I'll give this one an Excellent.
This is what they should have done starting in S2 - show the characters trying to live normal lives with their powers, which inevitably leads to disaster regardless of whether they ignore them or embrace them. After that, we see the ways they manage to accommodate their inherently untenable situation.
Too much time was lost with distractions - new characters, bopping all over the world, hysteria and pointless action. This kind of focus on the characters really needed to have happened early on, to build a foundation for the story and give them a direction to go instead of years' worth of wheel-spinning and plotlines to nowhere.
Of course, it also helps a lot that Tracey and Hiro were nowhere to be seen.
The deaf woman's power is interesting, though I'm not sure yet what purpose it serves in the story.
The writing for Samuel was very deft. He zeroed in on exactly how to manipulate Peter. That shows a highly intelligent and scary person, regardless of his tendency to generate sinkholes.
And Matt definitely needs to take a page from the Dexter Morgan playbook. He can't follow conventional notions of morality so he needs to develop his own unique Code to live by.
Great stuff, hope they keep it up and this isn't all just because these are Bryan Fuller-influenced episodes?
I don't even know why Matt was beating himself up about striking the thug.
Police brutality, for starters. Matt would have lost his job, been sued into the poorhouse and probably would have ended up in jail himself. Plus it shows that he isn't in command of his own powers and regardless of whether he's a cop, would be a public menace till Sylar is out of his head.
If that's even possible - I don't think that
is Sylar. I think that's Matt's own self-inflicted Greek chorus. Sylar's consciousness never left his body because nobody on this show has the ability to extract consciousness from one body and insert it into another. Matt's never been able to do that.
No, his power is to manipulate earth. The show already made that quite clear.
He said he learned he had the power to manipulate earth, but not that that was the end of it. Later, he found out that he could manipulate all forms of minerals. Works for me.
