TV episode review
US airdate 29 October 2007 (NBC)

Having lied to her father that she had taken up cheerleading again as a cover for seeing West, Claire tries to cover her tracks by trying out for the team. When the snooty queen bee turns her down, she and West concoct a plan to get their own back. HRG, meanwhile, is in Russia on the trail of more of Isaac’s paintings. In other events, Hiro meddles a little too much in history and Suresh seems to be regretting his involvement with Bob...

Now really, the only major plot developments in this episode are to do with Bennett and his quest to find out what’s going on by finding the rest of Isaac’s paintings. These scenes work well dramatically, not least because after a few episodes looking like he was all softened up, he gets to play the bad guy again. Next to this the other storylines seem ineffectual.

The Claire thread that dominates the plot is little more than an episode of a teen soap. Sylar, along with his new Honduran buddies, is making excruciatingly slow progress on the road – and boy are Maya and Alejandro’s repetitive set pieces getting tedious. Nothing much is happening with other characters either, though Hiro is managing to get himself in some serious entanglements.

Only the climax of the Peter thread has oomph – and even here it only seems to replicate Hiro’s initial jaunt to New York in the first season. Volume 2 is beginning to seriously disappoint. Brigid Cherry

VERDICT: 6/10

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