Anyone care to hazard a guess about the subject line? It’s the opening line to a song that I was reminded of while I watching this week’s episode, that’s all I’m saying.
And, wow, what an episode! This is the one that all the fans have been waiting for, even if they didn’t know they were. I can’t believe I went into it with skepticism, thinking, “Ho-hum, whatever, get back to the present.” Finally, we got answers to a lot of questions that had been bugging us…
1) Who is Sylar, and what’s his story?
2) How did Eden end up working for Claire’s dad?
3) Why is Niki’s alter ego named Jessica?
4) How did Nathan’s wife get crippled?
5) What’s the story with this Mr. Linderman?
6) Can Hiro use his powers to change past events?
Actually, maybe these hadn’t all been bugging us…but the answers were invaluable nonetheless.
Little moments of note:
Nathan giving Peter a pair of women’s shoes to celebrate his becoming a hospice nurse was a nice way of saying, “Yes, I was kind of an asshole six months ago, too.” (Nice use of Roxy Music for the dance, by the way.) The death of Peter and Nathan’s dad was so sudden that it seems suspicious to me, but maybe I’m just paranoid. Even so, I’m now even more convinced that Eden is in the midst of a power play against Claire’s dad, given what a complete and total bitch she was being when she first discovered her abilities. Matt is shown to be a real whiny guy. We don’t get much revelatory about Claire, but we do confirm that her friend Jackie has also been a real bitch from the get-go. Niki, however…well, maybe I’m wrong, but it sure sounds to me like there’s been some molestation going on, though whether Daddy did it or he’s just aware of who did it but didn’t do anything to stop it, I couldn’t say.
Everything in this episode that involved Sylar – a.k.a. Gabriel Gray – was enthralling. We still haven’t found out how he’s able to take on the powers of the people he de-brains. I just figured he was eating them or absorbing them or something, but there’s a theory running rampant on the ‘net that says that he’s looking at the inner workings of the brains and rewriting his own to enable him to utilize their powers as well. It’s kind of a complex idea…but it’s not so crazy that we should completely write it off.
But, dammit, the whole Hiro / Charlie romance did nothing but break my heart. You want that guy to save the world and get the girl, but, as noted above, we find out that Hiro can’t save the day this time…and even if he could have kept Charlie from dying at Sylar’s hand, her own body would’ve failed her soon enough. Still, the scene where he accidentally called himself and did an impression of Christopher Lloyd (if he was Japanese) was a nice way to briefly score a laugh in the midst of alternatingly poignant and depressing moments betweem Hiro and Charlie. (Additionally, film geeks no doubt giggled knowingly when the Alamo Drafthouse was namedropped.)
Next week, someone dies. The easy bet is the heroin-using Isaac. Any other thoughts…?
