Heroes: One Giant Leap

Ando: "You even mention tights and a cape, I'm going home."

Our heroes are experiencing trials, testing their mettle.

Hiro saved a life, pulling that little girl out of the way of a truck (and by the way, proving the truth to Ando). Matt saved little Molly for a second time, as he began discovering that reading minds isn't the thrill ride one would expect. Peter stood up to his brother. Niki had to bury bodies in the desert. And Claire weathered a rape attempt by that cute young quarterback. Only dying saved her. Too bad her invulnerability didn't come complete with super strength.

My favorite scenes were Hiro and Ando with Isaac's comic book. The comic book seemed a lot longer than it first appeared. (It wasn't magically getting bigger, was it?) And I really enjoyed the two of them reading what they were supposed to do before they did it -- flying coach, renting a Nissan Versa, driving to Vegas. Hiro and Ando know what's happening. Are Hiro and Ando the center of the story, like R2D2 and C3PO?

I've started getting into Peter. Peter is reacting to his gift a lot like Hiro did -- he's ready to throw himself into it, and completely change his life. He just quit his job. He told Simone he loved her. I particularly loved the kid in the cape watching Peter repeatedly fall on his face, although it made me wonder what the hell is going on with Peter's gift, after all. Nathan is a prick. Telling the world Peter tried to kill himself when he didn't, just to defuse bad press? I get the feeling Nathan isn't one of the good guys.

The other really interesting part of this episode was what we learned about Sylar. And we learned a good bit about Sylar... except for his name, and what he looks like. Let's see. He appears to have several gifts: telekinesis, mind control, tissue regeneration, and superspeed. He even moved all of his things out of his apartment superquick. He's excessively neat, into autopsy photos, and has plastic on his furniture. And he has a copy of Suresh's "Activating Evolution," pretty much like everyone else does.

This time, I noticed the symbol in Sylar's apartment that looked like a long, drawn out S with lines through it. That was on paintings in Isaac's apartment in the previous episode. And once I noticed it, I began seeing it everywhere. The cover of Suresh's book. Graffiti on Claire's geometry book. On the photos of the Gifted in Sylar's secret room.

It's a broken DNA strand, isn't it?

Bits and pieces:

-- The "previously on" still mentioned only five heroes. By my count, with the addition of Sylar and the black guy in the bar, we're now up to nine Gifted people. Maybe they all won't end up heroes. We do need bad guys, after all.

-- We learned that the timeline can indeed be altered. And that Claire can rise from the dead. Very interesting talent there, Claire.

-- I like how the subtitles for what Hiro and Ando are saying are all over the screen instead of at the bottom. Omigod, wait. I just got it. They're placed like comic book dialog boxes!

-- DL is Niki's husband, Micah's father. We heard several things about him: he murdered someone, escaped from prison, and stole two million bucks from Linderman. Sounds like a one-man crime spree.

-- Dan said Niki was like the Incredible Hulk, with her alter ego very dangerous and uncontrollable.

-- Mohinder found a book with a lot of names and profiles in it, Sylar's address, and a key that is *not* to Sylar's apartment.

-- We met Matt's wife. I don't like her. We haven't seen Nathan's wife yet, but Nathan referred to her in public as "brave."

-- Claire feels like a freak or a guinea pig. She's always known she was adopted. And she draws mermaids... fantastical creatures just like Claire herself. Claire's so-called friend Jackie wants to be class president. Bitch.

-- Simone has been selling Isaac's Very Important Paintings. (Maybe the two of them breaking up isn't such a bad idea.) Isaac was looking at drawings of a woman. Who was she? Simone?

-- Micah's paternal grandmother isn't very grandmotherly.

-- Hiro's stop motion rescue reminded me of Johnny's visions on "The Dead Zone." Coincidentally, Johnny had a vision that someone was performing an autopsy on him, too, much like Claire's experience at the end of the episode.

-- Why was Sylar trying to kill little Molly? Are the gifts inheritable?

-- Who was the black guy who was staring at Matt in the bar? Matt couldn't read his mind. And the guy was wearing the long S-shaped symbol on a chain around his neck. Did he somehow knock Matt out using only the power of his mind?

-- Niki's web site is at lasvegasniki.com. If you go there, it sends you to Tim Kring's site, 9thwonders.com

Quotes:

Peter: "The truth is, I've been trying to save the world one person at a time. But I'm meant for something bigger. Something important."

Bennet: "If you really wanted to make me happy, you'd only date nerds. It worked out very well for your mother."

Grandma: "I know what it's like to raise a boy on your own. to be stretched so far you wish you could be in two places at once." Two places at once. Ha, ha.

This episode was better than the first two. And it had a cool, gory ending. Three out of four stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

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