'Heroes': Great, but a little late

No need to pile on about the fact that this episode, bridging last season to this season, should have been done a few episodes ago. There are enough critics doing that. Tim Kring knows his mistake, and has admitted as much with his highly publicized apology.  It's understandable to lead the season with a bit of intrigue and mystery, but sooner or later you have to bring everybody up to speed.

Be patient, was the mantra from writers, actors and favorable bloggers.  They were right, to a point.  "Four months ago" was pretty good, and answered some questions.  How did Nathan survive Peter's explosion? What happened to D.L.? Where did the wonder twins come from -- well, they were new, so we didn't need that explained.  Check out Greg Beeman's commentary on the episode, with some great behind-the-scenes photos and storyboards.

Discoveries:  We found out that Peter exploded, but was unharmed and saved a badly burned Nathan.   We saw that Niki had another split personality (Gina) rise up and take over, resulting in D.L. being shot after he went to find her.  We saw that Bob was everywhere, trying to "help out" Niki and capturing Peter with the help of Elle and the Haitian.  We further discovered that Elle is just plain crazy (sociopath crazy -- and Kristen Bell is really good in the role), and I'm starting to think the Haitian is the most powerful hero.  Except that a simple gun could probably bring him down, but more on that later ...

The episode was pretty good.  Not spectacularly mind-blowing, but definitely up to the standards that the show had set.  Updates on some issues like why Noah ran with Claire to California (yes, to protect her, but why not form a group to take down the Company?) and how Sylar was rescued and transported would have been nice, but weren't truly necessary.  A solid effort.

Strike news: Last week, Kring said that he wasn't sure what to do about the strike.  The crew is scrambling to finish 11 episodes, and they have set a Dec. 3 finale if the strike continues.  So it won't affect us viewers for a while, which is probably one of the reasons that networks and AMPTP are willing to let this continue.  And, in case this continues a while, there's always comic books -- like the "Heroes" one recently released.

During the show, we also got a dose of synergy as the NBC.com site's new create-a-hero feature was hyped.  It will apparently let you design your own hero, one that may even be used in an episode sooner or later.  But could your character take out ... the Haitian?

Photos: NBC.com / 9thWonder.com

-- Jevon Phillips