March 5, 2007: A Life of Meaning
New characters are coming into play faster than I can keep track. But I don't mind having Candice (Missy Peregrym) on board, because she has an edge that competes with Jessica's. She certainly welcomed herself with a set of eyes so devilish, I'm beginning to think she might even trump J's badass vibe. And her power is ridiculously brilliant. Seeing her disguised as Simone was a great way to introduce her "special" quality. But as far as we've seen, she definitely has no remorse or emotion at all. Isaac was out of sorts, naturally, but at least Simone's death produced another one of his paintings - someone had to save him from the cops or Linderman (Malcolm McDowell) wouldn't be able to collect the valuable comic canvases. I'm not sure what the latest painting was, though. It wasn't as clear as some of the previous drawings.
My favorite story is still Claire, who, according to Thompson is just "an assignment." He made it pretty clear that HRG is not the one who will go after Claire and The Haitian, and it's nice to see HRG as an inferior rank for once. I like that Mrs. Bennet knows everything, that he told her before he lost his memory. And it was nice to see a softer side of HRG, not to mention more scenes with his wife. Or, who we
thought was his wife - Candice was everywhere! We're really beginning to see Thompson's powers, and I like that HRG is powerless at this point. Not completely, but enough to make him fall in line with orders he's against.
Claire was not a happy camper as Vivian Lewis from Canada. And I knew her request to see Peter would either land her completely lost or in the middle of the truth (but I guess that's the same thing, in this case). I was waiting for her to disappear. I thought she might run when she got out of the car earlier, but the airport was a much smarter place to go her own way. By the way, was The Haitian speaking Japanese on the pay phone? I couldn't tell from the brevity of his conversation. But, if we're to assume that Mr. Nakamura has a hand in the Organization, it's very possible. Or was he talking to Mrs. Petrelli, who we later learned knew everything all along? That was my favorite reveal of the night, and her coming face to face with Claire was the connection we needed between Nathan and his daughter (since her flame-igniting Mom was no help bringing them together). The look on Claire's face when she met her grandmother was perfect. How much more can she handle?
Speaking of retaining a lot of information, Sylar's pretty convincing, isn't he? When he told Mohinder to relax for a minute, even
I believed him. Just as I had been losing faith in Mohinder, I saw a glimpse of hope when he served Sylar that tea, so disgusted with his traveling partner. "You're a parasite." Did anyone else notice the intense camera angles when Sylar was talking about Mohinder's father? I was captivated and it meshed well with Patient Zero's little speech. Even though Mohinder thought he had the power as he was taking Sylar's spinal fluid, his threatening whisper just wasn't convincing to me. Somehow, I find his attempt to be tough quite the opposite. But Sylar's escape was awesome. The IV, the arm restraints, the bullet hovering right in front of his face - I loved every minute of its creepiness as the tables turned.
And I'm glad we got to see more of Nathan's role in bringing down Linderman. Hiro's quieted "Flying Man!" had me laughing, and I love his enthusiasm whenever he sees Nathan. Seeing
Felicity's Ian Gomez as Linderman's curator was a little perk, too. When Lockdown Mode was activated and Ando showed up, it felt like the last car in the race finally caught up to the others - I was glad to see him, even though the goofy duo more often than not get into trouble. But
finally, the sword is taken and Hiro's power has returned. Things were falling into place for him, until they were standing on that roof looking at the future of New York.
I'm still confused as to how Niki/Jessica's body works - where exactly the other personality
is in that alternate dimension. Jessica thinks she's one of Charlie's Angels, and she was quickly making her way to Nathan. I was pleasantly surprised when Niki showed up in his room just in time to warn him. I guess Nathan had no reason not to believe Niki, considering he's got special abilities himself. Anything's possible at this point, right? Even meeting Linderman in the kitchen, of all places. I think I was just as confused as Nathan looked. I guess I was expecting some oversized office with a ridiculous view of the Strip and smileless expressions. But we even got chuckles out of the white-haired wise man. My favorite line: "Now you can't have any of my pot pie." I was sure Nathan wouldn't pull the trigger - unlike my uncertainty for Mohinder's rage - as he thought about having "a life of meaning"... something Peter's been struggling to understand this entire time.
Mohinder's blood dripping from the ceiling reminded me of the very first, and only, episode I saw of
Supernatural, except Suresh wasn't dead yet. I wonder what Peter's fate will be after Sylar's invisible scalpel began its usual deadly slice as the hour came to a close. But I'm hoping his brain isn't stolen and he can actually stop Patient Zero from "sinking his teeth in." After all, there have to be more Petrelli family reunions in the near future and Uncle Peter should really be present, don't you agree?
Note: Check out NBC.com for cast commentary on the idea behind last week's episode and read the new chapter of the online graphic novel to see HRG first discovering Claire in the fire we've all heard so much about.
