'Heroes': Here comes the sun

Man, that was one long eclipse, was it not? But now that the sun is out again, the Heroes have their powers back and Nathan Petrelli has turned back into the World's Most Suggestible Politician, we can get back to the business of starting to wrap up this arc.

Spoilers coming right after I patch up my leg in a grocery store aisle.

Before I get started with this week's recap, I want to thank Ryan McGee for handling the past two episodes with such aplomb. Of course, we'd expect nothing less from the man who has reimagined Lost as a series of Facebook updates.

As for this week's episode, the conclusion of a two-parter called "The Eclipse," that's pretty much how you expected it to play out, right? I mean, what with the sun reappearing at just the right moment so that the characters get their powers back and no one we know very well dies or anything drastic like that.

(Science note: The eclipse finally passed a little after the halfway point in the episode, after taking up a good chunk of last week's episode. Which, based on some cursory online research, would make it the longest total solar eclipse ever. The motion of the bodies involved means that total eclipses don't last more than about 7 1/2 minutes. This one had to run for at least a few hours, given all that transpired while it was kinda dark.)

And so, if you've watched the show for a while, you were just kind of waiting around for that to happen, so that Claire could take her startled first breath after being pronounced dead, and for Sylar to rise back up and come after HRG after having his throat slit. Knowing that was around the corner diminishes the cat-and-mouse game between Sylar and HRG somewhat, and that's kind of a shame, because seeing the ruthless side of Noah Bennet was kind of fun, and their fight -- just two guys beating the hell out of each other, with no special abilities involved -- was one of the better ones Heroes has ever staged.

Sylar does, of course, come after HRG, but with the goal of taking Claire back to Pinehearst, where her extra-special catalytic properties will finally make the formula complete and let Arthur Petrelli give half the world powers. But since everyone else has their abilities back as well, Hiro -- still mentally 10 years old, but fully aware of his mission now that he's caught up on the 9th Wonders comics -- arrives just in time to blink Sylar and his enabler Elle to a remote beach before whisking Claire away to the New York balcony to witness Kaito Nakamura hand baby Claire over to HRG (more on that, sort of, in the bullet points).

And Elle, perhaps, should've been careful what she was wishing for with all her egging on of Sylar to be bad again. 'Cause once he was alone on that beach with her, he delivered a little speech about how regaining his powers showed him that he'll never really change, and the last we see of her (and possibly Kristen Bell?) is Elle writhing in pain as he starts to slice her forehead.

Down in Haiti, meanwhile, the end of the eclipse has restored in Nathan the power of flight and the uncanny ability to listen to the wrong kind of advice. After seeing the havoc Baron Samedi's power has allowed him to wreak, Nathan is suddenly convinced that his pop's idea to give lots and lots of people a genetic boost is just what the world needs to end war and genocide and all other societal ills. Which, I'm sure, is just what the paranoid and power-hungry man behind the plan has in mind. Such a supremely gullible Nathan hasn't been around for a while. That was not a bad thing.

A few more thoughts on part two of "The Eclipse":

• I can't decide whether the presence of Breckin Meyer and Seth Green as the comic-store employees is a fun bit of stunt casting or a bit of meta-storytelling that's too self-aware for its own good. Maybe some of both. But Green and Meyer seemed to be having a good time with Masi Oka and James Kyson Lee -- and I'm glad the writers slipped in the expository line about the current issue of 9th Wonders being the last one Isaac Mendez wrote before his death (save the possible "lost sketches" that some bike messenger supposedly has and for whom Hiro et al's search will probably take up some time next week).
• It's come to the point where I just feel kind of bad for Greg Grunberg and Brea Grant, saddled as they are with a supposed love story that's based on Parkman's spirit walk and nothing else. The revelation last week that Daphne was in leg braces (she had cerebral palsy) before her power manifested was kind of interesting, and gives some plausible explanation for the life she's chosen since, but their scenes the past few weeks have contributed very little to the larger story.
• About that last scene: I got nothing, thanks to some combination of NBC, Comcast and my DVR not properly understanding that the episode ran a little past 10 p.m. I'm guessing that Claire founds out that her adoptive father does, in fact, really love her, but please feel free to flesh that out (or tell me I'm wrong) in the comments.

Now that the sun is out again, use your powers of observation to discuss this week's Heroes. Why does Nathan always, always listen to the wrong people? And what do you figure we'll learn if we ever see the "lost issue" of 9th Wonders?

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