Heroes Premiere: Orientation; Jump, Push, Fall Recap

After a staggeringly successful first season, Heroes has unfortunately stumbled its way through two less than stellar follow-ups. With a some promising episodes last season, the Heroes show runners were hoping to recapture the original fans and hang on to those that were ready to give up. As season four began tonight, the TV world was waiting to see if Heroes could return to the excitement and captivating drama of that brilliant first season. The two hour Heroes premiere episodes, "Orientation" and "Jump, Push, Fall", caught us up with our favorite characters and introduced us to a new pack of people with abilities.

Heroes Premiere: The Freaks at the Circus

Heroes introduces us to a group of goth-esque circus folks who are gathered at a funeral. The leader gives a eulogy that talks about others out there that are like them, and that eventually they would all go home. He tells the coffin that he'll be home soon, and throws a compass down into the grave before telekinetically moving the dirt in over the coffin.

Heroes Premiere: Peter the Hero

Peter Petrelli is now working as an every day hero--a paramedic. He's working three shifts at a time, pushing himself hard to save as many lives as possible. He uses his powers in secret to help him get to victims faster and pull them out of dangerous situations. He keeps to himself and refuses any offers of friendship from his ambulance partner. It's all about the paramedic work.

Heroes Premiere: Claire the Student

Not all Heroes are brilliant honors students. Claire attends college and ends up with a frenetic, over-achieving roommate who has her life mapped out for the next 12 years. She talks Claire into joining her for a qualifier test to get into an advanced algebra course. Claire is stunned by the impossibly hard test question, then has a fearful vision of being captured by government agents in the middle of the lecture. She bails on the test and says it's not the class for her.

Elsewhere on campus she runs into Gretchen (Madeline Zima), who recognizes her name from the cheerleader murder incident in Odessa, Texas. Claire is disturbed by this, since she hoped she could start with a clean slate at college as her true self, without any lies or fuss about her past.

Heroes Premiere: Hiro and Ando Run Their Own Business

In Heroes' "Orientation; Jump, Push, Fall", Hiro and Ando are working out of an office in Hiro's family company. They've started "Dial a Hero", a business to help people, but the only client they receive is a girl who needs her cat rescued. Ando climbs up to save the cat, and Hiro stops time when Ando falls. Ando is saved, but then Hiro freezes when time resumes. Ando takes him back to the office where he finally recovers.

When Ando becomes overly concerned over his nosebleeds and headaches, Hiro confesses he's been to the doctor and that he's dying. Ando is shocked, and insists Hiro go back in time and change the course of his life to avoid the damage. Hiro refuses, worried about the "butterfly effect" and all the people he's helped. Looking at a photo from his childhood, however, he teleports back to a circus that he, his sister, and Ando attended 14 years earlier.

Heroes Premiere: Tracy Returns

Heroes just doesn't seem to want to let go of Ali Larter. Tracy Strauss, the ice queen of Heroes, has formed herself back into a human again. Her revenge for getting broken apart? Killing Danko and Noah and anyone else that participated in her capture and "murder". Danko shows up in Noah's life just in time to save him from Tracy's attempt to drown Noah in his own car.

Danko suggests they work together to kill her first. Noah says he's not on that path anymore and that he's on his own. When Tracy confronts Noah in a diner, he offers her a truce, and says he'll get Danko to forget all about her. She doesn't believe him, but leaves without harming him in. Noah meets Danko and tries to buy him off of his mission of chasing people with abilities. Danko's not interested, so Noah has the Haitian wipe his memory of Tracy.

Heroes Premiere: Tracy Misses Her Shot

Tracy goes ahead with her plan to kill Danko, but discovers he's had his memory wiped. She's about to leave him when Danko gets distracted by an intruder in his apartment. Tracy hears a scuffle and investigates--and discovers one of the circus folk (Ray Park) slicing and dicing Danko at lightning speed. He tries to kill Tracy, but she morphs into water to avoid his knives.

Tracy calls Noah and swears that she didn't kill Danko. Noah is curious about why Danko was slashed in the abdomen instead of the neck. Fishing in Danko's remains, he discovers a key to a safety deposit box.

Heroes Premiere: Death on Campus

Claire attends a school mixer and runs into Gretchen again. Gretchen apologizes for bringing up bad memories and the two begin a friendship. Claire's energetic roommate challenges her to a game of Guitar Hero, but Claire tells her she and Gretchen are going to play together and just have fun. Her roommate is clearly upset at Claire's underachieving ways, and choice of game partner.

Claire returns to her room later that night and discovers the window open, and her roommate sprawled dead on the ground below. When questioned by the police later, she swears that the suicide note they found wasn't there when she came into the room. They don't seem inclined to imagine murder, and when Claire's mother arrives, she urges Claire to drop the whole thing.

Heroes Premiere: Detective Matt Parkman

At the beginning of Heroes' "Orientation; Jump, Push, Fall", Angela Petrelli attempts to enlist Matt's help in cleaning out Sylar's memories again to preserve him as Nathan. Matt tells her he's done using his power. He's been having some strange visions, and he vows not to use his mind-reading and manipulation skills again. Angela tells him "There's no 'out' for people like us", but Matt tells her she's on her own.

Later we see Matt having disturbing visions of Sylar, and Heroes turns into Battlestar Galactica for awhile. As Gaius Baltar had Six lurking in his brain, tempting and manipulating him, so Matt Parkman has Sylar as the devil on this shoulder. Sylar tells Matt he wants his body back, and keeps turning up in visions throughout Matt's day at work as a police detective. Sylar insists Matt will uses his powers again, and torments him until Matt weakens and gives in. Suspecting his wife of cheating with a repairman, Matt manipulates the guy into asking his bosses for a different work route.

Heroes Premiere: The Lonely Guys on a Mission

Noah visits Peter's apartment, stating wryly "I love what you've done with the place" as he views the empty rooms. He warns Peter of the dangers of being alone, speaking of his own experience as a struggling father with two kids away at college and an ex-wife who already has a new boyfriend. He asks Peter for his help in obtaining the safety deposit box Danko had the key for. He knows he's no match for the slice-and-dice circus freak. Peter agrees to go with him when he hears the guy has "super fast" skills.

Opening the safety deposit box, Noah discovers a compass like the one we saw in the Heroes opening funeral scene. It's broken, and Peter is stunned that anyone would be killed over a compass. Just then the bank employee enters the room with a slashed back, and the circus villain demands the compass back. He's surprised when Peter grabs him and absorbs his skill, matching him move for move. The guy vaporizes, and Peter quickly hurries to save the bank employee.

At the hospital later, Peter looks in on the bank employee's recovery. Noah shows the compass to Peter, and it begins to spin in Peter's hand. When Noah takes it back, it no longer works. He asks Peter to help him on this latest mission, but Peter wants no part of it. He's saved 53 lives as a paramedic, and with one single case with Noah, someone almost died.

Heroes Premiere: Circus Freaks Recruit a Hiro

Head circus freak Samuel (Robert Knepper) consults an ailing man on oxygen and asks him to send him back in time. Using the circus' fortune teller, who tells the present and future in tattoos that appear on her back, Samuel has discovered that Hiro is going back 14 years in the past to their circus. Samuel goes back in time and meets Hiro, telling him that some things in the past can be changed without causing damage to the future. He appeals to Hiro's sensitive side, convincing him to prevent young Ando's slushy accident that ruined Hiro's sister's dress and turned Kimiko against Ando forever.

Hiro returns to Ando and discovers that the future has changed, and that Ando and Kimiko are now in love. He tells Ando that he was responsible for their romance, and that he's discovered his new calling--he will right all of the wrongs that he has committed in his life. Ando is concerned about his health, but Hiro says he will do good with the time he has left. Meanwhile, Samuel informs his followers that Hiro will soon be their new time traveling member.

Heroes Premiere: Peter and Tracy Save Noah

Perhaps heeding Noah's words about being alone, Peter makes a friendly gesture toward his ambulance partner, bringing him fresh clam chowder from Boston. When asked how he got it, he says "I know a guy." Then a late night emergency call has Peter the paramedic once again playing lone hero. Turns out this time it's Noah who's been sliced up, and as Peter works to save him, Noah tells him the compass has been taken.

Peter is successful in his efforts and we see Noah recuperating in a hospital bed. Tracy shows up for a visit, but she's not sure why Noah called her. Noah explains how pretty much everyone he knows is unavailable, and Tracy says she understands that he didn't want to be alone. She offers to share some clam chowder soup that someone mysteriously left for Noah, and there seems to be a possible flirtation between the two.

Asked if he'll try to get the compass back, Noah says he's unsure. Tracy tells him maybe his job shouldn't be about capturing those with abilities anymore--maybe he should try to find a way to help them. Noah seems open to the idea.

Heroes Premiere: Sylar Reemerging

Nathan's not feeling like himself, and tells his mother Angela he feels like his memories are the recollections of a stranger. He vows to get to know all of the people in his life better and become closer to his family. Angela tries to distract him from too much self-awareness, and tells him that it's all simply a mid-life crisis.

Later, when Nathan is working, he moves the coffee cup into his hand with telekinesis. When he's trying to recreate the act, he gets sudden electricity between his hands. He calls Peter and leaves him a message, saying that something is happening and he thinks Peter is the only one who would understand and be able to help him. As he goes into another room, he turns the light switch on without touching it. It's clear that Sylar is reemerging.

Heroes Premiere: Claire Discovered

Of all the heroes, Claire seems to be the one who's always letting someone in on the secret. When her friend Gretchen shows an unnatural interest in Claire's roommate's death, checking out forensics books and suggesting they investigate, Claire gets a little weirded out and says she's not interested in taking it that far.

Later that night, however, Claire thinks about Gretchen's suggested experiment of throwing a cadaver out of the window to see where it lands. The distance the body travels will illustrate if the means of death was a "jump, push, or fall". Claire decides to use herself as the test dummy and jumps out the window. She picks herself up and discovers she landed right in the chalk outline, proving the suicide theory. But when she looks up at her window, she sees Gretchen staring down at her, an obvious witness to her healing powers.

Heroes Premiere: Orientation -- Jump, Push, Fall

This was definitely a good start to the Heroes season. We have personal journeys for our heroes, as well as a possible connection with the circus folks that they haven't yet discovered. Many of our heroes are actually acting like heroes again, which is much more enjoyable than the constantly shifting loyalties and angst in the previous seasons. I love that Peter is once again gathering multiple powers, and that he's trying to do something valuable with his skills--something that fits with his original personality.

I still don't like that Claire doesn't seem to get any smarter during the Heroes seasons, even though so many things have happened to her that you'd think would make her more suspicious and savvy. Her new friend Gretchen just seems too conveniently placed, with too much strange knowledge and instant attachment to Claire. And Claire, despite all her constant protestations of wanting to be normal and start over, still throws herself out of a campus window and thinks no one will notice.

I'm not that pleased that Matt seems to have fallen into the same dysfunctional relationship with his wife where he mistrusts her and lies to her at the same time. This new development of Sylar in his brain is interesting, though, and it could be fun to see how it manifests--while at the same time "Nathan" is discovering all of these strange abilities he's not supposed to have.

While not a huge fan of Tracy, I prefer her new direction in this season of Heroes. A partnership with Noah, where they try to bring people with abilities together instead of keeping them apart is an exciting development. It keeps Noah in the action but adds a new twist, and shows growth for these Heroes characters as well.

The new season of Heroes is off to a promising start. While it introduced a few new characters, it kept them within a single group to make them easier to keep track of. We picked up after last season's Heroes episode with pretty consistent plots that followed an understandable path--unlike the huge gaps of time and background missing during previous season shifts. We have likable heroes again, and mysteries to solve, and the constant concern that the world may turn against people with abilities just as before.

Watch Heroes on NBC, Monday nights at 8/7c.