Review: Heroes - A Clear and Present Danger

Its been a long wait. Ok, not that long of a wait. The last chapter ended a mere month or so ago, and the new episode hit last night. So has the show maintained its quality and momentum? Read on to find out. Spoilers are ahead, so keep that in mind. A lot has happened since the end of the last volume. When we last left the show Nathan visited the President with an offer to help him get the real "villains" off the streets. And those villains would be all those with abilities. Nathan continues his crusade with his first target in Traci (personal grudge maybe?) by sending a group of black ski-mask clad squads dressed in black garb with taser tranquilizer darts after her. She was just the first in a series of targets, as Mohinder was targeted second followed by Hiro. And we're introduced to Mohinder and Hiro in familiar ways. Mohinder appears as a cab driver who transports Peter to see his brother. This is, of course, a nod to their first encounter way back in the beginning of the show. Mohinder still has his powers which is interesting. He has the intense strength but no apparent physical deformities. He still has his unfailing trust as well, which means it comes as no surprise that Mr. Bennett betrayed him and is actually working with Nathan in his mutant roundup plan. Hiro still doesn't have powers (which I actually had forgotten) and has decided to play Whistler to Ando's Blade. Of course Ando's power is the simple supercharge ability which only works with other mutants (yes, I'm calling them mutants...don't tell me there's no correlation). But he still has a power nonetheless. So I really have no idea as to why Nathan's group targeted and abducted Hiro, seeing as how he has no powers anymore. Claire is evaluating colleges. Apparently she didn't finish high school (I guess that got lost in the sea of finding herself) but has recently attained her GED. Babysitting her is Angela Petrelli, who of course is running the operation being spearheaded by Nathan and Mr. Bennett. There's this sense of a changing of a guard, as Nathan was previously trying his hardest to stop his mother and Mr. Bennett in the past, yet now he's working with them. Carrying the torch so to speak. Anyways, Claire learns of the plan to abduct Peter and Matt Parkman and hurries to warn both of them. Peter has gone back to this roots as a paramedic. But of course he second guesses his abilities in trying to save lives. If only he were stronger, if only he were faster, etc. More and more of his constant self-doubt creeping in. We still don't know what his powers are however (more on that later), as when confronted about it he acknowledges that his power was the last thing that Nathan saw him do: fly. So either he can fly or he absorbed Nathan's ability to fly. And Peter didn't learn about hugging his family when there are other motives involved. Just like when he hugged his father and had his powers stolen, he hugged his brother and got tazed by Mr. Bennett. Way to learn there. Parkman is trying to make an honest go of it with Daphne, who refuses to stop using her powers. But Parkman wants to be normal and have banished the use of powers in his household. Until he is approached by the prophet he met in Africa. The prophet torch is being passed onto Parkman. Clearly he needs to practice it a bit because he can draw the future, but he doesn't draw far enough ahead in the future to know that he should duck the impending taser dart. Cue abduction. Despite watching PrimaTech burn to the ground and apparent dental records confirming his death, Sylar is still alive. Big surprise. Its unfortunate that they didn't at least stretch the phantom of his death more than one episode. But Sylar is back to his badass ways trying to learn who his real father is. He approaches a watchmaker that he thought was his father,real father because he needed the money. Upon reaching the house of his real dad, he sets off an ambush. This of course only pisses him off and encourages him to use the Force Choke on the assault team, and pretty much wipe them all out for the fun of it. The episode ends with the heroes in self-contained jumpsuits that seemingly inhibit their powers and put them in a state of semi-consciousness. Claire is released because Nathan cares for his daughter (but not his brother?) and the captives are loaded onto a plane, destination unknown. Claire decides to kick the driver escorting her back to ther house in the head and sneak aboard the plane to free the hostages. She frees Peter first, and at this point we know his power: he can still absorb. But it appears that he has to touch the person to get the power, as evidenced by his reaching for Mohinder's hand. He also picks up Traci's power, but apparently loses Mohinder's power in the process. I'm thinking he can only have one power at a time, which is a great twist. Claire rushes the cockpit and threatens a redirected landing only to see that Mr. Bennett is one of the pilots. Needless to say, he doesn't know that he picked up Traci's power. He touches the hull of the plane which promptly freezes and rips a giant hole in the side, sending the plane into a mayday tailspin. An unnamed hero is ripped out of the cockpit while still strapped in, as does a guard. The episode ends with Peter slipping from the grasp of Mohinder, presumably being sucked out the hole right before the plane crashes. Honestly, this episode was pretty freaking intense. The writers have definitely stepped up the body count with the first episode and are creating what could end up being a phenomenal season. The momentum has continued from the last chapter and I'm really liking where its going. Tim Kring realizes he has to pull out all the stops to get the viewers back, and it appears that this season will really force heroes and villains to form alliances and choose a side. I have faith in this season so far, and look forward to what happens next week. Random sidenote - I really like the title of the episode (A Clear and Present Danger) as a nod to the political dealings that are set to occur this season. Overall score: 90 out of 100