Alan K. Henderson's Weblog

(Episode: Shadowboxing. Spoilers ahead.)

Peter learns that his healing power exhausts himself seriously when he uses it. He uses it to reduce the seriousness of injuries as he brings casualties from a train collision to the hospital.

Emma uses her professional training to stitch up a patient and, later with Peter present, to treat a girl afflicted with pneumothorax. Peter learns that she was in med school, and dropped out after her young nephew drowned while she was babysitting him. Emma seems to be considering going back to school.

The Sylar consciousness is determined to get to New York to find Peter, the last person he remembers (the two were fighting) before finding himself in Matt's body. Matt manages to slow him down - he can use his ability against Sylar as Sylar had done to him. He arranges for his service revolver to get packed, which gets detected at LA International Airport baggage screening.

Sylar gets out of the mess, lands Parkman's name on the no-fly list, and rents a car to drive cross country. The tire goes flat, a man comes to assist, and Sylar decided to kill him, to demonstrate that he can take the world hostage to get Matt to spill the beans on what happened to his body.

In Midland he stops at the Burnt Toast diner, scene of Hiro's last history-changing mission. Sylar insinuates to Matt that he'll kill the diner owner if Matt doesn't talk. Matt relents. Sylar says he'll kill everyone involved (meaning Matt, Angela, and Bennett) when he gets his body back.

(I thought more people knew about it, including Peter. Is my memory playing tricks, or is Matt lying about the number of people who knew?)

Matt gets Sylar to scribble a death threat on a napkin. Cop cars swarm the place and all draw on Sylar as he leaves. Matt plans to kill himself and the Sylar consciousness. Matt makes Sylar make a sudden move as if he's drawing a gun, and cops shoot. He's not dead, though - he's being taken away by ambulance.

Meanwhile, Claire manages to convince the two sorority pledges that they didn't really see her get impaled, that the water bottles they were supplied with were drugged. Gretchen fears for her life and decided to drop out of college.

Noah Bennett and the Haitian (who we now know is named Rene) come to assist. Bennett searches Becky's room at the sorority and finds one of those freaky compasses - and Becky. At the same time Claire is being visited by Samuel. We learn that Bennett had visited her father's house when she was five, out to "bag and tag" her father, who had some sort of energy-blast type of power. Bennett shot the man dead in self defense; young Becky's invisibility manifested itself as she tried to hide from Bennett. Becky is out for revenge against Noah.

Bennett is forced to leave when girls enter Becky's room. He finds Claire with Samuel, they talk, Bennett cuffs Samuel to take him away. Becky shows up invisibly to thwart the sbduction. In the fight Bennett is about to shoot (at Samuel or at Becky?), but Claire tells him to stop. He puts the gun away, and the two leave for the carnival.

Back at the carnival, Samuel promises his continued support to help Becky get her revenge. (We've seen his own taste for that sort of thing.) Lydia pulls him aside to tell him about a new problem: Sylar is gone. At the beginning of the episode Sylar woke up with Nathan's body and memories, and flew away before anyone at the carnival could spot him. At the end of the episode he visits Peter, and says he thinks he's in trouble.

Does "Nathan" remember any of the events while he resumed Sylar's form? Will the Sylar mind escape police custody? Will college dropout Gretchen notice when the Burnt Toast Diner makes the news again? Stay tuned.

Labels: Heroes, Television