I kind of liked it, at least the Claire third. It moved the plot along (Claire & Gretchen learned whatshername was Invisible Killer Lass), Claire got to be competent while doing so (she was & could have continued to kick the butts of the sorority "kidnappers", she realized that someone was messing with 'em and that it was probably powers, and beat IKL), and got further complications (now IKL is on the loose, and the other two women saw Claire & IKL's powers).
The other parts were a little less fun, in that the protagonists continued to be lame losers (Bennett lost the healer kid, Parkman lost his body) -- but at this point, that's in character for both of 'em. Parkman has always, unfortunately, been a bit of a chump, and Bennett is definitely in the downward spiral. I'm hoping that Bennett will get to hit bottom and rebound to his Batman-esque form sometime soonish. And Sylar-Parkman lets them keep Sylar around as a villainous force, without being the main villain and without (presumably) increasing his set of powers even more.
But the show didn't let deus ex machina/life-death powers kid hang around indefinitely, and his death pushed Tracy towards the circus -- which brings the disparate plotlines closer to coming together.
I do wonder when Samuel is going to get a helmet to wear -- then his Magneto-ness will be complete. Should we start calling him Earthneto now?
Y'know, since they're ripping off the X-Men sooo much this season (Magneto & the Brotherhood crossed with Mesmero's circus, no?), they really do need to go ahead and give him an Xavier to argue with.
Actually, they kind of need Xavier-proxy to give the protagonists a few lessons. And then they need the heroes to remember them.
I wonder if Sylar-Nathan's object reading powers will get a chance to encounter something Samuel's dead brother owned, and find out what really happened to him. Maybe the Xavier proxy is already dead.
So far, this season, I actually like Claire and Peter, which is big change from last year.
