THE CAKE IS A LIE
Wow. That was GOOD. Or at least, there wasn't anything that made me want to *facepalm*. I'll take that. I loved that this episode was about the FAMILIES: the Bennets, the Petrellis, the Nakamuras. And all of them were done WELL. It's about damn time.
PETER: I'm not really sure what Peter was stalling for, but hey, he pulled the trigger. Way to man up about murdering your family, Peter! He's so much better at this hero thing when he's not trying to solve problems by throwing lightning at them. Looks like there's a brotherly throw-down coming, though. Evil daddy? Sure, one bullet coming right up. Nathan with delusions of grandeur? THAT I'm looking forward to.
Regardless of how dead Arthur actually is or isn't, I suppose it's fitting that Peter was the one to kill him. After that remark Arthur made in the flashback episode about Peter having a big heart or whatever, it was coming.
SYLAR: LOL, there are Portal fans on the Heroes staff. There MUST be. CAKE? LIES? That's too good to be a coincidence.
While I'm reeeally hoping Sylar gets more to do by volume 4 than go back to stealing BRAINZ, this episode was a welcome break after all the FAIL romance of the last few episodes. It was weird to see characters like Hiro and Ando getting the "serious" storylines while SYLAR got to be the comic relief. I felt bad for the poor office lady, but still. The elevator scene? The delivery man impersonation? The snark? "CAKE?" I laughed.
Sylar might have done away with "daddy", but I'm wondering if there's more to the story than just Angela and Arthur mutually deciding that manipulating a dangerous psychopath via his mommy/daddy issues was a good idea. He's asked Arthur if he was his father. But he hasn't asked Angela if she's his mother. I'll hold off a verdict until he does. Also, he seemed strangely....NICE to Peter in this episode. (Hey, it's Sylar. Stealing Peter's kill and telling him to GTFO instead of NOM NOM NOMing his brain for the hell of it... That qualifies as "nice". Maybe he thought he owed him for throwing him out a window.)
CLAIRE, HRG, AND SANDRA: Aw, go Claire. She was smart in this episode, and figured out exactly how to do what she needed to do. I loved seeing her interact with her mom and dad, and her baby!self. I thought it was a bit weird that HRG would buy what she was saying, but then I remembered he wasn't fully a Company man just yet at that point, and was still getting into the whole superhero hunting thing. He still had to gain a few levels of badass before he became the kind of person who'd shoot her anyway after the speech she gave.
I think I've watched too much Doctor Who, though. I was half expecting Reapers to pop up when she picked up baby!Claire. With all the damage Hiro is doing, they'd better get busy. So much for all that "butterfly effect" stuff from the beginning of the season.
HIRO: Aw. ;_; The scenes with his mom were so sweet. I was wondering if we'd get to see her at any point. Hiro's been lucky to get nice goodbyes with BOTH his parents. Perks of being a time traveller, even with all the angst and woe that comes with it.
I've been kind of indifferent on Hiro for a long time, but the last two episodes have been really, really good for him. He and Claire were AWESOME together in this episode. Hiro and young!Hiro had that little synched glasses-nudge that made me LOL just as much as it did last time. Hiro got great scenes with his mom AND dad. Right up until he let Arthur get the drop on him and strand him in the past, anyway. So close, Hiro. Seems like they're trying to depower all the overpowered characters before the end of the volume, so that makes me wonder what kind of approach they'd take next season if they nix all the time travellers. Might be a nice change of pace. And certainly less brain-breaking.
DAPHNE, MATT, AND ANDO: I love seeing them working together as a team. And I'll say it again: DAPHNE AS A REGULAR PLZ.
ARTHUR: UNEXPECTED ARTHUR IS UNEXPECTED. And dead Arthur is....dead? If he is, I'm not sure who gets credit for the kill. No matter what Sylar said, Peter still pulled the trigger. I'd be inclined to give the daddy kill to him. Or at least make it an even Peter / Sylar / Haitian split when they divvy up the XP from killing an elite mob like that. [/Warcraft joke]
So...eh. *shrug* Arthur had his moments, but considering I'm still not clear on what the hell his master plan was - or whether he was evil for any reason other than "BECAUSE I'M A DICK, THAT'S WHY" - I'm not going to shed any tears if he doesn't stick around. Though I'm not counting him out juuuuust yet (he and his million billion super powers have done more implausible things), if only because a few plotlines could still use resolution. [EDIT: Never mind. This week's graphic novel hints pretty strongly that he's DEAD-dead.]
Arthur did manage to create one batch of magic phlebotinum, though. Unless they want to leave Sylar as the only one with a serious arsenal of superpowers, I guess they either need to depower him or repower Peter with the vat of goopy red superpower Kool-Aid. I wouldn't mind the former, honestly. Let Arthur pull a brief back-from-the-dead stunt, just long enough to pull one more dick move on his "sons". Arthur seems like the kind of guy who should go out on a dick move.
NATHAN, TRACY, AND MOHINDER: Amazing how fast you get over a little thing like Mohinder DRUGGING YOU AND TYING YOU UP IN HIS LAB OF HORRORS. But whatever. SUPER SOLDIERS.
OTHER STUFF:
Sylar now has the perfect power in case of any rogue internet memes cake-related deceptions.
