In many ways, tonight’s episode title told you all you needed to know about narrative progression in this week’s edition of Heroes. The ultimate purpose of “It’s Coming” was to set the table for the final run of this hit-and-miss volume of the once can’t-miss show. Emphasis lay in character, not action. It wasn’t exactly a placeholder, but you still felt the show holding back as it maneuvered all the pieces into place. As “Villains” comes to a close, the volume still has a long way to go to approach the epic, Must See TV Season One. Every time something in the show thrills, something else comes along to sending it hurtling back to earth.

Let’s start off with Elle and Gabriel, who took “I feel your pain” to nearly Shakespearean heights this week. I’m not about to compare to Elle to a summer’s day, but those sparks coming off her fingertips sure illuminated that dingy room. The purpose of this little encounter, one engineered by Arthur Petrelli, was to teach Gabriel how to empathize with his “victims.” This way, he could steal get all the ability-stealing benefit without any of the messy cleanup. In taking Elle’s power through his martyrdom and compassion, he also removed the pain from her overloaded body. TESTIFY!

The two then essentially went on their first date, for lack of a better description, and here’s where things started to go off the rails. Gabriel, the Serial Killer Formerly Known as Sylar, killed Elle’s father. Elle knows this. Gabriel knows that Elle knows this. They repeated this factoid in between nearly every electrical attack on Gabriel’s body. And trust me, I get that there’s romantic chemistry dating back to the events seen in last week’s episode, but did their target practice need to resemble Dirty Dancing so much? The show actually had Elle say, “No one’s ever done anything like that for me before.” Well, no kidding! Who else could have? You had the time of your life, and you owe it all to Gabriel. Fantastic.

On top of all this, all this empathy and bonding still landed them under Arthur Petrelli’s thumb, which means the strongest part of tonight’s episode was essentially “Villains: They’re Just Like Us!” Tonight’s episode finally spelled out Arthur’s grand vision: give half the world superpowers while installing Nathan as President. Um. OK. If we want to give Petrelli’s Posse the benefit of the doubt and allow them to perceive themselves as the good guys in this struggle, that means they are putting a lot of trust in humanity to not abuse these powers. This makes them dumb. If they perceive themselves as eeeevvviiillll, then their plan essentially wipes out the massive advantage that their own superpowers provide over a weak populace. This ALSO makes them dumb.

At least this plan explains the season’s two recurring visual motifs: the split planet and the Pinehurst logo. The former indicates the world literally cleaved by the haves and have nots of the formual. The latter more elegantly displays the same dichotomy, with the two halves intertwined in their mirror opposite. However, given that Future Claire wears the Pinehurst logo as she attempts to kill Future Peter suggests another plan entirely: a world in which the formula potentially is given to those “worthy,” with those not possessing superpowers become slaves (or at least subordinate) to the new master race.

But all of this is getting ahead of myself, and ignoring the most important fact we learned all week: Hiro loves waffles! I’m sure a lot of you smacked your head when you thought Heroes was pulling the amnesia card out once again (you know, since it worked so well with Peter in Season 2). Having Hiro merely regress to his ten-year old self wasn’t as bad as having him completely forget his identity, but it’s almost near the end of the volume, Heroes! We should be pushing towards the finish line, not providing arbitrary obstacles for our protagonists to delay the inevitable. It doesn’t help that Hiro’s antics have been childish already this season: no need to encourage the boy by having him hurl spitballs and pull the ol’ “ketchup chair” routine.

It’s a shame that the show has wasted Hiro this season, especially in light of his father’s part in the overall plot. Turns out Kaito figured out years ago, when the formula was first conceived, that a human touch (non-Elle variety) was required to allow the formula to bind with specific, individual human enzymes. I won’t even pretend to explain that science to you, but the long and short of it is that Claire is apparently the one person in the world who can take Suresh’s recreation of the original formula and ensure that half of the world’s population will be drunk with power. Perhaps literally, if “Super Keg Stands” is an ability.

Why Claire? Why not? They’ve saved the cheerleader in order to save the world before; couldn’t hurt to do it again. This tidbit of knowledge finally justifies Gabriel’s cryptic speech in the season opener, proving the show at least planned this plot twist well in advance. It could also help explain why the show decided to spend a third of last week’s episode on her mother, Meredith. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why the show felt it necessary to explain her backstory, but if she’s one half of the genetic material that combined to produce the sole entity that could spur on Superhero World War, then I guess she’ll have a huge part to play in its prevention/execution.

The final sides in this war? On one side, Mama Petrelli’s Mafia: Claire, Peter, Nathan, Parkman, and Daphne. On the other, Arthur’s Argonauts: Gabriel, Elle, Knox, Tracy, Flint. Still on the sidelines, potentially tipping the balance: Hiro, Meredith, HRG, and The Haitian. And the wild card? A looming eclipse, which will undoubtedly throw everything into chaos. My prediction? The eclipse temporarily renders everyone powerless, then essentially “resets” everything afterwards, returning Peter’s powers, Hiro’s memory, and offering a short window in which Arthur can actually be stopped. I just want to have this on record so you can all see how off I was come the end of this volume.

What did you make of this episode? Is it improving, or simply an inferior version of “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World?” Do you prefer Gabriel or Sylar? Were Hiro’s antics endearing or merely a waste of episode space? Leave your thoughts below!