Heroes stumbles in Season 4, Week 2, reasons not to emulate the Oakland Raiders and a former Peruvian leader on trial #4 in a year

- The same problems that plagued Season 3 of Heroes are predictably still present in Season 4, namely keeping the key characters who have played a big role in the show up til now a part of the action while also integrating new characters into the action. And as often happened last season, last night’s episode of the show did not do a good job of straddling that line. For the second time in two episodes of this season, Mohinder Suresh (played by Sendhil Ramamurthy) was AWOL and not even mentioned in passing. Nathan and Angela Petrelli, Hiro Nakamura and his pal Ando, all in the season premiere, were also absent from this week’s episode. Same goes for Tracy Strauss and Micah, a.k.a. Rebel. So with all of those key pieces having nothing to do with the episode, things focused in on three separate storylines: Peter Petrelli in New York, Matt Parkman in L.A. and Claire Bennet, in college at an unidentified university in Arlington, Virginia. For Peter, life became a bit more litigious when a process server appeared at his apartment door and served him with a lawsuit from a man he allegedly injured during a rescue from a recent bus crash. The plaintiff’s name is William Hooper and Peter’s first reaction is to go to the records department at the hospital where the crash victims were taken and request the records from William Hooper’s visit. That leads to an encounter with a new PWP (person with powers), Emma, a deaf woman whose ability allows her to see sounds in the form of colors (i.e. reds, blues and purples coming from the bows of an upright bass). More on her shortly, but Peter gets the records he’s looking for and finds that Hooper is still at the hospital. When Peter tracks him down, Hooper tells a sad tale of being in New York because his brother just died and coming to his old hometown to reconnect with his past. However, Hooper is not really Hooper, but rather the enigmatic carnival operator known as Samuel (Robert Knepper) who we met last week as he began his quest to find PWP who could help his “family” and recruit them over to his side. The first scenes of the episode show Samuel at the Sullivan Bros. Carnival with his lady friend Lydia, a.k.a. the Tattooed Woman. Samuel gets dressed in a suit, something he admittedly hates, and tells Lydia that he’s headed to visit someone he thinks could be a replacement for his deceased brother Joseph. He then sucks an entire jar full of ink right into his hands, which of course he can then inject into someone and make the ink take whatever form or shape he wants it to. His power, it seems, is controlling the Earth and any element derived directly from it. Dressed and coiffed so he “looks just like everyone else,” off he goes to New York to unfurl his plan. Samuel leaves Peter in the hospital room with the claim that he was, in fact, on that bus and perhaps Peter is so burnt out by working double and triple shifts as a paramedic that he doesn’t even remember those he’s saved. Hours later, Samuel sneaks into Peter’s apartment, uses some of his absorbed ink to inject his likeness into a picture in a newspaper article of the bus crash that Peter has posted on his wall. Upon returning home, Peter takes a closer look at the picture to see if he can spot Samuel and sees the likeness that Samuel himself injected to fool him. A stunned Peter truly believes that Samuel really was on the bus when it crashed. A few more hours later, Peter runs into Samuel on the street and the two have a conversation about Joseph, about Peter’s life as a paramedic and other related topics. Samuel manages to forge something of a bond, enough that Peter opens up to him and tells Samuel that he should go back and visit his childhood home while he’s in town. The two shake hands and little does Peter know that when he does, Samuel uses his power to transfer the ink he absorbed into Peter’s body. During the night, when Peter and his paramedic partner respond to am emergency call, they find a sink hole that, unbeknownst to them, Samuel has caused. He went to visit the home where he grew up, a mansion where his father was a member of the help staff, and asks if he can go inside to look around. The lady of the house curtly informs him that they are having a dinner party and he needs to leave, so apparently Samuel takes great offense, causes the sinkhole and it swallows up the house, killing those inside. When Peter and his partner arrive, Samuel is lurking in the shadows, watching. He uses his power to manipulate the ink he injected into Peter, causing it to form into the shape of the very compass Samuel spent his henchman Edgar to take back from Emile Danko and then Noah Bennet last episode. The compass “tattoo” is on the inside of Peter’s right wrist and it’s spinning out of control, just like the real compass for the brief moment he held it in his hands. So that’s Peter story, which in the very least was not as deadly as Matt Parkman’s awful day out in L.A. On a stakeout of a drug suspect’s house, Parkman and his partner finally receive word that the judge has granted their warrant, allowing them to enter the house. That’s the good news, but the bad news is that Sylar is still haunting Parkman’s mind, taunting him to start using his mind control powers again and also to help Sylar find his body after transforming it into Nathan Petrelli’s body in last season’s finale. With Sylar haunting him, Parkman and his partner search the house and find nothing. Their suspect hides in a closet and tries to shoot Parkman but misses. As Parkman interrogates him and his partner searches the home, Sylar continues to lurk. At one point, the bound-and-tied suspect looks on in confusion as Parkman has a heated argument with Sylar, who only he can see. When Sylar points him in the direction of clues that seem to suggest a much more sinister crime than selling drugs - kidnapping of a child - Parkman finally caves in and uses his power to read the suspect’s mind, but not before brutally beating the suspect to the verge of death. Inside the mind, he finds what he’s looking for. The man’s thoughts lead him to a hidden room under the stairs where Parkman sees the dead body of a young girl. By this time, his partner returns to the main floor of the house and finds the suspect, bloodied and unconscious - maybe even dead. He is horrified and asks Parkman what he’s done. Parkman tells him about the dead girl, but when his partner looks insdie the room under the stairs, there is nothing there. Everything Parkman has seen - the clues, the girl, etc. - haven’t been real, but rather the ghost of Sylar turning Parkman’s own mind control powers against him and making him see things that didn’t exist. Faced with the reality that he’s killed a suspect who is almost certainly innocent, Parkman knows his career is over and jail could well be in his future. Rather than lose it all, he makes the decision to use his powers to force his partner to say that the killing was justified because the suspect attacked him and Parkman was merely coming to his aid. A satisfied Sylar tells Parkman that they are becoming more and more alike and that it’s the first day of the rest of Parkman’s life. In the third stoyrline of the evening, Claire must deal with new friend Gretchen having seen her fling herself from the third-floor dorm room window last week, hit the ground and heal from her wounds in an attempt to figure out whether Claire’s roommate, Annie, actually committed suicide. At first Claire tries avoiding Gretchen and denying it all, but when Claire’s dad Noah comes to visit, the situation takes a twist. Noah/H.R.G. invites Gretchen along to lunch and while there, it becomes clear through veiled, hint-dropping comments that Gretchen now knows Claire’s secret. H.R.G. wants to call in the Haitian to wipe Gretchen’s memory, but Claire prevails upon him to let her handle the situation. Her method is to come clean with Gretchen, trusting her to keep the secret. Claire also asks Gretchen to be her new roommate, perhaps to keep an eye on her. There was actually one scene where H.R.G called Claire and while she talked on the phone, we saw Gretchen sitting alone in Claire’s room, ominous music playing in the background, seemingly setting things up for the Haitian to swoop in and erase her memory. But when Claire ended her call and came back into the room, Grethcen’s memory seemed intact, so maybe the Haitian didn’t do his thing. Now, as for Emma….after her encounter with Peter, in which she sees colors come up from the floor when he coffee mug breaks and realizes something odd is going on, she goes to the doctor. Her doctor suggests she may have something called synesthia in which senses heighten or combine when a person lacks one sense, i.e. hearing. That theory is put to the test when Emma goes to the park - the same one where Peter and Samuel meet and at the same time - and picks up the bow of an upright bass player who is playing for donations in the park. When he takes a break, she picks up his instrument and plays, drawing a large crowd and raucous applause when she finishes. An embarrassed/confused Emma rushes off, leaving Peter to watch her go and wonder what is up with this chick. So that’s it and that’s all for this episode, one that would earn an “I” for incomplete if I had to grade it but should probably get a failing grade because in all honest, it just wasn’t that good and didn’t do enough to build on a solid season premiere from the previous week…………….

- That’ll show ‘em what a legit, total badass you are, pint-sized female rapper Lady Sovereign. This chick’s rhymes and beats were already suspect and her hip-hop cred marginal at best, but spitting in the face of a doorman at a gay bar in Brisbane, Australia isn't exactly going to get her more respect. Yes, beefs with the law and arrests are general good for street cred, but getting liquored up and hocking a loogie in the face of a bouncer at a gay bar doesn’t exactly scream hardened gangsta. The alleged incident took place on first night of Lady Sovreign’s current Australian tour, just hours before she was scheduled to take he mic for her 4:40 p.m. slot on the opening date of the Parklife national festival tour. Sovereign, whose real name is Louise Amanda Harman, had been in Australia for a mere seven hours when she had one or five drinks too many, spit in the face of the doorman and found herself evicted from Beat, a popular gay nightclub in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley. The 5'1" Harman was reportedly hysterical as she was thrown out of the venue and spend the next few hours sitting in a cell at the local jail. She was released in time for her performance, but that didn’t lessen her ire toward The Man for trying to hold her down. "Brisbane police need to go catch some real criminals... what a waste," she Tweeted. "Spitting in someone's face is nasty, but how about a guy dressed up as a girl running at you in the toilets and punching you in the head?” Umm, OK? Not sure if you’re saying that happened to you or you just saw it happen, but my guess is that you were really, really drunk and the alleged punch to the head didn’t happen to anyone at all. Either way, Harman was charged with assault faced the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday morning, where she pleaded guilty to assault and drunk and disorderly charges and was fined $345 and ordered to pay $172 in compensation to the bouncer. Way to ingratiate yourself to the country you’re visiting, L. Sovereign. Nothing like asking people to pay what I’m sure are bloated ticket prices to come see someone who is hammered out of her mind and spitting on the faces of the natives less than eight hours after landing in the country………….

- Normally, saying a college football program conducts its business like an NFL team would be a compliment and a testament to its professionalism, efficiency and high standards. When that comparison likens your program to the Oakland Raiders……well, let’s just say it’s less of a compliment and more of a scathing indictment. You may recall that last month, an Oakland Raiders assistant coach named Randy Hanson accused head coach Tom Cable of sucker punching him during a meeting, a claim Cable and the team later lied about and tried to cover up by saying that Cable merely flipped Hanson out of his chair, causing him to hit his head on a cabinet in the process. That case is still making its way through the legal process and Hanson is now pressing for assault charges, but suffice it to say that regardless of the outcome, University of New Mexico head coach Michael Locksley would do well not to emulate Cable’s example. Of course, someone should have told Locksley that before he (allegedly) punched wide receivers coach Jonathan "J.B." Gerald in the face after a "heated" coaches meeting around 7:15 p.m. on Sept. 20. Unlike Hanson, Gerald cooperated with the police and filed a report the day of the alleged incident. And unlike Cable, Locksley actually admitted his mistake, albeit in a prepared, cookie-cutter statement. "I apologized to Coach Gerald, the coaching staff and our team for my poor judgment," Locksley said. "I would also like to apologize to Lobo fans. Like I remind our players, when mistakes are made, you acknowledge them and deal with the consequences.” The way the fight went down, according to the police report, was that at one point in the meeting Locksley grabbed Gerald by the collar and later, things got heated again. Other coaches attempted to intervene, but Locksley slipped a nice jab in and hit Gerald square in the face, causing a small cut on the inside of his upper lip. An officer who responded to the scene of the incident also noted a scratch to Gerald's left forearm. This comes on the heels of a sexual harassment suit against Locksley by a former secretary in the football office, a suit that is reportedly on the verge of being resolved. Bottom line here: This guy is out of control, clearly has anger and self-control issues and based on his team’s winless on-field performance, Locksley should be looking for a new job by season’s end. Ironically, it was Gerald who has been on leave and missed Saturday's game against New Mexico State University for what the school termed personal issues. Just for the benefit of all involved, I’m going to go ahead and suggest that the entire New Mexico football program stop emulating the Raiders and start conducting themselves with some class and dignity…………..

- Days like today, I sincerely regret that my man Alberto Fujimori is no longer the acting president of Peru. Because while having your country’s former president plead guilty to charges of illegal wiretapping and embezzling government money to bribe politicians and journalists to support his 2000 re-election campaign is cool, having the guilty party as your current head of state is so much better. It’s also nice that a verdict was finally reached in this case, as this was the fourth criminal trial that Fujimori faced since being extradited to Peru from Chile in 2007. The guy had already been through three other trials for completely different offenses, so I’m sure he was tired of seeing the inside of courtrooms. Sentencing will take place tomorrow, but government prosecutor Jose Antonio Pelaez Bardales has asked the court for an eight-year prison sentence and a fine of $1.7 million to be paid to the state, and $1 million to go to victims of the wiretapping. The kicker is that Fujimori lost the election in question after serving as the country’s president from 1990 to 2000. The trial wasn’t much of a trial at all, as Fujimori admitted his guilt with a short "I agree" to the judges, avoiding the spectacle of the 60-plus witnesses the government planned to call to testify against him. The witnesses were set to include former congressmen, authors, journalists, former United Nations officials and presidential candidates, all of whom were to testify about the bribery and wiretaps. The shame in all of this is that Fujimori did a lot of good for Peru, leading the stabilization of the country’s economy and defeating the Shining Path gorrillas, who carried out terrorist attacks. However, dude also had issues with human rights abuses and corruption - namely that he liked to abuse people’s human rights and was notoriously corrupt. That corruption was on display from the time he took office as president in 1990 and allegedly used public funds to set up surveillance centers to intercept phone conversations of people deemed a threat to his rule. That tradition of corruption was something he carried through his entire term in office, bribing members of Peru's congress after the ruling party failed to gain a majority during midterm elections in 2000. That would have been bad enough, but my man Al Fujimori dipped into public funds for the bribe money. Regardless of the sentence that is handed down, he won’t be seeing freedom any time soon - as in the rest of his life. In his first criminal trial, Fujimori was sentenced to six years for breaking into the home of a political rival’s wife to confiscate incriminating videos and in April, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of authorizing the operation of a death squad responsible for killing civilians. The third installment of Fujimori on Trial came in July, when he was sentenced to 7½ years in prison for paying a $15 million bonus to an ally out of the government treasury. Stacked up against that impressive trio, a simple bribery case doesn’t seem nearly as bad………….

- All beware the Floor Mats of Death! If you are the owner of a late-model Toyota or Lexus, you are hereby advised that the floor mats in your whip could well kill you. Both car companies have advised drivers of 3.8 million of their cars to remove floor mats or risk a forced-down accelerator pedal that could lead to a fatal crash. Teaming up with Lexus and Toyota for this uplifting announcement was the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The trio released a statement Tuesday alerting drivers to the fact that the removable mats could interfere with the pedal and cause it to stick. "A stuck open accelerator pedal may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop the vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death," the statement declared. I’ve got two words for you on that one: Uh-oh! What’s disturbing is that Toyota recalled accessory all-weather floor mats in 2007 for similar problems, but the NHTSA observed that reports of vehicles accelerating rapidly even after the release of the pedal have continued. This warning applies to drivers of seven different makes of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. One story that helped trigger this warning is a fatal crash involving a family driving a 2009 ES350 loaned by a local Lexus dealer in San Diego, which the car maker admitted could have been caused by an all-weather floor mat interfering with the accelerated pedal because of a faulty mat installation. "There is an urgent matter," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in the NHTSA statement. "For everyone's sake, we strongly urge owners of these vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended acceleration." Toyota plans a safety recall soon, but both NHTSA and the automaker warn Toyota and Lexus drivers of certain models to remove that floor mats sooner for safety. So what cars are affected? Here’s the list: the 2007-2010 Camry, 2005-2010 Avalon, 2004-2009 Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma and 2007-2010 Tundra. The Lexus models are the 2007-2010 ES 350, and the 2006-2010 IS 250 and IS 350. As a quick aside, how nice is it that rich, spoiled people who drive a Lexus are now panicked because something could be very wrong with their cars? Now you know how the rest of us feel, Lexus owners. You’re just like the commoners, having parts of your car recalled and wondering if your ride is all that safe…………..