Broken Frontier

It’s been a bizarre season for Heroes, but with “The Art of Deception,” things finally start to click, ensuring that the season finale will pay off in spite of some severe missteps over the past few weeks. We hope.

In “The Art of Deception,” characters are spurred into action by Samuel’s geographical hissy fit in “Pass/Fail,” during which he leveled an entire town. Now the carnival trusts Samuel a whole lot less, and Noah—who had once promised Claire that he was done tracking down “specials”—vows to take him down before he strikes again.

Meanwhile, after her bizarre heart-to-heart with Sylar in last week’s episode, Claire decides to visit her dad and reconnect over coffee. At his apartment, which these days resembles a bachelor pad Batcave, Claire runs into Lauren, Noah’s former Primatech partner and current lady friend. Claire learns what Samuel has done and what Noah intends to do, and races to warn Lydia (the carnival’s resident painted lady) that the innocent carnies are also in danger. Of course, her roommate and kinda-sorta-maybe girlfriend Gretchen objects to Claire getting involved in her dad’s business, but Claire shrugs her off. Geez, for someone so hung up on attachment, Claire is really bad at listening to her friends.

So, Claire goes to the carnival and issues a warning. But Noah and Lauren eventually show up—armed with a sniper rifle—and Samuel seemingly agrees to turn himself in if the rest of the carnival is free to go. But this episode is called “The Art of Deception,” and Samuel is pretty damn deceitful. Samuel frames Noah by having his henchman, the Replicating Man, shoot up the carnival. Samuel and Lauren are wounded, Lydia is killed and the carnies have a new villain: Noah. Samuel rallies the troops, who are now armed with a renewed hatred of mankind. How Magneto-esque of him.

The other major storyline in “The Art of Deception” revolves around Sylar, who has realized that the only way he can be truly happy is to abandon his powers and become “normal.” He visits Matt for help, but the telepath is understandably hesitant when it comes to doing favors for super-powered sociopaths, especially one that resided inside his head until recently. After Sylar threatens his family, Matt agrees to help but, like Samuel, he also has a trick up his sleeve. While inside his head, Matt traps Sylar inside his own mind, dooming him to an eternity of loneliness. He then begins entombing Sylar in his basement behind a brick wall. Matt must read a lot of Edgar Allan Poe.

But then Peter ruins everything. As you might remember, Peter and Angela’s prophetic vision showed Emma (and her cello) killing thousands of people. But it also revealed Sylar as a savior. So after tracking Sylar to the basement, Peter steals Matt’s power and dives into Sylar’s mind to undo what Matt just did. What was, for a moment, a really cool and twisted bit of revenge for Matt served only to make things needlessly convoluted thanks to Peter’s reckless intervention. Sure, when it comes to the overall story, there’s probably a good reason for Peter’s trip into Sylar’s mind, but it still detracts from a very important character moment for Matt.

With just two episodes to go after “The Art of Deception,” this season can still go in any number of directions. We’ve still yet to know Samuel’s endgame, and it remains unclear what roles Sylar and Emma will play in the end. And what about Tracy Strauss, who is apparently entering the fray next week? Which characters will be around next season? Will there even be a next season? There are still a lot of questions up in the air, but fortunately for Heroes, there are still a few of us sticking around to wait for the answers.