The tube just keeps topping itself. After "24" arrives, seeming like the height of drama series creativity, along comes "Lost" to up the ante. And when "Lost" starts to lag, we can hail the gut-grabbing zest of "Heroes."




NBC's first-season crowd pleaser has been building all season from a mystery-laced fantasy to a riveting character study to a chilling creepfest to -- well, all of the above and more, and then still more. Monday night, in its thrilling return from a six-week hiatus, "Heroes" tantalizes us with several more twists, deaths, resurrections, unlikely alliances and one enlightening bit of "save- the-world" byplay that might be a game-changer.

For most of this stellar season, the show's mysteriously (and mostly involuntarily) superpowered citizens have found their paths converging from around the world as they attempt to unravel their evolving "gifts" -- and to head off the destruction of New York, foretold in the prescient paintings of drugged-out artist Isaac (Santiago Cabrera), the time-tripping of eager-beaver Japanese comics reader Hiro (Masi Oka), and one whale of a Manhattan intersection vision where all the "heroes" watched one of their own go nuclear. Literally.

Now we're challenged by the possibility that New York's nuclear moment is what saves the world. The foreboding figure of Las Vegas kingpin Linderman (Malcolm McDowell) extends his shadow tonight, as he faces off separately against/with at least three of the heroes, both explaining and advancing his plan to be "a catalyst for good" in helping "heal" a sick civilization. "We all have our roles to play in the events to come," he teases politician Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar), the first of his face-offs.

Speaking of which, Nathan's younger brother Peter (Milo Ventimiglia), working hard to avoid nuke-dom, is still up against the wall with power-pilfering Sylar (Zachary Quinto) buzz-sawing his head, a procedure that comes to a surprising end-that-isn't as the season speeds into its final five episodes. Where Sylar had most recently left professor Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) helplessly attached to the ceiling, he now nails another hero to the floor, in a gory confrontation that makes the March cliffhanger's blood-dripping seem tame.

It's a cringe-inducing bit of business that extends perhaps too far into the pulp territory "Heroes" has thus far avoided, in the process building itself a sizable audience of viewers who might otherwise steer clear of "genre" adventure. The show's heart has always been its strong sense of humanity.

First-rate performers right from the pilot have brought full-bodied life to such could-be cliches as a blond Texas cheerleader (heartrending teen Hayden Panettiere), a privileged Manhattan grande dame (Cristine Rose, coming into full flower), and a Japanese office geek turned swashbuckler, whom the exuberant Masi Oka has fleshed into the character of the year, despite spouting most of his dialogue in a foreign language. (And the rest in humorously mangled English that's endeared him even more.)

But twists haven't hurt, either, and "Heroes" has delivered some doozies. Jack Coleman's seemingly evil HRG (Horn Rimmed Glasses), who initially tracked "heroes" for the enigmatic "company," went good when it came to his own cheerleader daughter, and now seems poised to spur the heroes' rebellion. New York politician Petrelli first seemed ambitiously self-obsessed, then at least fraternally protective, and now appears to be a secret spy for the good guys. (We think.) Surprising family relations have been exposed, especially involving fathers (also a plot-driving theme on "Lost"; are all Hollywood writers working out paternal issues?), who may or may not be involved in what may or may not be world-dooming evildoing.

There's another topped-themselves-again reveal at the climax of tonight's episode in which two characters who should never meet run headlong into each other in what's become a "Heroes" signature -- the kind of story-changing, heart-pumping, omigod-I-love-it payoff that only makes you yearn for more, more, more.

Yet underlying that is a more crucial, universal human yearning -- to understand who you are, what you're capable of, how you were shaped, and where you're headed. "Heroes" is a story of self-realization and expanding possibilities.

"Most of what we are is what people expect us to be," one "hero" says tonight, as he reaches deeper inside himself to exceed those expectations.

Is there a hero lurking in each of us?