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Lots of scenes this week, which is typical, but things actually happened in most of them, which is less so. In Africa, Ando convinces Hiro to go back in time, but Hiro's a total prick about the idea, so NeoIsaac gives him some drugs or something instead for a spirit walk. That happened in two scenes that bookended the episode, though, so we won't know what Hiro sees for a while.
Mohinder apparently still wants to help Maya, so he spider-kidnaps her and takes her to Pinehearst, where Papa Petrelli steals her power. Maya is still pissed at Mohinder for the cocoon thing, though, so Papa Petrelli shows him their version of the formula and asks him for aid in perfecting it. Mohinder suspects a hidden agenda, but still agrees to help so he can retain his abilities without turning into a spider or whatever. He apologizes to Maya before she leaves to make amends for everything she's done, hopefully permanently off-screen. Meanwhile, Nathan and Tracy are hanging out in the weboratory waiting for help when Bennet and Meredith show up, and Meredith's casual dismissal of Nathan's apparent new squeeze is hilarious.
Elle shows up to the Bennet house asking for Claire's help, as her powers are out of control and she's in constant agony. She tells Claire she got recruited for Pinehearst, but she was wary of their pitch, so she was looking to see if Bennet could provide some answers. Claire, however, thinks Pinehearst might be able to help, so she and Elle head off together. On the plane, however, Elle's power freaks out, and it looks like they're going down until Claire has the bright idea to act as a human lightning rod. If you're a straight guy and totally desperate, it might have seemed somewhat Sapphic.
Papa Petrelli tells Daphne to kill Matt, and when Maury voices opposition to the idea, Papa Petrelli breaks his neck. Daphne shows up to Matt's and points a gun at him, but she can't go through with it, and he then learns via his power about his dad's death. Knox then shows up and kills the both of them -- only what he saw was an illusion created by Matt. Matt then has the idea to approach The Company for help against Pinehearst. The twist, however, is that this was all part of Daphne's plan to make Matt trust her without having to kill him. She must really think Matt's a horrible psychic if she expects to keep her duplicity from him, but we already knew she was pretty smart.
In their dream state, Mama Petrelli tells Sylar to help Peter, and also that he's more powerful than even he realizes. Her words penetrate, as Sylar awakens and escapes the prison Peter put him in last week. At Pinehearst, Papa Petrelli tells Peter he's working for the greater good, but Peter informs him he's going to make him pay for everything he's done. Papa Petrelli reacts by turning Peter over to Mohinder as a test subject, but Sylar turns up in time to save his brother. Mohinder, enraged, attacks and subdues Sylar, but Peter manages to escape. Papa Petrelli tells Sylar that Mama Petrelli is using him, and that she, having seen a vision of what Sylar would become, tried to murder him as an infant. Peter returns to try to rescue Sylar, but Sylar responds by TKing him out a window down to the street, and while that was poor repayment for one of Peter's nobler instincts it was still pretty hilarious. Peter survives the fall, though, while Elle, hearing that Papa Petrelli can steal powers, rushes inside to try to relieve the pain. Claire calls Nathan, and after she gets Peter to safety, he figures out that Sylar was putting on an act and used his power to slow Peter's fall, ensuring that he'd survive, presumably as a way of making their dad trust him. Nathan and Tracy then show up, and when Nathan hears that their dad is alive, he goes charging over to Pinehearst with Tracy in tow. So there's a lot going on at Pinehearst, but we'll have to wait to find out how it all plays out.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We start "Somewhere in Africa," the vagueness of which is probably a safety measure against this particular region getting a lot of mail complaining about it hosting boring storylines. Ando is pointing out disturbing paintings of the villains and saying Hiro needs to go back in time to figure out how to defeat them, but Hiro's whining about how he'll only make things worse. He's probably right, and yet I still want to hit him on the head with a shovel. Ando points out that Hiro saw the end of the world in the future, so perhaps "making things worse" is really off the table. I suppose you could argue that a world enslaved is worse than no world at all, but I'm surprised someone doesn't point out that last week, NeoIsaac told Hiro that he relies on his powers too much. NeoIsaac: "Evil forces gather. The dark sun rises. Soon, it will be too late. Will you choose your own path, or will you have it chosen for you?" Forgive me for answering a question with a question, but what the hell are you talking about? Hiro swivels his head like a bespectacled praying mantis to regard another painting...
...which depicts the scene we fade to , as Mohinder "menacingly" tells Tracy and Nathan that they've ruined everything. He leans forward, but Tracy tells him not to approach, and frosts up her hands to show she means business. Despite the fact that Nathan was acting like a concussion victim at the end of last week's episode, he seems fine, as he asks what happened in the weboratory. Mohinder says he's trying to remove Maya's abilities, and since their abilities are synthetic, they were ideal test subjects, and by the way, would it be cool if he took just one more sample? Nathan gruffly says no, so Mohinder jumps the length of the lab over to Maya's cocoon, easily rips it open (remember how strong that stuff is), puts her over his shoulder, and jumps straight up through the skylight and out of sight. Nathan's like, "Honey, I know that was hot, but I can do the same thing. Any time. You just let me know." The camera pans down past a table...
...to Peter, who's lying unconscious. We go into his head, and see him getting dressed up in his apartment when there's a knock on the door. It's Nathan, who tells him their dad had a heart attack that morning and died. Creepy visual shifting and dissonant music plays, so it's not clear if this is an accurate memory or what, but after a couple quick shots of Papa Petrelli hooked up to those breathing tubes, we see the funeral, where Mama Petrelli tells Peter that Papa Petrelli was "deeply flawed in ways you will never know." Well, there's another prediction she got wrong. We see a photo of Papa Petrelli to an urn containing "his" ashes, and if that means some hospital or crematorium worker just happened to go missing recently, I don't want to know about it. Shot of Papa Petrelli lying in the bed with his eyes open and evil, then of Peter seeing him last week for the first time, bed, evil eyes, Nathan saying "Dad's dead" for the twenty-eighth time in as many seconds, Papa Petrelli stealing Peter's powers...
...and then Peter wakes up, with his right wrist handcuffed to the hospital bed he's on. On the one hand, this seems unnecessary, because Peter without any powers is about as threatening to the Villains as a three-day-old puppy. Against that, however, is the fact that Peter's a dick, so it's hilarious. Papa Petrelli, who's been enjoying a good book while waiting for Peter to wake up, cautions his son to take it easy, as his body is still in shock. So I guess his body waited for Papa Petrelli to make the announcement that he'd stolen his powers before giving in to said shock. Unless he was referring to the shock from the actual announcement, but while it was both surprising and upsetting for him I still don't think it was anything for a grown man to swoon over. Papa Petrelli tells Peter he gave him no choice but to steal his powers (...okay?) and they're gone forever. Obviously, he could be lying or mistaken, but for now Peter concentrates on the questions of why Papa Petrelli is (a) alive, and (b) "preaching to some supervillain gang." Papa Petrelli says he's had to make hard choices for the greater good, and with everyone claiming such noble intentions, if someone were to come along all "I'm evil! Mwa ha ha ha ha!" it would not only be a refreshing change, but might actually bode better for the world. Peter Angry Blue Steels about the future he saw, and Papa Petrelli asks for Peter's help in ensuring that reality never comes to pass. Peter, however, isn't interested, saying he's going to make Papa Petrelli pay for everything he's ever done, prompting Papa Petrelli to start to head out of the room, but then turn back: "Son, until you change that attitude... you're grounded." He does not then grab a cane and hat and do a vaudeville dance out of the room, but it sure would have been appropriate off that line.
At night, Claire and Sandra return home, running over a chyron with the episode title on their driveway. Obviously those things aren't union. Sandra asks if Claire is okay, and Claire says she thinks she is. "Is that weird?" Not as weird as your mom letting you drive her car home, at least in my experience. Claire gives us a little run-down of recent events, like, I'm right here, and Sandra tells her it's amazing how she handles herself, and she's very proud. Aw. When they get out, though, they notice the lights flickering, and I think this would actually have been a very cool reveal if they hadn't tipped us off by showing Elle in the previouslies. I mean, these kinds of decisions are tough for the networks, I'm sure, but I've been following the ratings enough to know that new viewers are flocking to this show like rats to a sinking ship, so maybe take a chance that the stray channel surfer will be able to keep up and give the rest of us an actual surprise, right? Anyway, inside, the lights continue to flicker as Claire sees Lyle unconscious on the floor. She rushes over as he stirs, and asks if he's okay, and he groggily nods: "The bitch is back." Aw, that's got to be a little nostalgic shout-out to Veronica Mars. Because, of course, when Claire walks over to the study, she finds Elle, electricity crackling all around her. She smirks, "Hey, cheerleader," and Claire looks like, "Well, great, but at least there are no puppets." Title card.
Claire tells Elle to get the hell out, but Elle responds by shooting her in the chest with her electricity -- to no effect, much to her chagrin and Claire's smug delight. Claire then literally grabs Elle by the hair and starts to drag her out of there, but Elle kicks her to the floor and tries zapping her again -- but Lyle pours a bucket of water on her from behind, causing her powers to freak out some more and her to scream in pain. If her powers have been on the fritz since Sylar's attack, though, I'd expect her hair to be a lot greasier. Elle slumps down in a corner and miserably apologizes, and says she needs help. "And I didn't know where else to go." Claire's face: "Exactly how much thought did you give that question?"
In an establishing shot of Pinehearst, people walk around blissfully. Do employees of an evil organization really get to go out to lunch? Inside, Mohinder is watching the unconscious Maya through a glass when Papa Petrelli appears and introduces himself. Mohinder is surprised? Appalled? Intrigued? as he notes that everyone thinks Papa Petrelli is dead, and wonders what could "drive a father to put his children through such grief?" I don't get the sense the Petrelli boys were all that broken up about it, but Papa Petrelli goes for the funny: "Have you met their mother?" Heh. He asks how Maya is, and Mohinder tells him she's terrified, as she thinks Mohinder's a monster and also has no idea where she is. Pointedly, he adds, "Nor do I, for that matter," so Papa Petrelli assures him he's among friends. Mohinder says he'd do anything to keep his promise to Maya, saying nothing about the giant spider in the room, so Papa Petrelli smiles that Mohinder merely has to watch. He enters the room and puts his hands on Maya, who wakes up and, understandably terrified, gets the black eyes of death, but Papa Petrelli is probably impervious to her attack now that he's immortal, and anyway, in a moment, she's smiling in disbelief as her power flows out of her. Papa Petrelli looks at Mohinder with black, impassive eyes, and when they turn back to normal, he regards Maya, who's almost crying with joy. There's none of the shock that Peter experienced, but as I pointed out that seems to be a delayed reaction anyway. (To be fair, Maya had one power and Peter dozens, so maybe it logically should have been tougher for him.) Mohinder happily enters, but Maya snaps for him to get away from her. Mohinder's like, "What about your cocoon experience was unpleasant? Talk to me! I need feedback!"
Soon after, Mohinder and Papa Petrelli are doing the master-shot-walk-down-a-hallway as Papa Petrelli assures him that there's no trace of Maya's ability left: "I take it all. I leave nothing behind." Sounds like he might have been working for AIG during his "dead" period. Mohinder asks if he could do the same for him, but clarifies that basically, he wants to stop the spider stuff from progressing while still retaining the super-strength and agility and all that good stuff. Papa Petrelli merely smirks, like, "So you keep all the sweet pros of being a spider and I'll just grow eight legs and start shooting webbing out of my ass. Great deal for me! Shut up, Mohinder." Instead of saying this, however, he merely leads Mohinder into a lab wherein, displayed on some large computer screens, are some scientific formulas and a representation of a double helix. Mohinder notes that while the formula is similar to the one he came up with, there are some differences. "These protein links are enmeshed!" He asks if it's been successful, and Papa Petrelli replies that they've taken it as far as they can, and now they need him. "If you can make our version of the formula successful, a fresh injection might be exactly what you need." Mohinder sticks out his chin and says he's been down this road before, and there's always a hidden agenda. So you're saying you don't believe they did all this work on the formula so you could come along, finish it, and fix a condition of yours that they just found out about. Good work, Nancy Drew! Papa Petrelli offers Mohinder the exit as an alternative, so Mohinder, after fifty years, says he'll need test subjects. He doesn't mention that one of his recent said subjects was one of Papa Petrelli's sons, but given what Papa Petrelli's about to do to Peter, he needn't have bothered with the discretion.
At Primatech, Mama Petrelli is still unconscious, but from the jump cuts to her brain-activity monitor, we get the sense that her mind is about to accomplish something. Cut to Sylar, who's also still in a coma, and maybe that's what makes it possible for them to communicate, because presently, we see Mama Petrelli standing over him. He sits up and asks "Mama" how she can be there, but she doesn't waste time indulging silly questions, instead telling him that Peter needs his help. Sylar tells her that Peter thinks he's a killer, but she instructs him to stop with the self-pity and get out of the cell. He points out that his abilities are being blocked, but she triumphantly points out that she's there, isn't she? "Oh, Gabriel. You don't know the half of what you're capable of. Show them. Show them all why you're my favorite. Make Mommy proud." Every time she talks like this, it sends Friday The Thirteenth chills down my spine. Anyway, in the real world, Sylar wakes up, TKs off his restraints, and blows the door off its hinges. I guess when the power-dampening fails, it really fails. Cut to Sylar giving his mother a kiss and telling her not to worry -- he'll save Peter. It doesn't happen often, but I still hate it when Sylar makes me root against him.
The situation at the Bennet house has become less, um, charged, and after Claire asks Elle if she's okay, she responds that she's leaving. However, her powers spaz out again, prompting Claire to ask, "Is there something wrong with you?" Claire, go over and stand with Hiro and Mohinder for a while, would you? I want to have a tidy lineup for the Captain Obvious contest. Elle explains that her power is out of control, and she can't eat or sleep. She goes on that "this girl" (Daphne, of course) tried to recruit her to Pinehearst, saying they know what's wrong with her and how to fix it, but she was wary, never having heard of them, so she thought she would ask Bennet for advice before doing anything else. Claire, however, stares at the Pinehearst card and barely listens, before saying that maybe there's something wrong with all of them, and they can fix it. Elle opines that Claire is fine. "You're perfect!" Claire demurs, however, telling Elle about how she can no longer feel pain. "And I think it's only a matter of time before I can't feel anything at all." Elle is like, oh, I'm soooo sorry: "My body is screaming. I'm in agony. And your brother threw water on me and made me cry." Claire invites Elle to come with her to Pinehearst, and Elle, after a moment, stands. "All right, Dorothy. We're off to see the wizard." I'd suggest you take along the people on this show who need brains. You could get the group rate!
Daphne enters the Pinehearst conference room to find the Villains waiting for her, and they're not pleased, given her failure to recruit Matt. Just out of curiosity, when did Maury drop the Linderman act with Daphne? Anyway, she says that Matt wasn't buying, pointing out that he's a mind reader, which is a misstep on her part, as Papa Petrelli steps forward and asks if there was something in her mind that would have discouraged him from joining her. She tries to claim that isn't what she meant, but Knox, who's come up close behind her, reveals that she's scared. Daphne swallows and asks how she can fix this, so Papa Petrelli tells her to revisit Matt -- and kill him. Maury, however, is not on board with this, saying he only gave Papa Petrelli his loyalty in exchange for Matt's safety. Daphne also protests that she's no killer, but she's the only one, as when Maury starts to say that without him, Papa Petrelli would still be in that bed, Papa Petrelli waves his hand and telekinetically snaps Maury's neck. Somewhere, Malcolm McDowell is like, "Great, now how am I going to get work on this show?" But it's either interesting or stupid -- not sure which yet -- that of the five so-called "Villains" from Mama Petrelli's first vision this season, two are now dead. Daphne, now out of her mind with fear, says there has to be another way, and Papa Petrelli impassively gives her the commercial break to sweat it out.
Claire is packing as Sandra snipes that Claire doesn't know anything about the place, and besides, the name "sounds like a dishwashing liquid." It's a nonsensical line, and yet Ashley Crow's impotent disdain made me giggle. She says she needs to call Bennet, but Claire begs her not to, although she does at least concede that she knows Bennet loves her. "But there's something inside of me, and it's broken. And he can't fix it." She goes on that she knows she can't trust Elle generally, but they have a common goal. Sandra: "If she gives you any lip, you just toss a glass of water on her." Unless you're thirty thousand feet up, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Also: Aw! Claire smiles.
Matt is leaving a message for Mohinder (he lets us know that in show time, the season has been going on for all of one week. It's almost too easy to point out that it's seemed longer, no?) There's then a knock on the door and Matt, who's faced numerous really evil villains and ALSO IS A COP, answers the door without finding out who it is first. The good news is that it's Daphne; the bad news is that she's leveling a gun at him. She enters and closes the door, and on the verge of hysterics, tells him the Pinehearst people think she warned him off, and now if she doesn't kill him, she'll pay with her life. You'd think at this moment Matt might take control of her mind, but instead he seems to get An Idea, and tells her to shoot him -- it's the only way he can save her life. Matt, just because you saw it work for Claire is no reason to play the hero here. Daphne tells him she knows he thinks she's worth saving, but she's done some bad things. Considering she keeps insisting she's a thief and not a killer, I wonder what she could have done that's quite that terrible, but in any case she tells him to turn around. He complies, but tells her again how they get married in the future, and start a family. "We're gonna love each other." He stands, awaiting his fate, and then there's a loud noise -- but it's the gun clattering to the floor. She tells him she's sorry, which seems odd for a second, but she goes on that there was nothing she could do, and, horrified, he finally reads her mind -- and learns of his dad's death. He doesn't bother wondering how Maury escaped from the prison he put him in, but I'd still like to know at some point even though it seems irrelevant now.
Papa Petrelli and a couple security goons (like he really needs them) go in to see Peter, who tries to attack his dad with the side piece to the bed he apparently managed to break off and slide the cuffs off of, but Papa Petrelli harmlessly telekinetically swats it away with a wave of his hand. The goons grab him, and Papa Petrelli indignantly notes that Peter isn't going to help him, like, duh. Peter yells that Papa Petrelli thinks he can do whatever he wants and that he's better than everyone, and Papa Petrelli replies, "I am better, Peter. It's not a belief, it's a fact." Well, I'm glad we cleared that up. He adds that one way or another, Peter will help him, and gestures for the toughs to take him away...
...strapped to a gurney, into Mohinder's lab. Mohinder tells Peter that his metabolism is primed to accept abilities (...whatever) so he's an ideal test case. Peter informs him that in the future, Mohinder told him that this manipulation of abilities was a mistake, so Mohinder urgently asks him what he looks like in the future. Peter considers the question, and then tells Mohinder there was something wrong with him, and that he'd changed. "You looked like a monster." Mohinder is like, "It never ends well when people call me that." He moves to inject Peter with whatever, and Peter is horrified as he notices the scales or whatever on Mohinder's arm, but suddenly the needle goes flying, and Sylar conversationally offers, "Hello, Mohinder," before sending him flying into the wall. At least he was polite about it. Sylar then impales the non-speaking lab coat before freeing Peter, who's amazed that Sylar came for him. Sylar says that's what brothers do, but brothers also apparently forget when there's an enemy at their backs, as Mohinder recovers and wrestles Sylar to the floor and starts bashing his head repeatedly into it, apparently still kind of pissed over Sylar killing his father. Boy, Sylar has been through the wringer since he got Claire's power, huh? He's been shot, had his neck snapped, and this is the second time he's had the snot beaten out of him, not to mention his massive explosion in the future. I guess he's just not much of a complainer, which makes it hard to believe he and Peter are related. Anyway, Peter ineffectively tries to intervene on Sylar's behalf, and then Papa Petrelli appears and tries to zap Peter with Elle's power, which really seems like it could kill him, but while Peter may have lost his special abilities, we see he can still run quickly as he hightails it down the hall. And I give him a lot of shit, but you can hardly blame him for this -- he has no way of helping Sylar at the moment, who's invulnerable anyway, so best to save his skin and regroup. Papa Petrelli finally grabs Mohinder's fist to keep him from continuing to punch the now-unconscious Sylar, and Mohinder asks if he knows what he's done and how many innocent people he's killed. Papa Petrelli: "I do. But he's also my son." Mohinder's "Whaaaaa?" face makes me wish they'd just send out a global memo about Sylar's parentage already, and Papa Petrelli adds, "And I've been waiting for him for a long time." You can probably stick out a quick commercial, then.
Weboratory. Tracy and Nathan have been waiting for hours for a Company operative to show up, so Tracy amuses herself by going over to the Abuser Neighbor's cocoon and trying to free him. He repays her by grabbing her by the throat, and given what we saw of him pre-capture she probably should have let Nathan initiate first contact. She doesn't use her power, which seems odd, given that her adrenaline must be through the roof, unless, as seems overwhelmingly likely, Mohinder was completely full of crap about that. Anyway, the guy suddenly releases her in a frenzy of twitching, and we see it's because Bennet has discharged a taser into him. Well, Bennet, glad you used your one bolt on a guy who really, really wasn't going anywhere. He does have another weapon to play with, though -- Meredith, who, fire-handed, greets her former paramour with a sunny smile. "Well, I see you've still got a weakness for blondes." Heh. Tracy just looks at her, and then at Nathan like, "Fire and ice? Oh, that's cute."
On the plane (a plane! I was getting used to everyone teleporting or superzipping or doing whatever else to get from place to place) Claire is chilling out, in the middle seat for the scene's convenience, while Elle looks like she is holding it together not at all: "I'm what some people would refer to as an anxious flyer." Claire looks at her like she finds this endearing, and mildly gives her shit, but when she brings up the fact that Elle "let" the Unit 5 people escape, Elle isn't amused. Claire goes on that she caught Doyle, and the agent thing isn't so hard, which really gets Elle going, who says that her dad pushed her into that life, and if Claire is voluntarily choosing it, she's a moron. "You have no idea how good you have it!" With her agitation, her powers start going crazy again, which is inconvenient, as they start interfering with the plane's flight. The captain makes an announcement about electrical devices, and Claire unnecessarily tells Elle he's talking about her, like I'm sure she was really confused on that point. She tells Elle she has to turn her power off, but Elle grits, "If I knew how to do that, I wouldn't be here in the first place!" The plane starts to shake and spaz out for real, but Claire redeems herself with a flash of inspiration -- Elle can take her hand and empty out all her excess energy into her, and she'll absorb it painlessly. The idea works, and eventually Elle calms down and the flight goes back to normal. Claire and Elle smile at each other, and then when Claire lets go of Elle's hand, we see her electrical burns heal. She leans back with a look like, "Wait, did I just have sex?"
Matt is telling Daphne that he didn't think his dad cared a whit about him, so it's obviously jarring to find out he died trying to protect him. Daphne points out that Pinehearst will be sending someone to follow up, so it would be poor repayment of Maury's sacrifice if Matt were to hang around waiting to get killed. Matt doesn't want to turn tail and run, and as they discuss the matter, we cut to the hallway, where Knox is stealthily approaching the door. This is a classic giveaway, though -- when the bad guy is revealed to the audience early, the good guys are going to get the better of him. Happens every time. He overhears them talking about being SCARED and their FEARS, which practically makes him lick his lips in anticipation, and then he busts inside. Daphne panics and tries to superzip past him, but he clocks her on the way, and she falls to the floor, dead. Matt then works his mind mojo to hold Knox in place, which initially works, but Knox then realizes that Matt is afraid, which is all the encouragement he needs to put a fist straight through his heart, The German-style. Knox regards their corpses with satisfaction as we head into another commercial break.
We're back in the same scene when we return, but moments after Knox leaves, the bodies on the floor suddenly vanish, and the real Matt and Daphne emerge from the other room. I assume part of the illusion was that Knox couldn't see them even if he looked their way, because it would have been silly to take the risk of him glancing in the wrong direction and being like, "Hey!" Anyway, Daphne admiringly says that was amazing, and gives him a quick peck on the cheek, which of course he gets all creepy about, and then she tries to push the idea of them escaping, but he tells her he's not running away. I assume he wants to avenge his father, because otherwise who the hell cares, and Daphne feels the same way, pointing out that tricking the Villains into killing each other isn't going to bring Maury back. She goes on that even the two of them together will need help, so Matt gets the idea of going to The Company. Daphne tries to prevent any stray thoughts from escaping her head, which is probably harder for her than for some other people around here.
At Pinehearst, Flint enters the war room and corn-pones that the building is sealed, and if Peter's still inside, he's not getting out. Sylar's voice cuts in that Peter is long gone, but he's not doing as well, as when the camera pans left, we see his legs hanging a couple feet off the floor. Nice. Papa Petrelli asks that Peter please be brought in alive, not that it seems like he cares about that in other parts of the episode, and then, when Flint leaves, turns his attention to Sylar, who's floating in the air. Given the heavy-handed religious imagery this season, I'm surprised he doesn't have his arms splayed out to the sides, but there are plenty of episodes left for that, I guess. Papa Petrelli tells Sylar it's a surprise to see him, given that he turned down the recruitment offer, but Sylar's more interested in asking what his father did to his mother. Papa Petrelli tells Sylar that Mama Petrelli has done terrible things, and Sylar petulantly responds, "So have I, and I'm going to do them all to you." Hmm. Getting back to the religious stuff, Papa Petrelli asks if Mama Petrelli has forgiven Sylar's sins, and when he responds that his mother accepts him for who he is, Papa Petrelli tells him Mama Petrelli is using him as a weapon -- "a blunt instrument to be manipulated and then discarded." Sylar, getting worried, protests that his mother loves him, but Papa Petrelli tells him when he was born, Mama Petrelli had a dream about what he'd become, and she was so terrified by it that she tried to drown him. He releases Sylar from his invisible grip as he goes on that he got to the bathroom just in time, as she was holding him at the bottom of the tub. The story does conceivably play, as Mama Petrelli has been pretty quiet about the whys of giving Sylar away, and Sylar knows it, looking scared as Papa Petrelli holds a hand out to him. "It's time to learn the truth about your mother."
So Peter did not in fact leave, as he's watching Mohinder at the moment, who in turn spots Maya from over a balcony and goes rushing down to talk to her. Peter ducks into an elevator, and then we cut to Maya, who's retrieving her things as Mohinder approaches. He says he hears she's leaving, and she tells him she hopes to forgive him one day, but she can't trust him. He says that regardless of appearances, he was trying to help her, and his feelings for her were real, and still exist. She tells him she's killed people, and even though it wasn't by choice, she needs to make amends. "And so do you. Get well, Mohinder." She walks off to become Maya: Warrior Princess or whatever, but in fairness I will say she was a lot less annoying this season. I wish her well, but I still hope she doesn't come back.
Elle and Claire have made it to Pinehearst, but Elle's power goes loopy again, prompting Claire to grab and steady her. Elle sincerely thanks her for her help, admitting that she's been nothing but a bitch while Claire's been sweet, "and really, it just makes me hate you more." Heh. Claire in turn thanks Elle, because she was ready to give up and deny everything that was happening to her, and was scared of finding out anything real about herself. Elle: "It's nice to know that you're as messed up as I am." Okay, who's shipping Clairelle? (I'll show myself out.)
Peter finds Sylar, who's happy he came back for him but less so about his statement that he can't trust Papa Petrelli. Peter tries to tell him that Papa Petrelli hurt Mama Petrelli, and what he's doing by manipulating abilities is wrong and will lead to disaster. Papa Petrelli appears and says the world Peter saw doesn't exist -- they won't let it. Of course, the fact that Papa Petrelli has been hell-bent on capturing or killing anyone who can see the future logically means he can never be trusted, so Peter's clearly in the right here, but Sylar apologizes before TKing his brother through the window. Elle and Claire watch as he falls, and we get a birds-eye view of his ass before it covers the camera's vision and we go to the last commercial break.
When we return, we see Peter fall again, and Claire and Elle rush over to him -- but he's alive, if bloodied. Peter asks what she's doing here in an "I just took five Vicodins" voice that's pretty funny, and Elle notices he's not healing. Peter explains that "he" took his ability, and they have to go, but instead of helping Claire with Peter, Elle agitatedly points out that getting rid of their abilities is what they came for. Claire points out that she doesn't know everything that happened inside, but Elle, seeming sorry that she's abandoning her newfound friend, nonetheless heads into Pinehearst. Claire struggles to help Peter to the car as she asks how he fell that far without dying, and I'd give you the answer but Peter's going to figure it out in a couple scenes anyway.
In the weboratory, Company men are loading out Mohinder's victims as Tracy has just mentally gotten her head around the branches of the Bennet/Nathan/Meredith family tree. She seems genuinely amused, but becomes less so when Bennet, after hearing that Mohinder injected her and Nathan with something, says they'll have to come to the Company to get tested, "to be sure you're still normal." Tracy and Nathan look at each other awkwardly, and it's no less weird when Nathan, probably remembering certain past events like Bennet capturing him, asks Meredith if she's really working with Bennet. She affirms that, and he walks away, leaving Meredith to come closer to Tracy: "I'd watch out for that one." Tracy, a little too brightly, says they're not together, and Meredith, positively sublimely, is like, "Ah!" That cracked me up. Love her. Nathan, meanwhile, is on the phone with Claire: "Don't tell anyone."
Sylar is regarding the hole in the window through which he sent his brother as he intones that Peter will never give up. Papa Petrelli says that he knows -- "revenge is in our blood." So's good bone structure. After saying they're going to take their fight to the enemy, Papa Petrelli wonders aloud how Peter survived the fall. Sylar turns and gives nothing away, but Papa Petrelli is no fool, so I'm guessing he's got things figured out. It's an interesting dynamic, here -- Sylar playing double agent, and his dad likely knowing that but still hoping to turn him or use him to further his goals. Speaking of such duplicity, they're interrupted when Papa Petrelli gets a call from Daphne, who says the plan worked -- Matt thinks she's on his side. So somehow, Matt missed this when he read her mind about his dad, but like I said in the recaplet, I'm perfectly willing to chalk that up to incompetence. Daphne goes on that if Matt reaches out to The Company, she'll report on it. Papa Petrelli: "Screw this up, and I'll put you right back where I found you." Ooh, was she working as a waitress in a cocktail bar? We cut to Daphne's POV as she disconnects, wide-eyed with fear, and then heads over to Matt with an endearing smile and sidearm embrace. When he goes back to what he's doing, though, her smile fades, and I have to say, they've pulled me in on this storyline as well, thanks in large part to Brea Grant, who's made Daphne probably the biggest pleasant surprise of the season. If only the show were better at figuring out which storylines actually resonate and which are steaming piles of manure, we'd be getting somewhere.
At what I think is the Petrelli ancestral home, Claire is treating Peter's injuries as he notes that he didn't hit the ground all that hard, and opines that the only explanation is that Sylar wanted him to escape and purposefully slowed his descent. I feel like I have to voice my encouragement here, because for once the show didn't explicitly spell everything out, but gave clues -- remember Flint saying that the exits were completely sealed? Sylar heard that, so he came up with a way around it. I would so rather the show let us figure shit like that out for ourselves. You don't have to be Mad Men about it -- just don't assume we're completely challenged, right? Peter tells a skeptical Claire that Sylar saved his life, but before Claire can chew on that, Nathan shows up, and Claire hugs her dad. She then looks at Tracy, and Nathan is like, "It's all right, she's good," at least sparing us any Niki/Tracy bullshit for the time being. Nathan, noting the wounds on his brother's bare chest, asks why he's not healing, so Peter breaks the news about their father. Nathan takes a few tries to hear what Peter's saying, but Peter urgently tells him, "If we don't stop him, he's gonna kill us all." Claire, for her part, must be wondering how many more murderous relatives of hers are going to come out of the woodwork. Nathan protests that this is their dad he's talking about, giving Claire an opening to smugly overact: "Believe me, dads aren't always what they seem." Nathan tells Peter, over his protests, that he needs to know where their dad is, and Claire gives up the Pinehearst name, causing Peter to stare at her in anger? Shock? Dismay? Tracy recognizes Pinehearst as "the biotech company," and when Peter begs Nathan not to go, he gives in, saying there are a lot of ways to shut Pinehearst down, and he'll call someone at the Justice Department for help. He looks just a little shifty about it, though, which is nice work from Pasdar, and after he and Tracy exit, she calls him on lying to his brother. He admits it, saying he's going to see his father before asking what Tracy knows about Pinehearst. She tells him she's been taking a consulting fee from them for over a year, which doesn't really answer the question, but goes on that she knows "the players there," and she can help open doors. He says he doesn't need any doors opened. "I plan on kicking 'em down." Or you could just fly through that gaping hole your brother made in the window, but maybe that would require less testosterone.
Back in Africa, NeoIsaac is mixing up a thick paste, saying the recipe has been in his family for thousands of years. He notes that Hiro refuses to go back in time even if it might save the world, so at least we're clear on what "choosing your own path" means to NeoIsaac in this situation. And I've been pretty tough on Hiro for being such a whiny wuss about it, but I suppose he has reason to be worried that going back in time will cause the world to die of boredom, as it almost did last season. Hiro wishes for another way to learn about his enemies, so NeoIsaac tells him that for thousands of years, his family has been taking spirit walks to distant realms of the unconscious. He beckons Hiro to try the paste, who complies, but when he offers some to Ando, he refuses with a look like he's smelling a particularly eggy fart. Hiro announces, "Delicious," but in short order, his eyes go white, and he falls back, unconscious. Ando's chagrined, but NeoIsaac points out that this was the consequence of Hiro's inaction -- having his path chosen for him. Ando calls Hiro's name repeatedly to no avail, and we pull back for an overhead shot before the usual "To Be Continued..." card pops up. Only it'll be in two weeks -- see you then!
John Ramos is a writer and producer living in Los Angeles. You can reach him at couchbaron@gmail.com.
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