extraordinary
9.5
"Superb"
Shadowboxing is the practice of sparring with an invisible opponent for combat sports. Which sums up this episode quite nicely as Matt, Claire, Noah, Peter, and Emma have to face their personal demons. With Matt, his demons are literal as Sylar tries to board a plane to New York, so he can grill Peter since his last memory is of Peter injecting him with poison. However, Sylar doesn't get far when cops pull a gun from a metal detector checking his luggage. Turns out that ingenious ploy was courtesy of Matt. Nice. Sylar tries to hypnotize his way through but Matt's got full access of his powers, sneering that Sylar won't get to them, Sylar being dragged away, protesting. Back at Carnivale, body-Sylar awakes as Nathan. "Nathan", clueless where he is and confused, he flies off before Samuel and Lydia storm outside, Lydia seeing Claire as a lost cause after Rebecca butchered the deal. Samuel believes otherwise. Claire convinces her ditzy sorority sisters that what they witnessed was the result of a spiked drink. They walk away, freaked out. Gretchen and Claire go back to their dorm, Gretchen trying to pull information about Rebecca but turning up nothing, Gretchen still spooked about Rebecca and paranoid Rebecca could be anywhere. Claire promises she'll handle the situation, leaving Gretchen to fend for herself with baby powder. Sigh, yeah Claire. Excellent defense system. In New York, Peter's hospital deals with an accident crisis, Peter continuing his heroic missions with his healing-touch ability in tow, with unexpected results. When Peter heals someone, energy is drained from him. Emma winds through the chaos, a medic pulling her aside so she can help him treat a patient's wound, Emma providing adequate care, Peter watching her. He turns to a dying patient, heals patient, and almost doubles over in agony. Claire walks into the sorority house, finding the ditzy sisters' memories wiped. True enough, turns out to be the work of the trusty Haitain. Noah walks up to Claire, she marveling that he works fast. With Sylar shut off from air travel, he rents a car, only to have it break down. Matt laughs, taunting that he mindbended Sylar into not seeing a tack on the road. Matt snarks that he kind of likes being the shadow villain. Sylar gets pissed, not finding Matt's humor in this and informs Matt he not's completely in control. To prove it, when a mechanic pulls over to fix the tire, Sylar kills him with a wrench. Ugh. Noah and Claire talk through their plan of action for Rebecca. Noah will look in her room and the Haitain will go with Claire back to the dorm. Claire, scared that Noah plans on erasing Gretchen's memory, begs him not to. Noah sees how important Gretchen is and insists he not going to erase her memory, Claire just needs the Haitain so he can negate Rebecca's power if she gets to Claire. Good plan. Sylar stashes Mechanic's body into the car, smirking that Matt underestimated one thing. Matt plays by the rules, Sylar doesn't. He has no qualms towards doing anything possible in order to get what he wants. True but why does that remember of the Joker's speech at the end of Dark Knight? Anyways, Matt agrees to stop saboteguing Sylar and Sylar fixes the car. Peter collects himself while Emma sits with him. He explains his glitch while Emma reasonably advises to just stop healing people. For Peter, it's like she told him to stop breathing. More than that, this power, while limited, is making him stay extraordinary. He marvels over Emma's quick thinking with her patient and asks how she knew how to do that if she's just a secretary. Emma explains she went to medical school but dropped out, running off. Claire comes back to her room with the Haitain to find Gretchen packing to leave, maybe temporary, maybe forever. Who knows? Claire insists she's got the situation under control and Rene?!? aka the Haitain will take care of them. Gretchen says she's too scared and doesn't want to live in fear of an invisible woman coming at her in her sleep and doesn't want to stay on lockdown. She marvels at how Claire lives this everyday and wishes she could be as brave. Claire pleads with her to stay but Gretchen wishes her goodbye. Claire requests 'Rene' follow Gretchen to the airport. When they leave, Claire cries, only to have Samuel come to her doorstep, asking for Rebecca's whereabouts. He puts up a nice front and explains to Claire he's looking for his niece and regrets the awkward situation. Rebecca's "told" him about her ability and says he's a hero too. Samuel promises to explain, Claire intrigued. Meanwhile, Rebecca slinks in while Noah storms her room. Noah finds a compass in one of her shirt pockets when he senses her prescence, pulling out a taser, goading he had a partner like Rebecca. He says he doesn't want to hurt her when Rebecca materializes, finding that hard to believe. Sylar takes a pitstop at the Burnt Toast Diner of all places, showing Matt he's familiar with the place and people, especially Lynette. Sylar orders food and at Matt's look of discomfort, a 'Diet' Coke, changing his mind when Lynette insists he live a little. Sylar marvels at how he killed a waitress here and he'll do the same for Lynette if Matt doesn't cooperate and explain what happened to him. Matt balks so Sylar moves to kill Lynette. Matt finally gives. Samuel explains his power and his "family" and his relationship to Rebecca. He admits she's kind of crazy (look who's talking) and he doesn't codone what she did to Annie but he says she's not completely right because her father was murdered when she five. And who else killed him but good old HRG? Rebecca takes Noah on a trip through memory lane, saying he stormed into her house to capture her and her father, her father hiding her under the bed. He attacked Noah and Noah shot him to death. He didn't find Rebecca because she wished she could hide, making her ability manifest. Rebecca wants revenge against Noah for what he did and in order to do that, she's willing to hurt Claire in order to hurt him. Both are spared by two sorority girls bursting into her room. Rebecca fazes, Noah leaving. Samuel congratulates Claire on sending her friend away. When she says Gretchen left, he laments that ordinary people don't get it, will never get it. Easier to live with one of your own than pretend to be "one of the them". He claims he came to Claire because he couldn't make Noah understand, knowing what he'd do, and true to form, Noah shows, pulling a gun on Samuel. Samuel realizes Claire set him up and Claire smirks just why she would trust a stranger over her father. Hah! Noah demands answers after Samuel digs him for causing Rebecca to go crazy. Samuel explains he killed Danko because Danko killed his brother and people like Noah would do Samuel and hi crew harm. He explains the compass is a navigation tool that in the wrong hands would be disasterous for Carnivale. Back in New York, a little girl collapses in a children's ward, Emma with her. Peter comes over for support, Emma sparing him ability by saving the girl. Noah handcuffs Samuel, planning on taking him away, Samuel manipulating Claire that Noah will never understand "them" when Rebecca intervenes. Samuel tasers Rebecca to gain trust and Noah pulls his gun on both of them. Claire rushes to stop him but Noah slaps her aside. Realizing what he did, Claire finally reasons with him to let them go. Samuel-Rebecca flee, while Noah apologizes. Sylar doodles on a napkin, flinging it away when he asks for a check. Matt finally admits Angela's plan. Sylar, marvelled, leaves for New York, informing Matt he's going after "Nathan" to get his body back and then he'll kill everyone remotely involved with the plan. The cops surround Sylar outside. Matt manipulated Sylar into writing that he had a gun. Sylar demands what Matt is doing. Matt says Sylar's right about Matt's morality but Matt won't let Sylar kill anyone. If he has to die for Sylar to, so be it. Matt forces Sylar to reach into his pockets, when the cops shoot Sylar down, Matt phasing away. Noah takes Claire back to her dorm, apologizing. She brushes it off but all is not forgiven. Noah says he wishes Claire could have everything she wanted but Claire pines that it's not that simple. Emma plays piano, Peter giving her a tiara from her rescuee. Awwwwww. Emma finally tells Peter her sad story. Her nephew, Christopher, drowned when she didn't hear him walk out. She tried to rescue him but couldn't. Soon after, she dropped out of medical-school. Peter coaxes that she has a second chance. She saved that girl, she can be a doctor. Emma says Peter saved her (awwwwww!). Peter asks to join her in a duet even without the shared ability, Peter placing the tiara on her head. Awwwwwwww! At Carnivale, Samuel tells Rebecca Claire's-recruitement isn't a total loss, they still have her in a comprising situation and he'll let Rebecca get revenge on Noah, as he promised. Samuel's grand-plan is thrown for a loop when Lydia says Sylar's gone. Claire sleeps alone. Emma dusts off her old medical coat. Matt's driven away in an ambulance. Noah tracks Samuel's criminal record. Peter lets go of some of his hero-obsession, taking down the clips when "Nathan" appears, begging for help. I can't say this enough, Heroes somehow finds way to impress me in ways I couldn't be more impressed about. This was such a great episode, extraordinary on so many levels. For one, it had an odd connectivity between the individual stories that Heroes hasn't been able to reach for a long time. Poor Noah has to face his past and realize that he's created another monster. Claire, using her brains and calling Noah and the Haitain for help and not letting Samuel play her for a sap? Brilliant. I could finally understand why she cared for Gretchen so much and it's because she's lonely. She doesn't have a lot of friends. Gretchen was her first ordinary friend besides Zach that took her for her and gave an edge of normalcy in Claire's chaotic life. I understand but it would have worked a lot better between her and Gretchen if the OC-lite wasn't pulled. I would have liked to see Gretchen and Claire be friends without Gretchen having a crush on her, where Gretchen and Claire were on equal terms, her sharing that she was a lesbian sooner and Claire her ability, two "outcasts" against the world. And Claire's only stable relationship with Noah is comprised by Samuel so now she's on her own, Samuel pushing her closer to his designs. Now we now why Samuel wanted Danko dead and not just for a key. We find out the Haitain's name is Rene?!? Huh. Rene. I'm still going to call him the Haitain, if that's all right. For all the Matt-critics, Matt proves he's got brains and considerable skill by making Sylar dance like a marionette. Wonderful to see Matt get the upperhand for once. Matt willing to sacrifice himself to do the right thing was powerful. Those who want Matt to turn darker, it's not necessary, because Matt proves he truly is a capable hero that can hold his own. And it's great to see that doing the right thing didn't wind up crippling Matt or Peter as usual. It was nice to see Sylar a little more calmed down, less megamaniacal anyway, a little "nicer" towards Matt, at least as nice as Sylar can normally be towards most people. Finally, we know why Emma refused to be a doctor, she, like Peter, felt she could have done more to save someone. It makes the accident that rendered her deaf, resulting in her ability, bitterly ironic. It was wonderful to have Emma finally be the one to calm Peter's obsession down. As for Peter, it was wonderful seeing him grapple with his limitations and wanting to have at least that one self-inflicting power that made him extraordinary. He doesn't want to be normal anymore. He doesn't want to go back to being human, to being fragile, to being useless and letting people's lives slip from his grasp. I loved that he learned that the smaller victories, as with Emma, can be just as powerful. And I loved that "Nathan" has returned, for now. I don't think I'm spoiling anything but look away if you will be, but enjoy "Nathan" while he's still here. And regarding Peter, this storyline proves how traumatic it will be once he finds out about "Nathan". He will take it on himself that he couldn't save his real brother from Sylar and since it is his brother, he will go even more far and beyond to try and "save" him and I have a bad "feeling" (more like an indication) that it will have tragic results. Applause, applause, applause. Bravo. Magnificent. I hope Heroes can continue this wonderful path. Next episode, we find out why Samuel killed Mohinder, Peter having to come to "Nathan's" rescue, and Matt reviving along with Sylar to find "Nathan". Strange stuff. Stay tuned.moreless
