So I enjoyed last night's episode of "Heroes," which went back to a few weeks (or months) before the entire series started in an effort to fill in some gaps/make heretofore unseen connections/retcon a good chunk of the relationships currently on the board. This type of plot device can be effective - and it was to an extent here - but it can also create some serious confusion among the viewers. And personally, I'm just sick to death of this show jumping from future to past to future to past. Tell the story and get on with it.

Here's a breakdown of what we learned, along with my concerns about how well it all really works with what was established in seasons 1 & 2:

Papa Petrelli: The main point of the episode was to flesh out his various relationships, and show him to be a real rat bastard. And it succeeded there. We discovered that he was the one who ordered the hit on Nathan (which we previously saw in flashback, that triggered his powers and left his wife paralyzed). That Papa nearly broke his wife's mind with all the telepathic re-writing he was doing. That he apparently paid Peter no mind whatsoever - and never even mentioned Sylar. And that the rift between him and Angela was caused when Mama Petrelli's mind was healed by Linderman, and she got up the nerve to poison his ass. He would have been dead and buried if not for the unfortunate arrival of Nathan, which led to a hospital visit in which a mind-controlled doctor pronounced him dead, and then arranged for a fake cremation while totally paralyzed Papa commenced scheming his way to where we are now. I enjoyed his arc this episode, and I like the character (I never thought he was actually dead, since we never saw a body; I still don't think Mohinder's dad is dead, either), but man did Robert Forster stink up the screen last night. He wasn't even TRYING.

Mama Petrelli: I've always loved this character and actress, but it's been difficult to reconcile her behavior season to season. In Season 1 she was detached and mysterious. In Season 2 she was scheming and manipulative. In Season 3 she's been a ball-busting director of the Company. I mean, they're linked, but she hasn't exactly been consistent. This episode didn't help that. Her Stepford Wife behavior early in the episode can be explained by Papa's frequent mind re-writing (which is a nice parallel to Agent Bennett's re-writing of his wife's mind in Season 1), but Angela seemed totally removed from The Company and all its various machinations in this episode. And now she's running the place. It still doesn't make a lot of sense to me, nor does the fact that this woman is a precog and seems to be taken by surprise an awful lot on this show. (And one last thing: didn't she tell Peter in Season 1 that his father didn't die of a heart attack, but by a suicide brought on by mental illness? If someone can diagram how her manipulations of Peter somehow add up to anything approaching logic I'd appreciate it.)

Hot Mama (Meredith): We finally got a partial answer to something that's been bugging me all season, namely why Meredith has been acting like she works for the Company when, last we saw her, she lived in a trailer park in Texas (I think). Turns out she's the sister of the bad flame guy (I can't be bothered to remember his name) and the two were using their powers to commit petty robberies before being busted by Company Man Eric Roberts (I forgot he was even on this show for a while; boy, his character went nowhere). I do think it's weird that no stories of flame-wielding robbers ever made it into the media, but whatever. Agent Roberts convinced Meredith to work for the Company, and she proved herself awesome at it in a case in which they took out a Vietnam vet version of Colossus (btw: was that guy the bartender that cold-cocked Hiro a couple episodes ago?), but blew it when she discovered the Company was planning on using her and her idiot brother. She orchestrated an escape on a train, and just when it looked like Agent Roberts had her dead to rights, he let her go after discovering that the Company had lied to her about Claire's death years and years ago. That doesn't jibe with his owner character's behavior in Season 1, and It still doesn't explain how Meredith's so knowledgeable of the Company (how did she know Puppet Master, for instance?), or how she ended up meeting Nathan years before that. But the backstory was appreciated. The nice coda to the tale is that the trainwreck she caused was the same one that Claire ran into in one of the first episodes of Season 1 to rescue a man who, it turns out, is her flame-powered uncle. That was cool.

Sylar: Turns out after Sylar killed his first victim (which we saw in Season 2, I think) he tried to kill himself because he thought himself a monster. Enter, of all people, Elle, who was working as Bennet's partner (does that make sense? Didn't he go from Invisible Claude to Haitian Sensation?) and was apparently casing Sylar's watch shop, and stopped the suicide attempt. She then befriended him - and maybe started to fall for him - until Bennet ruthlessly pushed her to dangle another powered person in front of him so that the Company could document how he transferred powers. Elle did this, finding some goth who can...explode things, I guess? Has Sylar EVER used that power? And Sylar went feral, and did his thing, but not before Elle exposed herself and her ability to him. Which begs the question: how did Sylar not recognize Elle when he previously ran into her on Level 5? (He even tried to saw open her head!) And how does Mohinder's father fit into all this? When did Sylar work with him? Before all this? I am very confused by this constant Sylar retconning. (It's also worth noting that Elle seemed to be a fully functioning human during this whole episode, while she's been an emotional wreck every other time we've seen her. Was this her breaking point? Or was Kristen Bell just kind of phoning it in?)

The episode ended with Hiro - the flashback was all part of his NuIsaac-induced "spirit walk" - being attacked by Papa Petrelli, who had just finished decapitating NuIsaac. (Good riddance.) Can Papa Petrelli ALSO teleport? His ability set is really poorly defined...