'Heroes': Mommy Dearest

'Heroes' recap: Mother and child reunion

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There are times when I despair for Heroes. When I think that it's all too clear that the creative minds at the wheel have forgotten what made us fall in love with these characters. When I think that whatever star had been guiding them, leading them to captivating stories, has disappeared from the sky, leaving them adrift. And those times seem to no longer be the exception that proves the rule, but rather the rule itself.

Then...Hiro sees his mother again. And everything clicks.

I've been pretty hard on young Mr. Nakamura this past season. First, he acted like a petulant tool when left to run his father's company — which was completely out of character for a dude who, in his own words, is a master of time and space who saved the world twice. Then, he was forced to mince around like a 10-year old, complaining about having to pee. Any dignity the character had was squandered by poor decisions.

But then Hiro and Claire traveled 16 years in the past, and Hiro got to spend a few precious moments with the one person in his life who believed in him: his mother, Ishi (played by the still-luminous Tamlyn Tomita). Stricken with some phantom terminal illness, she wanted to give ''the light'' (known to the rest of us as the catalyst) to her son, but Kaito wouldn't hear of it, citing young Hiro's irresponsibility, proclaiming that he ''will never amount to anything.'' Hiro overhears all of this — both Hiros, young and ''old'' — can you imagine how something like that would wound a kid? The only thing that could ease that kind of parentally inflicted pain is parentally offered solace.

So Hiro introduced himself to his mother, showed that her faith in him has been rewarded, and caused me to get all choked up. Because it works. Because the emotional content is real, and valid, and earned. Because it's heartbreaking to think of a mother who died when her son was still a boy...getting to see the man he turned into. Because it's heartwarming to think that the only thing that could heal everything that ailed Hiro was a kiss from the one woman he'd had to travel back in time to see.

Well done, Heroes .

(Of course, I think you still could've had much of the same impact without Hiro being a 10-year-old kid, thereby alleviating weeks of spirit-crushing agony. But that's just me.)

Given that this episode was called ''Our Father,'' it makes sense that it worked best when dealing with parent-child relationships. Claire got to pop in on the Bennets hours after they took custody of baby Claire Bear. She got to see how out-of-her-depth her mother was in dealing with the sudden lifestyle change, and to see how chilly her father was towards Baby-Her...even if he did soften once he twigged to the fact that the teenager and the baby she was holding were one and the same. Though, it must be said, there's something fundamentally weird about Claire changing her own diaper.

NEXT: Sylar goes to a birthday party