Monday, September 28, 2009

Heroes episode recap – “Ink ” S4E2 (airdate 09/28/09)

We open with the three storylines we’ll be following this evening: Claire seems to be avoiding Stalker Gretchen, Parkman is still seeing Sylar everywhere, Peter is still saving people. And at the Sullivan Bros. Carnival, Samuel tells Lydia that he thinks he’s found someone to replace Joseph (is Joseph whom they buried in E1?) and he sucks some magical tattoo ink up into his fingertips, seeing how that’s supposed to help him tell if his chosen one will/should join them. Lydia asks him if he’s going to go “home” when he’s out there, but Samuel says no, he doesn’t ever want to go back.

NYC. Peter has gotten served with a subpoena, ostensibly for having hurt someone when he saved them. Elsewhere some woman we’ve never seen before wakes up to a truly annoying alarm: it shakes her bed, and flashes lights at her and makes a noise like a rumbling motorcycle engine. She gets distracted by a sparkle coming out of her faucet and then … nothing as we cut to Parkman on a stakeout. Whatever. I’m supposed to care about this woman why?

Parkman is on edge because he used his mind-mojo last episode (on the water boy), and is soooo not in the mood when Sylar pops up again in the backseat. Blah blah, gonna keep Sylar stuffed in the prison of Parkman’s mind as long as he has to. Parkman’s partner reports that they’ve got their search warrant and they bust into the house they were watching, guns drawn. While they’re searching the house, Sylar keeps appearing to Parkman, distracting and disorienting him. Also, he saves Parkman’s life by telling him that the drug dealer he’s looking for is in the closet (that Parkman wasn’t going to search) with a gun. After Parkman’s got his perp in custody, Sylar arches an eyebrow at him and smirks, “You’re welcome!”

College. Benet stops by to see his little girl – apparently he has fully recovered from the slice and dice Edgar Sullivan gave him at the end of last episode. He and Claire catch up: missing their family, the roommate’s suicide, you know, the usual. He invites her to lunch and when she runs off to wash up, Gretchen corners her in the bathroom, demanding answers to questions like, “What are you: a vampire, an alien, a freakish government experiment?” She follows Claire back to her room and Benet, ever charming, invites her to lunch as well, overriding Claire’s protests.

L.A. The drug dealer watches grumpily as Parkman and partner toss the house, looking for the stash of drugs. Sylar lounges on the couch and points out that Parkman could cut to the chase and just suck the information out of the drug dealer’s head. But Parkman refuses, so Sylar leads him around by the nose to what he needs to find: a pink stuffed bunny in the bathroom. Sylar says, ominously, this house isn’t used for drugs; it’s used for something much worse. So child abuse/porn is going to be what it takes for Parkman to use his mind-powers again?

NYC. Peter asks for a file in a hospital records room – here’s that woman with the awful alarm from earlier. She’s deaf, hence the bed-shaking alarm, and she keeps earphones on so people think she’s just not listening. She knocks her mug of tea off her desk when handing Peter the file, but when the mug shatters on the floor, there’s a flash of colored light. She seems bemused by this.

Peter has grabbed the file and run off to the physical therapy room, looking for one “William Hooper,” who is the person who is suing him. When he enters the room, “William Hooper” is none other than our Samuel Sullivan. After the commercial, Peter points out that he’s never seen this guy before, so Samuel tells his story, some of which is true: his brother Joseph died, Samuel has all these responsibilities now and he can’t meet them because of Peter. Peter insists that he doesn’t know Samuel and leaves.

Emma, the deaf records clerk, is getting her eyes checked. The doctor confirms (via sign language) that there is nothing wrong with her eyes; maybe it’s synaesthesia (sp?) – crossing of senses. Like Emma is seeing sounds as colors. Frustrated, Emma goes back to the records room, but not before her doctor asks her why she’s a file clerk instead of being a doctor. Emma retorts that she doesn’t like the expressions people make when they realize she’s deaf, which is fair enough.

College. Benet has taken the girls out for Indian and they are total heathens, worried that they won’t like it. I would LOVE to have some Indian food right now – we’ve had pizza for the last two nights because all our dishes are packed and anything other than cheese and grease on bread sounds great. Gretchen thinks she’s being tricky and brings up “this girl” that she “saw on YouTube” who couldn’t feel pain. Benet, of course, is not a dummy. When Gretchen asks him what he does, he says he’s retired, but “is always finding new reasons to go back to work.” And then he shoots Claire the stink eye. Dude, it’s totally not her fault this time. Well, sort of not her fault – it’s not like she really had to throw herself out that window.

L.A. When the partner goes to check out the garage, the drug dealer watches as Parkman and Sylar have this conversation, complete with shouting at each other. This wigs him out a little. Then Parkman finds a ransom note: a little girl has been kidnapped. You know, I love that Greg Grunberg is getting screen time but this is BORING.

College lunch. When Gretchen excuses herself to go to the bathroom, Benet tells Claire that he’s got to call the Haitian and clean up this mess. Surprisingly, Claire defends Gretchen instead of ‘fessing up that she’s a STALKER, and insists that she’ll take care of it herself. Gretchen is just the most annoying thing ever.

L.A. Parkman gets up in the drug dealer’s face, demanding to know where the kidnapped girl is. Sylar points out that using Parkman’s power will save time, which is important if a little girl’s life is at stake. Parkman succumbs and pulls the information out of the drug dealer’s brain: she’s stashed under the stairs. (Wasn’t that where Molly was in S1 when Parkman rescued her after hearing her panicky thoughts?) What happens next is excellent. Parkman tears open the door under the stairs and finds the girl. She’s dead. He runs back to the drug dealer and starts beating the shit out of him until his partner comes in and pulls him off. Parkman explains about the dead girl and so the partner goes to see for himself. But there’s no girl, and no body, only Sylar f’ing with Parkman’s mind. There wasn’t even a ransom note – Sylar made it ALL up. Parkman has tears in his eyes as Sylar grins, having used his own power against him.

NYC. Peter’s EMT partner tells him that some people are saying that Peter is causing the accidents himself just to get the glory of rescuing people. Peter is completely offended at this. In the meantime, Samuel has let himself into Peter’s apartment where he touches a newspaper clipping. The magic tattoo ink flows into it, adding Samuel to the photo. Peter rushes home and checks the photo. He is chagrined and surprised to see Samuel there.

College. Gretchen apologizes for being pushy and then shares one of her own secrets (bulimia, if you care) with Claire. Claire says that she would like to be truthful with her – it’s difficult and dangerous for her – but she’s willing to take that risk. Ask me anything, she says. Oh, Claire. There are plenty of people who know your secret. You are such a stupid, naïve girl.

Peter zooms up to Samuel who is strolling in a park. He apologizes to Samuel and asks what he can do to make it right. You know, it looks like Peter is growing his bangs out again – I really wish he’d go back to the shorter, more butch style of last season. I’m bored again as Samuel works the dead brother angle, and Peter talks about working hospice. Samuel asks why he became an EMT and Peter replies that he decided he wanted to save lives, not watch them pass. Samuel shakes his hand, thereby transferring some of that magic tattoo ink, and takes his leave.

As Samuel walks away, he passes deaf Emma who is disconcerted to see flares of light coming off a street musician’s cello. When the musician goes to get a drink, Emma picks up the cello and draws the bow across the strings, making her own music/light. The returning musician sees her, but lets her play. Soon a crowd has gathered, including Peter. When Emma realizes she has an audience, she stops. Everyone applauds but she runs away and Peter watches her go. If the music playing on the show was supposed to be what Emma was playing, it was beautiful.

Samuel finds himself in front of a mansion. He rings the doorbell, interrupting a cocktail party. His parents were servants at this house and he’d like to take a look at the carriage house where he used to live. The owner says no, this isn’t a good time, and closes the door on him.

College. Ugh. Claire is telling Gretchen everything and, at Gretchen’s request, provides a demonstration: she cuts her hand open and Gretchen watches as it heals then and there. They are interrupted by a phone call from Benet and Claire gives her dad a prepared speech about taking care of herself now. He, in turn, apologizes for being so harsh with her at the restaurant. He says that he’s here for her if she needs him, but he admits that she can take care of this herself. When he hangs up, it doesn’t look like he meant it. Double-ugh: Claire asks Gretchen if she wants to move in, be her roommate. I sense that foretold bi-curious event coming soon.

L.A. The partner lays it out for Parkman: you screwed up big time. Parkman’s like yup, pretty much ruined my life by pounding on this lowlife for no good reason at all. Then he touches his partner and rearranges his memories so that the partner thinks that Parkman beat up the drug dealer in defense of the partner’s life. Okay, says a smug Sylar, I’m proud of you – now let’s go find my body.

NYC. Peter and his partner make their way to an accident scene. It seems Samuel opened up a sinkhole to suck down the mansion that he wasn’t allowed to tour. Suddenly Peter gasps and clutches at his arm: there’s a tattoo of a compass there, and the needle is spinning. Samuel watches sternly and unseen from the shadows.

I thought this was a rather blah episode except for one thing: STILL NO MOHINDER! Yay!!

Previously on Heroes / next time on Heroes

PS - "next time on Heroes" will be late as I don't expect to have internet access set up in my new apartment by next Monday. (Actually, I don't expect to have my new apartment by next Monday either.) I do promise to watch E3, either on t.v. or online, and I will have the recap up, but not quite so timely. Please be patient and please keep checking back!

No comments:

Post a Comment