Heroes Volume 5 Season Premiere Reaction

So, let's get straight to the point. Is Heroes back on track?

I'm not sure yet... but things are definitely looking up.

Heroes Volume 5 (season 4) kicked off last night with a 2 hour season premiere, and it was good, old fashioned, power-wielding fun. We had our old characters, we had some new ones introduced by way of the the Sullivan Carnival, which is headed up by the wonderful Richard Knepper, and his gang of bad, bad heroes.

I'm going to jump right in here and say that his motives, thus far not revealed, will keep me coming back for more. Knepper's character, Samuel Sullivan, is deliciously... dark. I had high expectations for Knepper in this villain role, and if the first episode is any indication, we are all in for one hell of a treat. I'll get back to him - best for last, after all.

As is the usual Heroes way, we find ourselves presented with several different storylines that will eventually intersect with each other. Yet, we have a strange and exciting mix of stories not yet seen in the world of Heroes.

First and perhaps most exciting - of the original characters anyway - would be that Matt Parkman has Sylar in his head. The idea of this is that when Matt Parkman was in Sylar's head making him believe that he was actually Nathan, part of Sylar's mind slipped into Parkman's. Now, Sylar comes out, hallucination-style, and quite literally taunts Parkman. This is a fantastic twist on Sylar's character, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what happens here. Sylar's ultimate goal is to reunite his mind (the part that's stuck in Parkman) with his body (currently in the form of Nathan Patrelli). His goal for this episode was to get Parkman to reneg on his promise to his wife that he would no longer use his mind control powers. He succeeds admirably and entertainingly. I imagine that Sylar will ultimately find his way back into his body, but until then, the ride should be entertaining and one of the show's high points this season.

We also have Noah Bennett, who is involved with Peter and Tracy. Put simply, Bennett is almost murdered by Tracy (recall that Tracy is back as the vengeance-seeking thing made of water). Things happen, and magically, I think, Bennett and Tracy are falling for each other. Talk about a one eighty. Anyway, romantic subplots aside, Bennett is working with Angela to put the company back together, but doesn't seem motivated. Claire is in college and his wife is seeing other guys. Oh, and Danko dies, which leads Bennett on a short scavenger hunt for a compass, which is soon stolen from him (leaving him almost dead) by a guy with super speed and a penchant for slicing people to ribbons.

Peter is a sissy as ever. I'm utterly bored with his I don't wanna do anything attitude. If I knew him, I'd punch him in the face. He's back to his paramedic ways, using his speed and strength powers to help people. Boring. Sure it's cool that a hero is actually using his powers to help people, but he whined about doing it enough last season that it really just irks me now. He goes with Bennett to find the compass, absorbs Speedy McSlice-Em's powers, and a cool knife fight ensues. He refuses to help Noah further, however, citing the reason for coming along as "speed will help me save people" yada yada. Punch in the face.

Anyway, Hiro is dying. Remember the nose bleeds from the last season? Well, it turns out to be something that is killing him, I'm thinking brain tumor. Anyway, he and Ando are running a Dial a Hero service, which ends up with them amusingly rescuing a cat from high places. Hiro stops time, then when he restarts it, he is frozen... something, something, they haven't explained it yet, moving on. Anyway, he ends up traveling back in time to the Sullivan Carnival when it visited Tokyo, Japan 14 years ago. There he meets Samuel (who also traveled back in time specifically to meet Hiro), who convinces him its a great idea to use his powers to go back and fix his previous mistakes. He does this by forcing Hiro to prevent the event that causes Hiro's sister to hate Ando. Upon returning to the current time, Ando and his sister are going out, making Hiro feel like a... well, hero, and making it clear that Samuel's logic is, in fact, bottled wisdom.

Nathan had a tiny role in the show, which is awesome because I'd like to hit him in the face with a shovel. He's easily one of the most infuriating fictional characters in the history of fictional characters. His role this week was blessedly short, boiling down to very little more than whipping out some Sylar-esque powers with confused expressions on his face.

Moving on.

Claire is in college, her room mate is almost as infuriating as Nathan, then her room mate dies by jumping (supposedly) out of their second story window. Police find a suicide note on teh pillow, which we as astute viewers will note wasn't there when Claire walked into the room and discovered the suicide. Claire also notes this and decides that her annoying room mate was murdered. Enter (somewhere along the way) Claire's new friend whose name I didn't bother to remember and who will only be noteworthy for the rumored lesbian relationship coming up between the two. Rock on. Oh, and at the end of the episode, Claire decides to fall out of her window to see if it is possible that her ex-room mate jumped, was pushed, or fell... and for some strange reason, her new found friend decides that this is the perfect time (so late at night that nobody on a college campus is wandering the streets and no lights are on in any dorm room, but for some reason this girl feels like just wandering into the room of a girl she, quite frankly, barely knows) to wander into Claire's room and see her misguided investigation techniques. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that this chick (ah, Gretchen is her name.... who names their kids that any more???) obviously has ulterior motives.

Moving on... to the Sullivan Carnival. This is what is going to make or break the show this year. Yes, Sylar's story with Parkman is interesting, yes I like Noah's character, but I doubt even these things will be enough to stave off the axe if the carnival characters flop. First and most certainly foremost is Robert Knepper's Samuel Sullivan character. The show opens with him giving a eulogy for his brother, the dead (and likely murdered) Jacob Sullivan. His speech serves as a diving board to launch us back into the story and the characters, yet it is him to whom we gravitate. His character is dark, undoubtedly evil, and is just a pleasure to watch. We know he seeks vengeance, presumably for the murder of his brother, but the hows and deatils of why haven't been revealed, and this is why I will tune in again next week. I'm curious as to his powers, however, because he seems to be able to do numerous things. He's obviously a telepath, as he covered his brother's casket by moving the dirt with his mind. Yet, he also seems to be able to do other things. His tattoo stick (henceforth, "the stick") delivers ink into the skin that does... things. It forms pictures on tattoo lady's back, and, in one part, it forms a hand around the neck of another carnival hero (actually, Speedy McSlice'Em) and almost strangles him. Fascinating. I definitely want to see where his powers take him in the show.

We've also been introduced to several of the carnival's other misfits. Wee meet tattoo lady who can give details about the faces Samuel makes appear with his ink (delivered with The Stick). We meet Speedy McSlice'Em and get to see him kill Danko (for shame, I liked Danko). We also meet an older gentleman who can time travel much like Hiro. Samuel uses this man to send him back 14 years to meet Hiro at the Carnival when he goes back in time.

It's clear that there are many things going on in Volume 5. And pretty much all of it hinges on how well the creative team delivers with the carnival misfits, and Samuels grand plan. One thing that was highly disappointing was the fact that I don't think Samuel had enough time in the show. I hope this is corrected later on.

Anyway, while not up to the standards set by Volume 1, the first episode of Volume 5 piqued enough of my interest to keep me coming back for more. There was moer story progression in this one episode than we saw all year long with Volume 4, and there were also more powers in this episode than the entirety of the last 2 volumes.

So, let's buckle up and see where this takes us.