Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Heroes episode recap - “Acceptance” S4E3 (airdate 10/05/09)

Gosh, a Heroes recap with no DVR for the first time in ages… very, very difficult. Wish me luck. Also, E4, which aired last night, will be recapped as soon as I watch in online ... it's so nice to be reconnected to the interweb!

Washington D.C. Boy, the producers really like the water-to-Tracey special effect, don’t they? Tracey’s back in her old life again, with a walk in closet larger than my current apartment, sassy clothes, etc. Too bad all that money didn’t buy acting lessons. Bruce Boxleitner, Governor Whatsisname from some earlier season is back again and, upon seeing her at a swank D.C. eatery, thinks she looks fabulous and schmoozes on up to her. “I’m back,” says Tracey. Great say the rest of us.

Tokyo. In this new reality, Hiro and his sister Kimiko are very close and she and Ando are getting married. Hiro forgets the new timeline for a minute then remembers the cover story, agreeing to give Kimiko away at her upcoming wedding to Ando. Ando’s like, okay, but you may be dead by then what with all the nosebleeds and time-freezes. But Hiro won’t listen to him, too intent on righting all the “wrongs” he’s committed through his lifetime. Then the Dial-a-Hero phone line gets a call: someone is about to jump off the roof of Hiro’s skyscraper. Hiro goes up to rescue the guy and we’re not a couple minutes in and I am so BORED already. Blah blah blah, this accounting guy who works for Hiro’s family’s company is going to kill himself because he was fired for getting drunk at a New Year’s party and photocopying some private body part. Let me guess: Hiro is going to go back in time to the party and keep this guy from getting drunk. Yeah, that won’t screw anything up in the timeline.

I HATE THESE HIRO STORYLINES. And I don’t much care for Tracey either. Please, please, let something else happen other than these two or I won’t make it through the episode.

D.C. Angela finds “Nathan” in his senatorial office. She’s brought him a bunch of yard-sale vintage crap from his life growing up Petrelli, trying to get him to recall his Nathan history rather than the Sylar memories that are intruding. She knows that he’s got that power that enables him to absorb an object’s memories and thus, by handling all this stuff that belonged to Nathan, should push the Sylar memories to the back. In theory.

Governor Boxleitner catches up with Tracey. He looks better than he ever did as Scarecrow, by the way. He hires her back immediately to ease the way with some particularly tricky lobbyists, and smarms that he’s so happy to have the “Tiger Lady” back. She looks a little troubled at this.

Also troubled: Benet is perusing the divorce papers he’s been served. He’s thrilled to be interrupted by Peter who wants to show him the spinning compass tattoo on his forearm ... but the tattoo has disappeared. Benet is feeling cranky and scoffs a little, saying he’s not really up for any adventures looking for speedy guys with knives. Peter lets himself out and is just in time to hug niece Claire when she’s come to visit her dad.

Tokyo. Hiro flashes back to now, having gone back in time to rescue Tadashi the Suicidal Accountant. Ando, of course, is confused, knowing nothing of what just happened. Just then the phone rings again: it’s Tadashi, he’s going to jump off the roof. Hiro, bewildered, rushes up there to find out what happened: the photocopy didn’t happen at New Year’s Eve, but on another holiday. Tadashi jumps, Hiro freezes time and then looks like he’s going to flash back AGAIN to save this total schmuck, but then we cut to commercial and I totally don’t care.

NYC. Nathan has tracked Peter down at the hospital. He’s totally freaked - and possibly wearing a Member’s Only jacket. Oh, Nathan – I don’t care about the identity crisis but that’s just not cool. He demonstrates some new TK, and tells his little brother that new powers are emerging daily. Pluswhich there’s all these memories that are not his own. Nathan looks bad. Peter still needs a shorter haircut. Blah blah blah, Nathan touched an old baseball cap and got some sketchy memories about an ex-girlfriend who may have been murdered. He decides to investigate. Peter doesn’t really seem all that interested, having his own disappearing tattoo issues to work through.

D.C. Claire is worried that her formerly focused father is currently plan-less. Jack Coleman and Hayden Panettiere have some very nice father/daughter chemistry together, I must say. And this new haircut she’s sporting makes her look older and very pretty. However, their scene is fluffy and pointless and I’m not going to recap the dialogue: she thinks he needs a job.

Nathan visits the former girlfriend’s mother, who happens to be Swoosie Kurtz, Angela’s friend from the end of last season. Her face looks a little funny, like some possible plastic surgery gone slightly wrong. According to Swoosie, her daughter, Nathan’s ex-girlfriend, disappeared during a weekend when her parents were out of town, and then Swoosie had hired a P.I. who subsequently proved that Nathan was in the clear and the girl ran off – so why is he bringing all this old pain up now? To those of us in the audience, however, it’s fairly obvious that something went wrong, and Angela or some other Petrelli or Company operative, covered things up. So Nathan wanders around Swoosie’s house and touches a bench by the pool, and flashes back to the girlfriend, drunk, falling and smacking her head on the diving board. So she must have died, and Nathan’s family covered it all up, using the Haitian to wipe Nathan’s memories of it to boot, but we cut to commercial instead.

You know, so little actually happens during a Heroes episode that I hardly even miss my DVR. (That’s a total lie. I completely miss it because I have to sit through all these damn commercials … thus enabling me to write these little editorial notes to you instead. So yeah, I lied: I totally miss my DVR.)

After the commercial, Angela catches up with Nathan, berating him gently for stirring up bad memories for Swoosie Kurtz. Nathan tells his mother that he’s sure the girlfriend died, not disappeared, and he wants to know what happened. Angela, frustrated, says yes, she cleaned everything up because otherwise, accident or not, the girl’s death would have ruined Nathan’s life. She begs Nathan to let this go – she’s given up a lot for her son and he should be grateful.

Instead, Nathan goes back to Swoosie Kurtz and tells her that her daughter died, and he was there: it was an accident but it was his fault, and his family covered everything up. Swoosie – who has SO had plastic surgery since Pushing Daisies, which is SO too bad – kicks him out.

D.C. Claire continues to grill her dad, trying to get him to hone his interviewing skills. Benet, however, is sad and regretful, saying that he doesn’t actually remember having helped anyone throughout his lifetime. You have, says his daughter, me. He kisses her on the forehead. You know who I don’t miss in this episode (aside from stupid Mohinder): Gretchen. Bet she’ll be back in full force next time. Sigh.

Tokyo. Hiro has flashed back again in his attempt to save the accounting drone. Christ on a bicycle, Hiro, just let this bullshit go. Ando tries to get him to refocus, to address the fact that his power is killing him, but Hiro gets another call from stupid Tadashi and has to go back up to the roof again. Blah blah blah, this time he talks to the accounting drone rather than time-traveling and ends up saving his life by just listening to the guy. And when Hiro goes back inside, he tells Ando that he’s ready to tell his sister the truth about himself. However, in the middle of telling her the truth, he gets a horrible headache and then inadvertently teleports away. Kimiko gapes blankly at Ando who really has no response. I mean, what would you say?

D.C. Tracey stops into Benet’s local sushi hangout on her way to dinner with Governor Malden/Boxleitner. She tells him that she’s employed again, but he’s unclear on what she wants from him since she’s gotten her life back. She whines that something’s missing, like she needs to be helping people or something. Benet tells her that maybe she needs to remember who she was to figure out who she wants to be … advice that he maybe needs to take himself. She seems to hear him though and thanks him before leaving to meet the governor.

When she meets Malden, she says that she wants to make a real difference in people’s lives. Malden: let’s skip dinner and go upstairs and bone for a while, just like old times. Tracey: would you excuse me? She runs to the ladies’ restroom, crying, and almost transforms into her water form before she can rein herself in. Resolute, she struts back out to the restaurant and says goodbye to Malden, walking out on him. Apparently there’s a kindler, gentler (or at least less evil) Tracey in town.

In some desolate parking garage, Nathan starts to call the D.C. homicide division to ‘fess up about the teenage girlfriend, but then wusses out. He gets out of his car and is immediately stabbed in the neck with something sharp by some thug I don’t recognize. Ho-hum. BTW, when do we get to see those new carnival guys?

Ooh – after the commercial, here they are! Lydia (tattooed lady) finds Edgar, who is pensive about the new people Samuel is planning on bringing into the family. Apparently Edgar and Samuel are NOT brothers – my mistake. Samuel interrupts them, cranky, reasserting his authority and pretty much reminding Edgar that what he (Samuel) says goes. Edgar looks slightly displeased as Samuel takes Lydia away for more find-the-Hero tattoo magic. This time she shows him Benet in the magic tattoo on her back, which Samuel finds disconcerting, saying Benet isn’t interested in them any longer. Lydia: he may have changed his mind.

D.C. Benet is compiling a new file about compasses.

Swoosie and Angela meet for drinks/dinner and Swoosie tells her friend what Nathan said about her daughter. Angela apologizes for her son, saying that Nathan hasn’t been himself lately. Intercut throughout this scene is the thug dumping a seemingly dead Nathan into a grave in the middle of the woods and then shooting him a few times for good measure. Then the thug makes a phone call, saying that “the package has been delivered.” The phone call is to Swoosie. Nice. She’s still a badass without the eye-patch and with the bad plastic surgery.

Of course, once the thug drives away, Nathan – I mean SYLAR – busts out of the grave, clearly not dead. Surprise (not)!

Bonus: no Mohinder (still) and no Gretchen (but then the much hyped girl-on-girl smooch is totally shown on the previews for next week – so much for any suspense the producers hoped to build).

Previously on Heroes / next time on Heroes

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