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Opening with Noah Bennett (Jack Coleman) despairing over his inability to reach his own daughter who was slowly being seduced into Samuel’s (Robert Knepper) carnival of freaks, Bennett noted with sorrow, “I have lived long enough to know everything is not as it appears – evil does exist. People do terrible things to one another. . . How do I protect [Claire] without losing her? How do I build a bridge between us when the distance seems to vast?”

It felt rather Shakespearean as he pondered how to save Claire (Hayden Panettiere) from Samuel’s evil clutches.

This was the episode where everyone tried to reach out to one another and failed miserably in the process. Bennett avoided approaching his daughter and managed to push away Lauren (Elizabeth Rohm) in the process. Matt (Greg Grunberg) just wanted to make ratatouille for his family and ignore what was going on in the world, despite the fact that world would not leave him alone. Emma (Deanne Bray) just wanted to become a part of the world by playing beautiful music on her cello, which Peter (Mil Ventimiglia) destroyed in order to save the world. Hiro (Masi Oka) simply wanted to save someone before his time was up. And Samuel just wanted the girl of his dreams. But, as they all discovered, what you wish for is not necessarily what you get.

Bennett took off for Los Angeles in pursuit of the elusive Vanessa (Kate Vernon), Samuel’s former childhood friend and lover. With a bit of arm-twisting, he persuaded Matt to assist in using Vanessa as bait to lure and capture Samuel, but only after warning him of Samuel’s interest in recruiting those with abilities which posed a threat to both their children. Naturally, their well-thought out plan back-fired for Samuel had out-smarted them, kidnapped Vanessa, and did some impressive terra shifting in order to conceal his escape route.

It should be noted that the disappearing carnival is a magnificent trick. Is the carnival truly ever there to begin with or is it merely an illusion leading to a portal to where the carnival actually exists? Thus, requiring a magic compass to find it through one of the accessible portals.

Until this point, it appeared that everyone that Samuel had recruited had come willingly or by manipulation, but his outright kidnapping of Vanessa is stripping away one of his carefully applied masks and showing his true evil nature. Vanessa is clearly not a willing victim. She immediately began chafing under being held in captivity and was not quite buying all of Samuel’s promises that he will take her back just as soon as he shows her something amazing. However, after taking us to this juicy juncture, they left us hanging once again as we don’t know what exactly Samuel has in mind. Surely, it cannot be the oasis he is building in the desert. Would that be amazing enough to convince Vanessa to give up her music career and live happily-ever-after there with him?

What Worked

As zany as it may have seemed having Hiro and Ando (James Kyson Lee) embark on a fools-errand of trying to rescue “Dr. Watson,” this proved to be one of the funnier storylines in this episode. All the plays on words (such as calling the orderlies “storm troopers”) were delightful, especially as Ando tried to figure out what each word meant in deciphering Hiro’s “word salad” gibberish. The side-trip to the Arkum mental institution to rescue Dr. Watson aka: Dr. Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) was a nice break from the more serious and disturbing storylines as of late. It was with child-like wonder and delight that Hiro watched Suresh show off his Bruce Banner/Hulk like strength and Ando demonstrate his new-found ease as Electro-Boy with his ability to electrically zap through the security doors.

It was also impressive as the Frankenstei-esque scene played out with Ando using his electrical charge abilities to zap Hiro back into his normal speech patterns. While the references to Don Quixote may have flown over a lot of people’s heads, it was easy to interpret and connect the dots to the references to “Star Wars,” “The Incredible Hulk,” and “Frankenstein.”

It was also fun, when Suresh tried to scold Hiro and Ando was quick to jump to Hiro’s defense by telling Suresh that he needed to back-off because Hiro does not have much time left and yet Hiro chose to spend his little remaining time saving Suresh. This could have been a darker, more somber moment, but when Hiro glibly chimed-in, “The Reaper waits for no one,” we were all able to laugh with them.

What Didn't Work

As intriguing as it was to watch Lydia (Dawn Olivieri) imprint a tattoo on Peter by simply thinking of him and watching the tattoo compass appear on his arm, it felt like a hanging-chad as Peter did nothing to pursue that obvious clue. Rather than pursue the compass, Peter heard Emma’s siren song and went to see her instead.

Emma is clearly delighted with her new found power. But it was short-lived for Peter, after stealing his mother’s premonition power, saw Emma playing in a house of mirrors grief-stricken as the world crumbled around her with Sylar (Zachary Quinto) in the background saying, “Don’t worry, I’ve come to save you.” Interpreting this in the most negative way possible, especially on the heels of Angela’s (Cristine Rose) warning that Emma’s “going to kill people – it’s going to be a blood-bath,” Peter broke Emma’s cello. While Peter acted solely to prevent the future he foresaw, he broke Emma’s heart in the process and perhaps made his nightmare come true. Thus, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy. For Angela had also warned, “People think dreaming the future is a gift – they are wrong.” Peter, Peter, what have you done?! Surely, you know better than that.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

“Close to You” was written by Rob Fresco and directed by Roxann Dawson. ‘Heroes’ stars Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg, James Kyson Lee, Masi Oka, Hayden Panettiere, Cristine Rose, Milo Ventimiglia, Robert Knepper, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Zachary Quinto.

“Heroes” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on NBC.