Heroes: Clean Slate

“A broken vessel. An empty shell. What is a man without a mind? Without memory? A ghost? A body in search of a soul? With no compass to guide us, how can we know if our destiny is to seek the good or obey the demons that whisper in our ear? The blank slate hungers to be written upon. The body thrives when the heart has a mission.”

Booya Mohinder! Get paper and a pen and take some notes from the new master, Samuel. That is how a voice over should be done. Your accent will get you points, but you still have to bring something else to the table. While Sylar was on a search for his memories, Peter and Noah searched for a boy who could heal Hiro’s brain tumor. And with Peter on a mission, Hiro helped Emma search for understanding when it comes to her new powers.

All that searching isn’t surprising after all that acceptance last week, and it makes a lot of sense when you consider the week’s title, “Tabula Rasa”. When you watch as much TV as I do, you see a lot of episode titles, and “Tabula Rasa” is right up there with “ChChChChanges” in the amount of appearances it makes. Already, I’m thinking of shows with episodes that share the same title like Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Law & Order. So, a tabula rasa symbolizes a blank slate. It’s time for our characters to move forward and start building on these clear palates of theirs. And with how good this week’s episode is, I think Heroes gets a clean slate as well. (At least in my book.)

“It’s been a long time since I’ve teleported.” – Peter
Peter and Hiro see fate in different ways. Peter thinks that, being an ex-hospice nurse/paramedic, maybe there’s a reason the dying Hiro came to his apartment, but Hiro thinks that maybe it’s Peter who could benefit from Hiro’s time traveling abilities. Elsewhere in the hospital, Emma’s worried that something is wrong with her powers, but Peter tells her it’ll get easier. He suggests that Emma talk to Hiro if she has questions since he needs to go on a mission to save his friend’s life.

Peter pops in (really he pops into the bathroom) and clues Noah and Claire into what’s going on with Hiro. They track down a boy that Noah remembers from his “bag and tag” days named Jeremy. Unfortunately, what they find is a lot of death instead of the life they’re looking for. After killing both his parents, Jeremy is convinced that he can only bring death, but Noah knows that there are many more facets to an ability. It’s a little tough to reason with the kid since he welcomes them with a shotgun, but Noah continues to try to calm him down.

Noah almost assures him, but Peter teleports in and shocks Jeremy, causing the kid to pull the trigger. Peter freezes time, with a look on his face of pure elation, until he realizes that the bullet has already gone through his body. (The visual is so sick. I had to rewind and watch it again.) Noah starts to come down hard on Jeremy, telling him to trust him and that he can heal if he visualizes it and just tries, and of course, he can and does. After healing, Peter makes sure to get Jeremy’s power and zips off to Hiro, leaving Noah to stay with Jeremy and giving him an opportunity to apologize for letting him (and many others like him) down.

“We need to jump start the real Sylar, wake the sleeping lion.” – Samuel
A la carnivale, we learn that Lydia’s pretty intuitive. After hearing tales of Sylar, Samuel wonders what’s happened to him. The man and the myth just aren’t matching up. Lydia suggests that it’s as if there are two sides of him at war with each other. Samuel realizes that Sylar doesn’t know his own names and asks that he spend the day with him and his people. He asks him to ask what the first name that pops into his head is. Sylar? Gabriel? But he asks Samuel to call him Nathan.

As Samuel shows him around, pointing out that there are other people who are “special” like him, Samuel introduces Sylar to Lydia. As he shakes her hand, he gets a flash that he may have been a politician since he remembers shaking a lot of hands. (The war is on!) While he’s finishing the tour with Lydia (seeing Sylar all smiles and giggles is incredibly strange!), Samuel ponders that things are really wrong with the man who’s supposed to be a ruthless renegade. He realizes Sylar’s memories are coming back, but they’re the wrong ones.

Setting a plan into motion, Samuel invites Captain Lubbock to the carnival with his family. He believes that if Lubbock sees Sylar, it’ll force them into a kill or be killed situation and that will force the real Sylar out. He also introduces Sylar to Damien, a man who can unlock the mind. Damien takes Sylar into the House of Mirrors where we and Sylar witness a fast-forward version of his past. Basically since Sylar has killed a lot of people, we get to see a lot of people get scalped. It may be old news to us, but Sylar is so disgusted that he pukes.

Like most people, he doesn’t want to believe that he was a killer or that he could still be one. Samuel brings divine fate into the picture, saying that Sylar was brought into their family because the outside world created that person he saw, and at the carnival, they will love him for who he truly is. And he could help protect them as well. Samuel warns Sylar about Lubbock and asks him to take care of it. But Sylar’s still not his old self just yet, he can’t bring himself to kill Lubbock and tells him to run, only to instinctually (muscle memory) shock him with electricity when Lubbock won’t lower his gun.

It almost ignites something inside of him, and for a second, I thought he’d take the kill, but he just walks away. Waiting in the wings is Edgar, who doesn’t take a breath before slicing Lubbock down. Edgar can’t hide his frustration from Samuel at the fact that Sylar is still acting like a tame kitten (and that he‘s getting Lydia‘s attention), but Samuel encourages him to have faith. That they will make a better Sylar, shaped by their beliefs.

“Abracadabra!” – Hiro
Now, I never thought Hiro would wait around for Peter to get back, but he did hang out long enough to impact our new character Emma. (Everyone who meets Hiro just falls in love, and that’s no surprise.) And though in the end he time travels to the Burnt Toast Diner to see Charlie before her death in the end, he took the time to use his powers and put on a magic show for some sick kids. By doing this, he shows Emma a potential side of her powers that she hasn’t yet envisioned, using them to do something good and help the world. It really was a cute storyline but just not as exciting as the prior two. It did bring us a little closer to Emma though.

WRAP IT UP
Overall, this was a fantastic episode. I paused midway through just to acknowledge to a friend just how great it was. It’s been a long time since Peter interacted with Noah and Claire and then met up with Hiro who he introduces to a new hero. And Sylar is in abilities playland. Never once has there been so many potentially awesome, abilities-fueled fights and possible interactions with periphery characters with powers. Already at the carnival this week, we saw a guy make things disappear and Sylar and Edgar in a sweet, powers battle. And it’s only episode six! I’m actually terrified of the idea that a really ticked off, fully recovered Sylar could wake up in this smorgasbord-of-powers carnival. Only time will tell, and I’ve got one foot back on the bandwagon.

Season 4, Episodes 6: Tabula Rasa (originally aired October 19, 2009)

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