Heroes 1.15 - "Unexpected"
Original Airdate: February 19th, 2007

Those Heroes casting folks really know the way to my heart. First Missi Pyle, now Rusty Schwimmer! Rusty is that awesome redhead you have seen in umpteen kazillion movies and TV shows and here she plays Dale, a mechanic with superhearing. Mohinder and Sylar track her down, and Rusty immediately eyeballs Sylar as a bad egg, thereby proving that she’s the only person on this show with any goddamn good sense. Unfortunately, Sylar eats her brain and sucks her power and thus is the end of The Rusty Schwimmer Experience on Heroes. Sigh!

I must take a moment to give Zachary Quinto props for his nicely loony portrayal of Sylar, particularly in this episode. He hops from insane to calmly evil to fakely earnest with the greatest of ease - so much so that I can’t even fault Mo for not seeing through the ruse.

Elsewhere, Hiro regains his powers (at least for a moment) and saves Ando from Missi Pyle, but then insists they go their separate ways. He doesn’t want Ando to end up hurt, which is touching, but also feels a teensy bit sanctimonious - shouldn’t Ando be making that call, Hiro? And worried Simone visits Nathan and insists that he go public about all the crazy superhero stuff. Nathan reacts the same way the entire viewing audience does. Like, seriously? Have you ever heard of a stupider plan? Shut up, Simone. And shut up a little, Nathan, for making a gratuitous Lost reference. If there’s anything that makes me want to set fire to my Geek Card these days, it is the thoroughly tedious debate regarding Lost vs. Heroes. Shut up, EVERYONE.

In addition to Rusty, there’s another new Hero in the mix - the black leather swathed Hana, aka Wireless, whose power has something to do with technology. Like, she can access wireless signals and such with her mind. That’s pretty cool, right? Anyway, she hooks up with that beardy radioactive guy who looks like the Geico Caveman and they decide to go after Horn-Rimmed Glasses. And somehow they manage to drag poor Matt into it. He still has the worst luck in the world, for reals.

Speaking of HRG and Co., Claire’s mommy (the one who is not Jessalyn Gilsig) ends up in the hospital and Claire finally confronts her dad about the memory erasing business. Nothing gets completely resolved, because Geico Caveman and Matt show up and it sure looks like things are about to get messy.

All of these storylines are well-executed, but I have saved the very best for last. You know what I’m talking about, right? Dr. Who is still mentoring Peter, which seems to involve hitting him with a big stick. Dr. Who is seriously the meanest mentor ever, even worse than Yoda.

Anyway, Peter has apparently absorbed Sylar’s telekinetic abilities, which is pretty awesome. Even more awesome, however, is what comes next. HRG and the Haitian - who have apparently been after Dr. Who for years - show up with taser projectile thingies. So Peter stops the projectiles in mid-air - mid-air! - then throws Dr. Who off the roof and jumps off himself and catches Dr. Who and then flies away with him, like some bizarre and amazing tribute to Superman scooping up Lois Lane. It is seriously one of the coolest things we have seen on this show.

Dr. Who, however, is completely ungrateful and ditches Peter. So Peter goes and confronts Isaac, who tipped off HRG in the first place. Peter and his massive forelock are seriously pissed off at this point and I just have to say here that I really enjoy Milo Ventimiglia on this show and I thought I would never, ever type those words, because I hated Jess Mariano with the passion of a thousand burning suns (of course, now I wish he would go and save Rory from that slickster prat Logan, but that’s another rant altogether). Surprisingly, I am also one of three fans who enjoys that massive forelock. There is just something ultra-iconic about the way Tim Sale draws it.

Anyway, Isaac pulls a gun on Peter and Peter starts doing his invisible routine and it all ends with Isaac accidentally shooting Simone. I will not miss Simone and her dumb ideas at all, so I am not too shaken up by this.

I may be judging it a little too much on the merits of Rusty’s presence and Peter’s jaw-dropping flying sequence, but this is probably one of my favorites so far - lots of delicious, pulpy actions, tons of forward movement and some great moments for nearly everyone involved.

And since the powers that be seem to be tapping directly into my mind when it comes to casting, here’s a suggestion: Emma Caulfield. I just watched part of this kind of awful Valentine’s Day Lifetime movie starring Emma (my dumb DVR deleted the second half, so I will never know what happened. Did she leave her clearly-wrong-for-her-boyfriend? Hook back up with the sweet ex who has always loved her? Get back in touch with the humanity that she left behind in favor of a high-powered career? I’ll NEVER KNOW!!). Her character was stock, but it reminded me of what an incredibly appealing and talented presence she is. So say it with me: Emma Caulfield for Hero!

iTunes Links:

Heroes - Series
Heroes - Season 1
This episode - "Unexpected"

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.