Season 2 Episode 6

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to review Heroes this season.  It’s easy to write reviews when the episodes are great, and it’s easy to write reviews when the episodes are terrible.  But this season has been pretty middle-of-the-road.

Peter essentially served as a bookend for this episode.  We opened with him and Caitlin in Ireland, where she pledges to kill Elle.  They finally decide that they have to follow Peter’s prophetic painting and head to Montreal.  Once there, Peter finds a mysterious note from Adam Monroe, a name we saw earlier in the episode (and it’s said he’s the white-haired guy in that picture of the 12).

With that, they take an unexpected trip to June 14, 2008, where New York has been evacuated, and, if the previews are to be believed, 93% of the world population is dead.  Could that virus be connected to the work that Mohinder is doing for the Company?  I’m wondering if this jumping to the future thing is going to be Heroes‘ modus operandi for the rest of the series.  They jump into the future to see what’s at stake, and then come back to the present to prevent it.  I’m not knocking it…I love the time-hopping that goes on.

Now Mohinder appears to be a full-fledged employee of the Company.  He is currently monitoring Monica, helping her to learn the extent of her abilities.  Bob comes to him, trying to convince him to test out a new vaccine that will hinder the abilities of the specials.  Despite some prodding by Noah, Mohinder refuses to use Monica or Molly as lab rats, and destroys the store of vaccines.  Bob apologizes (completely heartfelt and above-board, I’m sure), and Mohinder is hooked up with a new partner…Niki (though she was giving of a definite Jessica vibe in their conversation).

Bob escorts Monica back to her home in New Orleans.  He supplies her with a brand new shiny video iPod with clips of “everything from martial arts to plumbing”.  This could turn into something pretty cool down the road.

Meanwhile (read: 300 years ago), Hiro is desperately trying to help Kensei free the sword maker from White Beard in an effort to fix history.  They sneak into the camp and manage to help the sword maker escape, but in the chaos, Hiro transports himself and Yaeko far from the camp.  She comes to realize that, when she fell in love with Kensei, Hiro was masquerading as him.  They share a kiss, which Kensei oversees, pushing him over the edge and compelling him to turn them over to White Beard.  It looks like things are gearing up for a showdown between Hiro and Kensei.

Now let’s talk Noah Bennet.  I was expecting to see a more toned-down version of HRG this season since he left Primatech, but, if anything, he’s even more hostile than last season.  He ruthlessly pries memories from Ivan, his ex-partner’s brain, uses his dead daughter against him, and, once he has what he needs, caps the dude in the head.  I understand that you’re trying to protect your family, but that’s harsh.  Couldn’t he have just used the Haitian’s ability to pull the location of the paintings?  That would have been considerably less…intrusive…than a bullet to the head.  But HRG is at his best when he’s bad, and he was bad to the extreme tonight.

So Bennet makes his way to the warehouse where the paintings are located.  They are:

• Peter looking into a mirror. 
• Claire laying bloddy on some stairs.
• A hand holding a vial.
• A blonde girl banging on a door or window.
• Hiro and Kensei fighting.
• Someone with a broken nose holding a gun (my money’s on Mohinder)
• The final painting we saw earlier with Bennet shot dead.

Now we head south of the border.  As frustrated as I am with they Maya and Alejandro storyline, Zachary Quinto is good enough as Sylar to bring a spark of life to the subplot.  Here, he manages to convince Maya to use her deadly power to get them out of a jam.  He confesses that he is planning to kill Maya and take her power, or, if he can’t do that, just use her to continue his killing spree. 

Finally, the Claire storyline.  As usual, it’s the most polarizing plot of the night.  On one hand, the way that she and West teamed up to use their abilities to freak out Debbie was pretty sweet, and a good representation of how immature teenagers would use special abilities.  On the other hand…well…as fellow writer Michael put it:  “I mean the whole “pretty girl that’s nice has to show one up the bitchy cheerleader” aspect of it.  It’s all “Bring It On!” levels of cliche.  Plus the “evil” cheerleader could not have been more one dimensional.  She was even drinking from a paper sack – because she’s BAD.  ugh.”  Indeed.

This episode really seemed like filler.  Last week was an undeniably great episode, and next week looks excellent.  This week, though…meh.

Episode grade: B