Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: B- | 297 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Taste the Rainbow...
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 5 | Aired on 2009.10.12
At the hospital, Dr. Ratched finds Emma and wonders if she's still "seeing things." Emma walks off and Dr. Ratched follows. She wants to tell Emma it might not be synesthesia after all. Her new theory is conversion disorder, which used to be called "hysterical blindness." So, hey, the episode title makes sense! If only this storyline did. Emma's like, "You think I'm going crazy," and Dr. Ratched doesn't deny it, saying this whole filing girl thing is finally getting to her. Emma wonders if Dr. Ratched acts like this with all her patients, and Dr. Ratched says, "Only the ones who happen to be my daughter." I wish I could be bothered to care about this at all, but since we didn't know either of these characters until two episodes ago, and only one of them has a "power," and it's not really a power, I can't.
Peter's apartment of darkness and gloom. He's pouring coffee and telling his mother that focusing so much on work is really getting to him. He says he's been told by more than one person that he's closed himself off from human connection. Then he gives Angela the coffee, and she's spacing out to the point that she doesn't even see the cup of coffee he's giving her. He says this is his attempt at connecting with his family, at least her, since she bothered to show up. She wonders if he called Nathan, and he did. He tries to keep talking about himself, but she wonders if he actually talked to Nathan or left a message with his "black hole" of an assistant. Peter asks if they can possibly focus on him for one second.
So that we can see the parallels between Peter and Emma, we cut back to her, and she asks her mother if she even knows what Emma does. Dr. Ratched does: Emma hides in the filing room, filing things, wasting her brilliant mind. Emma says that's demeaning to filing clerks, and that Dr. Ratched shouldn't be surprised if the files disappear when she needs them most. Back to Peter, who's saying that he thought being a paramedic would fill the hole inside him, but he... stops talking because he realizes his mom's not listening. He's like, "Mom?" And she says, "Yes, you're right. Nathan will be fine. Go on with what you were saying. Start over." He says he's not starting over. Back to Emma, whose mom's telling her that she talked to the chief, and he says she can restart her residency if she wants. Emma doesn't want to talk about it anymore. Dr. Ratched says it's been six years and is time for Emma to stop blaming herself for Christopher's death. Ooh, Christopher died?! Oh, wait, we don't know who he is. NOR DO WE CARE. Dr. Ratched tells her to stop grieving and take her life back. Emma actually speaks, and says she's not grieving, then goes back to signing as she says she's not hiding, not anything, and storms off. Peter's finishing breakfast with Angela, when he says he has to get to work. She's going to stay awhile, since Nathan might be running late. She tells Peter she hopes he knows he works too much, and he refrains from telling her that if she'd been listening at all, she'd know he realizes that. Instead, he kisses her sweetly and leaves. Angela needs to get over this whole Sylar-as-Nathan thing, tell Peter the truth, and focus on the one son she has left. I am not a fan of wimpy, whiny, brooding Mama Petrelli. She's almost as bad as gloomy HRG. Peter leaves at super-speed.