'Heroes': Peter discovers his backbone

After last week's tightly focused flashback episode, Heroes returned to the broader canvas with Monday's episode. And while there are things that worked about "Exposed," the hour also felt more than a little padded. I'm looking at you, Aquaboy.

Spoilers served with your franks 'n' fries.

One of the things that's been good about the "Fugitives" arc is that Peter is finally, finally becoming the kind of character the show has seemed to think he's been all along -- smart, assertive and unafraid to use his power (or, now, whatever power he's borrowed). As he and Parkman began their incursion to Building 26 and he reasoned that two mind-controllers would be better than one, I thought, "Well, about time." The wishy-washiness of the characters about their abilities has long been a problem with the show, and it feels like the writers have started to catch on to the idea that having these powers might be useful, and even cool.

Now, why it took the better part of three seasons to get Peter to this point is something else entirely, and I'm still not entirely confident that TPTB at Heroes won't make Peter an easily manipulated sap the next time the plot demands it. But the plan to take out Building 26, and Peter's later refusal to go along with Nathan -- even though big brother had saved his life following the prisoner exchange double-cross -- rang a bit of a hopeful note for me for the remainder of the season.

If only everyone could be so confident in their powers. Matt has been drawing pictures of himself with explosives strapped to his chest over and over, but unfortunately for him the ability to paint the future doesn't come with the ability to interpret your own work. So while it's true that by the end of the hour Matt does end up in front of the Capitol with a bomb on his body, but he's only there because Danko looked into his art following Matt's capture and decided to make an example of him. I kind of which Zeljko Ivanek had a mustache for this gig, just so he could twirl it to illustrate his eeevil. (A couple of nitpicks on the Assault on Building 26 coming in the bullets.)

Elsewhere in "Heroes"-land this week:

Sylar and Luke

The least fun road trip of all time continues -- until Sylar sees a boarded-up roadside diner and is inexorably drawn to it. Something happened here, he tells Luke, something bad. He then starts to remember his father a little bit, and we learn in black-and-white flashbacks to 1980 (scored to Fleetwood Mac's supremely bitter song "The Chain") that Big Jim's Franks & Fries was the place where little Gabriel Gray was sold to his uncle. Which is bad enough, but the final flashback shows Papa Gray slashing the forehead of Sylar's real mother, with a splash of Sin City-ish bright red blood staining the back windshield as dad drives away.

Luke then picks the worst possible time to be all, "Yeah, your dad's a jerk -- can we go now? Maybe drive to Canada so we can use our powers for petty crime?" Sylar sees right through Luke's nonsense and calls him on the way he's used Sylar as an excuse to run away from his problems. That, Sylar explains, just doesn't work, so go home to your mom and man up. "You're not going to kill me?" an incredulous (and possibly a little disappointed) Luke asks. Answer, and line of the night: "That seems a little on the nose." Also, Sylar's dad? Watch your back.

The Bennets

Everything involving Sandra Bennet tonight? Fantastic. Claire's mom may have started off as a little bit of a joke, with her Mr. Muggles obsession and general cluelessness, but Ashley Crow has made her into a good deal more than that. The complete cool she showed in helping Claire smuggle Alex out of the house and away from the Danko goons watching them (including the secretly powered Rachel Mills, star of "The Recruit" webisodes) was just kind of fun to watch, as was her brief reverie about Def Leppard bassist Rick Savage.

The mini-rom com that Claire and Alex acted out over the course of the day, though, struck me as just kind of silly, and possibly altogether pointless. By episode's end, Alex is on a train to Albuquerque, and the little flirtation they had is presumably over for good. And I think the contrast between Alex and puppet master Alex Doyle would have been just as evident without it.

That said, though, the idea of the Bennet house as the primary stop on an underground railroad for supers could be a good one, and introducing a rather loathsome guy like Doyle as their next possible freedom-seeker could make for an interesting piece of storytelling as Claire and Sandra decide whether they're all in for their cause of keeping people with abilities from being indiscriminately locked up (or a less interesting one where they figure out a way to get Doyle caught and therefore become not much better than Nathan's crowd).

Other notes from "Exposed":

• We still have no clear picture of who the mysterious and apparently omniscient Rebel is. Technopath Micah seems like a popular choice, and his abilities would definitely come in handy in getting messages to people whenever and wherever they're needed. But I also have difficulty believing that a kid would have access to that kind of information, so I'm thinking there's probably someone else involved as well.

• Nitpick No. 1: I'm OK with mind control as a good way to enter a top-secret and well-fortified government facility. But seriously? No one was monitoring the security cameras while Matt and Peter sauntered up to the top floor operations room?
• Nitpick No. 2: I wondered if the goons watching the Bennet house have only Alex's name and not his actual ability on their list. Because if they did know he can breathe under water, I think they might have been a little more thorough in searching around the swimming pool -- you know, maybe see if there's a switch to turn on the pool lights or something.
• Did we know prior to tonight that Matt's so vulnerable when he's doing his thought-control thing? I know it takes a lot out of him, and I'm not quibbling with the idea that Bennet would know that about him. But it seemed like a pretty convenient way of solving the problem of how to capture him.

Does Peter's newly discovered spine give you hope for the future of Heroes? Who's Rebel? And who saves Parkman next week?

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