What I’m Watching: Heroes

Heroes: Season 4, Episode 12 “The Fifth Stage” (F)

Whatever ghost of Nathan is still inside of Sylar finally lets go and bids Peter goodbye via a dramatic imitation of a fall from “The Matrix,” and what are we left with? A vengeful, evil Sylar just as powerful as ever and fully aware of who he is. There’s no end to the cyclical nature of this show, which just can’t bid adieu to Sylar and needs to reinforce that he’s a threat before every hiatus, even if he hasn’t actually gone anywhere. At the end of last season when Matt forced Sylar to believe that he was actually Nathan, I was confused and unenthusiastic about where that might take the show. It turns out it went nowhere except for a detour, since nothing about that arc changed any of the characters besides saying farewell to a character who was already dead at the end of last season. Sylar’s entry into the elevator to surprise Peter did catch me off guard, I’ll admit, but that was the only bit of the episode that came as anything close to a surprise. The casting of Todd Stashwick (Dale from “The Riches”) is a good choice, in line with Robert Knepper, for seedy villains from other shows to come over to play at the carnival and wreak havoc. His power of multiplication is pretty cool, even if it gets obnoxious real fast. Noah and his new girlfriend are quite well-prepared to deal with a multiplier, though unfortunately their readiness to defend against him permits him to steal exactly what he came to steal. Claire’s trip to the carnival feels for its entire duration like they’re putting on a show to try and seduce her, and there was definitely something in that popcorn. Her decision to stay at the carnival and see what life is like surely won’t last long. And where the hell is Tracy? This show has forgotten about so many of its threads, which is good in some cases (Matt, Mohinder, even Hiro), and it’s just doubling back on itself and going in weird, pointless directions with the ones it does bother to address. There won’t be any more “Heroes” until January 4th, when the show will broadcast a two-hour episode before moving the following week to 9pm to allow for the glorious return of a show that actually made Mondays look good, “Chuck.”