This week on Heroes Sylar has sex with Parkman's wife, sort of. Parkman's delusions are growing stronger. Sylar is figuring out how to take over Parkman's subconscious and control his body. We also get to address the Gretchen kissing Claire issue and HRG trying to help Jeremy, the healer/killer.

HRG was wrong. The police locked Jeremy up without any evidence and without formally charging him with anything. HRG calls Tracey to help bust the kid out. Not using any powers, just impersonating a relative. HRG makes Tracey a fake ID claiming she's Jeremy's aunt. Tracey visits Jeremy and talks with him. She confesses how the first time she discovered her powers she ended up killing a man quite by accident. Her emotions got completely out of control and she couldn't stop herself. She subtly reveals her power to Jeremy and explains that he lost control of his emotions. He got mad. For most people that's not a problem but they're not most people. Jeremy begins to cry. He's kind of a big, whiney baby. HRG talks to the narrow-minded, small town police who won't release Jeremy.

Tracey makes a phone call to a friend and asks for a favor. Suddenly Samuel Sullivan appears on the street in front of Tracey. He transports her to the carnival and tells her that she should bring Jeremy to this place to live a safe life. She asks, "What is this place?" Sullivan answers, "Home." He says that a lot. Is he trying to convince himself?

Sullivan explains that everyone in the carnival has powers and that Jeremy could be comfortable, accepted and safe there. Tracey asks if living in trailers and moving from place to place is the best life for Jeremy. Sullivan asks if giving him a fake name and telling him to hide his abilities and become invisible is the best idea. Tracey says she wants to go back. Sullivan gives her a compass before she leaves so she can find her way back to them if she changes her mind.

Sylar sees Tracey and tells Sullivan that he helped her and he remembers flying with her in his arms. Sullivan tries to remind Sylar that those memories aren't his. Sylar asks if they're not his then whose are they? He asks that a lot too. Hopefully we're getting close to Sylar getting an answer before we lose interest.

Back at the jail, HRG tells Jeremy that he's being released. He'll live a new life in an apartment two doors down from HRG (that's not weird or anything) with a new name and attending a new high school. He'll learn to control his power and he'll be normal again. Jeremy wants to know what to do if something happens and he can't control his powers. Tracey says he'll be fine, nothing will happen, he'll be invisible. She's seems a bit bitter over this. HRG and Tracey lead Jeremy out of the jail and try to make their way through an angry mob scene. They can't reach the car in time. An angry man from the crowd breaks through and tries to grab Jeremy. Jeremy over-reacts and begins to kill the man. The man drops to the ground, dying. HRG screams above the crowd to Jeremy, "You can save him!" But Jeremy just stands, frozen with fear. The cops draw their guns and lead Jeremy back into the jail. This is what happens when Tracey isn't allowed to use her power when she wants to. It raises the question, what's the point of having powers if you can only use them in secret?

HRG and Tracey demand to see Jeremy but he's missing from his jail cell. The other cops from the jail have taken Jeremy at gunpoint out to the back of the jail and are chaining him to the back of a truck. One cop points his gun at Jeremy and tells Jeremy to give him a reason to shoot him. Jeremy finally is able to control his emotions and his powers. He lowers his hands and smiles. He knows he's going to die but he's finally learned he has a choice whether to kill or give life to others.

HRG and Tracey find Jeremy's lifeless body in the middle of the road. The well-done Christ figure motif is not lost on us and we actually enjoyed it. Not too heavy-handed, not too preachy. Plus Jeremy's murder brings up social issues such as prejudice against different races or sexual orientation that have been the motivation for other dragging deaths in America.

Tracey tells HRG never to call her again. Then she gets into her car and uses the compass Sullivan gave her to guide her back to the carnival. HRG leaves in defeat. Then Sullivan shows up and shakes the jail to the ground with the guilty cops inside. Sullivan has a real revenge complex when things don't go his way.

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Meanwhile Claire and Gretchen decide to talk about the kiss, finally. Claire can't decide if she wants more from her relationship with Gretchen or not. She's not sure she wants to mess up her new, normal life by dating a girl. She says she really likes Gretchen a lot. Gretchen interrupts, "But not in that way?" Claire doesn't answer. Then their new sorority sisters bust in to kidnap them and start "Hell Week." Claire starts to attack the girls and protect Gretchen. Becky takes off her mask and tells Claire she doesn't have to, "go all Buffy on them." Claire apologizes and allows them to kidnap her.

Claire and Gretchen are put into a trunk of a car and driven to an unknown location. While in the trunk they chat about the idea of dating. Claire tells Gretchen she's not sure about how she feels yet. Then the trunk is opened and the girls are dropped off in an abandoned pig-slaughtering house to go on a scavenger hunt. The team that finds the prize first gets to sit out the rest of Hell Week. The teams are left alone to find their clues. The first one involves a wall of lockers, a riddle and a really impatient girl who opens the wrong locker and gets splattered with fake blood. Claire tells Gretchen to open the locker that has the number 24 on it. She explains that the sorority was founded in 1924 and it's the answer to the riddle. Gretchen opens the locker and squints expecting blood but, instead, finds a backpack with bottled water and flashlights. The teams split up in order to look for the next clue.

When Claire and Gretchen are alone Gretchen tells Claire that she's dated more boys than girls. Claire wants to know how many. Gretchen figures out that Claire is a virgin. Gretchen says they could not be more different. She says that maybe they're strange attractors. Strange attractors are particles in nature that shouldn't go together but they do and when they come together they are more powerful than when they were apart. Then a meat shackle goes flying through the air headed straight for Gretchen. Claire pushes her out of the way, just in time.

Claire tells Gretchen that all the strange things that have been happening seem like they're being done on purpose. She thought she saw someone move before the meat hook flew through the air. Her roommate committed suicide and then the note showed up after the fact. And now someone is trying to kill Gretchen. Gretchen says it sounds like a conspiracy theory, which is exactly what Claire's life has been up to this point, so it makes perfect sense.

Gretchen and Claire meet up with the other team and decide to go into different rooms to find the "treasure." Claire and Gretchen go into the Prep Room. Claire tells Gretchen she needs her and then the mysterious invisible figure tries to choke Gretchen to death. Claire fights with the "ghost." She uses a big stick to hit the "ghost" and save Gretchen. The "ghost" throws Claire into a stake in the wall. The stake goes right through her chest and heart. Claire is able to use a meat hook that she grabs off the wall next to her to stab the "ghost" in the arm. The "ghost" materializes, revealing that it is Becky causing all the trouble. Claire and Gretchen are shocked. So are the two other sorority sisters who have arrived on the scene just in time to see Becky appear out of thin air and run away. Then Gretchen pulls Claire off the stake in the wall and Claire heals in front of them. Needless to say, they are shocked and freaked out. Gretchen turns to Claire and asks, "What are we gonna do?"

Meanwhile, Parkman is having a mental melt-down. He tries to pack a bag and leave in order to figure out how to get rid of Sylar. His wife catches him and tells him to stay in the house where he'll be safe. She says she'll take their son and leave to give him time to figure things out. He stops her from telling him where she's going so Sylar can't follow them.

After she's gone Parkman makes a desperate call to Mohinder for help. Then Parkman starts drinking a bottle of beer. Sylar is "physically" hurt by the alcohol. Sylar is operating in the part of the brain that control inhibitions. Parkman decides getting drunk will "kill" his Sylar visions. So he hits the hard stuff and hits it hard and fast.

As Sylar is being destroyed by the alcohol he taunts Parkman telling him that his wife asked why he couldn't be like this all the time when Sylar was having sex with her. Parkman figures out that Sylar is afraid of dying and with a final swig he makes Sylar disappear. Parkman's wife arrives home with his sponsor. Parkman tells them that it's over that he's okay now then he passes out.

Parkman's sponsor hands him the 30 day chip he wrote the number 1 on and says they'll start over, from the beginning. His wife tells him she loves him. He avoids saying it back to her and instead says she'll love him more after a shower. On his way into the bedroom to shower he picks up an apple and tosses it into the air and becomes Sylar. Sylar steps in front of a mirror and Parkman is the image in the mirror. Sylar asks Parkman what's wrong. Then he taunts Parkman and asks him if he wants his body back. The deal is Parkman gets his body back when Sylar gets his back. Sylar explains that all he had to do was wait until Parkman blacked-out and then he slipped right in. While Parkman and Sylar are having a private moment in the mirror, Parkman's wife and his sponsor are watching what looks like Parkman talking to himself. Based on their reaction they probably think he's going to need some serious help and we can expect to see a large butterfly-net, straightjacket and padded room in Parkman's near future.

Overall, an entertaining episode full of suspense and Claire's story-line was done in the tradition of a classic slasher-flick, which was a lot of fun. Next week Hiro gets to revisit the love of his life, Charlie, and try to save her from Sylar without causing a "butterfly effect." Should we be nervous if we're actually looking forward to next week's episode? Or do we dare to get excited? They are going back and injecting new plot into an old episode so the odds of it being a good episode are in our favor.

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Story by Erin MacMillan-Ramirez

Starpulse contributing writer