Sorry. Excuse me while I collect myself.
As for Hiro and Kensei: This is a show that usually handles the small, intimate moments of superherodom pretty well. And when we finally saw where Hiro's plot was going to take us — his devotion led to betrayal, which in turn set Kensei on the path to evil — that stuff was executed perfectly. Mostly. Since they finally paid off that meandering air ball of a plot, I'll forgive them the fact that whenever Heroes should deliver on the big comic-booky splashes, the show just fails miserably (e.g.: the finale of last season, which ought to have been a clash of the titans but, instead, was a glorified fistfight). And here we are in feudal Japan, with Hiro and Kensei facing off against what looked like an army. It should've been the kind of epic battle that would give us the action release we've been waiting for these past five weeks. Instead, it was just a couple of guys ducking through a costume-y row of tents. (It was great, though, to see Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, even for just a minute, as Yaeko's father.)
Gotta tell you, I dug H.R.G.'s return to the gray zone. Going all the way to the Ukraine may be a very extreme version of ''getting off your ass,'' but I'm glad he did it. Watching him and his sidekick go to work on Bennett's old mentor was a nice reminder of what H.R.G. is all about: blind pursuit of his objective, no matter what gets in the way. (And you know that, somewhere, Jack Bauer said to himself, ''That selective memory erasure is the single greatest advance in interrogation since the ol' hammer to the kneecap.'') His whole quest for the Paintings of Fate seems to have petered out a bit. He's got 'em and doesn't know what to do with them. Wanna bet that, in five episodes, they won't matter in the least?
And, finally, something to be afraid of. A viral holocaust in New York City, Heroes' favorite punching bag. (Couldn't have been D.C.? Boston? How about L.A.?) And is that virus the same one Bob wanted injected into Monica? At least there's something on the horizon, something that might be avoided with a modicum of timely superheroic intervention.
What did you think? Is Monica really dumb enough to hop in a car with Suresh, who she doesn't know from Adam? Speaking of Adam, who is this Adam Monroe, and how does he know Peter? Could Kensei be Claire's great-uncle? And would it break your heart if you never see Kristen Bell's Miss Shocktober again?
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