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It's two weeks after the night Peter exploded in his dreams and now he's in a coma, Niki's in jail, and Claire's pretending not to remember anything about the night she met Sylar. Speaking of Sylar, he's crapped out in his cell, surrounded by roaches. According to one of Bennett's resident creepy-ass doctors, they still don't know just what Sylar's aptitudes are, and if they keep pumping him full of drugs, he'll be dead within a day. Matt and Audrey organize a failed raid on Bennett's fake paper office to find Sylar, and, because the Haitian's around, Matt can't get a doorway into Bennett's head. Audrey now thinks he's an idiot. Cute, but an idiot. That's okay, because Matt decides to go back to his wife anyway. She's about to leave him, so Matt does the logical thing and tells her that he can read minds. Because THAT'LL make her stay.
Hiro and Ando are in New York, looking for Hiro's future sword. He finds it attached to an ancient Samurai model and, wouldn't you know it? It has the super-secret "S" symbol right on its hilt! Ando quickly recognizes that the symbol is a combination of characters that stand for "Great Talent" and "Godsend." Hiro declares that the sword is his sacred object and, that with it, his powers will return and he can fulfill his destiny. He steals the sword, only to discover that it's a fake loaned to the museum by none other than Linderman.
Niki's green-around-the-gills defense attorney informs her that the D.A. is going after the death penalty and Jessica shows up to start antagonizing both Niki AND the lawyer in a loving homage to Sybil. It's awesome. Also awesome? Isaac without a shirt showing up to greet Simone and Nathan when they come to visit him at his studio. Nathan sees the exploding man painting and finally starts believing that all this shit is connected. It helps that, at the precise moment he does so, Hiro and Ando show up to tell Isaac about the Linderman sword. Nathan's all, "The Linderman in the Who?" Hiro's all, "Flying Man!" Hee.
Claire tries to rekindle her friendship with Zach by repeating her water tower fall from the first episode so that he can witness it and commit it to tape. D.L. and Micah go to see Niki in jail, and Niki begs her guard to let her give Micah a hug. When she the guard goes to hit her with his stick, she not only stops the stick in mid-air, she easily breaks it in half. When she's not Jessica. Guess we now know that she has the super-strength whether she's dipping out into multiple personalities or not, huh? Too bad she gets tossed into a rubber room anyway.
Bennett pays a visit to Mohinder in order to discuss The List, introducing the new catchphrase that's sweeping the nation, "Are you on The List?" Mohinder says that once he figures out The List (whatever that means), he's going to warn everyone on it about Bennett. Bennett wants them to work together and asks Mohinder to contact him. Peter continues to have his exploding dream, but now Christopher Eccelston keeps appearing in it while laughing maniacally. Peter wakes up screaming and immediately leaves the hospital. Once outside, he sees Christopher Eccleston blatantly stealing money out of someone's wallet and runs after him, only to discover that Christopher's power is invisibility, and Pete's stolen it from him so they're BOTH invisible, and help him, Christopher-Wan! You're his only hope! Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Heroes: Save the Cheerleader, Save the... World? Huh. Well, Peter definitely saved A cheerleader, but then he collapsed and went all comatose on our asses, and Sylar the Demon Brain Eater got captured by H.R.G., and Eden shot her own brains out to avoid having her brain all sucked up and shit, and the Haitian Sensation actually spoke, and when he did, he informed Claire that her adoptive daddy had erased the memories of those nearest and dearest to her heart and, therefore, may not be a super-duper nice guy, and then Niki went and gave herself up to the police because Jessica's one hella-mega-bitch-on-wheels.
I'm doing my best to truncate the previouslies because, y'all, they go on for, like, a half hour. We get a repeat of the Peter Coma Future Dream, and I don't know why they bothered because that shit shows up, like, seven more times during this episode. Also, past clips from the show seem to be interspersed with future clips, which is kind of interesting, actually. Not really sure what the thinking was on that, but whatever. Also not really sure what the thinking was on wrapping the World's Fugliest Scarf around Mohinder's neck during one of the clips. It's... almost poetic in its hideousness. It's stripy and rainbow-y and so very, very wrong.
We're re-introduced to the major players through the previouslies montage. We also get a glimpse of some new characters, but that's not important right now. What's important is that we stop fucking around and get down to the business at hand:
The Chapter of Heroes.
Peter's coma-ing out, looking sweaty and sickly. Stellar coma-acting by Milo, by the way. Excellent lid work. It's been two weeks since he passed out in front of Claire's school, but he's still having that damn Future Dream. You know the one: Peter's hands glow, everyone looks panicked, he blows up, etc. The only difference this time is that a new character, in the form of Christopher "Fucking Bin-Bag" Eccelston, seems to be making an appearance. It's quick, but he's there. In Peter's hospital room, his mother smoothes his hair back and Nathan approaches the bed. (Dirty!) They look over Peter with concern.
Cut to Niki in her prison cell, dressed in an orange jumpsuit that may be nearly as hideous as Mohinder's Scarf of Fugly Colors. The cell door buzzes open and a guard who looks like he's been at the receiving end of some specialized Jessica treatment enters and starts to taunt poor Niki. She looks rather skittery at the sight of him, but not nearly as skittery as the four fully-armed guards in the doorway do. Heh. Come on, guys. You're not scared of one wittle itty bitty girl, are you? Clearly, they most certainly are. Niki's quietly cooperative though, so they cuff her and lead her out of the cell with very little drama. Broken Nose's face appears to have had a toaster oven slammed into it. Heh.
House of Bennetts. Claire's parked in front of the kitchen TV watching a newscast about Jackie's horrible death. Papa Bennett is behind her, making pancakes. Claire's worried that the kids at school are going to ask her questions about the whole homecoming thing. Only problem is, she can't remember anything. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Like, isn't that strange, Daddy? Claire deftly needles her father about not remembering anything and then asks where he found her. Bennett's all, "Whaddya mean? 'Found you'? Uh. I didn't find you! You were adopted! Fair and square and all legal-like! No way did I steal you from another superhero or anything! Hell no!" Claire's like, "No, dork-ass. The night Jackie died. Where'd you find me?" Bennett lamely covers that he found Claire at the stadium and that she was traumatized. Claire repeats that she doesn't remember, and Bennett's all, thank FUCK you don't remember; if you did, I'd be hitting "Haitian Sensation" on the damn speed dial. Bennett puts a stack of pancakes down in front of her, and instead of eating them, she just smiles and says she has to go and walks out, pausing for a moment to let the fake smile drop from her face as she contemplates her duplicitous father. She kind of rolls her eyes beneath her lids in a hilarious gesture that telegraphs her basic disgust with the man in the horn-rimmed glasses. Heh.
Later, Bennett and his glasses are staring at a seriously whacked-out Sylar. No shit, he's flat-out on a slab in his cell, his eyes are purple and red and swollen, there's a gargantuan Madagascar hissing cockroach crawling around his head. He looks like a plate of warmed-over three-week-old shit. Bennett's discussing Sylar's genetic makeup with one of his henchdoctors. Several posters have identified the henchdoctor as the guy who impersonated Claire's biological father during the "Better Halves" episode, and, judging by the fact that the actor's name, Corey French, appears in both that episode and this one, I'd have to say those posters are dead-on. Anyway, Henchdoctor is telling Bennett that, other than some telekinesis, he can't find any special abilities hidden within Sylar's genetic code.
Bennett asks if Sylar's responding to the glycimerine, which is totally a made-up drug, and Henchdoctor says that he's given Sylar enough to kill an elephant, but there's still no response. "If we keep up at this rate," says the doctor, "he'll be dead by tomorrow." Bennett says that, after what Sylar did to Eden, he deserves to die. Unfortunately, the person pulling all the strings has declared that Sylar is in a no-kill shelter, so he stays alive. Bennett orders Henchdoctor to "dig deeper" and judging by Henchdoctor's expression, this isn't something he's too keen on doing.
Cut to a bunch of black S.W.A.T. vans screeching into the parking lot of Primatech Paper as Matt and Audrey watch from their car. Matt's been staking out Bennett's office ever since he saw the Haitian Sensation bending Bennett's ear a while back. Not really sure what Matt has to go on that would justify a raid, considering that he hasn't been able to eavesdrop on either Bennett or the Haitian Sensation pretty much at all. Audrey has her doubts too, but they go ahead with the raid.
Of course, they turn up nothing but paper. Audrey grills one of the S.W.A.T. guys, asking if he checked the basement and the stairwells. The guy's all, uh, no. We totally forgot about those places. WE'RE ONLY THE FUCKING S.W.A.T. Matt directly confronts Bennett, demanding to know where Sylar is. When Bennett feigns ignorance, Matt tries to listen in on his thoughts. Unfortunately, the Haitian Sensation is standing nearby, so he makes Matt's powers useless. Audrey snaps Matt out of it by declaring that Sylar's not there. "Nice going," she spits at him before she leaves. "Oops," says Bennett with a smirk. Heh. Not a very strategic move on Bennett's part, especially if he wants to get Matt off his ass, but a funny one nonetheless.
Museum of Natural History, NYC. Hiro and Ando have made it to the Big Apple, and now they're wandering around the museum in search of Hiro's Future Sword. Ando thinks they should be concentrating on their mission instead of the sword search. But Hiro claims that he needs his powers for the mission and that the sword will help restore his now wonky powers. We get a clue as to the timeline when Ando says that the bomb is going to hit the city in just three weeks. So... that must make it October 18, 2006 in Heroes-land. Hiro says that since he lost Charlie, his powers have continuously gotten weaker. He needs the sword to save the world. Luckily, just as he says this, they stop directly in front of an old samurai uniform that has Hiro's Future Sword attached to it. "Atta!"
After the break, we catch up with ComaPeter, who's revisiting his Future Dream once again. He has more direct interaction with Christopher Eccelston (sorry, I can't refer to him as anything but his full name; it's a problem) in this version of the dream, including a moment when Christopher Eccelston seems to throttle him. Simone enters the hospital room and hands a vase of flowers to Mama Petrelli. She goes directly over to Peter and touches his forehead, commenting that he's burning up. Yeah, but not as much as he'll be burning up come November 8th, baby!
Mama Petrelli goes off on the doctors, saying that none of them have any idea what's wrong with her son. Nathan comments that they think it has something to do with his heart. Mama P's all, twenty-six years old and he's gonna die of a heart attack? I don't THINK so. She stomps off to take a bite out of the medical staff's collective ass. Simone sits on Peter's bed. "I wish I knew what was goin' on in there," she says. Well, it's really not all that interesting, Simone; just a bunch of superhero characters running around, screaming, trying to get away from your exploding lover. Nathan, who looks exhausted, tells Simone that just before Peter lapsed into the coma, he told his brother that he thought he was absorbing too many powers.
Simone somehow gets that Nathan's giving her a dig and says that Peter wanted to see the death painting, so she showed it to him. Nathan rips at her about how she had to know that Peter would obsessively follow the painting all the way to Texas. Simone says that it was important to Peter. "You really believe all this crap?" says Nathan. "Future paintings? The end of the world?" You know, I appreciate that Nathan has a healthy sense of skepticism when it comes to superpowers and the supernatural, but, um, isn't he the one who, I don't know, SHOT INTO THE AIR LIKE A ROCKET AND THEN LANDED IN THE DAMN NEVADA DESERT? Like, I get that someone who is just discovering they have unusual abilities might be a scosh reluctant to believe that future paintings and time travel and super-strength are all real, but COME ON. You've FLOWN, Nathan. And you've done it more than once! It's not like you've just SEEN someone fly! Enough with the, "Santa Claus doesn't exist" bullshit, dude. Get with the fucking program already.
Simone just says that she knows that Peter believes in this stuff and she believes in him, so if Nathan could just STEP OFF and start believing in his brother too, maybe he'd get out of the damn coma and stop dreaming about exploding hands. Nathan orders Simone to show him some proof that all this shit is real. "I've been in this damn hospital for two weeks waiting for something to happen," he says, putting on his coat, "and I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit around and watch my brother die. Take me to the artist. I want to see what's worth all this." Simone gets up to leave, and Nathan stops at his brother's side, leans over, PAUSES, then lays the longest, sweetest kiss on Peter's cheek that I've ever seen from a heterosexual man IN MY LIFE. Don't care if they're Italian, y'all -- Pasdar's totally fucking with us. A kiss on the forehead? Good. A kiss on the cheek that is about a millimeter from Milo's mouth? Better. And fucking hilarious. Also? He rasps, "I love you, man" before he walks off. Hee. Hee hee hee hee hee. That shit better show up in a series of outtakes on the Heroes DVDs, yo. Like, I want a whole section devoted to the BroYay. I seriously think that Pasdar and Venti sit around their trailers concocting ways to bring more BroYay into their scenes. I could not love them more if they were covered in cotton candy.
Domestic Disturbances Domicile. With Niki gone, D.L. has had to take over the care and feeding of Micah. Unfortunately, his idea of "care and feeding" amounts to "slapping refrigerated peanut butter all over white bread and smacking it down on a plate with a bunch of roughed-up apples." Micah ribs his dad about his lack of culinary skills and they enjoy some silly time. That is until D.L. notices that Micah has a bruise on his forehead. He's been fighting at school because some kid called Niki a psycho killer. Well, she kind of is, but that's still rude. Instead of lecturing Micah on the joys of not fighting back against schoolyard bullies, D.L. just assures his son that, even though it's tough right now with Niki gone, they're going to make it on their own.
There's a knock at the door and D.L. goes to answer it. A guy in a suit with a fat head is there and he introduces himself as "Aaron Malski" and says that D.L. should have been expecting him. "I take it you have it here?" asks Malski, which is an awesome name for what I'm assuming is a dirty, scummy, evil piece of rat turd like this guy. D.L. nods Malski inside and shuts the door. (By the way, closed captioning is spelling this guys name this way; elsewhere on the Interwebs, it seems to be spelled "Aron Malsky." Either way, it's an awesomely greasy name.)
Once inside the house, D.L. asks if the charges against him have been dropped and Malski informs him that Niki's confession took care of that. Basically, Hawkins is now a free man. Malski reaches out for a case that's in D.L.'s hand. He hands it over without hesitating. Malski goes to leave and D.L. says, "So that's it? Linderman leaves me and my family alone?" "Oh, I wouldn't bank on that, no," smarms Malski. D.L.'s all, but you got back your two million! That was the deal! "There is no deal, Mr. Hawkins," says Malski, "unless Mr. Linderman says there's a deal. You took something of his. And he reserves the right to let you make that up to him. Believe me. You'll be the first to find out when he chooses to call in that debt. You have a nice day now." He leaves and D.L. punches the wall in frustration.
Samurai Sword Museum. Hiro is telling the story of the samurai the sword belonged to. His name was Takezo Kensei, and Hiro's father used to tell him stories about the man before bed. Kensei was a wild savage with extraordinary powers who was feared by all of Japan. One day, he found a sacred sword frozen in the snow. "From the moment Kensei held it," says Hiro, "it focused all his strength. He said the sword let him control his power. And so he became a great leader. A hero." Hmm. Wonder if there's any parallel storytelling going on here?
Ando gets a weird look on his face and runs back to the sword on display. He points out the symbol on the hilt, which looks remarkably like the infamous "S" symbol from this show. Ando says that he recognizes the characters that make up the symbol and that they stand for "great talent" and "godsend". Hiro decides that he's just like Kensei and that he needs the sword to control his powers. "It's my sacred object," he says. "With it, I can control my powers and fulfill my destiny." Ando's all, uh, and what might you mean by this? Hiro's all, why, I mean we take it, my incredulous friend! Ando's all, what's this WE shit, Kemosabe?
Brooklyn. Home of Indian Quest-Seekers Who Wear Hideous Scarves. The Scarf of Fugly Colors isn't in this scene, but that doesn't mean it isn't lurking, just waiting to pounce on Mohinder's innocent, unsuspecting neck. I think it'd be a smart idea for him to carry around some sort of weapon in order to thwart its wooly attack. Mohinder's entertaining a man who may or may not be an actual F.B.I. agent. They're discussing The List and how grateful Mohinder is that the F.B.I. has finally decided to take it seriously. Due to the multiple deaths associated with The List, the F.B.I. almost decided to focus on Mohinder as a possible suspect, but he has proof that he was in India at the time of some of the murders.
Mohinder tells the agent that all the people on The List share a unique genetic marker that his father was able to map and track using the Human Genome Project. The F.B.I. agent is all, yeah-huh. Seriously. He's not even listening. That's why I thought he was either just giving lip service to Mohinder (dirty!) or wasn't F.B.I. at all. Mohinder says that he's been trying to track these people down in order to warn them about Sylar. The agent scoffs openly at Mohinder's declarations and says that they ran Sylar's name through their system and didn't get any hits. But they did follow up on another name that was on The List: Sara Ellis. He holds up a picture of her and, lo and behold, it's actually Eden, only with long hair.
Mohinder's mildly shocked and tells the agent that he knows Sarah as Eden McCain and that she lives across the hall. The agent informs him that, seeing as they just fished Eden McCain's body out of a Canadian lake, she's not living anywhere but the morgue at the present moment. She had a bullet to the brain and was classified as a suicide, which, really, she kind of was. Now Mohinder's full-on shocked. He sits on the desk and, when the agent asks if Eden was his friend, he responds that he doesn't know what she was.
Primatech Paper. Bennett's chatting up Bitchy McFussyPants. He hands her a card and she bitch-walks over to Audrey and Matt. Matt immediately pulls out a shovel and starts digging his own damn grave, spitting out that Sylar most definitely IS in this building and Bennett IS hiding him and maybe, just maybe, THERE'S A HIDDEN ROOM SOMEWHERE. Bitchy McFussyPants is all, uh, maybe, just maybe, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE EATEN AN ANT FARM FOR BREAKFAST, CRAZYBOOTS. "And maybe I can whistle the Star-Spangled Banner outta my ass," says Bitchy. Heh. She presents a tape with footage of Matt sitting outside Primatech on a two-week-long stakeout. Matt continues blathering on about how Bennett abducted him and Sprague and Bitchy's all, ooooh, you mean the guy with radioactive hands? Dude. Quit while you're behind, okay?
She benches Audrey and stomps off. Audrey goes to stomp off herself, but Matt's all, wait, where ya goin'?! Audrey's all, I can't believe that I thought you could hear peoples thoughts! Um, he heard YOUR thoughts, Audrey, remember? She tells him that she's going to get back to reality, and she suggests that he do the same. "Go home, Matt," she says. "We're done." Matt immediately turns and launches himself into Bennett, throwing the man up against some large boxes. He threatens Bennett with a promise of not giving up until he finds out where the hell Sylar is and what Bennett is up to. "Good luck with that," smirks Bennett, walking off. Hee.
Odessa High. Claire approaches Zach over by the bike rack, eliciting a smart-ass remark from him about how she's talking to him in public and how that might ruin her rep. He goes on to apologize about Jackie, saying he knows that they were best friends. Claire says she discovered that someone else was really her best friend. He asks her what happened at homecoming, and she says she can't remember, eliciting this response from him: "Yeah, uh, that's funny. I can't remember... must be something in the water, huh?" Claire tells him to look at her and then asks if he feels like they could ever be friends. He says they wouldn't play well together.
Cut to Niki, meeting with her court-appointed public defender. He's telling her that her outbursts aren't really helping. Niki says she's not fond of them either and she just wants to do her time in peace. Her lawyer's like, yeah, about that. See, the D.A. is gonna seek the death penalty. This little tidbit of information starts to throw Niki into a tizzy, and we all know what happens to Tizzy Niki, don't we? That's right. The lawyer tells her that the D.A. might ease off if she gives up the location of the two million and Niki weepingly tells him that she doesn't know anything about that. The camera pans past the lawyer's head and, when it comes out the other side, Niki is now Jessica. "Who are you trying to fool?" she asks. "You know exactly where it is." The lawyer's like, uh, you talkin' to me? "He's right, Niki," says Jessica. "We should tell them." "Stop it!" hisses Niki, reappearing. "Don't pay any attention to her!" "Pay attention to... who?" asks the lawyer. "God, who am I gonna have to screw to get outta this place?" says Jessica. "I said stop it!" whines Niki. "Aaaaaaaaarmageddon!" shouts Sybil.
The attorney's all, uh, what the hell is this? "What's it look like, dipstick?" snaps Jessica. "What, you're goin' psych on me?" says the lawyer. "If that's what it takes," says Jessica. He says that multiple personality disorders are a hard sell, but Jessica doesn't give a shit. She wants him to get a psychiatrist in to see her but quick. She stares him down until Niki reappears and starts gibbering about how she's not crazy. Oh, but she so very much IS. The lawyer panics and leaves as Niki sits there looking lonely and all by her crazy self.
Samurai Sword Museum. Hiro and Ando quite obviously ramble around the sword in an attempt to see how easy it would be to steal it. Not easy at all, as it turns out. They pass a security guard who looks at them suspiciously. "Which way gift store?" asks Hiro in fakely broken Engrish. The guard points the way and Hiro performs a perfect stereotypical Japanese tourist bow accompanied by a "Fank Ru." Hee. They stop and look at the sword again and Hiro decides that he has to somehow get that sword, no matter what. Looks like he's going to have to use his special powers. Unfortunately, his powers are rather weak at the moment, so this time, when he makes his stone-passing face, instead of stopping time altogether, he can only manage to slow it down a whole hell of a lot. "Good enough," he shrugs. Heh.
Hiro opens up the glass cabinet holding the sword and the alarm immediately goes off. But, since everyone's moving in slow-mo, they can't react quickly. It's like they're moving through molasses. He takes the sword and runs through the museum, coming up against a huge life-sized model of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The positioning of he and the dinosaur almost exactly mimics that of the painting Isaac did at the end of the last episode. So Hiro never actually meets a dinosaur, then. Thank god. If that'd happened, I would have knocked on Kring's door and delivered a camel poo pie to his face. Don't think I wouldn't do it, either. I think you know me well enough by now to know I damn well would.
So, while he's standing in front of the dinosaur, Hiro blinks his eyes Jeannie-style, and time returns to normal. I think it's a little stupid for him to do this while still inside the museum and I probably would have waited until I'd gotten OUTSIDE to flick the switch, but who knows what the rules are that govern time-bending? Maybe you have to be within a five foot radius of the area where the initial time-bending incident occurred or something. At any rate, Ando and everyone else "come to" and Ando immediately realizes that the sword is gone and he makes tracks for the outside world. Once there, he meets up with Hiro, who's catching his breath on the pavement. Hiro makes some aggrandizing speech about how Ando should never fail to trust him again and how he's going to be in control of his powers now and how their life of legend now begins. And then he pulls out the sword and it's just a wooden replica. The real sword? Belongs to Linderman. Yeah. He's not Professor Xavier or anything.
Hiro and Ando head back into the museum to put the sword back as Simone leads Nathan into Isaac's studio. She's saying something about how Isaac was obsessed with the idea that the world was going to end via a bomb exploding in New York. Nathan notices the apocalypto-art on the floor for, like, the first time, and comments on it. Simone says that Isaac left a few weeks ago and that someone came and took his paintings, but then she looks around and sees that his paintings have all been returned. And, for that matter, so has Isaac. He appears across the room, toweling off his wet hair. And I would just like to say for the record that I for one am extremely thankful to whoever it was who decided that Isaac should enter this scene shirtless. Whoever you are, I think I love you.
Simone's stunned that Isaac is not only back, but that he appears to be clean and sober. And hot. He kisses her on the cheek and they share a moment and Nathan's all, yeah, I think I'm just gonna, uh, go over here and stare at some paint for a minute. Heh. Isaac tells Simone that he was in a clinic and woke up in Texas, clean as a whistle. He says that he can paint without the drugs. Simone's glad for him. "I'm only alive because of you, Simone," he says. "I still love you." Aw. Simone looks affected by his declaration, but Nathan interrupts the moment by mentioning a painting that he's looking at. It's the Exploding Man painting that Isaac painted while in "rehab". "How did you know about this?" asks Nathan. "Did you talk to my brother Peter?" Isaac says he painted what he saw, and Nathan informs him that Peter's last words before he collapsed were that he was the cause of the explosion. "Look, I may not get everything," says Nathan. "And that's fine. But this... I mean, this... these things can't be connected. The world doesn't work like this." At that precise moment, a hearty "Mystery Sock!" is heard from the studio entrance. "Bad news," says Hiro, entering the studio. "Sword not there! It was replica. Original owned by man named Linderman." Ando throws a bemused wave at everyone as Nathan peeks out from behind a painting. "Did he say 'Linderman'?" Nathan sees Hiro, Hiro sees Nathan, and suddenly, Hiro shouts, "FLYING MAN!" Nathan looks like, oh, shit. Heeeeeee.
I want to see 300 so bad it's almost painful. Does that look like some seriously awesome shit or WHAT?
Odessa, Land of Mysteriously Placed Mountains That Appear Nowhere Else in Texas. Or, as Sendhil Ramamurthy said in the episode commentary, "There are no mountains in Odessa!" Hee. By the way, if you haven't seen the episode commentary, I urge you to see it immediately. Sendhil, Leonard, and especially Jack are fucking hilarious in it. Oh, and Sendhil wears a pair of eyeglasses that will make you love him in a whole new way.
Ahem.
So, Claire's wandering around the scene of her previously documented suicides, wondering aloud, "Save the cheerleader, save the world -- what does that even MEAN?" Oh, I feel you, sister. She's talking to Haitian Sensation, asking him if she's been saved or if she still needs saving. He says she's been saved for the time being. She wants to talk to Peter and he says that she's not supposed to remember Peter. He's being watched, so if Claire tries to contact him, Bennett will know. Claire says that she needs something to hang onto because nothing in her life has been real, including her biological parents who, she learns, work for her father, just like Haitian Sensation. "Everything has been a lie," she says. "The only person I could trust was Zach, and you took him from me." Haitian Sensation says that was Bennett's doing, not his. Well, that's kind of like saying guns don't kill people, people kill people. I think the gun helps, you know? Bennett ordered Haitian Sensation to erase Zach's mind, but Haitian Sensation actually DID the erasing.
Claire wants Zach to have his memories back so that she's not alone. He says that she's not alone. But he can't give Zach back his memories. "It's not how my gift works," he says. "Your gift? Is that what you call it?" she says. He asks what she calls it. "My own private freak show," she says. "What you can do," he says, "what I can do, that is God. Respect it accordingly." He touches her on the shoulder and then leaves. Claire looks around her and realizes where she is and seems to get an idea.
Superstudio of Superheroes. Hiro is explaining to Nathan about the bomb and how it'll make everything go "poof!" "Your English is a lot better," Nathan observes dryly. "I met a waitress in Texas," says Hiro. "She teach me many things." "Good for you," says Nathan, clearly meaning more than just the better English thing. Heh. Hiro kind of smiles, acknowledging Nathan's good wishes. "So, uh, look, I can't believe I'm about to say this," says Nathan, "but... you--you... teleported here... back from the future?" Nathan's visibly pained at having to speak these words out loud. Heh. Hiro confirms that his power let him come back here so he could stop the bomb. "Right," says Nathan. "Because, 'you hero'." "You will help too," says Hiro. "Me?" says Nathan. "What makes you so sure?" "You Flying Man! WHOOOOSH!" says Hiro, making his shooting-off-into-the-sky gesture. "Would you keep it down?" says Nathan under his breath. "... whooooosh... " says Hiro, making a smaller version of the gesture. Hee hee hee. Nathan asks Hiro if he knows what it is that makes the bomb go off. "Don't know," says Hiro. "Probably bad guy?" "Bad guy?" says Nathan. "Yes," says Hiro. "Like birrann." Nathan: "What's that?" Hiro: "Birrann." Nathan: "Billan?" Hiro: "Beeeerrann." Nathan: "Villain." Hiro: "Vee." Nathan: "V." Hiro: "Veeeee-yun."
That sound you hear is me actually falling off my couch and losing a lung or two with convulsive laughter. The rumor is that Pasdar and Masi improvised this whole scene and I totally believe it. What I don't believe is that there aren't several minutes of outtakes of the two of them just fucking losing it while shooting. Again, DVD? Better be on there.
Nathan equates Hiro's "villain" remark with the Exploding Man painting. They walk over to take a look. "You think a human being can actually cause an explosion?" asks Nathan. Hiro thinks that since he has power and Nathan has power, possibly this Exploding Man has power too, and they must stop him. "I think I can help," whispers Nathan. We zoom in on the painting... and cut to a Unabomber shack in the middle of the Nevada desert. Bright flashes of light explode from the windows. Inside, Ted "Flamer" Sprague is sitting at a table, attempting to control his radioactive hands. It's not going terribly well. All he seems to be able to do is create balls of fire in each of his hands but they disappear almost as quickly as they appear.
Odessa. Claire's leading Zach to Suicide Central. ["Can I just say how funny it is that the show's method of turning Zach straight seems to have been to make him look really, really dirty. Like, we get it, you like chicks now. Brush your teeth." -- Joe R] She's trying to get him to remember when they visited this place before, but he thinks she's fucking with him. She tells him to keep the camera on her no matter what. He asks why she doesn't just use a tripod, and she says it's because she can't do this alone, and that he knows how to keep a secret. That is, he did, until he forgot what the secret was. "When we were 'best friends'?" he snarks. Claire just sighs and asks if he's ready. He stops her. "Claire, I'm sure you... told me this before, but, um, why are we videotaping this?" "Actually," she says, "I didn't tell you that before. The first time I did this, I did it to show my parents. My real parents. I wanted them to see what I was. I thought they could help me understand. But I don't think I'm ever gonna meet them. They not even be alive anymore." Now, she wants to tape it for herself, so she never forgets what she is, no matter what happens to her. She smiles. "Look, just don't freak out, okay?" "I won't," he says. "You said that last time," she calls over her shoulder.
Claire makes the climb to the top of the structure and tells him to keep the camera on her. Suddenly, Zach realizes what she's doing as she climbs over the edge of a railing and asks her what the hell she's doing. Claire just jumps to her death as Zach watches, stunned. He immediately runs over to her, but she's already up before he gets there. She grunts as she shoves several of her bones back into her body. Zach tapes everything. "This is Claire Bennett, and as far as you know, that was attempt number one." Awwwwww yeah. She's got her buddy back! Yay!
Sybil Dorset Memorial Prison. D.L. and Micah are visiting Niki. She doesn't know how much longer she's going to be in there because they're sending her to the psych ward for evaluation. "She's here," says Niki. "Jessica. She came out. She tried to escape. She hurt one of the guards." D.L. says that maybe a shrink can help her deal with Jessica. Niki swears that Jessica isn't just in her head, she's real. D.L. reaches through the glass to hold her hand, saying that he should never have let her get herself thrown into prison. Micah gets on the phone and he says he wants her to come home. She says she can't and hopes that, one day, he'll understand why.
Niki then turns and starts begging the guard to let her hold her son, which, um, has she never seen ANY movie ever set in prison? No hugging allowed! But she keeps begging anyway, and the guard's like, yeah, nutbar, whatevs, and Niki gets up in order to continue pleading her case and the guard's like, BACK UP, JEEVES, and Niki's all, pleeeeease, and the guard's all, TASTE MY NIGHTSTICK, and then WHAM! He brings the stick down, Niki stops it in mid-swing and breaks it in half with a quick, painless snap. And she looks pretty damn surprised about it as well. She immediately drops the two pieces and the guards move on her and slam her up against the glass and I am so damn happy that Niki finally got a clue that her super-strength don't just belong to Jessica.
Fugly Scarf Land. Mohinder is just returning to the apartment. The Scarf of Fugly Colors is plotting out its plan of attack from a coat closet across the room. Mohinder looks at the lizard cage and wonders aloud what Eden fed Mohinder the Lizard. "They eat crickets," says Bennett from the shadows. "Lots of crickets." "You," says Mohinder, rather stupidly, if I do say so myself. Bennett appears to have a gun, so Mohinder asks if he's come to add him to The Dead List. Bennett's all, that really depends -- I'd like to talk about Eden. See, she worked for me and she was a good person. Mohinder's all, sure -- all spies are good people; they're just misunderstood! Bennett claims that Eden cared about Mohinder, maybe a bit too much. "She was... special," he says. "She had an ability?" asks Mohinder. "What was it?" The second question is acceptable. The first is not. Because OF COURSE she has an ability, you jackass. She's ON THE LIST. Lord.
Bennett just says that Eden used her ability wisely, unlike other people on The List. He says that not everyone who has special powers deserves them. Mohinder's like, uh, way to sit up on your high horse and judge, homie. He asks just who the hell Bennett is and Bennet just says that he made a mistake by not coming to Mohinder sooner. He thinks they need to help each other. Mohinder's like, dude? You've been spying on me for WEEKS. Fuck you and the horn-rimmed glasses you rode in on. Mohinder asks why on earth he would help Bennett and there's a pause. "You need me, don't you?" says Mohinder. "My father, he knew more than you do." "From what we could observe, yes," says Bennett. "Well, if you've been watching, then you know my father's formula doesn't work," says Mohinder.
Bennett doesn't give a crap about the formula -- he wants The List. "Who's on that list is of grave importance," says Bennett. "You've come for it?" asks Mohinder. "You want to find them?" "Why do you seem so worried?" asks Bennett calmly. "Are you on The List?" Mohinder doesn't answer. "You've no doubt realized that things can go terribly wrong with these abilities," Bennett continues. "If you work with me, we can control that." "If and when I do figure out this List," says Mohinder, "the first thing I'm going to do is warn these people. About you." He's framed rather weirdly from the point of view of the gun on the table, but I think the director was going for a kind of comic book angle, so I'll let it ride. It looks fuzzy and strange, but if it were illustrated, maybe it'd look cooler? I don't know.
"Together we could actually make a difference," says Bennett. "Sorry, not interested," grits Mohinder. Bennett grabs his gun and gets up. Instead of shooting him, though, Bennett just holsters his weapon and hands Mohinder his business card, telling him to contact him when he's changed his mind. He leaves, and Mohinder stares down the card that launched a million browsers.
Mindreader Mansion. Oh, yawn. Loves me some Greg Grunberg, but hates me some of this storyline. Matt enters and sees his wife's bag sitting on the table. She says that she took out the suitcase this morning, but she hasn't packed it yet. They look at each other. She says she knows they're in trouble and that most of it is her fault and he says that they need to start being completely honest with each other. She agrees. And then... Matt tells her he can read minds. What this has to do with their marriage or making it work or life in general, I have NO idea. Mrs. Matt is all, uh... I want to fix our marriage and you're talking about fucking mind-reading? Greaaaaat. He sits her down and tells her to think of a number between one and a million. She laughs but appears to think about it. We don't get to see the result of this interaction because we cut to...
... Peter, lying in his hospital bed. He's doing some serious R.E.M. acting here. We head back to the Future Dream. We get flashes of everything again, but Peter's no longer wearing the trench coat he was wearing in the original dream and he looks a little more aware of what's going on around him. We catch glimpses of Christopher Eccleston here and there. Peter sees a downed bike in the middle of the street and then immediately we switch to the Petrelli campaign headquarters sign. Nathan's exiting his building. More flashes of the dream. I'm not recapping all of it because we'll be here all night. I'm sure someone much more industrious than I has already screen-capped every last shot and analyzed it for hours on end. We get a longer glimpse of Christopher Eccleston, laughing his merry-bearded head off at Peter or something else. Peter's definitely got the gift for future-viewing because everything he's seeing about Christopher Eccleston pretty much happens here in a few minutes.
Peter's hands start glowing and he says, "I took his power, Nathan!" Nathan's standing in front of him. "I can't control it!" "Let me help you, Peter," Nathan says calmly. "You can't!" says Peter. "I'm not leaving you," says Nathan. Peter starts the exploding process and screams, just like he always does, only this time, we see the results of the explosion. Namely, Nathan, Simone, and all of New York blowing apart like leaves. Back in the real world, Peter wakes with a blood-curdling scream.
After the break, Nathan shows up in the hospital room, only to find that Peter's bed is completely abandoned. He asks Mama Petrelli where the hell his brother is, and she just says that he woke up, raved for a bit, and then just up and left. "You just let him leave?" asks Nathan. "No, I did not just let him leave!" she says angrily. "And when I see him, I will kill him." Heh. Nathan tells her to go home and get some rest and says that he'll take care of it.
Superstudio of Superheroes. Simone's chatting with Hiro about how he's in Isaac's comic book. "I'm just like Mr. Isaac draw me," says Hiro, "except my face not so round." Heh. Simone just smiles and gets this kind of lightly hysterical tone to her voice. "Okay, uh, I give up! The world is insane, I'm not gonna keep fighting it. You can paint the future!" She looks at Isaac and then at Hiro. "And he needs a sword!" Hee. She goes on to say that Linderman's a client of hers and that she can take them to see him so they can get the sword. She rolls up several of Isaac's paintings and shoves them into a tube, handing it over to Hiro. The second it's in his hands, he (and we) realize that this is the very tube he put his sword into during the Blue Subway sequence with Peter.
Cut to Peter, walking along a New York street while talking on his cell. He's trying to get a flight into the Nevada desert because "that's where they did all those nuclear bomb tests." Maybe he's trying to figure out how to control his potential radioactive power or something. In a nice bit of continuity, Peter still looks like hollowed-out crap. He's on the verge of settling with flying into Las Vegas when he looks up and sees Christopher Eccleston in the distance, boldly stealing cash right out of a woman's wallet. We get several flashes back to Peter's Future Dream, as if we're too addled to remember something we saw not five fucking minutes ago.
Peter gives chase to Christopher Eccleston, watching as the guy just picks up someone's cell phone and pockets it. Peter catches up with him, grabs him on the arm and demands to know what the hell he's doing. With furious eyes, Christopher Eccleston turns around and incredulously says, "You can see me." "You--" is all Peter manages before Christopher Eccleston grabs him and slams him up against a pole (dirty!). "Nobody sees me!" shouts Christopher Eccleston. "Do ya hear me?" He wraps his hands around Peter's throat and they thrash it out, causing confusion amongst the nearby vendors, who are not only seeing their shit tossed around by... no one, but are also hearing voices from people who... don't seem to be there.
"I'm invisible!" shouts Christopher Eccleston. Just then, both Christopher Eccleston and Peter realize that it's not just The Invisible Man who appears to be invisible. Hooray for Peter the Repeater!
God. Moyawnder's damn voiceover. Blah. Although, it's a damn sight shorter than it usually is, so let's cross our fingers for this trend to continue. He says that in the beginning there was discovery, a confusion of elements, a first snowfall of impossible change. We see Niki in a straightjacket, getting drugged in the middle of a padded room. Moyawnder: "Old lives undone, left behind." Bennett stares at the whacked-out Sylar through the glass. Moyawnder: "Strange faces made familiar. New nightmares to challenge sleep." Sylar slowly blinks at his new friend, Binky Hisserton Roachly the Third. Moyawnder: "New friends to feel safe with." Claire and Zach, friends again, walk away from the Suicide Scene. Moyawnder keeps talking, but I'm seriously falling asleep, so I'll just say that while he blah blahs, Hiro slings his new sword case across his shoulders and D.L. reassures his son that his mother's going to be fine. "You'd tell me the truth, right?" asks Micah. No, son. No, he wouldn't. We get a final glimpse of Niki, rocking her head back and forth, clearly upset. "They're here," says Moyawnder. "And the earth thunders underfoot." "Oh, God... " says Niki. "Please help me." She blinks, and out comes Jessica. "Who needs God when you've got me?"
Awesome.
on Heroes: Peter and Christopher Eccelston join forces, Micah has a secret, and Claire calls her real mother.