And what happens to all the powers that Papa P had stolen? Do they all go flying back through the ether and a whole bunch of heroes get re-empowered?

I thought for sure we were going to see the cut on Peter's face heal as a sign he had his powers back.

Concern: does the catalyst thing disappear into the ether? Or does it disappear into Peter?

Or was it all used up in the juice?

A downside: new heroes are likely to be whitebread Marines who might as well be clad in redshirt uniforms....

At least some white characters will get croaked for a change.

I don't think that they would have shown golden light emanating from Arthur Petrelli's corpse if it was all used up.

Masi Oka nailed it last night -- he has the chops to play serious if they'd just let him. The moment where he got his adult self back was nice acting, and then the transition into tears was exquisite.

Plus Hayden P got some good work, too.

Yes.

I also loved it when the 10 year old Hiro and the grown up Hiro did exactly the same thing - tilted their heads and pushed up their glasses identicially. That was nice.

I don't think that they would have shown golden light emanating from Arthur Petrelli's corpse if it was all used up.

EXCELLENT POINT

Maybe it all went into Peter's cut.

And even w/o that it would be difficult to believe that Arthur would give it all up.

I thought that when Tracy showed Nathan their little squad of future Super Soldiers/human guinea pigs - that he showed a little misgiving at being confronted with the reality of what he had agreed to. (As well he should have.)

Ah crap, I'm liking this show again. I think it's directly proportional to how little screen time Suresh gets.

I agree with the point above that taking head-cutting Sylar, turning him into a quasi-good guy, then turning him right back into head-cutting Sylar is a little weak. At least give us some change. Though the "you have cake?" line and the subsequent elevator scene both made me laugh out loud.

One thing is bugging me. How did Arthur know to find Hiro in the past? Was it just Peter's paint-your-future power?

Okay another thing - shouldn't Arthur come back from the dead as soon as the Hatian leaves the scene? Peter and Sylar have both pulled that stunt with their "borrowed" Claire power. Or maybe Arthur's hold on the powers was less strong, so when he died he lost the invulnerability in that shimmer.

Yeah, too good is what I thought too.

I'm sensing a little bad/big bad scenario brewing. Someone's been watching their Whedon!

Other notes:

The scenes with Claire & Noah, and Hiro and his mom were great.

Nice to see Ando off with someone other than Hiro. He's a great character and as mixed up in everythign as any of the folks with powers. Nice bit with Daphne, too.

I'm displeased at the treatment of Elle here, and not entirely sold on the portrayal of Sylar's zig-zagging psychosis. That being said, I actually appreciated the fucked-uppedness of it all, and the "You have cake?" was priceless. Let Sylar have an all out psychotic break, and then retire him, at least for a while. Villains are no good to have around for extended periods. They lose their impact.

I think whether Arthur returns or not depends on the disposition of the powers he acquired. Obviously, they're not going to leave Peter or Hiro powerless forever, but I don't see them injecting them with drugs, either. (Or, I don't know, maybe they will. It's kinda easy to see why they fired writers and are begging Bryan Fuller to come back.)

The Haitian rocks in every scene.

Let Sylar have an all out psychotic break, and then retire him, at least for a while. Villains are no good to have around for extended periods. They lose their impact.

Not to mention that Sylar will lose all of his appeal if he keeps indiscriminately killing people. Audience generally don't like sociopathic serial killers. There are some exceptions (Dexter and Hannibal Lechter come to mind, but even they don't kill at random), but it can get old quickly.