Broken Frontier

For fans who had grown attached to Elle, Kristen Bell’s electrically-charged Heroes character, the final moments of “The Eclipse: Part 2” may have been difficult to watch. Sylar, upon realizing that he is a monster and that nothing can really change that, kills an unsuspecting Elle during a moment of passion. And, just in case viewers were clinging to hope that she would make some sort of miraculous (and alive) reappearance in this latest episode, “Our Father,” Sylar douses Elle’s body with lighter fluid before setting her ablaze with her own powers.

While the Veronica Mars star will surely be missed, it’s refreshing to see Sylar return to his unrepentantly murderous ways. This season’s main baddie Arthur Petrelli may be foreboding with his Pinehearst machinations and power stealing, but nothing matches the unchecked menace of Mr. Gabriel Gray. After frying Elle to a crisp, Sylar begins racking up a pretty high body count—stopping intermittently for delicious cake—before he comes face-to-face with the Petrelli patriarch himself.

Peter, having allied himself with the power-dampening Haitian, confronts his father with a loaded pistol. With Arthur’s power neutralized, all it would take is a single bullet to end his plans to build an army of super-powered soldiers using the formula (and the catalyst) that has been the focal point of the entire “Villains” story arc. Peter pulls the trigger but Sylar stops the bullet in mid-air.

“You’re not a killer, Peter,” he says. “I am.” Sylar then proceeds to drive the bullet into Arthur’s skull. At least he’s a man of his word.

This may be the end of Arthur, but it seems that Pinehearst’s plans to play God by injecting Marines with the catalyst-infused formula are moving forward. As Nathan and Tracy look on, Mohinder—looking as scaly as ever—successfully gives one of the soldiers super powers, but it remains to be seen if creating a superhuman army is a good thing. I’m guessing it isn’t.

Of course, the formula would never have been effective had Arthur never gotten his hands on the catalyst. Last episode, Hiro and Claire—who met face-to-face for the first time—traveled 16 years into the past to the moment baby Claire is being handed over to Hiro’s father Kaito. We are introduced to Hiro’s mother Ishi, who is suffering from a terminal illness and possesses the catalyst, which she refers to as “the light.” Having faith in her son, she wants to pass the catalyst to Hiro, who she believes is destined for great things (in all fairness, he was). Kaito disagrees, and instead wishes to pass it on to Claire, who had just been salvaged from a fire.

Hiro—who at this point in the story still has the mind of a 10-year-old thanks to Arthur—meets his mother as an adult in what may be the most emotionally charged moment in Heroes’ history. Because she died when he was just a boy, she never got to see the hero that he would eventually become. With her healing abilities, she is able to restore Hiro’s memories, and passes on the catalyst to him before she dies.

Claire also keeps herself busy in the past by visiting her adoptive parents and spending some time with the infant version of herself. It’s a little unsettling that Claire is unfazed while changing her own diapers, but these scenes and those between Hiro and his mother provide some quiet warmth in an otherwise chaotic season. For the past few episodes, Claire has accused her adoptive father Noah of being an absentee dad, but the scenes in which she talks about how important the two of them will be in each other’s lives brings some satisfying closure to that conflict.

When Claire and Hiro reunite for a return trip to the present, Arthur somehow tracks them down. He saps Hiro’s powers, steals the catalyst and leaves him dangling from a flagpole in the past. Having retrieved the prophetic artist Isaac Mendez’s sketchbook, the team of Ando, Matt and Daphne know that someone must go back in time to save him, but who? And how? Through the formula, could Ando finally obtain the abilities that Hiro prophesized earlier in the season?

Some fans may have abandoned Heroes after a string of disappointing installments, but with episodes like “Our Father,” it’s clear that the series is as good as it’s ever been.