A Toxic Waltz: The Racialicious Review of Heroes 4.3

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García, also Published at The Instant Callback

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Watching “Building 26″ took me back to my days as a fugly kid at the roller-rink, watching the popular kids pair up and the floor clear. Yes, this episode was a Couples Skate!

Sylar and Luke: Our resident Sith and his newfound apprentice did some bonding on the road to … wherever the hell Sylar Senior is holed up these days. Along the way we got hearty bits of exposition on how Sy does what he does and more subtle-as-a-jackhammer reminders from Luke of how similar the two are to one another. Still, the MVP of their sequences was the car radio: “Psycho Killer”? Good stuff.

Hiro and Ando: The Dynamic Duo traveled to India – how? Who knows? Who cares, right? — to fulfill one of Parkman’s predictions and save a woman (Amrapali Ambegaokar) from marrying a complete dweeb of a “bad guy.” Neither of the almost-intended exhibited any powers, so it’s quite possible the whole thing was just an excuse to get Hiro to work through his jealousy of Ando’s newfound powers and restore his belief in his own heroism, and to get them a message from Rebel urging them to save Matt – nevermind that they were just hanging around with Matt.

Something else that I actually missed during my first viewing, but was twigged to by Roundtable member Erica: Not only did this subplot take us through the Arranged Marriage ringer again (standard whenever you visit India, in network tv), but the bride was actually secretly gay. As Erica notes, “I was rather wondering if that was why it was set in India — that way Heroes is “safe” from outrage over their denial of traditional marriage in favor of alternative relationships. Because when a foreign country does it, they’re ignorant savages forcing women into arranged marriages; when California does it, they’re protecting families …” It’s also worth mentioning that the trip to India wasn’t mentioned at all in Producer Greg Beeman’s blog.

Nathan and The Hunter: Oh, sure, Nate would get some SEXY TORTURE time in with Tracy and new boss Abby Collins (Moira Kelly), but it was Danko who arranged for Tracy to briefly escape her tanning salon cell and freeze a poor guy — a POC, natch — to death. The incident is enough to steer Abby from the path of Liberal Guilt and onto the Petrelli bandwagon.

Claire and Noah: Jack Bauer, eat your heart out! We also learned that Nathan’s troops have access to Every Traffic Cam, Anywhere, Regardless of Whatever Network They’re On. Thanks to that convenient plot point, Claire was spotted locating a new meta-human, Alex (Justin Baldoni).

Rather than laugh in his face at the fact that he’s basically Aquaman-lite, Claire protects West 2.0 from her father, going so far as to hide him in her closet. She also tells a somehow-surprised Sandra that HRG is – get this! — lying about his job. Fortunately for Mrs. Bennet, she finally stands up for the family and kicks him out. Unfortunately for Noah, he can’t even drink away his sorrow in peace, as he’s abducted in a blaze of irony by Parkman, Peter and Mohinder. Check, Please!

Next Week: The Not-Avengers and Mr. Bennet spend some quality time together.

Previously: Heroes Racialicious Archive

The Racialicious Scorecard
Hiro & Ando were the only POCs to do anything of note this week, though it’s worth pointing out that The Haitian was among those pictured on the list of targets.

Character bios and images courtesy of HeroesWiki.