Cast of Heroes
© NBC

Mania Grade: B-
Stars: Masi Oka, Ali Larter

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"Heroes: Homecoming"

For the last several weeks, every promo for Heroes has featured the tag line: “Save the Cheerleader, save the world.”  This week the ads promised the conflict would happen and we’d get answers.  I actually wasn’t expecting answers but they were promised in the ads.  This final conflict to save the cheerleader was also hyped to epic proportions in a way more common for a season finale than a regular episode.  So the questions are; did we get answers and did the episode live up to the monumental hype?  The answer to both is a resounding NO, but that doesn’t mean the episode was bad because it most definitely was not. 

Peter has become obsessed with “save the cheerleader, save the world”, a message given to him by Hiro from the future.  His brother, fearful mostly of Peter’s obsessions damaging his political career takes control by destroying the painting containing the final message Peter needs to find out where the cheerleader is located.  Luckily for him Simone saved a digital image of the painting.  With the city and school he needs to go to Peter hops a plane to Texas.  In one of the best scenes in the series Peter meets with Ando and they both admit that they are useless.  Ando is the true sidekick, the advisor with no real abilities.  Peter reminds me of a member of the Fantastic Four; his ability is based on his personality.  He grew up in the shadow of his brother growing up and now he’s in the shadow of other heroes with their own abilities.  Peter leaves the diner to save the cheerleader while Ando chooses to stay in the diner and wait for Hiro to reappear from his trip back in time to save the waitress. 

Peter and the hero killer have both pegged the wrong cheerleader as the one to save based on a newspaper article about a cheerleader saving a man from a fire.  But Claire, being the hero herself intervenes revealing herself to both the killer and to Peter.  When the killer tries to kill Claire Peter steps between them with no powers of his own, just hoping to give Claire enough time to get away.  The final painting showed Peter dead in front of the school and he was ready and willing to accept his fate to save the cheerleader.  So he fights with the killer and hurls them both over a railing.  The killer, Syler, gets up and walks away leaving Peter for dead.  Predictably though, Peter has copied Claire’s abilities so he sits up and starts straightening out his body.  Meanwhile Syler is finally brought down by a team attack from the Haitian and Eden.  This scene was sort of exciting as it felt like a group be it villains or heroes is finally doing something as a team. 

Also stuffed into this episode is finally the end of the most boring story arc in the series so far, Mohinder’s confusion over what his destiny should be.  In episode after episode he’s done little more than whinge about his feelings and what he should do, but finally in this episode he makes a decision plus finds his father’s list of the heroes.  So, he finally decides to get back to New York and get back on track.  Hopefully next Spring his character will have some time to get interesting.  Nikki, a character I can’t seem to care about, goes on the run in alter ego form to find her son and kill her ex.  The episode ends with her taking a shot through a sniper rifle at him.  I find her son to be way more interesting than she is, hopefully she’ll pick up as character soon too.  For me Heroes is all about Peter, Hiro and Ando, Claire, and the glasses man.  Heck I even liked the waitress that Hiro went back in time to save.  Hopefully some of the other side character will get more interesting and complex as the series progresses.  Back on cliffhangers though, Hiro finally pops back on screen at the end of the episode, Claire was finally about to reveal her abilities to her father and Peter was being arrested for Syler’s murder of the cheerleader mistaken for Claire. 

While “save the cheerleader, save the world” didn’t pan out as much as the promotions would lead you to believe it would be it’s still a stand out episode with some exciting cliffhangers that really got me excited for the Fall finale coming next week.