By Faith McQuinn

HEROES is far too complicated a show to surmise an entire season, so I’m just going to say this. Last year, we found our heroes in Manhattan ready to save the world. Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) couldn’t control the nuclear power he’d absorbed from Ted (Matthew John Armstrong), and Claire (Hayden Penettiere) braces herself to kill him if necessary. At the same time, Sylar (Zachary Quinto) shows up for a showdown with Peter and all the heroes present take a shot at Sylar. In the process, Matt (Greg Grunberg) gets shot by his own bullets, and Hiro (Masi Oka) is thrown and teleports into 17th-Century Japan, but not before he stabs Sylar leaving Peter to cope with his impending doom. We all recall the lackluster ending as Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) flies Peter up into the sky for the brilliant explosion hundreds of miles away.

Now, this season starts four months after all that.

Claire and Noah Bennett (Jack Coleman) are now Claire and Noah Butler, brand new residents of California. Noah tells his daughter to keep a low profile and not do anything that may make her stand out in any way. For a girl like Claire, that might as well be a death sentence. Especially when she meets West (Nick D'Agosto), the hot guy in her class that has secret powers of his own.


Hiro drops into Japan…in the year 1612 and meets his hero Takezo Kensei (David Anders) who just so happens to be a white Englishman who’s not at all the person Hiro imagined him to be. In a wonderfully hilarious scene, Takezo reveals his true self to Hiro, and Hiro has to put his glasses back on to make sure he’s seeing this white guy standing in front of him claiming to be his childhood hero.

Next, let’s take a little trip to the Dominican Republic where we meets brother and sister Maya and Alejandro Herrera (Dania Ramirez and Shalim Ortiz). They’re running to the United States in hopes of finding Dr. Suresh so he can cure Maya. What Maya needs to be cured of, I’m not exactly sure. What I do know is that, in true Wonder Twin fashion, these siblings must stick close so Maya’s powers don’t go haywire.

Meanwhile, back in New York, Matt is taking care of Molly (Adair Tishler) and trying to help her cope with her nightmares about the man who’s scarier than Sylar. Mohinder (Sendhill Ramamurthy) is off in Cairo trying to capture the attention of a certain group to which Stephen Tobolowsky belongs. I hope we see him in more episodes. He’s one of my favorite character actors. There’s nothing that guy can’t do.

I digress. Back to the episode.

Also in New York are Ando (James Kyson Lee) who seems to have become Mr. Nakamura’s (George Takei) personal assistant as well as Nathan and Angela Petrelli (Critsine Rose). Both elder heroes have received photos with the infamous Heroes f-looking symbol on them. They both realize this means death.


My favorite thing about HEROES is how every detail is shrouded in mystery. We get little bits, such as knowing the Herrera twins have powers, but we’re never given a big slice. Creator Tim Kring has an incredible knack for dangling clues in your face, making you inch closer and closer to the edge of your seat, hoping to just get one good answer before the credits role. But alas, it rarely happens…especially not in the season premiere.

Instead of telling me exactly what Maya Herrera’s power is, I see a truck full of dead people with there eyes blacked.

Instead of telling me why Nathan has gone all Grizzly Adams and found comfort in a dark bar, we find Peter Petrelli chained up inside a storage container in Cork, Ireland. What?! Why is he chained up? Why is he in friggin’ Ireland? Why doesn’t he know who he is?! Thanks, HEROES writers, now I have to watch next week’s episode.