‘Heroes’: Future daze

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‘Heroes’ is still treading water as it nears the finish line of its first season.

If last week was all ‘set-up,’ this week was the ‘diversion.’ Basically the hour was about little more than getting Hiro (Masi Oka, an enjoyable focal point) back to where he belongs…the present. Meanwhile we saw a lot of stuff that will never actually happen as the show indulged in a standard comic book storytelling device: the alternate timeline.

For one week only Peter and Niki were lovers (and she returned to the skin-baring trade after the death of her husband, D.L., and son, Micah); Claire was a diner waitress; Matt was evil; and Sylar, pretending to be Nathan, was President with clueless Mohinder wrapped around his little finger as usual. Also dead: Ando and shapeshifting Candice (Sylar assumed her powers to ‘become’ Nathan, presumably dead as well), and both Claire and her father died during the hour. But then the episode hit the built-in reset button.

Other than Hiro’s discovery than he must stab Sylar there wasn’t much to inform the ongoing story. The episode demonstrated what’s at stake if Sylar isn’t defeated (this is definitely a future we don’t want to return to) but was anyone questioning the danger of Sylar alive and on the loose? We know he’s bad.

There was one moment that nearly made the whole detour worthwhile: the latest tease of Peter (decked out in ‘Matrix’-y garb) and Sylar’s ultimate showdown was more titillating than ever, as both were literally burning with rage.

This week’s episode may be a good starting point for a spin-off comic book but we’ll have to wait another week to get down to the real business of ‘Heroes.’ I’ll admit it…the tease for next week looked pretty freakin’ cool.

(Photo courtesy NBC Universal)