In the penultimate episode of the season, ‘Landslide’ seemed to just rumble with an ominous doom.  It was an extremely dark episode, with characters switching loyalties, other characters dying off, and some characters finally stepping up to their fulfill their purpose.  I keep getting the feeling that we’re building toward an incredible finale.

I love the arc that we’ve seen Nathan take this season, and especially in this episode.  He’s been weighing the price of the power that Linderman is offering, and has been riding the fence all along, but the healing of his wife seems to have completely cemented him in Linderman’s service.  When she finally realizes that she can walk, he whispers “It’s a miracle.”  I love that moment…because he knows that it’s not a miracle.  He knows exactly what Linderman has done, and he knows exactly what that means for him.  The scene between him and Hiro was brilliant as well, as we really get the feel for how reluctant he is to have to be the “villain”.  Brilliant stuff with Nathan.

We knew that Nakamura had a hand in the events that created our heroes, but we got a little deeper into his role last night.  During his appearance in an earlier episode, it seemed that he was determined to stop Hiro’s little quest at any cost, but now we find out that he has actually been monitoring Hiro’s progress.  Deepening even more the mythological aspect of the show, with his sword broken, his father gives him a new sword to go with his new-found, deeper powers.  I loved that.  There have been rumors circling that the Nakamuras are actually the decendants of Kensei, the maker of Hiro’s sword.  He had a line last night that inferred that there was some sort of prophecy that one of his line would rise up, but he never expected it would be Hiro.  But we know that Hiro will do great things, if the predicted future comes to pass.

There where a whopping three deaths last night, and I was completely shocked by all but one of them.  We knew that Sylar would eventually take on Ted’s power, so I figured that he had to go pretty soon.  I enjoyed the method of Thomson’s death (”What am I thinking now, Parkman?” “Your last thought.”), and Linderman’s death was absolutely chilling, but I felt like they were so sudden.  I know that was meant to be surprising, but it almost felt like “We have to kill someone now, how about…Linderman”.  I think both of the characters had a large enough role to play in the show that they deserved more of a blaze of glory than they got.

Parting shots:

Again, the entire scene between Hiro and Nathan was great.  “You’re already a bad guy.  You’re a villain…villain!”  Very comic-ish dialogue.

I didn’t like the Candace/Micah stuff last week, but this time it came off great.  “I have a cousin who eats like you.  He’s huge.”  “So am I.”  I had assumed that the form that Candace took was her natural form, but I loved that little twist.  Of course a person with the power to change perception would make themselves beautiful.  Just a little subtle nuance that makes this show great.

Micah has finally stepped into his purpose in what should have been blatantly obvious…he manipulates the polls to have Nathan win in a landslide.  A question that nagged at me after this…would no one thing it was strange that the candidate who was just 5 points behind in the polls suddenly wins with a 64% majority?  That doesn’t raise any red flags?

The entire scene with Parkman and the guard had me howling.  “The…uh…the…the porn.”  Hilarious.

“Did I throw you out a window?” By the way, Jessica is WAY hotter than Niki.