Heroes Review – “The Wall”

During last week’s episode of Heroes, Claire was up to her old tricks, making poor decisions and helping to cause the death of Lydia and the capture of Noah by Samuel.  Matt blocked Sylar’s access to his own abilities and, as a sort of revenge, imprisoned Sylar within the confines of his own mind.  Peter, after stealing Matt’s telepathy, entered Sylar’s head, no doubt to try and see how he can save Emma.

Heroes continues this week with a title that made me think Sylar was going to shave off his eyebrows to Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.”  Keep reading for the full review of Heroes’ penultimate episode.  As always, there will be spoilers.

Sylar’s been trapped inside the prison of his own mind by Parkman, destined to wander the empty streets of an abandoned metropolis as a sort of punishment for his heinous deeds of the past.  Even worse for Sylar, an hour feels like a year, adding to his torment of being alone.  Peter arrives, however – thanks to the telepathy he borrowed from Parkman – determined to help break Sylar out of his mental prison so that Angela’s dream of Sylar saving Emma (and thousands of people) can come true.  I’ve always enjoyed watching the rare moments when Sylar and Peter are together on screen throughout this series, so although this episode was pretty slow, the scenes featuring the adversaries-turned-partners were pretty entertaining.

Try as they might, Sylar and Peter can’t escape the mental prison.  Instead of years alone, Sylar and Peter are spending years together.

Meanwhile, Samuel – now with his arm in a makeshift sling – continues his scheming to rule the people of the carnival and eventually the rest of the world.  In an attempt to win over Claire, Samuel brings her to the House of Mirrors, where Noah is tied up.  It turns out that the dreadlocked guy who turned Hiro’s brains into scrambled eggs is named Damien, and he has the ability to show people’s memories.  Once again, the writers of Heroes have decided to further the abilities of certain characters (or Damien’s mental powers are strong enough that he can perform multiple tasks, I guess, but I’ve learned not to give the writers the benefit of the doubt).  Anyhow, Damien shows Claire hidden memories of Noah, starting with his job as a used car salesman in 1985.

Noah has always been one of the stronger characters on this show, and the fact that Jack Coleman is a pretty good actor has always made Noah one of my favorites.  That said, I think we’ve learned enough about him over the years and that his mysterious past helps add to the allure that is Noah.  Revealing it now – especially in such a rushed way – didn’t ruin the character for me, but I also found it totally unnecessary.

Damien shows Claire that Noah was married before he had married her mother, as well as how Noah was robbed by a telekinetic who murdered his wife, prompting him to join The Company.  Some black and white flashbacks and an appearance by Thompson (Eric Roberts) also show Claire that Noah’s marriage to Claire’s mother was “encouraged” by The Company, but it wasn’t until saw the memory of Noah threatening to wipe Gretchen’s mind with the Haitian that she stormed out on her father, leaving him tied up in the House of Mirrors with a scary dreadlocked dude.  I know that Claire was pissed, but as the daughter of a guy who has spent his entire life trying to protect her, she sure is an ungrateful bitch.

Lauren makes her way to the carnival, too, and Emma uses her medical background to help clean her wounds.  Lauren tells Emma that Samuel is a bad dude, but sure enough, Samuel arrives and tells Emma that Lauren’s been misinformed.  Lauren somehow disappears, and I’m guessing she’ll have some role in the finale.

As pissed as she is at Noah, Claire isn’t quite ready to join forces with Samuel and the rest of the carnies.  Samuel informs her that Noah is tied up in the souvenir trailer, so Claire runs to free her father (just after storming out on him…hmmm).  Once Noah and Claire are inside, Samuel uses his power to sink the trailer, as the ground opens up and swallows it, Claire, and Noah.

Back in Sylar’s head, Sylar apologizes to Peter for killing his brother.  After spending what has seemed like 12 years or so together, Peter and Sylar have actually bonded, and it appears as though Sylar is reformed.  Sylar claims that he’s no longer the murderer he once was and has truly repented for his sins.  This must have been the key to freedom, because after Sylar’s confession/apology/epiphany, the brick wall that had imprisoned Peter and Sylar finally gave way to the blows of their sledgehammers.

Awakening in the “real world,” Peter and Sylar find themselves back in Matt Parkman’s basement and only a half a day has passed.  Which begs the question – where the hell was Matt?  He just leaves Peter and a walled-in Sylar in his home while he’s out running errands?  What did I miss?  Before Sylar and Peter can go to the carnival to save Emma, though, Multiple Man (Eli) shows up, and it’s clear that there will be a fight of some sort before they can leave.

Next week will be the Heroes finale, and I guess it’s worth noting that Hiro likely won’t be playing a part.  Peter and Sylar will be trying to stop Samuel from moving Emma and his carnival to Central Park and killing thousands, while Claire and Noah will try to escape their underground prison.  I suppose I’m looking forward to it, but didn’t we already go through the whole “Sylar as a hero” subplot?

What did you guys thinks?  Will Heroes cop out and give us a heroic Sylar?  I sure hope not.