AirLockAlpha.com

This review may contain spoilers.

The winning streak ended at two. Apparently, “Heroes” couldn’t think up even a semi-original plot for this week’s episode, “Strange Attractors”. None of the stories were particularly interesting and, once again, the episode suffered from a lack of heroic action.

Sylar (Zachary Quinto) takes over Matt Parkman’s (Greg Grundberg) body and seduces his wife, Janice. Matt of course figures the best way to get rid of Sylar is to drink himself into a stupor; apparently going on a bender counts as action in this series. In perhaps the most pathetic attempt to try to fool viewers that Sylar was gone for good, we were “treated” a pretty lame fadeout of Sylar’s body.

Nobody was foolish enough to believe Sylar would go away so easily, so why waste time with this pointless stunt? It is revealed at the end that Sylar is in fact occupying Matt’s body. Of course, any reasonably intelligent viewer knew this would happen sooner or later. Can Matt Parkman’s story get any worse?

Claire (Hayden Panettiere) and Gretchen (Madeline Zima) find themselves kidnapped by members of their sorority, blindfolded, and taken to some secret location where they begin their “Hell Week” initiation. Completely lacking in any originality whatsoever, the girls find themselves with a couple of close calls with death at the hands of the sorority sister from Hell, Becky (Tessa Thompson). Of course everyone lives and both Becky and Claire are forced to reveal their powers in front of two dazed and confused sorority recruits.

This story was largely pointless, but it put Claire and Gretchen together for most of the episode so that they could talk about their feelings. Of course Claire is still trying to find herself. I am so sick of “Heroes’ playing up these identity crises. It was interesting the first time or two, but when a character struggles with her identity for the better part of four years, why should the audience care any longer?

In perhaps the most illogical and convoluted story, Noah (Jack Coleman) and Tracy (Ali Larter) attempt to help Jeremy (Mark L. Young) get out of jail. Of course everything goes wrong and Jeremy kills a heckler on his way out of jail. It is never explained why a crowd larger than the ones surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald following the Kennedy assassination has assembled in this small town for this kid whose parents seemingly died in a house accident.

Of course what happens next is utterly illogical and ridiculous. One of the police officers decides to string Jeremy to the back of a pickup truck and drag him to his death. No, it didn’t make a lick of sense. Samuel Sullivan (Robert Knepper), angered at losing a possible recruit, levels the police station, killing all who are inside.

I had thought that Jeremy might be an interesting hero to add to the cast, but apparently, the creators felt differently. Why they continue to parade out such deadwood characters as Gretchen and Angela Petrelli (Christine Rose), while quickly shuttling aside promising characters like Jeremy, or talented actors like Ernie Hudson, is mind boggling.

All in all, this was a boring episode in a disappointing season. It was a bigger letdown because it followed up two of the better episodes fans have seen in quite some time. Better luck next week.

What Worked.

I loved it when Sylar did a quick impersonation of Mohinder when he flippantly said “My father’s research.” That is one hideously overused phrase I haven’t missed this season, and it was funny seeing Sylar did the quick impersonation.

What Didn’t Work.

It would have been nice if Gretchen had bitten the dust in the meat processing plant. I simply do not like Claire’s story this year, and Gretchen adds less than nothing to this show. The creators of this mess need to decide if they want to be a comic-themed show about superheroes or a melodramatic soap opera. If it is the latter, I won’t be watching any longer.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"Heroes" stars Jack Coleman, Hayden Panettiere, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Masi Oka, and Milo Ventimiglia. “Strange Attractors” was written by Juan Carlos Cato and directed by Tucker Gates.

"Heroes" airs Mondays on NBC.