After a touchy-feely episode last week, things picked up a bit this week on Heroes. Though I was a little disappointed by the absence of Shirtless Milo Ventmiglia (my own personal hero), the new characters, the introduction of a brand new power, and one huge plot development almost made up for it.

Poor Claire. She likes this super-cute boy but her daddy has forbidden her from seeing him! Unfortunately, the superhero twist on this age-old storyline didn't breathe any new life into it. Claire lies and sneaks off with West, they fly to the Hollywood sign, they talk about trust, they kiss, she comes back late and lies to her dad again. I understand that Claire needs someone she can identify with, but the cheese is laid on a bit too thick with these two. One correction from last week: I mistakenly said West's name was Wes because that's how it was listed on IMDB last week. They've fixed it now, but just for safety's sake, I consulted Greg Beeman's blog, since he's an executive producer and all. West it is and West it shall remain.

If I had a problem with the title "Lizards" last week, then I have a bigger problem this week with "Kindred." Okay, it does make sense - Niki left Micah with a relative on DL's side of the family, Peter got initiated into the Stereotypical Irish Rogue family, Claire realized she wasn't the only one in her high school with a secret - but I think a much better title would have been "Make Out Party." There was more kissing in this episode than in all of last season; it was kind of out of control. I'm not sure what you're trying to do here, Mr. Tim Kring, but if I wanted to watch a soap, I'd turn on Gossip Girl.

The title of this episode was "Lizards" and I'm struggling to figure out what that had to do with any storylines other than Claire's. Do lizards shoot blue flame/spark things from their hands? I don't think so. Do they cry black tears and kill people? Not the last time I checked. Do they live in Haiti? Why yes they do. I still think it's a weird title choice, because lizards certainly don't travel back in time and disguise themselves as samurai warriors.

We last left Peter getting his ass kicked in a storage facility, and this week we find him getting his ass kicked in the back room of a bar. Apparently the thugs thought he stole something that they were actually trying to steal, but poor Petey doesn't remember a thing. If he doesn't start remembering soon, some fella by the name of McSorley is gonna be pissed. He gets a little TLC from Caitlin, the head thug's sister, but as she's sponging the blood off his face, she realizes there are no wounds underneath. This is news to Peter, but not to us. I'm a little worried here – since Peter seems to have lost his memory, do we have to watch him learn about his powers all over again? That was what last season was all about.

Wow. After a summer filled with shows about karaoke and fraternity parties, the season premiere of Heroes reassured me of something I'm always glad to remember each fall: TV can be awesome. Come on now - subtitles from not one but two foreign languages, samurai swords, bleeding eyeballs, someone locked in a storage facility in Ireland for who knows how long... All of that on one show on network television? You betcha. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to season two of Heroes.

I don't know where to start, so let's begin at the beginning: A Mohinder voiceover! Oh, how I've missed them! As usual, I'm not sure if he made any sense whatsoever, but he's in Egypt giving a speech about the virus that killed his sister and was in the process of killing little Molly Walker last season. After his speech, he's confronted by a nerdy-looking stranger who offers him a job. Mohinder first decides to shove him against a wall but then agrees to have a drink with him. Turns out he's part of "The Company" - which we remember from season one as the alliance of all the older heroes like Mrs. Petrelli and Mr. Nakamura - and our friendly stranger just wants to help Mohinder "protect" people with special abilities. Mo agrees to let the Company fund his research because he wants to protect Molly and oh yeah - the stranger can turn things into gold, so there's plenty of money to go around.

It's the morning after, and I'm still trying to gather my thoughts about the season finale of Heroes. There are just so many things to address. Peter and Nathan might be dead. Parkman might be dead too. There's a baddy out there worse than Sylar, and he can "see" Molly. Niki finally gained Jessica's strength and bad-ass-ness. Hiro killed Sylar but not really because of the cockroach I called out way back in January. Oh and we found out Mr. Bennet's name, finally. It's Noah. I'm sure there's an arc metaphor in there somewhere, but I have way too many other things to think about right now.

Apparently the answer to the title, "How to Stop an Exploding Man," is get his older brother to fly him into the stratosphere. I've read a few blogs and columns by people who are complaining about this resolution, including EW.com's Gilbert Cruz and our own Elaine Liner. Why couldn't Peter fly himself into oblivion without Nathan's help? Easy - Because he couldn't even control his nuclear hands, much less summon another power simultaneously. And also, Nathan needed to redeem himself, big time. He's been acting so power-hungry and heartless lately, and you could see in his eyes that he didn't really want to be a hero in the way his mother and Linderman had in mind. He did it his own way. He saved the world without sacrificing .07% of the population; his only sacrifice was himself. And maybe his brother; I'm still not sure if Peter could regenerate from something like that.

That's it? The Petrelli brothers zoom into the heavens and...kaboom?

Somehow, after 22 episodes of thrills, chills and tests of wills, the season finale of NBC-Universal's Monday night drama hit Heroes packed a less than explosive punch. There were a couple of surprises and the right bad guys died, but come on...that's all there is?

Click here to read the rest of Heroes Season Finale: Up, Up and Away

Three deaths. One maybe-death. One fixed election. One training montage. Two people with the power to blow up New York City. Add those all together and what do you get? This week's episode of Heroes, the last one before next week's season finale. In some shows, the episode before the finale can be a little slow or consist mostly of filler, but this one sure packed a punch. Or should I say, a fist through the back of the head?

Click here to read the rest of Heroes: Tick, Tick, Boom?

How appropriate that tantalizing tidbits about Heroes would be revealed in the midnight hour.

On the syndicated late-night radio show Loveline, actor Greg Grunberg, who plays the telepathic policeman Matt Parkman on the NBC-Universal series (airing its finale at 8 p.m. Monday, May 21), chatted with host Dr. Drew Pinsky about what's coming up on the show. The season-ender, he said, will "set up the second season perfectly." One main plot turn will see the cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere) having to choose between "someone she loves and saving thousands of lives."

Click here to read the rest of Heroes: Co-star Spills Second Season Secrets

I have to make a disclaimer: When I watched this week's episode of Heroes, I was in the throes of a stomach virus. It could have been the fever or the wooziness, but I thought the episode was a little off. Of course, an off episode of Heroes is still all kinds of awesome, so I'm not complaining.

I'll clarify: By "off" I don't mean bad. It was just a different type of episode than we've been used to in the past few weeks. There was a little less action and a lot more character development, especially with Sylar. Does he actually have a conscience? He really doesn't want to blow up millions of innocent people? Coulda fooled me. Whenever I need a good pep talk, I call my mom, and so does Sylar. Turns out Gabriel got his desire to be special from his mother, who tells him he can be so much more than just a watchmaker; he "could even be President." Maybe Sylar's mom and Mrs. Petrelli should get together and see who's better at son-encouraging.

Let's see... Last week I used "awesome", so how do I describe this week's episode of Heroes? Cool? Super-cool? Super ridiculously awesomely cool? Hmm, that last one sounds about right.

I'm not even sure where to start. Hiro and Ando traveled five years into the future and learned what would have happened if whoever the exploding man was actually succeeded in exploding. Initially, we're led to believe that Sylar exploded, which led to backlash towards those with powers, which led to some heroes going rogue, some heroes capturing other heroes, and one certain hero, President Nathan Petrelli, wanting to flat out eliminate them. Our friendly Professor Mohinder reminds him that would be genocide, but Nathan doesn't care.

After one super-long hiatus, Heroes is finally back, and can I say "with a vengeance"? My inner comic book/action hero nerd was in full effect last night as I watched this episode - my jaw dropped, I talked to my TV, and I even almost cried. Almost. Come on, Isaac dying after realizing you can't fight the future? Admit there was a pang in your heart during his death scene. And doesn't "Fight the Future" sound like the title of a Journey song?

So many storylines, I don't know where to begin.

Good grief, after what seemed like a lifetime, "Heroes" finally returned last night. Of course, I had forgotten many of the characters names (thanks NBC!). Let's see...let's see...what did we learn. Oh yeah, that Linderman guy has powers too. He can heal. And he is the mastermind behind all this (well, you probably already knew that). He wants the bomb to go off so he can help heal the world and bring humanity together. And besides, only .07% will be killed by the bomb he says. He promises Nathan the White House for his cooperation. Ut oh, me thinks Nathan is about to turn bad guy.

Click here to read the rest of Heroes Returns!

If there was a fall finale episode of Heroes back in early December, what would you call this one? A mid-winter finale? A February-sweeps-is-over-so-
we're-holding-back-new-episodes-till-April finale? Either way, I like these sort of mini-seasons we're getting with Heroes. There's been plenty of action packed into the first two thirds, so I'm okay waiting until April 23rd for the final chunk of episodes. (Hint to Lost: splitting the episodes 11-7-4 is way better than 6-16.) And what do viewers want most from their mid-winter/February-sweeps finales? A good cliffhanger, and we got several with this episode.

A big theme with Chapter 18 in the Heroes story (creepily titled "Parasite") was characters getting the rug pulled out from under them. There's probably a more eloquent way to describe it, but that's basically what happened. Nathan thought he was being super sneaky teaming up with the FBI to turn in Linderman, but Jessica was right - it was pretty stupid of the FBI to run surveillance in Linderman's own hotel. Amateurs. Old Lindy was several steps ahead of Nathan. Not only did he know Nathan was working with the FBI, he also knew about Nathan and Peter's powers, Claire, and who knows what else. I don't know about Nathan, but it would be hard for me to turn down pot pie and the chance to be Vice President.