"Heroes" premiered with a mostly pre-recorded pre-party show and two-hour, back-to-back episodes that matched the hype. In an explosive, violent, grotesque and sexually torrid opening with three major film homages, the series promises two things: one, no one ever dies on this show, and two, heroes are sometimes villains and villains are sometimes heroes.

From the opening scene of Claire confronting Peter and trying to shoot him, only to have her gun stolen from her and used on Nathan (her own Father no less) by her dear Uncle Pete, to the newly injected Mohinder Suresh getting it on with the Angel of Death, Mya, this premiere had it all.

To start things off, Peter decides to take matters into his own hands and change the future, again. He comes back, shoots his brother, jumps the present Peter and sends him into the body of a villain who's locked up on Level 5. (By the way, when did he get that power?) And later all the Level 5 villains are released to cause mischief like burning people alive and car jacking from a facility that was supposedly impenetrable, but more on that later. Then he impersonates present Peter and stalks Nathan to make sure he doesn't "out" the people with "special" abilities. Apparently the future this "evil" Peter came from was a terrible place for our heroes. They were hunted, used in experiments and forced to live underground.

Parkman asks too many questions and future Peter zaps him all the way to Africa, as we find out at the end of the second episode. Nathan wakes up and wanders into a church spouting off about seeing God and being spared so that he can spread a message of all people being connected and needing one another in order to survive and save the world. A possible theme for this season and the hero/villain plot line, as all of the advertising for the past six weeks has been reminding us, lest we forget, "there is no need for heroes without villains." There was also the distinct possibility that there would have been no "Heroes" without fans and no fans without a more satisfying plotline and reveal. The "save the cheerleader, save the world" campaign launched the original season into a phenomenon but did not pay off in season two's conclusion the way a lot of fans had hoped. Some felt it was too easy to let the world off the hook and allow heroes who had been supposedly blown to smithereens to heal themselves and come back to life.

This double header tried to make up for any lack felt last season in their first two episodes. And the pre-show rang a little of desperation with the repeated phrase, "Don't worry if you haven't watched the first two seasons it's not too late to catch up and join in." Specialty shows such as "Heroes" need the largest audience share they can hang on to and growing their audience is always difficult due to the cult nature of the show and the intricate plot line. These two episodes proved that this show moves quickly, so if you don't watch every week, you will get lost. Although, that's half the fun of watching this show and being a part of the "in club" among the water cooler set.

For all of Peter's attempts at controlling the world's destiny Claire ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time and into the arms of Sylar. In the first homage to classic films Claire grabs a knife and stumbles through a darkened house a la "Halloween" as Sylar stalks her from room to room. He only wants her ability to heal and admits later that he cannot kill her, even if he wanted to. In a second homage, this time to "Hannibal"

Sylar stares at Claire's brain as she asks, "Are you gonna eat it?" "Your brain," he replies, "No, that's disgusting." The same type of scene, which guaranteed "Hannibal" an "R" rating in theaters, was deemed acceptable during prime time television a few short years later.

Later Suresh figures out the key to decoding mutant DNA and creates a serum, which can turn anyone into a super being. He decides to inject himself with amazing results. He enjoys super human strength and in the third homage, this time to "The Fly" he can climb walls and becomes a very aggressive lover to Mya. Everything is great until his body weakens and he starts growing scales on his back from pus-filled boils.

Meanwhile Hiro has inherited 51% of his father's company following his Dad's untimely death at the hands of his mortal enemy, Adam Monroe. He is bored and looking for another adventure when destiny knocks on his door. After watching DVDs left by his father which warn him of the power of his half of a formula written on a piece of paper, he allows a new character, Daphne Millbrook, a girl who can run very, very fast— as in faster than the speed of light, to steal it the minute he takes it out of the safe he wasn't supposed to open in the first place.

The new special effects used to create the waves of this new speedster's wake as she passes through space blend seamlessly with Hiro's ability to stop time. Yet, as Daphne so aptly pointed out to Hiro, he isn't stopping time completely or they couldn't have a conversation and move the plot forward. They also couldn't create a new arch nemesis for Hiro and a cute dialog reference to Batman wherein Hiro is Batman, Ando is Robin and Daphne is Catwoman.

On a darker note Hiro jumps into the future and discovers that Ando will kill him over the secret formula they found in the safe. It is a bit strange how Hiro jumps into the future and he and Ando are conveniently located just above Hiro so he can hear and see what is happening and then he can jump back to the present right before downtown Tokyo blows-up due to some strange black cloud. Hiro always seems to have a first row seat at the end of the world in each season. This alone could become tiring to some viewers. How many times can these characters save the world? How many times will we care if they do? If no one can really die on this show and the heroes always save the day in the end is there any real tension in this show? Are the stakes really raised if we can count on a happy ending?

These are the questions that will really matter by the end of this season. So far it's off to a really good start. Level 5 is taken over by Angela Petrelli (who we find out can see the future through her dreams) after Elle's dad, Bob, is killed by Sylar. And Elle ironically saves the day only to be fired by Angela, leaving her with no life, a dead father and a huge chip on her shoulder. Sylar tries to cut her head in half only to have her electrified body blow up and send him flying into a wall. She also causes all the cells to open up and release the villains, including the "good" Peter, who is now trapped in the body of a bad guy.

Claire's dad, otherwise known as HRG, saves the day by dragging the unconscious Sylar into a cell for containment. Or so we think. Angela implies that she is really Sylar's mother and that she is going to nurse him back to health for her own dark purposes. This reveal, if it turns out to be the way things are going, would make a great deal of sense and deepen the Angela Petrelli storyline of her golden boys and their Camelot/Kennedy overtones.

This premiere also set up the possibility for a Mohinder/Mya fly inspired love-child, which could have accelerated growth and become a super villain and anti-Christ foil to counter the Nathan Petrelli Christ/martyr figure— who by the way is going to become the Jr. Senator from New York and is talking to Mr. Linderman, who no one but Nathan can see. A little crazy maybe?

Overall an excellent and most entertaining premiere night. If this season can offer answers to our most pressing questions then fans will be fully satisfied with answers even if they don't like what they are. One we all hope will be answered is: what happened to the Irish girl Peter was seeing who got stuck in the future and carted off to a containment camp last season? Did she get saved along with the world or is Peter a really bad boyfriend and deserved to get shot?

Story by Erin MacMillan-Ramirez

Starpulse contributing writer