nuanced and human character on the show. That's not a mua-ha-ha smile -- that's an I've-just-done-a-good-deed smile. And I'll bet that detail wasn't in the script. That's an actor working with decent material and then making the character is own.

Arthur clarifies that he "take[s] it all and leave[s] nothing behind," effectively shutting down any hope fans had that Peter's abilities would pop back by the end of the next episode. Mohinder wants to know if he can lose the lizard-scales and peeling flesh but hold onto the speed and strength and wall-crawling and boundless energy and whoa, is it me, or does this completely contradict what Mohinder said NOT ONE SCENE EARLIER? Suddenly the research isn't about helping Maya, it's about imbuing himself with an ability without any side effects.

It would make sense if Mohinder's motive for wanting an ability was to defend people from monsters like Sylar, or if having an ability heightened his concentration and thought process enough to help develop a cure to lethal abilities like Maya's. The problem is the show couldn't even come up with a rationale like that, so we're stuck speculating about Mohinder's intentions, wondering if we're supposed to pity him for his plight or despise him for his recklessness. This is where the "character complication for the sake of drama" issue becomes relevant, because in an attempt to "complicate" Mohinder's character, the show ruined it. We have no idea who this character is anymore, and we have no idea what his core motives are.

Mohinder gets a look at the two halves of the Formula blueprint and asks if it's been successful. Given the way this Formula created wonderfully pretty supers like Nathan and Tracy, you have to wonder why Arthur would want Mohinder messing it up with scales and slime and cocoons. It could be that Pinehearst's bespectacled doctor has no idea what he's doing and that Victoria and Kaito were the only two who had any idea how The Formula worked. Or it could be that Arthur wants The Formula refined to produce specific abilities or speed up manifestation rates. Again, something that'll hopefully be developed.

Company Medical. Angela works some kind of paralysis-induced astral projection and appears in Sylar's head. Or Sylar bypasses the medically-induced coma and climbs into Angela's head. I'm not sure how this works. But Angela visits Sylar in his cell and tells him to help Peter, and Sylar's like, "Uh, yeah, HE'S THE REASON I'M LYING HERE -- not gonna happen, Ma!" Angela tells him to suck it up and "make Mommy proud" (actual dialogue), and that Sylar's her "favorite," which would probably carry more weight if she hadn't told Peter the same thing in "Don't Look Back."

In a sick, twisted, grotesque and abnormal way, it's the sweetest aww of the episode.

Canine Central. Elle reveals she's "overloading" and can't control her ability. It stands on its own in the episode as something that can't be explained and just is, but I wish we could have gotten a couple of lines to connect the storyline to the graphic novel this week. Given the episode's focus on several parents' dubious motives, it seems like Bob's death and Elle's issues over her upbringing could have been worked into the script quite easily.

Elle tells Claire she was counting on Noah for answers about Pinehearst. And given his wealth of knowledge about The Company and its members (barring the one who used to sign his checks), he'd probably know more about a rival company than anyone. And this is one of the big minus points to this episode, because all it would have taken to find out is one phonecall: "Dad, what do you know about Pinehearst? Can they be trusted? Can they help Elle regain control of her ability?" Or even a text message: "Dad: Pnhrst good, y/n? Also, L hr. Lyle zppd. Me OK. P.S. I still h8 u." Odds are Noah would have vetoed going anywhere near Pinehearst and Claire and Elle would have gone anyway, but at least they would have known what to expect.

Daphne struts into Helix Compound to hear the dreaded words, "You have a mess to clean up." I wonder how many times she'll hear that from Matt after Daniella's born. Arthur wonders if Daphne subconsciously discouraged Matt from joining Team Pinehearst, which perhaps gives too much credit to a guy who generally won't figure stuff out unless you explain it to him like you're talking to a three year old, but also raises the question of why Maury wasn't mind-reading Daphne throughout this scene. Maury's concern for Matt seems very sudden, especially when you recall that he nearly drove Matt and Nathan to kill one another, but if he covered for Daphne because he could hear she was trying to protect him, the about-turn in Maury's portrayal balances out the minor plot hole.

Maury stands up to the guy he was terrified of a couple of episodes ago, and ...

... goodbye, Maury. We hope to see you in many flashbacks.

Standing up to Arthur says a lot about how much Maury cared about his son. Trouble is, it's not the same character we saw last season -- the one who tricked his son into a deadly nightmare, who terrorized Angela and tortured Matt's foster daughter with debilitating nightmares. The nobility and sacrifice here would be affecting if we hadn't seen Maury try to kill Matt himself. It's not an impossible turnaround for the character, but the motive and rationale needed to be established for it to make sense. As it stands, it feels like a last-minute attempt to redeem Matt's father so that Daphne's revelation to Matt can be more poignant. Again, complication for the sake of drama. I'm not sure how we're expected to reconcile the character we saw last season with this one. Maury wasn't Noah: he didn't put his family before his job or his loyalties, and he didn't risk his life for his child.

Canine Central. Sandra gets the line of the night:

"'Pinehearst'? Sounds like a dishwasher liquid."

Claire explains there's something wrong with her which Dad can't fix ... so the solution is to visit a highly questionable chopshop organization that no one knows anything about -- and which Vortex Guy and psycho Puppet Guy were invited to join -- on the off-chance that the people there won't hack her to pieces, drain her blood and exploit her ability. This is indeed a sensible plan, and in no sane universe would Sandra ever oppose it. Worst case scenario: Claire and Elle go into Pinehearst and never come out. Best case scenario: Elle limits the Ellectrobolts to people who "deserve" them, and Claire screams with pain when she gets zapped instead of smiling with evil glee.

Chandra's Crib. The good news is the turtle's still alive. The bad news is it's bobbing its head up and down like an emo kid in a mosh pit, so I'm tempted to say this isn't the real turtle, but in fact a low-tech demonstration of Matt's ability to create illusions.

Was Brea Grant overacting when she pointed a gun at Matt? It depends on whether or not this is part of a plan that Arthur orchestrated, particularly after Maury got his neck snapped and Arthur realized he needed at least one mind-reader alive and working for Team Pinehearst. I'm going to go with the theory that Daphne was making everything up as she went along, and that a theatrical performance like this isn't so much a pretense as it is Daphne desperately trying to convince herself that her only option is to kill Matt. But that's mostly because when Daphne tells Matt to turn around so she can shoot him ...

... she tilts her head to the side and gets this pleading expression that's way too adorable to be a pretense.

Matt mind-reads the death of his dad and looks as affected by it as any son would be, even one who was tricked by his dad and forced to trap him in his own nightmare. I think there was a lot more to this particular father-son relationship to explore, but that might just be wishful thinking because Alan Blumenfeld played the few scenes he had as Maury so effectively.

Helix Compound. Peter asks his dad if he really thinks he's better than everyone else and has "the right to do whatever [he] want[s], to hurt anyone that gets in [his] way." I'm going to take that line as an intentional nod to Future-Peter doing exactly that, because then it underlines how the son becomes the father and makes the title a little more profound. But then Arthur gets this superb comeback:

"I am better, Peter. It's not a belief, it's a fact."

It's not the dialogue that makes it brilliant; it's what Forster does with it, and it reinforces why he was so well cast opposite Angela. Avoiding any inflection that turns it into a delusional declaration, Forster turns it into an off-hand observation. Like Cristine Rose, he makes irrational statements sound rational, and he captures to the minutest detail why a character like Arthur would have gathered a devout following.

Peter gets wheeled into the main lab, apparently because Papa Petrelli doesn't care if his son ends up with Fly-Mo scales and a slithering soundtrack. Peter faces Mohinder! It's a Battle of the Dumbest! Mohinder explains he's going to give Peter an ability-inducing serum ... Oh, Mohinder. Let's hope it's not superstrength and that Peter doesn't immediately bust his way out of restraints, kill you and go charging out of the building on a serial-killing rampage.

Peter: "I saw you in the future!"

Mohinder: "Really? What did I look like?"

Oh, Mohinder. Is this really the time? Beautiful! Just like today! Your legions of squeeing fans have grown to even mightier proportions!

Sylar shows up to TK Mohinder against a wall. Mohinder goes psycho on Sylar, and for the first time all season we get a part of Mohinder's storyline that's disturbing for the right reasons. As discomforting as it is to see him beating on Sylar, it makes sense, and I almost wish it had played out longer. Mohinder finally gets a chance to avenge Chandra's death, to take revenge on the way Sylar played him during the road trip to Montana and took Molly hostage and shot the woman he cares about. Mohinder's anger makes sense; the way he seizes the first opportunity he has to stand up to Sylar and make him pay makes sense; the near-hysteria Sendhil brings when Mohinder asks Arthur if he knows how many innocent people Sylar killed makes sense. Well written and well played throughout.

Apartment of Clairvoyance. Tracy gets restless and wonders where the guy Nathan called several hours earlier got to. Well, give him a chance, Tracy. He does need to go from one coast to the other.

Tracy tries to help the abusive neighbor and gets choked for her effort.

He intentionally left that until the last second, didn't he? Great entrance. I love how Coleman can own a scene with about five seconds of screen time and one line.

Nathan: "You!"

Yes, him! The one who tried to capture you in your pajamas!

Claire and Elle fly to New Jersey. Wouldn't it have been safer to take a car or a train, or to call Daphne and ask her to speedyzip them to the Helix Compound?

Claire sees Elle struggling to keep her ability under control and asks her in that sweet-to-the-point-of-being-totally-insincere voice whether everything's all right. If it was me, I would have been like, "Well, what the #*%@ do you think, pompom?" Elle's much nicer than I am and attributes the discomfort to being an "anxious flyer." Aww.

Claire looks like she's loving every moment of this: looking down on Elle, being the one in control, having a chance to gloat over one successful capture that her dad pretty much finished for her. Poor Elle concedes she wasn't a very good agent, which makes me sympathize with her even more, especially when it fuels Claire's overconfidence even further and gets her going on the whole "letting-the-Level-5-inmates-escape" issue. Again, if it was me, I'd b**chslap Claire and be all, "Yeah? Well, who gave Sylar the instaheal power that let him get past Company agents with tasers and scalp my dad? How do you like having that on your conscience?" But again, Elle's surprisingly restrained and settles with telling Claire to shut up.

Am I the only one who picked up on a sisterly vibe between these two? I think the secret-family-ties device has run its course on the show, at least for this season, but if they ever decide to make Elle and Claire related, the bond you pick up on in this scene would justify it. The bickering and the tension play out believably, but there also seems to be an implicit understanding between them.

Elle goes Ellectric and ends up using Claire as a conduit to channel her energy feed into. It is a neat idea and it is well executed, even if the set-up with the plane feels contrived. As before, though, you'd think Claire would be smoldering from something like that.

Chandra's Crib. Knox shows up and snaps Daphne's neck as she tries to escape. I have to say right now, this entire scene blew me away because I didn't see the twist coming at all.

Grunberg makes a valiant attempt to look intimidating, but it's less successful than it was in "Five Years Gone." It's partly undermined by the actor's boyish good looks; unlike Milo and Adrian, who slipped into villainous or shady personalities relatively easily, it looked like Grunberg was struggling to get behind the darker side of his character in this scene. I hope he gets more of a chance to play that side of the character, if only because it'll be an interesting challenge for the actor when he needs to overcome the fact that we can't help looking at him like a giant teddy we want to hug.

Then ...

And that fooled me completely. No joke. I sat bolt upright, my notes fell out of my lap, and I started to wonder how I could have missed the part in the spoiler forums about MATT GETTING KILLED OFF.

Foooooooooled you!

Well played, show.

And aww, even if, looking back, you can't be sure if she genuinely wanted to peck him on the cheek or whether it was part of the act she's giving because Arthur told her to.

Helix Compound. Flint tells Arthur the building is sealed tight. Maya wheels a suitcase out of the front entrance in the next scene, so I have to question that, but never mind. Sylar hovering several feet in the air was a nice touch; overly theatrical, but the kind of thing Sylar would have done to his own victims if he wanted to taunt and humiliate them. As uneven as several character arcs turned out this week, this episode does a remarkable job of asserting that Sylar is indeed a Petrelli. This scene gives a great sense of how alike Sylar and Arthur are, in the way the dialogue bounces back and forth between them and in the way they try to outmaneuver one another. Sylar insists that Angela accepts him for who he is, and Arthur gets this "Pfft! Whatever you need to tell yourself!" expression. Sylar insists that Angela loves him, but the tone says, "I want to believe it, please reassure me." The magic isn't in the dialogue so much as the delivery, and for whatever reason, putting these two actors together generated one of the strongest scenes all season.

Arthur reveals that Angela tried to drown Sylar when he was born. Assuming Arthur's telling the truth -- and he'd have no reason to make something like that up -- it at least partially explains how Sylar ended up as a member of the Gray family, and why there was never any fear of him discovering he had an ability. Presumably Angela hoped Sylar would live out a normal life devoid of serial killing, and that an ability as complex as intuitive aptitude wouldn't manifest without a specific catalyst like some idiot barging into Sylar's life and saying, "Hey, come be a superpowered superstar -- unlock your potential!" Looking back, you realize just how gargantuan a cosmic screw-up Chandra caused with that little one-man quest.

Arthur releases Sylar from the TK-harness. Awesome. Partly for the thud as Sylar hits the ground, because it drives home how far Sylar's aspirations of being a favorite son have fallen; but also because Arthur obviously realized he'd broken Sylar's resolve. Which is why Arthur can now ...

... extend a hand to help him up, and at the same time make it a gesture of friendship and family and trust and respect -- none of which actually exist between these two.

Love how he keeps his arms against his chest, like he's hoping it'll mask his vulnerability or protect him from any other bombs Arthur's planning to drop. Everything about this scene sparkled, but the physical performance and the mannerisms from Zach and Forster were remarkable.

I'm not sure why I found this so amusing. Part of it's Peter's dim expression, but it's mostly the idea that an organization with corrupt superpowered ties would have this neat directory to guide its escaped test subjects. Even the Primatech Fun Factory didn't have that.

That image works on so many levels, it's not even funny. Just take the money and go, Maya.

"Is this how it ends for us? You know that business with the cocoon came from a place of love. You know that, right? I gave you everything, Maya. That thorough examination you asked for, my entire storyline this season, my apron last season ..."

"Yeah, well, you know ... Sometimes these things don't work out. I'm sure there's another guy out there who'll shoot me or put me in a cocoon or some other bizarre thing like that ..."

"I have to know, Maya: was he better than me?"

"You really need to hear it to move on? You need me to tell you that you were special and he meant nothing to me? That I wasn't thinking of him every moment I was with you, even after he killed my brother? I'd be lying to myself ... and so would you."

"Yeah? Well, on a scale of one to ten, my fans would give me an eight. I'm awesome. And pretty. What do you think your fans would say about you?"

"That's so unfair, Mohinder! I only joined the show in the second season, and it was a truncated season! There was no way I was going to win as many fans as you did!"

"Well, there goes the only woman who ever cooked me chilaquiles and made me bleed from the eyes ..."

Goodbye, Maya! I want to say I'll miss you, but you know I'd be lying. You had some thankless material and made the most of it, and although I'm struggling to recall a single memorable moment right now, the Crying & Dying Routine was very dramatic ... the first time.

All together now, one last time:

"ALEJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Peter returns to Arthur's office inside the Helix Compound and finds Sylar lounging on a couch with his arm draped around it.

Peter: "What are you doing just sitting here? Did he take your powers?"

^ ^ Actual dialogue!

Sylar: "This is what I have to do."

Interestingly, there's no elaboration on what "this" involves, so I'm still leaning towards the theory that Sylar's playing Arthur rather than being fooled by him, particularly after Arthur tells Sylar revenge is in their blood, and after the Look of Crafty Scheming Sylar gets in response.

Claire and Elle reach the Helix Compound.

It's a surprisingly sweet moment between the characters. Even after Elle abandons Peter and Claire, you get the sense that a bond formed between them. If Kristen Bell's stint on the show wasn't so brief, I'd say I hope we see the friendship between them develop.

Awesome stunt. The overhead shots look a little too CG, as do the shards of glass, but this shot was flawless, and on a level with Peter getting pushed off a rooftop in "Distractions."

Elle hears Peter telling Claire that his ability's gone, decides she's willing to overlook the "getting-thrown-out-of-a-seventh-story-window" part, and leaves Peter and Claire to their fate. And as reprehensible as that would usually be ...

... Kristen does the same thing here that she did in "The Butterfly Effect" after Bob was killed. Elle's expression conveys how confused she is about what she's supposed to be feeling, and you can buy it because she has so little experience outside of Company missions and doesn't know what she's supposed to do in a situation like this.

Apartment of Clairvoyance. We see the abusive neighbor being led out on a stretcher by Company agents. It's unclear whether he survived. Tragically, I think it's accurate to say that absolutely no one cares.

Tracy gets a bouquet for untangling the connection between Meredith, Nathan and Noah. While the whole scene is as entertainingly awkward as it should be, I can't help wishing we could have gotten a little more dialogue between Nathan and Noah. Given that this is one of the few occasions when they've shared a scene, it would have been interesting to see a little more dialogue -- about anything -- between Claire's two fathers.

Peter, Nathan, Claire and Tracy gather at the Apartment of Hospice Luxury. Claire notices Tracy and gives her a looooong and meeeeeaningful stare. It might be because she doesn't like having a conversation about parents returning from the dead with a total stranger, or it might be because Claire uncovered something in the Primatech files about Barbara. You'd think Noah would have gotten the same suspicious look if that had been the case, but then, Noah's much better at playing his cards close to the chest, so it could be he made the connection and let it slide.

Nathan discovers his father's alive.

Underplayed? It's not like it's a straitjacketed performance from Adrian, and it's not like I would have expected Nathan to fall onto his knees or start bawling, but somehow the guy showed a little too much restraint over the news. Was he angry over Arthur deceiving the family? Was he too shocked to formulate a coherent reaction? Was he going to kick the doors down at Pinehearst because he wanted to give Arthur a piece of his mind, or because he wasn't going to let anything stand in the way of finding out if his hero was really still alive? Probably answers we'll get within a few episodes, but it seemed like a deliberately cryptic reaction for the sake of postponing the drama until a following episode.

Desert of Clairvoyance. We learn that Usutu's thousand-year-old mystery goop consists of tree root and hyena dung. Charming. And intriguing, because at this point I'm starting to wonder if Usutu actually has Isaac's clairvoyance, or whether he's a regular guy who eats lots of goop and listens to the right auditory accompaniment and doesn't need an ability in the first place. It seems like an ability that doesn't require a superpowered serum and has nothing to do with adrenal glands, lineage or DNA sequencing. It's just a glorified magic trick.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it underlines how the conventions of the story are being rewritten -- or at least substantially amended -- in favor of the current predicament the characters find themselves in. If that means turning irredeemable nightmare men into loving fathers on a whim, or mild-mannered scientists into cocoon-building monsters and then back into misguided-but-fundamentally-well-intentioned lovers in order to fit the story, that's what the show's going to do. Some of it's working fine: Arthur shows a staggering level of complexity and humanity, Elle's confusion and despair offset her willingness to zap everything in sight very elegantly, and even Sylar's ambiguity as the unexpected hero duping his father to help his mother comes across as convincing and compelling.

But when characters' motives seem to change from week to week, and when the show's focus on ulterior motives leads to behavior ranging from unexpected to out-of-character, the show's essentially asking its viewers to take a leap of faith and trust it'll all make sense in the end. As much as you want to believe the characters will rediscover themselves, and as much as you want to believe the show that created the characters remembers who they were to begin with, it's hard not to wonder whether ambiguity is masking inconsistency.

3.5 out of 5