Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Taste the Rainbow...
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.12.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Don't fall over when I say this, but some actual interesting things happened this episode. Not that it was all good. I'll start with the bad: Claire's lesbian girlfriend seems more and more like a crazy stalker, to the point that Claire accuses her of having something to do with Annie's murder/suicide. And then they kiss, so Claire chalks it all up to a crush. And, in actuality, it's a new character, Rebecca, who is Samuel's niece and has been intentionally causing mayhem for Claire and Gretchen. She also happens to be in the sorority that Claire and Gretchen pledge in this episode. All the carnie kids leave home to go to college and pledge a sorority, you know.
Our deaf girl still sees sounds as colors, and when Peter saves her from getting him by a bus, he picks up this "power," too. I have no idea how that explains Samuel giving him his compassy power thing, but whatever. [Since he just now lost his speed, I think we can assume the compass is not a power at this point, and just magic dust in Peter's skin. - Zach] The annoying part is that Peter's stuck with such a lame power, but the great part is how cute she and Peter are flirting together. Until he unwittingly insults her filing job, and then she's back to her weird, standoffish self again. Oh, and Dr. Ratched is also her mother. That's news. Peter's also trying to connect with Mama Petrelli, but all she's doing is spacing out worrying about Nathan. Er, Sylar-as-Nathan. You know who I mean. Just when Peter feels like he'll never make any human connections, Hiro shows up, teleported here covered in toner from last episode. And he collapses. Good thing he teleported right into the apartment of a paramedic who has a lame, useless power. Though deaf girl plays a cello and uses her power to ultimately rip a hole in her apartment wall. As if that's a good thing.
At the carnival, Samuel has a big feast with his "family," which seems to consist of Edgar, Lydia, the old guy, and a bunch of kids. Seriously. These are the villains of the story? There is one empty seat and Samuel spends all episode deciding who's going to replace Samuel, since he promised the family he'd have the chair filled by the end of the episode. Will it be Hiro? Peter? Claire? Tracy? Lydia wants to know, too, but isn't ready to show him anything yet. Lydia's back finally reveals a picture while Rebecca's paying Uncle Samuel a visit to fill us in on all the mischief she's caused for Claire (basically everything that's made Gretchen seem like a stalker has been Rebecca's doing, which makes me question whether I should really hate Gretchen now that I know that).
Sylar digs himself out of his grave and ends up in police custody, where they realize he can't remember who he is, so they call in a pretty, British psych expert to question him. She earns his trust and then the police send her away because his fingerprints have pinpointed him as Gabriel, a watchmaker who killed his mother. They try to arrest him, but Sylar, legitimately confused (since his own knowledge of himself seems to be within Matt Parkman, and now he seems to have lost his knowledge that he's Nathan, too), accidentally throws Warden Leo through a window and then escapes with the British lady. The cops catch up and shoot holes in him, which heal themselves. The British lady tells him to run, and he does. Right into Samuel's carnival. [Which apparently moves. - Z] Makes sense he'd be the one to join the villainous carnival, right? Now they'll just have to teach him to be evil again, which... shouldn't be too difficult.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Samuel went looking for Peter, thinking he'd found his dead brother's replacement. And he was exactly who Samuel hoped he'd be. Peter met Emma, our deaf "hero." He tried to flirt, but she would rather people think she's an ignorer than admit she's deaf, so she ignored him. She can see sounds. Gretchen was obsessed with Claire, even after finding out that Claire's invincible. She even told HRG she knows about it. He was less than thrilled. Swoosie Kurtz toasted to closure with Mama Petrelli, as her goon buried Sylar-as-Nathan in a hole in the ground.
Now (and also then, though they're not including it with the previouslies), Sylar digs himself out of his hole and staggers along the road, until a police car happens by with sirens on to pick him up. The driver is Warden Leo, who's apparently been demoted since his days at Oz. He wonders if Sylar's had too much to drink, and then gets out and makes him get down on the ground with his hands behind his head. Sylar, clearly not knowing his power or who he is, obliges. Title card. Wow, that came quickly.
Feet trample the ground, and our episode chyron -- "Chapter Four: Hysterical Blindness" -- and then we pan back to see we're with the carnies in their circus tent, or whatever it is they live in. Edgar's pushing some gigantic box around as breakfast is being prepared. An old woman's sticking her hand on a hot waffle iron, apparently for show, though Samuel comes out and says she's Mrs. Comey and she's making her "unparalleled blueberry waffles." Apparently they're so good because she burns her hand while making them. Then he goes on and on about how great breakfast is, because they all sit as a family before anything bad happens for the day. Birds chirp in the background as he goes on that Joseph's seat is empty at the table -- which consists of the old guy who has the same power as Hiro, Lydia the Tattooed Lady, Edgar, Samuel, and a bunch of children -- but he says he'll convince one of the heroes out there to join their table by the end of the day.
Claire and Gretchen are eating in the school lunchroom, when Gretchen wonders why Claire's so happy. Claire: "This. This is cool." Wow. How does any writer come up with such engaging dialogue? She just loves being in college with her roommate instead of being shot at or chased. Gretchen thinks this is pretty much tedium, but Claire thinks right now she can be anyone. Seizing the perfect moment to butt in, Jackie from Veronica Mars walks up and tells Claire she can't escape her destiny. Oh, show, you're so clever. She introduces herself as Becky Taylor, and says she's a member of Psi Alpha, Sandra's sorority. Gretchen's horrified to discover Claire's mom was in a sorority, but Claire eventually caves to attending open rush, even though Gretchen tries to tell Becky she's going to pass. Gretchen tries to say sororities are a social crutch for people who can't make their own friends, and that they'll turn Claire into Stepford Claire. Claire sweet-talks Gretchen into going with her.
A jailhouse. Warden Leo's interrupted by a pretty British doctor, who's apparently new at doing real-life criminal psych consults, which pisses Warden Leo off. He caves, though, and tells her that they know nothing about Sylar: who he is, where he's from, etc. She says amnesia can be complicated, but Warden Leo says he can simplify it: "Take out your rubber stamp and mark this guy insane." He wouldn't be wrong about that, but she says they aren't given stamps and she needs to talk to him. After some weird camera work that shows us Sylar's looking at his reflection in the shiny table, she sits down, introduces herself as Dr. Gibson, and asks him his name. He just looks freaked out, and like he might throw up. Warden Leo's lurking in the corner, all, "I told you so." After a commercial break, Sylar just says, "I..." And Dr. Gibson tells Leo that it could be an aphasia, since traumas to the head can result in brain damage. Warden Leo says he was like this when they found him, which I'm sure is extremely helpful to Dr. Gibson, who probably thought they picked up a nice, normal guy and bashed him in the head until he was crazy. She asks Sylar if he can tell her what happened to him. He stutters out that he was in the forest, and then we get weird flashbacks that mean nothing. He says he was lost, and then he says he was... and trails off and cries as he flashes back to gunshots. He says he was then walking, and now he's in this tiny room. He cries some more. Dr. Gibson asks him to unlock Sylar's cuffs, but Leo won't lock himself in with an unrestrained lunatic. So she asks if he'll give her his keys, please, and leave. She unlocks Sylar's cuffs and then tells him she wants to help him get cleaned up and put the pieces together. He has more flashbacks to the shooting in the forest. Dude, can't Dr. Gibson just pull out her clicker and get Sylar to mind? (Thanks to forum poster lilith1930 for the joke; I knew Dr. Gibson looked familiar, but forgot she was Simone.)
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 ta