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I know there were three story lines happening in this episode but for me the entire episode revolved around Sylar and his childhood flashback to the soundtrack of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain. It’s an appropriate choice of song for both its musical tone and lyrics.

And if you don’t love me now
You will never love me again
I can still hear you saying
You would never break the chain

Chain… keep us together
Run into the shadows

Some songs are forever known by their video treatment. You can’t listen to Thriller without thinking of the epic music video. For a while Don’t Fear The Reaper was associated with that scene in The Stand with all the dead bodies. For me anyway. And then of course later, “more cowbell”. Now when hearing The Chain I predict it’s always going to bring to mind that scene from Heroes.

Oh ya. Claire’s mom was cool. Underwater kiss was ultra-cheesy. Parkman and Peter’s story was cool. Solid episode.

Well I didn’t that coming! Okay, maybe I was asleep at the wheel because I’m sure pretty much everyone else did see it coming. We knew he had to die and if he wasn’t going to die the first way then he had to die some other way. With only a few minutes left in the episode it should have been obvious. But it still surprised me.

Another thing that has been escaping me is the obvious comparison between a certain character and a certain biblical figure. I should have seen the connection a long time ago. He has to die in order to save his friends and the island. Even seeing him in his condition at the beginning of this episode I didn’t get it. Then in that scene near the end when the one guy kneels before the other guy Emily pointed it out. “Boy, they’re really hitting us over the head with that symbolism.” After thinking about it for a few seconds it finally dawned on me. Like I said, it should have been obvious much earlier in the season.

Some things are beginning to make more sense now. Last week I was complaining about how HRG keeps jumping between family man and company man. This episode goes a long way toward explaining why he’s doing what he’s doing this season.

Thankfully, there was no angry Claire in this episode. In fact, there was no Claire at all. What we did get is a pretty good view of the relationship between Nathan, HRG, and that other guy. We don’t know his name is but he’s the balding guy in charge of the black-suited military guys. Apparently his character is known only as “The Hunter” so far. That whole triangle is getting a little more interesting.

Heroes does seem to be taking on more and more of an X-Files-ish theme. In the last scene Angela Petrilli even says, “That man trusts no one” with an emphasis on trusts no one. If I was a writer striving for originality I might avoid including well known tag lines from other popular sci-fi shows in my dialog. But that’s just me. Maybe they’re intentionally trying to create a connection between the two in viewers minds.

Daphne’s alive. I’m really glad she’s still on the show but again I think they missed a great chance for some real dramatic effect. The revelation she was alive seemed to get shoehorned into the last part of the episode. If they spent more time on her “death” and really invested in making the audience feel a strong sense of loss for her and empathy for Parkman they could have also really set the stage for an emotional “she’s actually alive” moment.

Then Parkman’s subplot becomes his single-minded devotion to rescuing her. Maybe he does put some of his friends at risk because of his personal feelings. There could be a whole “good of the many versus good of the one” conflict going on. But in the end he gets her out and she kicks some butt and everyone’s happy. In Lost Desmond and Penny aren’t exactly main characters but the writers invested heavily in their story and it was a real powerful moment when they were finally reunited at the end of Season 3. Heroes had a chance for a story with a similar impact but I think they’ve missed the mark already.

It looks like the next episode will focus more of Claire and her new friend being on the run. I’m really hoping they get back to Sylar’s story though. For my money that is the most interesting sub-plot going on right now.

I certainly didn’t expect this episode to happen this early in the season. To be honest I thought the events in this episode would make up a two-hour season finale. But I was wrong.

John Locke’s story seems to get more bizarre as the season goes on. Again, his story didn’t go quite as I thought it would this season. I like that. I like that I can’t predict the show.

That one room beneath that one building was pretty cool. What with that big thing in it and all. A bit of an interesting revelation from that one woman also. Maybe it didn’t real anything big and mind blowing but it added some details we weren’t aware of before.

The first episode in the “Fugitives” volume set up what looks to be a good story-line. It was an awesome episode in my opinion and a great way to reset the series. My one request was that the bad guys stay bad guys and the good guys stay good guys. No flip-flopping. Yet, already in the second episode we’re seeing Nathan soften and HRG’s motivations are unclear.

I don’t know what the think of HRG anymore. He can’t seem to decide if he wants to hunt or save the heroes. He’s been on both sides of the fence enough times I have stopped caring too much about his character. If he really is being compelled to help Nathan’s against his better judgement then that should be made more obvious.

I used to really like Claire’s character. With “used to” being the operative phrase. The “tough as nails” version of Claire is really annoying. How many more times can she clench her teeth and mutter lines like, “do you think you can get away with this?” before it gets old.

Daphne is dead? Seriously? That’s kind of a big deal but the event seemed to pass by without much weight being given to it. They made a bigger deal of out the plane crash than Daphne’s death. If you’re going for emotional impact I would think the horror of Daphne getting shot and killed and Parkman’s reaction of causing the soldiers to turn on each other would be a much better opportunity than a plane crash where practically everyone survives.

Speaking of Matt Parkman, he was and still is my favorite character on the show. What I don’t understand though is exactly how he got the painting-the-future power. It just seems kind of random.

On a positive note, the Sylar story is excellent so far. There were moments where I felt genuinely uncomfortable with what Sylar was doing. He’s a bad guy that’s easy to despise and he plays that part so well.

Anyway, let’s hope the series finds a solid footing and move forward in a positive way with the next episode.

So, that guy we thought was dead turns out to not be dead. Which is unbelievable considering the thing that happened to make him dead. I can’t wait to see how they explain that one.

What’s interesting is the episode title — The Little Prince. Spoiler time here. I can’t get around this one by talking all vague like. So, highlight the following text if you want to read it.

That’s it. Maybe next week I’ll go back to a true spoiler-free review.

Spoiler free. Read on.

So I had forgotten that one character had a love interest previous to his current love interest. Give that he’s the most interesting character on the show right now that puts a bit of a black mark on his character. Especially given the thing they revealed about him in this episode. Unless, that thing isn’t exactly what it appears to be.

Everything and everyone are all connected aren’t they? That one dude was apparently on the island previously in his life. His demeanor seems to have changed though. So what exactly is his motivation now? Also, the mother of another minor character apparently, was on the island before too. That’s probably how that one dude and and that other dude came to their arrangement.

It’s kind of cool that one character gave their baby that particular name. No, not that baby. A different baby you didn’t know about before this episode.

When is the island going to stop doing the thing it’s doing. I hope it’s not going to do it the whole season long.

Lesson: When placing knives in the dish washer, always place the pointy sides up. Because, you never know when that might come in handy.

Favorite Guy Moment: Flaming arrows setting dudes on fire! How cool was that?!

Most Amusing Joke: Sawer trying to get a shirt.

Best “Whoa” Moment: Learning a little bit more about how the island moved.

Theory: I think Miles is related to the Dharma scientist guy who appears in the videos.

Observation: Aaron is kind of whiney and looks a bit small for being three years old. Oh, and Kate apparently doesn’t put him in a car seat. Shame on you Kate.

Annoyance: I’m not entirely buying Sun as a tough woman out for revenge.

Second Annoyance: Sawer seemed more like a caricature of himself than himself.

New Question: So that one place was really hot but then it was really cold. What’s going on there?

UPDATE 2 (The Morning After): Read the comment left by Brent. Well said.

UPDATE: Liars! Nothing was answered! Not a single question! Dirty rotten liars!!!

I thought I’d refresh this topic since the big 2-hour finale is on tonight. I’ve heard it said that we are supposed to have all our questions answered with even bigger questions posed. Well, here’s the questions I want to see answered. Let’s see how good the show does tonight at answering these.

Concerning Locke
How did Locke get healed in the first place?

Why did Locke get chosen by “The Island” to be special?

Is he naturally insightful when it comes to people and their motivations or does he get his knowledge from the island?

He obviously wants to stay on the island. Does this mean he has in the past or will in the future actively thwart attempts to be rescued or get off the island?

Concerning Walt
Aside from Locke it appears that young Walt is the only one who actually wants to stay on the island. We assume this is because he gets his father’s full-time attention but is there another reason we don’t know about yet?

What is the deal with his special ability? We know from his back story that he can make things happen when he’s upset. Kind of like Firestarter but different.

Concerning The Island
What is “The Monster”?

Where did the Polar Bears come from? Perhaps from Walt’s special ability?

Where did “The Numbers” originate from?

What is that big hatch thing that Locke found?

Why did the hatch light up for Locke? Did he have to alone?

What kind of disease/sickness is associated with The Black Rock?

Is the French woman’s son still alive? If so, where is he?

Who are “The Others” and what do they want?

Why didn’t everyone die in the crash? This is probably the elephant in the room that nobody is seeing. When planes crash like this there are not survivors! What’s special about those who survived versus those who didn’t?

Concerning Claire
Why did “The Others” want Claire?

What’s wrong with her baby? Come on. We all know something’s not going to be right with the baby (remember Scully’s baby from The X-Files) so what’s the deal?

Why did the psychic warn Claire against giving away her baby?

Those are all the questions I have for now. As the weeks pass I’ll add more. Then after the season finale we’ll see how many questions are really answered.

Things are getting really interesting on Lost. Here’s an update on my theories regarding the story.

I not entirely convinced the monster is God anymore. But I don’t think it’s an actual monster either. Locke is still the spiritual leader of the group. Anything that might indicate Locke is a bad guy is just a red herring. It’s meant to make us think he’s out to get the others but he’s really there to help the others. I’m convinced of this.

I’ve stopped trying to find a connecting theme in the back stories. If there is a connection it’s tenuous at best.

What’s behind the hatch? Maybe it has something to do with the expedition the French woman arrived with many years ago. Maybe it’s part of another plane buried in the ground.

Whatever the case may be my biggest theory is this: these people are not in the real world. Sayid said in a previous episode, “The entire tail section broke off. Who survives a crash like that?” Indeed. How many times do you hear about a plane crash where half the passangers survive? I’m inclined to believe that everyone is in fact dead. However, some people aren’t ready to deal with death yet and are “lost” on the island in order to take care of some unfinished business in their life. I’m not 100% sure of that theory but I think it does have some merit.

Of course, I have no idea why the pregnant woman was kidnapped or whom the kidnapper really is. Any ideas?