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So we get a total takeback on the Hiro killing Ando thing, as it turns out Hiro manipulated time to grab a trick sword and some fake blood and to warn Ando to play along with the charade. This gets Hiro in with the so-called Villains, and Daphne gives him an assignment -- capture NeoIsaac. NeoIsaac, however, with his ability to see the future, is able to bonk Hiro on the head with a shovel, which is hilarious because the last thing Hiro sees before that is a painting of it happening, and the only thing better than that is that it happens again five minutes later. NeoIsaac finally allows Hiro and Ando to find him, and after telling Hiro he relies too much on his powers, he offers to go with Hiro to the Villains if that's what he wants, but suggests he choose his own path. That would be great advice if it weren't Hiro we're dealing with here.
Claire and Sandra try to rescue Meredith from creepy, creepy puppeteer Eric Doyle, who thinks he can make Meredith love him "again," and considering he almost makes her cut open her own carotid artery, he is not kidding around. Sandra and Claire get themselves captured, and he forces the three of them to play a horrific game of Russian roulette. Luckily, Claire's the one who gets shot, and when Doyle starts to gloat, unaware of her regenerative ability, she knocks him out. Bennet turns up to retrieve him, and then asks Meredith for some help, which hopefully means she's joining The Company because she rules and I want her to stick around.
Tracy and Nathan go to see Mohinder in hopes of getting Tracy's ability taken away, but Mohinder is only interested the fact they have synthetic abilities without spider-related side effects, and he incapacitates them for some nefarious purpose. Daphne then shows up to recruit Mohinder, but discovers what he's got going on in the back room and expresses her distaste before superzipping the hell out of there. Tracy tricks Mohinder into letting her partially freeze him, because he's as dumb as Maya, but she and Nathan don't succeed in getting out, which would be a total cliffhanger if I cared one bit about Spider-Mohinder and his weboratory.
Daphne's bummed that Hiro seems to have committed murder, and tells Fake Linderman she wants out of Pinehearst, but he threatens her with unspecified consequences and implies they have something on her, so she goes through with meeting up with Matt, who tells her about them being married in the future. He gives her enough detail to convince her he's telling the truth, which of course freaks her out, but she still swings by The Company and gives Sylar a sales pitch before busting Flint out. As the episode goes on, she gets more and more disillusioned with what Pinehearst is doing, but despite that and the fact that Matt tells her being with Pinehearst gets her killed in the future, she refuses to leave them.
Knox brings Adam to see Papa Petrelli, who unceremoniously and literally sucks the life out of him, healing himself but turning Adam into dust before our eyes, and I will miss David Anders terribly but that was still a pretty dramatic twist. Sylar, meanwhile, wants to be good, although letting Peter loose on the world wouldn't have been the way I would have demonstrated that. Sylar brings Peter to Mama Petrelli, who still seems to be in a waking coma, and asks Peter to look inside her head and find out what's wrong. Peter pulls the Pinehearst logo from her mind, and Sylar recognizes it from the card Daphne gave him. Peter wants to go charging over there, but Sylar is worried about his lack of control, and before you know it, Peter is beating the crap out of his brother and putting him in the coma he was in to start the episode. Well, at least he can't say Sylar didn't have a point. Peter busts into Pinehearst, only to have his father steal all his powers, because that's apparently how he rolls. And while Papa Petrelli seems to be evil incarnate, I still think the world should breathe a sigh of relief.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Before I start, I just want to say that this past Saturday, my friend saw a prominent member of the cast volunteering his or her time to make phone calls on behalf of a particular Presidential candidate. (I, on the other hand, went on Sunday. Life can be so cruel.) For privacy's sake I won't say who it was, but if by some miniscule chance you're reading, I just want to say this: Thanks! You're awesome!
So, two episodes in a row that didn't make me want to kill myself! Seriously, it almost feels like the story is starting to come together. Let's see how it holds up on second viewing...
...as we start with a chyron superimposed onto the foot of Papa Petrelli's bed. We continue with that dreaded combination of Mohinder VO (I'm not bothering with them anymore unless they actually add something -- I took way too long to learn to do that with Augustus Hill as it is) and montage, as we cut to Peter, still in the "medically-induced coma," Mama Petrelli, eyes open, in a coma of more nefarious origins, Matt, arriving back in the States (with the turtle!), Tracy and Nathan clasping hands in the back of his car, Sylar meditating in his cell, and Mohinder in his lab looking at the cocooned Maya. We then get a replay of the final Hiro scene from last week, although after Knox tells him to kill Ando, Daphne gives her blessing to the test, adding, "He'll never do it," which we didn't see from her last week, if memory serves. And speaking of which, here Hiro freezes time, looks around for a moment, and then gets An Idea and pops out of there. I suppose Daphne needs already to be moving to break out of the time freeze, but it would be funny if he popped back to find her there with an expectant look on her face. Not half as funny as what's going to happen with NeoIsaac, though, so let's move on...
...to Hiro arriving in a costume shop and grabbing a collapsible sword and some fake blood...
...and then popping back to the bar, two hours earlier, to talk to Ando, whose eyes go hilariously wide when Hiro appears before him. Hiro takes all of five seconds to stick the fake blood in Ando's shirt, tell him he's going to fake stab him, and assure him it will all make (fake) sense soon enough. Hiro pops out of there before I even get to hear what "I've heard that one before" sounds like in Japanese.
Hiro gets back and unfreezes time, and the rest of the scene plays out as it did last week. Knox tells Hiro he's in, and then instructs Daphne to deal with him, as he's taking Adam to see "the boss." Daphne waits until Knox is gone to berate Hiro for apparently actually killing Ando, and says he's supposed to be a good guy. Believe me, honey, he'll do more for the light if he thinks he's on darkness's team. Hiro says now he's a villain, like she is, to which she takes umbrage, saying she just works for money and no one gets hurt. Sounds like she's advocating for legalized prostitution, but I think the world she lives in has bigger fish to fry at the moment. Hiro snaps that Ando was useless to him (he's actually faking this pretty well here) and demands that Daphne take him to her boss, but she tells him that's not the way it works -- he gets an assignment, just like everyone else. She hands him a folder, and he opens it to find a picture of NeoIsaac, whom Daphne describes as a "precog" -- he can see the future, and whatever he paints comes true. Hiro gets a goofy smile on his face and asks, "Like Mistah Eesock?" Daphne gives the appropriate response: "Whatever." She says that her boss can't have someone like that out there, as said boss himself told Mama Petrelli, so Hiro needs to find him and bring him in -- alive. She adds that it's not easy to catch his kind, and Hiro's dumb enough to have to ask why, so Daphne duhs, "They see you coming." My answer would have been, "Think about it for a second," but from the way Daphne superzips out of there I can tell she's in a hurry. When she's gone, Ando takes a huge breath, saying he thought she'd never leave, and Hiro helps him to his feet: "Now you know how it feels to be killed by your best friend." At least they can laugh about it now. Ando wonders how they're going to catch the precog, but Hiro tells him he can freeze time and space, and the guy is no match for him. Keep talking, dude -- it only makes the bits with the shovel that much more satisfying. Ando declares his intention to change his clothes, and Hiro rolls his eyes before popping them both out of there.
Chez Bennet. Claire comes rushing down the stairs, and when Sandra asks where she's going, she says she has to rescue Meredith, as Doyle is a psycho and she's in real danger. AND CLAIRE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT THE PUPPETS. Sandra says that's cool, but she's going with her, even invoking the "one of us, one of them" rule to strengthen her case. Aw, she's so awesome, and while I loved Season One, an improvement now is that her brain is no longer a Haitian-made colander.
Puppets! Clowns! Freaking me right the hell out! Meredith looks like she can only move her eyes as Doyle and his SUSPENDERS lean in and tell her he's going to make her love him "again." Meredith says she told him "all night long" that she doesn't love him -- in fact, he disgusts her. If she's been sitting there all night, I wonder if he let her go to the bathroom, and if so, what gestures he had to use to get that accomplished. He gets that look psychos get when they're trying to drown out the voices, and tells her that even when he was on Level 5, he knew they'd be together again someday. He then positively simpers as he says he'd like a "destination wedding," and Meredith refrains from making a comment about hell as she says if he doesn't release her, she'll kill him. This gets his back up, and he tells her what we already know, that she can't move unless he makes her move. But this isn't merely a demonstration of his powers for the people that missed last week -- he's making a point to her, as he forces her to pick up a wineglass, shatter it, and hold the jagged remains up in the air. He's sublimely creepy and she's out of her mind with fear as he drops his head in one direction and she's forced to mimic him, (and it really looks like her head is being pulled by some unseen force, which makes the whole thing ten times scarier) which lengthens out her neck right by the wineglass, which he then has move inexorably toward her exposed flesh as she side-eyes the approaching doom and begs him to stop. With the glass now stuck in her neck to the point it's drawing blood, he tells her, without a trace of his earlier cheeriness, that she will love him. "I promise you that." He finally releases her and has her put the glass back on the table, and I hope I didn't miss anything important in that scene because there's no way I'm watching it again.
At Pinehearst (in Fort Lee, NJ, as the chyron tells us), Knox and Adam are walking down a hall, and Adam affably inquires about Knox's power. When he hears what it is, Adam says that he's not afraid...
...but we cut to him getting tossed onto the floor at the feet of Papa Petrelli's bed. Adam looks at Knox and says he's wasting his time, but Knox merely looks ominously in Papa Petrelli's direction, and when Adam gets to his feet and sees who it is, he approaches warily. (By the way, Papa Petrelli is being played by Robert Forster, who has been in a billion things but might be best known for being nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Jackie Brown.) He tells "Arthur" that he heard he was dead, and Papa Petrelli doesn't verbalize a response, but his telepathic answer is probably "That's not a word you should have mentioned." Adam freaks out, and tries to escape, but his fear has made him no match for Knox, who drags him back to Papa Petrelli's bedside. Adam begs for mercy, and says he could be of use to him, and it's a testament to what a great twist this was that I still wasn't sure what was about to happen. But Knox forces Adam's forearm into Papa Petrelli's grip, and Adam seems to age hundreds of years in seconds before literally turning to dust before our eyes. Awesomely, his suit collapses now that his body isn't there to hold it up anymore, and just like that, Papa Petrelli pulls the tubes out of his neck, which instantly heals, and says it's good to breathe again. So Papa Petrelli doesn't merely copy powers, like Peter does, but thieves them permanently. Of course, if he did that to Peter or Claire or Sylar, it wouldn't kill them, because they're not hundreds of years old like Adam was, but it's interesting to know that they could conceivably lose their invulnerability. Anyway, that was really well done, and as I said in the recaplet, I'll miss David Anders, but at least his death was awesome.
In the airport, Daphne is looking at files of Matt and Hiro. She shakes her head and starts to throw them in the trash, but behind her, "Linderman" tells her that would be a mistake, and wonders if they're not paying her enough. She says it's not that, but that Hiro was a good guy, and the fact that they turned him into a murderer is making her feel like she's in over her head, and she can't do it anymore. Linderman, in his typically elliptical way, implies that there would be unpleasant consequences were she to leave, and Daphne winces at the thought of whatever it is they have over her. He suggests that they put this "lapse of judgment" behind them, and if Maury and Linderman hadn't been ElderHeroes together I'd wonder how the hell Maury had him so down pat. Daphne looks balefully at Linderman for a moment, but picks the file back up, and then Linderman points out that Matt has come into view. (I'd love to have heard Matt's conversation with airline officials about the turtle. "He's my totem! You can't charge me for an extra seat!" When Daphne looks back, Linderman is gone, and she gives an "it figures" move that kind of amuses me. She walks by the camera, which lets her go in favor of revealing that Maury has been there the whole time. Well, duh. Meanwhile, Matt is talking to the turtle, who's probably wishing he could move a lot faster, about how he has to find Daphne and blah, so it's nice of her to appear at the bottom of the escalator and cut off the babbling. He happily greets her by name, which confuses her, although possibly not as much as the presence of the turtle. She looks like she's going to ask Linderman for a raise soon, but for the moment suggests she and Matt go somewhere and talk.
Nathan and Tracy show up at Mohinder's door, and we cut to him telling "Niki" that he's glad she's okay, but she should have called, and how hard would it be for her to wear a "Hi! My name is Tracy!" label to preclude any more of this bullshit? Also, Mohinder pulls up his sleeve to cover the fact that his arm has turned as scaly as his back, and I guess it's kind of fitting that his metamorphosis is as plodding as his voiceovers. Nathan and Tracy set Mohinder straight about her identity, and she then demonstrates her icy power and tells Mohinder about Zimmerman giving them the synthetic abilities. Mohinder looks happy enough to spin a little web right there, and asks if there have been any side effects. Not being able to sense when a situation feels out-of-control creepy and wrong seems to be one of them, so I hope their path never crosses Doyle's. Mohinder guesses that Tracy first discovered her ability when she was agitated, and Tracy gets that "I killed a man" face that she really needs to drop, because it was a million years ago and I'm tired of linking to that death scene every single recap. She asks if he can remove the ability, and he non-answers, "I have a feeling we can be of great assistance to each other." The three of them exchange looks, but as far as acting ability goes, this is not exactly the show's first string, so I'll leave it to you to decide what's going through whose mind.
Daphne has given Matt a Pinehearst card, and says they know things about him, especially how he's been waiting his whole life to be somebody. You might have just put your finger on the problem there, hon. Noting her distraction, he opines that she's not buying her own pitch, but she snaps out of it, saying she's just got a lot of appointments that day. He awkwardly asks if the meeting isn't about the two of them, which is enough for her to come back to the fact that he knew her name. He explains about the future he saw, and how happy they were (even going to the dreaded "soulmates" place, ugh) as Daphne makes a series of "oooookay, freak show" faces that seriously crack me up. She says that the situation is "getting kind of stalky," so she's going to go, but just as she superzips away, he calls that they named their baby Daniela -- she zips back -- "after your grandmother." This wigs Daphne out for real, and she asks Matt to wait there for her while she does whatever it is she has to do. He agrees, and she assures him she'll be back before superzipping away. He might be less jazzed if he knew she was going to try to recruit Sylar, but this is what happens when you get zapped off to Africa for several episodes, you know? Also, Matt all but high-fives the turtle, who's probably wishing his lifespan wasn't so goddamned long.
Tracy is asking if Mohinder's sure this is going to work, as he prepares to inject her with something. He's like, sure, totally! And there will be no side effects, such as causing you to pass out so you can be my meal! That definitely will not happen! Nathan and Mohinder babble for a bit about their daddy issues, and then he injects Nathan with whatever it is right before Tracy starts to feel ill. Within seconds, she's passed out, and Nathan starts to feel woozy as well. He lurches forward past Mohinder, and falls through the garbage-bag partition he has up before collapsing face-up on the floor. The last thing he sees is all the cocoon victims, and the last thing that goes through his head before he loses consciousness completely is "I survived getting shot for this?"
Sylar, happily, is still in that grey tank top, looking out the window of his cell, when Daphne suddenly superzips in. I thought Level 5 had a dampening field, but I now see it actually has a shmampening field, which is a lot less predictable. Sylar's startled, but she tells him they have to go, as the guards will be there in a few seconds. He refuses her offer, though, which she wasn't expecting, so she tells him her boss wants to work with him, because he's a killer, and "for some reason you're important to him." Sylar takes offense, saying he's not a killer anymore, before using his power to hold her up against the wall. She protests that she's on his side. "Can't you see they're trying to change you in here? Make you into something that you're not?" He growls that she doesn't know anything about him, but she fearfully counters that the man she works for does, and he wants Sylar the way he is. Sylar's anger gives way to confusion, and he releases Daphne, who superzips over and puts a card in his hand before pausing outside the window, where Flint has been standing the whole time. She tells Sylar it's so he'll know where to find them, and then takes Flint by the arm and superzips out of there. So she can convey other people along with her. Interesting. Sylar contemplates his move...
...which is to wake Peter up. I think he could have stood to mull this over a little longer, but that's just me. Sylar frees Peter from his restraints, and he immediately starts bitching Sylar out for giving him the hunger, as if (a) it wasn't Future Sylar that did it, and (b) you didn't BEG HIM FOR IT, DOUCHEBAG. God, I hate Peter. Sylar and his rather pronounced upper chest (someone's well acquainted with the incline bench) say that they don't want to be killers anymore, and Peter circles him warily as he remembers that when he saw Sylar in the future, he'd changed, and figured out how to suppress it. "How?" THIS ISN'T THE SAME SYLAR OH MY GOD SHUT UP! Sylar finally gets Peter on point by saying that their mother is in trouble, although he doesn't add, "You know, the one you almost killed?"
Hiro and Ando pop up in Africa, with NeoIsaac's paintings littering the landscape, and when Hiro sees the one of Matt holding Dead Daphne in his arms, he muses that he looks familiar. Ando: "They all look the same to me." Ando, you know I love you, but I could hear the THUNK! from that one all the way from the Sahara. Hiro mildly says that's racist, but Ando has a bigger problem -- he doesn't like the idea of kidnapping an innocent man. Hiro thinks they're just "borrowing" him, although if he'd seen how Knox "borrowed" Adam he might feel differently, and then tells Ando to sneak around the back while he goes in front. Inside the hut, Hiro amusingly called to "Mistah African Eesock?" but there's no reply, so he looks around and sees many paintings, including one of the destruction of Costa Verde, before coming on one of a bald man hitting a guy with glasses on the head with a shovel. He opines that it's odd, but when he touches it and feels wet paint, realization dawns, and he turns -- and gets bonked on the head by NeoIsaac. Ha! He drops like a lead balloon.
Claire and Sandra are sitting outside "Doyle's Marionette Theatre" (shudder) as Sandra points out that Meredith said she knew Doyle, and wonders if they should give her more time. Claire, however, says that Meredith isn't answering her phone, and pulls out a taser she got from Bennet's closet. I hope Claire has better luck with this one, because those things are expensive and I can't imagine The Company giving Bennet an infinite supply. Sandra thinks they should call Bennet, but Claire doesn't want him there, and gets out of the car and marches toward the door. Sandra rushes after her and tells her they need a plan, so I guess the "us" in this particular equation are sensible people, and the "them" are teenagers.
Inside, Doyle and Meredith are dancing, and he compliments her grace (heh, given that he's moving her) before he hears a bell indicating a customer. He looks warily at Meredith and asks if she told anyone she was there, but she swears she didn't, and he seems to believe her. He does, however, use a finger gesture to shut her mouth tight, and even though the accompanying sound of the squeaky hinges is kind of over the top, I'll forgive the Foley guys for having some fun here.
Doyle comes out and greets Sandra very brusquely, and Sandra stammers that she'd like to book a birthday party for her son, Lyle. "He's six, and he just loves puppets!" I don't know which part of that Lyle would be more offended by. Doyle says he doesn't do parties anymore, but he changes his tune when Sandra pulls out a wad of large-denomination bills. He gives her a form to fill out and bring back, but she pulls out a pen and says she'll do it there. With an effort, he agrees, but the charade goes to shit when they hear a loud noise come from within. Sandra tries to get the hell out of there, but Doyle stops her with a hand, and then creepily rotates her around to face him, like she's standing on a large turntable. He steps forward, eyes blazing, and asks who she is. Take your time to come up with a good lie, Sandra -- we've got a commercial break now, and it sure doesn't look like you're going anywhere.
So after the break, we see that the noise occurred because Doyle had some stuff in front of the door, probably purposely meant to be a makeshift alarm. Claire calls to the still-immobilized Meredith to come with her, like THAT WOULDN'T HAVE OCCURRED TO HER ON HER OWN, and also, you read the freaking file, didn't you? Anyway, when she doesn't respond, Claire rushes over to her and says they have to get out of there. Meredith desperately tries to convey with her eyes what's going on, but it's too late, as Doyle is already returning with Sandra in tow. Claire points her weapon and orders him to let Sandra and Meredith go, but Doyle's like, "Uh, no," and moves her arm to point harmlessly away from him. He somewhat languidly notes that these tasers just have one shot, and then causes Claire to discharge it into a marionette. Like those things didn't have to dance enough as it is. He keeps Claire frozen in place as he looks around amiably. "That's much better." Other than the fact that there's one less puppet to freak me out, I can't say as I really see that.
Ando wakes Hiro up, and after clutching his head for a moment, Hiro says it's going to be very difficult to catch NeoIsaac. Because Daphne was really unclear on that point. Ando suggests Hiro pop back to a minute before he hit him, and he could hide behind the rock outside and grab him. Hiro says he swore never to go back in time again, like HE DIDN'T JUST DO THAT, as Ando points out and asks, "It's just one minute. What could it hurt?" At least no one's here to make dumb comments about the butterfly effect, thank God. Hiro's convinced, and pops out...
...to "One Minute Before Hiro Got Hit," as the chyron tells us. Hee. This episode is managing not to take itself that seriously, which is such a huge plus I cannot even tell you. Hiro sees himself walking into the hut, but then focuses on another painting -- of NeoIsaac coming up behind him with the shovel. Hiro doesn't even turn this time, just saying "Oh, no" before getting bopped on the head again. HA! Hiro lies there, but he retains just enough consciousness to see NeoIsaac bonk his other self on the head before he passes out. Hee. I don't think that all made sense from a time-travel perspective, but wow, do I not care.
Daphne zips into the airport, takes a look at Matt sitting there like a giant loser, and then zips off again. Waiting his whole life to be somebody, you say?
Daphne's stop is Mohinder's weboratory, and when he opens the door, she demonstrates her power by zipping past him. She gives him a quick pitch, saying Pinehearst wants access to his research and contacts, and tells him "they've already figured out how to do the thing you're trying to do." If that's the case, they're going to put Oil Of Olay out of business. No, Daphne clarifies that she means giving people abilities, and they and Mohinder can be of mutual help. She gives him a card, but then hears a noise from the other room, and doesn't wait for an invitation to check it out. Her eyes go wide when she sees Tracy and Nathan on gurneys and all the cocoons, but although Tracy asks her to help them, she reemerges in disgust: "Great. You're just as bad as the rest of them." And you haven't really even seen him act yet. He tries to grab her, but she zips away, and he's left looking at the Pinehearst card in his hand.
Hiro comes to, again, and gets to his feet. He sees his past? Future? self pop out, and then goes up to Ando and tells him in frustration that time travel won't work with this guy, so they need to... hide and wait for him to get back. Ando rolls his entire torso along with his eyes.
Oh, dear. Doyle's got the three prisoners seated around a table with a gun atop it, and you don't have to be a genius to figure this is going to be Russian roulette or some variation thereof. I wonder if he'll make the puppets play too. Claire vehemently starts to ask what he wants, but Doyle cracks me up: "What I want, Barbie, is not to be interrupted." Hee. Introducing Regenerative Barbie! You'll never have to worry about broken-off arms or legs again! Doyle goes on that since she's so eager, she can take the first spin, and when the gun ends up pointing between Sandra and Meredith, he tells her she has to choose whom to shoot. Horrified, she says she can't, but he makes her raise the gun, although at the moment it's still pointed between her mothers. Sandra tells him to leave her alone, and he snaps in response, "What are you, her mother?" Sandra doesn't reply, but her eyes say, "Yer darn tootin'," which delights Doyle to no end. He asks who, then, Meredith is in the equation. "Sexy, free spirit...oh! You're the fun aunt, right?" The thought of Meredith and Sandra growing up together is almost enough to take me out of this scene entirely. But not quite, as Doyle has Claire point the gun at Sandra, who keeps her composure admirably, and then Meredith, who promises she'll love Doyle forever. I think she's trying to save all their skins, not just her own, but it's irrelevant, as he doesn't believe her, and he forces Claire to pull the trigger -- but it's a blank. After some funny, "oh, shoot" faces from him, Doyle says it's Sandra's turn to spin, and this time, the gun ends up pointing squarely at Claire. This is of course the outcome the three of them are hoping for, but Doyle doesn't know that, so he tells "Barbie" (still funny) that these might be her final words, so she should make them count. Sandra and Claire both cry as Claire says it's okay -- she can't fight it, so she should do what she needs to do. "Pull the trigger." Sandra finally says she will, and shoots a blank -- and a blank -- and then the real thing, sending Claire falling to the floor. Doyle's pleased as punch as he stands over her "corpse," but when he turns back and starts gloating about how fun that was, Claire bonks him on the head from behind. Too bad NeoIsaac wasn't around to let him know that was coming. Claire: "Show's over." I think Rainier Wolfcastle should sue, because that definitely sounds like something he would say. Still: Badass Barbie! Coming soon to a store near you!
Sylar and Peter are standing over Mama Petrelli, and Sylar haltingly takes her hand as he says he found her like this, in some sort of coma. Peter dismissively? Disgustedly? Interestedly? notes that Sylar actually cares about her, and Sylar agrees: "She's the only person who ever accepted me for what I am." To be fair, more people might have accepted you if you hadn't cut their heads open. Sylar expresses regret that he failed to protect her before asking Peter to look inside her mind and figure out what's wrong. I guess he figures he'll stop Peter in time if he gets all slicey-slicey again. In any case, Peter Blue Steels his mom until an image leaps out at him, causing him to stagger backwards. Sylar asks what he saw, and Peter apparently isn't familiar with the term "double helix," so he grabs a pen and paper and draws the Pinehearst logo, which he says he's seen before. Sylar produces the card Daphne gave him: "So have I."
Doyle's still lying unconscious on the floor when someone crouches over him and uses what looks like some kind of dart gun to inject something into the back of his head. It's Bennet, who mildly says it ought to keep him down for a little while. Speaking of which, I doubt Bennet was around the corner, so how did they ensure that Doyle wouldn't wake up, an eventuality they couldn't risk? Did they rotate kicking him in the head every ten minutes? Or did Meredith even let the others have a turn? Meredith tells Claire she saved them and was amazing: "You may have got your genes from me, but you got your heart from your mom." Aw, but I still give Meredith a lot of credit for going after Doyle knowing exactly what she was dealing with. You can have two awesome moms, Claire! This is the new millennium! Bennet steps forward and is pleased to learn Claire's role in the capture. "That's very impressive, sweetheart." Claire just looks at him disdainfully and walks off without a word, probably to text Sylar like "You're not going to believe what User Dad just had the nerve to say to me!" Sandra tells Bennet she'll talk to her and follows, leaving Bennet to muse wistfully that Claire has the wrong idea about him. Meredith says Claire's a young woman now, and wants to be on her own. "She doesn't need you, or me, to protect her." Bennet concedes the point, but says there are a lot more people like Doyle out there. "I could use some help." Meredith asks if he means from Claire, but he turns to her and says no. "From you." Yes! Not that Bennet and Sylar weren't a hoot and a half, but that partnership was about as stable as Brigitte Bardot, and besides, I think Meredith (well, Jessalyn Gilsig, really) is great. Plus, Bennet doesn't even know about her fireboarding technique. That could come in handy!
Peter's Blue Steeling his way down the hall as Sylar tries to get him not to rush half-cocked over to Pinehearst. He gets in front of Peter and tells him, "The need for power will consume you; it will control you." Sylar's starting to sound like a Jedi, which puts this thought in my head: How much better would the last Star Wars trilogy have been if Zach Quinto had been Anakin instead of Hayden Christensen? Is there math that's even adequate to make that calculation? Sylar tells Peter he needs help, but Peter growls that he doesn't need anything from him, and flies right at his brother, going through a set of double doors until they crash into the wall. Quinto's double is clearly visible at the moment of impact, but other than that the effect was very well done there. Sylar TKs Peter down the hall and says he's not going to let him go down that path, but he's at a disadvantage in that he doesn't actually want to hurt Peter, whereas the converse clearly isn't true. You could argue that he should want to hurt Peter -- and if you don't, I will -- but that's not really relevant here. Peter zaps Sylar long and hard with Elle's electrical power, which incapacitates him enough for Peter to start whaling on him with his fists and Niki's strength. Peter says Sylar's too weak to stop him, and it's difficult to argue, because at the moment, Sylar looks like he'd fit right in with Doyle's marionettes. Peter concludes by saying he's the most special, another statement that's hard to argue but not for the reasons he thinks, and knocking Sylar out with one last punch...
...and then putting him in the "medically induced" coma. His apparent hatred of his brother doesn't stop him from laying his hands all over his chest, but as I said, it's a pretty nice one, and also, as we well know, that's how it is in their family.
In the weboratory, Tracy tells Mohinder that she knows what he's thinking -- he didn't mean for any of this to happen, and when he tries to fix things, they just get worse. She's caught Mohinder in a vulnerable moment, and he confesses that things got out of control. Maya and the Abuser Neighbor are like, "You THINK?" He goes on that all of this was so unnecessary, and Maya was right. "I am a monster." Tracy offers that maybe they all are, and she understands. She rotates her cuffed wrist so her hand opens invitingly toward him, and he takes it with a small smile. And then things get awesome, as her face suddenly hardens and she tightens her grip and freezes his entire arm before he pulls away in pain. That totally rocked, because I was so tired of her whining about that guy, but to use that angst as a ruse to connect with Mohinder and then turn on him was truly inspired. Anyway, she freezes and then breaks her cuffs, and quickly releases herself and then Nathan, who seems worse for wear than she does, but suddenly a table goes flying by their heads at great speed, and although they duck out of its way, they turn back to find Mohinder standing there menacingly. "We're not finished here." You are for this episode, and that's all I care about at the moment.
Matt is still talking to the turtle, who must have thought of eighty-seven different ways to kill himself at this point, and then decides to leave, but Daphne finally shows up and awkwardly tells him she's supposed to recruit him, but she thinks he wouldn't fit in at Pinehearst, as the people there and the things they do -- "they're not good people." And she didn't even see what happened to Adam. She tells Matt he needs to stay away from them, so he's forced to tell her she needs to do the same, or in the future, she'll die. "That's why I wanted to find you. To save you." He doesn't give her the bright side, which is that her hair is under a lot better control a few years from now. Daphne's skeptical, as Matt's power has nothing to do with second sight, but when he tells her about meeting NeoIsaac, she's convinced he's telling the truth. However, she informs him she doesn't have a choice about going back to them, and besides, she's not sure if she can trust Matt. Matt asks what her heart is telling her to do, which threatens to give me acid reflux, but Daphne saves the day: "The same as it always does. Keep moving too fast to get caught." Matt asks what they have over her, and it's considerate of him not to yank the answer from her mind, before saying he can protect her. I don't know what he's basing that on, and neither does Daphne, who demurs before superzipping out of there. We don't get a reaction shot of the turtle, but I'd imagine he's rolling his eyes something fierce.
It's nighttime in Africa, and from behind a rock, Hiro and Ando note that NeoIsaac is now home, so they head in to confront him, with Hiro grabbing the shovel on the way. Inside, they find NeoIsaac warming his hands over a fire. Hiro moves to bonk him on the head, but without turning, NeoIsaac congratulates him on using his head, as he normally relies on his powers far too much. "You started to think. That's when you found me." Hiro cottons on that this was a test, and NeoIsaac confirms that, saying now he's ready. He points their attention to a painting on the wall, saying the faces it depicts are the villains he seeks. There are four of them, with the Pinehearst logo in the center. The bottom two are clearly Knox and Flint, and the one on the upper left looks like Papa Petrelli, although half his face looks like that of Iron Man. The one on the upper right is a swarthy fellow with a goatee that I'm not sure we've seen before. The eyebrows say Sylar, but nothing else does. NeoIsaac says these are the villains Hiro seeks, and he can take him to them, or he can follow his own path. It would be pretty funny if Hiro chose this moment to bonk him on the head with the shovel, but we certainly got plenty of mileage out of that joke, so let's end the scene with a painting of Peter embracing an unknown man (I'm too close to the finish line; insert your own joke)...
...before Peter materializes in the Pinehearst courtyard to dramatic music. He marches up to the door, turning invisible as he goes. You'd think he would have become invisible before he teleported, just in case there was any security out there, but then the dramatic music might have been a little confused about its purpose in the scene.
Inside, Papa Petrelli is sipping a drink when Flint, Daphne, Knox, and Maury enter. Peter then busts in, hands electrified, to which Flint answers by firing up his own weapons. Papa Petrelli turns to his son, though, who looks shocked? Scared? Angry? as he asks how this is possible. Papa Petrelli says it's a long story, and repeats that sentiment when Peter asks if he's the one that hurt Mama Petrelli. He asks for a hug, and Peter's wary but submits, upon which Papa Petrelli apologizes that it had to come to this. He sucks something out of Peter, who yells in agony before tumbling to the floor. He tries to zap his father, but nothing happens, and Papa Petrelli says he doesn't have his powers anymore. He holds up a crackling hand: "Because I have them now." Well, at least you don't have that blasted hunger to deal with anymore, right, Peter? Also: HA HA HA! That RULED! Suck it, jerk!
time looks pretty good too, as it's all about the Petrellis. (Hey, I like most of them!)
John Ramos is a writer and producer living in Los Angeles. You can reach him at couchbaron@gmail.com.
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