Heroes Volume Three, Chapter Eight: Villains

It’s that time again. You know how every season Heroes whips together a flashback episode that takes another look at past events and tries to explain them in new and nonsensical ways? That’s what we get this week. Alas, unlike past seasons, this particular flashback episode is sort of crappy. I suppose this was inevitable: the season’s been firing on all cylinders thus far, so it was past due for a clunker. On the plus side, this episode marks the debut of a snazzy new “Villains” logo to replace the usual “Heroes” title card. It’s not much, but I’m trying to look on the bright side.

The episode kicks off with a rambling Mohinderlogue about the nature of good and evil. Hiro, in Africa with Ando and Usutu, takes a drug-induced spirit walk back in time to New York eighteen months ago, back when Peter was a sweet-natured nurse and still had those attractive floppy bangs. Angela and Arthur Petrelli throw a swanky bash to celebrate Nathan’s promotion to assistant district attorney. Arthur reads Nathan’s mind--hey, Arthur can read minds?--and discovers Nathan is planning on prosecuting family friend Linderman on corruption charges. Arthur tries to steer Nathan off of this course; when Nathan refuses to back down, Arthur decides to have him whacked. We see footage from the first season’s flashback episode, in which a mysterious van runs Nathan and his then-wife Heidi (remember Heidi?) off the road, thus triggering Nathan’s power of flight for the first time, but leaving Heidi paralyzed.

When Angela asks Arthur if he ordered the hit on Nathan, Arthur denies everything. After Angela witnesses Linderman and Arthur discussing the murder attempt, Arthur uses his mental abilities to manipulate her into agreeing Nathan has to die. Later, a contrite Linderman uses his healing power to mend the damage Arthur’s psychic manipulations have done to Angela’s brain, which restores her memories. With the aid of the Haitian, Angela poisons Arthur in revenge, but Nathan, believing his father has had a heart attack, rushes him to the hospital. Arthur, alive but paralyzed, manipulates the doctor into telling Angela and Nathan he was unable to revive him.

Memphis, one year ago: Hey, you know that one bank-robbing, flame-throwing Level Five escapee who joined up with Arthur Petrelli’s merry band of ne’er-do-wells and whose name I couldn’t be bothered to look up? It’s Flint. His name’s Flint, and as it turns out, he’s Meredith’s brother. Flint and Meredith knock over a convenience store with their fiery powers, but are thwarted by extinguisher-toting Company boss Thompson. Welcome back, Special Guest Star Eric Roberts! I wish you could stick around. The Company just hasn’t been the same since Noah Bennet shot you in the head. Thompson apprehends Meredith and tells her the Company wants to train her as an agent. Meredith agrees, but revolts when she discovers Thompson has also secretly captured and imprisoned her brother. Meredith and Flint break out and jump on a train heading through Texas, with Thompson hot on their trail. It all somehow culminates in a big train derailment and explosion. Flint gets away, but Thompson nabs Meredith. When Meredith tells Thompson the Company was responsible for her daughter Claire’s purported fiery death, Thompson takes pity on her and sets her free.

Meanwhile, in the background, Texas cheerleader Claire runs into the burning train, thus recreating the events of the pilot episode.

Brooklyn, one year ago: Sylar, filled with guilt over murdering Brian Davis to steal his power of telekinesis, tries to hang himself in his watch-repair shop. Elle bursts in and saves his life. Elle, of course, is secretly working with Noah Bennet to observe Sylar for the Company. Elle wonders why they don’t simply apprehend Sylar, since they already know he’s a murderer; Bennet yammers on about whale migration patterns and pie. This makes about as much sense as anything else this episode.

So Elle brings Sylar a pie. Apparently this is shorthand for expressing romantic interest, because shortly thereafter, Sylar is calling her his angel and confiding in her about his powers. Huh. You know, I like Elle. I like Sylar. I think Kristin Bell and Zachary Quinto are tremendously charismatic actors, and in theory I support the idea of a scorching, tumultuous, super-charged Sylar-Elle relationship, fueled by their mutual craziness and penchant for violence. And yet all the tepid blushing and stammering and eye-batting in this episode falls flat and seems… wrong. Very, very wrong.

Sylar tells Elle he has an overwhelming urge to kill people for their powers, but he’s been able to keep it under control since he met her (because she gives him a purpose in life and makes him feel special, yadda yadda). Elle thinks Sylar is redeemable, provided he can keep a leash on his murderous impulses. Bennet tells Elle their orders from the Company are to observe Sylar killing someone. Why? Why on earth would this be the Company’s plan? Why would they decide to kick back and watch while Sylar becomes too powerful for them to control? You know how on the new Battlestar Galactica they’re always going on about how the Cylons have this brilliant secret plan, and then as the series unfolds it becomes more and more apparent that the Cylons are, in fact, just winging it? That’s the Company in a nutshell. No wonder they've burned through three leaders in as many seasons.

Elle invites some guy named Trevor to join her and Sylar for dinner. Elle talks Trevor into demonstrating his ability--shattering glass from a distance--which kicks Sylar’s urge to kill into overdrive. Sylar lops off the top of Trevor’s head while Elle flees.

Later, Elle rants to Bennet about driving Sylar to kill again, arguing that they could have saved him instead. Bennet blows off her concerns and, in another recreation of a scene from the pilot episode, hops into a cab driven by Mohinder, the most glamorous cabbie in New York. So if Mohinder is in New York at this point, this means Sylar has already brutally murdered Chandra Suresh, who didn’t even have any powers for Sylar to steal. Thus the attempt in this episode to paint Sylar as a sweet guy who’s just overwhelmed by his abilities seems a bit, shall we say, disingenuous. Almost as disingenuous as the attempt to paint Linderman, Volume One’s genocidal baddie, as a kind-hearted but powerless patsy to Arthur Petrelli, or the attempt to paint Angela Petrelli as fragile yet fiercely devoted to her sons. Heroes, you know I love you, but please try not to have your dramatic revelations damage the fundamentals of your characters.

In present-day Africa, Hiro wakes from his trance and tells Ando that Arthur Petrelli is alive. Nearby, Usutu yells in terror. Hiro and Ando rush over to him and find his beheaded and bloody corpse. Arthur Petrelli steps out of nowhere and grabs Hiro.

Wow. I didn’t see that coming at all. That was a pretty great ending: brutal and genuinely surprising, and a vast improvement over the wan, slipshod forty-three minutes preceding it. Let’s hope the next episode picks up that momentum and runs with it.