By Couch Baron
I have to admit, this one was a big improvement, although the storylines are still wildly uneven. Nathan and Tracy are boning, and she tells him about killing The Greatest American Reporter. She thinks she should turn herself in, but he doesn't want her to tell people about them, and reiterates his belief that God gave them their powers. Tracy, however, disabuses him of that notion, at least when it comes to her ability. Meanwhile, Peter, unable to control Sylar's power, almost kills his mother, only being stopped in the nick of time by Sylar. Nathan and Tracy then come to see Mama Petrelli, who tells them Zimmerman was instrumental in developing "synthetic abilities" -- one of which was given to Nathan. He's stunned, of course, that she and his father used him in this experiment, and although she begs him for help to find the formula so the synthetic abilities can never be given out again, he tells her to go to hell, and suggests to Tracy that they need to go see Mohinder. This is not the greatest idea, however, as Mohinder is keeping up appearances with Maya, but is secretly kidnapping people and cocooning them, so it looks like he's becoming a spider, as it seemed might be the case last episode. Maya gets wind that something's wrong and tries to free the neighbor from last week, but Mohinder catches her, and although she initially keeps him at bay with her black tears, he talks her into stopping, only to capture and cocoon her. DUMB. Back at The Company, Mama Petrelli has another horrible dream, this one of Tracy and Nathan and Peter all dead, and then a mysterious man she knows and fears shows up and seems to imprison her inside her own body. I hope her dreams at least get a little less scary, because that's all she'll have to keep her company for a while.
Across the country, Sandra figures out that Claire is going after a villain, and worries that she might be targeting a guy whose power is to create vortexes -- vortexes that could make even invulnerable Claire disappear forever. Meredith, however, is more worried that she's going after "Eric Doyle," whom she knows to be a "horrible man" and who's nearer to them, so she goes to check him out. Sandra's instincts are correct in that Claire does confront the vortex guy, but even though he gets her in his power, he merely tells her that The Company forcibly separated him from his family, and he never meant to hurt anyone. Claire ends up helping him set up a rendezvous with his family, but things go pear-shaped when Sylar and Bennet show up. Vortex Guy uses his power to escape, and it's again Sylar who saves Claire from being sucked away for good. This does not stop Claire from being HELLA pissed at her dad for working with her attacker, but he does talk her into giving up Vortex Guy's location. Claire finds him distraught, as his family didn't show up. Things then get really tense as Bennet appears, puts a gun to Vortex Guy's head, and instructs him to use his power to get rid of Sylar. Vortex Guy kills himself rather than kill anyone else again, though, and from Claire's face it doesn't look like she's ever going to trust Dad again, even though she tells him she understands why he does the things he does. Oh, and Meredith wasn't kidding about that guy, by the way. I mean, he likes puppets -- how much scarier could he be?
Finally, Hiro tries to get Adam to tell him who's behind the formula theft, but we find out independently that it's Linderman, who's apparently running that Pinehearst company from last episode, and tries to get Daphne to recruit others who have "lost their way," such as Knox and Mohinder, to their cause. Adam takes Hiro and Ando to a bar that's apparently the go-to place for hiring "specials," but this only results in Hiro getting knocked out and Adam escaping -- only to be knocked out in turn and kidnapped by Knox. Hiro and Ando drown their sorrows, but things turn when Daphne and Knox show up, and Hiro and Ando fake interest in signing up with them. Knox asks Hiro to demonstrate his loyalty by killing Ando, WHICH HE DOES, to Daphne's chagrin. Of course, he'll probably time-shift back or something and save him, but that was still quite a twist. Linderman pooh-poohs Daphne's distress before ordering her to recruit Matt. But when she's gone, the world is overturned -- it turns out Linderman isn't really Linderman, just a vision that Maury Parkman has been causing to appear to Nathan and Daphne, at the behest of the man who attacked Angela -- PAPA PETRELLI! He's alive! ALIIIIIIIVE!