Some TV reviews, finally.
Since he's in the title, let's start with Hiro first. He and the Gaming Commission guy drive off and somehow find the gas station parking lot where Hope has a gun to Ando's head for discovering her bag is full of poker chips. A shootout between Hope and GCG ensues and Ando's shoulder gets grazed. He and Hiro take shelter in a bus' luggage compartment, but Hope comes up to them and shoots at them. But, Hiro's powers kick in, and the bullet goes back into the gun and it backfires on her. Hope is arrested, and GCG is fine, I guess, but Hiro has been changed. It was his mission that got bestest buddy Ando injured, so he decides to continue on his own. He tells Ando to get in the Nissan Versa and head back to Japan because he can't lose him. He says goodbye, flashes a live long and prosper sign, and hops on a bus to have Stan Lee drive him away. (Yes, Stan Lee had a cameo as the bus driver. Awesome.)
Mohinder and Sylar (who is still under the assumed identity of metal-melter Zane Taylor) head up to Montana to see super-hearer Dale Somethingoranother. She's a busy mechanic, so the boys get motel rooms so they can test her the next day. Sylar sneaks out in the night to cut off her head and steal her power, like he does. The next day, he and Mohinder drive back up there to test her, but Mohinder finds her dead body, and runs away to gag. Oh, Mohinder. I love you because I don't expect anything from you. You don't have to be strong or brave or even a good detective (you've been traveling with Sylar for days and haven't figured out that it's him), just look pretty and talk pretty and be book smart and wear bright clothes and scarves. Sylar tells him that calling the police would just be suspicious, so they agree to drive for a while, and then call them. Awesomely, adopting the super hearing is giving Sylar some super headaches, which I think is cool, to show his powers hurting him. Sylar is so cool.
Matt is still conflicted over what to do with the diamonds, but his wife (whose pregnancy is showing rather fast, methinks) tells him to go to the station and turn them in. Before he can, he gets a mysterious phone call (is there any other kind?) and rushes off. He goes to meet Ted, a real-life Radioactive Man, and new hero, Hana Gitelman, known as Wireless. That’s her power, she can interface with electronics, like when she was IMing Ted with her mind earlier in the episode. They show Matt their odd marks, two little scratches on their necks, and I don’t remember if Matt had one or not. But the three of them obviously have something brewing.
Claire’s mom’s brain troubles have landed her in the hospital. Claire tells the nurse about The Haitian and the memory wipes, but she doesn’t believe her. HRG arrives from New
York (where he was on a mission with The Haitian, which I will get to later), and he and Claire go out into the hall so she can yell at him. She thinks this whole thing is his fault, and she doesn’t want her memory wiped, and she’d leave, but she feels she has to protect the family from him. He says that he’s doing all this for the family, that it’s the way that it has to be. I really believe him, I think he’s trying to give his family a good life but is in circumstances he can’t get out of. Claire doesn’t share my thoughts, and just storms off.
Later, the Bennett family goes home, but they find an unpleasant surprise. Matt, Ted, and Wireless have ambushed them, and want answers. And judging from previews and TV Guide articles, things aren’t looking like they’ll turn out too well. But hey, HRG is awesome, and I’d love to learn more about him.
Issac and Simone are talking about how she’s not with him anymore, how she’s with Peter now. But Issac doesn’t like this, and wants her to stay with him. He’s all better now, and he thinks that they still have a connection. She won’t have it, and goes off to Nathan to see if he has found Peter yet. He hasn’t, and still doesn’t like the idea of him or his brother having powers. He says that if he were in charge, he would put all the powered people on an island in the middle of an ocean to run tests on them. Lost reference? She storms off again. (Have I ever mentioned how I don’t like it when somebody walks off after a disagreement? I know it’s a way to move characters and advance the plot, but I want people to work their problems out together.) We see HRG talking to Issac, and I think he mentions something about Claude, so HRG and The Haitian know now that he’s still alive. Apparently, Claude was one of their experiments or worked with them or something, but faked his death. So they go after Claude (and Peter), leaving a gun with Issac.
Claude is still training Peter. This time, they were on the roof of the Deaveaux building (the one with the pigeon coops and that cool architecture), and Claude was whacking Peter with a staff, and Peter deflected it with the telekinesis he got from Sylar. But then, we see HRG with the Haitian on the rooftop of another building, and they’re shooting at them. Peter stops the… thingies (they weren’t shooting bullets, it was like little paddle things on coiled wires that would shock you into unconsciousness or something) with his mind powers, then grabs Claude and flies off high into the sky with him in his arms. So very cool. Such a Superman moment. (After that, HRG gets that call and goes back to Odessa. To give you an idea of the timeline.) They figure out that Issac sold them out, and Peter goes after him. He shows up at the studio to confront him, and Issac pulls out the gun. But, Peter goes all invisible, so Issac is just shooting the air at random, and then… whoopsy doodle! Simone walks in the door, and Issac shoots her twice in the chest. He and a now visible Peter rush over to their woman, who doesn’t give any last words, just opens up her hand, revealing her key that she was going to give back to Issac. So, she chose Peter, then? (I would too. I loves me some Peter Petrelli.) She then closes her eyes, so I guess she’s dead. Or just tired from being shot. That might’ve been her death, but I’ve also heard that she’ll die on March 5th, since next week is all about the HRG storyline. So I’m not sure. I was kinda hoping she would die. Not that I don’t like Simone, it’s just that out of all the characters, she’s the one I’m probably the least emotionally invested in. On another note, it’s nice to see Peter getting a good grasp on his powers. I think he and Sylar are going to be a fun rivalry to watch. Peter could get all the powers that Sylar has, but on the other hand, Sylar’s a lot more vicious than Peter could be. So we’ll see.
My Name Is Earl was a flashback episode about when Joy’s second baby, Earl Jr., was born. Of course, he was black and his real father was Crab Man, so Earl had decided to leave Joy. He and Randy went back to their parent’s house, but their dad decided that the right thing to do was for Earl to go back and take care of his family. Earl refused to, so dad threw Earl’s old pet gerbils out the window until Earl agreed to go back to Joy. A very nice episode, with some very funny bits. Earl’s mom thinks that the dad is throwing gerbils out the window because his blood sugar is low and he’s just feeling mad, so she keeps yelling “Eat an orange, Carl!” And Randy thinks the gerbil throwing is a game and is so just excited to play. When the parents go to the hospital to see the new grandbaby, they have balloons and teddy bears and matching shirts with baby heads that say #1 Grandpa and #1 Grandma. They see the black baby and realize that it’s not Earl’s, so the dad storms off, and the mom just keeps weepy and says that they can give the shirts to Joy’s parents and they can fill in the white baby faces with a Sharpie. And when Earl is saying that people will stare at him and Joy walking around the mall with a little black baby, Randy says that nobody will notice if they paint their faces like clowns, and thinks that it would be a great idea to just be a family of clowns. Hee. Randy is so cute.
Scrubs documented the personal growth of some of the characters over a month. JD had a DUI for pushing his scooter down the sidewalk while drunk, Turk broke his arm and couldn’t do surgery for a month and had to go through residency again, and Elliot tried living with her boyfriend Keith for a month. Also, brain damaged soldier Private Brain Dancer went through physical therapy in that month to relearn how to write his name. I though it was a good episode. The Janitor tried to bring back muttonchops as a demonstration of how people just follow trends and don’t think for themselves.
The Office managed to be both hilarious and dramatic. The opening was Michael doing magic and attempting to get out of a chained straitjacket. The whole episode was about him and Jan going public about their relationship at a cocktail party for higher managers. Jan is uncomfortable with it, while Michael is all too eager, and I think she likes the physical relationship between them better, as she pulls him into a bathroom during the party. He won’t do it, because there’s no room to cuddle afterwards. Aww. Jim goes as well and brings Karen, who keeps noting that various people are ex’s of hers. Later it is revealed to be a prank, but you can tell that Jim is uneasy. Dwight spends the party checking out the quality of the house, like shaking banisters, jumping on the roof (LOL), and waking up the kid to ask him what he knows about the house. Jan and Michael are fighting on the car ride home, and Dwight just sticks his head up from the backseat and says “Don’t break up, guys.” Aww. Meanwhile, the other Dunder Mifflin employees head out to Poor Richard’s Pub for the night. Pam has made a point to be more assertive. “What Pammy wants, Pammy gets. … Don’t call me Pammy.” She remarks that a toy duck in a crane machine is cute, and Toby spends the whole night trying to win it for her, and he gives it to her, she doesn’t get it. Poor Toby. People have remarked that he might become like the Gunther of the show, which would be neat. Kevin and his fiancée have set a date for their wedding, but he won’t talk about it because it’s complicated. Creed makes a remark about him running a fake ID business out of his car with a laminator he stole from the sheriff’s station. Heh heh. The most dramatic moment of the episode was Pam telling Roy that she wanted to start their relationship over again with no secrets, and she tells him about that time way back on the booze cruise when she kissed Jim. Roy is furious and just goes nuts. He throws stuff at a mirror, and starts trashing the place. Pam starts crying and just runs off, that poor sweet thing. My jaw was just dropped throughout the whole scene. Totally unexpected, and executed perfectly. The final scene of the episode is Roy trying to calm down outside the bar, and his brother comes out and says that he paid off the bar owner to not press charges. Roy just says, “I’m gonna kill Jim Halpert.” *gulp* I can’t wait to see what happens.
Yeah, Lost will come later. Along with tomorrow's Heroes.
Watched Serenity again last night. I don't know what it is about that movie, but I cannot stay awake through it. I love it, but I always drop off about the time that they get to Miranda. So I finished it this morning. Went over to Paul's place because he got an iPod, but doesn't have a computer. He has something to charge it, but has to manage music off my laptop. I don't get Internet at their place, so he has to come over here if he wants to buy any songs. So I now have three iPods running off this computer. At least I got some neat new music from him. Also did some laundry. Not bothering with Oscars, the only movie I saw was Little Miss Sunshine, and I just get results in the morning. I'm gonna go watch some Supernatural DVDs.