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This review may contain spoilers.

Being disappointed is nearly impossible when expectations are low.

Over the last few years, I cringe at Thanksgiving week episodes, which tend to be marginal at best. “Heroes” upheld the tradition by following its best episode in years with a Thanksgiving clunker that was better than I expected it to be. That’s not to say it was good ... it simply wasn’t awful.

Hiro (Masi Oka) finds himself trapped at the carnival by Samuel (Robert Knepper), who refused to return him to Charlie (Jayma Mays). Hiro did rebel a bit by transporting Lidiya (Dawn Olivieri) back to the point in which Samuel murdered his brother Joseph (). While there wasn’t much forward movement in this particular plotline, it at least showed viewers what they already suspected: that Samuel killed his own brother. Also, Hiro did stand up to Samuel at the end, and disappeared to points unknown.

Meanwhile, the Petrelli family enjoyed a bizarre turkey day of their own, with Sylar (Zachary Quinto) making an appearance just before dessert. Again, little of importance occurred here, except to bring the Petrelli’s together to verify that Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) is indeed dead.

The disastrous part of the episode followed Noah Bennet’s (Jack Coleman) attempts to host a thanksgiving dinner not just for Claire (Hayden Panettiere), but for his ex-wife Sandra (Ashley Crow) and her new boyfriend Doug (Hank Stratton) as well. Luckily, he met up with Lauren (Elisabeth Rohm) who helped him with dinner and added an extra layer of tension between the Bennets. This segment illogically ended with Claire venturing off to look for Samuel and his circus.

That’s it. Nothing terribly significant, but nothing too terrible either. Holiday themed episodes generally aren’t very good. Perhaps the writers suspect than many people are too busy to watch much on television during a holiday week, so they don’t want viewers to miss out on anything too important. I can assure you—if you missed this episode, you didn’t miss anything.

Now ... on to the pumpkin pie.

What Worked

The struggle between Nathan and Sylar was the highlight of the episode. In fact, it was the one scene that viewers really needed to see this week.

I enjoy “Heroes” much better when characters are paired in odd ways. I have not liked Lidiya much at all yet this season, but having her work with Hiro this week broke her out from Samuel’s shadow a bit.

What Didn’t Work

If anyone wondered how bad the Noah and Claire Bennett storyline could get, look no further than this episode. The Thanksgiving dinner set up by Noah was bad enough, but the train wreck got worse when Gretchen came back. Sandra’s boyfriend is a male version of herself, right down to the fluffy dog. Let’s hope the writers see this as the disaster it was and bury Doug in the vaults under “characters that have been used for comic relief but failed miserably”.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"Heroes" stars Jack Coleman, Hayden Panettiere, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Masi Oka, and Milo Ventimiglia. It airs Mondays on NBC. “Thanksgiving” was written Adam Armus and Kay Foster. It was directed by Seith Mann.

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