Fallout

As usual, the network hyped this as the biggest show of the season, and it turned out to be ho-hum. I've almost gotten to a point that I don't want to see the "scenes from next week" or any ads for my favorite shows for fear that it will ruin the experience as my expectations are dashed on the rocky shores of reality. The writers/producers/director/someone just tried to cram a little bit too much into this episode and ended up with not enough of anything substantial. It wasn't that it was a bad episode, per se, it was just not great. Read below for more:

Claire told her dad, Mr. Bennett, about her ability to heal, and Mr. Bennett revealed to Claire that he already knew. Cryptically, he revealed to her that he's "done things he's not proud of" to protect her, and that there are "others" out there that want to hurt her. Obviously, Sylar is on that list of others, but is he implying that there are more people like Sylar that are after the Heroes? And who the heck does Mr. Bennett work for? Regardless, once Claire told Mr. Bennett about her abilities he sent the Haitian out to erase the memories of those that knew. Interestingly, we found out in that process that the Haitian really can talk and that her mother may be dotty simply because her mind's been erased repeatedly. But what is it that the Haitian wants Claire to remember? Maybe in the next episode we'll find out.

Mr. Bennett has dropped hints in the past that he reports to someone else, and this week that was made resoundingly clear as he had to submit to someone else's authority in the handling of Sylar (not named directly in the conversation but strongly implied). I'd like to find out more about his true employers as they were already ahead of Chandra in identifying the Heroes when Chandra first started looking. How did they know? And what are they after? They appear to have helped Isaac, Eden, Matt, and Ted. We don't know what they would have done to Nathan, and we don't know exactly what they want to do with Sylar. It's still a bit ambiguous.

Interestingly, Mr. Bennett was extremely confident that Sylar's powers were blocked while he was in that room, but Sylar was still able to pull Eden through the glass. This begs for explanation, and the best that I can come up with is that the Haitian was actually blocking Sylar's power while Mr. Bennett was there, but that no such protection was available for Eden. That still leaves the question, though, of why Eden was able to "push" Sylar outside of the school and prevent him from attacking her, but she was unable to do the same when she told him to shoot himself. We know that the Haitian was present with Eden when Sylar was captured, so perhaps he was more of a factor than Eden realized. It's just not clear.

Before Eden shot herself (presumably so that Sylar couldn't steal her power), she left Isaac with a cell phone and access card. I said before that this group of Mr. Bennett's appears to have helped Isaac and the others, but he still had to escape from the compound. Interesting. Will Mr. Bennett and the Haitian be in pursuit in the next episode, or will they just let him go? And did anyone else notice that the painting of the fiery man was prominently displayed in this episode?

As for Isaac, he's finally learned that he can use his power without the drugs. No more awkward "Just Say No" commercial spots for NBC. I liked the tie-in with Hiro's comment in the last episode about going back too far and becoming lunch for a T-Rex. Now, Hiro just has to find that sword, but I don't see how it will necessarily help him against a dinosaur. I wonder if the sword will be a family heirloom or something. It's been reported in TV Guide that George Takei (Sulu on Star Trek) is cast to play Hiro's father in an upcoming episode. So, it will be cool if part of that episode (arc?) is the passing on of a samurai sword.

Other than the escape of Isaac and his new painting, Hiro and Ando, were relegated to the back seat for most of this episode. They still get some of the best lines, though, like when Isaac calls to meet them, Hiro comments that it's Destiny calling, and Ando replies, "I wish Destiny would lose our number." That's classic!

During all of this, Peter is sitting in a holding cell while Nathan and his lawyers wrangle to get him released. Now, I think Peter is a classic good guy with a heart of gold, but the boy doesn't have all of his candles lit. This is the third episode where he's surmised that he can take on the powers of those around him, and he's still talking like he's not really sure. I think we need to see him in at a Mensa party so he can take on some intelligence and get past the whole, "Whoa, dude! I feel just like, Neo, when he found out the world wasn't real," act. He's channeling a little too much Keanu for me lately.

Of course, my predictions were correct. Nathan did come down to bail Peter out and Matt came to investigate the Sylar murder. Now, Peter, Nathan, Matt, Claire, Eden, Sylar, Hiro, Isaac, and the Haitian are in the same town. Kind of a convenient way to put them all together, but hey, it's TV. Now for another prediction: Peter will come into contact with Ted and won't be able to control the power. That's what is going to cause Peter to go nuclear. The way to stop it is for Nathan to grab him and fly him away from Ted so that he can get himself back under control. Before all of that, though, we'll need to understand more about what's going on with Peter. I loved the scene between him and Matt while they are reading each other's minds. That was pretty funny. After that scene, though, Peter started looking more and more sickly and he developed a cough. I thought that sitting with Claire might have healed him, but it didn't seem to do any good. Anyone else wondering if the drugs that Matt gave him had some kind of adverse effect on him?

Finally, Niki/Jessica shot D.L. in the shoulder. Having been shot, D.L. was warned enough to be able to allow the second shot to pass through his head. That was a pretty cool special effect. So, D.L. and Micah ran, which I'd have done in the same situation. Niki/Jessica had an argument with herself. The three of them met up again. Jessica hurled Micah into some rocks. Niki came back out and said, "Micah, it's me. Mom." Or something like that, and then they turned into the Cleavers. What a load of crap!

From D.L.'s perspective, his wife has gone completely insane. She's cracked, and her secondary personality is a homicidal maniac that not only wants him dead has actually tried to complete the task by shooting him. From Micah's perspective, his mother is nutty and sometimes she's just mean. Most recently, the mean side fooled him into taking her to D.L. by saying that she was his mother, and the next thing he knows she trying to shoot his dad again and throws him several yards into a pile of rocks. It's completely believable, then, that when Niki comes back out to play and says, "I'm your mother," that Micah is going to believe her. He's never been fooled by that before. Well, except for that time 2 minutes ago just before she tried to kill D.L., and of course, D.L. is going to believe her because the way she says those words makes him forget about the roomful of murdered criminals, the stolen money that she took, the fact that she framed him for crimes she committed, and the danger of her snapping again; she's just so hot when she says that! Guys might be simple, but give me a break. That whole storyline is getting to be pretty ridiculous, and if it weren't for the fact that she really is hot, I'd probably have already started calling for us to vote her off the island.

Now we get a nice long break for the holidays to ponder over what will come next. Until then.