Heroes: Godsend

(S01E12) The month off was enough for me to start missing the show. Chapter Twelve opens two weeks after we last saw our heroes. Jessica has spent the intervening time pummeling prison guards from the looks of the fearful battered bunch that enter Niki/Jessica's cell in the opening scene. Not to worry, Jessica is concocting an insanity defense. Maybe "concocting" is too strong a word. Niki does have a really strong insanity defense. She and her husband D.L. have essentially exchanged places. Now she's the perceived dangerous criminal and D.L. is the sole protector of their son Micha.

Hardly anything has gone the heroes' way during the hiatus. Sure, the Artist came out of his time in Odessa cured of heroin addiction, and is now able to paint without it, but most of the others are still suffering in the wake of previous events.

Matt Parkman is back on the FBI's shit list after HRG (Claire's dad) uses the Haitian's ability to successfully block a search of the paper factory that hides the secret hero-buster base. Matt's FBI partner sure is fickle. Hasn't she had enough direct evidence of her temporary partner's psychic abilities in the past? She should have stuck by him again here, but she caves when he own boss comes down of her. Maybe this setback is what leads Matt to finally tell his wife the truth about his power.

Nathan Petrelli, after a few pro-forma objects for prying ears, finally gives in and starts to allow, that yes, maybe something bigger than his own reputation is at stake here. NBC picked the funniest moment of the show, the Nathan/Hiro "villain" pronunciation scene, to preview all over TV and the web the past few weeks, but it was still funny seeing it again here in context. All the Hiro and Ando stuff was fun as usual. (So far Heroes has avoided much of the product placement moments that increasingly fuel NBC shows. But this week Hiro makes a pointed reference to the Nissan Versa in an issue of 9th Wonders that he and Ando "drive everywhere.")

The Artist's rendering of Hiro fighting a dinosaur with his samurai sword (well, samurai scabbard anyway) turned out to be a red herring and a bit of a disappointment. A CGI dinosaur rampaging down Fifth Avenue, or a very long trip into the past for Hiro, would have been over the top anyway. I prefer to forget the dinosaur painting incident, which is a waste of good precognition and acrylics. Simone did roll that painting up to take to the as-yet-unseen Linderman, so we are probably not done with it.

Simone says Linderman buys as much of the Artist's work as he can, which surely is another clue the Lindeman knows more about what is going on than the average billionaire. Unless he's just really into comics.

Now that most of the cast that dropped in on Odessa has left again, and HRG has used the Haitian to wipe Zach's memory, Claire is more alone and at a loss how to proceed than ever. She even has the time to ask the question that was on every viewer's mind some weeks ago. What the hell does "save the cheerleader. save the world" even mean? I appreciate the nod to the fans, but at this date it might have been better to just to let that one go. I blame the marketing department for overworking that phrase, and I just hope they go easier on "Are you on the list?" So far, they have seemed to. The show is good enough, and popular enough, without overclocking catchphrases.

Claire does have the Haitian on her side, as he reminds her, but she has to keep his aid to her secret from her father, who she has more reason that ever to mistrust. So she starts to rebuild her friendship with the now heterosexual Zach. If Peter's dreams are a true indication, The Cheerleader should be getting her butt to New York in the next three weeks anyway.

Speaking of New York, Mohinder is back from India and hot on the trial of Sylar. Yeah, he's a little out to the loop. But he's soon brought up to speed. HRG drops in to mess with his head, then apologizes and ask Mohinder to join his hero-containment efforts. Even the very big gun HRG plants on the table doesn't sway Mohinder. So HRG leaves his business card. The name, website, and 800 number of the cover paper supply company are so clearly shown in close up that I'm sure you can guess without even checking that NBC has set up for some online adventure of some kind: www.primatechpaper.com/ (1-800-PRIMA16). Evidently, they're hiring.

And speaking of HRG in New York, the dude really does get around. For all we know, he has a teleportation ability, or maybe access to someone else's ability.

Peter has a dream similar to his last one, which jolts him back out of that coma the first one sent him into. In the dream Nathan clearly communicates he can help Peter. Maybe by self-sacrifice and flying themselves into orbit? However, once he bolts from the hospital, Peter makes plans to head for the open desert where, he sensibly reasons, an exploding Nuclear Boy will do the least harm. Meanwhile the real Nuclear Man is holed up in a shack somewhere playing with himself, so to speak.

Peter's plane reservation plans are interrupted. He meets an invisible guy (Doctor Who's Christopher Eccleston), who looks to be yet another bad-off fellow who's power is much more a curse than a blessing. I do wonder why the first thing we see him steal is money, though when he can't use it to pay for anything. Poor guy, probably just bored. I'm looking forward to seeing how he and Peter interact next week, as a pair of invisible dudes, and how invisibility can possibly help Peter not become a nuke.