Zach's Heroes Watch - "Shadowboxing"

Previously on Heroes: Peter has a new power, Matt is dueling with Imaginary Sylar while Real Sylar chills with Samuel, and Claire deals with the worst sorority rush of all time.

Back at the carnival, Sylar still thinks he’s Nathan and is having some weird nocturnal face-changes. Samuel discloses to Lydia that he’s still trying to recruit Claire, even though it seems like a lost cause, and Nylar (Nathan/Sylar) flies away.

Claire and Gretchen bamboozle Paris and Nicole by claiming they’re just seeing things because of some drugged water bottles, and the two stare longingly at each other. Back on campus, Claire and Gretchen try to figure out why Invisible Becky is evil, figuring out that baby powder will make Becky visible. The plot thickens! Noah and The Haitian are already at Becky’s sorority house, having wiped all their memories clean.

Noah’s back in full bag-and-tag mode, with a plan to keep Becky away – The Haitian cancels out powers, so he’ll protect Claire. “This is not my first rodeo,” Noah says – best line ever. Not that much of this matters – Gretchen’s packing up to go home, even though Claire gives Gretchen a touching speech about needing each other. Just when Claire’s at her loneliest, Samuel shows up!

Samuel answers a few questions by revealing that the carnival is more of a family than any blood relations. He tells Claire Becky’s sob story origin, when we also learn that Noah killed her father. But watch out, Noah, you’re about to star in your very own horror movie scene, co-starring Invisible Becky. This time, it’s personal. After learning that Becky’s out to destroy him, Noah finds Samuel and Claire chatting and does what he does best – he pulls a gun.

Samuel also reveals that Danko killed Joseph (something we called a while ago), but he’s still being ambiguous about the value of the compass. While trying to bag-and-tag Samuel, Becky attacks Noah and Claire, but Samuel stops her and successfully pits Claire against her father for a moment. But it seems that this dispute is short-lived, because Claire and Noah are buddy-buddy in the next scene.

Peter’s control over life and death comes in handy as a paramedic, but Emma’s still upset about something. Seems she and Maya are members of the “I hate my superpower” club. But Emma starts on the path to becoming a real medical practitioner by suturing up a walk-on from “Grey’s Anatomy.” But all this people-saving is taking its toll on Peter, who’s wearing out faster than a wet paper bag in a windstorm. “Be ordinary,” says Emma, who we learn is a med school dropout.

When a little girl’s found passed out, it seems like Peter’s just going to fix her with his magic powers, but Emma knows the medical procedure the girl needs and fixes everything. Emma piano-s it out with her power and gives us her backstory, too – there’s a drowning nephew in her past. We get a lot of lovey-dovey “you saved me” bonding, especially when Peter piano-s it out, too.

Sylar’s taken control of Matt’s body and is bodynapping him to New York. But Matt gets the last laugh when he packs a gun in the bag, especially after Sylar learns that he can’t control Matt’s power. Mylar (Matt/Sylar) gets dragged away by airport security while Real Matt giggles over how clever he is. Four hours and a flat tire later, Sylar kills a trucker who stops to help fix the tire, continuing this ugly but delightfully inventive storyline about Matt and Sylar dueling for control of his body.

By odd coincidence or by brilliant design, Sylar bodynaps Matt to the same diner in Texas where Charlie used to work. Sylar tells Matt that the entire world are hostages now unless Matt spills the beans on where Sylar’s body is. To save a waitress, Matt confesses that he overwrote Sylar’s personality with Nathan. This makes things worse, because Sylar builds a list of people he’s going to attack, but Matt gets the last laugh when he tricks Mylar into scribbling a murder threat on a napkin. Matt plans to sacrifice himself to kill Sylar. It works – the cops show up and gun down Mylar. Things, though, might not be that easy; paramedics try to resuscitate him.

At the end of the episode, Samuel reveals that all of what just happened was part of the plan, but what he’s not ready for is the fact that Sylar is missing. We also find out that Noah’s been tracking Samuel for some time; you can’t, it seems, keep a good man down forever. And finally, Peter gets a surprise visit from Nathan, who thinks he’s in trouble but can’t place why.

Verdict? Can we give Robert Knepper an Emmy or something? Samuel is one of the most fascinating characters on television, and he’s one of the main reasons “Heroes” is redeeming itself this season. Also, the Matt/Sylar plotline gets what seems like a satisfactory conclusion, with a morally complicated self-sacrifice, to boot. Another spectacular episode – I’m ready to declare this the best season of “Heroes” yet.