A storm cloud is brewing in the Heroes universe and this episode continues to set up the Carnival and Samuel Sullivan as one of the best plots of the season, the last few seasons actually. Aside from a rather glaring plot hole, and a rather lackluster Peter story, this episode was interesting for all the questions it ends up raising and the directions it could go in.
Claire stumbles upon Lauren and Noah’s attempt to bring down Samuel while an attempt to negotiate a peaceful surrender of he carnival’s leader ends up costing a life and then some. Peter’s attempts to find Emma are futile especially as Angela tells him the Sylar seen in the dream might not be Emma’s savior. At the same time Sylar turns to Matt in help removing his powers and possibly curing his insanity, but when Janice is threatened Matt takes more drastic measures.
Samuel continues to impress and as his character has developed it’s scary how similar he is to a modern day politician. By the end of this episode he had a dissenting member of the carnival killed, not only to silence them but to make the family turn against normal humans. It was a manipulative, yet diplomatic move that further showed how smart and cunning Samuel is as a character. He described it perfectly when he told Lydia the family needed a villain worse than him. Hopefully the end will have Lauren, Claire and Noah bonding to take down the carnival but who didn’t love the team Lauren and Noah have become this season? Sylar returned to his snaky, fun self that hasn’t been seen in quite awhile. The best parts of his time spent in Matt’s head were when he would endlessly needle him and this week with his “have a nosh” comment was hilarious. Sylar is best when he skirts the line between campy and scary; here his conflict with Matt was actually even for once. Matt finally breaking down and showing how Sylar has turned him into a liar was fantastic, and who knows what will happen now that Sylar is stuck in his own head.
The only issue I had is a SPOILER ** Couldn’t Claire have used her blood to save Lydia? Instead of wasting valuable time finding first aid supplies couldn’t Claire have used her ability, the one that saved her from a bullet wound not three minutes before? If there’s no explanation that seems like poor storytelling. **END SPOILER. Tracy seems to be set up for a return and I’m a bit ambivalent. Ali Larter has really been unnecessary the last couple seasons as both Nikki and Tracy. The only place I can see this going is maybe having a catfight of sorts over Noah with Lauren, but that seems highly petty. Peter was fairly wasted if only because his scenes were not given equal time compared to the other plots.
Another great episode and I’m slowly starting to wonder if Heroes will end this season on an upswing. Peter was a waste and hopefully Tracy isn’t gearing up for a girl on girl smack down. The carnival continues to be the best part of the series and I can’t wait to see what Samuel has up his sleeves next week.
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