In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Hiro and Ando are back in the past, and they decide to go see Mystery Sock to figure out what they're supposed to do. Peter begs Claire not to go to Paris because she's supposed to save the world. He tells her that he's going to explode and that she's somehow a part of all this and if she leaves, maybe some bad stuff will happen. Parkman, Bennet, and Sprague are still traveling together across the country, heading for New York.
Sylar paints himself stealing Ted's power and realizes that this makes him the exploding man. He decides to call his mother and then go pay her a visit. Hiro and Ando show up and almost get caught by Sylar, but they teleport out just in time. Sylar heads off to see his mom, and Hiro and Ando follow him so that Hiro can bust out the Sword of Destiny and finally off the psychopath. Thompson hooks up with Mohinder and invites him to meet little Molly Walker, a child with the ability to find anyone, anywhere, but who also happens to be very ill with the same disease that killed Mohinder's sister. Thompson wants Mo to cure her because she's the only person on the planet who can find Sylar. Mohinder does find a cure for her, and a new friendship is born.
D.L. and Jessica are having all sorts of issues with each other, so they decide to phase into Linderman's office in search of clues as to Micah's whereabouts. They find out that Linderman basically orchestrated their entire lives and that they're one big science experiment, with Micah the ultimate conclusion. Peter learns that Claire knows an exploding man of her own, Ted Sprague, and they ask Nathan to track him down just in case Ted's the bomb instead of Peter. Nathan agrees, but as soon as Peter and Claire leave, he totally reaches out and touches Linderman. Later on, Claire and Peter go to visit Nathan's office and see that he's talking to Thompson. Claire decides then and there to get the hell out of town, regardless of what Peter wants her to do.
Sylar visits his mother, and she's just about as batshit as he is. He wants to stay with her so that he can avoid killing millions of people, but after he shares his special powers with her, she freaks the hell out and tries to stab him with some scissors. Unfortunately, she winds up stabbing herself. Hiro shows up to kill Sylar, but somehow Sylar can resist the time freeze, and he scares the bejesus out of Hiro when he grabs the sword in one hand and orders Hiro to kill him. Hiro chickens out, of course, and Ando shows up to distract Sylar so that Hiro can teleport them out of there. Hiro's sword is broken in half, however, so it looks like killing Sylar will be harder than they thought.
Peter tries to convince Claire that she should stick around so that she can shoot him in the head in case he starts to explode. Claire's not fond of this idea. Ma Petrelli visits Nathan and pretty much gets him to agree to follow through on the Linderman plan. Peter and Claire go to a spot that Peter saw in his visions so that they can possibly meet up with Sprague. Sure enough, Bennet, Sprague, and Parkman show up, and Claire and her father have a mini-reunion. Too bad that Peter starts absorbing Ted's power and can't control it. The show ends on a "Will he or won't he?" note that's really silly because, hi, we all watched the previews, NBC! We know he doesn't explode THEN. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Heroes: It was five years in the future, and Sylar was Nathan and Peter was hot and Parkman shot Future Hiro and Peter blew up and killed a bunch of people, including Micah, and Niki was really sad about that so she got on the pole to take her mind off it and the whole world, in general, was fucked.
But now Hiro's back in the present, and he and Ando are going to save the world. Again. Some more. They're back on the Superroof, talking about how they can change the future. Hiro opens up The Last Comic and mentions that it hasn't been finished because the character's dialogue hasn't been filled in. Hiro gets the bright idea to go ask Mystery Sock what they're saying in the final pages. Yes. When in doubt, go to Mystery Sock. Hiro stands up on the ledge and announces to New York that they're going to save it. New York promptly tells Hiro to shut the hell up.
Petrelli Palace. Peter's sitting off by himself in some corner, sketching bleak visions of the future in a little book. Nathan's wife and two kids return home after an extended trip to Unnecessary Characterville and he gives them all hugs and kisses while Claire watches from a hidden perch on the stairway. She clearly wishes Nathan would show her the same fatherly care he shows his other children. Peter notices her watching and looks at her with sympathy.
Later on, Mama Petrelli helps Claire pack while Claire twists her hair around her fingers and generally hates on the whole "exile to Paris" idea. Shut up, Claire. It's Paris. PARIS RULES. Just go there, order un café et une croissant and try not to get autopsied or anything. Peter enters and Mama Petrelli leaves them alone to say their goodbyes. Peter doesn't want Claire to leave, but she says she has to. Peter thinks that their meeting and her winding up being his niece aren't just random; it's destiny. He says that she's here to save the world and Claire's like, oh not THAT again. Peter tells her that this isn't some fantasy; he's seen the future and he knows that he explodes and wipes out the whole city. "Like a nuclear bomb," he says. "Nuclear?" says Claire. "Like Ted." "Who the hell is Ted?" asks Peter.
Funny you should ask, Peter! Ted's this guy with radioactive hands, and he's currently in the great Midwest with Bennet and Parkman, heating up the roof of a used car. Parkman tries to call his wife from a payphone, but Bennet quickly puts a stop to that, saying that they can't contact their loved ones for fear of the OWI getting a hold of them. He talks about the new tracking system they're using at the Company; it's called the Walker System and it doesn't rely on isotopes and satellites. "It just finds you wherever you are," he says. Therefore, they have to play it smart and switch cars a lot and stay on back roads. Matt understands that they have to go to New York and wipe out the Walker System. They go to the car Ted's working on, and Ted uses his handy spark plug hands to start the car. "Let's go," he grits at Bennet.
Cut to Sylar in the Superstudio, painting a picture of Ted. The image on the canvas seems to be Sylar threatening Ted, so Sylar thinks this means that he steals Ted's power and becomes the bomb and blows up New York. Oddly, Sylar doesn't seem too happy about this. Switch to Suresh in the Biggest Apartment in Brooklyn. The phone rings. Mohinder picks it up and it's Sylar. He's freaked out. "I think I'm gonna do something bad," he says. Mohinder's like, "'GONNA'? Oh, right, because killing dozens of innocent people isn't really evil or anything. What constitutes 'bad' in your book, psycho?" Sylar says he thinks he's going to kill a lot more people and, unlike his other killings, which, in his twisted mind, he thought had purpose, this mass killing he's going to potentially partake in will be a massacre of innocents. There's nothing to gain from this genocide, so Sylar's not sure why he would do it. Mohinder tries to keep Sylar on the phone while dialing 911 on his cell and Sylar's like, dude. I CAN HEAR YOU DIALING THE PHONE. Sylar hangs up the phone and stares at the painting of his potential future as the Bomb That Ate New York.
Vegas. D.L. has discovered that Micah's been hijacked by Linderman, and he's none too pleased. Jessica tries to convince her husband that she told Linderman he couldn't have her son and that Linderman took him anyway, but D.L.'s not buying what she's selling. He says he's done with her and that he's going to get Micah himself. He leaves and Niki, who's still trapped in the mirror, pleads with Jessica to go help D.L. If she doesn't, he'll get killed. Niki tells Jessica that this is her one chance to save their son. Jessica sucks it up and goes after D.L.
Meanwhile, Micah's in a hotel room in New York with Candice. She's still morphed into Niki, though, so Micah is just calmly playing video games in the living room. Candice is on the phone with Linderman, bitching about how she's squandering her talents on babysitting this kid. She morphs into Niki and goes to talk to Micah. When she tells him she was on the phone with Linderman, he says he doesn't like him because he smells funny. That's the smell of fear, Micah, which must flow from Linderman in waves. Micah says he doesn't like it here and he doesn't want to do what Linderman wants him to, and Candice fucks up as his mother when she snaps at him in an uncharacteristic fashion. Alarm bells start ringing in Micah's little head. She tries to cover, but Micah's totally onto her. He's seems to be thinking that even Jessica wasn't this much of a bitch!
We zoom out of the hotel room and down to the building plaza where Thompson and Mohinder are meeting up. Thompson asks if Mohinder is ready to come and work for them and Mo's like, uh, not so much, you creepmonster. Mo clangs his freshly minted brass balls together and states that he wants to know everything the OWI does, and he wants them to share everything with him and he's going to use this knowledge to stop Sylar. Thompson's all, and you would be thinking I'm your bitch because... ? Mohinder says that Thompson wants the formula he has that can find Heroes, so therefore, Thompson needs HIM, not the other way around. "Some people died because you led Sylar right to them," smirks Thompson. "And now you blame yourself, so you've become a vigilante. Hm. It's cute." Hee. Thompson agrees to Mohinder's terms and invites him into the building.
Mo and Thompson enter a room filled with computers. Mo asks what this place is, but Thompson just says that there's someone he needs to meet: Molly Walker. Mo says that name was on The List. "That's right," says Thompson. "Your father led Sylar right to her. And then he slaughtered her parents and attacked her." Mo asks how she survived, and Thompson says the OWI managed to get to her in time. He says they find people with abilities and protect them. If by "protect" you mean, "strap to a table to monitor and study like a fucking lab rat." Mo looks at the screen with the blood detail on it and says that Molly's sick and needs to go to a hospital. Thompson says a hospital can't help her, but maybe Mo can. Thompson says Molly's condition is extremely rare, and it's affecting her nervous system, which makes it hard for her to access her ability. There has been only one other recorded case of this condition: Mohinder's sister.
Mohinder points out that his sister died, and Thompson says Mo' father developed a cure, but it was months too late. Unfortunately, Thompson's people can't figure out what the hell Papa Suresh's cure is, so they're screwed. And little Molly's going to die. They peek in at her in her room and she's adorable. Mo's pissed. He's like, dude, what're you trying to do, manipulate me? Sylar's out there and he's going to slaughter millions of innocent people if we don't get the hell on his trail! "You just don't get it," sneers Thompson. "Molly is the only one who can stop Sylar."
Superstudio. Sylar's on the phone, saying that he's thinking about the future and he wants to come and visit someone. We don't know who he's talking to. Hiro and Ando show up at the door and, luckily, Sylar's in the bathroom, getting ready for his visit. Ando points out that it's two days until the election and shows Hiro one of the final panels in the Last Comic that has Hiro stabbing Sylar in the gut. "Are you ready for this?" asks Ando. Hiro says some shit about darkness and light, but Ando totally doesn't look appeased by this. They enter the studio. Sylar's in the bathroom shaving with a straight razor because Bics are for pussies and serial killing superheroes ain't no pussies, damn it! Hiro and Ando come upon poor Mystery Sock's dead body. Sylar combs his hair into a replica of his nerd 'do from earlier in the season. He's also wearing plaid. It's not a good look for him.
Hiro tells Ando that this is exactly what he saw when he first jumped to the future. He says that first he saw Mystery Sock and then the bomb went off. A toilet flushes in the distance and Hiro and Ando scramble behind a painting to hide. Sylar comes out of the bathroom sporting some seriously geeky clothes and glasses. Hiro peeks at Sylar and shows Ando the comic, pointing out that Sylar is, you know, Sylar. Ando swallows loudly and, of course, Sylar hears this. He whips around and walks toward the painting, following the sound of their heartbeats. "I can hear you," he rasps. "Whoever you are... come on out." He TKs the painting out of the way, but Hiro and Ando have wisely teleported to the convenience store downstairs. Sylar trundles past with a box in his hand just as Hiro and Ando are exiting the store. Ando wants to follow him so they can get the stabbing over with, but Hiro's getting cold feet about the whole killing thing.
Linderman's Hall of Heroes. D.L. and Jessica phase through a wall and start looking around. D.L. spots a painting across the way that depicts Micah, standing in the window of the building he's currently staying in, surrounded by flames. Jessica guesses that painting is set in New York, although there's really no clue in the painting that might indicate this. Something catches her eye, and they both go over to look at a wall that's covered in detailed facts about both D.L. and Niki. Immunization records, childhood photos, current family photos -- you name it, Linderman's got it. "He's tracked our entire life," says Jessica. D.L. thinks that this means Linderman orchestrated the creation of Micah. He tracked D.L. and Niki and put them together in order to get the kid. "All this time, Linderman's just been playing with our lives!" says D.L. He starts going through random papers, thinking that something within them will clue them in as to Micah's whereabouts. He finds a calendar with notes on it about a trip to New York, Nathan Petrelli, and Election Day. That's a pretty detailed calendar there! Jessica thinks that if they find Linderman, they'll find Micah. "Let's get Micah the hell outta there!" says D.L.
OWI. Mohinder enters Molly's room and tells her he needs to take some blood. She gamely rolls up her sleeve. As he's drawing her blood, he tells her that he wants to stop the man who hurt her and her family. She says that you can't stop the bogeyman. "He sees into your soul and then he eats your brain." Mohinder says she can stop the bogeyman with her amazing ability. She says it's not so amazing. They ask her to find people, and she does. That's all. Because, see, she's the Walker System Bennet was talking about. It's not a machine, y'all. It's a little girl. "I just think about them," she says, "and I know where they are." She says her ability isn't working right now, but Mohinder says he's going to get her better so that she can find the bogeyman for him. "You're different from the other doctors," she says. "They're much better at this." He smiles brilliantly at her and says, "Thanks!" Sendhil Ramamurthy's smile is so damn pretty it's making me weep kittens.
Petrelli Palace. Claire is telling Nathan about RadioacTed blowing up her house. Peter says this might mean he's not the bomb. Maybe Ted is. "You said you had a dream that you blew up New York City," says Nathan. "Yeah," says Peter. "But I also dreamed that I could fly and we know how that turned out for you." "You can fly?" says Claire. Nathan just raises his eyebrows and shrugs as if to say, "Whatevs." "Cool," says Claire, under her breath. Hee. Awesome. Peter tells his brother to pick up the phone and call the FBI so they can find this Ted dude. Nathan says he'll make a few calls. Peter leaves, but Nathan stops Claire before she can go and says that he admires her bravery. She kind of smiles at him and leaves. Nathan dials the phone. "Mr. Linderman," he says. "We have a problem."
Cut to Sylar, shuffling his way down a crappy hallway. Hiro and Ando peer in from a window. He knocks on a door and Ellen Greene opens it. She immediately hugs him and thanks the Lord for bringing her son home safe. Yeah. I clued into her whack-ass craziness right here. "Hi, Mom," says Sylar. Hiro: "HUH?" Ando: "SATAN HAS A MOTHER?" Audrey II: "FEED ME, SEYMOUR." His mother pulls him inside and he gives her a box that contains yet another snow globe for her collection. She really doesn't need any more, Gabriel. They're covering every square inch of her apartment. She's trying to collect the whole nation, apparently, and now she's just missing Oregon. Just shove a bunch of wet leaves into a bowl, fill it with rainwater and seal it up, lady. That's your Oregon right there.
Sylar's mom strokes her globes like they're crystal balls. Clearly, she's insane. Sylar points out that the clock on the wall is broken and she says she should have thrown it away years ago. Sylar points out that the clock was his father's, but she just says that it's junk. He gets really offended by this and says that it's a beautiful piece that just needs some attention. He starts to work on it as his mother picks up a snow globe... with a picture of him as a child inside. Okay, 1) pictures of people in snow globes is fucking creepy and 2) that's totally a childhood picture of Zachary Quinto and it's HILARIOUS.
Sylar sets up a makeshift workshop on the table. His mother comes over and starts stroking his shellacked hair as she tells him how proud she is of him for traveling the world. He says he's sick of traveling and wants to stay there for awhile. She's all, "Queens? What the hell would you want to come back to Queens for?" Well, really. Sylar seems to think that if he stays in Queens, he won't kill all those people. He doesn't say this, of course, because that might make his mother go full-boar mental on him. She nervously gets up to make him a sandwich, but he doesn't want one. She thinks that, if he's going to stay in Queens, he should call some guy about a job. Sylar says he has a job, thanks. He fixes watches. She scoffs that that's a hobby. They engage in a passive-aggressive battle of the wills in which it becomes clear that his mother disapproves of his love for clocks and watches and Sylar has only ever wanted his mother's approval and love.
"You're not listening to me!" he yells. She looks shocked. "I am listening!" "No. You're making a tuna fish sandwich. I told you I didn't want one." She gets an injured look on her face and starts gathering up the fixings and angrily shoves them back in the fridge. "I made a mistake!" she says with tears sounding in her voice. "I'm sorry!" Sylar feels bad and goes to her, but when he goes to touch her, she recoils and freaks out as if his hands were branding irons. "Maybe I don't have to be special," he says. "Maybe it's okay to just be a normal watchmaker. Can't you just tell me that's enough?" She smiles and holds his face in her hands and says, "Why would I tell you that when I know you could be so much more? If you wanted, you could be President." He's already done that, thanks. Not so good at it, as it turns out. A little too much attention paid to genocide, I think. Sylar gets this look on his face that's like, "Oh, great. My mother's going to make me blow up the city because she doesn't like me being a watch repairman. Bitch."
Petrelli Election Headquarters. Peter and Claire enter as Peter explains that Nathan needs to convince the FBI to evacuate the city. Before they can enter his office, though, Claire sees Nathan talking to Thompson and pulls Peter aside. She explains who Thompson is and how he's the one she's been running from. Inside the office, Nathan tells Thompson that Linderman doesn't have a grasp on the situation and that all the pundits think he's going to lose. He brings up Ted, and Thompson says they know all about the nuclear guy. Outside, Claire continues to freak about Thompson talking to Nathan while Peter tries to calm her down by saying that they don't know what the situation is and that it's Nathan, so they should just trust him. Claire's like, "Uh, look, mama's boy, that guy in there is evil and after me AND HE'S TALKING TO YOUR BROTHER. Maybe you need to grow a pair and start admitting that you have no goddamn clue as to what's going to happen!"
Inside, Thompson suggests that Nathan's nervous. "Nervous?" he kind of squeaks. "You wanna blow up half of New York!" "Yes, we do," says Thompson in a conversational tone that makes it sound like someone's asked him if he has any bowler hats in stock. Claire accuses Peter of being scared and he totally agrees that he is. "I have to find a nuclear man and I don't know if I can contain all that power," he says. Well, when you put it that way, it really IS pretty scary. Claire wants them to run the other way, but Peter says if they save themselves, who's going to save everyone else? Good point. He says to her that she's not alone and then tells her to come with him. I'm not sure where he's going, but Claire says to herself that this is some crazy shit, so she's going to get the hell outta there.
Micah's Personal Prison. Candice comes out and says she's going to take a shower and he apologizes for mouthing off to her earlier. The second she's in the shower, Micah runs to the door, uses his power on the security pad, and runs out. He speeds down the hallway and Noah Gray-Cabey has the most adorable run I've ever seen. His shoulders are kind of hunched over and he's shuffling. So cute. He runs to another door and opens it, only to find himself back in the hotel room. So he runs back out into the hallway and tries another door. But he's back in the room again. Candice comes out of the bathroom, toweling her hair. This time, she's not morphed into Niki, though. Micah asks who she is, and she says that she can make him see anything he wants. "Makes it kinda hard to get away, huh?" she says with a smile. She tells him that if he doesn't listen to what Mr. Linderman says, she'll show him things that will mess him up for life. She says he needs to behave, and a giant cartoon shark on the TV screen behind him looks like it's going to chomp off his head. Ouch.
Cut to Hiro and Ando, trolling around outside Sylar's mom's place. Inside, she's washing dishes as Sylar says, "What if I told you I can be special? Important. But to do it, I'd have to hurt a lot of people. Should I?" She says that he could never hurt anyone, and he just says that there are a lot of things he can do that she doesn't know about. And that's when he makes the gargantuan error of sharing some of his abilities with his mother. He starts by making it snow in her living room so that she's in her own snow globe. At first, she's totally into it, but when she realizes that her son is making this happen without the help of a special effects department, she starts to freak. At the same time, Sylar starts getting his Sylar-ized expression on his face and he keeps getting darker and darker. All of a sudden, the room starts to shake and globes start spinning around and one of them smashes into his mother's face, cutting her.
OWI. Mohinder's hit a wall with Molly's cure. He can't figure it out. He gets angry and knocks his father's papers off a table. Molly comes running in, and Mo apologizes for frightening her. She brightly says that he can't help her either and that it's okay. She helps him pick up the fallen papers as he tells her that there's an antibody for her, but they don't know where or what it is. "Like the bogeyman," she observes. "Exactly," says Mo. Molly finds a picture of Mo's parents and sister amid the papers, and Mo tells her that this is the first time he's ever actually seen his sister since she died before he was born. Molly asks if she's going to die. Mo tells her that his father did everything he could to save his sister, he was just a month too late. "I won't be," he says. "I promise." She hands him a piece of paper with a star on it and says it'll protect him from the bogeyman. She hugs him and runs out of the room. Mo looks at the star and the picture of his sister and then looks at the screen with the blood analysis on it.
Cut to Sylar, apologizing to his mother through a door. She's inside, kneeling by the bed, crying and possibly praying. Outside in the alley, Hiro observes that Sylar is sad. Ando thinks Hiro should get in there and kill him now while he's distracted. Again, Hiro exhibits cold feet, saying he can't kill a man who's asking for forgiveness because it's against his code or whatever. Ando's like, "Look. Kill the freak, okay? He's a psycho." Hiro claims that Ando doesn't understand. Ando understands perfectly: Hiro's a chickenshit. He's all, "Future Hiro wouldn't chicken out! He'd cut a bitch!" Hiro's all, "I no likey Future Hiro!" Back inside, Sylar's practically licking the door. He tells his mother about his vision of the future wherein he kills a bunch of people. He slumps down in front of the door.
Hiro says that Future Hiro killed so much that he forgot it's supposed to be hard. Ando tells his friend that he dies at the hands of Sylar on the same day as the bomb. Sylar starts banging his head on the door until his mother comes out. She says she's leaving and when she gets back, she expects him to be gone. She says he's not her son, he's damned, and she wants him out of her house. He goes to take her hand, and she shrieks at him and pulls away and asks what he did with her son and, where is he, and give her back her boy. Sylar actually starts to get tears in his eyes as he insists that he's her son. He keeps coming toward her until she's backed into a corner. She grabs some scissors and points them at him. He goes to take them away from her and they struggle. Then, just as quickly as it starts, it's over. And his mother pulls back to reveal that he's inadvertently stabbed her in the heart. This is an awesome scene between Quinto and Greene, by the way. It's so sad.
So, after Sylar accidentally stabs his mother, she starts to fall forward, but suddenly she freezes in mid-fall. Totally cool effect here, actually. She's basically at a forty-five degree angle. Hiro enters and draws his sword. He walks over to Sylar and puts the blade to his neck. He apologizes and pulls back the sword to take off Sylar's head but the second he does, he loses his grasp on the time freeze and Sylar's mom falls forward at the same moment that Sylar sees Hiro swinging for him. He grabs the blade with his hand and asks why Hiro's following him. Hiro says he has to stop him and, instead of kicking his ass, Sylar just pulls the blade to his stomach and orders Hiro to kill him. Suddenly, the blade starts freezing. "You can't," says Sylar. "You coward. Now I'm gonna have to kill you." Just then, Ando busts in to save the day. Hiro grabs him and they teleport out of there. Sylar looks down at his mother as the plinky piano keys of impending psychosis take us out to the break.
OWI. Mohinder's hanging a bag of blood on Molly's IV stand. "You did it," she says. "You found a cure." Mohinder tells her that the cure was in him, explaining that if parents have a sick child followed by healthy child, that second child often contains the healthy antibodies needed for a cure. "Unfortunately," he says. "I was born a little too late to help my sister. But I'm not too late to help you." Aw. Cut to Hiro and Ando, landing in the Superstudio. Ando asks if he managed to kill Sylar, but Hiro says he failed. Ando says they still have two days to kill Sylar and stop the bomb. "How?" says Hiro. "The sword is broken!" Sure enough, it is. But it still has a pointy end, doesn't Hiro? Just stick that part in Sylar and you're right as rain.
Petrelli Palace. Peter furiously searches through some drawers until he comes across a gun loosely wrapped in a handkerchief. That's... a lovely thing to keep around in an unlocked drawer with kids in the house, don't you think? Peter picks it up and heads to the hallway. Claire's coming down the stairs with her suitcase. "You weren't even going to say goodbye?" he says. "Goodbye," says Claire with a sigh. Peter says he's figured out a way to save the world. He holds out the gun. Claire's all, "A gun? That's it? That's your plan? Good plan, UNCLE." Peter says he can handle Ted, but if he loses it, Claire's the only one who can get close enough to stop him. "Right through the back of the head," he says handing the gun to her. "You know the spot. Same place you pulled the piece of glass from." "My destiny is not to shoot you!" she says, ignoring the gun and moving past him. "The universe cannot be that lame." Heh.
Peter says she can't run away from who she is and that this bomb is happening, so she'd better deal with it. She asks how he can be so sure and he just grabs his little sketchbook and shows her his drawings of the future. She pages through the pictures, all of which are basically of shit on fire. She comes upon a page with Ted's face on it, and she tells Peter that he drew Sprague. Peter says that that's Kirby Plaza in midtown, and this must mean that Ted is in New York. He says that she's part of this and she has to shoot him if necessary. She looks at the gun like it's covered in bees.
Nathan's in his office, contemplating his future presidency and dead brother issues. The door opens and it's Mama Petrelli. They hug and then she informs him that Linderman called her and told her that Nathan's getting cold feet. Nathan asks her if she knows about Linderman's plans and she rather calmly says that she does. And they're not just Linderman's plans; a lot of people put time and care into this deal. Including herself. Nathan's like, "Wait a minute -- you mean you're okay with sacrificing your own son just so I can be the damn president? Wow, lady. That's cold." She tells him that important men make impossible decisions. She brings up how Truman dropped two bombs on Japan and killed thousands of people just to save millions. "That was different, Ma," says Nathan. "We were at war. I can't accept this." "That is your one weakness, Nathan," she says. "You have no faith. So how could you possibly believe this bomb could actually heal the world if you have no faith in the idea of destiny?"
They're slapping it on a little heavy with all the destiny shit, don't you think?
Ma Petrelli goes on to tell him that his destiny is to lead the world after this unspeakable event takes place. People will look back at the strength and convictions of the freshman congressman and they'll reward him with the office of President. Reenacting a scene from The Manchurian Candidate, Ma Petrelli puts Nathan's jacket on and tells him he needs to be presidential. "Can you believe?" she asks him. "Can you be the one we need?" He kind of sighs heavily and then gives her a subtle nod. "That's my boy." Damn. I wouldn't want to meet that woman in a dark alley. She'd perform the quart of blood maneuver on me and a quart of blood would just drop right out of my body. And then she'd probably drink it. Or bathe in it.
Cut to Sylar, kneeling on the floor to his mother's dead body. He looks like he's cleaning up her blood, but when the camera pulls up, we see that he's actually painting another floorpocalypse IN HIS MOTHERS BLOOD. Oh, ew. "You were right, Mom. I am meant to be special, just like you wanted. I can be anything. I can even be President."
Kirby Plaza. Claire's sitting outside on the edge of a sculpture, looking at the people around her. Peter walks up and says there's no sign of Ted. He sees that she's crying and asks her what's wrong. "I'm not normal," she says. "I tried to pretend that I was, and I just hurt everyone. My mom, my dad. I ruined everything because of what I am. I hated it. But you--when I met you, I finally felt like I was part of something." "That's funny," says Peter. "I felt the same thing when I met you." He touches her cheek and wipes away her tear and yes, it's a little bit ooky because they're both hot and I know they're not related in real life, but they are on the show so I just have to suck it up and pretend that they're uncle and niece and not start picturing them like making out and shit. Because that would be wrong.
Claire looks off in the distance and sees Parkman and Ted walking along and then her father appears between them. Claire races to him and throws herself into his arms. "I love you, Claire Bear," he says. Aw. And sniff. Parkman and Ted walk over to Peter. Suddenly, Peter's hands start to glow red. He hollers out for Claire. She looks over at him. "What's he doing?" asks Ted, immediately distrustful. "He's absorbing your ability," says Bennet, moving toward Peter. Peter starts breathing heavily and panicking and Parkman points out that he needs to stop that shit and Peter's like, "No, YA THINK?" and then it's all over and we go to the "To be continued" and we have to wait until week to find out whether or not Peter go boom.