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Claude and Peter are well on their way to becoming a dynamic duo, with Peter finally learning how to master some control over his powers. Jessica gets coaxed out of retirement by her shrink and winds up tasering the poor woman within an inch of her life. Sylar traps Bennet in his cell and heads off to pay a visit to Claire and Mr. Muggles. Simone asks Isaac to look for Peter during his psychic episodes. Isaac's agrees because he wants to get to Peter before he has a chance to explode all over New York.
Claire and Zach take a secret road trip to visit her real mother in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere, and mother and daughter have a tearful reunion. Hiro's dad chastises him for his side trip into fantasyland and Hiro just responds by spilling all the beans about the painting and Linderman and the Sword of Destiny. Hiro's dad shows what he thinks of this scenario by ripping the painting apart. Claude convinces Peter that the way to control his power is to stop thinking of the people in his life and start looking out for number one.
Sylar breaks into the Bennet household and strikes up a friendship with Mr. Muggles and Mrs. Bennet. The shit hits the fan when Mrs. Bennet starts getting suspicious of him. He uses his telekinesis to fling her around and seems about to finish the job when HRG busts in and shoots him a hell of a lot. He gets away, unfortunately. Claire shows her mom her gift of regeneration, and her mom responds by sharing her own gift.
Hiro very cleverly works it so that his sister gains his father's respect and, possibly, a new position of power at the family firm. Linderman's greasy lawyer gets Niki released from her padded prison. Simone and Isaac share a romantic moment on the Magical Rooftop of Superheroes as Peter watches with Claude at his side. Shortly thereafter, Claude shoves him off the roof in order to make him fly, but Peter just crashes into a parked cab. And promptly channels his Claire power and regenerates. Niki's locked up for good behind a mirror and Jessica's looking to have a good time, all of the time.
And Claire's daddy? It's Nathan, y'all. IT'S NATHAN. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Heroes: Peter roped Claude into helping him, Niki refused to channel Jessica, Micah and D.L. fell on tough times because D.L. thinks internet porn is beneath him, Claire tracked down her real mommy in Kermit, Texas, Micah used his techno-superpower to steal a bunch of cash from an ATM, Hiro was kidnapped by his own father (who turned out to be Sulu from Star Trek), and Sylar turned the tables on HRG while sporting the latest in white plastic brain shunts or something. That boy has some major issues, y'all, the least of which is a damn tube sticking out of his skull.
Streets of New York. Peter's tagging along as Claude randomly knocks into people and steals their shit. Apparently, Claude's not only invisible, everything he touches turns immediately invisible as well, because he grabs a scarf off someone's neck and instead of the scarf floating through the air, it just disappears. As does the hot pretzel he nips from a cart. Not so sure how that whole thing works, really. You're invisible, so your chemical makeup has to make you, like, see-through, right? So how do you, just by touching, make shit vanish? I mean, the pretzel doesn't have a superpower, does it? How about the scarf? So, like, if Claude touched a building, would it disappear? Ouch. I've already given myself a headache, and we're only thirty seconds into the show. I think I need to follow my instincts on this one and just ignore the incongruity of Claude's magically transferable invisibility powers and concentrate more on how damn cute both of these actors are.
Ah. I'm feeling better already.
Peter fails to see how petty thievery is going to help him control his gift. Claude thinks Peter is an idiot. He's like, dude? Right now, your power is just a reflex. It's like a dog's trick. What, you wanna be a poodle? Arf. Arf. Peter's all, uh, is insulting me really gonna help in this situation? We're really not getting anywhere. I laugh out loud every time at Milo's delivery of the insult line. He's totally irritated with Claude and he's getting that petulant "I just want my damn candy, already!" sound to his voice. It's hilarious. Also hilarious is Christopher Eccleston using his own Lancashire accent; it's very Manchester United. Which is kind of distracting, actually, because now I have an overwhelming desire to see if ESPN2 is showing any matches soon. DUDES. Manchester United's playing Reading on February 17th! If you'll excuse me, I have to find a pub in New York that'll be showing that match...
Why do I feel like drinking a pint of Boddington's and shouting "Score!" all of a sudden?
But I digress. Back to Claude and Peter. Claude explains to Peter that if he wants to stop himself from blowing up, he's going to have to figure out how to harness his randomly appearing powers. He lists some of the powers Peter's already exhibited (flying, invisibility, mind-reading) and Peter comments that all those powers put him in a coma for two weeks. Claude says that Peter's body doesn't know what to do with all the powers he's copied; they've gotten jumbled, like a bunch of "file cards knocking around a shoebox." Only in Peter's case, said cards are doused in plutonium and are piling up to a critical mass. "Now, I'm gonna to teach you how to pull 'em out, one at a time," says Claude with a smile. Peter wonders if that'll be possible. Claude certainly hopes so. "time you shut down, might not be just a coma," he says. "Might be the day you melt down." Interesting theory. I was always assuming that Peter was stealing Ted's power by accident and then going nuclear. Never occurred to me that he might be blowing up simply because he's going into power overload like an over-used motherboard without a proper cooling fan.
Oh my god, I'm such a geek.
After Claude announces what he's going to teach Peter, Peter requests that they get to "today's lesson." Claude agrees, saying that he'd like to see if Peter can access his borrowed powers without the superhero source hanging around. "You think I can do that alone?" asks Peter. "We're about to find out," says Claude, grabbing a woman's purse and placing it in Peter's hands. "Remember to breathe," he says as he walks away. Peter stands there with the purse as the woman Claude took it from realizes she's been mugged. She looks around for her bag, and when she turns back, Peter's materialized and he's remembered to breathe, but it's more of a "Holy shit, I'm in trouble!" breathing than an "I am calmly channeling my invisibility powers" breathing. Hee.
Prison of Multiple Personality Prisoners. Dr. Demento is attempting to hypnotize Niki via the usage of a metronome. The metronome is highly reflective, though, so I imagine this scenario isn't going to end well for the poor doctor. We know how Jessica feels about mirrors, don't we? Niki's not digging the idea of bringing Jessica out to play. She says, for the umpteenth goddamn time that Jessica is dangerous. Yes, we get it. Jessica's bad. You're good. Jessica kills people and has a penchant for swaggering. You whine a lot and spend hours panicking. Can we just cut to the part where you either disappear completely or learn how to control that bitch? Because this story is dragging on a bit long for my taste...
Niki tugs at her wrist straps, and the doctor assures her that they could hold an elephant to that chair and that, just because she's a shrink, doesn't mean she doesn't know how to wield a Taser gun. Jessica tosses six-foot-three men into walls like they're bags of cotton candy, Doc. I don't think a little Taser gun is going to be all that effective upon her, mmm-kay? Niki thought the goal was to get rid of Jessica, not bring her out. Dr. Demento corrects her, saying that the real goal is to have a unified whole, not two warring halves. Niki finally agrees to let the good doctor go to work on her problem, and she starts breathing calmly and watching the reflective metronome.
Niki quickly relaxes and tells a story of a piano at her childhood home. She says she couldn't play the piano at all, but Jessica could; and she played beautifully. Niki grows emotional as she says that she used to draw all over Jessica's sheet music with her crayons. "Jessica used to say... that I could turn Mozart into a monkey," she says through her tears. She looks down and when she looks up, she's Jessica. "I sure did," says Jessica. "Jessica," says Dr. Demento. "You shoulda listened to the little mouse," says Jessica, throwing her hands up and easily ripping her wrist chains off the table. The doctor gasps and reaches for the Taser, but Jessica just slaps her hand down on the doctor's hand and gives her a look like, "Bitch, please." Awesome. Ali Larter does a damn fine job switching between Niki and Jessica. Like, with the flick of an eyelid, you totally know which one she's playing. So cool. Yeah, her storyline is sucking the life out of my soul right now, but that doesn't mean the actress doesn't kick all kinds of ass.
Sylar's Cell of Shunts and Shadows. Bennet enters the cell and goes to examine the body under the sheet, just like he did last week. He pulls back the sheet, realizes it's not Sylar, spins around, and there's the man himself, looking all sorts of creepy. "How's Claire?" asks Sylar. Bennet's all, oh shit! Sylar waves his hand, and Bennet goes flying into the cell window. Bennet groans. Sylar calmly removes the white plastic thing in his head and says, "That was for the haircut." Heh. What the hell is that white plastic thing supposed to be, anyway? Shouldn't his brains start squirting out or something? Sylar takes Bennet's wallet out of his jacket and leaves the cell. Why he's not killing the man, I have NO idea. Maybe the idea of leaving him alive to know that Sylar's going to go murder his daughter is more enticing to this psychopath than actually murdering him. He's one sick puppy. Outside the cell window, Sylar picks through Bennet's wallet and finds his driver's license with his home address on it. He slaps it up against the glass and taunts Bennet with it. "You shouldn't have built such a good cage," he sneers. Bennet tells him to stay away from Claire, but Sylar's too busy walking out to pay him any mind. "Noooooo!" screams Bennet as the door shuts behind Sylar.
Superstudio of Superheroes. Simone's knocking at the door, and Isaac opens it, commenting that she didn't use her key. Simone's all, yeah, about that ke... . She wants to give it back to him because she doesn't think it's right that she should have it anymore, seeing as they're not still sleeping together. Isaac's all cleaned up, by the way, and all I really have to say about that is... rowrrrrrr. I mean, I liked him as a whacked-out drug addict too, but Santiago Cabrera is so damn pretty that it really was a shame to hide all that beauty beneath a grim heroin film. Isaac looks disappointed at Simone's return of the keys, but he allows her to come in and take a look at some of his new works. She rips a cloth off a large canvas before Isaac can stop her, and we see that it's Isaac's rendering of a devastated New York city, most likely after the Peter-bomb goes boom. Simone observes that the view of the city is from the roof of her father's building. She wonders why, when they had such good memories of that place, Isaac would paint something so horrid about it. Simone is a self-centered git. He paints the FUTURE, Simone. Remember? You know, the whole bomb-go-boom floorpocalypse? This ain't really about YOU, girlfriend.
Isaac just asks what she's looking for, and Simone says she can't find Peter and wants Isaac to help her. Isaac's like, uh, in case you've forgotten, you LEFT me for PETER. Not really interested in helping you track down your new booty call, bitch. "You finally believe I can paint the future," he says incredulously, "and you want to use it to find your new boyfriend?" He goes on to say that he actually has been trying to find Peter himself, but every time he tries to paint him, he winds up with nothing. Simone's like, why are you trying to find my new boyfriend? Are YOU trying to sleep with him too? Isaac's all, hell yeah! He's a hot piece of ass! Also? I think he's going to blow up at some point, and I'd really like to find him so I can maybe make that not happen.
Isaac says he still cares about her and that means that he wants her to stay the hell away from Peter. Simone's all, you're not the boss of me! Just because you're all clean and hot and probably smell like cinnamon doesn't mean you can tell me to stay away from my new lovah! She goes to leave, asking Isaac one last time to look for Peter. Dude, he just TOLD you he was looking for the damn boy! Let's assume he's going to KEEP ON looking for him! Isaac says he'll try to find Peter and then tells her to keep her key. She grabs it off the table and walks out. Isaac stares at the New York painting and wonders if he added himself and Simone to the painting, maybe making out or something, would Simone think that they should get back together and dump that stupid exploding Peter? He gets his paints ready, just in case inspiration should strike.
Odessa. Land of Angry Puffy Dogs. Mr. Muggles is sitting to Claire as she reads from her Book of Manatees. Mr. Muggles makes little growling noises. Mr. Muggles is my new favorite character. Claire is trying to convince her mother to let Zach and her drive to Lubbock to go to the aquarium there. Zach cautiously watches Mrs. Bennet to see if she's buying any of this. Wait -- is Zach wearing suspenders? Rainbow suspenders? ARE THOSE RAINBOW SUSPENDERS ZACH IS WEARING? What is he, Mork from Ork? Or maybe this is just Thomas Dekker's way of saying, "Fuck you, agents and handlers who didn't want Zach to be gay! You may have won the battle, but you have not won the war! P.S. These rainbow suspenders are FABULOUS." Upon closer inspection, I see that they are not, indeed, rainbow suspenders, but they are suspenders nonetheless, and they are far from fabulous.
Claire works over her mother but good, ending her plea with a deadpan, "The manatee is a very noble creature." Hee. The writers are getting all sorts of humor out of the poor manatee. Mrs. Bennet asks if Zach's car is in working order, and he says it is, and she gives them permission to drive to Lubbock. She tells them to be back in time for fajitas, and Claire giggles and hugs her mother as Mr. Muggles growls, "Back off, sister! The gravy train is MINE." Mrs. Bennet leaves the room, and Claire asks Zach if he has the directions to Kermit. He does. But he wonders what will happen if her mother wants proof of their aquarium visit. Claire hands him a brochure she picked up at the Motel 6 and some tickets that she printed off her computer. This is a very detail-oriented plan she's brewed up. She's quite clever, that Claire.
Empty Hangar of Less-than-Happy Father/Son Reunions. Daddy Hiro looks at the painting of Hiro with the dinosaur that Hiro and Ando are supposed to deliver to Linderman in Vegas. "Your father looks angry," says Ando. "My father always looks angry," says Hiro. "But your sister looks hot," says Ando. "You're a perv," says Hiro. "I know you are, but what am I?" says Ando. "I told you: you're a perv," says Hiro. "I know you are, but what am--" "Oh, shut up." Daddy Hiro lectures his son, bitching about how he took an unauthorized vacation to go gallivanting across the USA while gorging himself on hamburgers and waffles. "Waffles are very good," says Hiro, without a trace of sarcasm. "You would like them." "No, Hiro, I would not!" says his father. Oh, I don't know. Waffles can be delicious, Daddy Hiro. Slap some syrup or strawberries and whip cream on those babies and you're golden!
Daddy Hiro wants Baby Hiro to come home and go back to work. Hiro says he's on an important mission. Yeah, how 'bout you get BACK to that important mission, homes? Instead of running around looking for a stupid fucking samurai sword that probably has nothing at all to do with your damn powers, you could be flinging around in time and getting some shit DONE. Daddy Hiro's all, get your ass on a plane. Hiro's all, but I have to go to Vegas. Daddy Hiro's all, don't give a shit. Get your ass on a plane. Hiro's all, but cubicles suck! Daddy Hiro's all, did I mention the don't give a shit? Ass. On plane. Now. Hiro's all, uh, not so fond of the corporate thing, Dad. Daddy Hiro's all, okay, then, how would you feel about it if I made you an executive vice president? You're supposed to be the CEO someday, son! Start acting like it! Sister Hiro's like, damn, I hate that my father's old-school ways make it impossible for me to take over his company! Ando's all, your sister's hot!
Hiro says that he has a different destiny than CEO in mind for himself, and that destiny involves taking the dino painting to Vegas so that he can steal Takezo Kensei's sword, then use his powers to stop a bomb from blowing up New York. Daddy Hiro's like, son, did you force-feed yourself a jar full of apeshit this morning? And what's this crap about Kensei's sword? Those were just stories I told you to get you to shut the hell up about Donkey Kong when you were a little kid! Hiro's all, Dad, I can totally bend space and time -- I just need that stupid sword to do it! Daddy Hiro's all, here's what I think of your stupid-ass destiny! And he rips the dino painting into quarters and throws them on the ground in a huff. "We're going home!" he snaps. Hiro looks sad.
Cut to Niki, passed out on the floor of the interview room, the room around her in shambles. A gaggle of guards storm in as she wakes up. She's totally confused as to what's going on until they grab her and she sees Dr. Demento on the floor in the corner with a couple dozen Taser burns in her back. She's not dead, but she's in a bad way. Niki freaks the fuck out and demands to be taken back to her cell. The guards are all, uh, DUH. And then they knock her out.
Commercials. Norbit looks like a really stupid movie. Know what else is stupid? Releasing said stupid movie BEFORE the Oscars. Hi, Eddie Murphy? Here endeth your "comeback," dude. You can kiss that little gold statue goodbye. Because once the Academy voters have seen that poster where you're both Norbit AND the big scary fat black lady, they're going to wonder what the fuck they were thinking by nominating you in the first place. Nice going, Dr. Doostupid.
New York. Peter and Claude are walking down a busy street. Claude's laughing his ass off as Peter bitches at him about almost getting arrested. "A little more focus and you'd have some cash and fresh lipstick," chortles Claude. Hee. He's getting all the best lines in this episode. Claude reminds Peter that he never said it'd be easy; in fact, he distinctly remembers telling Peter that it'd be "crap." Heh. "Hey, you've been doing this for fifteen years," pouts Peter. "Cut me a little slack on trying to do it for five minutes." Claude assures him that he'll learn, and they just have to find out what's holding him back. Peter says that the cops have his address, so he's pretty sure Nathan's going to kill him before he has a chance to explode. "You worry a lot about your people, don't you?" observes Claude. "Your friends, your mother, your brother. No wonder your head's all clogged. You're still sunk under." Peter's like, the what? Speak ENGLISH. Claude says that Peter's suffering beneath the weight of all his personal attachments. "All these people who feed you biscuits and pat your head and tell you you're not fit for the outdoors," Claude quips. Hee.
He says that Peter still sees himself through everyone else's eyes, and Peter argues, rather unconvincingly, that he doesn't. Claude says that he'll bet him twenty bucks that Papa Petrelli never thought much of him either. Peter just turns and walks away, totally embarrassed. Claude laughs and follows after him, saying that they have to get all "these people" out of Peter's head. Peter doesn't want to get the people out; they're his family. He can't just cut them out. "Peter can't use his powers without someone holding his hands," snits Claude. They've stopped in front of a wall with Nathan's congressional bid posters all over it. "How can you not punch that face every time you see it?" says Claude. Heh. You can punch it, Claude. It'd rather lick it, thanks. Peter says his brother isn't "like that," and Claude says he totally is, and Peter says he doesn't know him, and this is starting to sound a little like an abused girlfriend trying to defend her jaw-breaking boyfriend.
Claude declares that he doesn't need to know Nathan to know that he's a bad person. "I spend a lot of time moving around people's homes, their bedrooms. You get to know people if you see them when they think they're alone. You see them for what they truly are: selfish, deceitful... and gassy." HA! Peter thinks Claude is full of shit and not a little bitter. Claude thinks Peter is a mama's boy who needs to be aware of one thing and one thing only: people suck. "Not all of them," says Peter with a blush. "Oh, riiiiight," says Claude sarcastically. "There's a girl." Peter says she's not like the "rest of them" and Claude says, "Everyone's like the rest. That's why they're the rest." Hee. I'm serious. All the best lines. Peter just stares at Claude who finally says that they should go check out what Simone's doing right this minute so that Peter can clear his head. Peter thinks that they can spy on Simone all they want, they'll still never find any dirt on her because she's a perfect person with eyes the color of china blue teacups. Claude's like, yeah wotevah. Let's go watch Simone make out with Isaac, you fool.
We fade out on the two of them standing in front of a couple of buildings as we fade in on the same buildings in one of Isaac's paintings, only without Peter and Claude standing in front of them. Isaac's future-painting and going through canvases like they're growing on trees. Boy needs to invest in a damn sketchpad already. Canvases are expensive, y'all. Isaac engages in his own version of a Food Flurry, only with paint, and he just keeps racking up the artwork until the Superstudio is riddled with color-filled canvases. His Cloudy Eyes of Future Visions clear up, and he's left staring at a painting of a yellow cab that appears to be glowing from within. He flips through his other canvases and comes across one that holds his attention as we cut to...
... Hiro and Ando trying to assemble the ripped painting quarters on a table. Ando observes that this is not the best of situations and asks Hiro what they're going to do. "Did you put on cologne?" Hiro asks. Ando gets this fabulous expression on his face like, "What the? No! I just smell like Paco Rabane when I get nervous!" He responds to Hiro by grunting noncommittally. Heh. Sister Hiro goes to talk to her brother, and Ando gets all excited by her approach, but she basically looks at him like he's covered in oozing sores, and he walks away sheepishly. Sister Hiro tells her brother that he's brought shame on the family. Hiro says he didn't mean to, and that she's the one their father trusts. "He thinks I'm weird," he says. Hee.
Sister Hiro informs him that their father is too proud to tell him that the company is suffering because, in their culture, a man who can't control his son can't control his business. She says that Hiro is the only son and heir and that he has to come home. Hiro repeats that he has a mission. Sister Hiro tells him to stop fucking around with missions and start saving his damn family already. Ando tells Hiro to consider going back to Japan; after all, he's lost his powers, he'll probably never get the sword, and executive vice presidency is pretty awesome. "But... I was a hero," says Hiro. Ando tells his friend to listen to his sister. "She's the smart one," says Ando. A little light bulb goes off over Hiro's head. "That's right! She is!" he says, smiling brightly.
Kermit, Texas. Claire and Zach approach a cutely decorated trailer in a dingy trailer park. Claire scoffs at the pinwheels out front and comments that she always thought her real parents would live in a Park Avenue penthouse or something. What, did she think her parents were Daddy Warbucks and Grace Farrell? Claire continues to make disparaging remarks about her mother's trailer, and finally Zach is like, just get the fuck in there and meet your damn mother already. "What am I supposed to say?" asks Claire. "'I'm your daughter and I can re-grow my kidney'?" Hee. Claire wonders if her mother will have burns and scars from the fire and says that her mom's supposed to be dead. "So are you, remember?" says Zach. "You've got that in common." He walks off, and Claire's like, dude? Where you going? Zach's like, grow up and get on with it, cheerleader. I'm gonna drive around the block or something. Go meet your mom.
Claire slowly walks up the stairs and approaches the front door. She knocks, and her mother comes right to the door and opens it. "Claire?" she whispers? Claire has tears in her eyes. After a momentary hesitation, Firemommy reaches out and pulls her daughter into an embrace. Aw.
Bennet Family Manse. Mr. Muggles trots into Claire's room and stops at a pair of men's shoes. Hands reach down and pick up the dog, and it's Sylar. He looks directly into the dog's cute little face and goes, "Hi, little Fluffy." Mr. Muggles growls, "'Fluffy'? Do I look like a 'Fluffy' to you? A) I'm not a girl and B) I'm not a towel. The name is MUGGLES and I'd prefer you use it. Also? Stop breathing in my face, homes. You could use an Altoid. Or ten." Sylar asks the dog if Claire's home from school yet, and Mr. Muggles doesn't answer because HE'S A DOG. Sylar says they'll just wait for Claire to return home. "Now, what's your name?" he asks the dog. Mr. Muggles is like, I DONE TOLD YOU MY NAME ALREADY, FOOL. Now get me a rawhide chew toy and back up off me, you freak. Mrs. Bennet is heard entering the house downstairs. She calls out for Mr. Muggles, and Sylar weirdly says, "Of course," for some reason and then he runs his hand across Claire's bedspread as he and Mr. Muggles head out to say hi to the lady of the house.
Down in the kitchen, Mrs. Bennet enters with her arms full of grocery bags. She drops them with a startled scream when she sees Sylar standing there silently with her poor dog under his arm. Mr. Muggles: "First he breathes all over my face, and now he's got his damn hand on my butt. I hate this guy." Mrs. Bennet asks who the hell Sylar is, and he invents some story about how he's from the paper company, and he was just making a delivery for Mr. Bennet when he saw Mr. Muggles rambling around the yard, so he thought he'd better gather him up and bring him inside the Bennet's house. Mr. Muggles: "He's lying. I would never go outside. I'm too delicate. It might ruin my constitution." Sylar grabs the dog's little muzzle and squeezes it. Mr. Muggles: "Dude, you best be getting your greasy-ass mitts off my finely groomed schnozzle there. I'm little, but my teeth are POWERFUL." Instead of thinking that someone like Sylar might store human organs in his freezer and therefore should not be trusted, Mrs. Bennet just comments on how damn sweet Sylar is and invites him to enjoy a nice glass of iced tea.
Wait -- ER is still on TV? Does anyone even watch that fucking show anymore? I love the Goran, but not enough to sit through even five minutes of that dreck. And I not only sat through Practical Magic, I OWN IT. So you know my devotion to the Goran knows no bounds. But I draw the line at ER. Really. Goran? Get a new gig so I can love you all over again. Please.
After the break, Sylar's enjoying his tea while Mrs. Bennet wonders who left the door open. I think Sylar has some Kibbles-n-Bits stored in his shoes, because Mr. Muggles is all over that shit and keeps snarfing on Sylar's shoelaces. Mr. Muggles: What? I like laces. Sylar comments that he's always wanted to see where Mr. Bennet lives, and Mrs. Bennet thinks it's just hilarious that the Primatech Paper employees all refer to their boss as "Mr. Bennet" instead of "Great Googly Moogly" or his given name of "Aloysius." Seriously -- what the hell SHOULD they call their boss, "Mr. Big Boss Man"? The hell? Mrs. Bennet almost lets slip HRG's actual first name, but she stops short of telling us when she notices Mr. Muggles licking Sylar's laces like they're coated in beef. ["Which...depending on what he did to Henchdoctor, they very well may be." -- Joe R] Mrs. Bennet comments that the dog has just discovered shoelaces and can't get enough of them. Mr. Muggles: "I'm telling you, they're delicious." Sylar fakely chuckles and looks like he'd like to pick up Mr. Muggles with his mind and throw him against a wall.
Sylar prattles on about HRG and eventually leads the discussion into Claire territory, saying that he was hoping to meet the daughter he's heard so much about. Mrs. Bennet has no freak-dar, apparently, because she asks Sylar to stay for dinner so that he can meet the rest of her family. He readily agrees and comments that Mrs. Bennet probably won't be able to reach her husband at the office because he's "just swamped." If by "just swamped" you mean, "trapped in a steel room with no way out and no cable TV for entertainment."
Kermit. Firemommy tells Claire that she's beautiful and asks if she's a good student. Claire says she sucks at math. Firemommy says Claire must be popular and Claire says that she was homecoming queen. Her mom says that she missed so much of her daughter's life. "I was so sure that nothing could have survived that fire," she says. She pours something called horchata into a glass for Claire and comments that she learned the recipe while she was in Mexico. She says that she's moved around a lot. After she lost Claire, she sort of started running and never really stopped. She's only been back in Kermit two months. Claire's phone rings, and it's her other mother. Claire gets on the phone and lies to her mother about being at the aquarium as Firemommy watches.
"She doesn't know you're here, does she?" asks Firemommy once Claire's off the phone. Claire says that neither of her parents really understands what's going on with her right now, and Firemommy says she'll pretend to understand why Claire's sneaking around. "All girls deserve their secrets, right?" she says. Claire says she's had an awful lot of them these days. "I have to show you something," she says. "You may understand it, you may not, but...I need you to see." "See what?" "I think I know how I survived that fire," says Claire, grabbing a butcher knife and running it across her forearm. Firemommy gasps and moves toward her, but Claire says she's fine as the cut disappears just as quickly as it appeared. "Please say something," says Claire. Firemommy smiles. "Some family," she says, holding out her fist. She opens it up and a fireball appears there, its reflection glimmering in Firemommy's eyes. Awesome.
Bennet Family Manse. Sylar's manhandling Claire's cheerleading picture as Mrs. Bennet prattles on about Claire returning from Lubbock. The topic turns to some "horrible event" at Claire's school, and Sylar says that must've been hard on Claire. Mrs. Bennet finally starts to smell the stink coming off of Sylar and comments that he's awfully interested in her daughter. "Well, after I seen what she can do, well, I guess you could say I'm a... fan," says Sylar. "She's really quite gifted." Mrs. Bennet looks up from her vegetable chopping and the expression on her face is, "Hold the phone, freak-o. Are you stalking my daughter? Because I will cut you." She asks him if he's been to a game, and he says he guesses he has, and he just can't get over those "talents" of Claire's. He drops the bad Southern accent at this point, because he's pretty much decided that he doesn't want to wait to kill this woman any longer, so the accent's no longer necessary.
Mrs. Bennet shakingly says that she should try her husband again, and she picks up the phone. Sylar would rather she didn't because he'd really like to surprise Mr. Bennet. He points his left finger, and the phone flies out of her hands and across the room. "H-h-how did you do that?" she sputters. "I'm special," he retorts. "Just like Claire. Well--different, but... you catch the meaning. It's a shame I'll have to kill her. Maybe I'll kill you first. I really haven't decided yet." Mrs. Bennet runs away, but Sylar easily slams her into a china cabinet without moving from his chair. He saunters over to her as she slowly turns her head in his direction. "Hi," he says, his voice taking on an evil and weird tone. He starts lifting his hand, about to end this poor woman, but the front door smashes open and Bennet's there, with a gun! He shoots and shoots some more and Sylar flies back against the fridge, leaving a dent. Damn, what kind of elephant bullets are coming out of that gun? Also? Jack Coleman looks hot when he's angry. Bennet and the Haitian Sensation move toward Sylar's fallen body, only to see him slip out the back door. "Find him!" snaps Bennet. "He dies!" Awwwww yeah!
Later that day, Mrs. Bennet has moderately covered from her fall, and she's trying to make sense of the occurrences of the afternoon. She can't figure out how he moved the phone with his hand. Bennet assures her that she's safe, and he's going to get Sylar, and Claire is also fine. The Haitian Sensation returns, unfortunately without a dead Sylar strapped to his back. Mrs. Bennet's all, what's with the creepy bald guy? Bennet's all, who, him? Oh, no one. Just let him touch your head for a second, 'kay? "He'll help you forget again," says Bennet. Mrs. Bennet's all, again? What the hell do you mean, again? THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE? Wait. Is this déjà vu? Am I repeating myself? Why is that creepy bald guy putting his hands on my--what the? Why am I on the floor? Did I fall? Was I looking for something? Also, why am I wearing Britney Spears jewel-encrusted jeans? That's just not right. I... suddenly need to lie down...
Firemommy Trailer. Claire's heading out as her birth mother says she can stay for dinner, even though she cooks like crap. Claire says she can't because her father's left her six messages telling her to come home. Firemommy says that this isn't good-bye and that they'll have to keep in touch. "I was hoping you could tell me about my father," says Claire. "Now that's... complicated," says Firemommy. "Why don't you let me work on that for time?" Claire agrees and they smile at each other as Zach honks the horn. Firemommy removes the necklace from around her neck and gives it to Claire, saying that it's from Mexico. They hug. Aw.
Superstudio of Superheroes. Simone uses her nearly-discarded key on the door and enters, calling out for Isaac. She sees a painting of her and Isaac embracing on "their roof." She immediately heads for the roof. Isaac's already up there, blowing on his cold hands. Simone walks over to him, saying that they haven't been up there together for a long time. Isaac says that there's something about the roof and, once again, Simone totally makes this all about her and their relationship and says that they used to hang out up there a lot. Isaac's like, no, you selfish moron! This roof is connected to everything that's happening and everything that's going to happen! He says the roof is important somehow. Simone just says something about the pigeons and how she could never figure out how they wound up on the roof. They... fly? I mean, I'm just guessing here, but I'm thinking that they didn't take the ELEVATOR up to the roof since, you know, THEY HAVE WINGS.
Simone says that she and Isaac had a lot together at one point. Isaac says that the painting he did of them embracing on the roof is the future he still hopes for. He goes on to say that everything important that's ever happened to him has happened in this city, whether it was good or bad. "And now it's all gonna be destroyed because I can't stop it." Simone says that he doesn't know that. Isaac says he does, and it just keeps getting worse, and the world will never recover from a bombed-out New York. "You can't lose hope!" says Simone. "What hope is there?" asks Isaac. "There's you," says Simone. "What you can do. Why else would you be allowed to see the future unless it was to do something about it? But you can't just see the future, Isaac. You make it. You'll find a way." Isaac moves toward her as he asks if she really believes that. "I believe in you," she says, taking his hands. They touch foreheads. And then we see Peter, standing across the rooftop, with Claude to him. Peter looks hella-angry and Claude looks incredibly pleased with himself. See, Peter? People really DO suck!
Back with Hiro and Ando and the rest of the Father Doesn't Know Best players... Hiro approaches his sister and father and says that he's given it much thought, and he will return to the company as an executive vice-president. His sister looks pleased. "It is time to restructure," says Hiro. "And consolidate management in Tokyo." The smile slips from his sister's face as she says that they can't consolidate management. Hiro just snaps that he can do whatever-the-hell he wants to -- he's the executive VP! Sister Hiro argues that consolidating would be a disaster. "Oh? You think you have a better idea?" says Hiro, watching as Daddy Hiro looks at his daughter with new appreciation.
"We should expand by making new acquisitions in aviation," Sister Hiro says. "Improve R&D in biotech, recapitalize... " Daddy Hiro is now openly staring at the girl. Hiro, on the other hand, is looking directly at his father as he laughs and says, "What do you know of these things?" Sister Hiro angrily says that she runs three divisions at the company, and if anyone knows how to run things, it's her. "Kimiko?" says Daddy Hiro. "What's gotten into you?" His daughter's like, uh, sorry about that. Forgot that you like your daughters to be seen and not heard. I'll just throw on my kimono and get down to the tea service, shall I? Hiro speaks up and says that his sister is smart and dedicated and that his father doesn't need him. "You have your successor right here!" He smiles at his sister. His father growls. Heh.
Niki's Padded Pen. The door opens, and the guard with the broken nose throws a bundle of clothes at her, ordering her to get dressed. Niki's all, for what? The big fat lawyer who paid a visit to D.L. not too long ago enters the room and says that Niki's going home. Niki's like, uh, that is NOT such a good idea, Greasy McFatNut. Greasy informs her that the charges against her have been dropped and that the D.A. threw out the entire case. Turns out, a guy on death row confessed to all the crimes Niki was accused of. She's free to go. Niki's like, dude? You are NOT making a wise move here. Niki rightly assumes that Linderman's behind all this, and she refuses to leave, saying that she needs to remain inside. Greasy McFatNut tells her that what she needs to do is get dressed so they can take her multiple personality disordered ass home ASAP.
Cut to Peter, sad and blue, standing on the rooftop as his emo bangs blow in the wind. He looks seriously pissed off. "So, that's the one you love, huh?" taunts Claude. "Off to dinner with the guy she left to be with you. Sort of fickle, don't ya think?" Peter's all, uh, why would you show me that? Claude's all, dude? I didn't show you; she did. And she leapfrogged rather quickly back to her ex, didn't she? Sorry about that. Peter's like, you are NOT sorry, you furry-faced miscreant. You enjoyed that. "You've got this rosy film over your eyes like a kid," says Claude. "It's no wonder you live like an adolescent. Posters on the wall, hair in your face." HEE! He goes on to say, "You've got to see the world as it is. That's the only way you'll learn how to save it."
Peter snarks that he's not really interested in becoming like Claude; a drifting hermit whose only friends are a bunch of fucking pigeons. Claude reiterates that Peter needs to get rid of his distractions. "The people I love are NOT distractions!" says Peter. "Then why can't you fly?" snaps Claude. "You've done it. Your body remembers how. The only thing standing in your way is you." Peter refuses to cut his loved ones out of his life. "How cold do you expect me to be?" Claude's like, uh, are we forgetting that we are a BOMB? "You've got to remember what this is about. Or do you have to ask for your brother's permission for that as well?" he snits in a bitchy voice. Heh. "Anything else that I have to do?" snaps Peter. "Wanna make a list?" Claude says that Peter's a sad cartoon of a broken heart, bleeding all over the place. "I'm just trying to get your mind straight." Peter's had enough of Claude's shit. "Look, I have followed you around and listened to your half-assed wisdom. You don't have any answers! Okay? You don't know anything! YOU are afraid of the WORLD." "You have to listen to me--" "And I am tired of you telling me what I have to do! I don't have to do anything!" "Except fly," says Claude.
And then he pushes Peter over the side of the building.
Oh, that is too awesome.
Peter drops like a stone, clearly not remembering how to fly. He manages to turn around in mid-air, though, so that when he finally does crash into the cab that Isaac painted, he lands on his ass instead of his face. We thank him for that. The roof of the cab implodes with the impact of Peter's fall. He looks out for the count. Viewed from above, we see that he has not only landed on a cab, but on an advertisement for what might be a samurai exhibit at a museum or something. Nice little tie-in there. Peter slowly comes to and sees a big piece of metal sticking out of his chest. He pushes himself off the cab, sliding his body off the metal rod with a loud groan. (Dirty!) He tumbles off the cab and catches his breath. He looks up at the building and realizes just how tall it is and what he's just done. "Son of a bitch," he gasps. Indeed.
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"Not quite what I was expecting," says Claude, looking at Peter slumped against the wrecked cab, "but hope for the flowers yet!" Peter launches himself at Claude and shoves him up against a wall. "You threw me... OFF OF A THIRTY STORY BUILDING! If I didn't regenerate, I'd be dead!" Peter grunts at him. Claude just giggles. "Well, you coulda flown!" Hee. "Listen, if you hadn't worked this one out," says Claude, "you'd have been hopeless anyway, and I'd have had to diffuse the biggest bomb ever." Peter steps back and Claude tells him he cleared his mind and called out his power. "You know, before I hit the ground," says Peter, "when I knew what was about to happen, I had this flash... in my head, of this girl that I met in Texas." Careful, Peter -- that "girl" might be related to you in a second here. Watch how you think about her.
"This cheerleader," he continues, "she could heal herself. Oh, gosh, she's this sweet kid. Sad little smile, and she just... " Suddenly, Peter seems to realize something. "You were wrong," he says. "I don't have to cut her out! I have to remember her! How--how she made me feel! That's how I... " Peter's hands start disappearing. Then there's a weird loud buzzing sound and Peter's hand goes to his head as he groans in pain. Then Isaac's cloudy future eyes show up. "Oh god!" Peter shouts. "It's happening! I'm losing it!" Fire shows up in his eyes. Peter's overloading. He's about to blow! Whap! Claude decks Peter with a solid right hook and Peter hits the pavement. Heh. "Well, it's a start," he says, standing over Peter's fallen body. Hee. I can think of several other Heroes who might benefit from Claude's form of "education." Matt? I'M LOOKING AT YOU.
Superstudio of Superheroes. Isaac's future-painting again. He finishes and sees the crumpled taxi and Peter sitting against it. Cut to Bennet's house where the phone is ringing. Bennet picks up and it's Isaac, saying that he thinks he's found a way to stop Peter. When did Isaac start working for Bennet? The guy forced him to do heroin to save his daughter. That's not exactly someone I'd be repaying by trying to find an exploding man. As a series of Bennet's men in black perform crime scene analysis in the background, Isaac tells Bennet that Peter's in New York, but no one can see him because he's either a ghost or invisible. Isaac asks what that means, and Bennet says, "It means an old friend isn't quite as dead as we thought he was." Ooooh.
God. Back with Hiro and Ando and the Sister and the Father and the Story that NEVER ENDS. I like all these actors, but lord, can we get past this already? Hiro tells his father that he's made the right choice and his father tells him this doesn't mean he approves of what Hiro's doing. Hiro says he doesn't have to and that life evolves and that the son he wanted to be like him will follow his own path. "Now, I have to go save the world!" He hugs his father while his father just stands there and wonders what this full-contact thing is that his son is doing. "I should never have read you those stories," he says, walking to his car. Sister Hiro thanks her brother by calling him insane and he says she's welcome and they hug. She turns to Ando, who holds his arms out for his own hug, and she's like, uh, not so much, dude. And nice cologne. What, did a cat pee on you? I'll shake your hand and then I'm outta here. "She's really starting to like me," says Ando as the car leaves. "HUH?" Hiro hilariously squeaks.
Family of Heroes Homestead. Micah knocks on his mother's door and invites her to play Scrabble with him. Inside the room, Niki smiles and laughs and says she'll absolutely play with him because she owes him a dozen. She tells him she needs a minute, and he toddles off, happy to have his mother home. Niki turns to look at her reflection in the sliding mirror, and we see that she has the helix tattoo on her right shoulder, so it's actually Jessica who's being all nice and shit, not Niki! We hear knocking on the mirror and Jessica slides the door closed, revealing Niki trapped in the mirror behind it. "Noooo!" screams Niki, enraged. "What are you so mad about, Niki?" asks Jessica. "You're the one who wanted to be locked up!" She walks off as Niki slams against the mirror some more.
Bennet Family Manse. Claire and Zach enter, and Claire calls out that she's home. Zach reminds Claire that she's wearing her birth mother's Mexican necklace, so she quickly takes it off and hides it. They head to the kitchen, where her mother immediately tells her that she's in trouble. "The school called -- did you think you could ditch and I wouldn't find out?" Claire's like, uh, what? We talked about this this morning. You said we could go to the aquarium. Zach waves around the bogus brochures. Mrs. Bennet looks a mite confused but then says she thinks she would remember a conversation about skipping school. She grimaces and says she has a headache. Claire offers to finish setting the table so her mother can lie down for a bit. Mrs. Bennet leaves, and Claire finds a piece of glass on a chair. She looks up and sees her father on the phone across the house. He smiles at her and gives her the "I'll be there in one minute" finger. She smiles back and then looks down sadly at the piece of broken glass.
Kermit. Firemommy is pacing through her trailer, nervously smoking a cigarette as she makes a phone call. The other end rings and rings. Finally, a man picks up. "You might not remember me," says Firemommy. "We haven't spoken in a long time, but... our daughter just found me. Did you hear what I just said? She's alive." We cut to the man she's talking to as he sits down and it's NATHAN. Nathan's Claire's bio-daddy! I can't say that I'm all that surprised. I think it's kind of a predictable choice, but I love the Pasdar, so I'm not going to be picky on this one. "We need to talk, Nathan," says Firemommy. Boy, do you.
on Heroes: A Heroes Family Reunion. Flydaddy and Firemommy meet up again, and I'm hoping we learn how Nathan might not remember a woman he had a child with sixteen years ago. Mohinder and Sylar pair up (dirty!) in some unholy alliance or something. And Matt and Jessica square off with guns, and there's something about the line between good and evil being crossed. My guess is, Jessica's got the evil part covered.