Tonight, a friend hit me with an interesting hypothetical. If you could have any super power, but you had to live in the Heroes world to use it, would it be worth it? Honestly, I don't know how to answer. Sure, it would be awesome to have a special ability of my choosing, but if I had to live in a world that was populated exclusively with stupid, inconsistent people who are over-dramatic and boring, I'm not sure it would be worth it. Of course, maybe the characters on Heroes are just the most ridiculous ability-positives around. Just like the Teabaggers are annoying, illogical and much more noticeable than most other people, the characters on Heroes are a hateful, useless bunch. That in mind, maybe that's why tonight's episode didn't bother me as much as most of this season. I went into "Thanksgiving" like a lot of us go into an actual Thanksgiving dinner with family. I expected the experience to suck, so I wasn't disappointed.

There was a scene in the first part of the episode when Angela says to her sons something along the lines of, "I know you don't agree with the decisions I've made and you're now upset with me." I couldn't help but hear the writing staff on Heroes addressing the viewers at home in that statement. Heroes is like some sort of continually relapsing drug addict. It knows it does awful things to those who care about it and it wants to be a better show, it just doesn't quite know how.

So, whenever I see a character on Heroes fail to use his or her power in an obviously useful way, or hear them have improbable conversations, or witness a character or plot point just up and disappear for no reason, I realize that I'm just watching an internal struggle that I can't really help. For Heroes it's no longer about making a good show, it's just about getting back to "normal".

In this obligatory Thanksgiving episode, three different groups of characters get together for dinner and none of their stories are particularly compelling. Peter, Angela and Nathan have an impromptu dinner in Peter's dark, empty apartment where they obliquely hash out the not-so-interesting identity crisis keeping Sylar around. Noah invites a bunch of people to his inexplicably dank bachelor pad, including the Law and Order chick who hasn't been on the show for about a month so we could either assume that her affair plot in "Once Upon a Time in Texas" was a waste of time or that she was going to pop up whenever it was convenient for the show to use her again. Finally, the carnies settle down for a confrontational meal concerning who killed former head-carny Joseph. That thread involved a lot of Hiro, so naturally it sucked.

Heroes has always relied on twists and shocking revelations to drive its drama. Those used to manifest as new super powers, betrayals or unexpected character moments. Now they're more like obvious road signs and forced melancholy. You mean Super Carny killed his own brother? OH MY... wait, I could have told you that at the beginning of the season. Nathan and Sylar are going to fight for the same body? Well, that wasn't interesting when he did that with Parkman, and now there isn't even any chance for unintentional comedy. Claire is still boring and self-absorbed? Well, yeah. She's Claire.

All in all, I can't say that nothing happened in this episode. Actually, a lot happened, it's just that most of it was either predictable or a total retread. Here's to the inevitable Christmas episode next month!

Best Moment: Sylar eating an entire pie by himself. He's so evil that he even wastes crust. He just... wastes it!

Notes: It must be part of some sort of formula that Hiro has to be sent off in left field halfway through every season. He gets turned into an overgrown child, stripped of his powers, and now turned into a babbling crazy person.

Episode Rating: Bad-bad. Tonight we rode the plot train to Sucksville, which beats the hell out of whatever last week was about, but that doesn't mean it was interesting. At this point, I'm basically just tuning in every week hoping that as many characters as possible die.