Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT They Got Carnivale in Our Heroes
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.21.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Well, this show is back, and now with even more characters than ever. Not sure we truly cared about all the other ones, but whatever. The first new guy is a creepy carnival employee who goes by the name of... well, we don't actually learn his name, so let's call him T-Bag since he's played by Robert Knepper. T-Bag has a funeral for his brother, talks about the importance of family, fills in the grave with telekinesis and can do magical psychic tattooing on a coworker (it disappears after a few minutes), which causes him to send his knife guy after Danko to get something. Also, T-Bag's pals with an older ailing gentleman who possesses the ability to send people back in time. He's like Hiro, but without the ability to talk, which is just about my dream.
Speaking of Hiro, he and Ando have gone in to business together. They've started a Dial-a-Hero helpline and it is remarkably unpopular. Hiro's sister Kimiko, who seems to be the brains of the family, hates Ando and thinks this is a stupid idea. Still, Hiro and Ando run to the rescue of a little girl's cat, Mr. Muffin. They realize that neither of their powers are useful in scaling buildings, but Hiro is able to stop Ando from crash landing by freezing time. However, using his powers paralyzes Hiro (sadly only temporarily) and gives him nosebleeds. Apparently, he's dying. And the only way to stop it would be to go back to 14 years ago to see the fortuneteller who told him he'd do great things with his life and stop his younger self from fulfilling his destiny. But he's way to ethical for that. Also, magical tattoo lady gets a picture of Hiro on her back.
Also related to the carnival life is HRG, he's lonely and making toast, when he and Angela aren't conspiring to revive the company and put a stop to Tracy. Tracy, for her part, tries to trap HRG in a flooded car (which is similar to a story I saw on Eureka a few weeks back). Danko saves him and wants to partner with HRG to stop Tracy and all the heroes, but HRG isn't buying it. And that actually doesn't matter in any way, shape or form, because Danko gets sliced to bits by speedy sword guy. (Tracy also gets cut up, but turns into water to save herself.)
HRG's kid Claire has gone off to college and is living with a highly driven and competitive roommate. She tries to adapt to regular school, but fantasizes about life on the lam. She also meets a freak named Gretchen, who is also from Texas and remembers the story about the cheerleader getting her head chopped off and living. Then there's some random awkward Guitar Hero moments and the apparent suicide of Claire's roommate.
In Petrelli news, Angela has visions of Sylar every time Nathan talks. Nathan can't remember anything about his old life and is freaked the hell out. And Peter is back being an EMT, using his powers to jump to the rescue (my husband cleverly dubbed him "Peter Parkour") and has no desire to get back in with his family or the company... unless it helps him save more lives. - Angel Cohn
Read about the second half of the premiere, then discuss this episode in our forums. Plus, see whether we thought last season's finale was one of the Best or Worst Finales of 2009!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We pick up at the beginning of our latest volume, "Volume Five: Redemption," which was teased at the tail end of last season (you remember, I'm sure; it was a season so bad that even the few people crazy enough to still watch past season two gave up on the show -- including, apparently, Couch Baron). So, now we're in an outdoor landscape somewhere with rolling hills as the new volume titles flash onscreen. Regular Heroes music plays, with a bit of a higher pitch as we zoom in on a group of people in black, surrounding a plain wood casket in the ground. The guy at the head of the grave site is none other than T-Bag with an Irish accent. His sermon is our introductory voiceover, so apparently he's our new "foreign" narrator. Good riddance, Mohinder. (Spoiler people: Don't tell me if he's coming back; just let me enjoy this reprieve.)
The gist of T-Bag's narration: He and his brother, Joseph, have had two families. He says the first one "didn't work out too well," so they made themselves a new one. I get the sense he and his brother, Joseph, maybe have killed their actual family, though he doesn't come out and say this. Anyway, their created family consists of everyone standing at this funeral in the middle of nowhere. He says he and Joseph needed a family as we get what are supposed to be meaningful close-ups of the mourners (including Ray Park, a.k.a. Darth Maul). He says family offers protection from the outside world. Theme music really kicks up as he continues to talk, and we get a series of past scenes of the heroes we know. "A world that never understood or appreciated what makes us different..." as Peter stands on that rooftop in the series premiere. T-Bag continues that "there are others like us out there, in the shadows, in the light," as Peter "jumps" off the building, and then we cut to Claire jumping off that large, rusted structure in the premiere, then running up the Greek forum stairs and hugging HRG goodbye on the bridge of tears. T-Bag rambles on: "...each grasping for meaning in a world that won't accept them for who they really are..." Then we see Claire jumping off some building, which I don't remember happening, so can't link to when it was.