"Shadowboxing" found most of the characters dealing with a negative force. Sylar (Zachary Quinto) has now assumed full bodily control of Matt (Greg Grunberg) and is on his way to New York to find his own missing body, and Matt has been relegated to an irritating spectre. With the tables reversed, it's another battle-of-wits subplot between the pair -- with Matt getting "himself" arrested at the airport and delayed four hours, before Sylar tried to assert control by threatening to kill innocent people if Matt keeps being a nuisance.
Having bludgeoned a helpful motorist to prove his point, and threatened to kill a waitress at the Burnt Toast Diner (yes, they love that set), the story ended on a very compelling note... as Matt managed to alert the police by having Sylar idly doodle a distressing message on a napkin, leading to the diner being surrounded by squad cars, and Matt deciding to end Sylar's tyranny by forcing the cops to fill his body full of lead.
This was by far the strongest storyline, even if the situation with Matt/Sylar has begun to feel overplayed, and the fact Matt's body has been sprayed with bullets (with no life-saving characters around to save him) has me very interested. The creators have stated that a regular character will be written out this year, and despite revealing who that will be, a part of me would like to think they've sold us a fib and it's Greg Grunberg who's leaving. That's the kind of surprise I'd love to see them pull off, but a more sensible part of me still thinks Matt's just going to survive his wounds miraculously, or time-traveller Hiro will sort things out retrospectively at some point.
The weakest story was, not for the first time, centered on Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Emma (Deanne Bray), but it had a few nice moments to break-up the tedium. Here, Peter now has a far more useful superpower for a paramedic (the ability to heal the sick or wounded), but he's growing exhausted after an influx of dying patients following a bus crash. We also learn that Emma was once a promising medical student, but dropped out after a family tragedy (which she could have averted if she was able to hear), and I had to wonder why Peter doesn't use his new ability to cure Emma's deafness.
The most relevant storyline with regard to the season arc was undoubtedly Claire's (Hayden Panettiere), as we jumped back a few episodes to continue her college adventure. Her dad (Zack Coleman) and The Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis) are on campus, erasing memories where necessary and trying to locate invisible Becky. Gretchen (Madeline Zima) decides to leave for home, as recent events have her fearing for her life, which obviously upsets her (girl)friend Claire. But now it's time for Samuel (Robert Knepper) to make his presence known, and he once again gives his spiel about family and the comfort in only mixing with people who understand the difficulties "special" people face. I'm still not sure that anything he offers is of value, and his shtick certainly doesn't work on Claire, who has a solid relationship with her dad and no reason to literally run away to be with circus freaks.
Becky's actions are also given some credibility, as flashbacks reveal that Mr Bennet shot her father dead in front of her. She was taken in by the Sullivan Brothers carnival and recently accepted Samuel's mission to alienate Claire in exchange for a chance to punish the man who killed her dad. Of course, this new information again painted The Company as little more than exterminators of people with abilities, which seems to contradict other episodes. To be honest, I don't think anyone had ever settled on a definite explanation for what The Company were created to do; their ethics and working practices appear to change according to what the story needs to put across.
Overall, I actually enjoyed "Shadowboxing" quite a lot. It had some rough patches and I'd nitpick more if I wasn't treating Heroes as trivial entertainment nowadays, but it did a decent job of sweeping me along with the stories. I liked the nuggets of information we gleamed about Emma and Becky's backstories, the Matt/Sylar story was great fun (capped with perhaps the season's best shock), and it was interesting to hear that Samuel's late-brother was killed by Danko. But how does the dead Mohinder fit into all this? Did Samuel avenge his brother's death by killing the wrong man, and now needs Hiro's help to correct his mistake? Surely not, as that would put Samuel in a righteous light, and isn't he supposed to be the big villain this year?
9 November 2009
NBC, 9/8c
written by: Misha Green & Joe Pokaski directed by: Jim Chory starring: Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli), Deanne Bray (Emma Coolidge), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli), Zoe Bolden (5 year old Becky), Anna Clark (Megan), Assaf Cohen (Hesam), Jarvis W. George (Patrick), Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian), Robert Knepper (Samuel Sullivan), Jason Konopisos (TSA Agent), Omar Leyva (Doctor), Dawn Olivieri (Lydia), Candice Patton (Olivia), Kat Purgal (Allison), Danica Stewart (Ashley), Tessa Thompson (Rebecca Taylor) & Madeline Zima (Gretchen Berg)
