I understand how it’s possible to get narrative continuity wrong in a show like Heroes. Really, it’s quite simple. By this point, they’ve shown us about five different timelines, so trying to keep track of who does what when can be tricky. But when it comes to character continuity: Jesus H. Petrelli, guys: get with the program!

Quite often you hear about shows rebooting: this means they are wiping the slate clean and starting from scratch. Comic books do this all the time, and since Heroes is nothing if not an attempt at a live-action comic book, it makes sense that they would try and reboot occasionally. Hell, Volume III was designed to kickstart the flailing show. But for some reason, the writers chose to ignore the way most characters have acted for far in “Villains” (usually in direct defiance to the other volumes to begin with) and just have them act completely different. It was like “Opposite Day” or something for the superpowered.

Parkman’s dad suddenly cares about him? Sure! Mohinder tells Maya he did it all for love? Why not! Claire’s sympatico with a chastened Elle? Course!  Angela declares Sylar, not Nathan, as her favorite? Natch. Sylar…well, Sylar got whiplash from all the different ways in which he acted this week. They couldn’t even maintain his continuity between commercial breaks, it seemed. I recognize that characters are allowed to grow and change throughout the history of a series, but at this rate they change according to what the scene requires, not what the character dictates. And that’s a huge problem as a viewer: it’s impossible to invest in a show when the story dictates character, versus the other way around.

To look at this another way: Season 1 was about ordinary people slowly coming together to fight a mutual threat. There was a populist streak to that season, one grounded in a reality with a tangible connection: this could be you, the show proclaimed! By Volume III, we’re reduced to watching two seemingly ominpotent companies employees foot soldiers that used to be our on-screen avatars. Everyone’s going through the same motions, but there’s an odd sense of deja vu accompanying people we no longer really identify with nor recognize.

The trick with a show in which time travellers exist alongside future tellers: everything’s already been done before, in some respect. And so what we see is what has already happened, at least from a certain point of view. There’s a determinism in place by which the characters are living out a pre-scripted drama. Which would be a nice meta-statement inside a scripted television program if it were intended. The bad guys always have the script; the good guys are constantly trying to improvise. (Unless you’re Parkman, who’s lonely and wants a wife that doesn’t look like Katie Holmes in 15 years after several muggings.)

That’s the essential tug-and-pull going on in Heroes, no matter what volume we see. Tug, pull…and Mohinder ends up working in the lab of that season’s big band. Lather, rinse, repeat. Season 1 featured Linderman trying to affect the atomic blast of NYC; Season 2 saw Adam Monroe trying to unleash a virus; Season 3 features Arthur Petrelli trying to give superpowers to the masses to “free” them from the shackles of normality.

Or something like that. It’s pretty damn unclear what Arthur actually wants to affect at this point. Maybe he wants to buy the world a Coke, but the NBC voice-over dude seems pretty convinced that he’s a villain, and I trust the NBC voice-over dude, personally speaking. Course, when you can incorporate every power into your own being, it’s not a bad thing to live in a world overrun with unlimited permutations of power, no?

Having pretty much slammed the ep, let me try and list a few things I actually liked.

• Sylar saving Peter. Gonna go with Peter on this one: Sylar saved his life in some respects. This explains why Sylar so quickly sided with Arthur; Sylar’s a momma’s boy through and through, we know this, and would never abandon Angela so quickly. Sylar on the inside can be more effective than Sylar fighting all of Pinehurst at once.
• Parkman’s plan against Knox. Nice use of his powers, and a nice fakeout on the part of the writers. I waited for Hiro to slip back in time to save them at the last minute, and was pleased to be wrong on that front.
• Daphne’s double-cross. Her time to choose won’t come until an absolutely crucial moment, when all would be lost without her intervention. Her dual life will both afford her and Parkman time to bond and let the guilt slowly eat away at her until the time comes to make her stand.
• Maya leaves the show. Can it be true? Don’t be cruel, writers. Make this stick, the way Mohinder’s spider palms currently stick.
• Arthur’s underplayed nature. Short of that stupid, “You’re grounded,” line, I enjoy how he’s much less hammy a villain than Linderman. That worked for Linderman’s character, but I appreciate Arthur’s economy of evil. He’s not so much malevolent as efficient, and Robert Forster wears it well.

Slim pickins, but there you have it.

This week’s study question: are you coming back in two weeks time? If so, what do you want to see at this volume comes to its end?