Unexpected

Another great episode for this show. For one thing, this episode featured people actually using their abilities. It was also like a smorgasbord of dazzling manifestations of mutant aberration. Not only did Claude and Peter Petrelli do their cool invisible sparring routine on the roof of the Deveaux Building, but Peter later invoked both Sylar's telekinesis and Nathan's power of flight to evade the tazer-wielding H.R.G. Come to think of it, Episode 16 really was the younger Petrelli's time to shine, wasn't it? The way he got the drop on Isaac at the end shows the kid is really learning to master his various abilities. It's too bad his quick wits caused Isaac to shoot the woman they both love dead by accident. Oh well, collateral damage.

As if Peter's hot streak wasn't enough, Ted Sprague tended to the lawn at a cemetery and — finally, finally — Hiro got a little of his groove back, halting a bullet in mid-air and sending it back into the barrel of a gun. Unfortunately, this impressive feat was accompanied by the sad occasion of Hiro and Ando's breakup. Another reason I'm happy is I can geek out on the Stan Lee cameo. This event occurred a little more than halfway through and undoubtedly will be the source of much online commotion despite the fact that Lee is well known to be the Waldo of comic-book ventures (see the last Spider-Man, the last X-Men, and the last Fantastic Four). Owing what it does to X-Men and the Marvel Universe, Heroes was bound to pay the man his tithe eventually.

While we're on the subject of X-Men, am I the only person who thought Sylar sounded a lot like Erik Lensherr, a.k.a. Magneto, when Mohinder raised the idea of curing people of their abilities? "You make it sound like a virus or a plague," he said, his weird, narrow, Bert-like face showing something other than unabashed supervillainy. Some other cool stuff happened this week, too. Poor Claire. Her mom is doing pretty bad and her dad is responsible for it. I give props to Hayden Pannetierre for a great performance.

We also learned that the H.R.G. receives steady shipments of new pneumatic needles, which would be good if he was distributing them to heroin addicts, but since he's using them to inject mutants with radio isotopes, it's considerably less cool. And mind-reader Matt Parkman gave his partner a $40,000 diamond ring, which she promptly made him return — in case anyone needed a reminder that this is a fantasy program. Also, a mysterious, raven-haired beauty appeared whose talent seems to be that she can send instant messages without the use of a laptop. It seems she can tap into the waves from the net or something.

It appears that Peter and Sylar could be perceived as racing to master as many different abilities as possible. Could this all be building up to a giant catastrophic confrontation between the two of them somewhere down the line?