In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close. Oh Mylanta, where to begin. Let's start with Matt, who's back this week; he's trying to work things out with his wife, only...she's cheating on him. With his partner. FOR SHAME, MRS. MATT. He's also trying to work things out with his mind-reading power, which is getting harder to control, and when he and Clea Duvall come up on a dude Clea thinks is Syler, it's really...a new Hero? Radioactive Man? Who killed his wife with radiation?
Elsewhere, we finally meet Mrs. Nathan Petrelli, played by Rena "Showkiller" Sofer -- seems like the big secret there is that she got in a car accident that may or may not have been Nathan's fault. The whole NatPet clan sits down to a super-fake brunch with a journalist, during which Nathan's tryst with ikiN is almost revealed, but Peter -- not invited to brunch initially, and fairly bitter about it -- covers for Nathan. although it's pretty clear Rena doesn't believe the story. Later, Nathan admits to what happened with him in the desert, and that he flew away, and Peter wants him to get the missing Isaac painting back from Linderman, which Nathan says he can't do, but we hear him on the phone and it sounds like Linderman gives it up. Confused? Me too.
Simone's father dies. Simone is passive-aggressive and boring some more.
Isaac is AWOL.
D.L. has 'napped Micah from Niki. Micah is piiiissed and thinks his dad is a villain, until D.L. saves a girl from a burning car by morphing through the glass -- with an assist by the suddenly appearing Hiro, who freezes time to help. Then Micah believes.
Then Micah totally games a non-working pay phone, which means he has powers too. He calls his mom; ikiN picks up; Micah is completely onto her and asks to speak to his mom; ikin is like, "No dice, shorty," and says the usual threatening stuff. D.L. busts Micah during this call but doesn't seem to get that his son knows Hero-fu.
Oh, and ikiN has a name: Jessica. Has to be a Sweet Valley High shout-out. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously: Claire met her birth "parents"; Officer Matt got into his wife's head...and then back into her pants; Niki found out ikiN had framed her husband, D.L.; ikiN and D.L. had a shape-shifty, furniture-breaking battle royale that left Niki unconscious on the floor; Peter Petrelli snogged Simone and had ooky grey eyeballs; and I edited Wing's recap and changed all the spellings of "Bennet" to "Bennett," which I should not have done, and for which I apologize. ["Firred." -- Wing Chun] And now, an all-new Heroes.
Bedside with Simone's dad, Charles. Peter Petrelli is back in his nursing scrubs and advising Charles on a stock. Charles teases Peter that he doesn't know squat about stocks because he makes minimum wage, and advises Peter to look at him, by contrast -- living in a penthouse on Central Park West. "Correction: dying in a penthouse in Central Park West," Peter mutters, as Charles starts hacking. Nice bedside manner, Pete. Who'd you pull that power off of -- Michael Mancini? Charles takes the black humor well, though, and laughs through the borking and wheezing. Then, as Peter listens to his lungs, Charles tells him that "in the end, all that matters is love," pauses, and tells Peter he loves him. "I love you too, Charles," Peter says, and it's a nice moment; it's also about here that I realize this is a dream sequence. Charles continues to compliment Peter, saying that Peter's "power" and "strength" are that he knows who he is and knows his own mind. Peter, smirking, goes to the window and opens it and tells Charles "a little secret" -- namely that he can fly. Charles chuckles and challenges Peter to show him. "Watch this," Peter says, grimly determined, and marches from the back of Charles's bedroom straight out the window and into the swooping Chrysler-building helicopter shot we've seen many times before, then into white-out.
Cut to Peter waking up to the sound of his apartment-door buzzer. At the door is Simone, looking puffy; she comes in and tells Peter, "It's my dad." Peter evidently has not watched TV or a movie before and therefore fails to intuit that Charles has gone to The Great Dream Sequence In The Sky, saying instead that it's weird, he was just dreaming about Charles. Simone snurfles that Charles died about an hour before, and Peter pulls her into a hug. "I needed to see you," sobs Simone. Over her shoulder, Peter blinks a lot and looks freaked. Not entirely about you right now, duder.
Bennet's Home for Indestructible Friends. Claire answers the door for Zach and snarks at him for not calling first, but Zach has found the infamous 1,001 Ways to Not Kill Yourself tape -- under his bed. Claire yoinks it out of his hand and thwacks him on the chest, and he's like, "I thought this was supposed to be good news," and she's like, "Maybe you could have checked under the bed before?" and he protests that he did, "like fifty times," but didn't find it until now. Probably because it wasn't there and was only recently re-planted on the premises, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, Sandra and Mr. Muggles appear just then, in an ominous shot that starts out showing only Sandra's heels; Sandra gets to the bottom of the stairs and very ceremoniously places Mr. Muggles on the floor in his little sweater (hee) while Claire and Zach adopt poses of obvious bustedness. "Good morning, Mrs. Bennet," Zach tries, and then, as Sandra and Mr. Muggles sweep regally past him, "Good morning...dog?" Hee! Sandra, looking completely put-upon, sighs, "How are you, Zachary?" Fine, he says, except that Claire keeps punching him -- which she does again right then. They all move into the kitchen, and we get a close-up of Claire stashing the tape under a clothing item of some sort while Sandra expositions that neither she nor Bad Dad will get home 'til late, so Claire is in charge of her brother Lyle. Claire's like, "Yeah, like he listens to me," and Sandra's all, Lyle knows "what a big day it is for Mr. Muggles" and doesn't want to stress him or Sandra out. Claire and Lyle exchange an "oy" look, and Lyle's like, "Whaaaaatever," and then Sandra asks Claire and Zach to help her out to the car, because Bad Dad left the sprinklers on and she doesn't want Mr. Muggles's paws to "get all soggy," and she says the word "soggy" with this really porno inflection. Lyle is left alone, which is his cue to spy the tape under the sweater on the counter and snag it.
Niki, cold-cocked on her bedroom floor. She comes to with a huge gasp, breathes, "Micah," and then runs through the house all ""WAAAAAAAALLLLLT!!" looking for him. He's gone, of course, and she fetches up in his bedroom, at a loss. Then she catches sight of herself in the mirror, approaches her reflection, places her hand on the glass, and raggedly says, "Help me."
Commercials.
Back from the break to the Parkman residence, where Matt is getting dressed and pointedly observing that things have been really good between him and Janice the last couple days. "I know!" Janice burbles. "I like it." Matt busies himself with his cuffs and takes a deep breath: "I just -- I feel like we've been really honest with each other. And that's good, right?" Janice, not sure where he's going with this: "Yeah...?" Another big breath from Matt as he tells Janice that there's something they "need to talk about -- something [he's] discovered." Janice is smiling bravely, but she looks scared, and her thoughts say, "I thought I'd been so careful." Ohhhhh no. You cheated on Agent Sean? Youuuuuuu TRAMP! Matt clearly didn't expect to hear that; Janice prompts him to go on, but Matt looks like he's about to barf -- and we've seen Grunberg make this face before, and it is a heartbreaker -- and says he has to go to work. Janice is confused. And hated. By me.
Niki is wandering through her trashed house in a daze; we hear knocking, and then Tina appears, and she starts to get all "uch, now what" with Niki, but then seems to take in both the mess and Niki's shell-shocked body language, and asks, with genuine concern, "What is it?" "Micah," Niki chokes out, and tells Tina that D.L. came back, and that she tried to protect Micah, but she couldn't: "I failed him." While Niki's talking, Tina is giving her an inscrutable look, and almost looks like she might burst out laughing. Either the acting choice is way off, or Tina Knows More Than She's Letting On.
New York City. At Isaac's loft, Peter stomps in to inform Simone that Isaac's landlord says Isaac is gone, "just took his paintings and..." He trails off as he gets down the stairs and into the loft proper and realizes that Isaac has indeed stripped the place. Simone asks whether Peter knew Isaac was leaving; he didn't, and muses out loud that he can't believe Isaac would take off just when they were starting to "make sense of his paintings." Simone explains why she's there, instead of at her father's apartment making arrangements and phone calls, which, thank you for explaining that, because I've never grieved the death of a parent, thank God, but visiting my junkie ex wouldn't make my list of things to do that day, I don't think. Anyway, Simone says that she wanted to tell Isaac in person, and she shows Peter a sketch of Charles that Isaac had drawn for Charles's seventieth birthday. Then she pouts that she'd been trying to get Isaac clean for ages: "And the one time I need him..." She trails off, leaving the "he's not there" implied, but I don't have much sympathy for her; he's her ex, first of all, and second of all, she dumped him because he's -- from her perspective at least -- a fundamentally unreliable junkie. Why would you expect him to be there for you when you broke up with him because he's...never there for you? I know she's sad and all that, but: what? Shut up, Simone. "Feels like everybody's leavin' me," adds Simone. Kicked sharply in the shins with the Hint Boot, Peter responds that he's not going anywhere.
Simone zigs over to the subject of her father's last moments; he came out of his coma and started talking, saying he'd "been flying all over the world, but that it was a world he didn't recognize -- there were so many people filled with pain, nobody lookin' out for each other." Peter looks gassy. Simone adds that Charles worried for them, and for her -- until Peter told him that "everything would be okay." Peter frowns, and asks kind of combatively what that means. Simone knows it doesn't make sense, but repeats that Charles was flying with Peter, and that Peter told him it would be okay -- that there were people "who would make a difference. That [Peter] would save the world." Man, this is some clunky writing -- and Tawny Cypress is a pretty lady, but her The More You Know line delivery is not doing it for me. Peter carefully says that he never had that conversation with Charles; Simone says that, still, it sounds like something Peter would say, like the messages he left on her answering machine. Her tone gets kind of hostile as she reminds him that he said he needed one of Isaac's paintings because it would help him to save the world; she turns to him with her arms crossed, looking pissy. "It's hard to explain," Peter says, looking defeated. Simone stalks over to him: "But if you had that painting?" Peter knows he's losing the room: "I could save the world." "Linderman," Simone says. Peter: "Henh?" Simone sold the painting to a guy named Linderman who lives in Las Vegas. Again, hard to tell what's going on with the acting here; either Simone's so pissed at Peter that she's about to slap him, or she ate an entire head of cabbage the night before.
Chateau Petrelli, where we get some exposition on how Nathan is spending his Lindermoney on campaign postcards. Nathan and Ma Petrelli have put the two postcard options down in front of Nathan's wife, Hei-- AUGGGHH! Of all the actresses in the world, the Heroes brain trust had to cast Rena "Showkiller" Sofer as Nathan's wife? Whyeeeeee?! I like this show! Almost all the other new shows I liked have already gotten shit-canned! Dammit. ...Okay, so, Heidi Petrelli, sitting at a table. She picks the postcard on the left, Nathan is all, "Red flag, Mom and wife agree on something," and he's heading out to the office to get the postcards printed up when Ma P drops some exposition on him about how the New York Journal wants to do a cover story on him. Ma P wants to invite the Journal reporter for family brunch in the service of said story. Nathan's like, "You're kidding me." Ma P never kids about family brunch. ["That's right -- brunch is too important to kid about." -- Wing Chun] Nathan: "That's because we never have family brunch." Ma P makes a "did you just enter politics this morning, because...doy" face while Nathan makes naïve noises about how the reporter is "gonna want something," and that he's not going to use his family for political gain, and Heidi speaks for us all: "Tell that to Peter." Nathan doesn't have anything to say to that; Heidi adds that Nathan's "been trying to protect [her] since this happened," and that she appreciates it, in theory, but in practice, it's "insulting," and she's not made of glass. "I know," Nathan says, looking guilty. "But we don't need this." He kisses her on the forehead and makes to leave, but she won't be dismissed, saying that four points behind in the polls says he does too "need this." Apparently, Heidi's had to hide in their (giant) house for six months because his polling said she'd make him look weak: "But now I can help by coming forward. Let me." Nathan asks if she's sure; she is, and she tells Ma P to set it up -- which, of course, Ma P already has: "Chef's been cooking all morning; [the reporter] will be here in an hour." She bustles out. Nathan and Heidi exchange an "oh, Alice" look, and Heidi says that she'd better get ready -- and pushes back from the table in her wheelchair, and then rolls out of the room. "Good idea," Nathan whispers, and to help us digest this reveal before switching to a different subplot, cut to a weird Changeling-y shot from high up the main staircase of Heidi wheeling herself through the foyer while plinky horror-movie music plays.
Matt's getting changed for work and popping some pills when his shirtless partner appears and asks if he's okay. Matt lies that he is. The partner, whose name is Tommy, shows us the gun in the first act by backstorying that he and Matt have ridden together for three years, and that he can "practically read [Matt's] mind." Matt's like, "Yeah...not," but settles for saying that he doesn't know where to start. Tommy invites him out for a beer and to watch the Dodger game, and Matt says that he'd like that, but just then a series of wolf-whistles and catcalls heralds the entrance of Special Agent Clea Duvall into the men's locker room, because apparently it's 1974; also, Sylar's killed again and Clea needs Matt to come with her. Tommy's like, "Who in the what now?," but they both ignore him -- Matt to protest that he has to clear it with his watch commander, Clea to tell him it's taken care of and that he should put on some "real person clothes."
Bennet's Home. Claire bitches at Lyle to clean up after himself in the kitchen, and then realizes that the tape is no longer under her sweater on the counter. Upstairs, Lyle is watching in horror as Claire chucks herself off the bridge; behind him, Claire stomps in and asks what he's doing, and doesn't wait for an answer before grabbing at the video camera he's got hooked up to his computer. A tussle ensues; Claire prevails, but not before Lyle also sees Claire get whaled by a car and then stand up two seconds later, alive but with several limbs torqued out of alignment. "It's amazing what you can do with special effects these days, huh?" says Claire. "That was all special effects," Lyle says, clearly not buying. "Yeah, what else would it be?" squeaks Claire. Well, it "would be" a little late to try to play it off as no big deal, Grabby Hayes, but good luck with that strategy. Lyle agrees with me, grabs an industrial staple gun (which he would obviously have on his desk because...why? Whatever), and pops Claire in the back of the hand. "OW!" she yells, and "What the hell is wrong with you?" She yanks the staple out of her hand and frantically wipes the blood away. Lyle is transfixed by the wound, though, and for good reason, since seventeen times the amount of blood that a staple injury would actually cause is glooping up out of Claire's hand -- and then sucking itself back in and disappearing, along with any mark. Busted! Any other little brother in the world, including mine, would say something along the lines of "Dude...that rules!" and then staple his sister seven hundred more times, including in the face, just to see what would happen. Lyle, however, elects to look like he just ate a silverfish. Claire's "aaaaaiiieeeeeee!" face sends us to commercial.
And the chase is on! Lyle is sprinting across the front lawn of Bennet's Home with Claire, Zach, and The Bongos Of Urgency in hot pursuit. He locks himself in the car; Claire expositions to Zach about what happened while Lyle hollers to various nonplussed neighbors and mailmen for help. Claire could conceivably punch a hole in the car window, reach in, and punch Lyle/grab the tape, but she settles for slapping the window in frustration instead.
Medical examiner's office. Clea explains to Matt that Sylar's latest victim is an oncologist named Robert Fresco. I really wish they'd named him "Al Fresco," but that's why I write about TV and not for it. Anyhoodle, Matt wants to start by figuring out the M.O., but Clea grumps that there is no M.O.: "Sylar's victims are random." That doesn't mean there isn't an M.O.; that means there's no apparent motive. The M.O. is how victims get killed, not why, which you'd think an FBI agent would know. Come on, show. Watch some Court TV. Anyway, Clea is frustrated that she can't explain any of the eight victims so far, and knows Dr. Fresco is the ninth. Matt is confused; over a shot of the ME waving a dosimeter over the corpse, Matt says that the guy looks like any other burn victim, but Clea explains that the body is putting out over 1800 curies of radiation. Matt: "Whoa." Word. Clea adds that hazmat didn't find any "incendiaries," but did find a fingerprint "seared to the bone, like a brand"; if they can match that print to someone in CODIS, she'll need Matt to "get inside his head -- pick him out of a crowd, find him in a building..." Matt interrupts to say that it's harder lately for him to "filter" the voices: "Hearing what they're really thinking...it can be ugly." Clea brusquely asks Matt what's going on; he seems about to confide in her when the computer conveniently beeps with a fingerprint match. Clea: "Theodore Sprague, a.k.a. Sylar. We got you." Because it's just that easy! Except not so much!
Cut to the desert. D.L. is driving and trying to draw Micah out; Micah, who wants to go home, is sulking. D.L. says that it's "not safe" for them to go home, "because of [Micah's] mother," and Micah wants to know if Niki is dead, but doesn't really believe D.L. when he says that she isn't. Micah then points out that "heroes don't run away -- bad guys do," and announces to his father, "You know what? You're a bad guy." D.L. denies this, but is obviously nettled by the seed of truth in it.
Niki is unburdening herself to Tina -- or trying to, anyway, because when she reminds Tina that she started having "these bad dreams" six months earlier, Tina is very quick to dismiss her: "We all have bad dreams, Niki." Niki forges ahead, saying that she doesn't think they're "just dreams" and explaining that her reflection is not her reflection, it's another her, blah dee blah. Tina is clearly uncomfortable with this subject, and Niki's revelation that her alter ego "has a name -- Jessica" makes Tina physically squirm. Niki tries to explain that, when someone tries to hurt her, Jessica comes out, but Tina is not trying to hear that, and tells Niki very firmly -- and again, maybe this is just the writing, or the actress, but Tina's a little too authoritative here for me to think she doesn't know something -- that "there is no Jessica. It's just you." Niki says tearfully that no, she sees Jessica in the mirror and Jessica tells her she wants to come out again: "And the part of me that wants Micah back? Wants to let her do it."
Before The Tina Who Probably Knows Too Much can respond, we're back on the road in D.L.'s awesome vintage woody Wagoneer. He's in the process of laying one of those "it's complicated" non-explanations grown-ups give to their kids on Micah when they come upon a flaming car wreck. In the middle of an otherwise empty road in the desert where there's nothing to crash into, but: fine, let's just go with it. D.L. stops the car and jumps out, telling Micah to stay put. Micah's over pouting enough to lean out and yell, "Dad, don't!" as another car pulls up behind the Wagoneer. D.L. sprints toward the wreckage and tells the driver of the crashed car, who is weaving dazedly on the shoulder, to stay back; Micah jumps out of the Wagoneer, as do the guys in the car behind the Wagoneer -- Hiro and Ando. Yataa! Hiro asks what happened, and the three of them watch D.L. frantically trying to open the passenger door as Ando ratchets up the tension by observing that D.L. will never get the unconscious female passenger out in time. D.L. is pounding on the window and begging her to wake up. Flames. Anxious guitar. Fuel in the road catches fire. Micah starts toward his father, but Hiro takes his shoulders to stop him. Finally, D.L. shape-shifts his arm through the safety glass and opens the door from the inside. Hiro tells Micah, in English, "You no worry. I help." Ando gives Micah a "might happen, might not" look; Micah lurches forward again, but Ando stops him this time. The flames run even closer to the car, which D.L. is now in, freeing the passenger. Micah: "Dad!" Ando: "Hiro!" Hiro heads toward the car, but is stopped by the ring of running flame surrounding the wreck, and finally the fire reaches the fuel tank and the car explodes. Horrified, Hiro time-squints and stops the explosion already in progress. When he opens his eyes, everything's frozen -- Ando, half-hugging Micah; D.L., lugging the passenger away from the car door; a tire in mid-air, which Hiro delightedly pokes a finger through. He approaches D.L. and the passenger and sighs, "Why couldn't I have superstrength, too?," and then sets to shoving them away from the explosion, which resumes seconds later, knocking Ando and Micah to the ground. When they get up, D.L. and the car's occupants are safely on the shoulder; father and son share a relieved hug, and as Hiro struggles to his feet in the background, Micah says he thought D.L. died: "What happened?" D.L. doesn't know. Hiro is beaming; Ando gives him a proud thumbs-up.
Back from commercials to the patio at Chateau Petrelli. The Journal reporter, Oliver Dennison, kicks off the awkwardest brunch ever by unsubtly observing that Heidi seems to be "adjusting well," and Heidi returns serve with "To the wheelchair. You can say it, Mr. Dennison. I lost my right to be sensitive when I married Nathan." Nathan looks vaguely nauseated, but manages a tight smile. Heidi faux-confesses that she had her "darker moments during rehabilitation -- I was angry for a long time." "At your husband," Dennison supplies through a mouthful of eggs Benedict. Despite the fact that 1) as deductions go, this one doesn't qualify as "brilliant," and 2) the entire point of this brunch is ostensibly to address the very questions Dennison is (granted, gracelessly) asking about the accident, all the Petrellis look disproportionately pinched. Do they not have invasive political coverage in the Heroes-verse? "Wasn't he driving?" Dennison adds. Heidi non-answers that she was actually angry "at God." She adds blandly, "But we seem to have made our peace."
Enter Peter on this line, prompting a series of awkward exchanges which make it clear not just to Dennison but to everyone else on earth, including babies yet unborn, that the brunch is totally staged and that Peter was totally excluded from it on purpose. Nathan excuses himself and leads Peter into a library-type room off the patio while muttering his customary "now is not the time"-type things. Peter tells him about Charles's death, which leads into yet another "we're special"/"no, you shut up" tiff between the brothers, Nathan pointing out that his career is riding on the family faking it through this brunch, Peter getting pissy that Nathan's ashamed of him, lather, rinse, repeat. "Oh, so I'm not family enough for you now?" Peter snits. "No, you're not," Nathan snaps. "Not when you could ruin an election for me." Yeah, we get it. So does Peter, who lets the comment pass in favor of asking Nathan to call Linderman and get a painting for him. Nathan doesn't want to "advertise" his connection to Linderman, and Peter's like, "What 'advertise,' just call him up and ask him about it!" Nathan condescendingly tells Peter that he's sorry, but Peter has to leave. Peter's like, no problem: "I'm just gonna fly off the terrace, okay?" Nathan glares at him. Peter baits him some more, suggesting that they do a couple of laps around the Statue of Liberty and give Dennison some material. Nathan, glumly: "You wouldn't." Well, he wouldn't if you'd stop treating him like he's a slow five-year-old, but since you apparently just became an older sibling yesterday, I think he's within his rights. Don't get me wrong, I love Pasdar, but I wish they'd stop writing his character as though he'd just met Peter a week ago. Peter claps Nathan on the shoulder by way of answer and heads for the patio. Nathan calls after him anxiously, but upon returning to the brunch table, Peter behaves himself, telling everyone that Nathan "gave [him] an earful for showing up in cords," but he's "trying to stay grounded." Nathan clasps him uber-fakely on the shoulder and says it's good to have him back. Heidi eyes Nathan with what looks like approval.
Micah is questioning Hiro on the 9th Wonders comic book, saying that the issue isn't out yet. Hiro explains that he got it in the future, and that it's about him; he switches from Japanese to English to say that he teleported, he's driving the same car, he stopped the explosion and saved D.L., et cetera. Micah turns to give Ando an "is he serious?" look, and then recognizes Ando: "Hey -- didn't you visit my mom?" Ando is saved from answering by D.L., who asks if he and Hiro can take the crash victims to a hospital. Ando says that help is on the way; he called the police. That's D.L.'s cue to bail, but as he and Micah are heading back to the Wagoneer, Micah's saying that D.L. saved the motorists, "like a real hero," which means that they can go back and save Niki. It's not that easy, D.L. says. Micah's like, actually, it is: "We just go back." D.L. sits Micah on the hood of the Wagoneer and tells him that they can't go back, ever. Micah clearly isn't having that, but doesn't say anything. Sirens come up on the soundtrack. Hiro and Ando watch them get into the car and happily wave goodbye to them. Hiro: "Bye-bye!" Ando: "Take care!" Hee.
Bennet's Home. Lyle won't come out of the car. Claire demands the tape back; Lyle says that he's going to put it on YouTube and make "like a million bucks." "YouTube's free, you idiot," Zach tells him. Lyle wants to know if Claire's an alien, and after some unhelpful threats from Zach involving anal probing, Lyle decides that he's not coming out until their parents get home, throwing Claire into panic overdrive -- she begs Lyle not to tell Bad Dad and Sandra, or "they'll think it was a mistake to ever adopt [her]." Lyle looks chastened; he hadn't thought of that, apparently. "We wouldn't be a family anymore," Claire says. Shot of Zach, looking sad. Claire: "Please." Lyle sullenly rolls down the window and hands her the tape. "Thank you," she whispers. Lyle whatevers her and slinks out of the car, not meeting her eye; she hugs him, which he merely tolerates, and then Zach jumps at him all "boo!" and Lyle jumps and Claire whaps Zach again and whatever, indeed.
Clea and Matt arrive at the Sprague residence, without backup, about which Matt is not happy. He wants to know what Clea's deal is with Sylar, which...she's an FBI agent, Sylar's a serial killer. I don't think her motivation is that obscure. Clea doesn't answer, asking instead if Matt's "in [her] head." He isn't; he's just asking. She says that she's not letting Sylar get away this time: "I'm taking him down." Well...yeah. Asked and answered. They walk up the front steps and into a cluttered house; nobody's there. Matt smells something burning; the Geiger counter is clicking, but Clea says that the radiation levels are safe. Matt finds pictures with the faces burnt through, and the camera pans across x-rays, then a scorched keyboard, then a partially burnt door to another room. The radiation levels start spiking. Matt shows Clea the burnt-face pictures, and as she's processing that, they hear a clonky rustling from behind the burned door. Cocking their guns, they head toward it; then, after what seems like a week of creeping, they enter a room that actually looks kind of like Niki's garage studio, in which everything is trashed -- furniture overturned, bent fan blades, ash sifting down from overhead like snow. The Geiger counter is going bonkers as Matt asks what happened in there. Clea notes that the reading is 1800 curies of radiation, same as the dead body, and says, "Let's get out of here."
After the commercial, brunch is continuing. Peter is grazing and spreading a thick layer of bullshit about Nathan's nurturing qualities. Nathan and Heidi both look like they're suppressing giggles; Dennison dryly observes that they're a "pretty special family." "You have no idea," Peter tells him. Nathan glares some more. Dennison snarks that it's all "very inspiring," before changing the subject to Linderman's investment in Nathan's campaign. Nathan tries to play it off by saying that Linderman was a good friend of his father's, but Dennison won't be put off: "So you don't deny going to Las Vegas to meet with a reputed mobster." Nathan -- who seriously must have no idea how politics and/or spin control work -- bitterly rolls his eyes, and then gets confrontational: "Is that why you're here?" Not exactly; Dennison spoke to a former member of Nathan's security team, and mentions that there was "a bit of a scare" during Nathan's visit to Sin City. Heidi's bland smile turns into a look of befuddlement as Dennison adds that Nathan disappeared from the casino for several hours..."and there was a blonde involved?" Uh oh. Heidi possessively rubs Nathan's arm, her big engagement setting foregrounded in the shot, and pulls a boo-boo-kitty face. Um, could these people be any more naïve about the media, or any worse at hiding their true emotions? I know I keep harping on this, but exactly what questions did you expect a reporter to ask you, a man campaigning for political office -- your favorite color? Ma Petrelli looks almost amused as Nathan tries for a geologic era to come up with a response, and fails; Peter has to jump in and cover him, lying that Nathan was helping him deal with his "mental-health...issues" at a clinic outside Vegas, that the blonde was a doctor at this clinic, and that Peter made Nathan keep it a secret, even from the family. Nathan recovers at last and tags in on the story, glibbing that he didn't want to say anything until he cleared it with Peter. Ma Petrelli is like, "...Huh," and looks at Peter with newfound respect while Peter makes "that's Nathan, making time for his little brother even at a time like this" noises, then squints at Nathan all "you owe me big-time, bizzatch."
Radiationhaus. Clea gives Matt pills to counteract any possible radiation poisoning; he gulps them down, and then pointedly avoids a call from that hussy Janice, and when Clea asks about it, he changes the subject, saying that he doesn't think Rad Man is Sylar. Clea isn't convinced, but Matt shows her what he found in the bedroom: chemo pills, prescribed to a Karen Sprague (a.k.a. Mrs. Rad Man) by the late Dr. Fresco.
Cut over to the hospital. Matt and Clea come into Karen Sprague's room, where a nurse is tending to Karen Sprague while her husband Ted (a.k.a. Rad Man, and he looks like the caveman from the Geico ads) fidgets crazily with her bedding. Clea tells him to chill, but he immediately bursts out that he didn't mean to kill Dr. Fresco -- Fresco said he couldn't do anything else to help Karen, Ted tried to convince him otherwise, they argued, and Ted "lost control." Clea says gently that they can talk it over downtown. Ted's like, "Not when there's a nurse in the first act that can go off in the third," jumps up, and grabs the nurse. Matt and Clea both draw. Matt tells Ted to let the nurse go; Ted will, if he can stay with his wife, but Clea says no way, he has to let the nurse go or she'll shoot. Ted, wrangling the struggling nurse: "Do you have any idea what would happen? If you did that? Because I don't. Maybe I'll explode, maybe, maybe I'll take out this whole hospital -- maybe I'll wipe out this city, like an, like an atomic bomb! Leave me alone!" Maybe it won't be L.A. he wipes out, but the scene doesn't linger on this idea; Clea says that she can't do that, just as Karen's thoughts pipe up and tell "Teddy" to stop. Matt lowers his gun a bit, frowning, and then shouts that "Karen wants you to stop." Ted doesn't think she would say that, but Matt continues reading from the coma-to-English dictionary, saying that Ted needs to listen, he never listens, he's "too damn stubborn": "But you're still her Teddy bear." The nurse continues fighting to get free as Ted scoffs at Matt to give him a break; Clea says that Matt's telling the truth, and that Ted should listen. For some reason, this gets through to Ted; he loosens his grip on the nurse, who pulls away and looks down to find her arm striped with radiation burns from his grasp. Horrified, she runs from the room. Ted sinks back into his chair and asks Matt what Karen is saying. Matt, an ear cocked toward Karen, says that Karen doesn't blame Ted "for all the pain, the worry" -- it's not Ted's fault. Ted, in tears, says that Karen shouldn't be there: "It's not fair." Karen says that it never is, Matt reports, as Clea's eyes get damp. Matt describes a picnic Karen and Ted had in the pouring rain, and Ted picks up the story: they sat in the car and listened to "the whole American Beauty album." "She remembers it all," Matt says. "She always will." Rueful music plays as Ted cries. Then he asks what she's saying now. Long pause. Matt doesn't say anything. Karen opens her eyes, and then closes them again and flatlines. Ted sobs. Matt and Clea exchange a look; Clea nods as if to tell Matt that he did what he could.
Niki's on the phone: "Hi -- this is Niki Sanders from Las Vegas? I need your help." She's calling Nathan, who's not happy about it and tells her in hushed tones that she shouldn't have called him there, but Niki repeats that she needs his help: her husband took her son, and she has nowhere else to go. As Heidi wheels into the room behind him, Nathan snaps that he can't help Niki; he must sense Heidi's presence, because he quickly adds that Niki has the wrong number, and ends the call. He tries to distract Heidi from the seventeen kinds of guilt on his face by asking where their sons are. Heidi isn't that easily distracted: "In the play room. ...Do you still love me, Nathan?" To his credit, Nathan makes a "duh" face and responds immediately that of course he does. Heidi knows what "this chair means" to them as a couple, but she's going to walk again: "The doctors say it's a long shot, but I can do it. If I have a reason." Nathan gulps. "We just need some hope, Nathan," says Heidi. "That our life can be like it was." No response. Long shot of Heidi absorbing the fact that Nathan's saying nothing, and then gathering her mental energy and telling Nathan to tell her that the story Peter told at brunch is what actually happened: "If you say it is...I'll believe you. Just give me some hope." Nathan lies pretty convincingly: "It's true." Heidi nods a little to herself, committing to it although Nathan's obviously hiding something. Nathan grins at her: "Come on." She nods again, signaling him not to push his luck. He goes to get the kids ready for bed, and squeezes her shoulder on the way out, and she smiles, looking relieved. Great acting by Rena Sofer in this scene.
Niki smashes a mirror, and then turns away from it, looking pleased. Tina rushes in to ask what happened; her back to Tina, Niki(-ca?) tells her that she should just go. Tina's not getting it, asking if Niki's okay, but apparently it's Jessica -- despite the fact that her hair is limp, which would indicate Niki -- and she turns and tells Tina in a low voice, "I said that you can go now." Tina tries to reassure (who she thinks is) Niki that she's there to help, but Jessica flatly informs her that Niki "doesn't need your help anymore. Understand?" Tina is frightened and runs away. So...she believes her now? This whole subplot is so frustratingly executed, super-slow for ages and then randomly jumping forward. Could we just skip ahead to the part where everyone involved already knows Niki has an alter ego?
At the hospital, Clea expositions that they're running Ted through a decontamination chamber, and then putting him in some kind of special holding tank downtown. "How'd he cause all that damage with his bare hands?" Matt wants to know. Matt, try to keep up. There's a bunch of fried shit in his house, along with crazy-high radiation readings; his young wife just died of cancer; he brought the nurse's arm to a boil by holding it for all of a minute and a half. He is Radiation Man, uh duh. You know, sometimes this show is refreshingly quick to get to the point, but other times, it's like, how many "I don't get it"/"that can't be"/"you're crazy"/"I have a secret, and it's...oh, never mind" conversations do we have to sit through? If Matt can read people's minds, should it not be a shorter logical leap for him to conclude that this dude is also special? Clea has my back, rolling her eyes a little and asking, "How do you hear what people are thinking?" Matt smirks, all, "good point," and Clea adds that he did a great job, which Matt sort of deflects by saying that Ted just wanted to talk to his wife and say goodbye. "You talk to your own wife yet?" Clea asks. "You've been dodging her calls all day." Matt thinks about saying something, but doesn't. Instead, he grabs Clea and kisses her, and she tears his clothes off, and they do it right there on the floor. ...Oh, wait. That doesn't happen. But it will. We'll have to wait until Season 5 at the rate this storyline is "progressing," but it will happen. ["Really? I think that if Matt got into Clea's head, he would find it full of Georgia O'Keeffe prints and Le Tigre albums." -- Wing Chun] What actually happens in this scene is that Clea is kind of embarrassed and looks down and says that she's heading downtown to process Ted, and Matt distractedly says okay, and she gives him another "pick me" look before walking away. Matt calls home, gets the machine, and leaves a message saying that he thought Janice would be home by now, and that he's calling just to talk. Shot of their empty living room as he adds that he has "this stupid idea in [his] head" that he's losing Janice -- which he should, that strumpet -- and he feels like there's something she isn't telling him. Another shot of the living room, and Janice walks into the frame, arms tightly crossed over her middle, as Matt talks about not wanting to live with any regret or blame or things going unsaid. Janice chews her lip. Matt says he loves her and he just wanted to tell her that. Well, tell it to Clea, because Janice sucks. Matt signs off; Janice looks guilty. And hated. By me.
Nathan's on the phone with Linderman, saying that Peter has developed an "emotional attachment" to the painting, and that he doesn't know what will happen if Peter can't get it back, but he doesn't want to find out. Pause. "Directly to the gallery." Pause. "Mr. Linderman, I appreciate it." He hangs up and works his jaw muscles.
Peter's apartment. Peter opens the door to Nathan, and then greets him by snapping that he needs to tell Heidi the truth. Nathan says that Heidi doesn't need the truth, "she needs hope." Peter calls this "some kind of excuse," but Nathan says that he's not saying what he did was right: "I just needed to be with someone who didn't make me feel guilty every time I looked at her." So, when you look at Niki, you wouldn't feel guilty about cheating on the wife we're being led to believe you had a role in maiming? Pasdar deserves huge credit for making this even remotely sympathetic, because: live with it, Nate, good God. While Nathan is talking, Peter is flouncing angrily around the apartment, and he stomps up to Nathan and asks if he talked to Linderman. Nathan tells him to sit, and says that Linderman isn't going to give up the painting, so Peter should leave it alone: "It's just a painting." No, it isn't, Peter says; it's the key to what's going on with the two of them, and with the painting, they can make a difference. Nathan is trying to make a difference the best way he knows how: "Flying around -- how is that gonna help anybody?" He doesn't have a gun or a badge, he doesn't know karate -- what's he supposed to do when he gets there? These are not bad points. But then Nathan sneers that he guesses he could put on a costume and pull cats out of trees -- and for the record, I would watch an entire hour of Pasdar doing that, but what can I say, I like trees -- and asks again how that makes a difference, and Peter makes a good point of his own: "You're not gonna know until you try." Nathan's like, yeah...no; he says he's sorry about the painting, and makes to leave, but when he gets to the door, he stops, comes back, and tells Peter what else happened in Vegas: two guys pulled him out of his room, and that, to get away, he flew. Peter asks about the guys; Nathan identifies one as Bad Dad, and the other as "this spooky Euro dude, he didn't say a word." Peter mutters, "Son of a bitch," and then asks if Nathan expects him to believe this story. It's clear he thinks he's being humored, although in his defense, he probably is, just not for the reasons he thinks. Nathan insists that he isn't lying. "No?" Peter snots. "No," Nathan snots right back. "Think about it -- what would people do if they knew what we were capable of? They'd lock us up and they'd throw away the key." "Now who sounds crazy?" Peter snarks, looking like he might cry. Nathan is pissed that he revealed anything, and grits, "Be careful." "Yeah," Peter says, glaring through his doofy hair. Nathan leaves. Peter broods.
Downtown, Ted gets his mug shot taken while Clea glowers in the foreground. A series of flashbulb cuts brings us closer to Ted, who has a mark on his neck.
Cut to Matt examining a similar mark on his own shoulder. It's two short parallel lines, like an equals sign (or the "pause" symbol). Enter Tommy, who recaps Matt's investigative day and calls him "buddy" a bunch of times while congratulating him. Matt demurs modestly, but his partner tells him that his "FBI girlfriend" (hell yeah) put in a request for Matt to retake the detective's exam as a series of interviews: "Can't blame it on the dyslexia this time." God, this poor actor, having to puke up these big chunks of background info; couldn't we have gotten this exposition in the form of dialogue delivered by Clea herself? Anyway, Matt didn't know interviews were an option, but Tommy says that Clea "pulled some strings," and that he knows Matt will pass it no problem. Matt is thrilled, they high-five, and then Tommy makes the mistake of echoily thinking to himself, "Loser. I'm nailing your wife, and she is so fine." I don't think this is actually how people who are boinking their colleagues' spouses think to themselves about it, but okay. Tommy finishes his thought with a sleazy "nyeh heh heh heh heh." Nice. Comprehension dawns as Matt slowly turns to Tommy and makes a "you dickhead" face. Tommy: "Hey, still wanna grab that drink?" Matt's fist: "Not really." Tommy's face: "[Crrrrunch!]" Matt yells that Tommy's a son of a bitch, and six other policemen hold him back as he slavers at Tommy, who's holding his face all "WTF?"
Oh, crap: Mohinder VO. "You do not choose your destiny," he says, as we pan through a no-tell motel parking lot and up to a pay phone. "It chooses you." Micah approaches the phone. Mohinder drones on about how people who knew you before fate "took you by the hand" just Don't Get It, Maaaaaan. Meanwhile, Micah picks up the receiver, looks at the "out of order" Post-It on the phone, and places his other hand flat on the phone beside the keypad. He closes his eyes, and then opens them again. Oh my, whatever could these spooky strings mean? Will Micah snap the cradle and get a dial tone, having powered a busted phone with his mind? Why yes, he will! Awesome -- although I think the kid needs to use his powers to speed up his parents' storyline, but anyway, he calls Niki. Jessica, futzing around with a gun, puts it down to pick up the phone, and asks if Micah's okay. He's fine, he says: "Are you?" Jessica's all, great, fine, so are you with your dad? Yes, he says; he just snuck out for a minute. Then Micah catches a snap and asks if it's really his mom. Jessica flatly says, by way of response, "Tell me where you are, baby." Micah sighs impatiently and tells Jessica, "Just -- put my mom on the phone." Heh. I knew he knew what was up. "Your mom's not here right now," Jessica says, "and she's not coming back until I take care of a few things," so Micah should just tell her where he is and she'll come bring him home, because Niki needs him. Micah gives in and tells her that he's at the Littlefield Motel off Interstate 14, but no sooner has he passed this along than D.L.'s hand enters the shot and plucks the receiver out of his hand. D.L. glances at the phone and asks if Micah is talking to his mom. "No," Micah says, looking straight ahead. "No, I'm just goofing around." D.L. glances at the "out of order" Post-It and tells Micah to come on, they have a lot of driving to do. Jessica: "...Micah?" Mohinder blathers about what stands in your way as Jessica hangs up, makes a thoughtful face, and puts the clip into the gun.