Arthur Petrelli is still wearing his ‘masters of the universe’ underwear, and smug expression, yet he lets Ando and Hiro get away when Ando unbelievably operates his power by squeezing Hiro’s face. The worst aspect of this season has been the utter rubbish they’ve given these two to do, and it doesn’t get any better here. Arthur’s grip on Hiro has taken him back to being a 10 year old, although at least they’re now transported far away to a bowling alley. It’s exactly this dumb stuff that’s really grinding. Why do they give it to them to do. Why? I hope you like spoilers because the big one of this episode is right up next. This is the story where bad Sylar becomes the good Gabriel again, as he’s been threatening to do for at least five episodes. Arthur puts him in cell with Elle, who’s none too pleased to see the person who killed her father. But her anger and sparks won’t kill this hero, because he’s got Claire’s power. Eventually he learns ‘empathy’, and gets her power without killing her. They bond, but not in a biblical sense, yet. Parkman went to Primatech, which is empty apart from the bed that Angela Petrelli is occupying, so with only cute Daphne there to talk to, he decides to go inside Angela’s head to see if it’s occupied. That’s a big mistake, because it’s rush hour in there! He finds Angela chained to a wheelchair, and then a psychotic Daphne stabs him! Which curiously causes him to bleed for real. The end of the episode is a big set-up slow motion segment where you see the sides of good and evil taking their positions, ready to fight for what comes next – the eclipse – whatever that actually signifies. It’s revealed that, along with the two formula pieces Arthur has, there’s a third component needed to make it work, a human catalyst that might be Claire, possibly. Whatever happens now ‘It’s coming’… On the upside, this story wasn’t as bad as the utter hogwash that episode 8 represented, but I get the distinct feeling that we’re about to see everything thrown at the wall in the possibly fruitless attempt to see what sticks and thus try to keep this show running. The problem is that however imaginative they get from here on, it’s going to look like something interesting tacked onto what was complete junk. Check out our review of episode 8 here.
