Season 2, Episode 9 – Cautionary Tales

…and thus, the roller caster ride that is the second season of Heroes continues.

Hands down, the best episode last season was “Company Man”, a chapter that focused almost exclusively on the Bennet family, and ended with Noah facing death at the end of a Company pistol to save his daughter. So it should come as no surprise that “Cautionary Tales”, an episode which is primarily Bennet-centric, and which ends with Noah facing death at the end of a Company pistol to save his daughter, is the best so far of Season Two.

First, let’s get the secondary story out of the way. Hiro goes back to try to prevent his father from dying. Along the way, he meets a younger version of himself, and is taught a lesson about letting go. I hate to blow over this, because it really was quite moving, but there wasn’t much more to it, besides what is probably the least surprising twist ever…Takezo Kensei was Kaito’s killer. I think we’ve all seen it coming for a while, but it was a pretty big moment for Hiro, which is sure to have some bigger repurcussuions down the road.

Now, the meat. The Bennets are hurriedly trying to leave, and Claire and Noah butt heads. Claire tells him she hates him, before storming out.

There were a ton of twists here that I can’t even begin to describe compellingly…suffice it to say that Noah and Bob end up with each others’ respective daughters (oh, yeah…I called the Bob/Elle thing, too). I really liked the bond that developed between Noah and West. Tonight was the first time that West hasn’t annoyed the mess out of me.

So we come to the big, beautiful showdown on the beach at sunset. Mohinder was the one to put a bullet in Noah’s eye like most people thought, though of wasn’t immediately after the prophetic painting of him with the gun. I was actually really surprised by this. Mohinder shooting Noah virtually solidifies him as an antagonist, and that wasn’t somewhere I was expecting his character to go.

So when Noah died, I was devastated. Jack Coleman brings one of the consistently best performances on Heroes, and I was horrified at the thought that he might be gone. Some may have seen the deal with Claire’s blood coming from a mile away, but I was too engrossed to think about foreshadowing at that point. So when he woke up on that table, I hit an emotional high that the show has not managed to pull off yet this season. And the fact that it was identical to Claire’s reanimation from Season One was icing on the cake.

I hate to say “Heroes is back”, because I’ve already said that a few times this season and gotten burned. I’ll just say this…it’s chapters like this that make me love this show. I pray that they can keep it up for two more episodes so this season can go out with a bang.

Episode grade: A