'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Heroes: Six Months Ago
(S01E10) Like Hiro, we're headed six months into the past. We see some characters showing up in unexpected locations. We get answers. We get lots of answers, in fact, proving once again a show doesn't need to keeps its audience wholly in the dark to sustain interest. Hurray for Tim Kring.
Even though Eden making portly Officer Parkman eat donuts wasn't very nice, it's interesting to see how she was brought into HRG's sphere, and to have it explained how it is that she's not running the entire world. The silent guy can prevent powers from working, and then HRG was able to offer Eden a opportunity: someplace to belong and a purpose. He's good at that, but I wonder what really would have happened to Eden if she'd turned down the offer. Would he have let her walk away like he said?
It seems a great many important events in the character's backgrounds happened exactly six months ago. Peter got his nursing license, and brother Nathan's wife was crippled in a car accident. The accident wasn't Nathan's fault, as we've been led to believe. Nathan seems like a more ethical, stand-up guy at this point in his life. Maybe it's his wife's loss of her legs, along with other events related to his father's dealings with organized crime, that turned Nathan into the Machiavellian cynic we know presently. 
Claire becomes a cheerleader. From the looks of it, it's a good thing she will get her ability soon, because the kid is clumsy. I don't know how she survived that long without the ability, seeing as she's always crashing through panes of glass and things.
Now we know that Jessica was Niki's sister who died about age twelve. She shielded Niki from childhood abuse by taking over when the abuse happened. Niki's in AA, not to much of a surprise there, even she, the "protected" sister, is plenty screwed up, as we've seen for ten episodes already. It adds to the understanding of how damaged Jessica is. Niki/Jessica is still the one "heroic" character that I can't see being able to help other people. Jessica seems to far gone and irrational for that. Although, maybe it will take someone as ruthless and single-minded as Jessica to finish off Sylar one day.
Speaking of Syalr, Mohinder's father Chandra is going about his hero hunting when he meets Gabriel, a watchmaker who he thinks may have an ability. He also happens to be one of the few characters besides Hiro who is actually anxious to have and develop an ability. Well, wouldn't you know it. Gabrial "Sylar" can't understand how his first victim, a telekinesis guy, is scared of his own ability. The guy says he fears he might hurt somebody with his ability. That's a reasonable fear to have, but Sylar's not interested in moral conundrums. Making him a watchmaker is an interesting choice, he's mechanistic in his world view to say the least.
Chandra inadvertently causes the death of numerous heroes when he started putting his list together. If he hadn't sought out Gabriel, then Gabriel might never have become Sylar. Chandra also exposed himself to HRG when he contacted him about Claire's ability. It was great to seem them connect as fathers. Week by week HRG becomes more and more nuanced as a character, a far cry from the X-Files knockoff villain of the premiere. 
Hiro bounces around Midland/Odessa having a difficult time proving to Charlie the waitress that he is from the future, even though she's got her own memory ability and witnesses a bunch of demonstrations by Hiro that ought to at least convince her something very strange is going down. Anyhow, this was the most affecting storyline of the episode. Hiro and Charlie fall in love, but some things can't be prevented, even when you can bend space and time. Hiro returns to the present, sadder and wiser. We know from that famous scene, with future Hiro and Peter on the subway, that Hiro is going to change a lot (assuming it really was Hiro visiting Peter, which I think it was) but now we see some of pain that that metamorphosis will entail. It's a hard path for the heroes, getting harder, not easier, as it goes along, making the show increasingly more fun, and more compelling, to watch.
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