‘Heroes’: The Petrellis and Pinehearst

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‘Heroes’ has finally found THE villain fans have been looking for to match Sylar’s first-season menace with Arthur Petrelli (Robert Forster). His first sentient act? Take the powers, and the life, of Adam Monroe. For now, at least, this guy seems like a real bad guy. Black and white, cut and dry, even putting his wife in a coma and taking his son Peter’s powers. And whether he knows it or not, that will include Sylar’s hunger.

Before Peter got his powers sucked out of him, though, he gave Sylar a beatdown. Peter vs. Sylar. Wow. You always want to see it, but Pete just took him out pretty easily. The littlest Petrelli has never been the smartest guy, but when Sylar is the one trying to calm you down and formulate a plan, you know something is wrong. And you see above what happened to him running off in a huff to the Pinehearst Company.

Peter’s niece is also a bit of a hothead, but even Claire and her protective, adoptive mom thought up a plan. It didn’t work, though, against Eric Doyle the puppetmaster. When Doyle took them all hostage with his possession powers, it was great. No quick and easy rescue. The forced Russian roulette was a good scene. Yes, you knew what was going to happen as soon as the gun went on the table, but it played out well. Shooting my daughter on purpose, though, might traumatize me, so we’ll see what it does to Claire’s mom. Maybe the three will go ‘Birds of Prey’ and hunt criminals themselves.

And speaking of hunting criminals... Still don’t care much for the storylines of Hiro and Ando or Matt Parkman. Parkman and Daphne may end up getting together, but I already have a feeling that it will end badly for the minor criminal with a heart this season. And as much as we may enjoy ‘Mr. African Isaac,’ as Hiro named Usutu (played by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) in Africa, hopefully we can now move back towards the main thread. Luckily, everything seems pointed towards a showdown (which is what we all want anyway).

We’re not finished here. You want a showdown, here’s one. Mohinder, again, is just plain crazy -- and now they’ve made him stupid. It’s good that Tracy and Nathan got free from his bug’s nest lab, but he actually touched her hand! Knowing she could freeze things? What did he think would happen? Bonding while she’s strapped to a table? Regardless, this could be a great fight if Mohinder is as Spider-Man-like as he seems. Maybe Maya gets loose and takes them all out. That’d be OK.

Earlier news about casting ‘Damages’ actor Zeljko Ivanek has given us a peek at the ‘Fugitives’ arc, and some are already speculating on which stars could, or should, show up this season. Criticism continues to come not only on ratings, but on the selection of powers and the way the show is going about trying to break out of its popularity slide. Seems to be going in the right direction to me, though.

They’ve already started following suggestions -- ones they’d already written in -- as they eliminated a character (poor Adam). Others will probably be leaving us ...

-- Jevon Phillips

Photos: NBC.com