Heroes - Season 1, Episode 13 - "The Fix"

Let me start by saying that yes, for the second week in a row, Heroes beat out 24 to be the #1 show in its time slot. Booyah.

And yet, this is somewhat of a bittersweet victory for me because in my opinion, last night was the single worst episode of Heroes to date. That's right. #1 worst episode EVER. Here's why:

1. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
That's the sound of me snoring during the 99% action-less episode. There have been episodes of Heroes (like episodes 1-11) that have kept my heart pounding in excitement from start to finish. The only time my heart so much as palpitated last night was when Mama Claire (aka Meredith Gordon aka Firestarter) gave us a fleeting glimpse of her sweet, sweet power. This moment was far more satisfying than the actual moment of meeting Claire's mom because the damn marketing people over at NBC basically gave us this week's entire episode in the promo.

2. Pacing
This week's episode was ssssslllllooooowwww. Think about how little was accomplished last week. Nikki/Jessica? Nothing. Matt? Got suspended, big whoop. Issac? Not in the episode.
Mohinder/Nathan? A nice (and maybe in the future, important?) pairing for sure, but they didn't do much of anything. Peter? Finally hooked up with Claude (the Invisible Man), but their adventures won't begin until next week. Hiro/Ando? Meet up with Hiro's daddy. All of these storylines took teeny, tiny baby steps. Maybe the writers are starting to slow things down to draw the series out more?

3. Um, powers anybody?
If this is Heroes, show us some frickin super powers! The only displays of power we got were D.L.'s useless visit to Nikki's cell, Claude & Peter's invisibility (ok, that one was awesome), and the Firestarter. It's going to take a little bit more than that to keep me interested.

There were 2 notable power usages though, not mentioned above. The first, and one of the episode's highlights, was Micah's awesome re-wiring of the ATM. Up until now, it's been a bit murky as to what Micah's specific power is, but it's finally clear that Micah can manipulate any sort of electronic device with his mind. AWESOME.

The other notable usage of power was more subtle, so subtle in fact that you may have missed it. I'm speaking, of course, about Sylar absorbing the power of the cockroach in his cell in order to somehow come back to life! What the hell is going on?! I love where they're going with Sylar, but they need to throw us a bone pretty soon and explain some things. How does Sylar's power actually work? How did HRG get him back into custody in the first place? Why are they keeping him alive?

4. The good parts
Since we are talking about Heroes here, you can bet there were still some great moments. Other than those mentioned above, here are my favs:
- Hiro going back for Ando-- Ando has been a grade A dick to Hiro countless times, and yet in a moment of great peril, Hiro refuses to abandon him. That move gave Hiro some nice dramatic credibility. It's refreshing to be able to nod in appreciation of Hiro, since all I've been doing lately is smirking at his comic relief.

- Claire leaving the damn wind chimes hanging out-- Argh! Now HRG knows! What's going to happen?? I need to know!!!

- No Simone.

- Nathan Petrelli is on the right track-- I hated when Nathan consistently refused to acknowledge his own ability and the abilities of others. I love that the one guy who wanted nothing to do with any of the powers or heroics is the one character who keeps teaming up with everyone. A great move by the writers and a great move into my good graces for Nathan.

-Next week, we get another new character! Hana Gittleman aka Wireless. I don't want to spoil anything, but let it be known, her power is OFF THE CHAIN.

And as always, I will conclude this post with some questions (actually, a question and a prediction) that were brought up by last night's episode:

My prediction-- Claire's mom started the fire that both she and Claire supposedly died in. Meredith escaped alive, thinking she had murdered her own baby. Little did she know...

My question (brought to you by my viewing partners from last night)-- How the hell does everyone know he's a Haitian? I've never even seen a Haitian and yet everyone on the show seems to be able to pick one out of a line-up. Come on!

For being the worst episode of Heroes ever, I give this episode, (though it KILLS me to give so low a rating, but hopefully this will be the worst one ever) a C+

Favorite Scene: When Peter "flies" out the window, only to actually be hiding invisibly in the hallway!

Favorite Line: "No teaching, no Sunday School for the special. What I can do, you can't learn. You wake up in the morning and it's there. If you've got thin soup, then that's your supper." - Claude (The Invisible Man)