(S04E09) This week on Heroes, the action picked up right where it left off two weeks ago, with Claire and Gretchen facing off against the invisible sorority sister, Rebecca. We also checked in with both iterations of Sylar, the mind one trapped in Matt's body, and the body one hanging out at Samuel's carnival. Only neither was staying put for long.

The remainder of the episode took us back to the hospital where we could hang out with Peter and Emma. Nine episodes into this new season and I'm still not really sure where they're going with the Emma character. As a character, she's just not that interesting, and even less interesting is her ability to see sound as colors. Since they're clearly making no moves toward she and Peter becoming a romantic item, I find myself really wondering why I should care.

The problem isn't that she's a new character, as I desperately want new characters from time to time on this show. It's that she's not a very interesting new character. She has virtually no personality whatsoever, and even her 'sad story' reveal this week about how she failed to save her drowning nephew (and that's why she dropped out of med school) left me cold. I just do not care.

Why are we spending so much time on her? Will she be the "hero" to defeat Sylar this time around? Or will Samuel rise up as the bigger threat and her color can cut through his dirt abilties?

Speaking of Samuel, he put himself right into the middle of things with Claire and Noah this week. With Gretchen having run home in fear, Samuel started working his psychological manipulations on Claire, who's proven she's very susceptible to this sort of thing over the years. And, he revealed that Rebecca didn't really want to hurt Claire or kill Gretchen.

Well, she did, but not because she wanted to hurt Claire. She wanted to hurt Noah. See, Rebecca is just one of the surely countless victims of HRG's ways back when he was the "Company Man." He had no qualms about taking out people with abilities and didn't really give a damn about the consequences. I'm glad to see them standing by this side of his past; I was worried after last week they were going to try and sugarcoat his whole first season. Man was a monster, deal with it.

The new monster, of course, is Sylar. Body Sylar slipped back into Nathan form while at the Carnival, and woke up confused. Luckily, he was smart enough to take off flying when Samuel and Lydia came out of their camper. I guess that means he doesn't remember anything of his time at the Carnival? Who knows the state of what mind he does has.

Especially considering his true psyche is traipsing around in Matt's body, having recently gained control of it. Matt quickly answered the question of whether or not Sylar had gained his power. That answer is no. What we didn't get an answer to was if Matt's wife figured anything out, or even what happened after the big switch at home. By the time we caught up with them, they were already heading out to find Sylar's body.

The best sequences in the episode took place with Matt and Sylar. It was a little convenient that they showed up at the same diner where Charlie was originally killed, but no longer in the current timeline. I guess if the set is there, you might as well use it. I did appreciate the way Matt was using his abilities to set Sylar up for a fall. Throughout the episode, I was getting irritated that he was cowing to Sylar. The mind is more powerful than the body, as Sylar proved by messing with Matt all those weeks.

Matt's plan worked, and he got Sylar shot and killed. At this point, after Sylar had committed a pointless murder in his body, Matt was willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Unfortunately, if the previews for next week are any indication ... SPOILER ALERT! ... Peter butts his nose and his new healing ability in and heals Matt, or at least Matt's body. Who'll be in charge is anybody's game.

We'll also find out that there was a film, and something important on it, that led to Samuel killing Suresh, or at least injuring him severely as we saw last week. Is it too much to hope that Mohinder is dead? His character became frustratingly useless a couple of seasons ago and it's time for him to follow Adrian Pasdar to a possibly brighter future on a different show.

[Watch clips and episodes of Heroes at SlashControl.]