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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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First things first: I knew Hiro would never kill Ando! Now a member of Pinehearst’s Villains team, Daphne gives Hiro his first assignment: go to Africa and get…The African. The precog painterly one, not just any African, who I assume have actual names and stuff because they’re not Tim Kring characters. Hiro & Ando find the African, or the other way around. Hiro is a big sexless man-child, but I’ve come to accept it now, so watching a bit of shovel slapstick made me chuckle.

But we did lose a hero tonight. Adam Monroe is brought to Pinehearst so the immortal man can meet Arthur Petrelli. What a meeting. Dammit! Another character actor I like gone! And I think that even Heroes wouldn’t have the nerve to bring Adam back from a pile of ashes. (Right?) I guess Arthur can absorb abilities more powerfully than his son Peter and less bloodily than his other son Sylar.

Daphne was very busy recruiting people tonight and it’s clear that Pinehearst is holding something on her. Matt stupidly spills the beans about his vision of domestic bliss with her. Parkman can read minds; doesn’t he know how scary that info sounds to most sane women you only met a few minutes ago? Especially when you’re holding a turtle spirit guide? After visiting the increasingly evil Mohinder and seeing Nathan and Tracy held captive as his specimens, Daphne’s convinced she’s bringing bad people together for something that most likely does not involve saving the world. She warns Matt to stay away from Pinehearst. But Matt wants her to stay away, too, to avoid her predicted death. But it takes a little more proof of villainy to get her really scared.

Daphne also visited Level 5 to recruit Sylar for Pinehearst, but he says he’s good now and won’t get involved. But I know Sylar’s really still evil at heart because he then proceeds to wake Peter from his coma to tell him their mom is in a coma of her own. Damn, I was really hoping to have an entirely Peter-free episode, but since he’s only in it for a little bit and he’s wearing a shirt, I can’t complain too much. Sylar’s genuine concern leads him to ask Peter to look in Angela’s head. But Mom slaps him telepathically. The only image he gets is the Pinehearst logo on Daphne’s card. Peter wants to go to Pinehearst, but Sylar won’t let him. Their bitchfight was really short. And ineffective since Peter goes anyway.

I enjoyed all of the scenes with the creepy puppeteer Eric Doyle. Mrs. Bennet is brave, going in to distract Eric while Claire tries to rescue her bio-mom. That Russian roulette scene was pretty tense, too, and a nice use of Claire’s healing power. Good thinking calling in Claire’s dad to do the clean-up. But she still won’t talk to him. HRG enlists Meredith to help him reach out to his daughter. I wonder what that could mean, since Meredith being trustworthy is really only a recent development.

Never really a show to end on a whimper, the last scene shows the assembled Pinehearst Villans, their fully-healed boss Arthur Petrelli, and a not-so-happy reunion with Peter who gets a hug from Dad and summarily has his powers stolen. Did Arthur get Peter’s awesome powers of angst and general suckiness, too?

I know people like to bitch about the state of Heroes lately, especially online, but I still can’t stop watching. There are fun moments in each episode and I think the last two episodes are ratcheting up the action and bringing this volume to its climax. But with so many characters, the action requires a ton of set-up and exposition. And in the interim between those cool little moments, I admit that I now enjoy making fun of the characters I hate. Is it wrong? Are fans too rabid about their shows? Or, even better, are people being too hard on Heroes? Is the nerd rage deserved? (Okay, this closing paragraph sounds a bit too close to a shitty Mohinder voiceover for my personal comfort level.)

Heroes airs Monday nights at 9 P.M. EST on NBC.

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Theresa DeLucci

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