After last week's hard-hitting episode, this week we definitely had a letdown, served with a side of what the heck?

Sylar continues to be trapped in the place where Matt sent him, presumably for eternity, so he couldn't harm anyone else. Peter, having stolen Matt's power at the end of the last episode, has joined him in this city wasteland, where Sylar believes he has been trapped for years, alone. The two spar with each other over their moral differences and Nathan's death, and spend a lot of time giving each other brooding looks. Bottom line is, Peter wants Emma saved, and he's even willing to reform Sylar to accomplish this, apparently.

The carnival is in flux after last week's shooting, and Samuel tests the water, trying to figure what to do next. He thinks he's found the way to win Claire to his side--show her via Damien, who reveals people's pasts in the funhouse mirrors (remember Sylar?) how evil her father has been to special people over the years.

Joke's on him. She has seen over the past couple of years backward and forward how bad her father's been to people like her. But somehow, like Peter, she manages to ignore all the negatives and hold on to the few positives because she's a Hero, after all.

Emma is still at the carnival, and she discovers Lauren, who has somehow penetrated the carnival in its heightened state of security undetected (really?) to get a bandaid. Lauren tries to convince Emma that Samuel is a bad man, but Samuel comes in and Emma drops a dime on her. He reassures Emma that Lauren is just "misinformed."

One of the few interesting exchanges in this episode takes place between Samuel and Lauren, when he sees her reaction to what he's done, and the fear in her crystallizes his course. He's bound for the Big Apple, taking the carnival to Central Park so that people like them can frighten the whole world and establish themselves as a power.

Of course, realizing Claire and HRG might upset that plan, he takes care of them first. Lauren leaves the carnival, Old Multiple Eli letting her slip through his many fingers (Really???). Samuel waves that plot hole off and sends Eli out to "permanently" get rid of those who would stand in his way-- emo twins Peter and Sylar. Who have miraculously gotten out of the bricked-in hell where Sylar was left. And Matt Parkman doesn't even lock his doors any more.

We hope that the writers have saved all the good stuff out of this episode to make next week's season finale a whizzbanger. Really, we do.