DonnaK:  Warnings as per usual….

SPOILER ALERT!!!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!!!! EVERYTHING AFTER THIS POINT IS A SPOILER!!!!!!!!!

Now, with that out of the way…. OH MY FUCKING GOD HEROES IS SO BACK BABY! Out with the Kring and in with the Fuller and suddenly, Heroes is back to its former glory. If the turnaround on Lost left me stunned, this one has left me speechless. I really never thought for a second this show had a chance of recapturing any of the magic of season one, but it has in majestic fashion. This was the first episode of the season that Bryan Fuller completely oversaw and wrote, and it shows in every minute of the show. It feels real, looks real, and has real and lasting consequences. *THIS* is the show I remember, and all I can say is thank the gods for Bryan Fuller and the team that pulled this miracle off. So… time for the list!

—First thing both Jim and I noticed and said simultaneously while watching - the camera work is completely different than anything we’ve seen before in this season. Gone are the slow steady cams and in their place were shaky, hand-held cams. It brought a level of tension and realism to everything that has been sorely missing in previous episodes. And I just can’t say enough wonderful things about the editing of this episode. The opening scene with Danko shaving, the quick cuts and jagged views of his face… so beautifully done. The direction of this show was artful and appropriate and I just loved it.

—Let’s start with Angela. Before this episode I had never seen Angela Petrelli as anything other than a manipulative, selfish woman. But in “Cold Snap” Angela blossomed into something so much more. For the first time I felt the pain she feels when she has to make these incredibly tough decisions. I felt the ache she felt when she believed her decisions had lost her her children. I worried for her as I felt her anxiety grow and gasped as she was almost captured. I felt sad for her when she had to resort to pleading with her friend - played beautifully by Swoozie Kurtz - for money and help. I rooted for her to get away and cheered when she did. Angela feels *real* to me now. All it took was one well-acted scene with HRG at the beginning of the episode to be a game-changer for Angela’s character. What a wonderful job of character development that was, and how wonderfully acted by Christine Rose!

—I was so relieved to see Peter come to Angela’s rescue at the end of the show. It looks like her prediction that Peter would never be able to forgive her actions was wrong after all. But I have to ask…. how did Peter know where Angela was and that she needed rescuing? Rebel was otherwise occupied at the time… or was he? Someone had to let Peter know that Angela needed help and where she was… and I still think I know who that someone is. More on that in a minute….

—Onto the Danko/HRG/Tracy/Rebel storyline…. Alright, you guys. Everyone who bet against Micah being Rebel better pay up RIGHT NOW. Dude, Jim and I both so totally called that one right from the start. I still maintain, though, that Rebel isn’t just Micah. Micah can only do half the job Rebel does. He can send the messages, but unless he has someone with him who can locate our heroes the system doesn’t work. That person is going to be Molly, you mark my words. And I’m *quite* certain Angela is in on all of this as well. You wait and see… I was right about Micah, and I’ll be right about Molly too.

—HRG was right in what he said to Angela… it’s going to be a bitch getting Danko to trust him. I honestly don’t think that even had the plan to capture Rebel worked it would have been enough. Danko knows HRG is coming at this whole project from a different angle. I think Danko will never trust HRG, no matter what he does to prove himself. Danko is just going to keep stringing HRG along until he feels it’s the right time to take HRG out of the equation. Of course, Danko doesn’t seem to realize that HRG has a lot of power keeping his back safe. S’okay… he’ll figure that out the hard way.

—More indicators to me that Angela is in league with or part of “Rebel” - Tracy’s escape. It was Angela’s idea to let Rebel break Tracy out and lead Danko to Rebel… which of course happened immediately after she said it and exactly as planned. A bit convenient if Angela isn’t in league with Rebel, no? I certainly understand why Micah would have an interest in getting Tracy out, but there were certainly higher priority targets there. I feel more at work here than a child’s desire to essentially have a surrogate mother with him again… I feel Angela’s hand, pure and simple.

—One problem that bugged me about the escape - why did Tracy only pull the tubes out of Matt and Suresh? Why wouldn’t she have freed as many of the captives as she could, and why wouldn’t Suresh and Matt do the same? Just quickly run through the room and yank a bunch of tubes out - it would have taken only a few seconds and they could have freed more people and had more firepower and distraction for the escape. That did seem a tad convenient to me, I gotta say.

—One other thing on the escape itself… I so fucking told everyone Matt had enough juice to brainwash a swarm of guards into not seeing him standing there! In “Cold Wars” Matt was shown to be too weak to hide himself and HRG from five, maybe six guards. In “Exposed” Matt needed Peter to come with him to take over Building 26. But now, in “Cold Snap” we see the Matt we knew was there all along - the Matt who can mentally disarm a huge stream of guards into not even registering his, Daphne or Suresh’s presence. I knew it was a mistake in “Cold Wars” when Matt couldn’t hide from just a handful of guards and I was right again. Thank you Bryan for giving Matt his rightful amount of power back! It made no sense to have him limited the way his was in those episodes and I’m glad to see that wrong righted.

—The scene of the cold snap itself was just gorgeous to behold. The ice effects were just stunning. When the scene started I just knew in my bones Tracy wasn’t going to make it and I was truly sad to see her go. Ali Larter has been a tremendous asset to this show and I’m sad to see her leave. At least it was in truly grand fashion though. And, of course, because of her sacrifice, Rebel lives to fight another day. All for the greater good, y0.

—Okay… gotta talk about Hiro, Ando, and baby Matt. FINALLY!!! We have our good old Hiro/Ando dynamic back! Their snappy, witty and often hilarious back-and-forth has been either completely missing or just off the mark for entirely too long. The whole sequence about the “cold daddy” and “hot mother” had me smiling and laughing. And what about Baby Matt there! Am I wrong or is this the first time a person this young has exhibited signs of their ability? The only other person I can think of would be Claire, who did talk about how she had never been sick in her life, but that’s all that comes to my mind. Can anyone else think of anyone who’s talked about having an ability since birth? Which of course begs the question… as that baby grows will his ability grow with him, much like Charlie’s did in Stephen King’s “Firestarter”?

—What an ingenious way of getting Hiro his powers back! Baby Matt just switched them back on. Well… half of them anyway. Now we just need Baby Matt to switch on Hiro’s teleportation and we have the old Hiro back in all his glory. The first thing out of my mouth when I saw that switch-on happen? “Oh my god… they have to get that baby to Peter right away!” Baby Matt is the key to getting the old Peter back as well, the Peter who can hold onto more than one ability at a time. Get Peter his full absorption abilities back and now you’ll have someone who can fight Sylar again. And, of course, if you get Baby Matt to touch Sylar, maybe Baby Matt can turn Sylar’s abilities off. If he truly is an on/off switch it could definitely happen, am I right?

—Another “FINALLY!” moment for me… Ando finally got to get a better taste of his powers and what they can do. Once again, I called this one too. I knew that if Ando could supercharge a hero’s ability he should be able to project that same energy out to overcharge a regular human, which would stun or potentially kill them. The red lightning is totally bad-ass too. I can’t wait for a further exploration of how far Ando can really go with his gifts.

—Saving the saddest part for last… Matt and Daphne. :( First off… everything about these scenes was played to the hilt by Greg Grunberg and Brea Grant - wonderful work as per usual by these two. Grunny has been on FIRE for the last few episodes… way to go Grunny! It was oh-so-very Ben Kenobi how Matt got the doctors at the hospital to treat Daphne and not call the police… and further proof that his ways with the force are strong. I really should have picked up that something was amiss with the whole Gwen Stefani thing but I must confess I didn’t. However, the second Jim and I saw Matt flying we both turned to each other and said “Either this is a dream or I’m about to get REALLY upset”. Well… I got upset but it wasn’t because Matt had mysteriously gained yet another new power. I got upset because poor Daphne died. I know I was hard on her character in the last volume, but Daphne’s really grown on me and I was looking forward to seeing her and Matt fight the forces of evil together or some other such crazy idea. I have to say I’m a tad shocked to see not one but two major characters killed in one episode. Gutsy move, Fuller. Damn gutsy move.

Is it official now? Is Heroes back? Can Bryan Fuller keep up this level of quality and consistency? Only time will tell, and I know I’ll be stuck to my television waiting to see what happens next. Heroes… if you’ve done nothing else you’ve won me back, and, looking back on my reviews of the end of the last volume, that’s saying a WHOLE lot.

So… floor’s open everyone! What did you think? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms? I want ‘em all! Let’s get this ball rolling!