This is a little behind, I know. Last week’s episode of Heroes was in many ways completely different from any episode before it.  The characters acted differently, the themes discussed were radically altered, and above all it made better use of music than the show has to date.

Now, Heroes has music. Or, to put it more correctly, Heroes has thematic musical accompaniment. As in, Heroes has that background audio track that highlights the mood that the current scene is setting. When the the few bars of the “Heroes Theme” start up, the audience knows something new is happening, and its the variation on the theme that drives home exactly what Tim Kring and Co. want the audience to feel. However, before Into Asylum, Heroes had never really made use of external music, at least not as noticeably as in this episode.

There were two instances where external music was heavily displayed, but I’m going to focus on one of them. Most notably, the song “Runaway” by Del Shannon (iTunes link). Having that song playing in Danko’s car when Sylar pops up to try and form a partnership to catch fugitive Heroes is a fantastic use of external media. I thought it was double plus good that the song was being played in the rain, because that song has always been associated with the rain for me. That could be just my thing, though. However, while it complemented the moment well, this use of a song not part of the “Heroes Theme” stable is odd, and seemingly more fitting for another show. A show radically different from Heroes.

Supernatural, from Season 1 up to the point where I’m currently watching (Season 3 Episode 4, I think), uses a corral of spectacularly-fitted Classic Rock tunes to highlight the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of the Winchester boys. It’s a large part of the joy, at least for me, in watching Supernatural. Seeing this kind of musical pairing in Heroes made me pause for a moment, but as soon as I let go of my notions of how a Heroes episode “should” go, I found myself enjoying those moments of Heroes as much as I enjoy Supernatural. And lately, that’s really saying something.

Why this radical shift in Heroes style? My guess is that the producers, writers (I didn’t really say anything about the writing, unfortunately, but the ideas in this episode were off the beaten path and yet interestingly refreshing), and directors of Heroes are trying something new to see if they can reignite some of that Season 1 passion. I say, bring it on and bring on my of it. This season has, especially in the first half, been so wrapped up in the details of itself that it lost site of the big issues it could be dealing with. Changing the formula might not work in the short term, but the end effect could be a heroically better show.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually quite enjoy the show Fringe and having been eagerly awaiting its return to the airwaves, enough even to brave a few minutes of American Idol while waiting for the show to start. However, for a show that opened its season with a plane crash, then quickly followed with teleportation and buses full of killer goo, the discovery of a psychic child who helps Olivia, the show’s protagonist, find a killer seems a little lackluster.

In this episode, a construction team is set to demolish a building. The episode setup of explosives and wires seems promising, but a construction worker has a feeling that leads him to discover a hidden underground chamber, wherein lies Batboy, terror of a secret past. Sorry. Bad joke. In reality, he finds a small, pale child who may actually be seventy years old, an impressive feat even in today’s world of technological marvels.

The child is discovered at the same time as an old killer from Olivia’s past resurfaces. Olivia obviously wants to track this killer, but is commanded from above to investigate the child, with Bishops in tow.  Olivia discovers that the child has a psychic ability that allows them to track the killer, who calls himself ‘the Artist,’ due to his clever rearranging pf his victims’ body parts before publicly displaying them. This episode does not lack for its attempt to show us the dark side of humanity.

Olivia and Co. are slowed in their pursuit of the killer by the CIA’s almost laughable attempt to disguise their taking of the psychic child. Olivia’s boss convinces Mr. CIA to let them use the child for one day so they can track the killer. Which they do. In about the simplest order possible. With one police chase, and one slightly tense thriller moment in a graveyard? Back alley? Miniature reproduction of 1800s London?

After this daring FBI run for justice, Olivia, who has developed a bond with the child, manages to sneak him away from the CIA and get him placed with a nice family, where he will be loved, and cared for, and play with bunnies and unicorns for the rest of his days. It is in these final happy moments that we see the greatest character to barely utter a word in television, the Observer. He shares a glance with the young psychic child, and the audience is granted a possible view of an Observer in training. The pattern does exist, and thank Abrams.

Every once in a while, an TV series needs a development episode without a lot of action. Dollhouse has had a lot of these, and Fringe is definitely due, but perhaps the timing could have been better. Backstory on the Observer is something that I greatly enjoy seeing, but for Fringe’s return after two months of silence, I would have liked a little more bang for my viewing buck.