Review - Heroes: Chapter 6 Strange Attractors

I love when the show opens with the sexiness that is Sylar's long hair in a sex scene. What makes it even better is Parkman waking up after the act. Fun. Spoilers ahead. Will the real Sylar please stand up? He's constantly pulling at the fraying conscious of Parkman, continuing to play the head games with him. This leads to the inevitable breakdown between Matt and his wife as he's leaving her for a while. I forgot that she knew about his ability, so it's kind of refreshing that he just comes clean to Janice about his situation. He pleads with her to get away, to which she responds that she'll take Matty and leave instead. Thanks to the writers for not having Janice completely break down and lose it. Until she goes to get his partner for help. Sylar is just slowly eating away at his mind. Or is he? Parkman realizes that if he's inebriated that Sylar won't have nearly the same effect on him. Makes sense that alcohol impairs judgment. If you ever need to rationalize getting drunk just tell yourself that you're trying to get rid of Sylar's influence. I really, really like that Parkman has to get drunk to deal with his mental demons. Not sure if I can endorse the subtle symbolism of drowning your miseries in alcohol. Miseries that are defiant even in the face of an alcohol-induced stupor. Does Parkman think that getting drunk once is really going to push Sylar out once and for all? Parkman stirs and finds Janice and his partner waiting for him. No Sylar though. He gets his sobriety chip again to start the process anew. It's got to be a matter of time before Sylar rears his head again. Unless Parkman waking up is really an illusion. For the record I called it before Sylar was seen walking and throwing the apple. Which means that now Parkman has been pushed out of his body in place of Sylar. Bennett is sticking up for Jeremy, trying to absolve him of the murders he actually committed. The small town yokel sheriff is the only thing that stands in Bennett's way of adopting him as a son (maybe to make up for the one he lost in the divorce?). He calls on Traci for help, arriving in the appropriately product-placed Nissan. I would've guessed that the Haitian would be making an appearance, but the hot blonde aunt works just as well. She connects with him over their abilities and it's actually a decent scene. Earlier mentioned yokel sheriff however has other ideas and plans on using his journal entries as evidence of his anger. Once Traci realizes that he's not going to be released so easily, she calls in a favor to Dennis (the senator she works for I believe). She's greeted on the street by not Dennis but Samuel. I'm assuming that his compass tracks down the other mutants, which is the only way I can explain his suddenly being there. He's offering him a whole new world for herself and Jeremy at the carnival, and she refuses. I like that not everyone is being lured in by Samuel's ravings about the necessity of the mutants to have fun at the carnival. It didn't take Jeremy long to ruin his freedom (eing greeted by an angry mob will do that to you) and he ignores Bennett's pleas to save the man he just killed. The sheriff escorts him back in, but little does the sheriff know that Gil (deputy?) has taken him outside to extract revenge for his murders. Logically, this revenge is chaining his legs to the back of a pickup truck and having someone drive away. As if that's not enough, his body is left in the middle of the main thoroughfare for Bennett and Traci to find his body. This obviously leads Traci to reconsider Samuel's offer because why should a kid like Jeremy be invisible (figuratively of course)? Needless to say Traci is upset and tells Bennett to never call her again. Somehow Samuel knows what happened to Jeremy and he arrives to go all Magneto on the sheriff's office. Except with earth instead of magnetism. It's the vengeance I was expecting, only I was waiting for Traci to flood the town. I suppose tattoo chick tells Samuel when mutants are in danger and the brotherhood is quickly forming. Claire and Gretchen are having a sleepless night. You can cut the bi-curious tension with a knife! The whole angle is furthered by their intimate moment in the trunk of the sorority sister's car as a pledge kidnapping. Cue the incessantly annoying pledge sisters, scared of the situation they're in (screaming scavenger hunts will do that I suppose). They find themselves in a slaughterhouse pitted against another pair of would-be sisters. I understand the Halloween thing but I feel like we could've done without the whole "college co-eds in an abandoned factory" setting as a backdrop for discovering sexuality. And virginity. Gretchen continues her obsession with Claire by theorizing that the two of them are "strange attractors," opposite particles that are super powerful when united. Claire has suddenly gotten wiser and smarter somehow, as she's quickly put together that someone may be after Gretchen for whatever reason. Of course, her first thought is that someone has telekinesis as opposed to being invisible, so I'd expect the mutated sleight of hand to go on for a few episodes. Or not. Just a tad bit later in the episode Claire senses something afoot in the prep room. As Gretchen is being strangled by a chain, Claire knows someone is there and she takes a swing with a stick. She knocks invisible sorority sister off and what ensues is a quick fight that finishes with Claire impaled and invisible sister exposed from a meathook to the arm. She gets up to leave right as the other two would-be sisters are showing up. They arrive just in time to see Claire be pulled off the impaler and heal. This show does best when it minimizes the different characters shown in each episode. I like the volleying back and forth, as this week was all about Claire, Bennett/Traci and Parkman/Sylar. Samuel continues to loom in the background as an inevitable supervillain, although his motives aren't completely clear as of yet. I still think that the showdown between Sylar and Samuel is going to be pretty magnificent, however I worry that the good/bad storyline is getting played out and Sylar always playing the bad guy. Hopefully both guys can survive and continue a cat and mouse game. What would be even cooler is if Parkman loses it completely and becomes a bad guy. This week's episode was well thought out and relatively intelligent. It was much more character driven (as opposed to story driven) and nothing really felt forced for the sake of continuity. Parkman continues his slide towards full-out insanity, while Sylar continues his ascension to restoring his parts to a whole. Claire doesn't piss me off, and Bennett isn't going anywhere. Samuel dropping the sheriff's office will no doubt lead to repercussions down the road. Overall score: 80 out of 100

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