Alright, tonight's Tim Kring penned episode of Heroes wasn't terrible. It wasn't good, exactly, but it avoided being another in a parade of inexcusable scripts and lackluster direction. Maybe it was because things ostensibly happened or because the show mostly focused on two plots. Also, Adrian Pasdar got to show off his acting chops, which is always welcome even if his character should have been written out of the show at least three times by now. Is "The Fifth Stage" a sign of this show turning over a new leaf? Absolutely not. I've wondered that and have been burned by the results enough times to know that a halfway decent episode of Heroes is little more than a respite before things get awful again. But it sure was nice while it lasted, huh?

This episode was rather well-timed. Heroes won't be back on the air until January, so it was a nice move airing a somewhat respectable episode that will hang in our minds for the month and maybe get us to watch again in 2010. For what it's worth, I'd actually like to see where the plot is going to go in the second half of the season, if indeed it continues to progress.

So, because stuff actually happened this week, let's recap with a minimum of mockery. Claire finally shows up at the carnival and has a number of meaningful, descriptive experiences to actually convince her to stay with them. Sure, Super Carny sent his murderous invisible girl to kill and torture all of Claire's friends, but the carnies are nice to children and the normals are mean to them, so let's call it water under the bridge. At this point I'm not looking for character consistency or even logic, but I'm happy just to see characters make decisions based on events instead of exposition or even without any real motivation beside whatever the writers need at the time.

Meanwhile, Peter takes the Haitian's power and confronts Sylar. For those who remember way back in Season 1 when it was a major plot device, the Haitian can block abilities, rendering special folk effectively normal. Peter beats the crap out of Sylar and nails him to the ground, which was actually pretty awesome, in an attempt to coax Nathan out. Then the brothers have a chat on that fateful rooftop where Nathan first flew and Nathan ends up jumping. As always, Sylar is back in the mix and I doubt we've seen the last of Nathan, but I guess there was some character development and Adrian Pasdar proved once again that he's a lot more talented than anyone on this show has a right to be.

Finally, Bennet and Law and Order chick do some vague research into the magical carnival, only to be interrupted by one of Super Carny's henchmen (played by Todd Stashwick of The Riches). X-Men power ripoff: Multiple Man. He steals some of Bennet's files and gets away. The power was cool and the horrible dialog between Bennet and LaO chick was at a minimum, so not half bad for a C-plot.

What I've been trying to figure out about this season of Heroes is just how we're supposed to feel about Samuel. He's a bad guy, but as much of a bad guy as Sylar. I think we're supposed to have sympathy for him, but the writers are so mercurial about his behavior that it's hard to decide where he actually stands. Robert Knepper is a good actor and I wouldn't mind seeing him integrated into a more interesting role, but for now he's just a source of ambiguity.

Best Moment: Call me old-fashioned, but I like a good torture scene. Peter has always had his dark moments, so when he goes over the edge he's actually interesting. Of course, he was emo again by the end of the episode.

Notes: It's funny how about half of the principle cast showed up in the ending montage just to remind us they're around. Not that I actually wanted to see Hiro, Ando, Suresh or Deaf Doctor.

Episode Rating: Not Bad. There were very few moments when I felt like yelling at the TV and while things weren't 100% logical, the action moved along in a meaningful way. For those of you still hanging on, I'll see you in January when Heroes comes back.