Season 4: Episode 5: "Tabula Rosa"

The fifth episode of Heroes "Redemption" is called Tabula Rosa which is Latin for "blank slate. The focus is on Sylar regaining his true memories, Hiro showing Emma how her ability works, and HRG traveling with Peter to locate a healer, so Peter can save Hiro's life.

At the carnival, Samuel talks with Claudia about Sylar. She says it's like he has two sides inside him at war with each other. Samuel goes to the small cart where Sylar is staying and starts to show him around the carnival. He talks to Sylar about finding out who he really is, and then moving on from that. He tells Sylar he's safe with them. He also introduces him to Claudia, who Sylar takes a liking to. Edgar, the fast knife wielder, oversees this and gets in Sylar's face. He tosses some knives his way so Sylar gets the idea of his power. Sylar accidentally uses telekinesis to fling the knives back towards Edgar. Samuel introduces Sylar to Damien, a man who can help him regain his true memories. Samuel also invites Captain Lubbock to the carnival, from the police squad who was pursuing Sylar through the woods.

Damien takes Sylar into the House of Mirrors where he puts his hands on his head to help Sylar regain his old memories. He begins to see all sorts of bad memories in the mirrors, including murdering his own mother, and various other people with abilities. Sylar screams for them to make it stop, then finally stumbles out of the House of Mirrors. Samuel finds him and tells Sylar that Captain Lubbock is at the carnival. He suggests Sylar puts everyone there in danger by being around. He tells Sylar to go to the House of Mirrors where he saw Lubbock go. Sylar goes in, and immediately the detective pulls his gun. Sylar warns him to leave before it gets ugly. He then brings back his electricity power and electrocutes the officer, right before he freezes a bullet in the air that Lubbock shot at him. Lubbock stands up and asks what Sylar is. Sylar is about to answer, but Edgar enters and slashes Lubbock up with his blades, then tells Sylar to go get a mop. Later, Edgar tells Samuel Sylar is useless to them if he can't kill. Samuel says they'll make a newer, stronger Sylar and he'll be all theirs. Meanwhile, a huge celebration is held after Sylar receives his baptism by Samuel to become the newest member of the carnival family.

Meanwhile, Peter has brought Hiro to the hospital where he informs him he's dying. Hiro says he knows, and reveals to Peter that he's been helping people fix wrongs now. He says maybe he was brought to Peter to help him. Peter suggests that maybe he's supposed to help Hiro instead. He touches Hiro's hand long enough to absorb his power. Peter bumps into Emma in the hallway and tells her he can't discuss her ability now, but that Hiro will tell her all about them. Peter teleports away, leaving Emma to go talk to Hiro.

Peter teleports over to see HRG and Claire. He tells them the story of how Hiro is dying and he needs to find a way to help. HRG looks up info on a case he worked before involving a boy named Jeremy who had the ability to heal. Peter and HRG determine he is in Georgia, and teleport off together to find the kid. When they arrive at the home in GA, everything that was once living is now dead around the exterior of the house. Upon entering, they discover two adults are dead in their chairs. Soon after, someone fires rifle shots at them from upstairs. It turns out to be Jeremy. HRG says he'll go talk to him, and sends Peter to the back staircase. Jeremy warns HRG that anyone he touches dies. HRG continues to tell him that he knows his powers, and they include the ability to heal as well. Jeremy doubts him, and keeps his rifle aimed at HRG. Peter teleports in the way, just as Jeremy fires a shot. Peter seems to stop time, but then realizes he didn't stop it in time, as the bullet has gone through him. Peter falls to the ground with blood all over him. HRG rushes to check on him and realizes Peter won't make it to a hospital. He convinces Jeremy to focus on his abilities and heal Peter. Jeremy is able to do so and Peter comes back to life. Peter now has Jeremy's power and Noah tells him to drive back to an airfield to catch a special flight back to save Hiro. HRG stays with Jeremy and tells him he made it look like a carbon manoxide accident. Noah agrees to stay with Jeremy until he's ok.

Back at the hospital, Hiro and Emma talk about abilities. Emma is asking how to turn hers off because she doesn't like it. Hiro tells her powers are a beautiful thing when used for good. He sees a flyer for a staff talent show for kids in the hospital. Hiro decides to go and perform magic tricks for the kids as "Hiro the Magnificent". Emma sees it and goes to watch. Hiro says he'll make her disappear for his next trick. He puts a white sheet in front of her and then with the audience mesmerized, he freezes time. Emma is able to see everyone stopped, and she can also see the colors of their noises in the air, also frozen. She walks around in amazement, touching the colors of the noises. Hiro tells her to go hide behind the curtain behind the audience. He unfreezes time, and says Abracdabra, then lowers the sheet, to show Emma's gone. After a few moments she reveals herself behind the audience, and everyone's amazed by the trick.

One particular nurse tells Hiro he really needs to stay put in his bed due to his condition. Despite that, Hiro leaves his bed again when he hears Emma is playing the piano beautifully. Several other nearby staff and others come to listen and watch her performance. Hiro comes in and tells her she has discovered the beauty of her ability. During all their talks he also remembers that it was Charlie who taught him to bring joy and dignity even in the face of death. He then has an "A-ha" moment, saying he forgot to put Charlie on his list of people to help before he dies. Emma has asked Hiro to promise he won't teleport away before Peter gets back. Peter returns to Emma, but unfortunately, Hiro teleports away in his hospital gear to three years ago in Texas, at the diner where Charlie waitresses. He looks in the window and sees the back of Charlie as she serves some customers. To be continued...

Season 4 Redemption Characters

In Heroes Season 4 entitled "Redemption", we've met quite the cast of characters straight out of a carnival freak show. In fact it's the Sullivan Bros. Carnival company, which is run by Samuel, who has become a sort of "anti-hero" looking for redemption. He considers himself and the others he presides over to be outcasts who need to redeem themselves in the wake of the death of his brother, Joseph. There's an interesting compass involved in all of this, which was buried with Joseph. It comes into play quite a bit throughout the episodes in Season 4, including a tattoo version that becomes an imprint on Peter's arm.

Samuel, played by Robert Knepper, is the leader of the Sullivan Brothers Carnival group. While not completely evil, he seems to serve as the main villain so far in the latest installment. He has the ability to move the dirt of the Earth with his hands, but also some sort of relationship with ink, as he can use it to create images as he pleases. We saw this when he uses it to tattoo his girlfriend so she can show him images, and when he puts himself into a newspaper article photo at Peter Petrelli's apartment.

One of the newest Heroes characters with Samuel is his henchman, Edgar (actor Ray Park) who is the "knife guy", also from Sullivan Bros. Carnival. Edgar has a cool set of knives and moves super fast with them. He seems reluctant to do the dirty work for Samuel at first, when he's asked to hunt down Danko and the compass. He ends up encountering Tracy Strauss and trying to slash her. Tracy survives the attack, but Danko doesn't and is killed by the new villain. Edgar goes to retrieve the compass from HRG and Peter, but meets his match in Peter who is an empath, capable of using his power. Park is no stranger to weaponry as he portrayed the evil lightsaber-wielding Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace, and the ninja Snake Eyes in the 2009 GI Joe movie. Park also has a strong martial arts background. According to this Kung Fu magazine article, for Heroes Park uses skeleton knives for his Edgar character and practiced for the role with Wushu knives. On a cool side note of trivia, Ray Park who plays Edgar is also the current voice of the Geico Gecko from the TV commercials.

Two other carnival workers we meet are Arnold and Claudia played by Dawn Olivieri. Claudia is the tattoo display girl who Samuel gives ink to and watches as faces form on her back. She's able to foretell the future or which Heroes will be part of their story by having them show up on her back in tattoo form. She's also Samuel's love interest. Arnold is an ailing older man, who seems to have a power similar to Hiro's. Unfortunately he's on a breathing apparatus and that is why Samuel searches out for Hiro Nakamura to replace Arnold's powers.

Deanne Bray, is the deaf actress who portrays a similar heroic character named Emma. She's deaf and has the ability to see sounds in a colorful way. We learn that when we see her grab a stringed instrument in the park and start playing beautifully to the amazement of the local crowd and Peter Petrelli. She was also seen complaining to a nurse at the hospital Peter works at about her senses seeming to be jumbled. She uses a set of headphones to block out sounds from her ears, which Peter notices aren't plugged into anything.

Another character we meet is Claire's new quirky college buddy, Gretchen (Madeline Zima). She's a curious one, and learns of Claire's powers. She also knows of Claire's whole Homecoming saga, where Claire witnessed a cheerleader being murdered by Sylar. Gretchen and Claire didn't exactly share a lesbian love scene at college, but instead Gretchen got to cut Claire's palm and watch it heal. She said she'd never done it before. Madeline Zima who plays Gretchen was also on the hit show Californication starring David Duchovny.

We're sure to meet even more character as the Heroes Redemption season unfolds. We've seen Janice Parkman, The Haitian, Sandra Bennet, Kimiko Nakamura, and Matt Parkman's new detective partner all featured in various episodes as well. It's notable that Mohinder Suresh has been missing from the show, so far and that the openings are no longer narrated by him.