What I’m Watching: Heroes

Heroes: Season 4, Episode 9 “Shadowboxing” (F)

Last week this show was all about trying to relive the glory days of the past, and this installment is a tragic reminder that nothing has changed in the present. Forget all about Hiro, he’s irrelevant now, it seems. Peter is trying to save too many people with the power he’s picked up and it’s clearly taking a lot of energy away from him. His whole situation often just appears comic, as the hapless ambulance driver continually remarks that each case is far less severe than it initially appeared. The cleanup effort engineered by Noah in Claire’s dorm seems like it wouldn’t work just based on how glaringly suspicious Noah and the Haitian are walking around unaccompanied by a student. Noah getting caught alone in Rebecca’s room is an instance of what likely happened many times while they were parading through the halls wiping memories clean, but I guess the Haitian being there means that they can just wipe anyone’s memory if they start to suspect anything. Gretchen’s tearful exodus isn’t a sad moment since the character has only been irritating since she first set her eyes on Claire. Rebecca’s historical connection to Noah turns this whole universe into a world that’s way too small and incestuous. Samuel’s decision to shock Rebecca to get her in control presented an intriguing notion that Samuel might not in fact be a villain, but his later confirmation that Rebecca would get her revenge negates that. The presence of Sylar in Matt’s mind was perhaps the stupidest part of this episode, and having him tormenting Matt was idiotic enough. Having Matt try to one-up and deceive him is intolerable. Maybe it’s because Matt’s always been a poorly-written character or that Sylar’s haircut is obnoxious. It looks like much more effort was put in to making sure that Zachary Quinto and Greg Grunberg wore the same outfits than into crafting decent scenes. And then, the worst ending of all – Matt gets himself killed except, in typical “Heroes” fashion, he’s probably not really dead. Can nothing stop this stupid storyline?