SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, open the hilt of the samurai sword I’ve placed in your desk drawer. Boy, was it hard getting that thing past security!
NBC Photo: Chris Haston
So, Nikki Reed’s loss was Missy Peregrym’s gain was Candice Wilmer’s loss. Peregrym (the original illusionist-villainess Candice on Heroes) was cast over the summer to replace Reed on Reaper, leaving a gap in the Candice department. Not the worst of casting problems, you’d think, since the character was by definition able to make herself look like anyone. (Note to actresses: avoid roles like this. Zero contract-negotiation leverage.)
But Candice lasted all of one episode in her re-shifted form, killed by the still-alive Sylar (a “surprise” NBC blew weeks ago in the promos) in a vain attempt to steal her power. This after not only saving his life but offering him a twins fantasy! The ingrate!
All in all, an episode full of kisses and foreboding. Peter, having proved his worth to the Fake Irish in the robbery of one of those sports books they’re so fond of in fake Ireland, kissed Little Miss Fake Ireland as we watched the tattoo briefly shift into the shape of the Squiggly Thingy of Death. Claire, meanwhile, was swept literally off her feet by Flyboy, who smooched her before revealing that he had once been captured, and marked on the neck, by a man who answers to the description of HRG. Which kiss was later echoed in the painting, predicting HRG’s violent death, that Isaac left behind after his death. (He just keeps churning out posthumous work. Dude’s the Tupac of the psychic art world.)
A lot of balls in the air here–I counted seven storylines treated in this episode, and I may have missed one–and while we can complain about the show having re-dispersed the heroes for no discernable reason, what’s done is done. At this point, I’m going to try to suspend judgment until we have a better sense of how these balls are going to collide and carom off one another.
But it’s as good a time as any to poll you on the various plot threads: which ones do you care about? Which ones can you do without? And does adding Nichelle Nichols to the Nikki/Micah storyline redeem that one for you? I don’t know, but seeing as how the Star Trek franchise is getting Zachary Quinto, it seems like more than a fair trade.