Episode Report Card Couch Baron: C+ | 1047 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT One Peter Down…
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2008.10.06
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Lord, how to make sense of all this? Okay, Mohinder's skin is still peeling off, and as it gets worse, he gets more aggressive, although he mostly takes it out on a girlfriend-abusing jerk. Meanwhile, Zimmerman tells Tracy that she, Niki, and someone named Barbara were identical triplets, and he and others conducted DNA manipulation on them to give them superpowers. Unfortunately, The Haitian apparently erased his memory, so all he can remember is something vague about a Company. She almost sends him to an icy death like she did with the Greatest American Reporter, but manages to control her power enough so that doesn't happen. Distraught, she resigns from Nathan's staff so she can go jump off a bridge, but Nathan, at Linderman's urging, swoops in and saves her. They follow this up in the only way possible: drinking and making out.
A lot of the rest of what happens takes place in the future, with Matt watching in his trance: Present Peter and Future Peter go back to FP's reality four years hence, where basically everyone has powers. FP tells him that's caused people to go out of control, and the reason the future is still like it was is because of the formula Mohinder created (although they don't know it's him at this point). They then have a run-in with Claire, who uses a gun to shoot FP -- only this time it succeeds in killing him, because The Haitian is there to suppress his powers. In this reality, Claire is teamed up with Knox and Daphne, who collectively have orders to kill Peter -- orders that apparently came from Mama Petrelli. They also have Molly at their disposal, but using her isn't so easy, as Daphne has to convince Matt, now her guardian, it's a good idea. This errand is made easier by the fact that Daphne's his wife, though, so it turns out she is the blonde from NeoIsaac's painting. PP goes to see Mohinder, who tells him not to repeat his mistakes, and considering he's become some sort of light-averse troll, PP probably wants to listen. PP then goes to see Sylar, who's living in the Bennet house (!), has the nerd glasses back (!!), is open about his relationship to Peter (!!!), hugs his half-brother (!!!!), and HAS A KID NAMED NOAH (!Infinity!)! Peter wants to use Sylar's ability to save the world, but Sylar is wary as he explains about the hunger that comes with his power. Peter, however, has Sylar paint the future, and when he sees the coming apocalypse, he relents and teaches Peter how to use his ability. Knox, Claire, and Daphne track Peter down, though, and in the ensuing fight Noah is killed, prompting Sylar to explode like Ted Sprague and destroy all of Costa Verde. We then learn that Nathan is in fact President, and Tracy is the First Lady. PP and Claire survive the explosion, and Claire starts to torture PP until Nathan intercedes. He seems to be on PP's side, but when PP tries to read his mind, he's overwhelmed by Sylar's ability and slices Nathan's head off. Daphne dies in Matt's arms, snapping Present Matt awake, and to find her, NeoIsaac counsels Matt to find his Jungian totem -- that turtle. Ha!
Also back in the present, Ando tells Hiro what a useless dickhead he's being, and proves his point by being the one to facilitate their escape -- until The Haitian shows up and catches them and brings them to Mama Petrelli, who tells Hiro how he's cocked everything up, but can make things right -- by releasing Adam, which he does. Hiro may be an idiot, but I've got no problem with this move.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!In Mohinder's lab, we pass a chyron with the episode title floating in a ghostly manner, and then get to Mohinder, whose skin is still peeling off his back, the better to sprout bug-wings with, I guess. Still, you hope he's at least tried some Noxzema or Vitamin E oil or something. Mohinder listens to a tape of himself logging his progress, but it's all stuff he told Maya before, and this storyline is irritating enough without a rehash of what happened two episodes ago, not to mention the fact that this ruins the seemingly blessed lack of a voiceover from him. Mohinder makes another entry, saying that the only negative effect so far of taking the formula is an "unusual rash," and the jokes are too easy here so I'm going to let that one go. Mohinder is presently interrupted by the sounds of a domestic disturbance coming from somewhere above him...
...and we cut to him knocking on the door of the source apartment. Some brute answers, and we hit all the marks in rapid succession -- the girl cowering in the corner, the guy being a racist dickhead on top of being an abuser -- until Mohinder decides he's tired of this shit and bashes the guy's face against the door frame a couple times with his newfound strength. But of course the girl rushes over, screechily yells at him to leave them alone, and immediately tends to her tormentor. Look, I'm not saying this doesn't happen just like this all the time in real life, but this scene was baked in the Oven Of Television Clichés in a very hasty manner, so maybe we could move on to something slightly more interesting, okay?
As Zimmerman talks to Tracy, we start on a closeup of two pictures: The first is that shot of Niki Big Hair we saw last episode, and the second is of Zimmerman, one of the triplets, a woman who looks suspiciously like Mary Kay Place, and, I think, href="http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/heroes/the_butterfly_effect_1.php?page=14">The German. Zimmerman tells Tracy that she was one of three triplets, the other two being Niki and the mysterious Barbara, and they were ideal test subjects, as their birth parents died, so they separated them and used a formula to manipulate their DNA and make them incredible. "Speed, strength...is it something like that?" From the look on her face, if it were, she'd be knocking your glasses about fifty feet off your face right about now. Instead, Tracy angrily asks why, and Zimmerman tells her they were arrogant and selfish. He starts to tell her about The Company, but loses focus and explains, "They made us forget." He's presumably telling us that he had a visit from The Haitian, although frankly the fact that Zimmerman remembers as much as he does means either that The Haitian was uncharacteristically sloppy, or the writers are sacrificing sense for plot. Which is more likely is for you to decide. Tracy heads for an apoplectic fit as she tells him he has to take her power away, since it's hurt people already, but he says he can't, so she grabs him and starts toward a replay of The Greatest American Reporter's icy death, but before Zimmerman really solidifies into a popsicle, Tracy lets go, and the effect is reversed. Zimmerman shakily says he's sorry, and Tracy breathes, "What have you done?"