Heroes: Into Asylum

Danko: "If we do this, if we succeed, you'd be the only one left."
Sylar: "Funny how that works."

And again with the better. An episode with charm as well as much needed character development. Or, more accurately, character repair. If this was intended to make us like Nathan and Angela again, then it pretty much worked for me.

Peter and Angela took sanctuary in their church, while Claire and Nathan hid in a dive in Mexico. It was rather sweet to see Peter and Claire taking care of their erring parents, both of whom did some serious apologizing for their past mistakes. Their enormous, evil, out of character past mistakes.

We learned that Angela originally wanted to be a teacher, until her gift manifested and she became a present-day Cassandra. She's obviously rethinking some of her earlier life choices. I liked the obvious symbolism of Peter making Angela put on the old coat that she had previously given away. She's her old self again.

Nathan and Claire have spent so little time together; it was fun seeing them trying out a father-daughter relationship for size. I liked the booze bets. And Claire telling Nathan she had thought of him as Superman. And Nathan getting Claire's necklace back. Nathan's his old self again, too. Claire, too, for that matter. Okay, and let's include Peter. He was praying, something that just seemed like something Peter would do.

And then we got Sylar and Danko, a match made in, well, most certainly not heaven. Set a superperson to catch (and take out) all of the other superpeople? If they go through with this plot point, it'll eliminate superfluous supercharacters and narrow the focus to our cast members. And possibly eliminate cast members as well. Sylar seems to be Sylar again, focused on absorbing as many powers as possible.

Both Peter and Hiro have had their powers redacted, cut down to a size more suitable for dramatic conflict. But Sylar just picked up a really huge power, and he was already too powerful to write into a corner. The writers did carefully tell us that there is still a way to take Sylar out, and Danko knows what it is. Is Sylar going to die? Is it time for the character to go? Sylar also reminded us that we really know nothing about Danko, so it's hard to tell what he'll do. Although a permanent partnership with Sylar seems, well, unlikely. And I'm sure Sylar is aware of that.

There were several laugh out loud moments. I particularly liked the take-off of Seven. ("What's in the box?") Even the music was good. But I have to say they lost me on the illogic of one particular plot point. If I were going to a bar to pick up some cutie and I could look like anyone I've touched, it certainly wouldn't be Danko.

Bits and pieces:

-- Claire stopped on the way to Mexico and got a much better wig. Her scrubbed clean look got even cleaner, too; I could swear I saw some wholesome freckles. She looked so young and fresh that for a moment, I thought they'd cast another actress.

-- Claire can't get drunk. That's actually sort of sad.

-- Nathan and Claire really don't look like father and daughter. Everyone seemed to think Claire was his girlfriend.

-- There were several candidates for Most Obvious Symbolism: 1. Angela and the coat; 2. Nathan getting back the necklace that Noah had given to Claire, and 3. Sylar and Danko on either side of a chessboard.

-- Peter praying was rather sweet, as well as very much in character. Although the answer to his prayer was a whole lot of government agents.

-- Angela has a sister? Ruh roh.

Quotes:

Danko: "How'd the hell did you get in here?"
Sylar: "You'd be amazed what you can do with a lifted ID badge, a four dollar tie, and a west Baltimore accent."

Sylar: "Why does anybody want power? To screw with people? Or to simply screw people?"

I enjoyed this episode. 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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