An awesome episode after last week's dull retread. Pretty much all of the storylines excited me, with the exception of Isaac and Simone. I simply could not care less about those two, but it did help me realize what Simone's super power is: she's the world's greatest plot device. Her entire role on this show is to get one character from point A to point B, from Isaac to Nathan (the painting she sold/got back from Linderman) and especially Peter. In this episode she's employed in the classic romcom convention of one half of a couple discovering the other with an ex, and of course misconstruing a warm exchange as proof that there are still feelings. I kind of expect better from this show.
A couple important points:
-I am full-on in love with my little Claire Bear. She's got a great storyline, mixing delicious teen angst, the complicated paternity issue, and the even more juicy duplicitous nature of her current relationship with her adoptive parents. That last one is going to break my heart, as Mr. Bennett clearly loves his little girl very much and will be devastated when she inevitably shuns him for all his manipulation. But he did it all for you, Claire! Cut the guy some slack. (On another note: Claire has amazing hair. Get the girl a Pantene commercial already.)
-Claire's bio-dad is revealed to be Nathan. I had puzzled this out last week, but I have to say I still have trouble fully buying it. Nathan comes from a WASPy New York family. Would he really hit a piece of midwestern trailer trash, even if it was played by Crazy Gina from Nip/Tuck? The timeline also seems slightly implausible. But I guess we'll dive into all this next week.
-Hiro used his wits to get rid of his overbearing pops, played by the inimitable George Takei. It's funny, though --- throughout the scene I kept thinking that the most interesting part of that family portrait was Hiro's brainy sister. The camera lingered on her an awful lot, and I wonder if perhaps we haven't seen the last of Kimiko --- and if maybe she doesn't have a power up her sleeve, too. That said, Hiro's quest needs to get some gas but quick.
-I was also right about the Nikki/Jess jail sequences. Another episode with her rotting behind bars would have been too much. So after the shrink successfully coaxes Jessica out of her shell and then gets subsequently beaten and severely tasered, we get a shockeroo ending: an inmate on death row has confessed to Nikki's crimes and she's free to go. Well, free to be in the employ of Linderman, whose lackey arranged the whole thing. But since it's shown that Jessica is now the dominate personality, something tells me she'll be just fine with that line of work. If they keep building this character right we could get some really juicy scenes, with Nikki and Jessica wrestling for control of the body. It's a fascinating character.
Also, we got more Sylar, who's now free again to eat Isaac's brain (yay!) and Peter and Invisible Jackass, who actually acquitted himself quite nicely this episode. Peter's finally starting to realize he can access any of the powers he's absorbed, which could make him the most powerful hero on the planet. And a big ol' target for Sylar...
