WRITERS: Adam Armus & Kay Foster DIRECTOR: Roxann Dawson
CAST: Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Jack Coleman (Mr Bennet), Ali Larter (Niki/Jessica Sanders), Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Jessalyn Gilsig (Meredith Gordon), James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Ashley Crowe (Sandra Bennet), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah Sanders), Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli), Lisa Lackey (Janice Parkman), Kevin Chamberlain (Aron Malsky) & Missi Pyle (Hope)
Matt takes a job as a bodyguard, Jessica becomes a contract killer, Hiro and Ando help a Vegas showgirl, Claire hears about her real father and Sylar visits a man with a bizarre power...Run! is a fun episode with problems. Being a serialized show with numerous storylines running concurrently, some subplots are always going to be better than others. On the positive side: Greg Grunberg returns as Matt, now suspended from the police force and working as a bodyguard to make ends meet. His mind-reading ability comes in handy, particularly when his first client is targeted by a contract killer. The killer in question is Niki Sanders, (in Jessica guise), who is working for Mr Lindeman to support her family. I guess Micah got bored of making ATMs regurgitate bank notes?
Both plots neatly dovetail together, providing some action thrills as two heroes go toe-to-toe. Fans will particularly a moment when Matt hears both sides of Niki's psyche arguing with each other, misidentifying the threat as two people.
Grunberg is one of the most likeable and laid back actors on the show, while Ali Larter is one of the most undervalued. When Heroes began, Larter was given the most original super-power and an initially intriguing plot, but her storyline began to grow increasingly silly, culminating in the mishandled prison episodes. Here, she has a new occupation that suits her alter-ego perfectly and provides yet another link to the ubiquitous Mr Lindeman. Both Grunberg and Larter have faced tumultous treatment by the writers, but their fisticuffs here are atleast entertaining.
Hayden Panettiere gets more heartaching scenes in her quest to know her real parents, with her father's identity revealed as Nathan Petrelli last week! Jessalyn Gilsig is excellent as birth mother Meredith, bringing a pleasant ambiguity to all her scenes. Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) finally gets something meaty to grapple with beyond a spirited younger brother (yes, the disabled wife plot is there, but it remains underused).
Onto the negative. It's becoming almost painful to see Hiro and Ando stumbling around in the series. Run! finds them free of the pointless patriarchal distraction of recent weeks, but this episode is just more filler. The writers have realized Hiro's space/time bending is too powerful for the series, not to mention a storytelling headache (as Hiro could theoretically be unstoppable), so they have nullified his power until he finds his sword placebo. Fine, I undetstand that.
However, while Hiro's story previously drove the series, it's little more than faintly tedious "mini-adventures" now, each of which fail to grab my interest. Here, they have to help a Las Vegas showgirl (Missi Pyle) find her pink bag! As Hiro, Masi Oka remains a bright spark of comic charm, but all he can do is make these inconsequential storylines palatable. The fact Hiro and Ando continually flit between Vegas and New York because the story demands it, is also a sign the writer's seasonal planning isn't that strong.
Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) was seemingly designed as the leader of the heroes (the show's Professor X is the best comparison), but he just never fitted the mould. He's intelligent and passionate, but he's no leader. The writers are hurriedly restyling him now, and his mission to track down super-powered people takes its first serious leap forward in ages. Mohinder travels to meet with Zane Taylor, a man who can melt metal by touch. Unfortunately, Sylar gets to him first...
As Sylar, Zachary Quinto is enjoyable to watch and an exciting villain because of Sylar's abundance of powers. His mystique has unfortunately vanished from him too early in the show's run for my liking, but one thing Heroes needs is a strong villain. The background threat of nuclear disaster is fine, but that problem won't be paid-off till the season finale in all likelihood.
Most of the characters are just good guys struggling with situations, helped or hindered by their new abilities. Mr Bennet (Jack Coleman) seems more misguided than villainous now, while Jessica Sanders' malevolence has a benevolent and maternal motivation.
No, the show certainly needs Sylar to stirr things up, even if he now lacks his former mystery. The events of Run! take Sylar in a different direction in its closing moments -- with the killer joining Mohinder's mission to trace more heroes. This new move is interesting, but Sylar never needed Mohinder's help before and was doing a great job of tracing super-powered people himself! So why the change in plan? Oh well...
In summation, Run! was entertaining but contains a few too many changes to character motivations that don't really work. Niki and Matt enjoy their most exciting storylines in ages, nicely directed by Roxann Dawson (Star Trek Voyager's B'Elanna Torres, trivia hounds), while Claire's story advances nicely, but all the other characters look to be at the mercy of writers just prolonging their narratives and seeing if any new ideas will stick.
