Broken Frontier

It’s a Heroes Halloween! No, we don’t get to see Matt Parkman waiting for a visit from the Great Pumpkin (as awesome as that might be), but we do get to watch him drink himself stupid to drown out the psychopath residing in his head.

The most Halloween-appropriate storyline in this week’s episode, which is titled “Strange Attractors,” concerns Claire Bennet and her roommate, Gretchen, as they’re forced into a sorority scavenger hunt in an abandoned slaughterhouse. It’s typical sorority “hell week” hazing stuff at first, but as we learned earlier this season, one of the sorority sisters is in league with Samuel Sullivan and his sinister gang of carnies. Her goal is to isolate Claire as much as possible, making her easier to recruit into their makeshift super-powered family. This sinister sorority sister, Rebecca, uses her power of invisibility to target Gretchen, nearly strangling her in the slaughterhouse prep room. After all, what better way to isolate Claire than by murdering her best friend?

This episode does an excellent job at further developing the friendship between Claire and Gretchen, particularly in light of their kiss two episodes back. Gretchen still has feelings for Claire, but the former cheerleader isn’t quite sure how she feels. It’s clear that the writers want to tease audiences about whether or not Claire is into girls, no doubt fueling pages upon pages of fan fiction in the process. Right now, Claire is just trying to figure herself out. Gretchen is the first person she’s gotten close to in a long time, and she’s not about to spoil that in any way. However, Gretchen isn’t shy about being honest about her attraction to her roommate. The show’s handling of this pseudo-lesbian storyline is actually quite tasteful, even if it comes off as a tad exploitative at first.

When Rebecca attacks Gretchen, she impales Claire on a metal spike, revealing her healing ability to the two other girls in the scavenger hunt. I guess that secret’s out.

Last week, in “Tabula Rasa,” fans were introduced to Jeremy, a teenager with the ability to both give life and take it away. In that episode, the troubled youth used his power to kill his parents, prompting local authorities to take him into custody. Noah Bennet is determined to free the boy, and enlists Tracy Strauss to pose as Jeremy’s aunt and sign him out. While Tracy tries to arrange for Jeremy’s release, she’s introduced to Samuel, who transports her to his carnival and tries convincing her that Jeremy will be safe with him. When she refuses, Samuel hands her a compass, which will lead her back to the carnival if she changes her mind. During her visit to the carnival, the mind-wiped Sylar—who was welcomed into the carnival fold in last week’s episode—remembers her. However, he’s merely picking up on one of Nathan Petrelli’s memories. More on the real Sylar later.

Noah and Tracy successfully free Jeremy, but just moments after his release, he is confronted by an angry protester. When Jeremy touches him, the man collapses, and Jeremy is once again brought back into the police station. Later, the police have Jeremy chained to the back of the truck and dragged to his death. Samuel retaliates by using his earth-manipulating ability to level the police station. Heroes is notorious for mimicking X-Men characters and storylines, but I love that Samuel so closely resembles Magneto, with the carnival reminiscent of his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. That’s not at all a bad thing.

Sylar is still trapped in Matt’s head, finding new ways to mess with the tormented telepath. It’s unfortunate that this storyline has remained on the backburner for the last few weeks, but I’m sure we all prefer this show handling just a few storylines in each episode as opposed to cramming them all in week-to-week. The mind games here are great, particularly when Sylar takes control of Matt’s body while he’s making love to his wife. What a jerk move.

Matt’s plan to rid his mind of Sylar, to get completely hammered, is an interesting twist, but it doesn’t work out all that well for him. When Matt blacks out from one drink too many, Sylar seizes the opportunity and takes complete control of his mind. With Sylar in the driver’s seat, all Matt can do is stand by—in his own head—and watch. This should make for some awesome storytelling in the episodes ahead.

While not quite as strong as the two episodes preceding it, “Strange Attractors” shone some necessary light on Samuel’s motivations while giving other Heroes characters a chance to grow. Claire has become much stronger and self-assured than she was in previous seasons, while both Noah and Tracy have found new purpose.