Jordan: Oh, Heroes.

I am a fan betrayed.

Tonight, instead of a new episode of Heroes, we’re being treated to a rerun of the Volume 4 premiere, “A Clear and Present Danger.” Hm, NBC. You’re being tricksy with us, I believe. I understand your motives. You want to try to boost ratings, aligning the new episodes with new episodes of the show that has near permanently eclipsed your once cash cow. I see what you’re doing there. While I applaud your efforts (lord knows that other show needs all the help it can get - more on that later), this rerun only serves as a painful reminder of what this volume could’ve been.

Volume 4: Fugitives started strong. “A Clear and Present Danger” was the best episode of Heroes that had been on in a very, very long time. It was character driven without getting bogged down in conversation and exposition. It gave subtle nods to what put it in it’s place with all the first season references. It set the stage for an epic battle, finally giving the villain a face, and that is a face we know well. I found myself caring for characters that I hadn’t cared for in about a year. Namely a certain Petrelli. During those last intense ten minutes of the episode, I found myself screaming, in my mind at least, Please don’t kill Peter, please don’t kill Peter. These characters were again real people thrown into a ridiculous situation. Claire was worried about college! Peter was an EMT! Mohinder was driving his cab! Parkman and Nemesis were struggling to regain normalcy! Hell, the whole Hiro and Ando role reversal was awesome.

And then, at the first sign of action, all of that was thrown out the window.

Sure, I knew what I was getting into with this volume. They made it clear in the very last minutes of the Villains finale, what with Nathan telling the Obama-knock off (come on, you were thinking it too) that these people are dangerous and needed to be rounded up, drugged, and chained like cattle. How did Japan let American agents come in and swipe two of their citizens with no consequences? Then, the plane crashed and everything went to hell. It was all about running. Not trying to hide behind their normalcy. It would’ve been much more riveting if they were trying to hide their mutant identities behind a real life, changing names and moving away. The first assertion that this “agency” that Nathan had made with this mysterious Hunter/Danko, was all-powerful, could find them anywhere at any time was quite possibly what ruined it. It didn’t up the stakes, like I’m sure they intended. If anything, it lowered them. Right, so right out of the gate we’re supposed to believe that this Danko guy knows everything about our mutants and is hell bent on destroying them. And yet, all they had to do was run. Even set up as the big bad villain of the volume, Nathan has failed to truly take any action. He’s tried to be slimy and manipulative, a shadow of first season Nathan that I loved so much, but the hypocrisy of his whole position is mocking him. He protects Claire and Peter because they are his family, but if they really wanted us to believe that he is as bad as he says he is, then he would’ve gone after them first. Actually, I would’ve been more surprised if Nathan wasn’t heading up this operation, Mama Petrelli was. That would’ve made for some intriguing television.

They keep trying to shove down our throats how bad she is, and yet we have yet to see her fully in action. Okay, so she was part of that big bad group they wiped out in Season two. So what? She was behind the Company/Primatech. So what? We have yet to see her be as scary as say, first season Sylar. If anything, I feel like she was once a vicious pit bull and has now been spayed.

OH. Speaking of Sylar. I’m sorry, what is the point of showing this stupid kid tagging along on his epic search for his father? Yes, we get it, he’s still human. But all of that is still negated by him wantonly killing, well, anyone. You can argue self defense, whatever, but I’m sick of being told that he’s still a human being with feelings and wants and needs and whatever, and yet he fails to make any real steps towards rectifying himself. The only real sign of it we had was in that future-jump episode in the last volume, with Daddy!Sylar.

I had faith in this volume, I really did. At this point, I’m so frustrated with the back and forth and the lack of a real narrative storyline, that if the next episode isn’t awesome, then I believe Heroes will be losing a viewer. I can’t invest myself in actions. I need to invest in characters and that was what Heroes once was. If it goes back to characters, then sure, I might watch. But even now, all the characters are so out of character, that it might not even be worth it anymore.