Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: D- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Invisible Forces
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 7 | Aired on 10.26.2009
and Gretchen's all, "Come on! Me?" As if no one has ever wanted to kill her. Claire tells her to think about it, since her first roommate had that mysterious death with a mysterious note that showed up after the fact. Gretchen thinks that's a little out there and sounds like some "crazy-ass conspiracy theory." She pauses and then says, "Which pretty much describes your entire life." Uh-oh. They hear a noise and Gretchen's freaked. Snotty and Ditzy run in, and Claire asks if they found another clue. Snotty's all, "Like I'm gonna tell you." Claire tells her that Ditzy's freaked and she doesn't care about the treasure, so why not work together? Claire says they can have the treasure, and Snotty agrees.Cainan Sheriff's Office. HRG and Tracy are leading Jeremy out in slow-motion, so you know something dramatic is about to happen. They wouldn't want to surprise us or anything. They step outside into a crowd of protesters and hillbillies. Some big guy jumps out of the crowd and Jeremy touches him and the guy falls and dies. HRG pleads with Jeremy to save the guy, but Cornpone Sheriff tells Jeremy he's going back into the jail, where he belongs, adding, "You know what you did to your mama and daddy." Jeremy turns and walks willingly back into the station and HRG yells, "Jeremy!" Tracy looks distraught. It's all still in slow-motion so you know you're supposed to feel how dramatic and poignant it is. But it's not. Commercials.
Back inside the sheriff's office, HRG tells Cornpone Sheriff that he doesn't understand the first thing about what's happening. Cornpone Sheriff says he doesn't care what's happening; he just knows that three people are dead and that boy, whatever he is, is responsible. Tracy asks if she can talk to him, and Cornpone Sheriff says they're both done talking to him. A couple of Cornpone Deputies are leading Jeremy out of a car, in shackles, taunting him that killers don't go free. Cornpone Sheriff finds his cell empty and asks on the radio where he is. He says, "Do you read me, Gil?" And we hear that on the radios of the cops with Jeremy. Dramatic music starts, and Jeremy looks stoic, staring straight ahead at Gil, who asks Jeremy to give him his best shot, a reason, as he points his gun at him. Jeremy gets teary and holds his hands back and then drops them to his sides. Gil tells Jeremy he's not normal and doesn't belong here, as the other officer drives away with one end of the chain around Jeremy's legs tied to his bumper.
Parkman's. He's getting drunker and drunker and Sylon's disappearing. He's telling Sylon about the alcohol he's drinking, which he bought on an anniversary with Janice to Ensenada. Parkman think it's poetic he's using it to bury Sylon, but I don't really see the poetry in that. I'm not sure Parkman knows what poetry is. Sylon asks if he's burying him or drowning the truth. Parkman wonders what truth: that Sylon's nothing but a figment of his imagination. Sylon struggles as he's disappearing to blurt out that Janice left because she can't stand the sight of Matt. He says that she asked him in front of the fire last night, "Why can't you be more like this all the time?" Matt tells Sylon he and Janice will have a beautiful life together when he's gone. Sylon asks why Parkman can't accept his power, instead insisting on fitting in and being forgettable. Sylon passes out, and Parkman finishes off the bottle until Sylon fully disappears. Then Parkman passes out, right after Janice comes back with Rick Worthy, and he tells her he really did it. She and Rick look at each other, all, "Did what? Drank all of the alcohol in the house?"
Slaughterhouse. The foursome come to another corner with two choices: kill house or prep room. Snotty decides kill house sounds more dangerous, so she and Ditzy will take that one. Ditzy says she thought they were sticking together, but Snotty's like, "No way." They head into kill house. Gretchen wants to check prep room real quick, saying they'll catch up to the others. They go inside, where there are sharp hooks hanging everywhere. They find a pink bear hanging on a hook and Gretchen says, "Well, we won. Kind of." She says she's going to go get Paris and Nicole, and Claire laughs. Gretchen tells Claire she gets why Claire wants to run from her freaky world and lead a normal life. She says she's sorry she got all relationshippy on her, since the last thing she needs right now is... Claire interrupts, "I need you. Trust me." Then the hooks behind Gretchen start to move and Claire looks worried. Gretchen's like, "What?" Then a rope or chain is put around Gretchen's neck and Claire runs over and is knocked down. She picks up a stick and hits the area behind Gretchen with it, so Gretchen's released. Claire watches the moving hooks, which is silly considering that Gretchen and Claire walked through the room just fine without moving the hooks so much, and Becky's just as tiny as them. But I guess they needed it for effect here. Something throws Claire against a wall onto a sharp stake sticking out of it. Gretchen, still gasping, says, "God, Claire." But Claire has a hook in her hand and swings it hard, knocking Becky down and back into visibility, which is pretty awesome. She looks up at Claire, and touches her wound. Claire just glares at her. Ditzy and Snotty come in to find them all there, with Claire hanging on the spike like ... something in a slaughterhouse. Snotty's like, "Becky?" And Becky gets up to run away. Claire yells for them to grab her, but a) they're not competent and b) she goes invisible and pushes them aside as she leaves. Ditzy and Snotty are in shock. Claire's like, "A little help, please?" And Gretchen pulls her down, despite the other girls' protests. She heals and Ditzy asks what's happening. Gretchen looks at Claire and asks what they're going to do.
Georgia. Tracy and Bennet are driving at night, when they see something in the road. She tells him to stop and they get out to find Jeremy's bloody corpse, where he's been dragged through the street to rest here. Do you get it? These hillbillies are bigots who are prejudiced against him because he's different? I am offended on behalf of anyone who's different (women, other races, gays, little people, carnies) that this show would want us to feel the same type of sympathy for people who use their abilities to kill (accidentally or otherwise) as any other victim of a hate crime. Tracy cries that Jeremy needed a home. She's buying into Samuel's sales pitch, at least. Maybe she'll be joining the bad side again. Commercials. Another episode of Slow Burn. In this one, Lydia's daughter shows up at the carnival, and when Lydia wonders how she found her, she says her picture on her Sprint phone was geotagged, so it was no problem. Hey, someone should tell the cops looking for Sylar that that's all they need to do to find the carnival! She wonders why Lydia's ashamed of her, and Lydia says it's dangerous here and she's trying to protect her. But her daughter, Amanda, says she feels normal for the first time in her life. Then a fire starts up. The end.
Georgia. Tracy's walking to her car in a huff, and Bennet's following, apologizing. She says this was supposed to be simple: She was supposed to walk in and sign him out. He says he thought he could manage it, and she wonders how: by hiding him away for the rest of his life. He tells her he stood on Jeremy's porch and told him he wouldn't let him down. She points out he did anyway. "We did." He says he did what he thought was right and he was wrong. He's been wrong all these years. She wonders if they have to be invisible, or if he thinks they can ever just live out in the open. He says not after today. She tells him not to call her ever again and gets in her car. He walks off, and she grabs the compass out of her bag. It spins and then stops, telling her where to find the carnival.