Heroes - Orientation/Jump, Push, Fall

Season four of Heroes started out promisingly enough. Peter Petrelli is trying to save the world by using his powers to be a paramedic superhero, Claire's enrolled at college, Nathan is not feeling quite himself--probably because he's actually Sylar, Sylar's consciousness is haunting Matt Parkman, Tracy apparently did not die when she shattered into a zillion pieces--apparently she's like that mercurial Terminator and can re-coalesce at will, Hiro and Ando have joined forces to set up a Dial a Hero business in Tokyo and Noah is at a loss for what he should be doing with his life.

In the two-part, two hour season premiere:

Danko died (I thought he died last season...)
Claire's annoying college roommate died (I got stuck for entire semesters with annoying roommates--how'd she get so lucky?)
Sylar goads Matt into using his powers
Nathan is discovering powers he didn't know he had (because he's actually Sylar...)
Noah is injured by Edgar and saved by Peter

New characters include a super-fast Samurai guy named Edgar (Peter steals his power to help in his paramedic superhero role...), Arnold who has the same ability as Hiro to move through time and space--but who is dying, Lydia who presages the future through the tattoos that appear on her body, a guy who reads those tattoos and I haven't quite figured out what his power might be other than making the earth move. Literally. I wonder if he does earthquakes?

If season four keeps up this quality, it should be pretty interesting. At least none of these new characters is another Maya or Alejandro. What do we think the compass does?