Heroes Recap: Episode 3.15 "Trust and Blood"

The second chapter of the newest volume of Heroes wasn't quite as strong as the first one, but it kept things moving in a positive direction. I guess the writers were wanting to keep the fugitive heroes as weak in power base as possible, based on the casualty we experienced in this episode. In a way, I can say I knew it was coming, but was hopeful that it wouldn't. While I agree that the cast had gotten a little sprawling and out of control at times thorughout the series progression, I never thought this character was a problem.

And at the same time, we're working with a pretty small cast at this time anyway. We've got the band of fugitives, Nathan and his cronies, and Sylar's quest for fatherly love. I wanted the initial chase to last a little longer than it did. The idea of our heroes running through the woods trying to figure out how to get away from hunters hot on their tails was too good to wrap up so quickly and easily. And how good were those hunters anyway? They let everyone come back together at the crash site.

I guess I'm not as enamored with this chapter as I was with the first. As much as I got annoyed at the way Daphne pursed her lips, I liked her as a character, and she would have been handy to have around in their new lives. Not to mention adding some much needed estrogen to the fugitive band. The writers got Tracy captured, Claire sent home and Daphne dead. Don't think the ladies can handle life on the run? You don't have that many women on the cast to begin with.

We got some explanation of Peter's power, which makes it a lot more volatile and unpredictable than before. Not to mention a lot less powerful. Not only can he only have one power at a time, it looks like he has no control of the switch. Last week, when he touched Tracy he accidentally picked up her freezing power, subsequently losing Mohinder's super-strength.

So now we have a new game we can play. Right now Peter has Nathan's flight ability. But as soon as he touches anyone else, he'll lose that. Flight is a pretty handy ability when you're a fugitive. Certainly more effective than super-strength, power enhancement or even Matt's mental abilities.

Yes, Matt was able to take over that hunter and mow down the competition, but he can still easily be overwhelmed whereas Peter can just disappear. I would be interested to see what Matt is capable of when Ando-boosted, though. Assuming, that is, that he can learn to control the cacophony of voices he's overwhelmed by.

Hiro has switched places with Mohinder as the non-powered "hero" on the team. Now, when Peter got dosed with the serum, it brought back his powers, albeit in a reduced capacity. When Mohinder got doused with the serum, his power set was also reduced. So the door is open for Hiro to get a modified version of his powers back. I'm thinking, since they don't want the time travel he can settle for stopping time or teleportation.

Since they got rid of Daphne I don't think they want the fugitives to be able to move to new locations very quickly, so let's go with stopping time. Still very effective and potentially powerful, and it creates those cool visuals that made the show special in the beginning. Now we just get Nathan glowering at the screen all the time. At least it cuts away from Claire's whining scenes.