Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Circle of Life
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.05.2009
Nathan pulls into a parking garage at night and looks at his phone. He calls the homicide division, but is put on hold. Then he hangs up, and gets out of the car, when a guy jabs him in the neck with a syringe full of something that knocks him out immediately. We get this week's edition of the Heroes short stories commercial about the carnies, which consists of Samuel talking to Edgar about how he and Lydia are free to make their own mistakes, then Lydia using a cell phone to call her daughter. I think it's actually a segue into the Sprint commercial that follows, but whatever. I don't know if it's better or worse than product placement, except that I can skip it like a regular commercial, so I guess I'll vote "better."
Carnival. Lydia finds Edgar playing with his knives and asks him what's the matter. He ignores her, so she wonders if he's thinking about the new people Samuel's bringing into the family. Edgar wonders if Samuel would be bringing them in if Joseph were alive, and Lydia doesn't know, but she says Joseph was his brother and he has a right to his revenge. Edgar: "No matter what it means to the rest of us?" Samuel comes out from the rock he's been hiding behind and says he'll tell them what it means: He's the one who's left to make all the decisions for this family. He's the one who decides which direction they travel. So, apparently, it's a traveling carnival? Lydia says they were just talking, is all. Then Samuel asks her to come with him, because it's time to find another. They walk off and Edgar throws one of his knives into a sign that says "Sullivan Bros. Carnival."
Samuel's mixing up a batch of his ink for Lydia. I have to admit that the only pop-culture reference I could think of for Lydia being the tattoo lady was Lydia from the most recent season of Big Brother. And I really hoped Heroes hadn't stooped to using that show as inspiration. Then I saw someone mention "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" in the forums, and I must say that a Groucho Marx reference is slightly higher-brow than Big Brother. Apparently I'm quite dumber than this show, even. How very sad for me. Anyway, as he mixes his ink, Samuel tells Lydia that she should know she can tell him anything. She says, "Of course." He says she can tell him if anyone says they're dissatisfied with him, or if she is. She says she's not, and he says that's good. He puts his pen on her back, and a picture of HRG appears. Samuel wonders what she's doing, why she's showing him to her. She says she shows him what he needs to see, and he wonders why he'd need to see Bennett, since he retired and is no longer interested in them. Wait, how does Samuel know about Bennett, when we've never heard anything about the weird carnies before now? Lydia says Bennett may have changed his mind. Samuel looks thoughtful, and then we flash to Bennett, who's making a wall of photos and articles referencing the carnies. He looks like he's out to get someone, so the carnies had better watch out.