In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Future Hiro delivers a message to Peter that he has to visit Isaac and save the cheerleader in order to save the world. Nathan gets kidnapped by Bad Glasses Man and Creepy Bald Guy of Silence, only to escape by flying off into the air with a sonic boom. It's so totally cool. Also? Adrian Pasdar shirtless. Need I say more? Hiro witnesses Nathan's landing, and they share a few moments of utter hilarity. Claire tells her father what happened with Jock the Rapist, and he orders Creepy Bald Guy of Silence to erase the kids memory so he'll forget his lust for attacking girls.
Matt uses his mad thought-reading skillz to predict every possible thing that his wife could want, including a steak dinner and hot monkey love on the sofa. Unfortunately, when he goes to get ice cream at the convenience store, he overhears the thoughts of a guy about to hold the place up. He freaks the thug out by reading his mind and prevents the crime, but then totally mucks it all up by picking up the gun and letting his mind be overrun by everyone's thoughts.
Niki has no recollection of her sex-o-licious evening with Nathan, but she apologizes anyway and swears she just wants to be a good person. She heads home, only to discover that her no-good husband could be on his way to visit her. She still thinks that it's him that's doing all the bad stuff that ikiN is doing, so the idea of him coming by for pot roast doesn't thrill her. He eventually shows up, even with all the cop cars outside, and it would seem that he has a little heroic ability of his own. That might include being able to walk through walls.
Peter visits Isaac and realizes that he can siphon off Isaac's prognosticating ability without all the messy heroin getting in the way. He completes a painting while his eyes are filmed over, and in it, Claire appears to be dead. Hiro calls while he's there, and Peter delivers a message that Future Hiro ordered him to back in the past. Or future. Orâ¦something. Hee. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Heroes: Mohinder met Peter, Nathan met Niki, Nathan met ikiN, and Matt met Bad Glasses Man and his henchman, Creepy Bald Guy of Silence. Peter realized that he was an empath who could siphon off the powers of other superheroes, ikiN seduced Nathan so that Linderman could get some dirt on him, Hiro kept stopping time to help Ando win at the casino and wound up getting punched out for his efforts, Claire took Jock the Rapist for a ride that ended in a car crash, and, at the very end of the episode, FutureHiro showed up and told Peter that he had a message for him.
Previouslys announcer? Still annoying.
Rather unusually, we start the episode with a black screen and a white title card telling us we're at Chapter Five: Hiros. We're right where we left off, with Peter standing in the blue-tinted subway car, staring at FutureHiro. Mohinder voice-overs at us: "When a change comes, some species feel the urge to migrate. They call it zugunruhe. A pull of the soul to a far-off place. Following a scent in the wind, a star in the sky. The ancient message comes, calling the kindred to take flight and gather together. Only then can they hope to survive the cruel season to come." It's Heroes: The Gathering, I guess.
FutureHiro walks toward Peter, saying his name. Peter asks if Hiro's making this happen. Once again, FutureHiro says that he looks different without the scar. He then says that he's from the future and he has a message. "I don't have much time," he says, moving quickly closer. "I'm risking a rift just by coming here. The girl. You have to save her." "What girl?" asks Peter. God, he's cute. Especially in blue. "The cheerleader," says FutureHiro. "It's the only way to prevent it." "Prevent what?" "Everything." They look at each other for a second. "Listen to me," says FutureHiro urgently. "She must live. The painter. Isaac. Go to him. He will know. When I call you, you must tell me where we meet. You told me many times how lost you felt. Before it all started. This... is what you've been waiting for. Be the one we need." Peter kind of nods at him and FutureHiro turns and walks away. "Wait!" shouts Peter. "Save the cheerleader, save the world!" calls FutureHiro, not looking back.
Time slams back into the present and the lights return to normal as Peter's still trying to get Hiro to explain to him what the hell is going on. He starts yelling for Hiro and looking for him while all the other subway patrons are like, "Uh-oh. Looks like someone bought himself a side of crazy-ass with their Metro card tonight." Mohinder runs over and asks Peter if he's okay and all Peter can say is, "The cheerleader."
There's the trademark bright light flash and then we're actually with the cheerleader as she's being wheeled into the ER. The EMTs are discussing her vitals with the attending and Claire's trying to convince them that she's fine and just wants to go home. They wheel her into a cubicle right to Jock the Rapist. He looks far worse than she does, but he's still not dead, so I'd say he doesn't look nearly bad enough. Claire's doggy-lovin' mama shows up and fusses over her, but Claire just keeps on insisting that she's fine. Her face does have blood on it, but I'm not entirely sure that's all hers. Jock the Rapist looks over at her and spits out, "Crazy bitch." Ah, good to know a brush with death has given him a new lease on life. Claire's mom pulls out her phone, ostensibly to call Bad Glasses Man.
As luck would have it, BGM is currently dragging a half-naked Nathan through a parking garage with Creepy Bald Guy of Silence on Nathan's other arm. I'm not sure you caught that: half-naked Nathan. Thaaaat's right. Nathan's wearing pajama bottoms and nothing else. And I would like to take a moment to thank both the costume department and the director for allowing this to happen. You'll be getting a fantastic delivery from FTD any day now. Nathan's trying to tell BGM and CBGS just who he is and how he's an important person and he'll pay them anything they want. BGM says they don't want anything, just to ask him a couple of questions, and then his phone rings. It's the missus. He stupidly goes to get it, releasing Nathan for a second, and Nathan takes this opportunity to kick him in the chest and sucker punch CBGS. He runs off with them chasing.
It's a really short, stupid chase, though, because the place is enclosed by a chain-link fence and there's nowhere for Nathan to run. BGM says as much when he and CBGS catch up. Right out in broad daylight, BGM points his gun at Nathan, even though he didn't shoot him when they were back in the garage, so I don't know why he'd bother to shoot him now out in broad damn daylight. Nathan turns and gasps at BGM that he might as well go ahead and shoot him because if he gets out of this alive, he's going to find him and kill him. "I've seen your faces," says Nathan. "That, I'm afraid, won't be a problem," says BGM. He orders CBGS to "put [Nathan] down." I'm assuming by "down" he means, "erase his brain." The two men square off against each other, then, suddenly, Nathan actually SHOOTS up into the sky and there's a loud sonic BOOM and then a silvery white tail of smoke streaks off to the right. HEE! Okay, I have to watch that again. And maybe again. Because that is seriously kick-ass.
Big black earth-moon-sun eclipse of Heroes.
After the break, we get a white-light-divided montage that catches us up with the Heroes as some emo-like song plays on the soundtrack. Matt's still strapped to a table; Ando and Hiro are passed out in an alley somewhere; Peter's flying sonically through the air; Isaac's painting with his possessed eyes; Claire's in a hospital bed without a scratch on her; and Niki's in Nathan's hotel bed, but her scratches, if any, remain to be seen. Nathan's aide enters and rudely wakes her, demanding to know what she did with his boss. Well, Mr. Nosy Parker, what she did involved an exchange of bodily fluids and possibly even some mild bondage, but that's really none of your damn business, now is it?
Niki wakes up and is all, the who? The aide's having none of it and asks her again where Nathan is. She has no idea and, in fact, doesn't even know how she got there. He tosses her dress at her and says she's coming with them. Down in the lobby, however, Linderman's henchwoman approaches and tells him to leave poor Niki alone. The henchwoman, by the way, is played by none other than Nicole Bilderback of Bring It On fame. ("She puts the 'itch' in 'bitch'.") Man, I love that movie. So, anyway, Whitney tells the aide that they're working on the disappearance of Nathan and, if he'd like to review the security tapes, he can come with her. He gets the picture and walks off with the other henchmen.
Niki stands there, not sure what to do. Whitney tells her that she did a good job with Nathan. "You're free to go home, secure in your solvency," she says. Niki demands to know what she did to her, and Whitney just quips that, as she saw it, a lot of things were done to her. Heh. Niki can't believe it; she says that she left and didn't go through with it. Whitney tells her that Linderman reviewed the tape, and he was quite pleased with her performance. She pops the DVD into a player and we see a shot of Niki and Nathan in bed together and it's quite the steamy scene. Niki seems to want to confront her, but the evidence that she actually did sleep with Nathan is staring her right in the face, so when Whitney tells her to go home to Micah, there's really not much else she can do except follow the instructions.
Back with Peter and Mohinder, Peter's trying to explain about FutureHiro, but Mohinder, who up until now had been running all over the place acting about three shades of batshit himself, suddenly doesn't believe anything coming out of Peter's mouth. Peter yammers on about what FutureHiro said and that they can stop what's going to happen, but first they have to -- and here, Peter kind of giggles to himself because man, this is some stupid-sounding shit -- save the cheerleader. Mohinder giggles too and delivers a gorgeous smile to boot. I've just now realized why I like this show: hot guys who are superheroes. Not for nothing have I seen all three X-Men movies. That's right. Even the third one. Dudes. Two words: Hugh. Fucking. Jackman. I don't care that his sideburns are threatening to canvas the land, that guy is HOT and he kills people with his knuckle knives. How awesome is that shit?
Peter tries to convince Mohinder that they have to go back and see Isaac. He swears that, if the answer isn't at the loft, he'll personally drive Mohinder to the airport himself. Mohinder's all, uh, sure. How 'bout you FLY me there instead. Peter's all, duuuuude. That's cold. Let's go see Isaac! Maybe he has some heroin-flavored party favors or something! If nothing else, there'll be THREE hot guys who are superheroes in one room so at least we know we'll be making SOMEONE pretty damn happy! Mohinder just says that there are no answers and that Peter should just go home. He leaves and Peter and his floppy bangs mournfully look out the window in search of more hot guys who are superheroes.
Parkman's House of Bitchy-Yet-Concerned Wives. Oh, good. We're on to my least favorite story of the night. And I loves me some Greg Grunberg, y'all. I just don't care about this story. Mrs. Parkman's in the kitchen, shrieking at someone from the police station on the phone. Apparently, Matt went out on assignment and hasn't checked in since. So she's yelling into the phone and then she... walks out into the living room and Matt has magically appeared on the sofa. Mrs. Matt looks surprised to see him, as if he hasn't been there all along. Even though, as far as I can tell, Matt looks to be extremely hungover and seems to have been dropped onto the sofa from the sky. I don't... get it? Unless she never has to pass through the living room to get to the kitchen, I don't see how she couldn't have seen him lying there. I have no idea why this is bugging me so much, but it is, so shut up.
Matt gets up, cringing and groaning, and Mrs. Matt chucks the phone at his head. She asks him where the hell he's been, and he surmises that he must have drank too much and passed out on the couch. She tells him he's been gone for a day, and he says that's impossible. Well, it's certainly impossible if he's been gone for a day and then just SHOWN UP ON THE SOFA. She says she's called the precinct a dozen times and they said he was working with the F.B.I. She kind of snorts at this news, as if she just knows it's not true. Matt pats his forehead with a cold cloth and says that the F.B.I. thing just started and he was going to tell her about it but-- "But WHAT?" she snots at him. Um, but you WANTED HIM TO LEAVE and SO HE DID? Oh, and he was also going to tell you all about the guy who eats peoples brains and how somehow he can read minds now, but nooooo. You just wanted to make him feel guilty for not digging your new job, didn't you? I think it's time for you to pay a little visit to the Apology Arena and do some first-class public groveling, don't you, Mrs. Matt?
She asks where he was and he says he doesn't know and she starts bitching at him about how she was picturing him in a ditch somewhere and that every time the phone rang, she kept thinking they were calling to tell her he was dead. "I didn't know you cared that much," says Matt, surprised. "I'm your wife," her inner thoughts say. "I always care." Matt hears this and tries to tell her that he's glad she cares, but, really, they haven't spoken much lately, so he had no idea. He thinks that her worrying about him is a good thing, and we thankfully leave this story to catch up with Hiro and Ando as they're getting tossed out of a van in the middle of the desert.
The van peels off and the Bouken Boys slap the dust off their Rain Man suits. Even though he's just been thrown to the ground, Hiro's still remarkably upbeat and cheerful. Although, really, I get the feeling that Hiro would remain upbeat and cheerful if he were locked in a tray at the morgue and the rest of the hospital was on fire. "Yatta! OW! Fire burn!" Ando's more than slightly peeved at the moment, and he shakes his fist after the van and calls its passengers bastards. The Bouken Boys pick up their suitcases and look around, seeing a big old fashioned diner car in the distance. "Good," says Hiro. "I'm starving." Damn. Those were nice kidnappers that dropped them off in a desert conveniently located RIGHT TO A DINER. Hiro starts walking toward the diner and Ando tells him to shut up because he's not talking to him. Heh. I think that's equivalent to going, "La la la la la I can't hear you" when someone else is saying something you don't want to hear. In other words, it's really immature. And neener neener.
The boys enter the diner and Hiro wonders if they have waffles. Ando reminds him that he's not talking to him. Then how about, I don't know, NOT TALKING TO HIM, Ando? Ando doesn't seem to know the rules of "I'm Not Talking to You" because he just keeps talking to Hiro, telling him that he's the reason he got beaten up. They sit at a booth and Hiro says they should just eat and go get the car back. Ando says that this is all Hiro's fault; all he had to do was stop time and none of this would have happened. Hiro's like, uh, dude? I seem to remember someone stopping QUITE A BIT OF TIME back in the casino because SOMEONE wanted to keep CHEATING AT CARDS. Hiro cutely remarks that the reason they got beaten up was because they were using his powers for evil, not good. They'd gone to the Dark Side and they deserved it. Ando's all, not being broke is the Dark Side? Hiro opens his menu. "Oh, waffles! YAHOO!" Oh my god, that makes me fall out of my chair every time. He's all, Dark Side, superhero powers, badness, WAFFLES! WHOOO! It kills me.
Ando's not enjoying Hiro's cheeriness nearly as much as I am and he seems to have a headache. He wonders aloud why he's even on this stupid trip and Hiro reminds him that they have to save the world. Ando's all, okay, ENOUGH with the goddamned save the world crap! (I can't say I blame him. Too much talking and not enough walking, if you ask me.) Hiro points out that all Ando's done since they got to America is complain. True. "If you're so miserable," he says, "why not go back to Japan?" "I'm not miserable here," says Ando. "I'm miserable WITH YOU." Well, that's not very nice. Especially considering that you've made your friend stop time and do all sorts of space-bending shit for your own personal gain. Hiro gets a screwed-up look on his face and tells his friend to go already! Go hang out with your stupid internet stripper girlfriend and leave me the hell alone! Ando's in agreement with this plan and he picks up his shit and walks to the door. Hiro hollers after him that he doesn't even know anyone in the country, let alone Las Vegas. Ando declares that he does and then finally leaves.
Hiro rips off his tie and says, "I'll probably save the world faster now." Hee. He unbuttons his collar and wistfully looks out the window at the desert. And that's when he sees Nathan swooping in from the sky and skidding to a landing in the sand. Nathan jumps up and down on his feet, clearly having burned them upon impact. Hiro's face is alight with joy. As is mine because Nathan is still half-naked. Nathan enters the diner in his dusty pajama pants. Everyone turns to stare. "Alright," he says, "I get it. Guy in his pajamas. Ha ha. Now, we can all stare and have a good laugh, or one of you could lend me your cell phone." Hee. No one seems to offer up their phone, so Nathan just smiles and walks over to the counter and sits. The waitress asks him if she can help him and he tells her that he'll take one of the diner's t-shirts and a cup of coffee. Hiro watches all this with astonishment. I can't decide if it's because he's found another Hero or because this Hero is handling everything with such good humor and aplomb. Or because he's half-naked.
Oh my god. Back with Matt and Mrs. Matt and the most boring story in the world. Matt's ordering steaks and sides on the phone and he's whispering, so he's keeping this a secret from his wife. She sees him and asks why he's not at work. He says that he misses her and he knows she thinks he's lazy and that he doesn't listen and that all he does is -- and here, he gets a frown on his face as he appears to listen to her thoughts for a second -- mope, but that's okay with him. Because she's right. He needs to try harder. Mrs. Matt is stunned because her husband is basically reading her mind. She says they both need to try harder and he says they totally do, and to start, they're both calling in sick today. She tries to fight it, but he wrangles her into it and tells her to go put on something nice.
Hiro's still watching Nathan with his mouth gaping open. He finally gets up and scoots over to Nathan at the counter as this hilariously goofy musaq is playing. He sits there for a second, staring at Nathan with this humongous grin on his face, until Nathan finally notices someone to him and looks up. Hiro introduces himself and holds out his hand. Nathan takes it and they shake and we see that the name of the diner, on Nathan's t-shirt, is "Fly By Night," and that's just stupid. But awesome at the same time. Hiro says that it's berry nice to meet him and then he whispers, "Flying man." Nathan's expression is like, oh shit. "Oh," says Hiro. "You fry! I see you! Whoooosh!" He shoots his hand directly past Nathan's face and Nathan gets this great look on his face like, "Oh, he did NOT just do that."
He smiles at Hiro and says that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. "It's okay," says Hiro, speaking better English than I think he's supposed to. "I keep-o shecret." Hiro looks around to make sure no one is listening in and then tells Nathan that he bends time and space and teleports into the future. "We are most special," he says. Nathan gives him this look like, well, I know SOMEONE around here who's "special" for sure. He kind of looks away and looks back at Hiro. "Alrighty, then!" he says, looking distinctly uncomfortable. Hiro then tells Nathan that he went to New York and saw the future and a big boom happened. He makes a couple of explosion sounds and gestures and Nathan just looks at him like he's wearing Anna Nicole Smith as a hat. "I can see where that might be a problem," he says dryly. "Oh, don't worry," says Hiro. "I stop it. Am hero." Nathan grins. "Lucky us." Hee.
A black car arrives outside and honks. Nathan's ride is here. He gets up to leave, but stops and turns back. "In this future that you see," he says, "you don't happen to know whether or not I win the election, do ya?" Hiro chews on Nathan's name for a second or two until finally he goes, "Ah! HAI HAI HAI!" and claps his hands together like a child. Hee. "Yes!" he says. "I know you! Nashan Petrerri! Election. You win. Very big win. Lando-slido!" Heeeee. Nathan loves this. He grins and pats Hiro on the shoulder and says he has to get back to Vegas. "Oh!" says Hiro. "Give me lide-o?" Nathan's all, hmm? "Lide-o," says Hiro again, making a steering wheel motion with his hands. He mimes honking the horn and goes, "Boo boo!" Jesus. I know his cute-as-a-button schtick is getting kind of old, but that still made me titter like a schoolgirl. I have to watch that again. Nathan's recent supersonic flight seems to have loosened him up a bit, because he just goes, "Sure! What the hell?" and beckons to Hiro to join him in the car. "Where you from?" Nathan asks. "Tokyo, Japan." "Ah. Never been there," says Nathan in this tone that suggests that, just as soon as he's got the time, he's totally going to fly there. Without a plane.
Meanwhile, Claire's lying in her hospital bed with a sad expression upon her face. Her father enters and he calmly touches her hand (ew!) and says that her dog-lovin' momma told him that Claire lost control of the car. "That's what I told her happened," says Claire. Bad Glasses Man immediately gets what she's saying and closes the door. He pulls a chair over to the bed and asks if there's something she wants to tell him. She does. She ran the car into the wall on purpose. There's a look of barely hidden glee on BGM's face because he obviously thinks that Claire's about to tell him of her powers, which means he can totally study her without having to drug her and hide her in a basement somewhere in Vegas.
He comments that she could have killed herself and asks what the hell she was thinking about. "Claire?" he says. "You've got to start trusting me." She starts to cry a little and says that she lied to him when she said nothing happened at the bonfire. "What happened to you?" he asks, a sweat breaking out on his face. "He tried to... he tried to force me," she finally says. All of a sudden, BGM's inner dad takes over and he's all, THE QUARTERBACK? Claire tells him that Jock the Rapist threw her down and she hit her head and woke up somewhere else. Way to tell the truth without telling the whole truth, Claire! BGM kind of looks down at her hand that he's holding and his expression sort of reads, dammit, she didn't tell me about the indestructibility; but I am going to KILL THAT SON OF A BITCH. It's a nice job on Jack Coleman's part, really. Claire goes on to say that she's sorry she lied but she didn't know what else to do because she can't prove anything. "He was gonna get away with it again," she says, distressed. "I'm not the only one." She begs her father not to say anything and he just smiles reassuringly at her. "No one's gonna know," he says with a tinge of his old creepiness. "No one's gonna know a thing." What makes me think this isn't a GOOD thing?
Isaac's Den of Iniquity. Isaac's cleaning his brushes and looking generally forlorn and washed out. Peter knocks and enters. He says he needs Isaac's help. Isaac's all, yeaaaaah. How 'bout you go ask SIMONE for some help, Romeo? Peter takes his comment pretty well, then mentions the painting Isaac did of him flying. "Okay, it happened," he says. "It was real. I flew." Isaac bitterly congratulates him, and Peter tells him that he believes him. "You can paint the future!" Isaac just sticks his finger in Peter's face and says nothing. Dude. That's really rude. Don't nobody stick a finger in MY face. Isaac goes back to messing with his paints and Peter says that whatever's happening to Isaac is happening to him and they're supposed to meet. "You're supposed to have the answer," says Peter. "Is that what I sound like?" says Isaac. "No wonder she left me. I don't have any answers." Peter's dumbfounded and says that Isaac's supposed to know where he has to go. "See for yourself," says Isaac.
Peter moves into the loft and starts looking at the canvases. He sees Hiro and Ando with blood hanging over them, Claire looking panicked, a guy in a coat running up some stairs, and the eclipse. He pulls back the eclipse painting to see the one of Claire being chased by the monster/daddy/Sylar or whatever and he snorts in disbelief. "It's her," he says. "The cheerleader."
Nathan and Hiro arrive back at the hotel in their dusty car. Nathan gets out and actually opens Hiro's door for him and says something to him in Japanese and Hiro gets out and shouts at the top of his lungs, "Vote Petrelli!" "Early and often," Nathan chuckles. Heh. He genuinely gets a kick out of Hiro, which is kind of charming. They shake hands and Hiro leans forward to whisper, "Up, up and away!" Nathan smiles and says, "Absolutely." Hee. It's like he knows that no one will believe Hiro anyway, so it's kind of okay that they talk about the flying and the hero stuff. Hiro grabs his suitcase and heads off to the garage to retrieve his car.
Once there, he loads his luggage and gets in behind the wheel, honking the horn, going "Vroom Vroom!" and shouting at imaginary people to get out of the way. Yeah. The cuteness is wearing a bit thin. I'd like to see the progression from Cute-but-Dippy Hiro to Cool-and-Calm FutureHiro. And I'd like to see it soon, please. Hiro puts the key in the ignition and "Woo hoos!" at being able to figure that out, but then he stalls because he's never driven a car before and has no idea what to do . He hits a button and the wipers start going. Some people have commented that this is an idiot move and totally unrealistic, but I just did that last week in my own car and I've been driving that damn thing for a year and have driven pretty much consistently since I was seventeen. But then people have often remarked upon how "special" I really am. I always thought they were being complimentary, but now I'm not so sure...
Hiro digs for some "instructions" and finds a car manual in the glove box. Unfortunately, the "instructions" are in English. He looks totally dejected. Because, of course, one minute he can't speak any English at all and can't even leave a simple message on Isaac's machine explaining about the whole world blowing up, the he can carry on a rather extended conversation with Nathan regarding flying and heroism and big explosions, and right after that he can't figure out how to start and drive a car which would indicate that not only has he never driven a car, HE'S ACTUALLY NEVER EVEN BEEN IN ONE. Because even someone who has never driven may still have BEEN in a car at some point and may have, I don't know, NOTICED WHERE THE KEY GOES AND SOME LITTLE PEDALS ON THE FLOOR. All I'm saying is, while it's entirely realistic that Hiro doesn't know how to drive, this entire scene makes him look like the village idiot. He's cute and I adore him and everything, but he's not stupid and having him not know the first thing about what to actually DO in a car is just ridiculous. Also? Decide whether or not he can speak-o no Engrish and stick with it, Goddammit.
Elsewhere in the hotel, Nathan's riding the escalator with his bald, black lackey (hey, is that D.L.?) and telling him that he needs to talk to someone by the name of "Sakamoto." Just as he's getting off the up escalator, Niki's getting on the down. Nathan stops her and remarks that he didn't think he'd see her again. He joins her on the ride down and asks her what the hell she did to him. "I could ask you the same thing," she says, clearly pissed off. All she knows is she woke up in his room and he was gone. Nathan's all, uh, the whuh? You mean you don't remember the kick-ass animal sex we had all night and how awesome I was in the sack? "We have a great dinner and then you leave, then you come back and attack me -- I had one of the best nights of my entire life -- and the thing I know, someone's trying to throw me into a van?" That sounds like a damn fine evening to me, Nathan.
Niki swears she had no idea what happened last night. All she knows is that when she met him, she was trying to be someone she's not and that's not who she wants to be. Nathan sincerely asks her who she wants to be, and she responds that she wants to be someone good. "A good mother," she says. "Not the person I see in the mirror." "Look," says Nathan, removing his glasses, "I don't know how much of last night was an act and how much was you, but... the girl I met... that's the kind of girl you spend your entire life waiting to meet. Somebody strong, somebody beautiful, somebody... good." Aw. Niki ruins the beautiful moment by saying that she didn't know "they" were going to do anything to him. By "they" she means Linderman and his people. She goes on to say that "they" blackmailed her, just like they're going to blackmail him. Nathan realizes what's happened and kind of steps back from her, asking if "they" taped the butt-nekkid sex-o-rama. She sort of nods her head and apologizes profusely and he just walks away.
Zzzzzzzz -- what? Oh. Sorry. We're back with Matt and Mrs. Matt, so I thought it was nap time. I mean it. I hate this story. LOVE Grunberg, LOVE the show, want to KILL this story. Matt's wearing a tie and pouring wine and the table is set and the food is prepared and everything is lovely. Mrs. Matt enters and offers up a heartfelt "Wow." She asks what "all this" is and instead of just saying he wanted to treat her to a nice dinner, he starts rattling off all of these things that he clearly has heard in her mind; like, the Shiraz she mentioned that she liked when they went to Napa a million years ago, how she's been thinking about going back, porterhouse steaks that she's been craving, and that song she's had in her head for days? Well, he just happened to go and buy the disc for her! Like, it's kind of adorable how earnest he is, but, um, he could really be handling this all with a bit more finesse. He doesn't have to present her with the entire menu from the "Things I've Been Thinking About But Never Say" Restaurant. I'd be really creeped out by my husband if he started doing this. I'd definitely start locking my diary in a safe buried out in the yard.
Mrs. Matt doesn't know what to say, so Matt just tells her to say, "Pass the salad," and they both sit down at the table. Immediately, Mrs. Matt asks, "So, who is she?" And Matt's like, uh, nice. What, I can't have someone else cook dinner for my wife without it being an affair? She just kind of snarks that he was missing for a day and now this... Matt gets irritated and throws down his napkin. "Okay, sorry. I thought this was what you wanted." It was what she wanted, Matt. ONLY SHE DIDN'T TELL YOU SHE WANTED IT, SO NOW YOU'RE CREEPING HER OUT. She says as much when she's like, yeah, you've thought of everything. IN MY HEAD. "It's our best date," she says. "It's... our only date.." "... we've had in an long time," says Matt, finishing the sentence along with her. Yeah. He's got to knock that shit off. He makes a toast to many more creepy-ass mind-reading dates to come and she just moves over and straddles him and they start making out.
Jock the Rapist's Hospital Room of Rapery. Bad Glasses Man is in the doorway, watching Jock the Rapist as he sleeps. He enters and shuts the door, drawing the curtain partially closed. He sits on the bed and tells Jock that he's Claire's father and Jock says, "I know who you are -- you're the guy I'm gonna sue!" Oh, I really don't think so, there, Jock-o. BGM apologizes for the accident, and Jock angrily says that it wasn't an accident, that Claire crashed the car on purpose and that she's a non-human freak. "I'd put more stock in her humanity than I would yours," says BGM good-naturedly. Yeah. I don't think he's entirely good, but I wouldn't say he's entirely evil either. "You tried to rape my daughter," says BGM. Jock protests, but BGM just calmly informs him that it's her word against his and, from his perspective, Claire's the more reliable witness. Jock says that BGM doesn't know his own daughter and BGM says he knows her better than she even knows herself.
Jock says he doesn't have to listen to this crap and goes to hit the nurse call button, but BGM grabs his hand before it can connect. He shoves the kid's injured arm down onto his chest and clasps a hand over his mouth as Jock screams in pain. "Claire is a very special girl," says her father. "It's confusing what's happening to her, and she doesn't need some punk making her life any more difficult. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" He's got a nice balance of calmly murderous and mildly concerned going on here. "I should kill you," he continues as Jock struggles. "But instead, I'm gonna do you a favor. You already threw away this life; I'm gonna give you a second chance. I'm gonna let you forget all the terrible things you've done. And maybe this time, when you wake up in your new life, you'll make something decent of it."
BGM pulls back and Jock the Rapist gasps. "Shhhh," says BGM, sounding exactly like the alter ego of some blonde Vegas stripper we're all familiar with. He straightens his jacket and pulls back the curtain to reveal Creepy Bald Guy of Silence, whom many of the posters have taken to calling "Deep Cleaner." Hee. I do love that name. "Hollow him out," says BGM coldly. "Take everything." . He leaves and Deep Cleaner grabs the edge of the curtain, pulling it totally around Jock the Rapist's bed.
Isaac's Den of Iniquity. Peter's attempting to hang the canvases in some semblance of order. He steps back and says that the paintings are amazing; that they tell a story, sort of like a comic book. I've watched this episode twice already and it just now occurred to me that this might be the moment where Isaac gets the idea to actually turn the paintings into a comic book. Since Hiro traveled to the New York of the future and found the 9th Wonder comic book, I've just erroneously assumed that the comic book was already in existence and Isaac did it on the side or something. But the comic is from the future, so Isaac has to come up with the idea to turn his paintings into a comic at some point. I can't believe I'm just figuring this out. I really need to pay closer attention to this show. And I mean closer attention to the plot rather than the hot guys who are superheroes.
Peter continues to look at the canvases and he realizes that the guy on the stairs could be him. I pretty much already figured that one out. So there! Not so stupid after all! Peter asks if the guy in the painting is him and Isaac just asks why he would paint Peter when there are sexy cheerleaders in danger to paint? Peter points at the painting of Hiro and Ando and says that he thinks everyone in the paintings is trying to help the cheerleader. Well, duh, Peter. Hiro told you to save the cheerleader, didn't he? Peter asks who the cheerleader is and Isaac has no idea because he was high when he painted everything. He starts coughing and it looks like he's going through a bit of withdrawal.
He starts yammering about how he could have gotten clean, but he didn't, because he wanted answers, so he lost Simone, and then he asked for answers and all he got was a bunch of garbage. He points to the painting on the floor of the bomb going off. "It's nothing," he finishes. "Some cheerleader. It's nothing. I ruined my life for nothing." Peter concentrates on an unfinished canvas on an easel. It appears to be the foreboding shadow man/monster standing over something with his shadow bleeding off into the corner of the canvas, ending in a large blank spot. "It's not nothing," says Peter. "Look, don't you get it? Everything is connected. We are all connected. If this thing that you painted, if this bomb is true? We're all dead." He points at the paintings. "These are the key to saving us. Something's gonna happen to this girl. We need to know what. You have to finish this. You have to finish the painting."
Isaac says that, even if he wanted to, he couldn't finish it, because he's out of drugs and he's also out of money to buy drugs. Peter asks if he can't just finish it without shooting up and Isaac just starts to ask Peter for money. "We can call it a commission," he says, acting all shifty and druggie again. Peter just sighs and looks back at the blank corner. He concentrates on it and suddenly, there are subtle flashes on the canvas and the painting starts to appear finished to him. He realizes that he can finish the painting. He grabs some paints and a brush. Isaac asks if he can paint, and Peter says he can't. He takes off his sweater and damn, if his floopy bangs aren't all sorts of adorable when tousled. Yummy. He goes on to say that he drew the future the other day after meeting Isaac and what he drew came true. Peter looks at the canvas and closes his eyes. As Isaac watches, Peter's demeanor changes and he grows calm. His eyes slowly open, revealing that same white film that Isaac gets when he's having visions. Peter "looks" at the canvas and starts to paint with his left hand, which is a nice touch, considering that Peter is actually right-handed and Isaac is left-handed.
Commercials. Normally, I think Tony Scott's kind of an irritating director (Domino, anyone?) but this new Déjà Vu movie looks all sorts of fun...
After the break, Claire goes to visit Jock the Rapist. She tells him that what he tried to do to her was wrong, but what she tried to do to him was wrong too and she's sorry. She says that everyone deserves a "do-over" at least once in their lives. Jock just looks at her. "I don't know you," he says blankly. "Who are you?" Claire tells him her name, but he doesn't even know his own name. Hm. So he has no idea who he is or what he's done. Not a terrible punishment, for sure. I'd still rather he was dead, but that's just me. I'm a vengeful bitch.
Across the country in Vegas, Niki returns home from her special assignment and finds the house filled with a bunch of men in suits. She panics and starts running around looking for Micah. She finds him in the kitchen with Texas Tina and some more suits. Texas Tina tells her that the suits are looking for Niki's ex, D.L. (is that the guy who keeps wiping people's minds?) and that she told them Niki hasn't seen him in months. One of the suits shows Niki a picture of a bald black man with a faint goatee and asks if that's her husband. No, dummy! That's Deep Cleaner! Okay, okay. It's not. Deep Cleaner and D.L. are two different actors. But the only reason I know that is because I recognize Leonard Roberts and I know he's playing Niki's husband, D.L. If I didn't, I'd probably think for a minute that the guy in the picture was, indeed, Deep Cleaner. And, no, it's not because I think all extremely attractive bald black men look alike. That's just stupid. I do, however, think all blonde cheerleaders look alike, which is why I wish Odessa High School would start enrolling some goddamned brunettes and redheads already. At any rate, D.L. and Deep Cleaner? Not the same man. So be quiet about it. And don't email me. I will cut you.
Niki avers that the picture is of her husband and the feds ask if he's tried to contact them in the past few days. Micah pipes up that his dad didn't do anything and Niki whispers at him to hang with Texas Tina for another minute. She goes off to talk to the feds and they tell her that D.L. was spotted at a convenience store nearby just a few minutes ago. The feds have cars hidden around the block in case D.L. shows up at the house. Niki points out that her husband has been on the run for six months now and he hasn't been caught yet. Why is that? The agent she's talking to says that they had D.L. in custody, but he "pulled a Houdini" and slipped out of the cuffs. Remember that; it'll be important later, I think.
Niki says that D.L. is a killer and that he's been following her around, making shit happen. Way to blame your bloodlust on your innocent ex, NIKI. The agent's like, uh, what sorts of "things," miss? Niki wisely doesn't elaborate, instead moving on to say that if D.L. has shown up, it means he wants something; something she may not be able to deny him. Oooh, like nookie? Yay for nookie! Niki asks for protection as a voice over the walkie-talkie announces that someone's coming. Everyone scrambles as someone shows up at the back door. It opens and the agents all pull guns on... Ando? What the fuck is he doing just opening some strange stripper's door? He puts his hands up and sees Niki. "Niki?" he says, waving at her.
Back at the Vegas Hotel of Sin, Nathan's checking out as Whitney gets all quippy with him, saying that his men are worried about him, is he all right? Nathan says that he's fine, although he can't say he's pleased with the hotel's security situation. Whitney apologizes and tells him the hotel stay is free. If there's anything else he needs, feel free to ask. "Actually," he says, scratching his nose, "I was wondering how that tape turned out?" Heh. Whitney says, "Consider it a favor you'll repay one day." Nathan stops. "Or what?" "For a man whose campaign is founded on sound family values," she says, "this could be really embarrassing for you. Especially considering your wife." "On the other hand," says Nathan, "that tape isn't really worth much unless I win, is it?" Good point.
"Why don't you just give me my four million and I'll fly back to New York and put it to good use?" he says. Whitney points out that their agreement was two million (maybe he can use some of that money to buy himself a clue) and that the original amount was rather generous. "Yeah, I thought so too," says Nathan with mock regret. "And then I thought, 'Gee, it must be pretty important for Linderman to see me in office, if he's willing to go to this much trouble to keep me in line." Whitney looks perturbed. "Two million dollars makes me a candidate in your pocket," he continues. "Four million makes me a congressman." And then he shoots her his brilliant candidate's smile that is truly brighter than the sun. Whitney just tosses her pompoms at him and tells him he's being a cheertator and stomps off.
Yawn. You guessed it. We're back with Snore and Mrs. Snore. Seriously, I will LOVE it when Matt gets something more to do than read his wife's boring-ass mind. The Snores have just completed a sweaty session of lovemaking on the sofa, and Mrs. Snore is telling her husband that she loves him. Multiple orgasms have a way of making us ALL fall back in love with our spouses, don't they? "It's like you're in my head," she gasps. Yes. And not in the GOOD way. Clearly, Matt was listening in as she was silently thinking, "No, not over there. There! Yes! Oh my god! RIGHT THERE!" He asks if he can get her anything, but she just wants to sleep. "Coffee ice cream," he suddenly breathes. She's stunned. "Coffee ice cream, coming right up." She laughs because her husband is SUCH a MIND READER!
At the convenience store, Matt dives into the ice cream freezer in search of the aforementioned coffee ice cream. He retrieves it and starts walking through the aisles, only to be bombarded by the thoughts of the other patrons. Most of it is unimportant, but it's still giving Matt a headache. He asks the clerk for aspirin and that's when he hones in on one guy's thoughts. "Security cameras won't see me," he thinks. "If he makes a move, I'll blow his head off. Clean everything out of the refrigerator." Matt looks around, searching for the person to whom these thoughts belong. He finally finds him: a skinny, strung-out looking guy who's blatantly staring at the clerk behind the register. Yeah, because you don't look OBVIOUS or anything, dude.
Matt walks over and startles the guy by saying, "Hey." He goes on to tell the guy that he shouldn't do what he's about to do. "What the hell do you know?" asks the guy. Matt says he doesn't know anything, but he's a cop. He's an unarmed cop, but a cop nonetheless. He says that he just came in for ice cream for his wife and he knows that this guy could pull out the gun he has in his pocket and shoot him. But then he'd be throwing his life away and for what? A couple of twenties in the register? "Look," Matt says, "I know you're hurting. But Marie... is waiting for you. And Vincent's getting out in a month." The gun guy is freaked out. Matt goes on, telling him to leave the gun behind and get the hell out of there. The guy finally pulls out the gun and puts it to his head like he might shoot himself, but he just places it on a shelf and runs off. Then Matt, like a MORON, picks up the gun and, of course, everyone freaks out on him, even though he tries to assure them that he's a cop. Their thoughts of panic overwhelm him and he falls over again, just like in the bar. Either Matt's talent is getting stronger, or Deep Cleaner did more than just erase his memories; he increased his power.
The Niki and Ando Show, Now With Even More Stupidity! Ando's strapped to a chair with his hands behind his back (and not in the kinky way) as Niki realizes that he's one of her customers. She tells the feds as much ("I run a web site.") and then asks Ando how he found her. He tells her he found her through the WhoIs database and that perhaps, considering her profession, an unlisted listing might be a good idea. She tells him he shouldn't have come because this is her home. "I mean, what'd you think was gonna happen?" Aw. Ando apologizes and says that they chatted so much, he just thought... maybe she'd help him. Aw, again! Niki just nicely tries to tell him that he's got the wrong girl and that the person he "met" on the Internet isn't her. "You get the difference, right?" she asks softly. "Do you understand?" The expression on Ando's face is heartbreaking.
The fed asks if she wants them to take Ando in for trespassing, but she just tells them to let him go home. They immediately release him from his bonds and Ando tells her it was nice to meet her. Aw! He bows quickly at her and Niki looks at him kind of sadly. The fed tells Niki that they're leaving a squad car outside in case D.L. decides to show up. He leaves and Niki goes to check on Micah. He's in his room, futzing with computers or splitting the atom or something. She walks back out into the hallway and for some reason, she calls out "Hello" to someone. There are some flashing lights, but nothing too supernatural, so she must have a sixth sense (or twelfth sense, if it's ikiN doing the sensing) that someone's around. She walks into her bedroom and sees that no one's there, then turns around and leaves. The camera pans back, and there's D.L., in a spot where, seconds before, there was nothing but a door. He calmly looks down the hallway and, even though I'm pretty sure he's a good guy, he looks pretty damn evil right here.
Oh, good god. Hiro's still not driving his car. He's just sitting on it, tossing the keys aimlessly, waiting for divine intervention. It arrives in the form of Ando, who is extremely lucky that his friend has never BEEN IN A CAR BEFORE. "I guess... we call the artist again," says Ando. Hiro smiles at him sweetly. They do need each other after all!
Isaac's Den of Iniquity. We see a big pool of red paint (or blood) on the floor and, as the camera pans up the easel, we see that it's dripping off the canvas that Peter has just finished painting. There's a crude representation of Claire at the bottom corner and the top of her head is cut off and her body is surrounded by blood. I think we all know what THAT means. It's pretty obvious that, while Peter might have siphoned off Isaac's sight, he by no means siphoned off his talent. The finished painting is pretty bad. But we get the point: Claire's in danger of being SylarizedTM. Peter and Isaac stare at the painting for a couple of seconds. Finally, Isaac rasps, "How'd you do that?" "I don't know," responds Peter. "We have to save her," says Isaac with determination.
The phone rings.
Isaac tells Peter to ignore it; some crazy Japanese guy keeps calling and leaving messages he can't understand. Peter's like, aha! He runs to the phone and picks up. "Hello?" "Mistah Izzak?" says Hiro. "Izzak Mennez?" "Who is this?" asks Peter, not recognizing PresentHiro's bad English. "My name is Hiro Nakamura," says Hiro, holding out his cell phone so Ando can listen in. "My name's Peter Petrelli," says Peter. "I have a message for you." Hiro and Ando both look at each other all, but no! We have a message for YOU.
on Heroes: Peter delivers the "save the cheerleader, save the world" message to Hiro, Isaac discovers the "S" symbol on one of his paintings, D.L. passes through walls and grabs Niki, Micah confesses that he knows his parents' secrets, and Niki comes face-to-face with ikiN, and I don't think that's a very good thing at all.