Zach's Heroes Watch - "Brave New World"

Previously on Heroes: Peter and Sylar have a bonding moment, Hiro’s in love with time-lost Charlie, and Noah’s troubled past catches up to him when he gets buried alive with Claire as Samuel takes his show on the road to New York.

Things look grim for Claire and Noah, buried alive about fifty feet down; even Lauren can’t figure out where they’ve scampered off to. Noah deduces that Samuel wants Claire to watch her daddy die, but Claire’s not willing to give up on Noah just yet. Noah asks Claire’s forgiveness, but Claire says he fixed her identity crisis. But when it looks like he’s dead, Claire starts digging frantically, and Aquagirl Tracy shows up to blast them out. Wonderfully and in true “no one ever dies on this show” fashion, the plan works.

Matt raids his fridge but finds himself face to face to face to face with Multiple Man, playing the mind game card by giving Multiple Man confidence issues and trying to push thoughts. Just as Multiple Man’s ready to knife Matt, all the multiples disappear because Sylar’s ready to be super again. After treading down the same “Sylar’s evil” argument, Peter reads Multiple Man’s mind and figures out Samuel’s plan, but Matt keeps pushing thoughts into Sylar’s head until Sylar proves that he’s reformed. Matt decides to trust them, but he has a plan for Multiple Man.

Meanwhile, Hiro’s all better, but he’s ready to go into battle once more – I love how enamored he is with a combat-ridden destiny. Surprise – he gets a message from Charlie. Major suck – Charlie’s sixty-five years older (convenient). Her memory is still pitch-perfect, but she doesn’t really blame Hiro for what happened to her; after all, Hiro’s got a plan to make things right. Charlie’s not too enthusiastic about Hiro’s plan, mostly because she’s got grandchildren. Destiny – I mean, Noah – calls, and Hiro starts a new journey.

Samuel promises he’s going to “change everything” by coming out as “king of the hill.” Edgar and Doyle like this idea, and so does everyone else; heck, who doesn’t love a good field trip to New York? (Nobody asks how this carnival just landed in the middle of New York? I can’t believe Samuel applied for a permit.) His master plan has Emma bringing people to the carnival with her music, but he just sort of shrugs off the whole killing people thing and calls in Creepy Puppet Man Doyle to force her to play. And play she does, until her fingers are completely shredded.

Noah, Claire, Peter, and Sylar all converge on the carnival. Sylar volunteers to save Emma, but Peter has apprehensions; Noah gets kidnapped by Edgar, and Doyle puts the kibosh on Sylar’s big plan. Claire spills the beans on Samuel’s big plan, but none of the transvestite carnies believe her, and Edgar reveals that he’s working from the inside to bring down Samuel. Emma uses her cello blasting powers to knock Doyle down, and Sylar flabbergasts Doyle by “coming out” as a hero.

Samuel’s big confrontation scene shows up when Multiple Man reveals that Samuel had him kill Lydia; this pushes the carnival over the edge, and the supers all bolt from Samuel’s tent. Infuriated, Samuel takes it out on the crowd and starts to tear the carnival apart, but Peter soars in and tackles Samuel. Samuel brings up Nathan, suggesting that both of them were brought down by older brothers, but Peter’s not buying it. Hiro arrives and – supercharged by Ando – teleports all the heroes out of the carnival, and Samuel’s powers crap out. Volume Five concludes, but it looks like the show is coming back with Volume Six – “Brave New World” – in which Sylar goes good and the whole carnival fiasco gets swept under the rug until Claire goes public with the whole “ability” thing.

Verdict? For better or for worse, this season’s over, and I think the show turned around after a dull stint in the middle there. This season might be better than a lot of previous seasons, but it definitely lost some steam in the middle. Fortunately, the finale brought it back around to being exciting. I’ll be interested to see what direction the show takes next, and I’m at least optimistic about the idea of a new season. And can I just say – perfect casting for Old Charlie!