Heroes And The Return Of The Haitian

Few characters in the world of "Heroes" have inspired as much fascination and curiosity as the Haitian. At first a mute enemy, then an unexpected ally for Claire, he's a perfect example of what the show does best. Perpetually mysterious, each answer about the character provides another handful of questions. In other words, he's pretty spiffy.

This week's episode continues exploring the new mysteries set down in the season premiere, all the while keeping us guessing about what's been going on for the last four months. It also does a much better job of grabbing my attention. The question of who is killing the previous generation of specials gets much more pressing for Mrs. Petrelli, Suresh gets deeper undercover with the company, Peter gets a clue to his past and Claire is an angsty teen.

Maya
In their desperate bid to make it to America, Maya and her twin brother Alejandro turn to an old family friend, a woman named Nidia who promises to get them into Mexico. After a seer declares Maya to have the devil in her (but not in a dirty way), the other refugees take a pass on Nidia's underground railroad, and the trio is left to make the journey alone. Which is good for them, as it turns out, since Maya's power -- which apparently involves black wax dripping from her eyes -- activates on the journey and it's only Alejandro's intervention that prevents Nidia from an ugly death. Alejandro seems to have the "take away Maya's power and make it not kill people" power, which is irritatingly specific, but useful.

Hiro
Poor Hiro is still focused on turning Kensei into the hero of the history books, but it's going predictably unwell. When Kensei blows him off, Hiro makes off with the sodden samurai's armor and fights in his stead. The ruse works, though it would probably work better if he could stop referring to himself in the third person. The swordsmith's daughter is dutifully impressed by Hiro's heroics, and goes all weak in the knees when he professes love to her while wearing Kensei's mask. When Kensei realizes what a sweet deal he's got he agrees to continue actually doing the fighting, but as soon as he heads off to help the swordsmith's daughter rescue her father, he's shot down in the street by the very bandits that Hiro defeated earlier. It's all very Shakespearean, or would be, if Kensei didn't have healing powers a la Claire.

The Bennets
Claire has gone from "why can't I be normal" in season 1 to "why can't I show off how supersmart and superpowered I am" in season 2. Like any teenager, she just wants what she can't have. West is still working on figuring her out, of course, and pesters her after she speaks up in class, but she blows him off when she discovers that her product placement, I mean car, has been stolen. She confesses the stolen car to her dad, who is pretty reasonable about it considering she left the car unlocked. Unsatisfied with that, Claire picks a fight about her powers and runs off. Back at home and curious about her powers - too bad they don't make a "What's Happening To My Body" for superfreaks - Claire decides it would be a great idea to cut off a toe. Ew ew ew. Too bad West was watching her, eh? P.S. Does anyone else find it a little creepy that the romantic interest for Claire has the same superpower as her father? That's just a little too Freudian for me.

Suresh
Bob, aka King Solomon, sends Suresh off to Haiti to investigate what appears to be the third case of the virus that killed his sister and almost killed Molly. Suresh arrives on the scene to discover none other than the infamous Haitian, who's on death's door. The good news is, Suresh's blood cures the Haitian the same way it cured Molly; the bad news is, that means the virus is spreading. As soon as he's feeling better, the Haitian does a scrub-a-dub job on Suresh's memory, leaving him to be discovered in Haiti by Bob. Of course, yet again, a phone call to Bennet proves that all is not what it seems; the swiss cheese job on his memory and the escape of the Haitian was all according to plan. The Haitian beats feet out of Haiti and meets up with Bennet back in California.

Matt Parkman
Back in New York, Matt is using his shiny new detective badge to investigate Kaito Nakamura's murder. He interviews Ando, who points him in the direction of Angela Petrelli, but she's unsurprisingly uncooperative. In the interview room, Mrs. Petrelli catches wise to his tricks and lawyers up, asking them to call Nathan. When Parkman steps out to talk to Nathan, Mrs. Petrelli is attacked by some kind of... something, we don't see what it is. She survives the attack, and it shakes her up enough to move her to hand over the picture she received with the symbol painted over it.

Peter
In Ireland, Peter gets beaten up by the thugs who expected to find iPods in that shipping container. He claims to remember nothing, but the thugs don't seem to have enormous sympathy. More sympathetic is Caitlin, who comes in to clean up his wounds. She questions him, identifying herself as the sister of Ricky, the head thug, but seems reasonably confused when his wounds disappear. Peter is halfway out a window when some bigger, meaner thugs bust in on Caitlin, but being the good guy he is, he turns back and uses his getting-too-numerous-to-remember superpowers to rescue her. When Ricky returns he seems pretty unimpressed by Peter's heroics, telling Peter that he'll hand over Peter's wallet and personal possessions if, and only if, Peter helps him with another robbery.

Via meevee