This one was a bit of a step down from the awesomeness of the last few weeks, yet was still pretty entertaining.
I think it suffered because all of the "shocking revelations" really weren't all that shocking. Pixie-cut girl in cahoots with Claire's dad? Niki being the one who took out D.L.'s crew? Claire's bio-parents not being legitimate? These all left me saying, "Well, duh!"
They did do a pretty good job of finally making Niki's story interesting. D.L.'s power is rad. He can phase through things AND be solid at the same time. Lord knows what he did to Niki's insides.
And Hiro's story was great again. Ando's finally on board and convincing Hiro to continue his quest. And thank God! I was begging them to finally get out of that garage!
I now officially don't know what to make of Claire's dad. Before, it seemed like they were positioning him to be all He's-so-evil-the-swerve-is-that-he's-good, but between his "that's cool" reaction to hearing about Hiro, and Eden's weak turn, it looks like they are dialing back the THEY-ARE-EVIL-ness of the group, so its entirely possible that they can swerve us into the shocking revelation that yes, Claire's father IS evil... I mean, as obvious as it was that Eden was a plant, I was fully expecting her big revelation to be that she would attack Mohinder - something dramatic. The fact that she casually calls up Mr. Bennet is rather lame for a reveal.
It was cool to see DL go all Vision on everyone. I'm still not exactly sure what happened at the end of the fight. It seems like Niki's been left for dead, but that can't be right, can it? I'm curious as to how much of Niki's secret Micah knows.
Hiro got excited by finding out that he gets a sword. Nice!
You believe me, don't you? Please believe what I just said...
I definitely would not call this episode a step down. In fact, it made me ponder for a second if Heroes has overtaken LOST as my favorite show on TV. The Niki/DL fight was badass (what'd he do? stop her lungs? her heart? he couldn't have been trying to kill her, could he??), Hiro continues to be the highlight of the show, and as another poster pointed out, Niki's storyline is finally interesting. Pretty damned interesting, I might add.
As much as I love LOST's long story arc, one of the key differences between LOST and shows like Heroes was pointed out in this episode. After DL got himself and Niki through the locked door, my friend and I debated what his power was. If this was LOST, we'd probably have to wait at least half a season to figure out exactly what he did. Instead, we get an answer before the episode is even over. Awesome!