Zach's Heroes Watch - "Close to You"

Noah narrates about how the world is bad and how Claire is all sunshiney, but he’s getting kind of desperate and obsessed about finding Samuel, but he won’t call Claire to use her compass (didn’t she steal it from him in the first place?). But Lauren gets a miracle lead on Vanessa Wheeler, Samuel’s lady love who lived in the estate he dismantled a few episodes ago, only Vanessa’s not willing to talk.

Now Sylar-free, Matt’s playing housewife and cooking ratatouille, but Noah breaks in and pays him a visit to get Matt to leave the house. So Noah and Matt surprise Vanessa with questions about Samuel; one psychic encouragement later, Vanessa’s spilling the beans about Samuel, her childhood sweetie turned stalker. Noah decides to arrange a meet, where Samuel and Multiple Man show up and escape with Vanessa; Samuel warns Noah to stay away, causing an earthquake and a meteorological hot mess before scampering away. Fortunately Noah and Matt can track Vanessa.

Matt tries to get Noah to patch things up with Claire while tracking the moving carnival, but Matt runs home to lock his doors while telling Noah to “get his own house in order” before trying to save the world. Noah tries, but Claire’s got “a thing” she’s late for; one pout later, Noah sulks away. Matt’s ratatouille (Mattatouille?) is a big hit, but his angst isn’t.

Samuel sends Lydia on a Staples run for ink supplies, but she’s a little peeved that the carnival keeps losing people, accusing Samuel of only following his dream; he doesn’t exactly deny it, but he says he’s ready to bring Vanessa in. Vanessa tells her daughter that she thinks the carnival needs a new leader, but of course she won’t tell us who it is.

Hiro commits himself to an asylum that looks suspiciously like the Primatech set from Season Three, where Ando learns that Suresh is hidden (something we learned way back when) and being drugged. The plan? Get Mohinder to hulk out. For comic relief, Ando takes a ton of Mohinder’s meds. Hiro and Watson – er, Mohinder – bust out and drag Comic Relief Ando with them. Mohinder stops being pissy after Ando tells him that Hiro is dying and gets an idea to red-lightning-zap Hiro back into coherence. It works!

Peter’s compass tattoo is painin’, and Emma is playing her cello some more, which lures Peter to her apartment. There have to be easier ways to tell a guy you’re interested. Emma shows Peter her compass bling, but Mama Petrelli is unhappy because Peter has a girl over. Like Dr. King, Mama has a dream that Emma’s going to turn into Darth Cello. Peter nicks his mom’s ability and has the same dream, but this time Sylar tries to save Emma in the dream. Peter wrecks Emma’s cello, but surprisingly she doesn’t take that too well and kicks him out.

At the carnival, Samuel tries to explain why it’s cool that he kidnapped Vanessa by painting Noah as a real stinker, and he promises to show her this sweet piece of real estate. Meanwhile, Lauren returns and makes out big time with Noah before Hiro & Co. teleport in for an awkward moment.

Verdict? The more we learn about Samuel, the less interesting he is for me, and having him be this petulant pining crank is not exactly appealing. I appreciate that he’s getting depth, but I think I like Samuel when he’s ‘just this side of evil’ rather than ‘just this side of misunderstood.’ Noah and Lauren are finally together, which we’ve seen coming about six miles ago. I’m lukewarm on this half-season, since the last half was just so interesting. I want mystery, dagnabbit, not revelations!