Mother's Day: TIC v. Heroes 4.5!

For the second straight week, a strong character showing from the Bennet clan buoyed the episode. But go fig, it wasn't Noah.

Cross-posted to Racialicious!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

After spending the whole of the series as little more than a doormat for her husband and her daughter, Mama Sandra stepped out and stepped up in "Exposed," helping Claire get Aqualad Alex away from the feds (including webisode graduate Rachel Mills). We also got to hear waaay too much about her affinity for Def Leppard, but it was worth it to see Ashley Crow finally get to play a fully-realized character on this show. Hopefully we'll see more of Sondra's newfound strength during Claire's confrontation with Doyle.

Elsewhere, off the beaten path, we got a glimpse of Sylar's biological mother, as a roadside diner stirs memories of the day young Gabriel's dad literally took the money and ran. Little Gabe runs after him just in time to see the elder Gray telekinetically slice his mom's forehead open. In other words, HE LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU!

At this point I'd like to bring in our fearless Racialicious Roundtable. Though we haven't been able to get the gang together the past couple of weeks -- hey, they've got lives, too -- they did chime in on last week's lame-ass "reveal" of Matt as the latest Exploding Man. Here's a bit of what they had to say:

Mahsino: When a show gets to the point where they're ripping themselves off, they really need to re-evaulate the direction they're going in.
Hexy: I groaned, audibly. Then thought "Well, at least it's not Peter being painted destroying shit this season."
Erica: Maybe for the next big twist they can hijack a plane. (Again.)

Surprisingly, writers Adam Arnus and Kay Foster gave us a good payoff for the vision of Matt as a pipe bomber: he's actually been set up by the EEEEVIL Danko so as to justify the government's superhuman roundup, after Parkman and Peter leaked security-cam footage to the media. So The Hunter dropped a doped-up Matt in the nation's capital, thus "fulfilling" the vision, and sped off as Parkman collapsed, seemingly seconds before his predicted explosion.

We also got a bit of follow-up on last week's meeting between Noah and Angela, as they seem to be pulling the increasingly wobbly Nate into whatever plan they're concocting behind Danko's back. Primatech 2.0, anyone?

Next Week: Sy and his eyebrows are seriously on the hunt now -- will his family reunion be One To Grow On?

The Racialicious Scorecard
Okay, while this episode was well-executed, the utter absence of any characters of color (unless we're counting "TV-US" reporter Andrea Charles) was more glaring here, for me, than in different instances. In fact, when Peter negotiated with his brother, he only asked for Matt and Daphne to be returned in exchange for the stolen camera footage. Dude, Mohinder was part of your team! Was he not eligible for the "One life at a time" policy?

Now, it's reasonable to expect, I suppose, that Hiro and Ando were still in transit back from their Indian adventure; and The Haitian has yet to reappear. But, again, in the wake of Tim Kring's declaration that this show is all about the Benetrellis, the shuffling off-stage of the few POCs left in the cast makes me leery about their future on this program.

To close out on a positive note, however, here's a suggestion from Erica on how we might better navigate the weeks ahead:

We need to start a drinking game. If Hiro learns a lesson, take a sip. If Tracy is tortured while wearing a skimpy shirt, take a sip. If Claire rebels against her father then hugs him within five minutes, take two sips. If somebody has a gun to Sylar's head and says something instead of just pulling the f-cking trigger, drain your glass. If a POC is killed, swig from the bottle while yelling at the television. (Actually, not that last one -- we'll die of alcohol poisoning.)

Previously: Racialicious Heroes Archive
Images courtesy of HeroesWiki.