The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the NBC show "Heroes" episode, "The Line."

What on Earth does Peter Petrelli have against New York? He keeps going back and everyone dies when he gets there!

In the sixth installment of the second season of "Heroes," we see "The Line" drawn between friends who have become foes, foes acting as friends, and deception all around.

Maya (Dania Ramirez) and Sylar (Zachary Quinto) form a deadly alliance. The language barrier and Maya's desperate desire to trust Gabriel to bring her to Dr. Suresh has Sylar advising his "shiny new toy" to use her creepy black-eyed power to kill to her benefit. Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz) sees Sylar for what he is, and wants to part ways with him, but Maya sees Sylar as a gift from God. Someone is going to end up dead -- maybe even one or more of them.

Claire (Hayden Panettiere) and West (Nicholas D'Agosto) form a disconcerting alliance. First West persuades Claire to lie to and deceive her father. Then he persuades her to use their combined powers to get even with the cruel head of the high school's cheerleading squad for rejecting Claire from the team and making the lives of other girls miserable. We begin to see how someone might abuse their powers for personal gain. Is West Sylar Lite?

Hiro (Masi Oka) and Kensei (David Anders) are in one of the eight paintings -- and they are not being friendly to each other. Little wonder as even Hiro, the most principled of all the characters we've seen to date, falls prey to revealing his powers to save the life of the woman he loves -- who happens to be Kensei's woman (or so he thought). Heartbroken by the deception of both Hiro and Yaeko (Eriko), Kensei is out for blood, and it isn't the blood of White Beard's army.

HRG (Jack Coleman) and the Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis) employ the same cruel tactics that they object to the company using. It turns out an old "friend" of Noah Bennet, his Company mentor, Ivan, has the rest of the eight paintings - which seem to be telling us that all the story threads we have seen so far are connected. (Yay!!! I knew it!)

The down side to all this? Bennet and the Haitian first steal Ivan's treasured memories, and then they kill him despite his cooperation. Oh, and HRG also has a pleasant, fatherly phone conversation with his daughter while all this is going on!

Bob (Stephen Tobolowsy) is a weasel. First he tries to make Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) to use a genetically engineered version of the virus cure to take away the muscle memory abilities sweet. bubbly Monica, who is overjoyed to find she has such powers. Mohinder is stuck between a rock (obey Bob and be forever damned) and a hard place (lose the only connection he has that can help little Molly). Despite his need to save Molly (Adair Tischler), he can't go through with something he knows is wrong - and destroys all the vials of the "cure."

Bob gets scarier. Bob is possibly the most ruthless SOB on the series to date. He lets Monica (Dana Davis) go home untouched, gives her an iPod loaded with all sorts actions she can learn to mimic. Then he tells her to use her abilities to save New Orleans. While this sounds all well and good, he also assigned Mohinder a partner -- Niki. Or Jessica. I really prefer Mohinder in on piece.

And once again, Peter is in a dead New York City. Someone led him to Montreal, to a place filled with junk and a note from someone named Adam. This prompts Peter to go all Hiro and time-shift with Caitlin (Katie Carr) to a desolate NYC. To be continued ...

What Worked

The parallels between the stories of Claire and West, Hiro, Yaeko, and Kensei, and Sylar, Maya, and Alejandro were brilliant, as were the parallels between HRG, the Haitian and the Russian Company man, and Mohinder, Bob, and Niki (Ali Larter). The lines are drawn, all guns are loaded and ready to be put in play against the backdrop of a catastrophic even that will kill not just people with special abilities, but nearly everyone on Earth. The paintings indicate that all the story threads are connected, and have tremendous ramifications in terms of what will happen in future episodes. In many ways, this was an exciting episode.

The little scenes with Ando (James Kyson Lee) and the Japanese scroll expert are priceless. They squabble like my kids (and me) when someone has the nerve to put on a new DVD and watch ahead without waiting for the rest of us.

What Didn't Work

I love Sylar in all his evil badiness, but someone has got to write better lines for him. "It's that delicious power" and "She's a shiny new toy and she's all mine" are too much verbal exposition. That scene between the brain-eater and the antidote twin would have been better if done silently, with looks telling what to expect rather than bad lines. It was done so well in the scene between Mohinder and Niki/Jessica. I wish there was similar unspoken restraint here.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"The Line" was written by Adam Armus and Kay Foster, and directed by Jeannot Szwarc.

"Heroes" airs on NBC, Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.