Four Months Later

I have no idea what ever happened to those special episodes that were supposed to air over the summer. I guess I missed them with all the things that need to be done in the process of raising kids. Regardless, the wait is over. I've finally seen the Season 2 premiere (a day late), and I'm impressed. When you wait all summer for a great show to return, you start to get anxious that your expectations might be too high or that the show won't be able to pull off the same magic they did when it was new. All of those fears were for naught. This season started with a bang and a billion questions. I can't wait to see how they are all resolved. As usual, highlight below to read my thoughts:

Jumping four months ahead has given the writers plenty of room to change things up and created some built in mystery right off the bat. What has everyone been doing in that missing window of time? How did they get to the places where we find them in this premiere episode? I'm sure that we'll see some of that backstory at some point during the season; for now it just leads to speculation.

Suresh is traveling the world trying to convince people that the heroes exist and that humankind has taken the next evolutionary step. At first I wondered what he was up to. As a sane and rational man, he couldn't possibly believe that he would ever raise support for his cause with only his word that, "I've seen them." But we learned later that he is still in league with Matt Parkman and Noah Bennet (that's Claire's dad for those of you that forgot he got a name at the end of last season). The three of them have rescued Molly Walker and are apparently working to take down "The Company."

Suresh is finally invited to join "The Company" in Cairo which makes me wonder what happened between him and them in the past four months. Wasn't he already working for them at the end of last season? He was invited in to cure Molly by Thompson and was there when Parkman and Bennet came to shut her down. If they are only just now reaching out to Suresh, then that seems to imply that Thompson had gone rogue and that perhaps "The Company" is not really up to all the bad things that we've been led to believe?

Molly and Matt are in New York now living in Suresh's apartment. Presumably, Matt knows where Suresh has gone and why. I doubt that Molly knows or understands, though. Molly is still having nightmares about the one guy that can see her, but she won't tell Matt who he is or where he is. Interestingly, there was no mention of Matt's wife or child. Are they officially divorced now? Does his child have powers? Will we ever know?

Even more interesting is that Matt just got a job on the NYPD as a detective. The way that he talked made it sound like he had not ever been in law enforcement. After his shooting test, he told the guy, "I've just always wanted to be a cop," or something like that. Wouldn't they know that he was a police officer in California, that he had a brief stint with the FBI, and that he had been fired?

The Bennet's have moved to California now and Claire is trying to fit in at the new school. By chance she met another student who also has powers, and he just happens to have the same power as her real dad: flight. I think he knows more about Claire than he's letting on. It just seems too convenient for him to keep popping up everywhere, and then there was that ultra-creepy peeping Tom scene where he's hovering outside her window. I'm betting that it's his job to gain her trust and then use it against her. She already told Nathan that she needed someone to talk to; someone that could know who she really is. What I can't figure out, though, is why she always seems to be the key.

I also wonder if Mrs. Bennet or Lyle remember anything from the past. Do they know why the family moved to California? Do they know why they changed their name? Do they remember Mr. Bennet's old job or anything about Claire's power? Mrs. Bennet seemed clueless, but she always has. I'm just glad that Mr. Muggles is still around.

I loved the fact that Claire was willing to stand up to the cheerleaders, but I must say that I really wish she had done the back tuck in front of them just to prove a point. It's probably better that she didn't, though. It would have brought way too much attention to her even if she hadn't been injured. Mr. Bennet, though, stood up for everyone working an hourly job when he told his manager where he could stick it. That was definitely the best scene of the night.

Nathan and Mama Petrelli are getting along famously now that his chances for election have been ruined. I can't figure, though, what the whole scene with Nathan looking at himself in the mirror and seeing his face horribly scarred was all about. I would have imagined that he would have been seriously injured in the explosion, and I really didn't expect him to survive. So was that showing what he used to look like? Or is that what he does look like and someone is making him appear different? We still don't know Mama Petrelli's power, so maybe she has something to do with it.

Speaking of Mama Petrelli, she and Mr. Nakamura both received death threats. Oddly, the threats consisted simply of their picture (apparently torn from a group photo of the founding members of "The Company") overlayed with that cryptic symbol that appears in every episode. They both knew what it meant, though, and were prepared to face death. It only came for Mr. Nakamura, though, in the form of a hooded person. Did anyone else notice that both the hooded figure and Mr. Nakamura went over the side of the building, but only Mr. Nakamura landed? So does the killer have the power of flight? Or teleportation? I think we'll learn about this from Mama Petrelli in the upcoming episodes.

Nathan is drunk and depressed over the loss of Peter. Why? Since Nathan survived, why hasn't he been using his power and influence to try and find Peter? I guess he just assumes that Peter could not have survived the blast and that there is no point without his brother. Like Matt, I wonder where his wife and kids are. Can his wife still walk? Does she know about Nathan's power now? Does she know about Claire?

Of course, we found out at the end that Peter did survive and somehow ended up in a cargo container on a ship in Cork, Ireland. That's a long way from NYC. The men that found him knew to look in that particular container, but who told them? Was it the person that put Peter there? Was it someone trying to help Peter? And why doesn't Peter remember who he is? I can only guess that a nuclear explosion in your chest might knock your memory loopy for a little while. Regardless, someone found him and put him in that container for one reason or another and either that same person or someone else sent in a team to get him out. I'm really interested in seeing what happens there, and after seeing Peter put his power to use last night, I think he might surpass Hiro as the show's best character.

Speaking of Hiro, he's still stuck in feudal Japan and has been surprised to learn that Kensei is actually an Englishman. Of course, he promptly messed with the timeline and now has to try to put things right, but why are we worried about seeing any of that? My only guess is that Kensei has more bearing on present day events than you might think. I suspected last season that Mr. Nakamura might have actually been Kensei and that part of his power was long life. Obviously, that was incorrect, but I do still believe that Kensei will have a power and that he will have influence over the modern world. And after seeing that actor play Sark on "Alias" you can bet that my immediate thought is that Kensei is going to turn out to be a bad guy. This is way out there, and without any evidence at all, but what if he's the guy that Molly sees in her dreams?

Finally, the new characters in South America; I don't even remember their names yet. Anyway, what's the deal there? Obviously, the girl has some sort of power that results in people's death. The bodies appear to be bleeding from their eye sockets. What caused that, though? And why hasn't it happened to her brother? You would think that it's not related to touch or sight since everyone in the truck died and not just the two in the cab, but who knows. I don't even know what to compare it to.

We are still left wondering about a lot of characters, too What happened to the Haitian? Where is Sylar? What about Micah, Nikki, and DL? And will we ever see Claude again? I can't wait until next week to see how many of these questions get answers.