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It's a blast to the past as we head back to six months ago and visit all the Heroes one by one to learn how they started on this crazy-ass ride. Eden and Matt meet during a traffic stop and Eden tells him to go eat a bunch of donuts. We discover that aside from having a murderous split personality, Niki's also an alcoholic. Claire fights with Jackie over a cheerleading uniform and cuts the shit out of her hand, only to have it completely heal in about a day. Nathan, apparently, used to be a fairly decent guy when he worked for the DA's office and was intent on prosecuting Linderman, even if it meant bringing down his own father. Papa Suresh seems to be randomly contacting names on his list; two of the people he contacts are Mr. Bennet and Sylar.
Sylar's real name is Gabriel Gray and he's actually kind of Clark Kent-ishly cute. He's also kind of bent because he's got all sorts of ego issues that Papa Suresh clearly enjoys feeding into. Eden gets captured by Mr. Bennet and the Mindblower and she's blocked from using her power of persuasion. This causes her to breathe heavily and wear a bad wig. Bennet enlists her to use her powers for good and tells her to get Claire's name off Suresh's list. Hiro goes to work at the diner, all the while trying to convince Charlie that A) he's from the future and B) she's in danger.
While driving home from Peter's nursing graduation party, Nathan and his wife are run down by some of Linderman's henchmen. As the thug's van bumps the back of their car, Nathan suddenly flings up into the air, leaving his wife to crash into a barrier all by her lonesome. Niki's alter ego seems to be based on her sister Jessica who died when she was eleven. Niki's father was apparently a mean drunk who beat her when she was a child, forcing her dead sister to rise up in order to protect her. Jessica shows up at her father's hotel and attacks him, accusing him of choking her to death all those years ago.
Peter agrees to give a deposition against his own father, but Papa Petrelli dies before he can do so. Charlie tells Hiro that she has a brain tumor and that she's going to die. Then she tells him she loves him and they start to kiss. But Hiro misses it because he jumps back to present-day Japan and can't seem to get back to his girl. Gabriel meets a man who has the power of telekinesis and he introduces himself as Sylar, taking his name off a watch face. Then he kills the man in order to suck the power out of his brain. Guess that answers the "Is he a bad guy or a good guy?" question, huh? Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Heroes: Hiro spent most of the episode in the past, trying to save his girlfriend Charlie, so he was missing for most of it; Peter jumped on the world's fastest airplane to travel to Texas to save the cheerleader, only to come up against Sylar on the Greek High School Amphitheatre steps; Sylar killed Jackie the Cheertator because there can only be ONE cheertator around here and that's Claire, dammit!; Claire and Peter met cute, and Peter actually saved her, but he fell to his death beneath the homecoming banner; Claire actually saved Peter when he sucked some of her regenerative powers off of her, but then the cops showed up and arrested him for killing Jackie because, apparently, when you're covered in blood in Odessa, Texas, they don't take too kindly to it; and, finally, Eden and Mindblower intercepted Sylar's escape from the high school, and Eden used her powers of persuasion to snare him in her evil web. Or something.
"To everything there is a season," drones Moyawnder at the top of the episode. "Turn, turn, turn." I'm already bored with his voice-over and it's only six words into it. He says that everything has a purpose, and we get replays of portions of the last nine episodes. Moyawnder talks about everyone trying desperately to not get thrown off the planet. What in the hell is he talking about? "Like the first blush of winter that signals the great migration." What? What the fuck is that? Shut up, Moyawnder. I really hope the writers come up with something better for him to do in the future because these clanking voice-overs are killing my soul. ["Not to mention, Famke Janssen wrote the book on mutant-themed voice-overs in the X-Men movies. Recognize!" -- Joe R] Basically, Moyawnder's introducing this episode by saying that there might have been a warning of the arrival of the Heroes. And that's what this episode is all about, really: the origin of the Heroes. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, we only receive the vaguest notion of the origins of some of the Heroes instead of a line-by-line explanation, which is kind of what I wanted. But I'm highly anal-retentive.
"Was it a whisper in God's ear?" says Moyawnder. "Survive. Adapt. Escape." He wonders if we knew of the approaching danger, would we have done anything differently? What, like tell Tim Kring to knock it off with the portentously boring intro voice-overs? Because, yeah, I WOULD HAVE BEEN ALL OVER THAT. During Moyawnder's speech, we see most of last week's episode played, so, really, this is like one big "previously" segment with the added bonus of the world's most cryptic and annoying voice-over. Greaaaaat. We end the voice-over with Hiro declaring that he's going to go back in time to save Charlie and, once he's had his requisite time-shifting bowel movement, we're back in the past and it's six months ago.
Hiro's sitting at the same table and Charlie comes over to pour him a cup of coffee. He introduces himself and informs her that he's there to save her life. Charlie's like, uh huh. How 'bout I just pour you this coffee and I go over and enjoy my birthday candles with the rest of the non-crazy people in the place? For utterly no reason whatsoever (other than she's just one of those irrationally friendly people who takes in strays and calls the guy who eats paste and wanders the town square with his underwear on his head a "colorful character"), Charlie beckons Hiro to join her over at her candle-blowing ceremony, and they have their picture taken together. Hiro looks like he's passing a particularly difficult kidney stone in the resulting photo.
Chapter Ten: Six Months Ago, the title informs us over the scene. We're in a watch and clock repair shop in Brooklyn. Zachary Quinto of So NoTORIous infamy is diligently repairing a watch. It's a delicate operation and he's clearly an expert at it. Also? His skin looks like it's made of brie, it's so smooth, and his hair resembles that of a Devo member. He looks weird, is what I'm saying. And kind of hot. But that's probably due more to the fact that Zachary Quinto is kind of hot. Papa Suresh enters and calls Zachary "Mr. Gray". He hopes that Gray can help him, but Gray's more interested in fixing his watch. Papa Suresh says his watch is fine, but Gray tells him it isn't and that he has a knack for knowing when things are broken. He has a talent for knowing the way things work and how the parts should go. Suresh points out the watch Gray was just working on and says it looks complicated. Gray responds that the housing of the watch is standard, but the insides are complicated German parts. He's been working on it for seven years. I guess we're supposed to take away from this that Gray is obsessive-compulsive and also likes the inner workings of things.
Gray fixes Suresh's watch and tells him there's no charge. Suresh stares at him and suddenly, Gray looks at him, all, you didn't come here for the watch, did you? Well, no, he didn't, actually. Especially considering he didn't even KNOW the damn watch was broken. Sloppy writing gives me hives. Suresh says he came to find him, and we learn that Gray's first name is Gabriel. So his name is Gabriel Gray. Huh. A messenger angel who's neither black nor white, good nor evil? Subtle, writers. SUBTLE. Suresh introduces himself and immediately starts talking about his evolutionary theory. "I believe you are a part of it," he says, handing over a copy of his book. He tells Gray to read it and, if he's interested, he can contact him via the phone and address he's written inside the book. Suresh leaves to go drop in on other unsuspecting superheroes.
Los Angeles. Officer Matt is parked on a bridge with his lights flashing. He gets out and walks over to a hot car with an even hotter girl inside. Matt's cell phone rings, but he ignores it. Why answer a phone when there are hot girls to arrest! The girl in the car is Eden and she's wearing ginormous sunglasses on her tiny little head. Sunglasses. At night. Because apparently we've headed back to 1983 and Eden's taking her fashion cues from Corey Hart. Matt thinks wearing sunglasses at night is stupid, so he orders her to take them off. She does so and smiles blandly at him. Oh, and she also tells him that she "kinda stole" the car and there's a half-empty bottle of liquor parked on the passenger seat. Matt gets all good-cop/bad-cop on her ass and tells her to get out of the car. "No, I don't feel like it," Eden sasses at him. "That wasn't a suggestion," snaps Matt. "Well, here's a suggestion," she says, "why don't you get back in your car and go eat a dozen donuts?" Matt's all, oh, you did NOT just say that to me! Get outta the car. Eden turns on her Electronic Voice Power Persuader and tells Matt again to go eat some donuts. With a confused look on his face, Matt just walks back to his car and drives off. Eden turns on her engine and looks up to see Mindblower just standing in front of her car, staring at her.
Odessa. Claire's lying across her stuffed-animal-strewn bed. Jackie the Cheertator enters and tells her that some other girl on the cheerleading squad has gout or fell down some stairs or accidentally drank bleach or something, so there's a position open on the team for Claire. Okay, no, actually, Jackie says that Laurie Trammell "skanked her way through the entire football team" and that Jackie refuses to have any skank but herself on the squad. It's actually a nice script moment, seeing as we know that Laurie was raped by Jock the Rapist and he told everyone he knew that she was a skank. Now that's the kind of writing I like to see! So, whatever, Laurie left the squad and now Claire can be the cheerleader she's always dreamt of being.
Jackie wants her to try the uniform on now so that they can "commiserate" the event. Claire's all, try "commemorate" you illiterate asshole. And I'll try it on later. Jackie's all, uh, ungrateful much? Try the shit on NOW or I'll find someone else who REALLY wants to be on the squad. Claire's all, hey, I want to be on the squad, I just don't feel it necessary to UNDRESS IN FRONT OF YOU just to make you feel self-important. Now gimme the uniform so we can tussle over it until I smash my hand into a glass cabinet! Claire cuts the shit out of her hand and they head down to the kitchen so Mrs. Bennet can mop up the blood right on top of the food prep area. Unsanitary! Claire seems oddly calm as everyone around her, including her father, freak out about all the blood. Mrs. Bennet says she's going to take Claire to the emergency room to get her some stitches as Mr. Bennet goes to answer the phone. It's Suresh and he says that he needs to speak to him about Claire.
Burnt Toast Diner. Hiro tells Charlie that he teleported from the future to save her life. Charlie's like, dude? I like strays and everything, but you might want to keep the crazy to a minimum here. Hiro tells her not to go to work tomorrow and then he sees that it's raining outside. Charlie tells him it's April showers, and Hiro realizes that he's transported himself way too far back into the past. He also realizes that if he tries to teleport again, he may wind up anywhere on the universal timeline. "I'm stuck!" he hollers in Japanese. Charlie just offers him birthday cake and Hiro waveringly wishes her a happy birthday.
Vegas. Niki's standing up in front of a classroom full of adults and she introduces herself as Niki, an alcoholic. "Hi, Niki!" She says she's one year sober, and Texas Tina yells out, "Happy Anniversary!" Niki runs through a litany of all the crap in her life that sucks: she works sixty hours a week, her son's so smart he's flunking out of school, and her husband's out of work because no one wants to hire an ex-con. All of these things make her very thirsty. As she's talking, Niki sees an older man in the seats, and the expression on her face indicates that he's not one of her faves. They meet outside on the street and she asks him why he's there. He says he wants her in his life and he understands how she wouldn't want to be in it because was such an awful father. She says he wasn't awful, he just wasn't there. He wants to get to know D.L. and Micah and even her, and Niki says she isn't really ready to get to know him
Manhattan. Peter's Gargantuan Apartment that No Hospice Worker EVER Would Be Able to Afford. Peter's having a party. There's a knock at the door and it's Nathan, his wife, and Mama Petrelli. Nathan hands Peter a box of women's nursing shoes and Peter just laughs instead of pulling down Nathan's pants and sticking the shoes directly up his ass. Mama Petrelli pulls her son aside and tells him that Papa Petrelli is proud of him. "And still he couldn't make it?" says Peter ruefully. Mama Petrelli makes an excuse that Linderman's in Atlantic City, so Papa Petrelli had to meet with him, and Peter just gently cuts her off and says that he chose to become a nurse without his father's blessing or money, so it's only fitting that he should celebrate his graduation without the man.
Oh, sweet holy Jesus. What is Rena Sofer doing? Is that... is that supposed to be dancing? Because, no. Just... no. She's holding a bottle of wine in one hand and a glass in the other and she's sort of just tipping side to side while ponying across the room. She's either trying to act sloppily drunk or she really cannot dance. She's not known as the Show Killer for nothing; this dance alone could bring the whole damn show down. Heidi spazzes over to her husband, who's having a little chat with his brother. She asks Peter what his specialty's going to be, and he says it's hospice. "Taking care of dead people?" says Nathan. No, Nathan. That's a coroner. Or a morgue attendant. Or a funeral director. How'd he get to be a lawyer? He doesn't know what a damn hospice worker is; it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't know what a judge and jury are either.
Heidi explains the nature of hospice work to her semi-retarded lawyer husband and commends Peter on his choice. "What's the pay?" asks Nathan, all heart and sensitivity. "A fortune!" crows Peter. "Why do you think so many people WANT to become hospice workers? It's a growing job market, Nate. Taking care of dead -- sorry, DYING -- people. It's where the money's at, dude." Heidi just rolls her eyes at Nathan and tells him that when she gets back from calling the sitter, they're totally dancing together. Nathan whispers in her ear, "If that's what you call dancing, I'm going to need a straightjacket and possibly a lion tamer to get you to vaguely resemble a human being out there on the dance floor. Bring more wine. I'm going to need to be blind drunk before I attempt anything with you that involves physical contact and music." She leaves and Nate takes a seat to his brother.
"What's going on?" asks Peter, sensitively attuned to the inner workings of his brother's mind. Nathan tells him that the district attorney wants him to prosecute Linderman, his dad's biggest client. If Linderman's mob ties run as deep as the DA thinks they do, when they take him down, the whole "empire" will crumble. Peter reminds him that if he takes down Linderman, their father will go down with him. Nathan points out that Peter used to accuse Papa Petrelli of being a criminal for protecting criminals and that this is their chance to set the record straight and clear their family name. "He's still our father," says Peter. "No matter what he's done. You go after him? You're never going to forgive yourself." Nathan grabs his brother around the neck and plants a kiss on his head and then Roxy Music starts playing on the stereo and they start making out as god intended. Or Heidi just enters and starts spasmodically flailing her limbs around in an effort to entice her husband to the dance floor.
Casa de Suresh. Papa Suresh is pinning a picture of Nathan to his Map of Heroes. Gabriel Gray arrives and Suresh shows him a book full of medical images. Gray asks if Suresh is going to cut him open and Suresh just laughs and laughs. "Oh, no! That's later! After we have some nag paneer!" He tells Gray that he wants to run him through an MRI, and Gray observes that this means Suresh is trying to map the brain. Suresh says that the brain controls every action, whether it's voluntary or involuntary. It also controls every breath, heartbeat, and emotion. "If the soul exists," he says, "scientifically speaking, it exists in the brain." Gray chuckles and tells Suresh that, when he was a kid, he used to wish that someone would come and tell him his family wasn't really his family. Wow. That's one nihilistic kid. I used to wish I was Princess Leia's younger sister and that I would wind up married to Han Solo's younger brother and that we'd live on one of the moons of Endor, but I never wished my family wasn't my own. Then again, I was an only child who loved Duran Duran and thought that our new Betamax player was the bomb, so what the hell did I know?
"They weren't bad people," says Gray. "They were just... insignificant. And I wanted to be different. Special. I wanted to change. A new name, a new life. The watchmaker's son... became a watchmaker. It is so futile. And I wanted to be... important." Suresh assures him that he IS important, and Gray asks what his abilities might be. Before we can learn what they are, we switch to Bennet, who's rattling off a list of Eden's, erm, "accomplishments". Grand theft auto, larceny, robbery, arson, and suspected of murder in Oklahoma. "That's no way for a young lady to behave, now is it?" he asks. Heh. Eden has a big piece of tape over her mouth so she can't attempt to use her Electronic Voice Power Persuader on Bennet. Mindblower's in the corner, silently watching over the proceedings. Bennet tells her that she needs a goal and a purpose and then he pulls the tape off her mouth. She spits in his face and fires up the EVPP, telling him to let her go. Mindblower stares at her and Bennet just ignores her order, cheerfully informing her that, with her power, there's been no one who can say no to her. "Now there is," he says. Eden looks decidedly nervous.
Burnt Toast Diner. Hiro's on the payphone, calling his old company. He asks a receptionist to transfer him to Ando, and as soon as he answers, Hiro launches into a plea for help. We switch to Japan, where Past Hiro informs Present Past Hiro that Ando's out sick, so he's covering for him. Present Past Hiro immediately hangs up the phone and goes, "Great-o Scott-o!" Hee.
Los Angeles. Matt's in his squad car, holding a half-eaten donut and staring out the window. His wife-porking buddy shows up and asks him what the hell he's doing. Matt's all, the huh? Wife Porker tells him that the detective test is in an hour, so he'd better get a move on. Matt agrees and his friend tells him the second time's going to be the charm for him on the test. "What's with the donut?" he asks. Matt's like, "What? They're delicious and fattening and covered in frosting! What's not to love?" He looks down at the donut in his hand like it's covered in fur and immediately dumps it back into a box full of assorted donuts. Wife Porker tells him that he's a walking cliché and Matt says that, after today, he's going to be a different man. He certainly is.
Burnt Toast Diner. Hiro's apparently decided to stick around because he is now working at the diner as a busboy. Does he live at the diner too? Because unless apartments are plentiful in Midland, Texas, Hiro's got nowhere to live. Unless he's just been at a hotel this entire time. Cubicle-dwelling Japanime geeks obviously make enough money to park it at Texas hotels for months on end. Charlie comes up and Hiro tells her that he has a gift for her. It's a Japanese phrase book. Charlie opens it and immediately speaks a complete Japanese phrase in a near-perfect accent. "You are a kind and generous man," she says. Hiro's stunned. Charlie says that, lately, she's just been able to remember everything. He tells her that she has a big power, a strong memory, and that it'll only get better in the future. Charlie's all, the future. Riiiiiight. Listen, you're cute and all, but knock it off with the future talk, okay?
Hiro tries to convince her that he can bend time and space and Charlie's like, of course you can, Tamagachi! Now here's a quarter. Go put something non-crazy on the jukebox. Hiro makes his bowel movement face again and there's a ding in the distance. The other waitress tells her that her order's up. Charlie turns to acknowledge her and when she turns back to Hiro, he has a huge bouquet of flowers for her. She's all, hey! I don't remember a flower store being right here in the diner! Also, that was FAST! Hiro's all, I know! That's because these are from down the street and I've really been gone for fifteen minutes, but I bended time and space to make it seem instantaneous. Also, I already delivered your order to the table. Because I'm nice that way. So, wait -- he can't teleport again because he'll wind up in the dark ages, but he can stop time while he goes and gets flowers and delivers food? That makes no sense. If he can't control it, then he can't control it. But don't make him able to control it sometimes, but not others. I realize he's learning, but let's move his educational process along a bit quicker, huh?
Charlie declares that he's a magician and Hiro again tries to tell her that it's not magic; he has a superpower. He starts to tell her about a very bad man who's going to come and kill her, but he stops before revealing that little nugget of info and tells Charlie that tomorrow, the swallow will slay the dragon. Charlie's like, what, are you Confucius now? Hiro's like, oh, what, so all Chinese people look alike? Charlie's like, you're Japanese. Hiro's like, WHAT, YOU NO LIKE-O NO JAPANESE PEOPLE? And Charlie's like, whatever, dude. Go get some more plates off tables and teleport them into the goddamned future for all I care.
Vegas. Niki's sitting on top of her sister's grave. We get a look at the headstone, and it says that Jessica died in 1987, when she was just eleven years old. DL walks up and notices that Niki's got a bottle of something wrapped up in brown paper. "Having a drink with your sister?" he quietly asks. "Thinkin' about it," she answers. She tells him that it's important for her not to forget about her sister and then she says that her father's back and he wants to meet DL and Micah. DL tells her that nobody's meeting anybody unless Niki wants them to. She says that her father has money and they could use it to send Micah to private school. DL gamely says they should have the man over for dinner and then they can all say a prayer for Jessica. Niki looks at her husband like he just sprouted wings and a halo and is strumming "Stairway to Heaven" on a harp.
A Freeway Outside of Manhattan. Nathan and Heidi are driving home from Peter's party. Nathan's grousing about Peter being a hospice nurse, and Heidi's being sweetly supportive of Peter's choice. "He's selfless and empathic," she says. I think she means empathetic here, but the writers probably felt that wasn't anvilicious enough so they went with "empathic". Nathan says that Peter's also self-righteous and that Papa Petrelli did what he had to do to take care of his family. Wait, so, back at the party, Nathan wanted to take their father down along with Linderman and Peter didn't think that would be a good idea, but now, suddenly, Peter's self-righteous and Nathan's supporting his father's choices? Sloppy writing! I think we have a new drinking game, people; every time there's sloppy writing or inconsistencies on the show, you have to drink. Good lord. We'll all be hammered by the first commercial break.
Nathan continues to blather on about how he understands the choices his father made and that he himself inherited the same responsibility. What responsibility is that, Nathan? The one where you lie down with mobsters so your family can live in a huge mansion and host fake brunches on Sundays? "I didn't ask to be Dad's favorite," says Nathan, apropos of nothing. "I never asked to be loved more than Peter. But that's just the reality." Jesus, what kind of family is this? Unless Peter was a convicted felon or a perennial drug addict or something else serious, I see no reason why Papa Petrelli should love one son more than the other. That's just bad parenting, if you ask me. Of course, I can't keep a houseplant alive longer than three days, so perhaps I shouldn't be commenting on other peoples ability to successfully raise human beings.
Just then, a big van comes speeding up and starts threatening their car. There's no one else on the road, so it's clear that the van is coming for Nathan and Heidi and no one else. It rides up on their bumper and starts ramming into it a couple of times. Heidi freaks out and looks around at them and when she turns back to look at Nathan, he's just... gone. She calls out for him and we see that he's actually up in the air, looking totally helpless and completely not in control of his flying ability. Guess he wasn't wearing his seatbelt, huh? That might've kept him in the damn car instead of in the air where he doesn't belong. He's just hovering there, watching Heidi ride off in the car that he's no longer driving. The van pushes the car into a barrier on the side of the road as Heidi screams. It crashes and Nathan crashes to the ground. At the same time across town, Peter reaches his hand up in the middle of a nightmare. He wakes with a start and the phone rings. Looks like he's just had his "I knew something bad had happened to him" moment he talked about in the first episode. Although, in that episode, he mentioned something about being 300 miles away at the time of the accident, which, unless Nathan and Heidi were driving to Syracuse, seems to be yet another inconsistency. Everybody drink! Also? Milo Ventimiglia does all sorts of wrong things to a white v-neck t-shirt, lemme tell you.
Later that same night, Peter runs into the emergency room waiting area and goes directly to his brother, who's sitting with his head in his hands. Heidi's been in surgery for ten hours and there's something wrong with her spine. Peter hands Nathan his phone so he can call Mama Petrelli. Peter asks if he's hurt and Nathan says he landed three hundred feet away from the wreck. He has no idea how he got there, and, in fact, remembers very little of anything that happened. Peter tells him the cut on his forehead is bad and that he needs to lie down. Nathan won't lie down until Heidi's okay. He can't get a signal on the phone and Peter asks if he remembers the other car. Nathan's all, what other car? Peter's all, whaddya mean "what other car"? The other car, doofus. The one ramming into you from behind! (Hee. I'm twelve.) Nathan touches his brother on the shoulder (because a scene in which the Petrelli brothers are not touching each other is clearly a scene where they are not in the same zip code) and looks around all covertly and shit, as if someone is watching them from the nurse's station or something. "Who told you that?" asks Nathan. "I had a dream," says Peter, "right before you called." "My wife's in surgery," says Nathan, cupping his brother's cheek with his hand as if he's going to lean in and kiss him right on the lips, "and you're dreaming. That's great."
"There was another car, wasn't there?" asks Peter. Nathan doesn't answer. Peter walks over and puts his hands all over his brother AGAIN, some more, and repeats the question about the car. Nathan rears his head back and finally tells him that it was Linderman's henchmen; they must've gotten wind of the DA's plans. Nathan blames himself for even considering going along with the DA's scheme. Peter tells him that this isn't his fault, it's Papa Petrelli's fault, and that this isn't going to end. Nathan asks if Peter will give a deposition against their father if Nathan agrees to take the DA's case. What Peter has to do with all of this, I have no idea, but he agrees to give the deposition. But only after touching his brother some more. I swear they touch each other more than any brothers have a right to. And I watch Supernatural, y'all. I'm not saying I mind it -- I mean, Pasdar and Milo are hot on their own; together, they're practically an inferno -- but it does make me wonder if Pasdar and Milo, like, visit the craft services table and giggle while they go over the script and insert "Peter touches Nathan suggestively" and "Nathan stares longingly at his brother" in between the written lines. You totally know they'd do that shit; I have a feeling they both have rather twisted and freaky senses of humor. Especially Pasdar. You just know he has some velvet clown paintings in his basement.
The surgeon enters and calls Nathan away from all the brother-touching. As Peter watches from behind sound-proof glass, Nathan gets the news that his wife is paralyzed. The doctor goes to touch Nathan on the shoulder, but since he's not Peter, Nathan slaps his hand away. He looks out at his brother, and it's a cool shot, because right behind Nathan's head is a light fixture that's basically a black disc over a light bulb, making it look like a total eclipse. That? Is some wicked fun the set decorator is having with the show, and now I'm wishing I'd paid more attention to episodes to find stuff like this.
Burnt Toast Diner. According to the chrono, it's the day. Hiro knocks on the window of the diner and waves something in Charlie's face. He enters and does one of his trademark arms-in-the-air "Yatta!" moves and Charlie's like, "Again, you're cute. But enough with the cartoon character behavior." Or maybe that's just me. Hiro shows Charlie a Japanese newspaper, which is actually kind of incredibly stupid because unless there's an international newsstand up the street from the diner, I'm thinking the local five-and-dime isn't just going to have Japanese newspapers lying around waiting to be picked up by hyper-cute Japanese time travelers. He points to a headline and tells her that it says the Swallows slayed the Dragons. Charlie takes the paper from him and easily reads a headline stating that the Tokyo Swallows defeated the Chunichi Dragons yesterday. Hiro's like, uh, how the hell did you learn how to read Japanese characters so quickly? I'm Japanese and I STILL don't know how to read half of them!
He tells her that she has power and that he has power too. Charlie's like, dude? It's just a baseball stat from a Japanese newspaper; it doesn't mean you're from the future. Hiro takes a different tack, saying that there's an ancient tradition of origami... Charlie jumps in, saying that she read about this; if a person can fold 1,000 cranes, they'll be granted one wish. Damn, where'd she read that? In the Japanese newspaper from the five-and-dime? Hiro takes another dump and the thing we know, they're surrounded by a thousand paper cranes. It's beautiful and everything, but again: CAN HE CONTROL THE POWER OR NOT? Because, if he can, then he should GO BACK TO THE FUTURE, and save Charlie or not save Charlie, but just GET BACK TO THE TIME HE NEEDS TO BE IN. Everybody drink!
So, whatever, the diner is filled with a thousand multi-colored paper cranes and they're all hanging from the ceiling. Charlie's stunned. Hiro hands her a ticket to Japan and tells her that he doesn't care if she doesn't believe him; he just wants her to go. "Only one ticket?" she sweetly asks. Hiro pulls out another ticket. "Just in case you said yes." "Hai! Hai!" she responds with a smile. Hiro just throws his arms around her. Aw.
Suresh's Apartment. Papa Suresh asks Gray why he repairs watches, and Gray responds that his father didn't really give him much choice. Gray's hooked up to a monitoring machine with sensors all over his head as Suresh talks to him. Suresh asks why he doesn't just do what he wants to do, and Gray says that Suresh used a phrase in his book: "evolutionary imperative." "That which we are destined to do," says Suresh. Gray brings up examples of this: turtles returning to die on the same beach on which they were born, lions slaughter gazelles, spiders eat their young. They don't want to; they have to. Suresh rolls his eyes, turns off the machines, and informs Gray that the good news is that he's healthy. Uh-oh. Looks like Gray's not the superhero Suresh hoped he'd be.
"What, you mean normal?" says Gray, pissed off. "You mean there's still no signs?" Suresh tells him there are none. Gray's looking forward to the CT scan tomorrow, and Suresh says that they need to be prepared for the possibility that he's wrong about Gray's potential powers. "I am so close," spits Gray, jumping to his feet. "I can feel it. You came to me! I am on your list!" Which... yeah. Why IS he on Suresh's list if he doesn't already have some sort of ability? Is it just genetics that Suresh is watching? Because if these Heroes aren't showing their abilities yet, how the hell is Suresh finding them? Drink! Gray implores Suresh to not give up on him, and Suresh just says he's got other Heroes with no evident powers to stalk, so if he could show himself out... Gray goes a little crazy here, picking up folders of potential Heroes and sputtering at Suresh about their supposed superpowers. There's a sticky on one of the folders with the name Brian Davis on it. "What, you think he's... telekinetic?" Gray snaps at Suresh. "Or are you just going to toss him aside too?" He flings the folders to the floor and it's clear that he's crossed the state line into the Land of the Loonies and that this probably wasn't a terribly long journey for him to make.
Suresh tells him to leave and Gray grabs little geeky corduroy coat and angrily exits. Out on the street, he stops to catch his breath. He's very Clark Kent-ian in this moment. Pressed shirt, sweater vest, bulletproof hair, nerd glasses. He looks down in his hand and sees that he still has the sticky with Brian's name and address on it. Behind him, Bennet is getting out of a cab. Gray walks off and Bennet stops beneath Suresh's building and looks up at it ominously.
Vegas. Niki's dad Hal is visiting, and his first method of business is to attempt to endear himself to Micah by throwing an expensive laptop computer his way. Micah's impressed, as is Niki. She tells him that it's a very generous gift and Hal just says it was amortized over ten birthdays. "Well, then," says DL with a gritty smile, "you skimped." Heh. Micah thanks him and Hal tells him to go break the internet in half or something. Niki clunkily brings up that she and DL want to move Micah into a private school, but they don't have the money. Hal comments that if she wants to ask him for something, it's already hers. She thanks him and he says that he feels lucky that she even let him in the door after all the things he's done. Again, Niki says he didn't do anything, and Hal goes, "Why do you keep doing that?" Niki's all, what? He's all, dude. You're only as sick as your secrets. Her smile falters and she comments that she knows all the AA mantras, thanks. Hal uncomfortably says he's going to go check on the boy.
Unfortunately, when he does, he sees that Micah has taken his new computer completely apart and is tinkering with it. Hal totally loses his shit and screams at Micah about how the computer cost $2000. Niki and DL show up and act like Hal's just ripped out their kid's liver instead of yelled at him a bit. I mean, obviously Hal's a violent asshole and it was probably only a matter of time before he hit poor Micah, but the way Niki and DL react to his two shouted sentences is a little over the top, if you ask me. Hal storms off, saying that he has no business being here. Niki's like, well, then why the hell did you come? He says that he owes her more than any apology could ever do. He hands her a check and tells her to make her life easier with it. "What did you do that was so bad that I can't have my father back?" she asks. "You really don't remember, do you?" he says. He leaves. There's a weird quick camera shift and Niki looks up into a mirror where two of her appear. Her expression changes from "whuh?" to "you dumb-ass" almost instantly, and I think we've just seen our first glimpse of ikiN.
Brooklyn. Bennet and Suresh are discussing Claire's genetic abnormality. Bennet wants to know how it's going to effect her, and Suresh says that he doesn't know and that it's possible that nothing at all might happen; he might be wrong. Bennet looks at her picture on the map and comments on how fast she's growing up and how he can't stop it. Suresh agrees and sort of gently slaps Bennet on the shoulder in a friendly manner. They seem to genuinely like each other at this point. But I'm confused as to how much Bennet knows about Claire and Suresh. He told Isaac that he rescued Claire from a botched attempt to contact her hero parents, but now he knows nothing about her potential abilities or Suresh's research? Is this the first time he's known about Suresh? Not an inconsistency so much as it's just questions being answered by more questions, really. So... no drinking. Sorry.
Bennet asks if Suresh has a daughter, and Suresh tells him that he had a daughter and that she was five when she died. Bennet says that he's sorry, and Suresh says that mutations are like cancers or diseases in that they're meant to eliminate a species. Shanti's genetic anomaly wound up being the portal to Suresh's research. He hopes no one will suffer as she did. Bennet wants to know what will happen if Suresh figures all of this stuff out. "We can change the world," he responds. "Give people hope for the future. That is your daughter's destiny." Suresh wants to meet her, but Bennet says that might be a problem for his family. He wants to think on it and get back to Suresh on how to proceed. They shake hands, and Bennet says their meeting was... educational. Still can't tell if he's a full-on bad guy or not, but I'm totally digging his character arc.
Hal's Hotel Room. There's a knock at the door. Hal goes to get it and it's Niki. Or should I say "ikiN"? She enters the room without so much as a "hello" and stalks her way inside. Hal follows. "You do remember?" he says. "Ohhhh," says ikiN, "how could I forget?" She spins around and grabs Hal by the throat and then single-handedly throws him up against a wardrobe. Hal's all, Niki, honey, what the hell? "Not Niki," says ikiN. "It's me, Daddy. Jessica. The daughter you threw your beer bottles at? The daughter that you choked? The daughter that you killed?" She shoves him further up the wardrobe door, still using only her right hand. Hal protests that he didn't kill anyone, but ikiN's not buying that it was an accident. He gasps that he came to apologize to Niki, but ikiN would prefer it if he apologized to her and, really, who can blame her, considering that she's the one he killed?
She roughs him up a bit and then slams him against the wardrobe again with her forearm against his throat. "Niki doesn't remember," she says, "but I do. Someone had to be there to protect her. I remember the stink of alcohol on your breath. I took every punch so that she wouldn't have to." "You're not Jessica," he manages to get out. "You have no idea who I am," she says with obvious delight. She flings him back onto the bed and he tells says that Nicole needs help. ikiN's all, you're right, she totally DOES need help. "I thought she'd learned to protect herself," says ikiN, pulling out the check he gave Niki, "but no such luck. You're going to go away and never come back." She shoves the check into his mouth and walks out.
So... Niki's superpower is a dissociative personality disorder? And her other personality is her dead sister? Who's, like, really super strong? I... wish they'd make up their minds about just what her damn superpower is and get her to start using it. I mean, if mental illnesses were superpowers, Sybil would have worn a goddamn cape and gone by the name "Super Sybil".
Odessa. Good god. Claire's alone in her room dorkily cheering to herself. Mr. Bennet shows up in the doorway and tells her that he can't wait for her first game. He has a stuffed bear in his hands and says that she might be getting too old for the bears-around-the-world tradition they've had. Claire says she totally isn't and she adds the latest bear to her collection. Aw. Claire blurts out, "Am I a terrible person?" Bennet asks what she's talking about, and she says that she wants to be a cheerleader, but sometimes, Jackie can be such a... "Bitch?" says Bennet. Claire smiles in surprise. "Yeah, a bitch," she agrees. "No," he says, "it's your actions that make you good or bad, cheerleader or not." He asks to look at her hand and she says the pain went away, but when she removes the bandage, the wound is completely gone. "That's... healed really nicely," says Bennet. Heh.
Matt's House of Cheating Wives. It's morning, but Matt appears to have just arrived home. His drowsy wife greets him with a "hey, baby," and Matt dejectedly informs her that he didn't pass the detective test. She thinks he should tell his bosses the truth, and we learn that Matt has a severe case of dyslexia. He can barely read, and half the letters he sees are backwards. She tries to be supportive of him and starts to cuddle him and entice him with offers of morning sex and eggs, preferably in that order, but Matt's not really in the mood. "How can you want to kiss me?" says Matt. "You're my hero," says his wife's inner voice, "don't you know that?" Matt's not looking at her when this happens, so he doesn't seem to realize that she didn't actually say this out loud.
Peter's Pad. Oooh, I love it when they slick back Peter's hair when he's supposed to be all serious! So pretty. Peter's putting on a tie and getting ready for his deposition. Nathan shows up and tells his brother that their father is dead. Peter says nothing. "Just take comfort in the fact that he didn't know his sons were about to stab him in the back," says Nathan with no emotion in his voice. They look at each other broodingly.
Burnt Toast Diner. Charlie's standing outside, looking sad. Hiro runs out and tells her about a samurai film festival in Austin that night. Charlie informs him that that's over three hundred miles away, and he just cheerfully says they can make it there in time to see Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, and Hidden Fortress. He thinks this would be perfect prep work for their trip to Japan. Charlie's not so sure, and she resists his attempts to drag her off. Hiro's worried that she doesn't want to go to Japan anymore, and she says she still wants to go, and that he makes her very happy. He says she does the same for him. She goes on to say that she doesn't usually let people close because, well, she has a blood clot in her brain and she's dying. "But... I'm supposed to save you," says Hiro. Charlie says he did save her, because before he arrived, she'd decided to give up. But he made her feel more joy than she ever could have imagined. "Hiro," she says, welling up with tears, "I love you." Aw. They go to kiss and suddenly, Hiro's in the middle of his coworkers, who are all doing their daily exercises on the rooftop of their building. One of them comments to Hiro that he and Ando are supposed to be on vacation in America. So Hiro's managed to accidentally teleport himself back to the future. And no matter how hard he tries, no matter how many colossal craps he tries to take, he can't get back to his girl.
Gabriel's Clock Shop of Resentment. Gray's fixing a watch when a man enters the shop. It's Brian Davis. Just in case we were out trying to eat people's brains during the scenes, we get a flash of Gray finding the sticky in his hand, like, we're WATCHING THE SHOW, let's assume we KNOW WHO BRIAN DAVIS IS. Gray stands up and says, "My name is... " He looks down at the watch he was fixing and the name on the face is "Sylar". "My name is Sylar," he says, looking over at Brian. "Gabriel Sylar." Minutes later, Sylar and Brian are standing at a counter as Brian stares really hard at a cup. It shakes and quivers and then finally it sort of jerkily moves across the counter. Not so much a "superpower" as it is a "half-assed power," huh? Sylar is more impressed than I am, because he declares the ability to be "incredible." Brian wants him to make it go away. Sylar thinks he's crazy to want to remove such an awesome ability. Brian doesn't want it.
Something shifts in Sylar and he says, "You're broken." Brian's all, wah-huh? Sylar throws Suresh's book at him and says that the professor was right, it's all in the brain. "So you can help," says Brian. Well, that depends, Brian. He can help, I suppose, if by "help" you mean, "brains you with a big-ass piece of quartz." "Don't worry, Brian," says Sylar, picking up the quartz. "I can fix it. It's an evolutionary imperative." And then he brings the quartz down on Brian's head. Again, not really sure what Sylar's power is here. He can tell when things are broken and then he can fix them, right? So, how's he going to fix Brian if he's... dead?
Secret Lair of Hero Gatherers. Bennet is trying to convince Eden that whatever evil she's done in the past is over. She has a chance to start again and rewrite the past. But, if she's not interested, they can just put her back in her old life where she'd possibly be dead within a week. Somehow, I find this hard to believe. Also, what was she in her old life, a mobster? A drug dealer? As far as I can tell she forced people to do her bidding and then stole shit. Not really death-taunting, is it? Eden just asks Bennet what he wants her to do, and he outlines his plan to have her get close to Suresh and get Claire's name off his List of Heroes.
Speaking of Heroes, Sylar's now apparently one of them, because he's sitting at Suresh's place, staring at a glass on the table. It slowly and smoothly slides across the table, stopping at the end. And then it flings off and smashes against a wall. Sylar sheepishly apologizes about the glass, but it's clear that he quite enjoyed that. Suresh is floored. So... he dissected Brian's brain and figured out how it worked and then, in the process, rewired his OWN brain to work like Brian's? I'm not really sure how you do that without cutting open your own skull and playing doctor with your own gray matter. Maybe just by digging around in someone's brain Sylar can appropriate their powers. I... don't know. Again, MORE ANSWERS, FEWER QUESTIONS, PLEASE.
Sylar gets up and calmly apologizes for his behavior the other day. Suresh just takes it in stride, saying a man can do or say many things when angry. Sylar says that he feels he's different now; that he's been given a chance to start over. "A new life, a new identity, a new purpose," he says. Suresh says that he came halfway around the world looking for proof and he threw him out the door. He goes on to say that no one returns his phone calls anymore; they all think he's insane. Sylar doesn't. Because he's cornered the market on insanity, thanks. Sylar points at the people on the map and says that all of them are just waiting to be told that they're important. He knows they're waiting to unlock their true potential. "I can feel that," he says. "We'll find them together." For the first time, Suresh looks a little unsure of this guy. "We are the future," says Sylar.
Burnt Toast Diner. Present Day. Ando's still waiting for Hiro. Luckily, he appears in the doorway as a rainstorm rages outside. Ando runs into his arms and Hiro informs him that he didn't teleport back to America; he got on a plane and a bus, just like normal people. Also? I'd like to see Hiro's bank account right about now. A last-minute flight from Tokyo to Texas might run you about, oh, I don't know, THIRTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS? Hiro says he couldnât save Charlie, no matter how many times he traveled forward, backward or sideways. He says that this power he has is bigger than him and he can't change the past, no matter how hard he wishes he could. "I failed," he says, holding up one of the paper cranes.
India. Moyawnder is checking out the List of Heroes again. "This list," his voice-over says, "these people... their future is written on their DNA. Just as the past, it seems, is written in stone." We see Charlie with the brain blood running down her face and then Claire, right after her run-in with Sylar, telling her father that she has something to tell him. Moyawnder: "Was the die cast from the very beginning?" Peter gets arrested. Moyawnder again: "Or is it in our own hands to alter the course of destiny? Of all our abilities, it is free will that truly makes us unique." Mindblower brings down Sylar, and Eden removes his hat to see his face. Moyawnder: "With it, we have a tiny, but potent, chance to deny fate." DL and Micah run to their car as ikiN takes aim and a shot is fired. "And only with it can we find our way back to being human." Hiro places the paper crane on Charlie's shrine. "I loved her," says Hiro. Ando places a hand on his friend's shoulder in commiseration.
on Heroes: A Hero is lost and there's a surprise ending. What, like ikiN is really one of Niki's shattered multiple personalities or Sylar is really someone named Gabriel Gray? Yeah. I'm not holding my breath on the "surprise," thanks.