The writers of Heroes this season have a knack for opening with a punch, pouring in 40 minutes of "Say what?" and closing with a chilly bang.

Hence this episode, which revisits the day of Season One's date between Sylar and the cheerleader. Hiro returns to Texas to save his one true love, Charlie the waitress, who was originally killed by Sylar for her ability, the gift of remembering anything and everything she reads. This is part of his bucket-list campaign to right all the wrongs he's committed in his life, which overall, is a commendable task, but as HE HIMSELF SAID a couple of episodes ago to "Butterfly Man"--aka Samuel the carnie--you can't just go around changing the past because it screws things up.

Hiro arrives in Texas in his hospital gown and is soon sweetly outfitted with a white cowboy hat. Oh, no! The man in the black hat--say it with me, The Bad Guy-- appears soon after, and of course it's Sylar, hunting breakfast before he whacks the cheerleader. But Samuel is there, too, sucking the remaining life from his carnie time traveler to arrive in time to coach the inept Hiro through all the moves he has to make to save his best girl and not change history too much.
 
(P.S. Sticking Sylar duct-taped to a cargo dolly in the luggage compartment of a Greyhound bus? Not so likely to maintain history as it happened.)

So Hiro saves Charlie from Sylar. But wait! She still has the aneurysm that's going to kill her so they can't be together! So...Hiro cons Sylar into removing the aneurysm with the promise of telling him the future. (Wherein he becomes Captain Kirk instead of Spock: He'll die alone.) So she's saved! But wait! Hiro has now made so many time jumps that his tumor is killing him so they can't be together! But wait! Samuel has a plan! Samuel reveals that eight weeks before, he has made a mistake and he needs Hiro to fix it. Cut to a man lying on the floor. A huge cheer goes up around the world as the screen fades to black. To Be Continued.

Meanwhile homecoming is coming, and Claire and her dad have some tender moments, but the rest of HRG's storyline is a complete waste of script. History apparently continues on.

Although history isn't continuing on, apparently, for Nathan Petrelli, as a round of announcements revealed this week that Adrian Pasdar's character is not returning to the series. Worse, he only found out by reading the script. Bad
form, NBC! Tina Fey can snark all she wants about talk shows costing the Big Four networks less to make than episodic shows, but if writer's strikes and lousy treatment of talent continues, maybe actors will move on to places more favorable and cozy.