It must be nice to be a Heroes cast member, knowing that–unlike the stars of some other ensemble shows–you don't have to be on set every single week. Those third-tier schmucks over on ER, for example, probably spend half their year hanging around, waiting to scrub in and say, "We're losing her!" while the director tries to decide what lighting best captures John Stamos' stubble. If you're a Heroes cast member, however, you probably just pick up a script, see that it's a Parkman-heavy episode, and you know that you're free to catch up on your TiVo this week. (Or in the case of Hayden Panettiere, your forthcoming album.) The constant flip-flopping of focus is like guaranteed vacation days–and God knows no one needs them more than our nation's overworked television stars.
As I've said before, it also makes the show more than a little schizophrenic. Depending on which storyline you're interested in–or which characters you like and which ones you absolutely loathe–your opinion of Heroes can change drastically from week to week. Many viewers (myself included), for example, have shown little patience for Claire's budding romance with her superpower enabler, Captain Emo, and all of its attendant who-gives-a-shit. I personally have been less than thrilled with Hiro and Peter's respective excursions to foreign lands and their apparent lack of interest in contributing to the main plot. I'm not naïve enough to presume that these three supposedly unrelated tangents aren't going to dovetail with the overarching story eventually, but so far the pacing has been slower than Parkman climbing a fifth-story walk-up.
Tonight that changed somewhat, with the crosscutting between characters and storylines attaining some of the nimble rhythm the show had during the fleeter moments of the first season. (In fact, we managed to check in with just about everyone except for Claire, so maybe the blame for the show's relative leadenness as of late can be laid at her regenerating feet?) The timing seems right for that kind of quickening: "Fight Or Flight" marks the halfway point of the first "volume" of the season, so the hour for dallying is past. If we're going to wrap up the Mystery Of The Hooded Killer by episode 11, then we should probably have some idea of who the bad guy is by now.
Or, I suppose they could just keep tossing us red herrings like Parkman's father and pull some sort of Scooby-Doo twist out of their ass at the last minute. Maybe I'm misreading things, but Pa Parkman's powers of mind control–while certainly evil–obviously don't have much to do with Kaito's death. After all, if Pa Parkman were really responsible for Kaito's murder, it would have probably involved some sort of hallucination–similar to the one that left Matt and Nathan at each other's throats–not something so vulgarly low-tech as an old-fashioned tackle, right? Not to mention he's considerably bulkier than the Hooded Killer, and he certainly wouldn't have gotten up and walked away afterward. Clearly he has something to do with it all–in addition to Angela Petrelli's freakout in the holding cell (and Molly's coma), that Black Spot photo of Company Bob says as much–but there's still another piece to this puzzle.
But we'll have to wait for those answers, because Parkman–despite all of his prior vocal misgivings–melted like the sentimental sad sack that he is and made the very Parkman-like mistake of trusting the man who abandoned him all those years ago after a couple of crinkly-eyed apologies. At least he's not the only one making questionable choices: Peter is still hanging around Ireland despite anticlimactically opening The Box to reveal a passport, an open ticket to Montreal, a photo of he and Nathan, and a handful of wadded bills that the hardened Irish criminals were apparently too thoughtful to pocket. Yet now that Peter finally knows his name and that he definitely, absolutely doesn't belong there, he still shows no interest in seeking answers, preferring to let his past be his past and to start a new life with the Irish lass whose incredible superpower is making the world's most mediocre art. Thank God his old Isaac-sponged powers kicked in; I was half-hoping his finished painting would just be big block letters reading, "What do you see in this girl?"
Speaking of which, Hiro's Wacky Samurai Adventure is progressing apace–by which I mean it's still dragging along interminably. As Hiro himself says, "It's like living in a storybook, only more tiring." Exactly–and with all of the good parts cut out. You know by now that I'm not a big fan of Niki, but her brief scenes tonight were, by contrast, blessedly brief and action-packed, and all the more effective for it. I know some of you have insisted that Niki has the virus, but I still believe my initial reading was correct, and that she's looking to get rid of Extra-Strength Jessica for good. Having Company Bob come right out and say that she's suffering from multiple personality disorder actually seemed like a blunt rejoinder to all the Heroes fans who have long insisted that there's something more supernatural at play. And even if she or he were lying, her telling Mohinder in confidence that only the Company can help her with "what I've done and what I'm capable of" certainly doesn't sound like she's involuntarily losing her powers to me.