Heroes: The Line

ORIGINAL EPISODES, MONDAYS @ 9PM ON NBC

Last night's episode was a bit interesting. The usual format of "Heroes" is a whole bunch of interchanging storylines involving just about all the characters. However, tonight the main storylines only involved a handful of them. Even then, we needed learn all that much about most. Essentially, we made progress with Claire, Noah, and Hiro. As for Suresh, Monica, Nikki, Alejandro, Silar, Maya, Ando, and Peter we made very little progress and everyone else wasn't even present in the episode.

So lets start with Claire and Noah. These are the two characters I would say we made the most progress with tonight. Claire found herself caught between a rock and hard place when she couldn't get onto the cheer leading squad. The head cheerleader didn't like her very much, so despite her excellent try out she was refused a spot on the squad. The problem is that Claire told her dad that she would be trying out for cheer leading which was really a cover-up to spend time with West. Without cheer leading she would have no excuse to get out of the house to see him. So, what did she come up with? West and Claire decided it would be a good idea to stage a horror show for Debbie and scare her way onto the squad. West, dressed in a black outfit and ski mask, then flew into the picture, grabbed Claire and dropped her from 100 feet in the air, splattering her body all over the pavement in from of Debbie. When Debbie called the police obviously her story was absurd and the entire squad thought she was nuts. Then when she was caught with the liquor she was drinking she was suspended from the squad and the rest of the team voted Claire on. So all-in-all things worked out well for Claire; she's a cheerleader again and she gets to hook up with West anytime she wants.

As for her father, Noah, he was up to his own games. He went half way around the world with the Haitian to visit his mentor, Ivan. Long ago Ivan recruited Noah into The Company and taught him everything he now knows. Noah needed to find the paintings and knowing Ivan as well as he does, he figured this was the best way to find out their location. Noah and the Haitian spent the day torturing him in a sense (the Haitian would remove his most treasured memories one by one until he gave in) and eventually discovered the location of the paintings. Unfortunately, we were shown the paintings but have no idea what they mean yet. I'm sure this is going to be the storyline that develops throughout the season. On a side note, I was actually surprised at Noah. I know he's capable of bad things but I really didn't think he would shoot Ivan straight out. It seems that Noah is going to have a much bigger role to play this year. I'm not quite sure what that's going to be yet but it probably has something to do with Adam.

Who is Adam you may be asking? Good question; I wish I had an answer. All we know so far is that he seems to be a good guy. That's pretty much it. He did try to contact Peter and warn him about what's going on so it seems we know what side he is on. Who he is and what his power might be, if any, is the big mystery. Obviously Peter is going to have a big part in us fining out who Adam is but for now we'll just have to wait and see how everything unfolds.

Meanwhile, Dr. Suresh had his hands full over at The Company. He spent the episode studying Monica but when Bob ordered him to test a live vaccine on her things got a bit sticky. He didn't want to risk her life and possibly many others this way and destroyed the labs store of vaccine's. I honestly thought he was going to be killed when he did this but apparently Bob has other plans. He apologized to Suresh and set Monica up at home with all the tools she'll need to sharpen her power. I have to believe Bob has plans for Monica other than altruistic. The Company is NEVER out to do good and they always have a hidden agenda. Given her abilities they could be some very big plans. We haven't had much insight into what these plans are but it seems we may be getting close.

Niki was an interesting twist. Apparently, she's working for the company now and is supposed to help out Suresh. The only problem is that she doesn't seem quite herself. The last time we saw her she was there to have her alter-ego removed so she could go back to her normal life as Niki. From what I could tell, it seems Niki may be the personality that was removed. This just can't be good for anyone if that's the case.

Now for Hiro. I could talk about him but to be honest I'm bored just thinking about it. The writers need to get him out of Feudal Japan right now! It was the best storyline to begin with and now we've had to watch him there all season. This is getting ridiculous and VERY boring. The biggest implication in all this is that Hiro is changing history. He weakly fell for the princess and is changing the past. There is no excuse for what he's done and although I have no idea how this will impact later events, there will likely be massive implications. Hopefully, we'll get on with the implications and leave Feudal Japan where it belongs; in the past.

Maja, Alejandro and Silar were also involved in tonights episode. The same storyline that we've been watching all season took place tonight again. The three of them were heading for the U.S. border and again Silar was being sneaky around Alejandro while predictably plotting his future to steal Maya's power. Basically a boring storyline and annoyingly similar to every week before it. Finally they're in the U.S. so hopefully things will start to pick up next week.

I have to say that the show has definitely declined in quality this year. It seems that many of you agree with me because the show is averaging 3 million less viewers than the same time last year. The writers need to get back on track soon. While I think this show is safe for the time being, NBC doesn't like to put up with failing shows for very long. A prolonged depression in quality and ratings could spell the end for "Heroes." Maybe things will turn around during November Sweeps. Until next week, enjoy the review!