Heroes - The Eclipse, Part 2

Episode eleven of the third season of Heroes was probably one of the most frenetically action-packed of the series to-date--cross-cutting between Claire fighting for her life in an emergency room, Nathan imprisoned in a South American jungle, Elle and Sylar on the run from a vengeful Noah Bennet and Hiro locked in a bathroom because he doesn't want to grow up.

Holed up in Sam's comics reading all the available issues of the Ninth Wonder series by the late Isaac Mendez, Hiro and company figure out that the loss of their powers may be temporary--ending with the eclipse. (Well, duh!) The whole comic book store scene was supposed to be a surreal meta of the whole story within a story that is the hero's journey. It was actually a bit too self-referential for its own good in my opinion...

While Hiro was getting his memory back via the comic book retelling of his heroics, Nathan was being rescued by Peter and the Haitian. Regaining his powers, Nathan charges Samedi. But part of his powers seem to be indestructibility as Samedi quickly recovers from being slammed into a jeep. The Haitian, however, takes over and completely erases his brother's mind.

Peter and Nathan have a brief tender brotherly reunion--but Nathan tells Peter he's going to Pinehearst to help Arthur distribute abilities to the masses. And then he flies off leaving Peter and the Haitian behind.

Mohinder can't determine why everyone's powers have disappeared. "You keep talking but all I hear is blah, blah, blah," Flint tells him. Mohinder decides since his molting has stopped, there's no reason for him to stick around with Arthur. So he beats the @#$% out of Flint and escapes--heading to reunite with Maya. But as he arrives at her door, his molting returns and he slips away before Maya can see him.

I thought we'd seen the last of Maya, but apparently not...

Mohinder slinks back to Arthur who muses that the "eclipse has shown us all exactly who we are--angry, desperate and weak..."

Elle and Sylar enjoy some tender moments. Inexplicably, although Noah Bennet's gun site was trained on them during a kiss at the end of last week's episode, apparently he let them not only finish kissing but indulge in activities of the horizontal persuasion before unleashing a volley of gunfire upon the two.

He manages to hit Elle, but the two escape with Bennet in close pursuit. "You've bled a trail of breadcrumbs," Sylar tells Elle as he tries to bandage her up in the first aid aisle of a drugstore. Meanwhile, Noah's daughter Claire is fighting a case of sepsis in the hospital--which stuns the hospital staff as Claire's system is infected as if she's never been sick.

Sylar sets Elle off in a freight elevator as he faces Noah Bennet alone. As Claire flatlines in the hospital, Noah and Sylar proceed to beat the @#$% out of each other. (It was a pretty violent episode all in all...) Noah Bennet manages to get the upper hand and with Sylar dazed from his blows--and as Elle looks on--he slits Sylar's neck.

At home Claire reproaches him for not being there while she was fighting for her life. "I died," she tells him. And she did--but as Mom Sandra looked on, Claire's bullet wound magically healed and she was revived with the end of the eclipse. (Sort of like that scene in E.T. when the flowers come back to life--only this one didn't make me cry...) Noah freaks realizing that if Claire died and was resurrected, then Sylar--who has the same regeneration powers--probably has as well.

And so he had. Both Sylar and Claire have arrived at the Bennet residence to retrieve Claire and bring her back to Arthur. "They're not your parents," Bennet tells Sylar. He explains to Sylar that Arthur and Angela are leveraging his Mommy issues in order to use him as a weapon.

At the comic book store, Hiro sees a scene that shows him with Claire. He teleports away leaving Matt and Ando behind. According to Seth Green--there is a rumor that one more 9th Wonder comic book exists. That Isaac Mendez bequeathed it to a bike messenger.

I guess we'll be meeting up with him in a future episode.

As Sylar starts to telekinetically slice Bennet's neck, Hiro teleports in and teleports Sylar--and then Elle--out of the Bennet residence. He comes back for Claire--and teleports with her back to the past. To Devereaux's balcony on the day that Hiro's father put baby Claire into Noah Bennet's care for safekeeping.

Meanwhile, Sylar and Elle share another tender moment--until Sylar asks Elle if Bennet was lying about his parents. "Nobody ever really changes," Sylar says sadly as he starts to slice Elle's skull open.

No more warm and fuzzy Sylar? Sigh.