So, last night’s Heroes didn’t move the plot too far, although we did finally see Nikki’s shadow self in action, as well as the true nature of the painter’s precognitive ability. The best moment, however, came when Peter met future Hiro, which gave us a first glimpse of where the show may be going.

Unlike The 4400, Heroes does a lot with superpowers on a television budget — I actually feel like these people do have powers, even if they’re often left up to the imagination. And storywise, I’m reminded quite a bit of the old George R.R. Martin-edited Wildcards series of novels. The execution of the “superheroes in the real world” concept is very similar, but not quite as dark as Wildcards. Still, this is probably the closest we’ll ever get to seeing George R.R. Martin’s vision on television.

I woke up this morning thinking about the expression, “He’d give you the shirt off his back.” Unless you’re talking about an expensive shirt, or unless the gift of said shirt occurs in the middle of a blizzard, then it’s really not much of a gesture.

Thinking more about it, though, I suppose in the 19th Century or whenever the expression emerged that a shirt was a valuable thing. How many articles of clothing did an average person have? Probably not a lot. It wasn’t as if it was possible to buy a shirt for $9.99 at the local Walmart.