Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Sleep To Dream
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 21 | Aired on 03.30.2009
...so I guess it's no surprise when we cut to him in his car, waiting for the lighter to get hot so he can have a smoke. Del Shannon's "Runaway" is playing on the radio, and after Danko closes his eyes and continues to look ashen and not at all well, Sylar's voice pipes up from the back seat that he loves this song, and I have to confess I first couldn't decide whether to give last week's episode an A- or a full A, and the thing that put me over was that Sylar wasn't in it. After babbling for a bit, Sylar asks if Danko got his "gifts," and Danko takes a moment before evenly responding that Sylar shouldn't have. Sylar, however, talks about "an overture toward collaboration" and "pooling their resources" and the fact that Danko fascinates him, and I'm not sure why he didn't cut all these preliminaries and just wait for Danko under the steering wheel instead of in the back seat. Sylar mentions the bloodbath that occurred inside and opines that Danko's in way over his head with the new guy, and that seems like kind of a cruel expression to use where Zeljko Ivanek is concerned. Sylar, coming closer than most heterosexual serial killers would, offers to find the guy that killed the agents, but instead of taking him up on it, Danko goes for his gun -- but when he trains it on the back seat, Sylar's gone, and I'd complain about him getting out of the car in half a second without any sound, except I know better than to question any development that results in his disappearing. However, after Danko drives away, we see Sylar up on a rooftop in the storm as the bit about "I'm a-walkin' in the rain" plays, and Mr. Shannon's estate may be getting some fat licensing fees but I think the man himself is spinning in his grave. Title card.
Back at Building 26, Danko's yelling at his staff to find the guy that killed their men, but after he blusters and swaggers as best he can, he privately tells Bennet that they need a win. Bennet pushes the hoary "one of us, one of them" idea, which is really ill-advised for reasons that should be coming clear already, and adds that it's a similar strategy to the one Danko himself used when he was running several counter-insurgency operations. Danko's all "Well, I never!" in the face of Bennet's mention of his checkered past, but Bennet merely laughs and says that if Danko were aware of the references he's making, he'd appreciate the value of co-opting the native population. "A little focused manipulation goes a long way." Danko straight-up asks how Bennet could trust any Hero, but Bennet tells him trust doesn't enter into it -- they're merely tools to be used, and the key is to do whatever it takes to motivate them. Bennet then so happens to mention he has reason to believe that Sylar is in D.C., and catching him could be the win they both need. Danko, however, says he's got another assignment for Bennet, and once he's handed him a folder, we see Danko's sending him after Angela. I'd count that as a blessing, you won't be surprised to hear.