Zach's Heroes Watch - "Upon This Rock"

Previously on Heroes: Samuel is evil, Emma is deaf, and Hiro is missing.

At the carnival, Claire’s on garbage duty when Lydia talks her into bringing Samuel breakfast; Samuel dodges the question when Claire asks him about his Primatech box, and when she says she’s headed back to school he tells her that’s her choice, confiding in the Multiple Man that she’s not as free as he wants her to think. Samuel flashes-back (what is this, Lost?) to his early attempts to move rocks with his mind as he promises to move “bigger rocks.” Lydia voices her disinterest in the carnival, and I have to wonder why Claire isn’t more perturbed that Samuel has her dad’s files (how does she even know that?). At least she’s rightfully ooked about Multiple Man stalking her, though her idea of running into a House of Mirrors ends up working better than it should have.

Puppetmaster Doyle brings “Barbie” back as a catchphrase when he catches her in Samuel’s trailer and menaces her. But Claire finds out that Samuel killed Joseph and knows that something’s fishy. She wants to get rid of Samuel, and as much as he’s evil, I’ll stop watching if she does. Thank goodness the Multiple Man stops her. But Samuel takes her out into the middle of the desert, which Ian (Poison Ivy) is turning into a Chia pet. Claire’s not too interested, though.

Hiro teleports into the middle of Japan with his mind confused about what pop culture figure he is – he’s either a Jedi, Don Quixote, or a hand aboard the Starship Enterprise. Hilarity ensues until Ando says it’s the brain tumor’s fault. Ando later claims someone “stirred his fanboy brain” and decides to read comic books to figure it out (great plan). Magically, he pieces together that Hiro wants to rescue Mohinder from the mental hospital in Florida.

Emma’s med school apps are in, but she didn’t get accepted. Suddenly Samuel pays her a visit, speaking sign language and talking about his “gift” – he’s the one who sent her the cello, even though he says it was meant for someone else (probably his flashback girlfriend Vanessa). But now he needs her help finding this show’s black male version of Poison Ivy. Turns out he’s a bum, and Emma can play the cello like nobody’s business to lure him in. Finally, her power actually means something.

Oh, yeah, and they faked Nathan’s death in a plane crash. Obligatory funeral scene, even though Nathan’s died so many times that Jean Grey is saying, “Okay, man, enough’s enough.” Don’t worry; I hear he’ll be back in the next issue of Blackest Night.

Verdict? Maybe I’ve been watching too much LOST lately, but “Heroes” didn’t really feel fresh tonight. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good episode and it was interesting, but I’m waiting for the show to surprise me again. It’s nice that Emma’s power actually did something this week instead of look pretty, but she’s got way too many powers at this point. And talk about an absolutely useless final ten minutes.