Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: C+ | 255 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 6 | Aired on 2009.10.19
Previously: Emma created some sort of earthquakey, laser power that cut through her wall, thanks to her rainbow of sounds. Peter picked up her ability, but she didn't know what he was talking about. Hiro planned to undo the wrongs he's caused. He told Kimiko he was dying and then disappeared, arriving an episode later in Peter's apartment. Mama Petrelli wants HRG to be the man with the plan, but he's depressed at how he's never done anything good in his life. Sylar didn't know who he was, and the cops figured out he's a murderer. He got away, and ran straight into the arms of Samuel the carnie leader.
We open with narration from Samuel -- the new Mohinder -- as Sylar takes off his shirt to look at his wounds in a mirror. Samuel wonders what a man is without memory: a ghost? A body in search of a soul? Cut to Nathan's office, with a mini Empire State Building figurine, a ticking clock, and a picture of Nathan and Peter on the desk. Is this our way of saying goodbye to Nathan for good? Samuel continues wondering -- "With no compass to guide us, how can we know if our destiny is to obey the good? Or obey the demons that whisper in our ear?" -- as we first see Peter sitting next to an unconscious Hiro in the hospital and then Emma looking fearfully at the giant crevasse she left in her wall. I imagine she's thinking, "Now I'll never get my deposit back!" Samuel goes on about how a blank slate hungers to be written upon as we move on to HRG on a computer. He finishes with, "The body thrives, when the heart has a mission," as we pan up Hiro's hospital blanket and across the words "Chapter Five: Tabula Rasa." Not exactly the most original episode title (see Buffy, Lost, and various others.
Hiro wakes up and Peter wonders how he's feeling. Hiro doesn't answer, so Peter reminds him that he collapsed and asks if he remembers. Hiro doesn't exactly say yes, but he surmises that Peter must have brought him to the hospital. Or, you know, called an ambulance. After all, I don't think he's carrying anyone anywhere with that lame seeing-sounds power he's been dragging around. Although, I guess he could have borrowed Hiro's power and teleported them both to the hospital. Peter tells Hiro that the doctors told him Hiro's very sick. And it's so appropriate for the doctors to tell Peter this, right? Hiro says he knows he has a brain tumor and is dying, but he didn't want to admit it would happen so soon. Peter thinks that perhaps Hiro was brought to him so that Peter could help Hiro through this time since he's helped a lot of people at the end of their lives (back when he was a hospice nurse). Hiro says maybe, but maybe not, since destiny's mostly been sending him to places where he needs to undo wrongs. Now, first off, why would Peter act like destiny brought Hiro here instead of him coming on his own? Peter wouldn't know that Hiro's lost control of his power, would he? So shouldn't he have assumed that Hiro came here on his own? Anyway, Hiro thinks maybe destiny brought him here to fix a problem in Peter's life. Peter says his life is perfect (except for the emptiness inside, the Sylar brother, the evil mother, the fact that he can no longer be the all-powerful hero he once was, and his unrequited crush on Emma), so it can't be that. He offers that maybe Hiro came here so Peter could fix him, since there are ways to heal sick people -- just not with doctors. Peter borrows Hiro's power (so he didn't have it before!) and takes off to get help. Before he leaves, though, he bumps into Emma. She wonders if he sent a cello to her apartment (he didn't), and then says there's something wrong with her ability. He brushes her off and says to talk to Hiro, who knows more about powers than anyone he can think of. To prove this, Hiro's reading a superhero comic book in his bed. I guess he carries that with him in case of sudden teleportation.