Ordinary Heroes

So yeah, a heavy episode over all — especially all that stuff with the ominous torn photo showing Mr. Nakamura and Angela Petrelli marked for death. Then there was the introduction of twins Maya and Alejandro, on the run from the law in Honduras for murder. Judging by the damage Maya did to all the passengers in the ''coyote'' truck taking them across the border into the States, gal's got some temper-control issues. Dark stuff. Even H.R.G. seemed to be having a rotten time in his new job at the Kinko's-like Copy Kingdom, where he answers to an infuriating punk of a boss who takes his paper-pushing job more seriously than Dwight Schrute — and with far less unintentional charm. (''The paper business is dog-eat-dog,'' he told H.R.G. Ooh! Scary!) Ultimately, though, no one effs with Noah. ''I am done eating your crap,'' he calmly told his manager — right after he grabbed the jerk's finger and flipped him over onto the table. Take that, jackass. Still, this being Heroes, it's hard not to wonder if the boss from hell will have some other function down the road. Bad guy? Good guy? Nobody?

Like lots of Heroes episodes, the season 2 premiere had scenes strong enough to make me shiver (e.g., Nathan seeing the reflection of his burned brother in the mirror — creepy!), but it also felt a tad overloaded to me. Now, we're always forced to juggle a dizzying number of plotlines in the show — such is the nature of Kring's sprawling superpowered universe — but it would have been nice to see this particular hour paced a little more delicately. Instead, we got a lot of Here's Claire in gym class! There's Molly's talking in her fitful sleep! Whoops, now there's Claire again, still in gym class!

And then there's our beloved Hiro, stuck in 17th-century Japan. His scenes provided a welcome bit of comic relief — especially his discovery that his childhood hero Takezo Kensei — he whose sword Hiro stole to kill Sylar — is nothing more than a gaijin, which is Japanese for a tow-headed British lush. (Kidding. The word means ''foreigner.'') Hiro spent a lot of time wrapping his head around the fact that he was altering history with his little four-century jaunt backward. Seems our guy is poised to do all the arse-saving that Kensei is too lazy — or drunk — to do himself. Which in essence means that Hiro will become Kensei in the history books. Will it mean he gets the girl, too?

Okay, TV Watchers. It's way, waaaaay past my bedtime. So until we meet again next week, I'll leave you with a few questions to ponder: How long before Claire realizes she can't hide her true ''extraordinary'' nature, no matter the danger? Did any of you actually miss the Niki-Jessica-D.L.-Micah story line? What do you think of newcomers Maya and Alejandro? Back in high school, were you a robot or an alien? (Full disclosure: I was an alien.) And most important, when oh when do we get to meet new cast member Kristen Bell?