Don't forget to vote in this episode's poll!

If you have an overall negative opinion of this episode or several aspects of it, please post them here.

This thread will be only for "venting" about what someone felt was particularly bad with the episode.

Please do not post replies trying to show why you think a member's opinion is wrong in this thread. These types of posts will be deleted. This is not a debate thread, there are plenty of other topics available for the exchange of ideas.

If there is an obvious factual error, such as "Claire was never a cheerleader", a correction may be posted. However, do not use this as an opportunity to violate the spirit of this thread.

The Claire/Gretchen scenes are so boring.

The new addition to Emma's power.

It was fine when it was just seeing sounds, but they're making too much like sound manipulation now. Which is just a re-hash of Echo and Jesse's power, with a small twist.

I enjoy seeing the more human side of the characters. They're not so cartoony any more. To that, the initial scenes with Emma and Peter discovering their (now) mutual power was kinda magical. But they keep playing similar scenes of tingly 'discovery' over and over...they've milked the blossoming relationship thing. How much longer until Peter acquires a new talent and breaks the poor girl's heart? (Who wants to see the already vulnerable deaf woman's heart plummet again when she realizes she's alone with her gift?) Anyway, that's speculation.

The Claire/Gretchen storyline was interesting -- a mini-murder mystery we all could sleuth! I spied for clues, weighed how Gretchen was acting and reacting to Claire, and was taking notes on everything at that school. Then, whammy! They give us an -e x t e n d e d- montage of step-by-step what happened. Presto! Mystery solver the Agatha Christie way -- introduce the culprit in the final chapter of the story. Bah! All the fun taken away. That said, I do enjoy the Claire scenes because she finally gets to act her "age" -- 18!

Obviously I think everyone is watching Claire/Gretchen not to see if they would make out, but if -- when? -- Gretchen finally reveals her power. Though, wouldn't it be refreshing to see a girl get by merely using her normal brain? Not everyone has to be a special.

I get nervous thinking Nathan might be out of the picture for good. How are they ever going to bring him back? I smell a monstrous plot leap headed this way...

The only other complaint I have is, where is the symbol? I looked and looked. Is the hidden symbol now gone from the show?

The episode was a little slow... I kinda felt like last weeks episode had a perfect balance of being a lead up episode, while at the same time keeping a good pace with enough stuff going on to keep us really interested. This week, I feel like they kinda got off kilter a bit.

Everyone says how much they love episodes that focus on only a few characters, and usually I'm right there with them, but this week isn't the case. We had, essentially, three main characters present, Peter, Claire, and Sylar, and no story, with the exception of Peters, really interested me much.

Why did the cop pull his gun out on Sylar in the very beginning as if he already knew that he had done something? I feel like they took the long route to getting Sylar to the carnival.

Same with Claire. They lead up that Gretchen is weird, that there's something more to her, and then we find out that that isn't the case. And then there's the whole Claire at college thing... Her wanting to be normal, all that fun stuff. It's just all a little too everyday.

In the end, it wasn't a horrible episode, or even a bad one really. I just feel like all of the important stuff could have been packed into another episode... There just wasn't enough 'meat' in the episode to fill my appetite. Hopefully next week they can get the pacing back to where it needs to be.

Oh, and as a side note, there was no Ali, so it already started off on the wrong foot!

Let's keep the discussion on topic please, which is Negative Reviews... Gracias!

Negative? Okay...

• All of the women's makeup were distractingly heavy, like they took their makeup tips from an early 80s smokey-eyed prom queen. I couldn't stop staring at the length of 18 year-old Claire's eyelashes as she pranced to the...lunchroom?
• Of all people to discover a freshly exhumed Sylar...a cop? And he brings him in for questioning when it seems medical attention would be more appropriate? I don't think detectives bring every homeless drunk in for questioning -- they cart them off to rehab. At that point, I wouldn't think they would care what their identity is.
• What police department is going to expend money on a police psychologist to pick a drunk or drug addict's brain? Again, another expense that doesn't make sense.
• Having a deaf woman control sound? Is that justice...or merely cruel irony? I'm all for disabled people and actors on television (we need more), but is this being handled well? (She's also brilliant and accomplished...but has an insecurity issue that makes her run away?)
• The cheapness of the sets is starting to show. Before, supers were found all over the world...now they seem to only exist within the same 25-mile area of southern California. Must be from cutbacks?
• A 20 year-old invisible girl who murders 18 year-old college women? Eessh.
• The omnipotence of Samuel is starting to get annoying. He's always a step ahead -- of everything -- and always wins. It's like a Deux Ex Machina device -- where 'God' literally appears at the end of a convoluted scene and just solves everything merely with his presence. How satisfying is it when, whenever we see Samuel, we know he will win over whomever he appear to? Boring.
• Even though Claire has obviously been given direction to return to her prom queen acting, she should remember she once donned kick-a** leather and hunted baddies all by herself. She shouldn't be acting completely shocked and stunned when she sees evidence that her roommate might be a murderer. Her mousey indecision seems less in character.

Instead of calling this volume 'Heroes: Redemption' it really should be called 'Heroes: Boredom' because lately it has been wreaking of it.


First off, deaf girl. Oooooooh, she can see sound................................................
and then what? Why is it becoming such a big deal?


Second, Claire at college has become the worst character plot that has ever come out of this show. And, once again, Claire was whining about wanting to be normal. Come the FANTASTIC on! I thought we got past that like, a season ago. Since I watch the show on video cassette, I had the temptation to fast forward through all of Claire and Gretchen's scenes. Unfortunately I didn't. Claire is a member of Thi Alta Delta Cappa now. YAY!!

Third, Peter. He still has broken free of his moron days and has finally been developing into a more likable character yet, he demonstrated complete control over his new touch based mimicry last season and then, SUDDENLY, he forgot how when he picked up seeing sounds as colors? RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRright!


Fourth, like I figured Sylar would already be re-emerging four or five episodes into the season. And, now that he is with the carnival, I bet he'll kill all of them for their powers within three episodes.



If it wasn't for the carnival, I probably would have quit watching this train wreck of non-direction and boredom after the third episode of this season. The carnival people are really the only thing intriguing this year so how about we get to see more of that plot and how it ties in with the regulars and less time filling material like Claire deciding which class to take or Matt's AA meetings?


Will Heroes finally get back on track next week? Tune into the negative review thread for the next episode of Heroes to find out, my friends.

I spent most of the episode looking at my watch to see what time it was, and if the episode was over! enough said!

Let's not have the show focus on the cheap thrill of Claire's lesbian kiss, and lets have some actual story! the fact they had to have the montage to explain all the things that happened, tells you it was bad writting! This episode is worst of the season by far!

I liked Sylar's part of this episode. It may be that he'll be back in serial killer mode within a couple weeks, but I felt that, in this episode, his scenes were the strongest of the bunch.

That said, I hated everything else about this episode. Peter and Emma spend the whole episode looking at pretty colors, and at the end we see Emma make a crack in the wall with her violin powers, but I don't care. I've already lost interest. Claire and Gretchen spend the whole episode chatting, and at the end we get the lesbian kiss, but I don't care, because I've already lost interest. Samuel and Lydia spend the whole episode talking about family, and then at the end Sylar joins the carnival. This I care about, because Sylar had a good role in this week's episode. But if it had been anybody else, it's likely that I wouldn't have been nearly as appreciative of that final scene.

This season has been miserably bad so far. Still wondering whether or not it'll turn out better than Villains.

I found the episode to be kind of boring... Not much seemed to happen, and they focused on "Let's Watch Scene's Unfold" way, way to long in my humble opinion.

Post Script ~ The symbol was the tacks on the wall trim next to Peter's newspaper clippings..

Agree with most of the above. The only interest now is how long before and in which ways will Sylar kill all the bad carny's.

If the show de-volves back into that mode, I'll most certainly quit watching forever.

This. I agree completely. It's the reason that I feel Sylar should've been long gone by now

i agree, i think his character has run it's course, let someone else be the boggieman. if he was gone, we might take more seriously the threat of the carnival to everyone else, but you don't feel it.

To all fairness I must say that he didn't knew she had a ability in the first place and even after he saved her he came in indirect contact with others too so he couldn't knew what he even took.
It was already showcased in season 3 that he can take a power selectively(mohinder in the plane) but also in stressful situations(tracy in the plane) accidentaly.


One name: Sylar! Was always the same and still many people and probably including you aswell didn't found him boring.



Fully agree!

Which totally made me laugh because I NEVER find the symbols and it was like right there in your face, in such an obvious way... I've even done that with tacs on a cork board before, come on. lol

The thing that REALLY bugged me about this one (as others have mentioned) was the cop's reaction to Sylar. A man, stumbling down the road, clearly either drunk or hurt, and you pull your gun on him and arrest him?! WTF. No. That is NOT how that would go down. Not even on cops. You pull the guy off to the side of the road, ask him a few questions to see if he is drunk or hurt, ask for ID, call a paramedic (Now that would have been interesting, right?!) You don't pull your gun out on him like he's got a bomb strapped to his chest. The way the dude was acting I thought for sure he knew who Sylar was already! That actually made me pretty mad.

Also, the carnival. It's boring. It's weird. Carneys. Smell like cabbage... small hands...

I know I'm not allowed to defend the show in this thread but when you see a man walking along the side of the road at night in a forest with bullet holes and blood over him, you would probably pull out your gun for safety.

Sorry I just had to say that.

Well considering mr Cop man had his gun pulled before he saw the guy with any wounds or blood on him, I'd have to jump to the only other obvious conclusion. He's a pre-cog. Also, yes... once noticing this person has blood on them, you might cuff him and ask for some ID, but you would not bring them into interrogation for not knowing who he was. You would call an ambulance and maybe escort him to the hospital. Especially when it's very visible that the blood is actually from him, even though he doesn't have the wounds to prove it.

Man, I hear my husband complaining about the way police are portrayed on TV all the time. The over dramatics of it all... and this time, I'd have to say he was right. If he watched the show. Which he doesn't. I'm just going on the assumtion that I know he would say these things. LOL

what we want to see is all the good heroes come together and take down the bad, sorta like angela and her gang vs arthur and his gang...but that never happened.. and now the plot isn't going anywhere. we need THE COMANY back

Supposedly, according to events from the end of last season, a new incarnation of 'The Company' was supposed to be created. It certainly would be much more interesting than the 'free-floating' feel of the show we've got now. I seriously HATE unleashing negative comment after negative comment about Heroes, but thus far the season has no plot point to work towards. In all of the previous three seasons, there was always something the characters were working towards whether it be thwarting a nuclear-type explosion in New York City, stopping the release of an incurable virus set to kill millions, stop a madman from unleashing super powers in a bottle to just about anyone, and fighting to survive being hunted by a government task force set out to neutralize 'Specials'.


Now, as far as season four, volume five goes, there certainly isn't a clear plot point being worked towards. We've got bits and pieces of a mysterious 'Special' leading a carnival family of 'Specials' outwardly seeking other 'Specials' to make their "family" whole. However, instead of elaborating on that, we're bombarded with scenes that range from mundane to almost nearly unwatchable by a sane person with the established characters either re-inserted into normal life or trying to resist what they are.

Notable exceptions are Hiro, Ando and Peter. Hiro and Ando have their somewhat ridiculous 'Dial a Hero' service that DOES make an attempt to help others in need and Peter using his ability to enhance his life saving capacities as a paramedic. So, out all of the characters, we only have three true 'Heroes' out there trying to make some sort of a difference. BUT, no clear idea of where the season or series is even heading towards. Why is it so hard to not only devise an established path for the show, but balance the action and drama together? When it comes to action or drama we either get an overload of one or the other.


All I apparently ever hear are "Everyone likes Heroes the way it is" but, obviously those people who like the herky, jerky, unclear future of the series that has no idea how to keep a consistent plot cannot fathom the rest of us who want things to be better. Why else are there so many posts in these recent 'Negative Reviews' threads if something isn't pathetically wrong?