And that key sense of mystery seeped into the third episode, "Ink", but only during the subplot featuring mysterious circus leader Samuel (Robert Knepper), who sets his sights on Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) by posing as a man suing his hospital for injuries sustained after a bus crash rescue. It's confirmed that Samuel can control earth and minerals, typified by his ability to consume ink and alter a newspaper clipping that proves to a dubious Peter that his story is true...
Right now, Samuel is by far the most interesting aspect of this new season, as it's unclear what his motivation is. He appears to be testing people (first Hiro, now Peter) to see if they deserve a place in his carnival, but I'm not sure how his dead brother Joseph fits into all this, or the mysterious compass. My only theory is that Samuel intends to resurrect his sibling, but needs various peoples' powers to do so, so he's effectively performing a long con. By the end of the episode it does appear to be true that Samuel's not a very nice person, as he kills a house full of partygoers who refused him entry to his family home by plunging the whole building into a sinkhole.Sadly, everything else about "Ink" was either of mild curiosity, or brazen filler material. Claire (Hayden Panettiere) is being pestered by Gretchen (Madeline Zima) after she was spotted surviving a jump from her college room window, and eventually decides to share her secret with her new friend, even if her father (Jack Coleman) disapproves and would rather erase Gretchen's memory using The Haitian. There was nothing terribly interesting going on here, but Panettiere certainly looks a lot more comfortable in this college environment (mixing with Zima and Coleman), than she has done in awhile. I just hope the mystery of her ex-roommate's "suicide" is something worth our time.
We also meet another new character in the form of hospital receptionist Emma (Deanne Bray), a deaf woman who wears earphones to hide her disability from the world, who discovers she has the ability to see sounds visually. Her story weaves into Peter's, whom she meets a few times during this episode, latterly when he notices her playing a cello in the park after noticing the instrument emanating ethereal wisps of light. It's strange that Heroes hasn't given someone with disabilities a super-power before, but considering this one is explainable through regular science ("synethesia", which a character even refers to) kind of takes the edge off it. Still, Bray gave a good performance in a role that's mostly facial expressions, and the inevitable hookup with empathic Peter could be sweet. But it's still difficult to get excited about a story that feels like it should be one of those pre-season "webisodes" Heroes does.
A bit more exciting was Matt (Greg Grunberg) dealing with his inner-demon, namely Sylar (Zachary Levi), who is lodged in his psyche causing mischief. Here, Matt and his detective partner raid a suspect's house and Sylar spends the episode toying with Matt's sanity by obfuscating the operation with fake visions. In and of itself, this was a fairly entertaining storyline, but it felt far removed from anything else going on, and only really served to likely convince Matt to give Sylar his body back. You can't really live your life unable to trust anything you're seeing, can you.Overall, "Ink" wasn't particularly good, but it wasn't wholly terrible either. I'm prepared to give this season more of a chance, because it's possible they're taking their time because there's a decent story to tell that deserves room to breathe. Of course, if it doesn't tighten its grip on our attention spans soon, it'll fall into season 2's trap of being far too lackadaisical for its own good. The ratings in the US are already the worst in Heroes' history (below 6 million*), so strong rumours are circulating that NBC will have no choice but to axe the show if there isn't an astonishing turnaround.
28 September 2009
NBC, 9/8c
written by: Aron Eli Coleite directed by: Roxann Dawson starring: Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Greg Grunberg (Matt), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Robert Knepper (Samuel Sullivan), Madeline Zima (Gretchen), Emily Adams (Andrea), Deanne Bray (Emma), Edwin Kho (Cellist), Dawn Olivieri (Lydia), Louise Fletcher (Doctor) & Eric Shackelford (Carnie)
* To put that in perspective: season 1 averaged around 12 million, the hated season 2 dropped to around 9, and season 3 loitered around 7.
