With Peter confronting Sylar, Hiro and Ando digging up Adam Monroe, and Mohinder’s abduction of his neighbour being multiple cliff-hangers at the end of the previous episode, this weeks “Angels and Monsters” had a lot of questions to answer.
At level five, Peter and Sylar are at each other’s necks. Refusing to accept what Sylar’s ability has turned him into, Peter violently snaps Sylar’s neck and turns on his mother, unable to control his hunger. Sylar recovers, grotesquely cracking his neck back into place, and stops Peter in a great moment of role reversal.
Claire, still hell-bent on stopping villains, tracks down Steven Canfield, a man with the ability to create small vortexes. Realising that Canfield is troubled and confused, much like herself, she instead decides to help reunite him with his family, at which point she is interrupted by Noah Bennet and Sylar. The resulting scene - in which Canfield opens up a vortex and Claire is reluctantly saved by Sylar - sparks some fantastic tension between three of the shows key characters, and seeing how their relationships develop could be interesting viewing. As well as this tension, we also see more of Sylar’s gradual rehabilitation, and the subsequent insight into his character continues to be one of the greatest aspects of this season - partly thanks to the brilliance of the character, and partly thanks to Quinto's talent as an actor.
The aforementioned vortex scene is arguably the best scene in the episode. It’s incredibly well done, and the vortex itself looked genuinely excellent. After the debacle that was the green screening in the last episode, this is a nice reminder of what the Heroes special effects team is capable of, even if it is done just by using a couple of high-powered wind machines.
After abducting his neighbour, it is revealed that Mohinder has become even more spider-like, and has created a cocoon for his prey. After Maya tries to free his victim, Mohinder gives her the same treatment. Seeing the once timid professor transform into a twisted, bestial villain is a surprisingly interesting process, despite Rahamurty’s inconsistent performances, but Heroes seems to have brushed over a fairly important detail - how Mohinder makes these cocoons. Since they’re made from a translucent and sticky substance, they’re going to have to explain this one quickly, otherwise I can’t hold myself responsible for any jokes made.
In the meantime, Hiro and Ando have found and dug up Adam Monroe, and it seems reviving him was a good move. Like with Daphne, Adam’s banter with Hiro and Ando is entertaining and light hearted, and serves as much welcome comic relief in the episode. After agreeing to help Hiro and Ando find the formula, Adam quickly finds a way to escape. Unfortunately for him, his escape leads him straight into the path of Knox (now working for the rival company) promptly ending the episodes light hearted distraction. While it's a little disappointing that the light hearted side of Heroes tends to be brushed aside quickly, at least it's not being dragged out.
The series is moving along quickly, but it seems to have rediscovered what was good about Heroes. The drama, plot twists and character depth is really starting to show, and if keeps improving as consistently as it has, then it’s going to be very good viewing.
4/5
I bet Mohinder didn’t have any problems when it came to putting Maya in a cocoon…see, I can’t control myself.
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