After last night's episode of Heroes, my friend sent me a text message that said "Heroes is pretty aweful this season."  Aside from the obvious spelling error (unless he actually meant that the show fills him with awe), he is not alone in saying this. There are many reasons for this, one being that viewers no longer have any idea about what's going on. Arthur Petrelli's introduction promised to draw the battle lines so that the villains and heroes could face off, but thus far characters have changed sides so many times that it's impossible to figure out who's good, who's bad, and who's a mole.

We saw Daphne as a villain, then she had a crisis of conscience and sided with Matt Parkman, but now she's secretly working with Arthur. Peter was good, then he went into the future and stole Sylar's power, becoming evil, then his dad took his powers, making him good again. Mohinder and Sylar are straddling the line, Hiro is pretending to be a villain, Elle may or may not be evil, and there's still a chance that Angela Petrelli, the presumed leader of the heroes, is evil.

If you could follow that last paragraph, then you're one of the few people still watching Heroes intensely enough to care. The premise of this season is that the characters must decide whether to be a hero or a villain, and while I see the appeal of forcing each character to see both sides before making their choice, the show doesn't have to do it all at once. The cast is too big, and trying to follow each and every one of their journeys is becoming increasingly difficult.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that there is no truth on this show. Heroes is so mired in complexities that figuring out what's really happening is impossible. In last night's episode, Matt used his father's power of mind manipulation to make Knox think he succeeded in killing Daphne and Matt. The show made a point of having Matt mention that he learned that trick from his dad, who was killed by Arthur Petrelli. Or was he?

Because of Maury Parkman's ability, viewers have to doubt everything on this show. Is Maury really dead, or was that a manipulation to make Daphne more cooperative? For that matter, did Adam Monroe really die, or was that simply for Knox's benefit so he would feel more indebted to Pinehearst? The fact that these questions exist might be fun to think about if they were the only mysteries on the show, but there are many more.

How did Peter survive falling seven stories out of a window? Maybe his brother Sylar saved him because he's only pretending to align with Arthur to bring down Pinehearst from the inside. Maybe Arthur did it because he has bigger plans for Peter. Maybe Future Peter, with his powers restored, traveled back in time to save himself. Maybe Peter is special and can't die. Or maybe Arthur lied about stealing all of Peter's powers.

I have no clue which one of those hypotheses is true, if any. At this point, I'm not sure I care. I've defended Heroes this season because, despite some problems, I like the idea of a villains alliance. The problem is that every time the show starts to get closer to an answer, it raises more questions.


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)