Monday, January 11, 2010

Heroes episode recap – “Close to You” S4E14 (airdate 01/11/10)

You know, I've pretty much given up on Television Without Pity because they've lost a LOT of their snark ever since Bravo bought them.  (Except for Couch Baron - I think he's still a great recapper.)  So I've switched to the A.V. Club for my own recapping/show beat-down fixes - check 'em out if you haven't yet.


Kate (Lauren – whatever) and Benet are continuing to try to track down Samuel via Benet’s computer for, oh, about six hours now. Kate suggests that they give Claire a call, seeing how she’s got a compass – Benet’s compass – and that might save them some time. Benet snaps that he’s not calling Claire: she needs space. So Kate immediately gets a “hit” on one Vanessa Wheeler, the girl whose family owned the estate that Samuel grew up on. When Benet calls, Vanessa doesn’t want to talk to him so he decides he must go to California to confront her. By the way, Vanessa is Ellen Tigh from BSG. The final Cylon - yay! Maybe she can save this show! But probably not.

Carnival. Samuel is obsessively drawing pictures of Vanessa as she’s the girl who got away. Lydia notices the drawings and says that Vanessa is beautiful. Samuel says that Lydia will meet her soon – it’s about time that he brought her here. Troubled by Samuel’s monomania, Lydia wonders if she can reach out to the one man who could save their Carnival family, the one man who even Samuel says could be the next Joseph. She closes her eyes and concentrates.

Far away in NYC, Peter gasps himself awake and clutches his arm: his compass tattoo is spinning.  Since when does Lydia have that power?  Now the writers are just getting desperate.

L.A., I guess. Parkman pours his newly-haircutted wife a cup of coffee. He’s being Stay At Home Dad these days, instead of chasing super villains, and is making ratatouille for dinner. Wife, not sure that her former policeman husband is living up to his full potential, mentions that her brother might have a job for him. Parkman says he’s not interested and shoos her out, telling her to go make some money. As he closes the door behind her, Benet is there, snarking about the inefficacy of Parkman’s security system. He is there looking for Parkman’s help to track down Samuel: “He’s trying to recruit my daughter! Today it’s Claire, tomorrow it could be your son.”

Florida. Ando and Hiro’s plan is to get Hiro committed to the asylum where Hiro stashed Mohinder. As the orderly leads Hiro off to his room, Ando zaps the door’s control panel with his red electricity and sneaks down the hall, looking in the window of the room Hiro had pointed out. Mohinder is slumped inside, bound up in a straitjacket. No - leave him there!

L.A. Benet has found Vanessa after her rehearsal with the L.A. Symphony Orchestra (she’s a cello player, of course). She is not happy to see him and refuses to talk so Parkman pushes the thought into her head that they’re trustworthy fellows. So poor Vanessa literally turns on her heel and says why, yes, she is worried about Samuel and would very much like to talk to them about him.

NYC. Peter leaves a message on Benet’s voicemail about his compass tattoo freaking out which is thus is freaking him out in turn. Then he hears supernatural cello music and is drawn straight to her apartment. She throws open the door, thrilled that her calling him that way worked so well. Peter looks closely at her cello, noticing the compass on its back. He shows her the matching compass tattoo still spinning on his arm: “I woke up this morning with this.” But didn’t that tattoo show up a while ago? I’m confused but really don’t care that much. It’s so exciting now that Peter gets to be the messiah again – just Lydia’s Carnival Messiah, really, but still, it’s a messiah.

L.A. Vanessa tells Benet and Parkman that she and Samuel were close as children, but when Samuel’s family moved away, she moved on. When Samuel showed up again during her college years, they had a short “rock and roll” romance. Now he has been showing up more and more often, however, obsessive-like, just short of stalking. Benet asks Vanessa if she would mind giving her old boyfriend a call and she takes the phone.

NYC. Back now at Peter’s apartment, for some reason, Emma shows Peter the compass that Samuel gave her and he worries that the last time he saw a compass like that (unlike the one on his arm?), a friend (Benet) got stabbed. They are interrupted when Angela lets herself in, trilling about lunch. Ah – that’s why they had to go to Peter’s apartment – so there’d be a reason for Peter’s mother to walk in. Angela sees Emma and glares at her fiercely: “Peter, how do you know this woman?” Peter stammers that Emma is his friend but Emma notices the awkward and hurriedly lets herself out. Peter’s like: WTF, Mom? And Angela now glares at him.

Florida. Ando switches Mohinder’s meds for aspirin and then has to swallow Mohinder’s meds in order to get away with the bait and switch. Whatever.  I still don't know what they need Mohinder for.

L.A. Parkman and Benet stake out Vanessa’s place but when Samuel shows up, he’s brought Multiple Eli with him to distract the boys long enough for him to stash Vanessa somewhere else. When Benet catches up to him (after efficiently tasing the Elis), Samuel warns him to stay away from his woman and then uses his earth-moving power to rip up a huge rift in the pavement, bringing noxious dirt and gases out of the ground. Benet coughs and wipes his eyes - Samuel has gotten away. After the commercial, Parkman picks Benet up and they follow Vanessa via tracking device they planted on her.

NYC. Angela tells Peter that he can’t save Emma: she had a vision dream that Emma was going to help kill thousands of people – something to do with her cello – but Peter was unable to save her. Frustrated, he grabs his mom’s hand and steals her power, insisting that he has to know what she saw. She shakes her head and leaves.

Florida. Hiro peeks through the window on Mohinder’s cell and encourages him to flex his super-strength. He does so, now that the meds are out of his system, snapping the straps of the straitjacket and then busting down the door. He is slightly concerned that Hiro can only speak in sci-fi geek-talk, and is slightly more concerned to find Ando is doped to the gills on meds he swallowed and giggling on the floor. The three goobers make a break for it. Ugh.

Outside L.A. Benet and Parkman have tracked Vanessa to a vacant lot but she’s gone, vanished into the Carnival that used to just be there. Parkman wants to borrow Claire’s compass but Benet refuses. Parkman accuses him of burning bridges but Benet is adamant: as much as he wants to find the Carnival, he will do it without bothering his daughter.

Back at Parkman’s house, Benet is furious when Parkman wants to start making his damn ratatouille instead of helping find the kidnapped Vanessa. Parkman points out that some days you can’t save the whole world – some days you can only put your own house in order - and tells Benet to go home. About six different expressions cascade over Benet’s face (I heart Jack Coleman!) and he leaves.

NYC. Peter is having one of Angela’s visions/nightmares: Emma plays her evil cello in the House of Mirrors while people scream. Then Sylar is there, promising Emma that he is there to save her. Peter wakes up with a gasp. Shortly thereafter, he barges into Emma’s apartment and smashes her cello. Emma: WTF?!!! Peter insists that Samuel is going to try to make her do something bad with the cello but she won’t listen to any of it and throws him out of her apartment, falling to her knees beside her ruined instrument.

Florida. The three run through a swamp, men with dogs chasing them. When Mohinder gets snippy about Hiro’s confused geek-speak, Ando sticks up for his friend, telling the Indian that Hiro, who is dying, spent some of his last few days to rescue Mohinder. Then Mohinder has the brainstorm that perhaps Ando could electroshock Hiro with his red electricity and unscramble his brains. Ando does so and Hiro immediately unscrambles, happily teleporting all three of them out of there just ahead of the baying dogs. Well, that was awfully easy. Too bad they needed stupid Mohinder to figure it out.

Arlington. Benet knocks on Claire’s dorm room door. (The people on this show sure do move back and forth across the country awfully easily – even those who can’t teleport.) He says that he knows that she’s mad at him and he’s going to just let her continue to be mad without trying to talk her out of it, but he wants to make sure he hasn’t irreparably damaged his relationship with her. Awwww. Claire’s like um, okay, but can we talk later because I’m late for something. Benet backs away and lets her go. He has sad face.

L.A. Parkman is not listening to his stupid cheating wife prattle on about her stupid day since he is mired down in thinking that he is a coward. She tells him that he is needed here, in this family. She tells him there is nothing “cuyowedly” about being with his family and hugs him. Parkman looks unimpressed. Seriously: that was the most f’ed up way to say “cowardly” I’ve ever heard. Is American English not her first language?

Carnival. Vanessa is Mightily Upset about having been kidnapped. Samuel insists that he’s protecting her, keeping her safe from Benet but being held here against her will is not softening her up to his point of view. When she stands up he grabs her, telling her that he has something magical and beautiful to show her and if she’s still unhappy after seeing it, he’ll take her right back home. (I am very unused to seeing Ellen Tigh afraid of things.)

Washington, D.C. Benet is having a lonely beer (aw) when someone knocks on his door. It’s Kate. Is the actress pregnant? There’s one long shot when she turns and it looks like she’s got a big ol’ belly. They smooch – eeuuw – but luckily it’s interrupted when the Three Doofuses teleport into Benet’s apartment, still wearing their Florida asylum garb. “Hi, fellas!” smiles Benet, and he’s not even too upset to see them.

Previously on Heroes / next time on Heroes

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