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Oh, a whole lotta shit happens in this episode.
Matt gets kidnapped by BGM and the scary Bald Black Man. They seem to be interested in testing him for stuff until he gets all manic on them and BBM is ordered by BGM to erase his memory. Claire wakes up on the coroner's table and rather easily stitches herself together again, only to be faced with her would-be rapist at school. She somewhat calmly guides him into his own car and leads him to his death when she drives said car directly into a building.
Niki goes to see Linderman, only to be told by one of his henchwomen that her debt will be erased if she just puts Nathan Petrelli in a compromising position in a hotel room. Niki balks at this, but ikiN takes over at a crucial point and performs the necessary deed. Unfortunately, after they fall asleep, BGM shows up with BBM and BGM instructs him to "just take the one." Which one he takes, we'll find out later, I'm sure.
Hiro and Ando hit Vegas, and Hiro stops time to prevent Ando from losing all their money. Ando kind of digs this part of Hiro's talent and asks him to do it again so they can win more money. He does, but it ends badly when one of the sore losers from the poker table knocks Hiro down in an alley.
Peter and Mohinder meet, and Peter figures out that he might be absorbing people's powers; he convinces Mohinder to travel with him to Isaac's apartment but, on the way, something goes wonky on the train and everything's bathed in blue while time stops. Hiro shows up in a shiny black outfit, with shiny black hair, and speaks perfect English. "My name is Hiro Nakamura and I'm from the future. I have a message for you."
This is only going to get better, y'all. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Heroes: Sylar was one creepy power-sucking dude, Matt got brain-bashed by some creepy bald guy, Claire got almost-raped by a drunk quarterback and then woke up on a coroner's table with her chest flayed open, Hiro stopped time to save a little girl and he and Ando headed for Vegas, Peter figured out he can't fly and then he and Simone made out, Nathan told everyone Peter was suicidal, and Niki dug and then dug some more and decided that her husband killed a bunch of people, only that's probably debatable because, hi, ikiN kills people too.
On that note, I wish ikiN would kill the announcer, because that shit is getting seriously old.
Oh, and Chandra Suresh's book jacket picture is totally different in the previouslys, so I'm not even sure if he's going to be played by the Grand Inquisitor or not. Apparently, the Angel of Continuity passed out from too many margaritas and is face-down in a plate of rice and beans. We're not stupid, Tim. We're drunk, but we're not stupid. We notice this shit, even if you think we won't.
Again with the voice-over, which I've now determined actually IS Suresh Junior: "Sometimes questions are more powerful than answers. How is this happening? What are they? Why them and not others? Why now? What does it all mean?" As he says this, we see Matt, lying on a gurney, with several computer screens behind his head. He has a band around his skull and the screens seem to be monitoring his brain activity. He wakes, obviously disturbed, and tries to make sense of his surroundings. As things come into focus, Bad Glasses Man appears in his line of sight. He tells Matt that he's fine and that they had to drug him back at the bar. "I'm sorry about that," he says. I'm not. Did someone mention beer? I only WISH it had drugs in it.
Matt realizes that he's being held to the table with some Crazy Straps and he starts to panic and strain at them. BGM tells him to calm down so they can test his resting heart rate. Matt ignores him and keeps straining, demanding that they let him out of there. BGM tells him to relax, which is really difficult when you're STRAPPED TO A TABLE IN A ROOM BATHED IN BLUE LIGHT. Matt asks if he's FBI or CIA and BGM just creepily intones that he doesn't belong to any organization that has initials. No shit. "Whoever you think I am," says Matt, "believe me, I'm not him. I'm not -- I'm not anyone." BGM tells him that that's not true, that he's someone very special indeed. One of the monitors behind Matt's head starts showing what I assume are very active brainwaves. BGM rightly ascertains that Matt's trying to read his thoughts. "Not with my friend here," says BGM, looking behind him. "He's special too." Up walks the Creepy Bald Guy of Silence from the last episode, and he's just as freakishly calm as he was then.
Matt continues to fight against his restraints as he tells them he's a cop. "Everything you see," says BGM, "by tomorrow, it won't matter." He pats Matt on the shoulder and walks off. "Who's 'Claire'?" asks Matt. Oops. Shhh, Matt. We don't talk about Claire while we're at work. BGM turns. "You're further along than we thought," he says to Matt. He tells Creepy Bald Guy of Silence to "go deep" and "clean [Matt] out." CBGS moves forward, kisses the "S" symbol around his neck, and puts his hand down directly on top of Matt's face. There's a flash of white light and then we're in Vegas, baby, VEGAS!
Hiro and Ando are just arriving. They seem to be at the Luxor. I guess. I've only been there once, and I was most certainly drunk at the time, so they could be at the damn Sahara for all I know. There are palm trees indoors, though, so I'm guessing the Luxor. Ando asks Hiro if he's called Isaac and Hiro says he left a message in Japanese. "I need to learn how to say, 'You're going to die in five weeks... then New York will explode' in English." Ando repeats this phrase in near-perfect English and says that he'll teach it to Hiro phonetically. Someone wins at the slots nearby, and Ando runs off to get lucky at the tables. Hiro reluctantly follows him and passes Niki and Micah as he goes. There's a swooshing sound as they pass, but they don't seem to notice it.
Niki and Micah enter the inner lair of Linderman. Only Linderman appears to be a glamorous woman with a bitchy expression on her face. She tells Niki that it'd be best if Micah waited outside, and Niki sends him off with a henchman after they gently touch foreheads. He's totally got superpowers, y'all. The woman, whom I'm going to call "Pinky Tuscadero" because I feel like being silly right now, tells Niki that Linderman is willing to forgive Niki's debt completely if she just does a teeny-weeny little favor for him. Pinky Tuscadero tells her that there's a politician arriving from New York who wants some help from Linderman. "We're looking for a little... insurance from our investment." Niki looks disgusted and annoyed when she says, "I'm not a whore." "I think we've established what you are," says Pinky Tuscadero.
There's another bright flash of light, and we get the title card telling us that we're at Chapter Four: Collision. Only this time, the title seems to be appearing on Claire's naked chest as a scalpel splits it in half. Oh, that's just gross. And yet totally cool at the same time. The coroner peels back Claire's skin and records, "Jane Doe. Roughly sixteen years of age, pulled out of Red River Creek at approximately 4:00 AM this morning. She was naked and dragged, likely in an attempt to hide the body. Secondary injuries are post mortem." Oh, Christ on an ocean cruiser -- Jock the Rapist actually DRAGGED her somewhere? That is just sick. I hate him so very much. At this point, the coroner pulls the chicken leg branch out of Claire's skull, and we see that the part of the branch that was in her head is about six inches long. Damn. The coroner drops it into a steel basin as Claire's skin closes up around the wound without the coroner noticing. "Appears to be the victim of homicide, possibly accidental." Accidental MY ASS.
The phone rings and the coroner goes to get it. While she's gone, Claire comes back to life. She looks around and sees herself flayed open and, instead of the "Holy sh--" we heard at the end of the last episode, Claire just goes, "Oh my God!" I hate continuity mishaps like that. She didn't say "Oh my God" at the end of the last episode, did she? DID SHE? Angel of Continuity? I AM TALKING TO YOU. Wouldn't it have been much better if Claire had said, "Holy sh--" and we'd cut to the coroner on the phone? Angel? Are you hearing me? Oh, for fuck's sake. Take the earbuds out of your ears and have an espresso or something; you're really pissing me off.
So, whatever, Claire realizes what's happened and she quickly pulls her flayed skin over her internal organs and it immediately knits together seamlessly. She jumps off the table, grabs a lab coat from a hook, and hides behind the door when the coroner enters the room. She escapes through the door just as the coroner realizes her dead body has disappeared. The door slams shut behind her, which is either magic or a really big draft.
It's time for the Heroes On A Planet Filled With Eclipse title appearance. There's no credit sequence or music to go with it, so I can't even DANCE, people. There is no DANCING. I am so sad. But it's also kind of appropriate, so I'm oddly okay with it. Also? I really want to see that new Will Ferrell movie; not because of Will Ferrell (although, I do love him so), but because of Emma Thompson, who I think would be an awesome chick to hang out with at a bar while playing pool. She and Janeane Garafalo. And possibly Jamie Pressly. God, we'd be so drunk. It wouldn't be pretty. But boy, would it be FUN.
After commercials, we catch up with Isaac, who's sitting in his window listening to "Eyes" by Rogue Wave again, just like in the pilot. Way to revisit the music bank, music director. Isaac looks down at his sketchbook and sees the picture he drew of Simone and Peter beneath the umbrella in the rain. Yet another flash of bright light and we're with Simone and Peter in bed as he pulls the sheet over her naked shoulder. Woo! Peter got some! We then switch to Hiro and Ando, facing the gambling dens of Vegas. Hiro turns to Ando to maybe convince him not to do this, but Ando just dives right in. Another flash of light and we're at Casa de Claire as her brother comes down the stairs. Her mother calls out that she's making waffles. The brother and mother head to the kitchen as Claire enters the house dressed only in the lab coat. How the hell did she get home dressed like that? Clearly, I need to drink more.
Another flash of light and we're catching up with Nathan outside his campaign office as he heads toward the car that's taking him to Vegas. One of his lackeys is trying to convince him to hold off before getting "into bed" with Linderman. "I can handle Linderman," says Nathan. "He may have owned my father, but he doesn't own me." Anyone else think that Papa Petrelli was a politician in bed with the mob? The lackey says this whole thing makes him nervous, and Nathan says it's his job to be nervous, but it's Nathan's job to get elected. For that, he needs money, and Linderman's two million would come in very handy. Nathan goes to get into the car and, just then, Suresh runs up and starts screaming at him.
"Mr. Petrelli! Excuse me! I must speak with you!" The bodyguards stop Suresh as Nathan tells his lackey to keep an eye on Suresh. "Thanks for your vote," he says as he flashes the "V" for victory sign and enters the car. "Your life may be in danger!" shouts Mohinder. Oh, that's never a good thing to yell at a politician. They're kind of prepared for that sort of shit and you might wind up dead. I'm just sayin'. Nate steps back from the car and looks at him and Mohinder says that someone may be targeting him. "Can you be a little bit more specific?" says Nathan. "Twelve percent of the electorate strongly opposes me." Hee. One of my favorite lines so far.
Mohinder asks if the name "Sylar" means anything to Nathan, but it doesn't ring a bell. Nathan asks for his name and Mohinder just says it's Dr. Suresh. This omission of his first name, of course, leaves the playing field wide open for Nathan to think that he's the guy on the back of the book Peter kept waving around at him, even though Mohinder is neither wearing a turban nor over sixty years of age. Nathan looks at his lackey and orders him to get rid of Mohinder. The lackey, instead of shooting him in the head like someone in the mafia would when ordered to "get rid of" someone, just asks Mohinder for his contact information. Mohinder continues to yell at Nathan's car as it drives away. "Have you noticed any changes to your physiology? Anything outside the norm, perhaps? An ability you didn't have before? Mind reading? Spontaneous regeneration? Please! It is very important that you listen to me." Inside the car, Nathan is stoic, but clearly spooked. He tells his lackey to keep an eye on Mohinder. "I don't want this nut job following me to Vegas." The lackey assures him that that won't happen, and as Nathan drives off, he gets rid of Mohinder. In the non-murderous way.
More bright light, and then we do a swoop of New York, very Spider-Man-like, and wind up with Peter and Simone, post-coitus. Peter's playing with Simone's hair, and she wakes up and smiles at him. "Last night," he says, "before we kissed... you, uh, made a toast." Simone repeats her toast. "To love. May we stay away from it when it's no good to us." Peter starts to ask if she was talking about him, but she cuts him off at the pass and says she wasn't. Clearly. Seeing as they're naked and all. Peter mentions her and Isaac, and Simone immediately turns over in the bed, obviously not wanting to talk about it. The door buzzer rings, and Peter kisses her and tells her there's coffee in the kitchen before he gets up to answer the door. Aw. He's cute AND he makes coffee! I might need to marry him immediately.
Peter opens the door and Nathan's outside. "You think this is one big joke, don't you Pete?" asks Nathan. Peter steps outside and gently closes the door behind him. Nathan says that Peter's "buddy" Suresh came by the campaign office and talked about mind-reading and spontaneous regeneration. Peter asks how Chandra Suresh found him and Nathan shoves Suresh's book at him. "You tell me." Peter's all, what? You think I called him? Nathan's all, please. I've got trained professionals to do that. Which... what? So his trained professionals called Suresh? That line makes no sense. Simone calls out to Peter from inside the apartment, asking him where the mugs are. Nathan knocks the door open and we see Simone in Peter's shirt, looking for mugs in the kitchen. Peter tells her where they are and returns to his brother as Simone tries to hide her nakedness.
Peter shuts the door, and Nathan offers him an envelope full of money. Lord. He needs Peter to disappear for awhile. "You're becoming a liability," he says. Peter shoves the envelope back at his brother and enters the apartment. Nathan walks off. Inside, Simone's already dressed in her red outfit from the night before. She apologizes and says she's opening a new show of Isaac's paintings at the gallery. She looks pained. "It's Isaac," she says. "It's his whole, 'I can paint the future' thing." "What if he can?" asks Peter. "Paint the future, I mean. Stranger things, right?" Simone says that's as strange as it gets. Oh, if she only knew. She hands over the coffee mug she's been drinking from, and Peter just says she should take it and bring it back when she returns later that night. Um, it's a COFFEE MUG, Peter, not a t-shirt! God, sometimes this dialogue is so awful. Simone says that she doesn't know what they have going right now, and she just got out of a two-year relationship that was very destructive. She's confused. Peter says he doesn't want to be the rebound guy. "I just need time to catch my breath," she says. "Before you take it away again, okay?" Aw. They kiss.
"Claire! Breakfast!" Claire's dog-lovin' momma is hollering at her to come down for the waffles she's prepared. Bad Glasses Man comes down the stairs, and Dog-Lovin' Momma tells him to tell his daughter to drag her fanny out of bed. He does so. Claire finally appears and says she's not deaf. He looks down at her feet and sees that they're filthy. He asks if she was out all night, and she says she wasn't, but then he comes toward her and asks if she was out with Jock the Rapist. She says she was, that it was just a bunch of them, and it was stupid, she's sorry. BGM creepily tells his wife that he'll be there in a second, never taking his eyes off Claire. "I'm very disappointed in you," he says. Ew.
Claire assures him that nothing happened; they played poker. She apologizes again, and he asks that she just be honest with him. She's all, well, the quarterback tried to RAPE me, and then a chicken foot branch got SHOVED INTO MY HEAD, and then I got AUTOPSIED, and then I woke up and CAME HOME. So how 'bout you cut me a little SLACK, Creepy-Ass DAD? Or she just says that she loves him, and he hugs her and kisses her on the head and says that there's going to be a "throw-down" when he gets home about her staying out all night. He leaves, and Claire sits down on the stairs. Her brother walks up, and Claire's all, WHAT? He just says the waffles are ready and then walks away. Claire immediately breaks down and cries, the trauma of the last twenty-four hours too much for her to handle.
Brooklyn. Where I will soon be living. Hopefully, in Mohinder's damn apartment. With or without him in it. I'm not picky. Ahem. Mohinder's removing the pushpins in the Suresh Map of Heroes while muttering about being humiliated in front of Nathan. Pixie enters with a package for him. It's his father's ashes. Mohinder says he hasn't shed a tear for his father's death, not even when he claimed the body. His father had been misfiled at the morgue. Pixie says she's sorry. Mohinder wonders what he's been trying to prove when the relationship with his father ended years ago. "I have no business being here," he says. He gets up and goes to the closet and starts to remove his clothing, putting everything into his duffle bag. Pixie asks him if he's just going to give up, and he says he's going to go home to Madras and scatter his father's ashes. "I'm going to go back to my life and stop trying to live his."
There's a knock at the door.
Mohinder goes to answer it, and we hear Peter's voice, asking for Chandra Suresh. Pixie answers that Chandra doesn't live there anymore. Peter responds that the guys at the Petrelli campaign gave him this address. Mohinder opens the door. "You Chandra Suresh?" asks Peter, even though he's holding the damn book in his hand and the picture on the back is of a man about THIRTY YEARS OLDER THAN MOHINDER. "No," says Mohinder. "That was my father." Peter annoys me by pushing his far-too-long bangs out of his eyes for the four hundredth time and says that Mohinder's father wrote about people with special abilities. "I... think I might be one of them," says Peter. Mohinder looks at him with the Thousand-Yard Stare of Impending Flashbacks and/or Commercial Segues, and we go to commercial. Dammit. I really wanted a flashback there.
Vegas. Ando is staring down a roulette wheel as Hiro walks up and says that he's gambled enough. Hiro asks where his chips are, and Ando says they're all on twenty-six black. Hiro's all, dude? All our money? It's on that damn twenty-six black? He goes to grab the bet back and the roulette dealer slaps his hand. As the ball spins, Hiro makes a choice. He concentrates and stops time so that he can put the roulette ball into twenty-six black. The whole casino is stalled and the roulette ball is in the air. Hiro gets up, puts the ball in twenty-six black and, before he restarts time, he goes over to a waitress with a drink that's about to spill and rights the drink. Then he steals the olive. Hee! He runs back to his seat and starts time again. Ando, of course, wins. Hiro wants to leave, but Ando wants to stay because he's on a roll. Hiro tells him that he's not on a roll; he stopped time and fixed the game. Hiro thinks he's a horrible person for doing this, but Ando thinks he's awesome. Hiro thinks it's cheating. "Is Peter Parker cheating when he sells pictures of Spider-Man?" Ando asks. "No," says Hiro. "All heroes have a system," says Ando. "This is our system." Hiro thinks for a split second and then goes, "Let it ride!" So much for a question of ethics.
Elsewhere in Vegas, Niki's getting dolled up back at her house as Big Hair (whose name according to the captions is "Texas Tina" which is... hilarious, and I shall call her that from now on) asks her if she's still seeing someone in the mirror who's the "you that ain't you." Niki says she is, and Texas Tina says she can relate. "It's called 'gettin' old'. Little Botox'll do us both some good." Niki thinks for a minute and then says that she's been blacking out. "Okay, I wake up... and things aren't... like they were... " Texas Tina shuts the door. "Like the time you woke up with a couple o' dead thugs in yer garage?" "Uh-huh," says Niki. "One of them was torn in half... I mean... " Texas Tina thinks that means it obviously wasn't Niki who did it. "But what if it was?" asks Niki. "I mean, I've been having these... violent dreams. I mean, REALLY violent. Where I am tearing people apart. But it's not me. It's someone else... in me. With me."
Texas Tina isn't into this whole mirror-ganger thing that Niki's trying to describe. She tries to explain it all away by saying that she thinks Niki saw something so horrible that it broke a part of her. Yeah. That's called multiple personality disorder. Just ask Sybil, TINA. She knows ALL about it. Also? Sybil just broke apart and crawled onto shelves and avoided her arty actor carriage-driving boyfriend; she didn't RIP PEOPLE IN HALF. I'm thinking Niki doesn't suffer from multiple personality disorder as much as she has a fucking mirror image who handles all her rage in a very violent and physical manner. I'm just sayin', if Niki had a mental disorder, some meds and a good therapist might be the best medicine. But since she's ripping people apart and forgetting about it, I'd say a visit to her local comic book store might be a better method of getting some damn answers. I mean, FIGURE IT OUT ALREADY. God.
Micah knocks at the door and asks if Niki wants to play Scrabble. She does, she really does, but she has to do something else. Like straddle a politician for bribing purposes. Niki suggests Texas Tina for the game, because she reads romance novels and knows words like "thrust" and "heaving" and "alabaster breasts." Texas Tina grabs the game box and says she'll take the challenge and heads off into the house. Micah remains behind. "Why can't you just work at home, like usual?" he asks. Niki says this "job" is different and he says that she's been different. She beckons him over and apologizes, saying it hasn't been fair to him, but he's been a trouper. "I have things under control now," she says, "and I'm just going to do this one thing, and it's gonna solve a lot of problems for us. Then you won't be able to get rid of me." She leans down to touch foreheads with him, but he just pulls away and says, "Fine, but it's safer over the Internet." Niki pulls back and is all, the whuh? "I mean, what you do... " he says. "In the garage. It's just acting. None of it's for real." The doorbell rings and Micah goes to answer it as Niki deals with the fact that her preternaturally intelligent and sensitive son has known all along what she's been doing in the Garage of Porn. "They sent a limo!" he calls from the front door. Oh, ouch. Hookers get limos sometimes. Poor Micah.
Brooklyn. Mohinder and Pixie are standing in a doorway, discussing Peter. She thinks he might be crazy as a shithouse rat, or he's "one of them." Mohinder says that all Peter's really telling him is that he can't "do anything" and therefore is a shithouse rat. By the way, they both say "crap house" rat instead of "shithouse rat" but the censors don't allow "shithouse" so "crap house" it is. I like "shithouse" better, so I'm going to use it because I CAN. Fucking censors. Pixie convinces Mohinder to go talk to him and the go back into the living room to chat. Pixie tells Peter good luck with the whole flying thing and then leaves the boys to themselves.
Mohinder sits down opposite Peter and says, "So... when you're with your brother, you can fly and when you're with the artist--" "Isaac, yeah," says Peter, "I only met him once but, after, I... drew the future." Okay, I don't remember that at all. Unless it was when Peter drew the stick figures back in the hospital room. If that's the case, it's not a very clear representation of Peter pulling powers off of others. Mohinder comments that now that he's not around either Nathan or Isaac, Peter can't fly or tell the future. Peter suppositions that maybe he can only "do things" when he's around other people who can "do things." Mohinder just smiles at him. "Does that sound as lame as I think it did?" asks Peter. "It sounds like you should be talking to my father," says Mohinder. Well, duh. Peter asks how he gets a hold of Dr. Suresh and Mohinder just says, "He's on the table," and nods his head back at the urn with his father's ashes.
Peter's kind of horrified. "I... I'm sorry." He holds Chandra's book up. "But... you believe that this is possible. I mean, you believed it this morning." Mohinder just scoffs. "What if I prove it to you?" asks Peter. "Fine," says Mohinder. "Then prove it." Peter says they could go visit Nathan, but, dammit, he's left town. He says he'll take Mohinder to Isaac's, but it's complicated. "Complicated how?" asks Mohinder, as we head off to Isaac's place.
Simone enters, and we see Isaac readying his heroin kit. That really IS complicated! He wraps a scarf around the top of his head and tells her that his paintings are by the door. She goes to check them out and says that she thought she was buying the new pieces. He says he needs the new pieces. "To tell you the future?" she sneers at him. He asks how much the old pieces will go for and she tells him she doesn't think she can sell them. "So you only like the ones I painted when I was high?" he says. "Interesting. You won't give me an advance?" "That depends on what you're going to do with the money," she says. He says he needs painting supplies. "I take it you're not talking about oils and canvas," she says, her heart totally hardened toward him.
"It was raining last night," he says. "What'd you do, Simone? In the rain?" He shows her the sketch of her and Peter kissing beneath the umbrella. "You followed me?" she asks. Nope. He drew it seven weeks ago. He also drew Peter in the painting of him falling. Before they'd ever met. "Are you in love with him?" asks Isaac. Simone says she doesn't know how she feels about Peter and she sure as hell doesn't know how she feels about Isaac. Isaac says the entire city's gonna explode unless he stops it. "You think you can save us all by shooting up?" she asks. "I can save everybody," he says. She leaves and he just laughs. "I'm gonna be a hero," he says while he looks down at his floor mural of the destruction of New York. Looks like he's finally believing Hiro's Japanese ramblings on his answering machine...
Commercials. Oh, Pam and Jim! I believe we can work this whole thing out! Or Jim will fall in love with ME and we will run away and be happy forever and ever and ever. Shut up, Michael.
Odessa. Claire's getting books out of her locker while Nerdeo lectures her on the whole you-were-almost-raped-and-then-murdered-and-all-you-want-to-do-is-be-normal attitude that she's currently working. "He was drunk," she says. "It was an accident." "Which part was an accident?" he asks in disgust. "The rape or the murder?" Amen, brother. They discuss Claire's appearance on the coroner's table, and Nerdeo speculates that maybe when the branch was pulled out of her head, her brain rebooted or something. "I'm not a hard drive," Claire says in a snotty tone. "No, you're Little Miss Miracle-Gro," he retorts. Heh. Nerdeo wants her to tell someone about Jock the Rapist, but she doesn't want to because she doesn't have a mark on her. And here's where this scenario just starts to smell of stale limburger cheese to me. Because, on the one hand, Claire doesn't want anyone to know of her powers, but on the other, she's SHOWING UP AT SCHOOL where the RAPIST IS and she no longer HAS A HOLE IN HER HEAD. I think that someone, namely HER RAPIST, is going to know something's up here. Especially since he DRAGGED HER ASS TO THE RIVER and tried to GET RID OF HER DEAD BODY. Unless she sports a large scar in the shape of a chicken foot on the side of her head, I'd say the jig, she is up.
Claire says that all Jock the Rapist knows is that he was drunk and she's not dead. How drunk was he that he thought clearly enough to dispose of her damn body? I've been extremely, wickedly drunk before (yesterday, in fact), and I remember everything. Even when it's something horribly embarrassing like falling down someone's front steps and landing on my face. In poo. Nope. Couldn't forget something like THAT now could I? Just then, Jackie the Cheertator shows up and asks Claire what happened to her last night. Jock the Rapist is tagging along, and he is clearly spooked by Claire's appearance. Claire laughingly says she was really drunk last night and therefore has NO idea what happened. Jock the Rapist runs off to the bathroom and passes a younger blonde girl who shoots him a look. She stops and looks at Claire and they share a moment as the eerie Wendy and Lisa piano music leads us to the scene.
Vegas. Ando is playing poker against a guy in a cowboy hat with three aces in his hand. Ando has two queens. Hiro sits behind him and when Ando gives him the signal, Hiro stops time and switches the aces to Ando's hand. Well, this is just stupid. It's one thing to win at the roulette table with an inanimate object like a ball that you can move around without anyone noticing, but when you're switching out cards in the hand of a human, it would seem like there's a much larger margin for error here. I mean, really. Even craps would make more sense. Or stealing people's chips. But the guy just looked at his damn cards! He's not going to FORGET he had aces. Whatever, Hiro's cute.
Elsewhere in the casino, Niki's sitting at a bar having a glass of champagne. She hears Nathan coming toward her and she immediately dips what looks like a concert ticket into her champagne. Well, now, that's a waste of perfectly good champagne, if you ask me! She times it just right and collides with Nathan as he passes. She holds out her champagne glass with the ticket in it and pretends that the collision with Nathan caused her Celine Dion ticket to take a bath. They engage in some not-so-subtle flirting as Nathan asks her point-blank if she's traveling alone. Suave, Nathan. Really suave. They smile toothily at each other, and a clandestine hook-up is born.
Mohinder and Peter are riding the subway to Isaac's place. Peter says that he should do the talking when they get there because, um, Isaac's kind of... a heroin addict. Mohinder's all, uh, dude? Where the hell are you taking me? A crack den? Peter's all, no, dude! I said HEROIN, not CRACK! He asks Mohinder to suspend his skepticism for a little bit, and Mohinder just reminds him that the default position of scientists IS skepticism. "Your father managed to get around it," says Peter. He sure knows a lot about a dead man he's never met. They discuss how Mohinder did more than respect his father's work; he believed him. And he did so because he had no choice: Chandra was his father. "Can't be the only reason you believed him," says Peter. "Look at what's happening to our planet," says Mohinder. "Overpopulation, global warming, drought, famine, terrorism. Deep down, we all sense that something's not right."
He goes on to say that his father used to talk about how an entire species will go extinct while others no more unique or complex will change and adapt in extraordinary ways. Like become indestructible or learn how to fly without wings? Mohinder sums up Chandra's views on evolution as "romantic". Peter points out that Mohinder must share his father's views, seeing as they're both geneticists. Mohinder just says that this is another variation on evolution; they're all just variations on the last model. "Yeah," chortles Peter, "we're all just cheap knockoffs of our fathers." Peter needs a barrette or a haircut because his bangs and his incessant need to tuck them behind his ear are really starting to get on my last fucking nerve. I'd prefer a barrette because we rarely ever see superheroes with pink sparkly clips holding back their hair. And Peter would look pretty in pink.
Isaac's Studio. Isaac preps a canvas and starts painting. Then he pulls out his heroin gear and readies the needle. He takes one last look at the blank canvas and then we see him start to get high, even though we never actually see the needle enter his skin. This IS prime time, after all. He falls off the stool, totally stoned out of his gourd. We travel into his eyeball and suddenly he's up on a rooftop, standing at the corner of a building. We hear a scream and see Claire running away from something as she runs up the stairs of the Odessa Pantheon Theatre of International Greek Dramas. Claire stumbles on the stairs as the shadow of a man looms over her like a monster. Isaac starts to paint and we're back in his studio as he's slapping colors on the canvas. In the painting that he's working on, the shadow of a man threatening Claire looks more like the blue monster from the 9th Wonder comic book that Micah was reading in the first episode. We hear Peter knocking on the door and calling Isaac's name. Isaac's too busy getting smacked out and painting the future, though, so he doesn't respond. When the camera pans around to Isaac's face, his eyes are all glossed over with white, like he's suddenly blind. Blind, but can seeeee theeee fuuuuuuutuuuuure!
Odessa. Claire's wearing that goddamned cheerleader uniform again. What, is there a game every other day at this stupid school? At my high school, the cheerleaders wore their uniforms, like, once a damn month! Give Claire something else to wear or make it her bloody superhero costume already. Claire shuts her locker door and the spooky girl from before is standing there, staring at her. Her name is Laurie, and she says that she saw Claire go off with Jock the Rapist at the bonfire, and she asks her what happened. Claire says nothing, but the girl just says that when she went off with Jock the Rapist a whole lot of "nothing" happened to her too. They both look over at Jock the Rapist, who just happens to be casually mauling yet another blonde in the distance. Are there any DARK HAIRED girls at this school?
Vegas. Hiro and Ando are riding an escalator, doing their finest Rain Man impersonations, complete with matching grey suits. Hiro is kvetching that they shouldn't be using his powers for personal gain, they should be saving the world. Ando says there's no law against looking good while they do it, but it's pretty clear he just wants to gamble some more. As they near the end of the escalator, two casino security guys grab them and kick them out of the casino, along with their luggage. Hiro's all, now? Now can we go? Ando's all, what? We're hitting another casino! Hiro's thinking maybe bringing Ando along wasn't such a good idea. Just then, the cheated cowboy comes walking up, and before Hiro can stop time and get them the hell out of there, Ando opens his big fucking mouth, and one of the cowboy's henchmen knocks Hiro out with one punch. I'm thinking that Ando needs to just... make himself useful already. He's really starting to bug me.
Adulterer's Paradise. Nathan is entertaining Niki up in his stellar hotel room. She loves the view. "Everything looks so pretty when you're up high," she comments. "Yes, it does," agrees Nathan with a cocked eyebrow. Hee. He should know, huh? They share some champagne and Nathan ponders what it would be like if they could just soar over the desert. She starts to share a story about a helicopter ride she once took, and Nathan says he wasn't talking about a helicopter; he was talking about actually flying. Niki's like, uh, I can't fly. But I can split into two totally different people pretty damn quick. It's really cool! Wanna see? Nathan would rather see something else, though, and he quickly moves the conversation onto a more personal level, asking about her husband. She doesn't have one, she says, because he left her. Then she tells him the truth about her husband and says he's a criminal. Nathan asks her if she has kids, and again, she tells the truth. Nathan tells her he has two boys himself. He says it's weird having kids. Like you have to be two different people. Oh, this dialogue isn't clunky AT ALL.
Niki, of course, warms to this line of conversation immediately, saying that the person that everyone sees and the person you really are are different. She asks if he's married, and he says he is. He says he's very happy, and Niki says her questions stop there. Nathan moves toward her and they kiss. Man. I wish I'd get heinous jobs like this assigned to me by Linderman. I'd totally get myself into thirty grand worth of debt just to make out with Adrian Pasdar. So pretty. Niki stops herself and says she can't and he says he knows, but she really can't. She steps back and says she had a really great time and before they can kiss again, she leaves. It seems like she really liked him.
She goes to the elevator and hits the button. As she's standing there, her reflection in the doors splits, so that Niki's on the left and ikiN's on the right. Niki totally notices it and the doors open, revealing one of Linderman's henchmen. He grabs her by the neck and threatens her to go back to Nathan. She says she has to get back to her son, and he says she'd better honor her agreement or all bets are off. She says she'll find another way to pay off Linderman, and the henchman just threatens Micah. And in a subtle shift, Niki becomes ikiN and kicks the shit out of the henchman. And she seems to thoroughly enjoy it as well. The doors open up and the henchman falls out. ikiN puts her heel to his temple and says, "If you threaten our son again, I'm going to put my heel through your skull. Do you understand?" He says he does. She walks over his body and makes her way back to Nathan's room.
After she rings the doorbell, Nathan opens the door and she just walks in and lays one on him and tells him to "shhhh". Diana Krall plays on the stereo (which is interesting, seeing as Ali Larter greatly resembles Diana Krall) as ikiN shoves Nathan into a chair. His shirt falls open. Yum. She unwraps her dress and does so with a kind of rough and tumble flourish. Like she's putting on a show. Then she turns and slinks over to him, sliding down between his legs. And we get a close-up of her back and she has a tattoo of the "S" symbol on her right shoulder blade. The hidden camera in the ceiling captures her seduction, and boy does she ever seem to be enjoying it. Oh, well, who wouldn't? IT'S ADRIAN PASDAR.
Subway of Love. Peter and Mohinder are riding back from Isaac's place as Peter tries to convince Mohinder to go back to see Isaac the following day. Mohinder's all, dude, I'm not saying you didn't experience something; I'm just saying I used to be a respected professor and now you have me stalking a heroin addict who claims heeeee caaaaaaan paaaaaint theeee fuuuuu--Mohinder's speech slows and then the car is bathed in blue light and time stops. Except Peter doesn't. He's still wide awake and moving around normally. Peter slowly turns around and sees that everything and everyone on the train are at a standstill.
We check in with Isaac, who's just waking up on the floor of his studio. He looks up at the canvases he painted while high. One has Claire being threatened by the shadow, another has what looks like Peter or maybe Nathan running from something, yet another has Hiro and what looks like Peter talking to each other beneath a ceiling of red blood with an eclipse to them and the final painting is a close-up of Claire, looking panicked and reaching out.
We switch to Claire, alive and well and sitting on the Pantheon stairs. Jock the Rapist exits practice with his buddies and sees her sitting there. He asks her what she's doing there so late and she lies and says she was making banners for spirit week and that Jackie the Cheertator was going to give her a ride but she left without her. She asks him for a lift and he says sure. She asks him if he drives a stick shift and when he kind of nods, she asks him if she can drive. They head off to the car.
Claire's driving far too fast for her own good as she starts questioning Jock the Rapist about what happened the night of the bonfire. She thinks it's a little weird that neither one of them remember what happened. "Must've been some night," is all he'll say. "Yeah," she sneers. "Must have." She runs a red light and he cautions her to slow down. "Whoops!" she says. "You know how to drive a stick shift, don't you?" he says, cluing into the fact that she's driving like Mario Andretti. "There's [sic] a lot of things I know," she says. "Like what you did to me." Instead of begging her forgiveness, Jock the Rapist just starts spewing out a litany of crap about how SHE came onto him and begged HIM to kiss her and somehow it's his fault. Claire calls him a liar, and he just denies it.
"You wanted it as bad as I did!" he scums at her. That's not a verb, BUT IT SHOULD BE. He tries to stop the car, but Claire's in control. "Did I want it as bad as Laurie Trammel?" she says. "Laurie Trammel was a slut," he says. "Is that what you're gonna say about me?" she asks. "I already do," he says. And that's when Claire realizes that Jock isn't just a Rapist, he's a SERIAL Rapist. "You should let it go, Claire," he smarms. "There's nothing you can do about it." Oh, but you see, there IS Mr. Rapist Scumbucket! And Claire's about to do it. "I can do this," she says, and drives directly into the wall of a building as Jock the Serial Rapist just screams and screams and screams.
Meanwhile, ikiN and Nathan are sleeping off their night of hot hero sex. Bad Glasses Man appears at the end of their bed (CREEPY!) and tells Creepy Bald Guy of Silence to "just take the one." Which "one" he means, we don't find out, but Creepy Bald Guy of Silence moves over to Nathan's side of the bed, so I'm guessing it ain't Niki.
Back in the Subway of Love, Peter slams his hand against the glass and tries to get out. But nothing happens. Suddenly, there are footsteps on the roof of the train car. Peter panics a bit, but there's nowhere for him to go. He turns slowly and... there is Hiro, only he doesn't look like himself at all! His hair is slicked back, he's wearing all black and what looks like a Matrix sort of cape. He looks like Jackie Chan crossed with Neo. He's Neo Chan! Ha! Hiro steps forward and says, "Peter Petrelli" in completely unaccented English. "How is this happening?" asks Peter. "I'm sorry if I scared you," says Hiro. It should be noted that he has what looks like a sword or staff or something strapped across his back. ["He's a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle! It all makes sense!" -- Joe R] "You look different without your scar," says Hiro. "I don't know you, buddy," says Peter. "Not yet," says Hiro. "My name is Hiro Nakamura. I'm from the future. I've a message for you."
To be continued...
on Heroes: Hiro continues to speak of the future, the future starts to guide the Heroes, Nathan runs away and then actually flies away and the central task for the rest of the season seems to be "Save. The. Cheerleader. Save. The. World." I shit you not.
To be continued...
on Heroes: Hiro continues to speak of the future, the future starts to guide the Heroes, Nathan runs away and then actually flies away and the central task for the rest of the season seems to be "Save. The. Cheerleader. Save. The. World." I shit you not.