TVSquad

Poor Heroes. After a phenomenal first year, it was one of the most highly-anticipated returning shows last season. However, not only was it claimed by the dreaded sophomore slump, but its season got cut short by the writers' strike, leaving us with eleven kind of awkward episodes.

While season one was about ordinary people discovering that they have extraordinary abilities, much of season two was about these people trying to return to their ordinary lives with the knowledge of what they, and others, can do. The problem that Heroes ran into in the second season was its split focus. You have the original heroes dealing with the aftermath of the first season, highlighted by Nathan Petrelli dealing with the gopher attached to his face, while at the same time you're delving into the story of the previous generation that is being quickly killed off, not to mention the addition of new characters.

When I received the season two DVDs, I was curious to see if producers went the extra mile to make up for a lackluster season, or if the DVD set is as disjointed as the season itself.

(S02E08) Peter Petrelli: "I remember...I remember everything."
Adam Monroe: "Good, then...Shall we save the world?"

So, if you're a hero, a lot can happen in four months. And, apparently, a lot is going to happen in the next three episodes as our favorite heroes have to save the world (and probably the cheerleader) again. From those scenes from next week's Heroes, it looks like there may be a stand-off coming between the two father-daughter pairs on the show (Noah/Claire & Bob/Elle). I can't wait to see that.

Some may disagree with me, but I thought this was a great episode. I know nothing really moved forward in the "present-day plot" so to speak, but we got a lot of much-needed answers about some of the key players on the show. And, most importantly, Peter Petrelli got his memory back. Brainless Peter was just annoying.

(S02E07) I enjoyed this episode immensely.

For starters, there wasn't a single mention of the wonder twins tonight! There were no black tears, no subtitles, and consequently, no dozing off on my part. The twins' storyline is this years version of the Nikki/Jessica snorefest that ensued most of last season. The less I have to see of it the better.

Unfortunately, we also received no further insight into what's going on in Gabriele's world. I was really hoping we'd get to see him make good on his promise to kill Alejandro.

Judging by some of the comments I've read in past recaps, I'm willing to bet a few of you completely agree with me on that point.

(S02E06) "There's a storm coming Dr. Suresh." --Bob

Is Bob heralding the return of season one's magic? Save the cheerleader. Save the world. Claire is a cheerleader again. New York is burning, destroyed, evacuated (or whatever) again. Now all we need is Sylar to get his powers back. I can only hope that the overarching plotline will take us in this direction. It's not that I want to see a repeat of season one. I just long for the overlapping stories. I like seeing the characters all together, supers cooperating to save the world. It gives me the warm and fuzzies.