So Claire’s back, but Kristen Bell’s nowhere to be found. Is there some sort of ruling that the two can’t appear in the same episode? And as long as we’re asking questions, did cheers get dumber since I was in high school? I mean, they were never Shakespeare to begin with, but are they really busting rhymes about planting trees now…? Claire is so prone to being swayed by peer pressure…or, specifically, the words of one cute boy…that it’s a wonder she hasn’t been captured and utilized by The Company by now. Her avenging angel is clearly a man who’s in love with his power, but despite her concerns about his plan to get her onto the cheerleading squad, you can’t argue with the results.
HRG and Brother Voodoo are off chillin’ in the Ukraine, and it’s like Starsky and Hutch reunited. HRG is back to his bad-ass ways…and, worse, he’s intimidating the man who trained him in the first place. You know the guy’s not screwing around when he’s threatening to have Brother Voodoo removed all of his most treasured memories…and he starts with the day the guy met his wife! I like the ongoing comparison between Claire and HRG and how neither of them are being truthful to the other. And speaking of a lack of honesty, did anyone really think that Ivan was being truthful when he said that the company had changed…? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter now, after that “oh, shit” moment when HRG popped a cap right into Ivan’s forehead. (“That’s a hell of a powerful gun,” said my wife, when Ivan went flying backwards after the shot.)
Mohinder’s really between a rock and a hard place when the fate of Monica’s abilities are placed in his hands, but the big revelation is that Bob (Stephen Tobolowsky) isn’t just a bad-ass; he’s a DICK. When Mohinder finally snapped, I think it was fair to say that no-one believed Bob’s sudden recanting of his earlier threats toward Mohinder; Tobolowsky’s just too damned good at playing a complete skeeve, and Nikki’s appearance at the end of the episode was suitably ominous.
Sylar’s trying to sway Maya over to the dark side, but Alejandro’s not having any of it. To watch Sylar seem to soak up Maya’s power, though, was to witness sheer evil bliss, and his speech to Alejandro was downright chilling.
I started the episode still bored by Hiro’s tale. It was marginally more interesting, mostly because of Kensei’s pithy one-liners (“You wouldn’t happen to have a swordsmith in there, would you?”) and Hiro’s use of his abilities during the gun battle, but it’s still very much a let’s-just-get-this-over-with situation. Even the whole thing about bringing guns into Japan wasn’t all that interesting because…well, we know how history turns out. Still, for the first time in several episodes, I found myself caught up in the love-story angle, not to mention the angle of Kensei betraying Hiro in approximately the same manner that Hiro had betrayed Kensei. I just wish they weren’t dragging it out as long as they have.
Peter really didn’t do jack this episode except serve as a bookend, but that ending with the abrupt trip into the future was an interesting tease…well, except for the fact that, um, didn’t Peter just change history last season? Isn’t it a little early to be recycling that trick already?
In closing, an unrelated observation: did anyone else do a double-take during that “Singing Bee” commercial when they showed Ray Parker, Jr.? Wow, I wonder what song he’s going to sing for this very special Halloween episode. (I guess it’d be pointless to root for Raydio’s “You Can’t Change That,” huh?) Damn, how the mighty have fallen…but that’s what he gets for shaving off that stylish Billy Dee Williams moustache. Who you gonna call? An image consultant.
