Heroes: Devil in Disguise

After the initial euphoria of having this show get back on track has subsided, it’s time to face the cold, hard truth: The first half of the season is about to end, and the writers’ strike makes it probable that the fall finale will end up being the season finale. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of ground to cover in order to resolve the current plot threads, and very little time in which to do it. I’m assuming that’s the reason this episode felt jumbled, as if the writers didn’t know where to start in wrapping everything up.

Since Nikki is back with Micah at her mother-in-law’s, we start in on a new plot with Micah and Monica, as they team up to retrieve some Micah’s comics and DL’s medal. Monica is new to the hero game, though, and gets herself captured. But that plot is a minor distraction from the new save-the-world arc, which finds most of the heroes trying to prevent the release of a deadly strain of the Shanti virus, originally designed by the Company for use as a weapon. The problem is that it’s hard to know who to trust at this point. Both Hiro and Peter are trying to get to the virus before its release, but they clash over Adam’s motivations. Hiro believes that Adam would sacrifice humankind for “the greater good,” however he might define it. Unfortunately, when Peter and Hiro meet, Hiro falls victim to that strange syndrome common on “Lost” where the characters squander all their opportunities to convey essential information. So instead of telling Peter that he went back in time and saw Adam attempting to release the virus once before, he just says that Adam must pay for killing his father. We’re left not knowing who will win this showdown.

Meanwhile, Bob, Mohinder and HRG are locked in a struggle of their own. Mohinder saves HRG with Claire’s blood, but refuses to believe that HRG’s assertion that the Company is evil, even when he finds evidence that the Company’s research is unethical and dangerous. Bob swears that he’s on the right side, but what is his definition of “right”? And can Mohinder trust him? There’s clearly something wrong with Bob, as evidence by the way he treats his own daughter, but it’s possible that he’s trying to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, or even the right thing for the wrong reasons.

The one character who’s still obviously evil is Sylar. When Maya learns how to control her powers, he cackles and says, “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!” After he kills Alejandro, he hisses to Maya that he “ate his liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti.” Maya does not pick up on these hints. By the end of the episode, Sylar has tracked down Molly, and plans to use her to get to Mohinder. Personally, I prefer the more ambiguous characters in the other plots – in the current Heroes world, good vs. evil is so last year.

PG-Rated