The main evil carnival dude has a tattoo of that compass on his arm or wrist or something like that, doesn't he?

I can't quite figure out how his power works. We've only seen him ink up the knife dude (to choke him) and the painted lady (to find people) so far. And it seems like the painted lady can find both non-heroes (Delko) and heroes (Claire and the other two at the end of the episode, who looked like Peter and Sylar to me, but I could be wrong). The carnies really are the best part of this new season.

I finally had a chance to watch it. It wasn't bad.

I'm glad it was a suicide.

I'm not so sure either. There's still the question of the magically appearing suicide note.

I can't quite figure out how his power works. We've only seen him ink up the knife dude (to choke him) and the painted lady (to find people) so far.

And he telekinetically filled the grave at the beginning.

And he telekinetically filled the grave at the beginning.

Right, right. I'm kind of over all of the super-super powered people on this show. First we had Peter, Peter, Power Repeater. Then we got Sylar. Now we have Carnival dude and, well, Tracy can apparently now turn herself into water thus making her unkillable by blade and bullet so far which was not a power she originally had, so I will count her, too. (Maybe you have to just sop her up with a Shamwow) Yep, too many people with more than one power.

I can't be mad at Tracy because Marvel did exactly the same thing with Iceman. Or, well, I'm mad at Tracy because she's a copy, not because of the directions in which her power went. I accepted it the first time I saw it go that way. I was young and impressionable, maybe, but it's too late now.

Good thing they powered down Peter--I'm a little mad at how much they've powered down Hiro, but I'm assuming they're not going to let him die. I don't want him neutered, though. Matt's powering himself down, and we've seen how long that lasted.

As for Sylar, ptooey. They better hamstring him big time if they bring him back. Or should I say, when. Every time it occurs to me that they actually killed Nathan, it makes me mad. I liked that character, and a Sylar copy might be good enough for Mama Petrelli, but it doesn't do it for me.

I can't imagine a musician walking away from his instrument like that, but otherwise I liked the bit with the cello.

dcp, me too.

I don't understand the compass thing at all. I mean, does it work with Samuel but works better with an empath? And how does Samuel plan on getting Peter to work for him? Or does the compass do something to persuade him?

As much as I loved Sylar busting on Matt's abysmal performance as a policeman (What kind of a cop doesn't check the closet? Ha!), that character really, really needs to die. A lot. Why doesn't Matt just put Sylar's consciousness (which I assume is what's haunting him) in another body? Trick him into thinking he's going back into his/Nathan's body, but then really stick him in somebody in a coma or something and then pull the plug on the coma body? Or are we supposed to believe that this is not Sylar at all but rather Matt's conscience rebelling against what he's done by making him see crazy things and sabatoge his life? Either way, I just don't like it.

I do like that Peter is still the same clueless pretty boy that he always was. Evil Carnie wasn't even trying to be slick about his little B&E. He practically strolled out of the apartment, even taking a few moments to lovingly gaze at Peter (as we all should) on his way out the door and our dear Petrelli was oblivious. And still fully shirted. What's up with that? And I'm still not getting the entirety of old boy's powers. I guess I get the moving the earth with his mind thing, but what is up with the ink? Is the ink itself magic? Is that a separate power? Is there earth in ink somehow and I'm just not aware of it? (That last totally possible) And the compass? Will that point Peter back to the carnival? I am still liking those carnies. They bring good creep. And I wasn't annoyed by the new girl. The effect they used for how she is able to see the sounds that things make was very cool and she seems like snarky fun. I just hope once Peter falls for her (because that's where we're headed, no?) he doesn't strand her in some dystopian alternate future dimension.

I hate the Claire storyline. A lot.

The lack of Hiro was good. The lack of Mama P was not.

Cannot stand Parkman's storyline with head!Sylar. Really enjoyed the new character discovering her abilities, the wonder and joy of it. Robert Knepper is haunting my dreams and I'm not complaining.

The deaf woman seeing the music while playing the cello was beautiful. The carnival people remain interesting. Even OK with Peter and Claire's story lines, although Lea and I agree that the scene with the college roommate felt like it was about to veer into "My First College Lesbian Experience" territory.

But Parkman and Sylon are grating.