'Heroes' Fills "Tabula Rasa" with Excitement
Now that a steadier course has been chartered, NBC faces the difficult task of persuading disaffected Heroes' fans to rejoin the ride.
Monday night's episode attempted to accomplish this by pushing Sylar to scratch the sinister underbelly beneath the Sullivan Bros. Carnival. He did resist the temptation, but Samuel definitely has no plans to leave Sylar's slate unblemished.
Until then, Samuel seems pleased enough by his latest addition to the carnival's family. Sylar might not remember his entire past, or his abilities, but Samuel still clings to the unbelievable fortune of bringing Sylar the strongest of them all into their fold.
By giving the confused, wide-eyed monster a sense of belonging, Samuel feels that Sylar might possibly be tamed, and later used to their benefit. Either as their security from outsiders, or the muscle behind a growing army, Sylar can reorient the carnival, with a flick of his wrist, into any imaginable direction. Unfortunately for Edgar (Ray Park), Samuel's henchman, that means giving up Lydia the carnival's tattooed trollop so that Sylar might be properly welcomed.
Still dropping unexpectedly into the other character's lives, Hiro gets reacquainted with the gang after his ability overtakes him, and plops the Japanese fanboy into Peter's New York City apartment. Concerned about his fainted friend, Peter rushes Hiro to the nearest hospital and learns about Hiro's incurable brain tumor. Not about to be a hospice nurse again, Peter absorbs Hiro's teleportation and pays Noah a visit to see if there might be anybody out there that could help.
Surely enough, Noah's poaching days with Primatech turned up a troubled, teenage healer from Georgia that could be of use to them. But before Jeremy (Mark L. Young) can display his magic touch, he unintentionally makes Swiss cheese of Peter with a shotgun.
Similar to Hiro, Jeremy too has lost control of his ability. Unable to heal the afflicted, Jeremy has started taking life instead; beginning with the houseplants and ending with his parents. With Peter about to bleed to death, Noah's last-ditch attempt at goading Jeremy to help succeeds despite the teenager's doubts. Once Peter has Jeremy's ability, Noah then decides to stay behind and mentor the gifted orphan.
Interested by a cure, but of a different kind, Emma approaches Hiro and asks him if the destructive beauty behind her ability could be eliminated. Much to her disappointment, Hiro explains to Emma that abilities are not light switches to be turned on and off. Quite the opposite, there are no "bad abilities;" only people that abuse them.
Sylar finds himself face-to-face with this razor-sharp dichotomy after Samuel leads the cop pursuing him inside the carnival's Hall of Mirrors. Forced earlier to reflect upon his multiple murders, the hall grants Sylar one of two options. He either accepts his history and slays the officer, or fights against it and frightens the guy off. Before Sylar gets to decide though, Edgar solves his moral dilemma by dispatching the lawman with his Ginsu treatment and right on-time for Sylar's impromptu baptism. Yes, Sylar did fail Samuel's little test, but the ringleader thinks all can be fixed with a bit more prodding.
In the meantime, what might be sink or swim for Sylar happens to be do or die for Hiro. He remembers his gal Charlie from Season One, and decides to try and stop her brutal murder. For Hiro though, failure is not an option. He is going to rescue his beloved waitress, even if it proves his death.