Heroes: The Fix

Last night's episode was a set-up episode. Nothing much happened beyond moving the chess pieces around on the board to prep things for the promised events of next week's episode. And next week's episode better be jam-packed, as almost every storyline ended with a cliffhanger of varying import. Especially since Cheerleader Claire finding her birthmother was front and center in the promos for the episode, an event which didn't happen until the final few minutes of the show. Grr.

But even so, the episode was a keeper. It was probably more comic-like in its plotting and setup than most other episodes of the series, insofar as the structure and pacing went. It felt very confident, in that the cliffhangers were the payoff. I mean, Bennet caught in a Silence of the Lambs moment by supervillain Sylar? Yikes! Although watching Bennet's "internal conflict" and "angst" over the continual mindwipes he's subjected his family to, it strikes me that the writers ought to invest a lot more energy into making him a sympathetic character, even if he is at odds with most of the other characters on the show. Right now, he's Cancer Man light, and that doesn't really benefit anyone. If they make him more like, say, Londo Mollari, a fellow with basically honorable intentions who sets in motion forces he can't control that sweep him along, I think that'd add significant depth to the character. Right now, we're being told (shown, sort of) that he's multi-layered, but the substance ain't there.

Claire's white-trash firestarter mother is an interesting addition to the cast. Obviously, she's had active powers for all of Claire's 16 years, reading between the "firey car crash" lines. Which means there is another generation of Heroes out there that didn't suddenly manifest their powers six months earlier. I wonder if the writers are going to follow up on that, or ignore it as the series progresses?

Did I miss something in the exchange between Peter Petrelli and the Invisible Man who looks like Mike Rutherford? I mean, where does Petrelli get off thinking the former Genesis guitarist has trained other heroes how to use their powers? Ol' Mike made reference to meeting other supers in the past, IIRC, but at what point did he become some sort of sensi? The impression I'm getting from his evasiveness is that he's either a con artist (high probability) or a mere fraud (equally high probability). I don't expect this relationship to end well.

Hiro, of course, gets the best lines of the show, as usual. That his personal demon to confront is his own father is priceless--and fits so well with his character that I worry the follow-up can't possibly live up to the cliffhanger. Next week better really be good, or I'll be sorely disappointed.

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