Couch Potato: New cast member breathes life into 'Heroes'

Some actors so fully embody a role that it’s hard to picture them as anyone else.

Right now, I’m thinking about Robert Knepper, who so memorably played T-Bag on “Prison Break” for four seasons and has now joined the cast of “Heroes.”

He appeared at the very beginning of the NBC series’ fourth season premiere, and it didn’t take long for me to think of him not as the gleefully murderous T-Bag, but Samuel Sullivan, the leader of a traveling carnival full of “special” people.

Maybe it’s because this new character has similarly malevolent intentions; nobody is safe in Samuel’s quest to add more members to his makeshift family.

At first, he did it under the guise of replacing a void left by the death of his brother, Joseph — supposedly at the hands of last season’s villain, Emile Danko, but now I’m starting to think Samuel himself is responsible — and offering sanctuary to others like them.

But we just found out that it’s power he’s really after. If Samuel surrounds himself with enough people who have abilities, he can increase his own “thousand-fold.”

What exactly that power is remains something of a mystery to me. He can control the earth, and he has done so on many occasions, creating sinkholes that swallow up buildings full of people who have crossed him. But what is the ink thing all about?

Knepper is certainly one of the best cast additions since “Heroes” has been on the air, and he’s the main reason I’m so enjoying this season. Here’s what else I’m thinking:

The Good: Anything involving Peter Petrelli, who remains the show’s heart.

(I wish he still had his original ability, which allowed him to absorb powers from anyone he came into contact with; now he can only absorb one power at a time, which just isn’t as much fun.)

As the season began, Peter was using his gift to save people while working as an EMT. But he was so caught up in his heroics that he’d closed himself off from the rest of the world and had no real connections.

Enter Emma, a deaf file clerk at the hospital who has isolated herself, too, after a family tragedy. She and Peter connected when she developed a power: the ability to see sound waves.

I like the way their relationship is developing and hope it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle now that Peter has discovered the truth about his brother Nathan’s death (we’ll get to that later).

Another improvement is all the interaction among the heroes this season, something the show hasn’t taken advantage of in the past.

Several of the characters just annoy me when they’re on their own (think Parkman, for sure, and Hiro, to a lesser extent). But once they start sharing scenes with the other heroes, I don’t mind them as much.

The show is at its best when they’re all working together against a common enemy. While we haven’t gotten to that point yet this season, I bet it’s coming once more of Samuel’s villainous ways emerge.

The Bad: The Nathan/Sylar saga.

Last season ended with Nathan dying, and Parkman using his mind control abilities to make a drugged-up Sylar permanently shape-shift into the eldest Petrelli brother — a storyline I loved and thought had great potential.

But it has since taken a nosedive and is just way too confusing.

Luckily, it looks to be wrapping up. This week, Sylar-as-Nathan and Peter found the real Nathan’s dead body, and Parkman revealed all to the brothers.

Now Sylar is about to take control of his body again, and then everyone is in for it.

It’ll be good to have him back in full-on villain mode. The show has always struggled with what to do with him, but actor Zachary Quinto is at his best when Sylar is bad to the bone.

The Ugly: The return of Mohinder, who we didn’t even see until episode seven. And he was dead.

Finally, I thought, the writers have realized what I’ve known for three seasons: he’s an annoying, unnecessary character.

Then he showed back up this week, in all his boring glory, as Hiro traveled back in time to save his life. I will admit that his return revealed a lot of good, juicy back story about Samuel, but Mohinder brought the same annoying, whiny attitude to it all.

I think it’s time to get rid of him. For good.