Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.19.2009
Claire wonders how he got in the bathroom, and Peter says, "It's been a long time since I've teleported." Ah, intentional humor. This show could use a little more of that, I'd say. Though an entire scene starring three main characters designed only for that punch line probably isn't worth it.Carnival. Samuel gives Edgar carnival tickets to deliver to Warden Leo. Edgar wonders why they'd want to bring the cops hunting Sylar into the carnival, and Samuel says there's something very wrong with Sylar, whose memories are returning but they're the wrong memories. "There's someone else inside his head." If only we knew who that was... Oh, right, we do. Samuel wants to jump-start the real Sylar, and Edgar warns him that the real Sylar might kill this cop. Samuel: "Indeed he might." Because that's sort of the point. Nice of Edgar to act concerned and as if he has a conscience, though, since we'll find out he actually doesn't by the end of the episode.
Peter's caught Claire and HRG up on Hiro's situation when we next see them, and he says he came to them because he thought HRG could find a healer so that Hiro won't have to die. Claire wonders why they can't just use her blood (that's what I said), but HRG helpfully explains that since a tumor is living tissue, her blood would only make it grow faster. He remembers a "bag and tag" from three or four years ago, though: a teenage healer. The kid was bringing bugs back from near-dead, so they studied him then wiped his memory and sent him back home. HRG says the kid was confused and didn't know whether his power was a gift or a curse. Claire says if he can save Hiro, it's definitely a gift. Well, again, writers: Duh. Thanks for stating the obvious. HRG and Peter teleport to the kid's home in Georgia.
At the carnival, Lydia the Tattooed Lady is showing Sylar around. They walk by people shoveling as she says that Samuel's brother, Joseph, began the tradition of morning chores because he believed that hard work brings the community together. Edgar's watching them jealously (threateningly?) from somewhere much nearer to the camera. Or maybe he's just admiring Sylar's chest hair, since his flannel shirt is unbuttoned down to his belly button. Sylar tells Lydia he's looking forward to the hard work, since he can't remember ever working before in his life. Then again, he can't remember anything so it's not like that means anything. They lean down and start moving rocks as she tells him how nice it is to have a handsome new face among them. Edgar's still irked, and Samuel's wiping himself off with a handkerchief as he watches. Apparently Sylar's chest hair is a big turn-on to him. Lydia leaves Sylar to work, and Edgar approaches him. He says that Lydia has a thing for bad boys, and Sylar wonders what he means, so Edgar explains that he's heard about Sylar stealing powers from other people and he's sure he can do some fancy tricks, but Edgar has some tricks of his own. Sylar's like, "Oh, okay. Excuse me." He tries to go back to shoveling, but Edgar turns and throws knives into the handle of Sylar's shovel. Sylar looks at the knives and says, "Wow." Everyone -- including me -- thinks Sylar's impressed by Edgar's superior knife-throwing skills, but Sylar finishes, "Those are kind of in the way." A forgetful Sylar is a much funnier Sylar, I think. Let's hope he never gets that memory of his back. He uses his mind/hand power to throw the knives back in Edgar's direction. Lydia asks Samuel if they should stop this, but he says "Boys will be boys." Edgar goes to possibly throw something else at Sylar, so Sylar throws him with his mind force into a wheelbarrow full of wet cement. Samuel breaks it up, telling Sylar he wants him to meet someone else.
As they walk through the busy carnival, Sylar explains how weird it is when that happens: his hand just rises up and things move around. He says it's like "motor memory," and Samuel tells him that memories don't only exist in the mind; the body retains everything, too. Fighter jets fly overhead, and Sylar morphs for one second into Nathan. Samuel's not looking at him, so he doesn't see it, but Sylar says that he feels like he was possibly a jet pilot in the military or something. He remembers that. Samuel tells him that's not his memory, and that someone's polluted Sylar's mind somehow. He says he thought Sylar's memories would return on his own, but it's just not happening. Hasn't Sylar been with them for, like, a day? Patience is apparently not Samuel's power. He says it's time for stronger measures. He introduces Sylar to a dreadlocked, leathery-skinned guy named Damien and asks Sylar if he wants to know the truth as the music picks up. Sylar does. Samuel tells Damien to "Take him to the house of mirrors." It's ridiculous lines like that that really make me hate the carnie storyline. However, I am enjoying Robert Knepper enough in this role to make it somewhat bearable.
At the hospital, Emma's finally getting up the nerve to talk to Hiro. When she enters his room, Hiro yells at her to go away because he has no more blood left. Hee. Hiro is so cute. She acts confused and then tells him she reads lips, but his move differently. He apologizes for his Japanese-accented lips, and then they proceed to talk without any lip-reading problems. So, why exactly did they act like this was more difficult for her when she understands everything he says? Whatever. She tells him that Peter sent her to find out more about her abilities, and Hiro gets excited that she has a power. She wants to make her power stop, but Hiro doesn't get it since, "Manifesting a power's a wondrous time. A hero never refuses its call." She says she's deaf, so she can't hear the call. Right, Emma, it's what we call a metaphor. Hiro talks to himself in Japanese, that this must be whom he's here to save, not Peter. Then he talks slowly to her, telling her she can't turn off her power; it's part of who she is. She apologizes for bothering him and leaves. He shakes his head knowingly.
Cainan, Georgia. HRG and Peter arrive at the house of the supposed healer kid to find dead plants and bushes. HRG acknowledges it's not exactly what you'd expect from a healer, so Peter wonders what HRG knows about the kid. The answer: not much. He was just coming to terms with his ability at the time, so the Company wiped his memory and ignored him. HRG reminds Peter the Company wasn't exactly a support group and Peter agrees: "More about the powers. Less about the people." HRG assures Peter he did see the kid heal, though, including healing HRG's arm when he sliced it pretty bad. On the porch they see a dead bird, and then they both realize they smell even more death. HRG draws his gun and they knock on the front door, and then enter, shouting. In the living room, they find two dead bodies. HRG says it's the kids parents, and then he tells Peter about this one other time that a girl's power manifested as healing but over time it became something more: she could control the flow of life, by giving it or taking it away. They holler for Jeremy, who shoots at them and then runs upstairs. Why exactly does the kid need a gun if he can kill people by touching them?
Carnival. Damien slowly and dramatically leads Sylar into a funhouse, which has a brightly painted floor and mirrors all around. He grabs Sylar's head and his own eyes roll back into his. The camera spins around them for a minute and then it stops, and Damien removes his hands and leaves Sylar alone with the mirrors. Sylar looks around and just sees himself. Then, suddenly, his mom is there, doing her weird head tilting as she says, "Hello, Gabriel." Sylar knows who she is, because he replies, "Mom?" Then the mirror shows him when he killed her. He tries to back away from it, but the mirrors are everywhere.