Heroes: Out of Time (Review)

I thought I’d step in talk about last night’s “Heroes” episode. I’ve always found the series to be incredibly engaging, rife with suspenseful moments and delightful twists. They’ve masted a TV-friendly sense of dramatic irony that really grabs its audience, a sense heightened by the fact that most viewers genuinely care about the characters. Just last night, I told my roommate, “If Bennett dies, I’m never watching again.”

I should also mention that I was probably the only fan of “the twins,” who genuinely cared about their survival and wasn’t annoyed by their storyline. However, last night’s episode changed that.

How could an episode without them make me hate them? By actually being good.

Now, hear me out. I’ve been loving Season 2. I’ve been sitting here wondering why everyone is complaining about lackluster episodes. Now I understand. Last night’s episode could have been a first season episode. Last night’s episode was that good… and part of me thinks that it’s because there were no twins.  The twins don’t interact enough with other Heroes, and thus they don’t contribute to the overall storyline yet. They haven’t even made it into one of Isaac’s paintings!

Last night’s episode was everything a Heroes’ episode should be because it placed together so many of the characters we loved and (finally!) let them interact. Peter regained his memory, Hiro came home to Ando, Nathan and Nikki reunited (briefly), Parkman and Mohinder are back together… And because of all this, things actually could happen on an emotional level. The past few episodes have felt more like a series of events preparing us to this, with no real independent value. Suddenly, the show reached the point it needed to reach to really be “Heroes,” rather than “Hero.”

That’s not to say the twins won’t be important. I have a feeling that they might be the ones to save Bennett’s life should Mohinder (the idiot) actually shoot him. Which brings me to the next change of favor: Mohinder, no matter how good looking, has just lost any and all compassion I had for him. I already started to hate Claire for the same reason I’m hating him: they’re endangering my favorite character, Bennett.

And nobody puts Bennett in a corner. Nobody.