It’s late Wednesday afternoon and I finally, finally! watched the new episode of Heroes. I have to admit… I cheated a little and read some of the reviews posted since the episode’s original airtime. I just couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen. I was worried it would ruin the episode for me, but it didn’t. Quite the contrary; I’m glad I had already read reviews, because I was able to focus on what some of the underlying themes were rather than try to guess what is going to happen next and get annoyed at the inconsistencies and loopholes.

Hiro

Did anyone notice the chemistry between Claire and Hiro? The way they played out the initial scenes was really well done. I’m in no way implying that their chemistry is anything like that of Milo/Hayden, of course, but its intriguing enough for me to look forward to more scenes with them together. I don’t know if it’s more a reflection of Hayden’s acting abilities – she has a way of adding subtle little touches that makes a good scene better. For example, when Future Claire and Future Hiro are looking in on Hiro’s mother telling his father to speak in English because Past Hiro is in the room, then proceeds to tell her husband that they have to accept the fact that she is dying – did anyone notice the look Claire sent Hiro for a brief second?

Speaking of which, little Hiro is adorable, and Baby Claire is so cute.

But what is it with Hiro as the show’s emo-character? Last season it was a long love story, and now his mother.

It does give for some interesting reflections though. Watching Hiro’s reunion with his mother made me think of all those who don’t have their parents with them anymore. What they would say to them, had they the opportunity to travel back in time and see their parents again? How does that influence the relationship of those lucky enough to still have parents around, however imperfect and annoying they might be?

Which might be why Hiro didn’t take the time to ask his mother for more information about the catalyst, about the powers and about what is going on, choosing rather to tell her about his ‘life’ (adorable that he lied to her to make her so happy and proud of him). It disappointed me; seems to me that if you are trying to save the world, you would get as much information as possible from someone who is obviously a key player (she does hold the catalyst, after all).

Speaking of which, what is the relationship of the catalyst to the sun? There is obviously something that links the two, since not having sun (during an eclipse) takes aware heroes’ powers, and the catalyst is a form of ‘light force’ that can be ‘given’ or ‘taken’.

Claire

What an experience it must be for a spoiled teenager like Claire to see a little bit of the struggle her parents had when they first got her, or seeing them care and love her. Most of us have parents that love us, and whatever mistakes they make are usually still made out of love. We don’t appreciate them nearly enough, too blinded are we with our own anger and resentment over things they have only done out of love. I wonder how this deeper understanding of her parents will affect Claire’s relationship with them.

On a lighter note, Future Claire taking care of Baby Claire is an absolutely fascinating concept – just imagine if you could do that to yourself! Everyone is fascinated by their own baby pictures (I was really THAT small?); to actually be with your baby self must be incredible.

It’s also a little ironic that technically, Claire gave herself the nickname “Claire-Bear”, which makes you wonder about the show’s conception of time-travelling. Future Hiro brought Future Claire to the past because he knew he was meant to have done it; because it was in the comic book, does it mean that it had happened all along and that, contrary to the other ‘Futures’ we have seen, this is part of the ‘real’ time continuum? And does it mean that the people they see during this visit to the past had already seen them during, say, Season 1? If so, as Future Claire was growing up, did Noah remember ‘Bonnie’?

Sylar

More irony coming our way, as the most amusing parts of the episode were the ones with Sylar in it. First of all, I have to say that from the beginning, I loved the creepy, weird, circus freak music playing in the background whenever Sylar is going to do something evil. I also find it ironic how Sylar killed Elle using the power he got from her through empathy.

I don’t think there is much to dissect about Sylar’s storyline, but the way the writers did it and Zachary Quinto played was brilliant. The first really great scene was when Sylar tells Sue (the human lie detector) that ‘It’s not going to hurt’ as he is getting ready to kill her. Of course, she knows he’s lying; Sylar shrugs his shoulder in an ‘oh well’ kind of way and says ‘Got me’. That was creepily hilarious. Then he does his head cutting things and his friends burst in with presents – their faces were priceless.

The second really great scene was when Sylar, all bloodied, was in the elevator with a guy in a suit who is sweating bullets. I rewound that scene at least four times and laughed my head off.

A little disturbing, I know.

Peter

So Peter has to kill his father. Wasn’t it interesting that, in the opening scene, when Angela, Peter and the Haitian are talking about this, there is a ‘redemption choir’ singing in the background?

My question is: why does Peter had to kill Arthur? Why not the Haitian? Why not anyone else, for that matter? And now that Arthur’s dead (hopefully for good…), does it mean that is has become, again, Nathan versus Peter? Season 1 is happening all over again… Is this the lesson of the show, that whatever you do, what is meant to happen with somehow happen?

And where did the catalyst go when it left Arthur? It just floated off?

Before this review becomes as long as the manuscript for the episode, I’m going to wrap it up by mentioning a couple more things I liked about this episode:

• Ando’s comment, after being transported by Daphne: “I like teleporting better. Less windy.”
• The mess Hiro made cooking for his mother before finally giving up and making waflles.
• Hiro’s mother’s power, which I have decided to call The Kiss of Life. Interesting twist on the usual ‘Kiss of Death’; Harry Potter, anyone?