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Season 4, Episodes 1 – “Orientation” & 2 – “Jump, Push, Fall”

Heroes is back and the opening montage made up for all the injustices of the past and made me think…maybe. All the old faces are here, regrettably, but there has been a new twist added which gives me a little hope!

Where to start? Ok, we open with a funeral taking place, lots of strange men and women about. They are circus folk who travel with their carnival from place to place, let by the mysterious Samuel Sullivan. They are burying his brother and throw a compass into the grave before Sam waves his hands and the ground closes atop of the casket.

Claire is now in college and her roommate is a total over achiever who has her life all mapped out in front of her. During an algebra pre-entry test Claire has a vision of being shot by the hunters from last season and leaves. At the first party of the semester Claire’s roommate challenges her to Guitar Hero (she says 3 but it is quite clearly 4 or higher). Claire wants to play with her new friend Gretchen who recognised her name from the massacre at her high school.

Later Claire returns to her room to find it empty but the window open, looking out, her roommate is splattered on the ground. Gretchen takes an interest in finding out if this was murder or not, the police say it was suicide due to the note found but Claire doesn’t remember there being a note. Gretchen says they do tests like push, fall or throw by making a dummy the same height and weight of the victim and throwing, pushing and dropping it from the same height to see where it lands and determine how the victim dies. Claire decides to try this herself but is spotted by Gretchen.

Nathan meets with his mother who spots that he is starting to remember who he really is. Angela asks Matt Parkman to erase Nathan/Sylars memory again but Matt say he doesn’t do that anymore. Nathan starts to get his powers by moving a coffee mug and sparking lightning between his hands.

Noah is worried he’s going to be next to die at the hands of Tracey Strauss and is right, he is almost drowned in his car but Danko saves him. They decide to team up but Noah confronts Tracey and wants to help her. She then goes to Danko who is killed by a mysterious Carny. She manages to scare him off and calls Noah for help. He finds a key buried under Danko’s skin.

Noah enlists Peter, who has been working as a paramedic again, to help him when he opens the security box the key fits. They bump into the Carny again who has great speed and this time it is Peter who frightens him off. Inside the box was a strange compass. Peter tells Noah he doesn’t want anything to do with it, he was just there to get the power.

Later Noah is attacked and loses the compass, Peter is the paramedic who saves him and Tracey comes to visit, she and Noah get close.

Hiro and Ando now run a “Dial A Hero” business and their first client is a little girl who loses her cat up on some scaffolding. When Hiro stops time to save Ando he again gets a nosebleed. He tells Ando he’s been to the doctors who tell him he is dying. Hiro accounts the day he knew he wanted to be a hero as the day he got his fortune read at a carnival. He then vanishes back in time to that day. He doesn’t want to interfere with the past again but the ring leader, Samuel Sullivan, convinces him that he should go on a path of rightousness. He pushes Hiro into his young sister who is then saved from being drenched in slushy. In the present Ando is in love with Hiro’s sister Kimmy but she hates him because that slushy fell on her. Now that’s changed and they are an item. Hiro goes back to the present and decides to right all the wrongs in his life.

Matt hasn’t used his powers in six weeks but is starting to lose his mind. Sylar keeps appearing to him and telling him to use his power and to bring him back. Matt keeps refusing and as such starts yelling to nothing in public. His superiors think he is losing it and he is part of a self help class where he covers his power by pretending it was a drug he used.

At home he is plagued by the water boy who Sylar convinces him is sleeping with his wife. Eventually Matt succumbs and gets into the waterboys head, telling him not to come by anymore.

So, what did I think? I was actually impressed with the Matt Parkman angle, for once! I’m intrigued how this may play out as an addiction that he can’t control and whilst it is an excuse to show Sylar off to the world, it’s working. I’m a little peeved that we’ve got the same old faces back, I guess there are too many fans out there of each camp, can you really kill off Peter, Claire or Hiro? No. So we’re going to be stuck with these storylines again, the same old stuff.

Still, much better than last season already so here’s hoping.