Thoughts on Chapter 2, Episode 1

I remember seeing an interview with Masi Oka (Hiro) in which he claimed a new viewer could start watching Heroes from this season and not be lost. Sorry Masi, I need to disagree. I tried to keep that idea in the back of my head while I watched the first new episode, and if I hadn't watched Season 1, I'd be completely lost. Four months later is right, but how would a new viewer be expected to know what's going on with Peter, Nathan, Claire, Mr. Bennett, and Hiro from the start here? It could be very confusing. Perhaps I missed the "previously on Heroes" that comes before the show too as I saw it on NBC.com streaming video. If that was there, things make more sense.

I don't want to by too cynical about the show just yet either since it's just the first episode. It had an interesting start but some of the stories were a bit jumbled together here. The person stalking the original Heroes (Kaito Nakamura, Angela Petrelli, etc), makes for an interesting plot. For some reason when I saw the mysterious character who took out Hiro's dad (plummeting off the roof with him), I thought Nathan Petrelli. I started thinking he just might have the motive to go after these people, because he believes they were all reason for Peter's "demise" and the almost blowing up of NYC.

It makes you wonder if the person who took out Hiro's dad is also the person haunting Molly Walker's dreams. That might toss the Nathan theory right out the window, and would make this very interesting. I'm very curious to see the powers of each of these characters (if they are seperate). Sylar has been a great villain but it's nice to meet some new ones too.

The revelation that the boy Claire met named Wes can fly is interesting, since he shares it in common with Nathan, Claire's father. The other new powers seen were the man who employed Mohinder for the company. He can turn objects to gold which is sort of neat. Imagine what Sylar would do with that. Also imagine what he would do with the new girl, Maya's power. Terrifying.

Hiro lost in time is kind of cool to see, because he hasn't really gone back so far in history before. Now he'll be involved in making some real history with Kensei the warrior and setting the course of things straight.

Finally, there is the Peter situation. It was a safe bet the top character on the show lived, but now it seems he's forgotten who he is and what he can do. I always dislike those sorts of plots, but that's probably what the writers want for now. The fact he was chained up inside a huge cargo container, it makes you wonder who put him there. Also, will Peter become part of a crime syndicate or gang? The guys who found him just might take him in.

Overall, I'm looking forward to the next episode as always, because I know some episodes are better than others. We still haven't seen Niki, Isaac, DL, Sylar, Candice and several others. They have plenty of time to make things interesting from here on out. The best part of the show is they give you plenty of room to imagine just about any scenario playing out. For example, with Sylar alive it's very possible Nathan has gone "bad", and Sylar will end his existence. Add to that the fact that Surseh is now a "Company Man", those both play right into the future that Hiro saw where Sylar had killed Nathan, and Suresh was part of the Company. Strangely suspicious but could become very interesting.