Mr. Bennett (Jack Coleman) is having trouble locating Samuel's teleporting carnival, as he's become estranged from Claire (Hayden Panettiere), who owns one of the compasses that show the way. Bennett instead goes to Matt (Greg Grunberg) for assistance finding Samuel, which is granted after some persuasion, but it becomes clear that Matt isn't happy about getting involved and would prefer to focus on his wife and baby. Bennett's plan is to bring the mountain to Mohammed, when he realizes that Samuel's infatuated with childhood friend Vanessa (Kate Vernon), who reveals their history together after being charmed by Matt's mind control. She could prove the best way to lure Samuel out into the open.
Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) is worried about the compass tattoo that's appeared on his forearm, but particularly when his mother Angela (Cristine Rose) meets his friend Emma (Deanna Bray) and reacts to her very dismissively. It turns out that Angela's dreamed a future that apparently shows Emma helping Samuel kill thousands of people. Peter's convinced she must be mistaken somehow, so leeches her power to experience the dream himself -- only to see a distraught Emma playing her cello in the carnival's "Hall Of Mirrors", before apparently being rescued from her torment by Sylar (Zachary Levi).
Is Emma's ability to draw people to her through music going to be exploited by Samuel, perhaps to swell his ranks with "specials"* to boost his own power? Whatever's going on, Peter tries to change the future by rudely destroying Emma's cello, but that only appears to turn Emma against him. Has Peter pushed Emma down a dark path, to be manipulated by Samuel at some point, in his effort to help her?
A more comical vibe comes from Hiro and Ando (James Kyson Lee), as they have arrived in Florida with a plan to rescue "Dr. Watson" - a.k.a Mohinder, as Ando deduces from his mind-scrambled friend. Quite how a Japanese citizen can turn up at a US asylum and get himself locked up isn't really explained, but we'll chalk that up to Heroes' very elastic grasp of reality. This subplot was better than expected, although the double-act of Hiro and Ando stopped being funny or particularly likeable two years ago, so the pair usually just test your patience now. Incidentally, I was pleased to hear Ando mention Hiro's visit to the future from season 3 (where he witnessing Ando kill him, seconds before Tokyo was destroyed), as that's one of a few loose threads from last year that were left to flap in the breeze. Maybe it'll find resolution (along with the graffiti of the cracked planet) someday soon.
Overall, "Close To You" was pretty average but it flowed a lot better than last week's insulting double-bill grind. The annoying thing about season 4, right now, is that you get the impression there was a really good story to be told, and that if the writers could go back in time with knowledge of how these episodes have panned out, they could rewrite the show to fine effect.
Simple changes would have worked wonders: getting Emma involved sooner, explaining various people's abilities quicker, introducing Vanessa much earlier, letting us in on Samuel's back-story sooner, bringing the Sylar/Nathan story to a faster conclusion, and less of the pointless distractions. If you're having serious issues finding ways to keep characters like Hiro busy, or relevant, then write them out already. Really, we wouldn't mind. Hiro isn't the highlight of the show anymore, believe me. Still, at least a combination of a major rethink and a budget cut has meant this season has focused more on character than the last two seasons bothered to, although the paucity of thrilling action sequences has been a shame for a show that once juggled character and action with aplomb.
11 January 2010
NBC, 9/8c
written by: Rob Fresco directed by: Roxann Dawson starring: Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Robert Knepper (Samuel), Elisabeth Röhm (Lauren Gilmore), Dawn Olivieri (Lydia), Greg Grunberg (Matt), Lisa Lackey (Janice), Deanne Bray (Emma), Cristine Rose (Angela), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), Masi Oka (Hiro), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Kate Vernon (Vanessa) & Sasha Pieterse (Amanda)
* The term "specials" has been used enough this season that I'm going to officially adopt it as my term for "people with abilities", "supers" and "superheroes" -- all of which never sounded right.
