Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | 588 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Shattered Dreams
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 20 | Aired on 2009.03.23
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Bryan Fuller returns! Hiro and Ando are embarrassingly dumb for a while, and then they realize that Matt Jr. is a human remote control, which I think is the best power I've ever heard. [Agreed. -- Angel] There is a good moment when Hiro admits to Ando what happened with his mother near the end of the last chapter, but they don't have time to dwell on it, because Janice comes home -- right before agents show up to take her and her son away. However, Ando's power has evolved into a useful weapon -- but more importantly, Matt Jr. uses his power to reactivate Hiro's time-freezing ability (although not his teleportation). That doesn't really make sense, given that Arthur stole his powers rather than deactivating them, but the more the show decides it wants to forget about Arthur, the more I agree with it, so I'm not complaining. Hiro and Ando then take Baby Matt and resolve to help his dad.
Bennet meets up with Angela, who tells him that he's their side's last hope now that Nathan has been outed, and suggests Bennet give Rebel up to Danko to regain his trust before telling him she's planning to disappear. Her timetable is upped, though, when she foresees herself being kidnapped right out of her town car, and the vision allows her to escape the real thing by a split second. She walks off into the rain and then meets up with Swoosie Kurtz, which is such an awesome cast as a socialite peer of Angela's that I can't even use words to describe it, although she only gets a little cash and an umbrella out of the deal. But just when the agents catch up to Angela and are about to take her, Peter makes his first appearance at Minute 46 and flies her to safety, and he totally rules this chapter, as he and his mother hide out in the Statue Of Liberty and contemplate their next move.
Sylar, being the biggest drama queen in history, doesn't confront Danko, but instead leaves an incapacitated Doyle in his apartment as some sort of sick present. I'd complain, but Sylar isn't actually in the episode, so I'll take what I can get. Danko then shows Mohinder a room full of drugged-up Heroes that are considered armed and dangerous, and we learn that Daphne's at death's door before Danko makes Mohinder another resident of the place. Bennet floats the idea to Danko of letting Tracy go as a way of getting to Rebel, and Danko agrees, but insists that Bennet kill both Tracy and Rebel once he finds them. Soon after, Rebel indeed shuts down enough of Building 26's systems to allow Tracy to escape -- but Danko and Bennet get more than they bargained for, as Tracy frees Mohinder and Matt on her way out, who in turn pick Daphne up. With their combined powers, the four of them make it out safely, but Bennet soon catches the in-it-for-herself Tracy and orders him to lead her to Rebel in exchange for her freedom.
Meanwhile, Matt and Mohinder get Daphne to a hospital, and Matt uses his mental powers to allay any suspicion on the part of the staff while making sure they get Daphne better, which they do -- except it's too late for her, and Matt can only plant lovely parting thoughts in her head before she shuffles off this mortal coil. We finally learn that Rebel is Micah, not that that's a surprise, but when Tracy finds this out, she's horrified, as now she knows she's made a deal to set up her own nephew. However, Micah's powers are equal to the task of keeping the agents at bay, and after he chews Tracy out for her duplicitous ways, Tracy has Micah run to safety before freezing a whole bunch of agents -- and herself in the process. Danko finishes her off, and that's two spectacular ends Ali Larter has met on this show. Can't wait to see what they've got in store for Barbara.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We start with several shots of Danko shaving, and the show can toss in whatever dramatic score it likes, but it's not going to make it any less boring. I mean, come on. Danko saw the stupid rabbit on the desk -- he wouldn't have called in, just in case? I can buy Sylar playing cat-and-mouse in the apartment, because he's a bigger drama queen than Blanche DuBois and he's also done it before, but Danko really shouldn't be going about his day like nothing's amiss. Anyway, Danko pauses mid-shave when he hears an electronic voice telling him that the front door is open. And here I thought the suspenseful music was related to the question of whether or not he would cut himself shaving. Danko fetches one of probably eighty-seven guns lying around the place and goes to investigate, but instead of Sylar, he finds Doyle strung up in a harness like a marionette, with makeshift curtains draped around him for effect and a big red bow and a tag that reads "My Gift To You" tied around him. All this surely means that Danko is going to be the latest "lucky" object of Sylar's Daddy Issues, and I wish Sylar would pick a big leather queen to latch onto one of these days, just to make his continued existence slightly less tiresome.
Heavy rain is causing a huge traffic jam, although the resultant honking they're depicting is a little out of control even for New York, and then Bennet, a newspaper over his head, hops into Angela's town car with bits of toilet tissue stuck to his face. What a tease that all the actual shaving nicks happened off-screen! Way to passport the important stuff, show! Angela suggests that this be their last such conversation, as it's too dangerous for him to be seen with her, and after Bennet snits that he's sure she doesn't actually care about his safety, she replies that she's worried about having all their fates in the hands of a man "too distracted to pack an umbrella on a cloudy day... or use a proper razor." Well, I'm not going to defend him on the second point, but boy, if I could get back the money on all the ten-dollar umbrellas I've bought on the streets of New York on rainy days in my lifetime. Angela then expresses remorse over the fact that saving her sons has meant the end of her relationship with them, and although she admits Nathan will likely eventually forgive her, she thinks she's lost Peter for good. She goes on that now that Nathan's been outed, everything depends on Bennet, and when Bennet tells her that Danko doesn't trust him, she suggests he earn his trust. "Give him some kind of feather to put in his cap. Give him one of us." She suggests Rebel as the sacrifice, and Bennet's surprised, as he thinks Angela might personally need Rebel's services sooner rather than later, but Angela says she's getting out of New York that very night, "before something unfortunate happens." Chances of that are a lot lower now that Bryan Fuller's back. She sends him on his way with her umbrella and a snarky comment about how now he can't say she never did anything for him, and given what ends up happening to her she should at least have asked for his newspaper in return. But what he offers is probably more valuable: "I wouldn't go home if I were you. Don't say I never did anything for you." The sass drains from Angela's face, and when Bennet's gone, she sighs raggedly.