Episode 7

Let me ask you something.

So, you're a hero - or at least someone who has powers and abilities. You exist in a world where other people have powers. People who can fly or absorb powers of others or create illusions are not shocking to you.

So when you walk into the offices of a mysterious, shadowy company and you see what appears to be your father - even though he's been dead for a bit - standing in a room full of villains why is your first reaction to embrace this individual?

Let me introduce you to Peter Petrelli, folks.

Rather than saying "hold up - let me digest all this for a second, maybe read this guy's mind to see if it truly is my dad" he walks over with open arms and gets his powers stolen in the process. The only thing I find more laughable than that is him being powerless in his holding cell trying to attack his dad and other captors with a tray.

What else did episode 7 tell us?

1. Suresh is a villain now. He's officially crossed over into "Evil Scientist" territory. I'm wondering why it took a show that's essentially a live-action comic book so long to have the stereotypical villainous scientist/doctor. At least Suresh now has a decent reason to be on the show other than to antagonize me with his long-time uselessness.

2. C'est la vie, Maya. Or should that be "Adios, Maya"? The last link to all that made season 2 such a crappy season has now left the building. She never caught on with the audience (despite being so caliente) and has set the record for most consecutive episodes with a crying scene. Seriously, I think every episode she appeared involved her crying at some point.

3. The Elle/Claire tag-team duo. It makes so much sense. With Elle walking through the doors of Pinehurst to have her powers removed one doesn't know how long this duo is going to last but it worked on a lot of levels. Which brings me to this - what's up with all these people looking to remove their powers? First Maya, now Elle (and it also seemed Claire was headed down that path for a bit). I guess we're supposed to contrast Sylar's need to feel special and superior with Claire's need to be normal. I'm not certain people would actually want to have a power removed (unless you're that guy from the Skittle s commercial who turned everything he touches into Skittles). But Elle/Claire has a lot of potential as a crime fighting unit - Claire wants to fight villains but lacks the power to take them down and Elle has a very nifty ability to stop people in their tracks. Would be a shame if they dismantled that duo before exploring the possibilies of a tag-team first.

4. There was an unnecessary Hiro sighting. Ok, we understand he's a fan fave, but his 1.5 minute scene didn't accomplish anything other than to feed the audience's Hiro-addiction. Couldn't they have just saved that scene for the next episode where they could've had a better flow to the storyline? It just felt so obligatory, like "oh snap, we almost forgot to put Hiro in this episode!". It's ok, writers, we know Hiro isn't going anywhere, you can leave him out in an episode and we won't panic.

5. HRG/Noah. You feel that? Yes, slowly but surely you're becoming a background character. What a shame. As Claire breaks further away from him his whole "whatever it takes to keep my family safe" approach becomes more and more pointless. What made this character resonate so well was his motivation to protect his family and to shelter his Claire-bear from the prodding scientists of The Company. Writers need to find another role or purpose for this great character. He consistently was one of the bright spots on the show. You never knew if he was just doing what was best for his family or if he was still an operative of The Company and just playing the role. He always had that sly grin that could've gone either way.

6. Sylar delivers, yet again. As soon as Peter didn't die from the fall as he was launched through the window of Pinehurst I knew Sylar had a hand in it. Excellent turn of events. Is there anyone who wants to argue this show isn't focused on Sylar? Seasons 1 and 2 were all Peter, but season 3 has been the breakout of Sylar. I applaud the writers for this decision.

7. Finally, marvelous plot development in the Parkman/Speedster storyline. Her conversation with Pinehurst cast serious doubts as to whether she was still aligned with them or with Parkman. If I had to bet on this I would say she's playing Pinehurst, afterall if she was truly going to doublecross Parkman he could've read her mind (unless that's a serious gaffe on the part of the writers). You can't make it that Parkman needs to do his "Parkman reading your mind" face every time he uses his power, it should be assumed that this character continuously scans the minds of people he speaks with, thus making it hard to dupe him.

With the election of the president unfortunately getting in the way of our normal Heroes festivities we have to endure a whole week without an episode, thus spend a whole week with me talking about how I wish when Elle's electricity was on the brink of bringing the plane down and Claire decided to absorb Elle's electrical current she had proposed they transferred the electricity by touching lips rather than taking her hand.