Between 9 and 9:30pm last night, things got a little ugly for me. Some cruel, thoughtless network programming executive decided to run the last half-hour of “Dancing with the Stars” at the same time as the first half-hour of “Heroes.” Shame on you, Mr. Executive. Still, with some skilled channel-surfing I was able to watch both shows simultaneously, and I’ve got the recaps to prove it. First up, “Heroes”…

After last season’s finale, which left Sylar, Peter and Nathan for dead, Parkman badly injured, and Claire and Molly in some pretty serious danger, we’ve been on the edge of our seat waiting to see what would become of them. Last night, we found out in the show’s season premiere, titled “Four Months Later,” (maybe they should make that “Four Long Months Later”).

So here’s the scoop: The characters are spread out even further around the globe, now in Egypt, Japan, Ireland, Honduras and the US.

Claire and the Bennett’s have moved to Costa Verde, an O.C.-like California town. Claire starts a new school and must adjust, which, of course, is not so easy for her. Especially since the head cheerleader at her new school keeps getting in her face, challenging her “Bring It On”-style. Claire also meets a student named West, who has his own super powers. But Claire doesn’t know this yet, all she knows is that he’s a hottie.

Parkman, now an NYPD cop, and Mohinder have been harboring Molly at Mohinder’s place. Molly has been having bad nightmares and making strange drawings in class, presumably of Sylar, but no word yet on whether Sylar is dead or alive. Mohinder and Mr. Bennett have been working on a plan to infiltrate Mohinder into The Company, and bring that sucker down.

Hiro has teleported himself to ancient Japan and finds himself in the middle of a battle in 1671. He comes face-to-face with his own hero, Takezo Kensei, saves him from the battle, only to realize that Kenzei isn’t who he thought he was. To make a long story short, Hiro saved the wrong guy, and is told he must marry some guy’s daughter to save the village. Back in current time, Kaito, Hiro’s father finds a picture of himself with an S scrawled on it. Somehow he knows that this means he’s going to die. Sure enough, he dies.

But Nathan Petrelli is still alive! Except he has a Unabomber-style beard and seems to have become an alcoholic. He kicks his mom out of his apartment after calling her evil and as she leaves, she sees the same “S” death notice that Kaito saw.

Now for the fun- “Heroes” gets some new characters this season, and two of these are siblings Maya (Dania Ramirez) and Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz). All that we know about them is that they are running from the authorities in Honduras, trying to get to New York to see Mohinder. Maya apparently has the ability to kill people, but we don’t know how just yet. Her brother, Alejandro, doesn’t seem to have any powers, but I’m guessing that will change.

So what about Peter? Dead or alive? Well, shocker, he’s alive. He’s locked up in a cargo container in Ireland when some theives looking for a shipment of iPods discover him instead. Bummer for those theives. Peter still has his powers, but he also doesn’t seem to know who he is. Props to the writers of “Heroes” for setting up what is sure to be an exciting new season.

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