The third episode of Heroes‘ third season seems to pack several hours of plot and about 3,452 characters into 42 minutes of viewing pleasure. Signs of the potential dark future (the seeds of Hiro’s and Ando’s antagonism, Claire’s vengeful side) are coming into focus, but we’re still mostly seeing a collection of loosely related stories as opposed to one big story arc.

I’ve divided up my thoughts by character subgroups. If the episode is still in your DVR, go watch it, then click through. As always, post any spoilers you want in the comments. The stragglers have been warned.

Sylar, Noah, Ma Petrelli, The Haitian

Let’s jump right in. Is Mrs. Petrelli actually Sylar’s mother or is this part of her game? The Heroes family tree is admittedly starting to look like something out of an Anne Rice novel, but I’m not prepared to take Ma Petrelli at her word yet.

Apart from Hiro and Ando, she has the best line of the episode:

“You’ve always understood on some level that you weren’t the son of a watch repairman and a woman who collects Hummel figurines.”

I always assumed that Sylar enjoyed the amateur brain surgery, but it now seems to be more of an addiction than a hobby. And Ma Petrelli is his enabler. Did she feed him Bridget’s psychometry because she wants him to have that ability for some specific reason, or is she just fueling his addiction because an addict is easier to control?

Sylar and Noah are doing the odd-couple act, but their relationship started to seem cutesy and predictable to me after the first few minutes. Example: Noah uses reverse psychology on Sylar, and they both acknowledge it with a wink and a grin.

Noah tells The Haitian (for the love of God, give this man a name) that he’ll kill Sylar as soon as he finds his weakness. But isn’t The Haitian everyone’s weakness? Why not just have him stand near Sylar and shoot him or poke him with a sharp stick?

Hiro, Ando, Daphne

I’m curious if other people are amused by Hiro’s and Ando’s antics or if it’s just me who can’t get enough? Hiro is still referring to the Speedster as his (capital N) Nemesis, while she calls him Pikachu. I’m entertained now, but if this is heading toward romance, I won’t find it cute anymore. The relationship simply doesn’t need that cliche to stay interesting.

As usual, Hiro and Ando have the best exchange of the episode. Indulge me.

Hiro: “What are you doing?”
Ando: “I’m being awesome!”

The Four Musketeers, Peter

I’ve been referring to the four escaped super cons as the Four Musketeers, but their little group got broken up a bit quicker than I expected.

  • Of the four, Knox has the most interesting power; superhuman strength (like Niki) that’s fueled by others’ fears. Is that actually how his ability works, or is it psychosomatic?
  • Flint, the pyrokinetic, has a much cooler-looking flame effect than the show’s other firestarter, Meredith. Is his power different from hers, is he just burning hotter, or is he perhaps simply a show-off?
  • Is it a twisted inside joke or a coincidence that The German is basically Magneto? I honestly didn’t expect him to die so soon, but I’d rather he be dead than go without a name (cf. The Haitian) for three seasons.
  • I did expect Jesse to get killed off, though I’m not sure why. He had the same sonic manipulation power as that lame postman Echo from the webisodes. While it’s better than no power at all, I’d prefer something more subtle and versatile than super screaming.

I’m not that interested in Current or Future Peter’s exploits, and the time jumping is getting stale. And could Current Peter be more naïve? When the other escapees discovered that he was stuck in Jesse’s body and asked why he had tagged along instead of running away, he told them straight up that he wanted to keep them from hurting anyone. What?! How about some subterfuge, Peter? “Oh, I wanted in on the spoils of the heist.” Or “I hate Horn-Rimmed Glasses and wanted to help take him down.” Or even, “I was scared and didn’t know what else to do.” If it weren’t for his powers, he’d never survive long enough to become Future Peter.

Claire, Meredith

We’re getting a little too much about Claire’s home life for my personal taste, but it seems temporary. The scene in the shipping container with Meredith, her birth mother, left me scratching my head a bit.

  • Can Claire suffocate? I suppose being indestructible has nothing to do with your need for oxygen.
  • Why wasn’t Meredith also gasping for air? Does pyrokinesis negate the need to breathe?
  • Claire hops up and leaves the instant the flame dies. Does the air come whooshing back in as soon as the fire’s extinguished? And if she was so uncomfortable, why didn’t she just leave right away? I know that she was there voluntarily, but it seemed like she didn’t want this particular lesson at this particular time. It didn’t make sense that she hung around.

Meredith’s intention was to convince Claire to be a seventeen-year-old girl instead of a superhero and to get her to admit that she was out for vengeance, not justice. Clearly it had the opposite effect, since Claire took off with her father’s files under the pretense of (snicker) a “cheerleader sleepover retreat”. The writers must have had fun with Meredith’s admonishment to Claire’s adoptive mom that:

“Smothering her is the best way to drive her away real quick.”

Indeed.

Tracy, Micah

The whole Niki/Tracy situation is starting to make more sense of a sort, but now that we have some answers, I have more questions than I started with.

So, Niki is really dead. My theory is that she (and Tracy and “Barbara” and all the others) are the result of Zimmerman’s efforts to clone meta-humans. Or possibly sex slaves. Niki did have multiple personalities, though. Was this a coincidence or a side effect? Do the clones share some collective memories?

Micah returns in this episode, proving that he’s not suffering from Walt Syndrome. I was afraid he would look ten years older than last season, but if he’s grown, I didn’t notice. Incidentally, his Ex Machina powers reminded me of the time Willow got sick of researching and just sucked the info out of her computer with witchcraft. Do we have Dark Micah to look forward to?

Matt, Usutu

I know not everyone agrees with me, but I find the whole “tribal brown man shows whitey how to get in touch with his spiritual side” tired and a little paternalistic or patronizing, depending on which side you look at it from.

Usutu has a power similar to Isaac’s, but at the end of the episode, Matt acquires those same abilities by eating some mush and listening to a walkman. So, is Usutu a natural-born meta-human, or has he learned to mimic super powers through meditation and psychedelics?

In an unrelated note, is it possible that the woman with Matt in Usutu’s paintings was Daphne? There was a resemblance, but it would be a weird and trivial coincidence.

Nathan

He’s still finding God. I’m still not interested.

Mohinder

He wasn’t in this episode, but he’s back to the annoying narration.

OK, so I pointed out a lot of things that irritated or confused me, but I really did enjoy the episode. Irritation is a sign of engagement, no? I’m particularly interested in hearing your theories and opinions on the Niki/Tracy situation, but let me know what you thought about anything that happened.

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