Heroes: Four Months Ago

ORIGINAL EPISODES, MONDAYS @ 9PM ON NBC

I think I'm really starting to like the cut down version of "Heroes." What I mean by that is last year the episodes seemed to contain stories on almost every character. This made the show feel packed and overwhelming at times. This year, so far, the show has been cut down significantly to point that we find ourselves focusing on only a handful of heroes each episode. Personally, I find this much more appealing and I'm enjoying immersing myself in certain characters and plots for a night without the distraction of other short bursts of plot that could have been held for another time.

Tonight, the episode's focus was on the past, specifically four months earlier. If you remember, four months ago was the season finale from last year and our first flashback took us to Peter and Nathan flying off into the sky. Streaking into the atmosphere, the nuclear radiation began to burn Nathan to a crisp. Peter ends up pushing him off and exploding. Except his ability to heal saved him and flew down, grabbing Nathan as he was falling. He rushed him to the hospital, leaving him in the hands of the doctors. So this was the big back story; this was how Peter survived. To be perfectly honest it makes complete sense. The only problem was that it was rather boring. Understandably so since Peter is the most powerful of all the heroes, as his mother told him when he travelled to the future, and it was pretty easy for him to recover and save Nathan. At least this eventually led us to learn how Peter ended up in the shipping container.

I'm not going to go step by step, detailing how Peter ended up in the container but I'd like to talk about some of the things we learned on his way there. Bob, as well probably figured, has motives of his own and was looking to keep Peter tamed rather than training him to control his abilities. So what is Bob's end game? We're not really sure. He has Elle working for him and he also had Adam locked up in the room next to Peter. But what exactly is he trying to do here? Is he purposely trying to put the virus out into the general public? I have a feeling that might be exactly what he's trying to do. It would makes sense since he tried to have Nikki use it on Parkman's father the other week. A big revelation was the information we received about Adam. He was locked in the jail next to Peter as I said but he convinced Peter to stay off the meds and help him escape through the walls. This is how he got out and why he told Peter that they're old friends. I know Bob probably has evil motives but I have to believe Adam isn't any better. He's out to get Hiro and I think he's still looking for vengeance. We still have no idea what his end game is exactly except that it can't be good for anyone. I can't wait to see what he's been planning all this time. The one thing that I am interested in is the Haitian. He saved Peter but we really don't know why or why he gave him the necklace with Tekezo's symbol on it. He has a lot of explaining to do.

Personally I happened to enjoy the Nikki, Mika, and D.L. storyline. I can't believe he survived the bullet wound last season but the ensuing events seemed to make sense. Unfortunately, he ended up dying from a bullet wound anyway when a hot shot criminal in LA got angry when he took Nikki away from him on the dance floor. Apparently, Nikki tried to take the meds Bob gave her to control her abilities but when she stopped she developed a new personality called Gya. A while back this personality had came out (and I guess Nikki doesn't remember) and when it did she went to LA for a time to live the good life, partying day and night. Too bad for D.L. that she hung out with drug dealers and low lifes. I really felt bad when he was shot at the night club. He really turned his life around and became a role model for Micah. The fact that he became a firefight was a testament to his new life as he decided to lead a legitimate existence. This explains a lot about why Nikki left Micah with Monica and decided to go back to Bob for help. At least we know how D.L. died and that there's a third, and more reckless personality, in Nikki.
Was there any bad part of the episode? Sure! As usual Maya and Alejandro turned out to be what I felt was the most unenjoyable part of the episode. Great, she caught Alejandro's bride doing her ex-boyfriend and the black stuff leaked out of her eyes killing everyone at the wedding except Alejandro. How does any of this matter? I have a feeling her ability to kill everyone will play a huge role in the mass outbreak of the virus but at the same time the back story on how she discovered he power doesn't seem to be important in the future events. It seems to be a filler for the episode and a bad one at that. At least give me a reason to watch their story and I'll be a bit more interested. For now though, I really hope these two find their way OFF the show and soon.

As for Nathan, I'm glad we got to see why he was seeing the reflection of his deformed figure in mirrors. He looked unbelievably awful after the events with Peter and I can understand why he turned to drinking. He was seriously deformed (which had to cause major emotional trauma) and he thought his brother had died. Heidi (Rena Sofer) made her first appearance of the season and it was a good one at that. Mrs. Petrelli gave her little speech to Heidi about keeping Nathan's condition a secret but she totally saw through it. Heidi clearly knew something else was up and I wonder if she comes to play a big role later on. Maybe she finds a way to get to Mrs. Petrelli for all the manipulating she does. A big piece of information we received was that Peter was the one who saved Nathan's life. Or more specifically, Peter helped Adam escape who saved his life by injecting some of his blood into Nathan's IV. Apparently, Adam's healing power travels through his blood. I wonder if this is how Claire's ability works as well? Is she some how a descendant of Adam's? Definitely some important questions here. I think though that while some people may think Adam is a good guy because of this you should hold up for a minute. He probably only did that to endear Peter to him and make sure he works for him and no one else. So don't be so quick to forget about his vendetta he declared to Hiro.

This was a very interesting episode and finally answered many of our questions we've had since the beginning of the season. The show has picked up the last couple weeks and it's felt more like the "Heroes" of old. Apparently, we only have three episodes left this season. I'm hoping the promo was only referring to the number of episodes left until the writers come back. I would hate to have such a short season because of the strike. If it turns out to be the season finale hopefully it'll be a good one. Until next week, enjoy the review!