In "Thanksgiving", three of the show's most prominent families are brought together for anxious meals: the estranged Bennet's, the dysfunctional Petrelli's and the assorted oddballs of the carnival clique. It's a decent way to give an episode some shape and tackle things from a character perspective, but each subplot had its highs and lows. Mr. Bennet (Jack Coleman) is cooking for daughter Claire (Hayden Panettiere), his ex-wife Sandra (Ashley Crow) and her new beau Doug. Is this a likely scenario, given the fact the Bennet's have only just divorced? Do we really believe Sandra would look twice at someone as drippy as Doug? Well, I didn't buy a lot of it, but it was mildly amusing at times.
And, as predicted from the moment the show ret-conned her into existence a few episodes ago, Lauren (Elisabeth Röhm) walks back into Bennet's life and will no doubt become his hot, younger girlfriend. As someone who worked alongside Bennet in The Company, she'll be of more use to the show than Sandra ever was, but I still miss Bennet having that bedrock of a seemingly normal family. It was a fairly dull storyline in some ways, but it at least ended with the prospect of Claire, now reunited with Gretchen (Madeline Zima), using Samuel's spinning compass to go out and get some answers.
The Petrelli get-together was where the big development came, as Angela (Cristine Rose) decided to treat her sons Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) and Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) to the most underwhelming Thanksgiving dinner ever, despite her fortune. Would you really decide to eat around a tiny table in Peter's empty apartment? Regardless, the fun here was in seeing Angela squirm at the questions her sons ask her regarding Adrian's true nature, before she's forced to admit he's Sylar shape-shifted body with Adrian's mind stuck inside.
Needless to say, Ventimiglia's reaction to all of this was on par with dog's expression when told to get off the furniture. Still, there was fun to be had when Sylar (Zachary Quinto) finally managed to reassert his personality and, after an electrical lightshow, reunited his body and mind. But perhaps not his "soul"... as while attempting to kill Angela it appears that Nathan is still capable of regaining control of Sylar's body and does so. I guess this gives Nathan a Jekyll-&-Hyde personality now, which could be interesting to see play out. I just wish Heroes' producers hadn't already confirmed Pasdar's departure from the series, as it feels like we're just waiting for the inevitable. To counter that feeling, I have mild hope they've fed us misinformation so that when Sylar loses this battle we'll feel surprised.
Finally, Samuel (Robert Knepper) watched Chandra Suresh's film reel and now understands his dangerous potential. So, if he didn't know this before now, he's been gathering "specials" together for genuinely altruistic reasons? That seems like a slipup to me. Anyway, Hiro (Masi Oka) is upset that Samuel's still not telling him the whereabouts of girlfriend Charlie, and continues to have a hold over him as a result. He's once again too stupid to just go back in time and prevent Samuel from kidnapping her in the first place, too, but we'll cut the writers some slack there. Time-travel's always a bitch to write logically. Here, Hiro gets an ally in Lydia (Dawn Olivieri), who is confused that Samuel hasn't used Hiro's ability to save his brother from death, so orders him to take her back in time to witness the ambiguous death of Joseph first-hand. And, as we suspected from the very start, it was Samuel who killed him (by flinging a rock into his windpipe in a fit of pique) after he refused to tell him what his ability was.
Back in the present, Edgar (Ray Park) learned that Samuel murdered his own brother and covered it up, but when Samuel tries to pin the murder of Joseph on Edgar to conceal his own guilt, Hiro facilitates Edgar's escape by freezing time. But, Samuel's wise to what Hiro did, so appears to try and erase Hiro's power as punishment using the "mystic" henchman, but it doesn't appear to go according to plan and a youthful-sounding Hiro teleports away in the middle of the procedure. I'm hoping this doesn't signal a return to "kid Hiro" once again, as Oka's performances when he cranks Hiro up to eleven can get very grating, but the procedure did unfortunately feel similar to the one performed by Arthur Petrelli last season...
Overall, there was enough going on in "Thanksgiving" to make the episode worthwhile and entertaining, even if there were only really a few developments worth making note of. The Sylar/Adrian battle felt a bit flat considering its potential and extensive buildup, but hopefully there'll be better opportunities to deal with this situation now it's boiled down to a case of "split-personality". It's also interesting that the carnival isn't the pit of villainy we were led to believe it was, as everyone actually seems quite reasonable and likeable -- it's just Samuel who's becoming a megalomaniac. As usual, a mish-mash of good and bad notes, but certainly nothing to wholly dislike.
23 November 2009
NBC, 8/7c
written by: Adam Armus & Kay Foster directed by: Seith Mann starring: Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Cristine Rose (Angela), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Ashley Crow (Sandra), Robert Knepper (Samuel), Dawn Olivieri (Lydia), Ray Park (Edgar), Harry Perry (Damien), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), Elisabeth Röhm (Lauren Gilmore), Dusty Sorg (Caleb), Madeline Zima (Gretchen)
