Last night’s Heroes premiere connects with last season’s finale…it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t mind-blowing.  It was just…great.  I guess that’s what we’ve come to expect from Heroes, though.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with “Four Months Later”…in fact, there was a lot that was right.  Every character is in a completely different place on their arc from where they were last season.  Jack Coleman turned in his best performance as Noah Bennet by taking out his smug SOB of a boss with one finger.  Mohinder is no longer a wimpy little dude, but is finally willing to stand up for himself.  Nathan, who we last saw as a smooth, confident, if not a little crooked, politician, is now a shell of a man, haunted by a scarred reflection of himself.  Parkman has managed to handle his powers.  Claire, once the popular cheerleader, is now an outcast.  The status quo has shifted.

Heroes are being hunted, especially the founding members.  I was dismayed to see Kaito Nakamura fall to his (apparent) death at the hand of the mysterious hooded man.  Angela Petrelli is, for the first time, visibly shaken when she receives her little death postcard.  And little Molly Walker has a “Pippin in Lord of the Rings“moment with the boogey-man (even down to the creepy deep voice saying “I see you…).

The Hiro/Kensei scenes were fantastic, infused with just the right amount of humor and naivete that we’ve come to expect from Masi Oka.  Newcomers Maya and Alejandro…eh…the jury’s still out on them.  She apparently has the power to unleash some kind of disease, and he apparently has the power to hold it off, and that’s interesting and everything, but…I had to keep myself from fast forwarding through their scenes after about the second time they appeared.

I’m really looking forward to finding out what happened between the Petrelli brothers…what caused Nathan to fall into this drunken funk that he is in?  Why does Peter apparently have amnesia?  Why is he wearing a necklace much like the Haitian’s?  Could that be related?

All of this culminated in a fantastic episode, but it was just missing that big something that leaves me trembling with anticipation for the upcoming season.  Next week, we’ll get some more familiar faces, with at least Niki, Micah and (my favorite) Sylar returning.  I feel like, rather than hitting the ground running, Heroes is ramping up to high speed. 

Which is just fine with me.