Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Back to Season One
By DeAnn Welker | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.02.2009
Present Hiro's watching Charlie through the Burnt Toast Diner window when Ando comes out to ask if everything is okay. He says everything is fine, and he needs to just keep waiting. He sends him back inside, as Charlie comes out. She looks upset, and tells him she has a knot in her gut. He says he'll untie it, but she says he's the one who put it there. She says she was okay with dying, but this feels like cheating. Plus, he says Sylar's going to kill a lot of people and she wonders how he can let that happen. He says he had to preserve the time-space continuum, but she points out that he didn't since he saved her. He gets frustrated and says this is their happily ever after, and they're going to Otsu. He looks so heartbroken that it breaks my heart more than a little. Charlie tells him thousands of people die every day -- young, old, accidents, murders. Why is she different? He says, "Because I love you." She tells him that's just selfish and leaves.
Primatech break room. HRG's reading newspapers when Lauren comes in and formally hands him an envelope. She says she found it on her desk, and thinks someone delivered it by mistake. He opens it and a hotel key falls out. She asks if he plans on staying at the Midland Motel. He looks at her, then gets up and quietly asks if they're pretending they've never been to the Burnt Toast Diner. She looks confused and asks if everything's okay. Then he opens the paper that was in the envelope with the key. It says, "Noah, Gone Haitian. Wiped my memory. Better this way. More professional. Love, Lauren." She apparently doesn't believe in complete sentences. He smiles sadly to himself and tells her, yeah, everything's okay. He says it was his mistake, since he thought he saw her at the diner. She tells him to have a good night and leaves. He looks a little tearful, but no one cares. Because this never happened. I remember Season 1, and she wasn't there. Commercials, including the latest episode of Slow Burn, in which some guy's showing Amanda (Lydia's daughter) around the carnival. She thinks it's incredible. When the guy leans toward her, Edgar threatens him with a knife and sends Amanda back to her mother.
Burnt Toast Diner. Hiro sits down at the bar and says, "Beer please." Then clarifies: "Root." He looks sad, and says in Japanese, "It's over." HRG replies in Japanese and asks if he knows him. Hiro says, "No." Then ... "Not yet." HRG wonders what's wrong, and Hiro says he might have ruined his chance at true love. HRG quotes more of A Midsummer Night's Dream: "The course of true love never did run smooth." Hiro smiles and then HRG says "It's a messy business, friend," in Japanese, and wishes him luck. Charlie comes back in and apologizes for being terrible after he risked his life for her. He tells her he understands why she thinks he's selfish, but he knows the world is a better place with her in it. She thanks him for saving her, and he does this cute, "Aww, shucks, ma'am. It was no trouble," and pretends to tip his hat. She tells him she was trying to make one thousand origami cranes. Then, in Japanese, she says she wants them to have their happy ending. She tells him she loves him. They kiss, and it's very sweet. It's so sweet that the first time I watched this episode and wrote the recaplet, I thought this episode was better than it was. In actuality, it's a lot of stuff that throws off the actual storylines that happened three years ago and then this one sweet thing. He says "Happily. Ever. After." She says "Let's go," and he follows her out the door.