TV Review: NBC Heroes, "Exposed"

Tonight on NBC’s Heroes:

• Sandra Bennett (Ashley Crow) stops playing the gullible, only concerned about her dog, doormat and helps her Claire’s (Hayden Panettiere) fugitive friend, Alex (Justin Baldoni) get away from the government agents parked outside. 

• Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) and Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) follow their noses through Building 26 and find out where Daphne “The Speedster” Millbrook (Brea Grant) is only to have Matt captured in the process. 

• Sylar (Zachary Quinto) wanders down memory lane in an abandoned diner to learn that his father apparently sold him to someone there and then killed his mom for objecting. 

• Peter almost gets himself killed for believing that the government will, in fact, negotiate with terrorists, and afterwards gets shot shortly before being rescued by his flying brother, Nathan. 

• And Matt becomes the fulfillment of his own painted prophecy as the man standing on the National Mall with a bunch of explosives strapped to his body.
  

What I really liked about tonight's Heroes is that everyone became active again instead of just sitting around bickering about this and that. Heroes is the most exciting when the heroes are out doing something and not just trying to deal with their inner angst.

I really like that we’re seeing in Claire’s mom more of what we saw earlier in the series when she was actually out taking risks with Claire. It was frustrating for me to see her at the beginning of this volume looking as if she’d had her mind wiped once again by the Haitian. I hope to see more of her taking charge of this modern day “Underground Railroad.”

I think it’s funny that they picked an actor to portray Claire’s fugitive, Alex, who can breath underwater, someone who looks a lot like Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps. Oh, that’s right… the 2008 Summer Olympics were on NBC this year. Maybe NBC is still trying to ride his wave.

I’m happy that it looks like we’re finally going to ditch the annoying kid, Luke (Dan Byrd), who’s been tagging along with Sylar. One problem is, I didn’t see anything that happened in their little meeting in the diner that made me think that Sylar had any better idea where to find his dad. If anything, I think he’d want to hang on to the little creep a little longer since he still seems to be the only one who knows how to find Sylar’s evil Daddy. I just hope that when Sylar finally tracks down his dad, that it won’t culminate in an epic talk-off.

Finally, who is this mysterious “Rebel” who keeps offering insider tips to the heroes on the run and who facilitated the happy reunion between Claire and Eric “The Puppetmaster” Doyle (David H. Lawrence XVII). My guess, and hope, is that “Rebel” is Claude (Christopher Eccleston), the character from season one who can make himself invisible and tutored Peter initially on how to control his powers. He was a cool character and it would be great to see him return.