Monday, November 9, 2009

Heroes episode recap – “Shadowboxing” S4E8 (airdate 11/09/09)

Arlington, Virginia. Picking up right where we left off last time, in the aftermath of the screaming slaughterhouse sorority scavenger hunt, the other two pledges are completely freaking out, having seen Becky de-invisible herself and Claire heal after being impaled. Claire coolly covers by saying that the sorority sisters must have drugged their water bottles with hallucinogens, hence the seeing things: ooh, look, a pack of wild dogs! The other two (dumb as posts) pledges leave and then Gretchen starts her freak out in earnest: OMG, an invisible girl just tried to kill me!

NYC Paramedic Peter is ministering to a victim of a massive train accident. The guy seems paralyzed so Peter uses his newly acquired healing power to fix him enough that he’s not. This takes a lot out of Peter – he’s been doing this all day, apparently. In the hospital, Emma watches all the accident victims pouring in, turning the hospital into a war zone. She looks like she wants to help.

Los Angeles. Sylar-in-Parkman’s body is boarding a flight for NYC to wreak some vengeance on that “Italian Eagle Scout” (Peter Petrelli) since the last thing he remembers is Peter jabbing a syringe full of sedative into his neck, thus enabling Parkman to hijack his body for Nathan. Parkman’s consciousness floats around next to him, complaining impotently. However, Parkman somehow managed to get his service revolver into the bag Sylar was packing, which leads to Sylar-in-Parkman’s body getting arrested at the airport security checkpoint. Sylar tries to use Parkman’s mind powers to induce security to let him go but Parkman sneers that while Sylar may have his body, he sure doesn’t have his powers, and security hauls a screaming Sylar away.

Note: until further notice: when I say “Sylar,” I mean “Sylar’s consciousness in Parkman’s body whom the Parkman and the audience sees as Sylar, and the other Heroes characters see as Parkman.” And when I say “Parkman,” I mean “Parkman’s disembodied consciousness that Sylar and the audience see as Parkman, and the other characters don’t see at all.” Got it?

Carnival. Sylar’s body (oh poop - there goes my system) tosses and turns in his trailer but when he wakes up, he’s Nathan. And sees himself as Nathan in the mirror. He thinks this is WEIRD. So he gets dressed and goes outside, nervously flying off into the sky when he hears Lydia and Samuel coming. They are talking about Becky’s less-than-successful recruitment of Claire Benet to the Carnival. Lydia thinks Claire’s a lost cause but Samuel just replies that lost causes are his specialty.

College. Gretchen is still freaking out about why the hell is invisible Becky trying to kill her. Claire volunteers to go to the sorority house to go through Becky’s room to see if she can find some clues, and she tells Gretchen to lock the door behind her and not let anyone else in. Claire is finding scared Gretchen a little much – and totally unlike the stalker-girl who thought Claire being a Hero was just sooooo cool.

NYC, hospital. Emma is still standing in the way, watching the chaos in the hospital, when an ER doc, not recognizing her, asks her to keep pressure on a patient’s wound until the doctor comes to stitch her up. When she thinks nobody is looking, Emma just stitches the patient up herself. Peter sees her doing this and gives her a nod, then scurries off to another part of the ER to work his healing mojo on a burned patient. The strain of what he is doing almost knocks him over.

College, sorority house. Claire finds the other two pledges who’d seen what happened with her and Becky in the slaughterhouse and is relieved to discover that they have no absolutely memory of even being involved. AWESOME – there’s the Haitian!! Benet is there too, and only too glad to have been able to help his daughter when she called him.

Poop again: Sylar and Parkman are now on a road trip. They have to drive across the country since Sylar is now on a no-fly list, thanks to Parkman’s prank. Another prank: Parkman clouds Sylar’s mind enough that he hits something in the road and gets a flat tire. Luckily a kindly passerby stops to help. But Parkman is feeling petty and makes Sylar trip over his own feet, falling face first into the dirt, and grins that it’s going to be a looooong drive. So Sylar picks up a tire iron and beats the kindly passerby to death. Parkman is horrified: “You killed him!” Sylar smirks: Um, no, you did.

College, sorority house. Claire has asked her dad to take care of Becky, but she does not, however, want Gretchen’s memory erased because Gretchen is her friend and accepts her as she is. Instead, the Haitian goes with her back to her dorm room to protect her if Becky shows up. So who’s going to protect Benet?

Road trip. Sylar lays it out: no more sabotage by Parkman or he keeps killing innocent people.

NYC. Peter is near exhaustion when Emma finds him and makes him sit down. She suggests that maybe he shouldn’t use his power if it’s so hard on him. No way, man: “And be ordinary?” He staggers to his feet to continue helping in the ER. He asks where she learned suturing and she tells him that she dropped out of medical school.

College, dorm room. When Claire gets back, Gretchen is packing, saying she can’t take it and she’s going home. She has had it: she can’t handle this sort of life like Claire has. She thought it was awesome but it’s scary and dangerous and she wants no part of it. Claire begs her friend to stay but Gretchen is unstoppable: she’s already booked her plane ticket. Claire sobs, asking the Haitian to stay near Gretchen until she gets on the plane. After they’re gone, there’s a knock on Claire’s door. She turns, tears still on her face. It’s Samuel.

After the commercial, he apologizes for his bad timing, saying he’s looking for his niece Becky. WTF, says Claire, she just tried to hurt my friend, why would she be here? Samuel says that he knows that Claire is special, like him, like Becky, and if she’s got a moment to listen, he might have some answers for her.

Becky’s room. Oh shit: Benet has just found Samuel’s magical spinning compass hidden in the closet when the Invisible Girl gets home. He threatens her with a stun gun and she materializes.

Midland, Texas, Charlie’s old diner. Sylar orders ambrosia pancakes and a Coke, apparently planning to pack a bunch of pounds onto Parkman’s already chunky frame. When the waitress goes to put the order in, Sylar tells Parkman that he’ll kill her unless Parkman tells him where his body is and how Parkman pulled his consciousness out of it.

Claire’s dorm. Samuel is telling her about the Carnival, the people there. That a family is more than blood – it’s about trust and blood and love. He apologizes for Becky, saying that she’s damaged and complicated since her father was murdered in front of her when she was just a child. Hm, Claire ponders this. In Becky’s room, the Invisible Girl explains that she’s actually been after Benet the entire time – for killing her dad – and she’s going to hurt both him and his daughter. Things get slightly tense until two pledges interrupt. Becky invisibles away and Benet takes off. Claire’s room: Samuel goes on (and on), saying that he knows that Claire wants to fit into the real world but gets hurt every time she tries. When she asks how he’s learned to manage this, he tells her that he’s simply surrounded himself with people like him because they understand him. Which is why he’s approached her and not her father. Claire has her serious thinky face on but just then Benet arrives. He looks sternly at Samuel – who looks a little nervous – and wants to know what’s up.

When we’ve come back from the commercial, Benet has his gun out and Claire’s all, you think I would trust you over my dad? Samuel admits that Becky is damaged but Benet has some responsibility in that. Agreeably, Benet puts his gun away and tosses the compass to Samuel, saying okay, let’s talk responsibility: WTF with this compass, seeing how it’s shown up in several murder investigations (e.g. Danko’s). Samuel insists that it’s just to keep his people hidden from people like Benet but Benet wants more answers than that.

NYC, hospital. Emma finds a little girl on the floor and shouts for help. Peter arrives and she tells him that she can do the emergency procedure, but she needs his help. He helps and she saves the girl. Emma’s on her way back to being a doctor and I so don’t care.

College. Benet cuffs Samuel and starts to stuff him in the SUV when Becky, in invisible mode, appears and starts throwing the Benets around. Just as she’s about to really hurt Benet, Samuel nails her with the stun gun. Benet pulls his regular gun and trains it on the both of them, seemingly ready to shoot, but Claire screams no, dad, don’t! He lets the two Carnies go and Claire sort of glares at him.

Texas diner. Parkman explains how it (the Sylar/Nathan switch) happened and Sylar just gets crankier. He demands to know who else was involved and then answers his own question: Mama Petrelli and Benet. Answers gotten, Sylar tells Parkman that he’s going to find Nathan, get his body back and then kill everyone involved. However, when Sylar gets outside the diner, a bunch of cops show up because during the Q&A, Parkman made an unaware Sylar doodle on a napkin that he has a gun and is going to kill folks … and the waitress saw the napkin. The cops grow impatient. Realizing what Parkman intends, Sylar gasps that they’ll both die if he gets shot. And in a moment of self-sacrifice, Parkman makes his body reach into his coat as if for a gun and the cops fire repeatedly. Sylar collapses and once the body is down, Parkman’s consciousness fades from sight.

College. Benet takes Claire back to her dorm room and tries to encourage her, support her in her quest for a normal life. She’s pretty discouraged, however, seeing Gretchen’s empty half of the room. You’re better off without her, Claire – soooo annoying.

NYC hospital. Oh ferchrissakes: Emma is playing the frakking piano again. She’s frigging pointless. Peter finds her: she’s got a photo of her dead nephew with her who drowned while she was supposed to be babysitting. It was during her second year of med school and was why she dropped out. Peter really needs to go back to the shorter, no-bangs hairstyle of last season. They bond and then play a duet. Bleck.

Texas. Parkman is dying in the ambulance. College: Claire is sad in her half-empty dorm room. NYC: Emma pulls her lab coat out of the closet. Carnival: Samuel apologizes to Becky for shocking her and she apologizes for getting carried away with the Benets. Then he chuckles affectionately and says that she’ll get her revenge on them if she’s patient. Then Lydia comes up and tells Samuel that Sylar is gone. He is Not Happy about that. Washington, DC: Benet works on his wall of suspects. NYC: Peter takes down his wall of clippings and is interrupted by Nathan (formerly Carnival Sylar) who gives him a big hug and says he thinks he’s in trouble.

What’s that loud sucking noise coming from next week’s episode? Mohinder returns! (I thought Samuel said he killed him? Damn.)

Previously on Heroes / next time on Heroes

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