OK, all you incredibly impatient "Heroes" fans, there are a whole lot of answers coming in tonight's episode.

Don't you get that it's not nearly as much fun if you're in too much of a hurry?

Ratings are down 15 percent from the same time last season, and word is that the "Heroes: Origins" spinoff — six episodes that were supposed to air next spring — has been canceled. (Although that also has a lot to do with the ongoing Writers Guild strike in Hollywood.)

Things have gotten so weird that "Heroes" creator/executive producer Tim Kring actually apologized to fans in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

It's not like "Heroes" is perfect. Some story lines are better than others. And some — most notably the one involving twins Maya (Dania Ramirez) and Alejandro (Shalim Ortiz) have been, well, weak.

But "Heroes" is reminiscent of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in a lot of ways. Both build fantastic-but-believable universes; both are full of compelling characters; both have devoted (obsessive?) fans.

As a devoted (obsessive?) "Buffy" fan, it looks to me like the second season of "Heroes" follows an extremely familiar pattern. It started out slowly with a bit of a hangover from the previous season. It raised a lot of questions without providing a whole lot of answers.

Then the characters — and the viewers — figured out what the new Big Bad is and the action builds to another crescendo.

It's tempting to scold viewers who don't have the patience to wait for all of this to unfold. But there's a nagging thought that haunts me:

As good as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was — and it was great — it was never a mainstream hit. Part of that was, no doubt, because it aired on The WB and UPN.

But maybe part of that was because it was too smart for its own good.

At any rate, if you haven't been keeping up, watch last week's "Heroes" episode at nbc.com. The end was nothing short of stunning.

And tonight, we get a lot of answers about what happened in the four months between the last episode of Season 1 and the first episode of Season 2, including what happened to Peter (Milo Vengimiglia), Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) and D.L. (Leonard Roberts); we see a lot more of Elle (Kristen Bell); we learn more about The Company; we see the first time the twins' powers were manifested; and we learn more about the impending plague that could wipe out most of the world's population.

It's great stuff. And you don't even have to be patient.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com