Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: C+ | 300 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Back to Season One
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2009.11.02
Burnt Toast Diner in the past again. Hiro hides behind a newspaper and watches Charlie go to Sylar's table. Charlie pours Sylar coffee and comments on his watch, then tells him that her brain's been remembering a lot of stuff lately. She's her very own Wikipedia. Sylar looks interested, and starts quizzing her about who won the Nobel Peace Prize in various years. Then he asks about the most common cause of death, and the best thing on the menu. She answers everything sweetly, until he asks if she thinks the photographic memory is because of the blood clot in her brain. She wonders how he knows, and he says he also has a gift: seeing things, and fixing them if they're broken. He says one look at her and he can see, then makes an explosion sound at her. When did Sylar become a parody of himself? Charlie's clearly rattled as she walks back by Hiro, who's hiding behind the paper again. Samuel appears and tells him it's a smart move to hide like that. But I don't get it, because Charlie hasn't met him yet, has she? Hiro remembers him from the carnival, and calls him "butterfly man." Samuel says they need to talk and leads him out, right past HRG, who's on the phone bickering with Sandra about missing homecoming.
As HRG wraps up his phone call by saying he'll pick up Greenies for Muggles, three-years-ago Hiro and Ando walk in and sit down at a booth. Then Elisabeth Rohm comes in, rubs HRG on the shoulder and says she's sorry she's late. She says traffic was actually a bitch; "homecoming hooray!" I don't even understand what that means. Elisabeth, whose name here is Lauren, tells HRG she can tell he's been talking to Sandra and arguing because he has some line on his face that's tell-tale. He snaps that he wishes he could tell Sandra the truth of why he's going to miss homecoming: that he's trying to catch a deranged killer with superpowers and trying to save Claire. Lauren agrees that the lying sucks. I know I said in the recap that Lauren and HRG were partners, but I think they're just co-workers who meet for coffee or whatever at the Burnt Toast Diner, and not partners at all. I still don't get why this storyline happened when we could have had something actually interesting happen instead that might help fill in something in the past and/or the present instead of this filler in what's otherwise a good episode. But I can't ask for too much good in one episode. That would require yet another remake of this show. Lauren says she uses PMS as an excuse, but HRG doesn't think that would work for him. He tells her how nice it is to have a friend he can talk to and be open with. She wonders if that's what that is, since she'd call it flirting. He says it's not, but she says they've been doing this twice a week, and the pancakes aren't that good. He agrees they're not. She tells him she booked a motel room and gives him the key. They look at each other and then he gets a phone call. It's Eden with the Sylar paintings. Lauren says she'll meet him at the office. He walks past Charlie, Hiro, Ando, and Sylar on his way out.