Heroes, Season 4 – Episode 17: The Art of Deception

This has been the worst season ever for Heroes.  They have not recovered since the writer’s strike of ’07.  You’d see glimmers of hope every couple of episode, then they crash and burn the following week.  This season has been full of crashes and burns.  Matter of fact, they should burn the scripts and call it a wrap.  Anyway, recap time….

At the carnival, everyone’s kind of on edge since Samuel brought forth the destruction of an entire town. He gets into it with Lydia because she doesn’t trust him anymore, and everyone is looking up to her for their next move. Samuel decides he’ll do whatever he has to, to get back in the family’s good graces, which I’m assuming will mean things get worse before they get better.

Peter has a weird, messed up dream about Emma and Sylar at the carnival.  Sylar is going to save Emma somehow and oh, I get why this volume is called Redemption now.  Peter wakes up and calls Emma, but she doesn’t answer.  I don’t know how he was going to talk to her via his cell phone anyway.  What the hell?   Did he forget that she’s deaf?  He goes to see his mother and they discuss the mutual dream they shared.  She reminds him that just because Sylar might help Emma, it doesn’t mean he will be reformed.  Somehow, Angela knows where Sylar is and she tells Peter.

Sylar is at Parkman’s place where he talked up Mrs. Parkman by telling her he was on the force with Matt.  Matt comes home of course, and isn’t all that excited to see Sylar.  There’s a tense lunch were Mrs. Parkman is amazingly clueless before Sylar and Matt retreat to the basement.  Sylar admits that he needs Matt to go back into his head and take all of the abilities away. Matt says he’ll try, but only after Sylar threatens Janice’s life.

Matt goes into Sylar’s head and on try number one, nothing happens. So, he tries again. Strike two! Janice walks in with bad timing and Sylar throws her against a wall with his telekinesis. His threat doubles, and he says he’ll REALLY kill Janice. Matt tries to teach Sylar that he’s more than his abilities, and Sylar lets Janice go. She tells Matt that Sylar is broken and he has to be buried so deep that he can never come back. Matt tries for the third time and we see flashes of Sylar’s life in black and white before Matt pulls away.

Sylar says he doesn’t feel any different but when he tries his abilities on Matt, they don’t work.  Instead of taking his abilities away though, Matt trapped Sylar in his own head.  I’m not exactly sure what happened, but now he’s trapped in a nightmare and Matt bricks him up in his basement.   Then, who should show up but Peter who immediately takes Matt’s ability and finds out about Sylar. Matt tries to warn him, but Peter goes into Sylar’s head and it’s an empty city.

Gretchen decides to force Claire to tell Noah about her Sylar escapades.  There’s hand holding and supportive gestures before Claire goes up to her dad’s apartment.  TWIST: Lauren answers the door and Noah isn’t even there.  Claire sees all the carnival stuff lying around and starts asking questions.  Lauren explains via some fantastic Sprint product placement that Samuel buried a town and that the more specials he has around him, the more powerful he gets.

Back at the dorms, Claire tries to get Gretchen to give her some advice, but Gretchen is deciding not to be the supportive girlfriend type and instead be argumentative about the carnival and how Noah was right about it.  Claire doesn’t have time for this, and she borrows Gretchen’s car to head back to the carnival.  She meets with Lydia who finds out quickly that Noah is heading to the carnival to kill Samuel. Somehow Eli heard all of that from like, four trailers away.

Samuel heard it too, or else Eli told him that fast, and confronts both Lydia and Claire, saying that he wished he could take back what he did. Claire argues that he has to take responsibility by turning himself in to her dad but Samuel’s with me in knowing that Noah tends to screw these things up.

Meanwhile, Noah and Lauren are already staking out the carnival because they managed to use that homemade compass.  They hone in on Samuel, and then Claire through their sniper rifles. Claire calls her dad and tells him that Samuel is willing to turn himself in as long as the rest of the carnival goes unharmed.  Lauren also doesn’t believe this will go down that easily and decides she’ll be the one to go collect Samuel.

Before his big surrender, Samuel addresses the family and apologies for his shady leadership skills.  As he speaks, Noah just can’t help it and starts firing, taking a shot at Samuel and then accidentally shooting Claire in the throat.  That is the best way to show you care, I’ve heard. TWIST: It’s not Noah, it’s Eli. Samuel needed a villain bigger than him, so the family would look to him again.  Lauren gets shot, and then we find out Lydia is hit too. Lydia dies, knowing the truth about what Samuel did.

Eli drags Noah in and he manages to tell Claire that he didn’t do the shooting before he’s dragged away to be tied up in the House of Mirrors.  Claire is sent to Samuel’s trailer. Samuel calls Emma, and there’s some kind of medical set up which is so convenient, now she can help them all. But she’s really there to create a New World, just don’t tell anyone.  Samuel tells the family that it’s time to show the world what the carnival truly is.

Meanwhile, Lauren is still bleeding to death in the woods, and she calls Tracy Strauss.

End of episode.