Heroes gave us a lot to chew on this week and, personally, I found it surprisingly pleasant. Compared to the earlier episodes of the season, this one didn't make me feel sleepy.  “Building 26” has managed to trim down the amount of stories going on while giving more attention to a small set of characters.  In spite of the odd India-story arc and some minor loopholes, there was enough suspense and action to leave viewers wanting more.  We got a bit of drama as HRG (Jack Coleman) told Claire (Hayden Panettiere) that he has to leave after Claire outed his wicked ways to Sandra, and a bit of comedy from Sylar's “OK technically I'm a serial killer” line.  Speaking of Sylar (Zachary Quinto), his road trips with Luke (Dan Byrd) are becoming to be one of the strongest aspects of the series.  We were also introduced to two new characters: Abby (Moira Kelly), the government minder and Alex (Justin Baldoni), Claire's new friend who has the ability to breathe under water (something smells fishy…perhaps a new love interest for Claire?).

More intriguingly, however, it also gave us more clues about one of the mysteries from “Trust and Blood” in which an unknown character who goes by the name “Rebel” sends a text message to Claire saying, “There is hope. You can still fight back.”  The question is: Who is the Rebel?

There are a lot of theories about this so-called Rebel but before we assume anything, here's a quick rundown of what we know so far.  Based on Claire's text messages, Rebel is a friend who hates “them” as much as she does.  Just like Claire, Rebel is scared but is resolute in not giving up. Rebel also urges Claire to “be ready” and asks her to warn Alex.  Obviously, this person knows whom to help, when and where.

At this point, one person has already come to mind.  Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey), the son of Niki Sanders and D.L. Hawkins, and child prodigy with the ability to manipulate technology.  With the spotlight on Tracy, there's no reason not to bring in her nephew back on the canvas.  And considering his ability, it actually makes sense when you think about it.

Another possible character is Molly Walker (Adair Tishler), the young girl with the ability to locate anyone in the world just by mere thought. If it does turn out to be Molly, I doubt it that she'd be working alone.  Perhaps the Rebel is more than one person, and Micah and Molly have found a way to work together?

Then there's Meredith Gordon (Jessalyn Gilsig), the biological mother of Claire Bennet who was trapped inside the shattered Primatech facility.  This may be a bit of a stretch but given her pyrokinetic abilities, which both enable her to create fire from her body and grant her immunity to the effects of it, it's quite possible that she may have survived the blaze.  After all, the dead don't really stay dead on Heroes.

Of course, the Rebel can also be a new character, someone who we have not seen so far.  And while it appears that this new character is trying to “rage against the machine,” it's also likely that the whole Rebel story arc is a trap.

Right now, there are too many possibilities so we just have to tune in to Heroes to gather more clues.  Next week, we finally learn Daphne's (Brea Grant) fate after being shot by government agents while trying to save Hiro (Masi Oka) and Matt, and at the same time, discover more mysteries as Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) extracts the truth from HRG.



-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of NBC)