Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Taste My Soup!
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.10.2008
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Hiro's spirit walk takes him and us to a year earlier, where Papa Petrelli and Mama Petrelli initially are all over each other like dogs in heat. However, we learn that Nathan's office was about to start a full investigation into Linderman, which would have exposed Papa Petrelli's nefarious doings, and Papa Petrelli was willing to kill his son rather than be brought to light. Papa Petrelli tries to get Nathan to back off of Linderman, and when he won't, it seems like he causes the accident that led to the accident that paralyzed Nathan's wife. Mama Petrelli clues in that her husband got Linderman to try to kill their son, and Papa Petrelli tries to mentally bend her to his will, as he apparently has many times before, but Linderman turns on Arthur and heals Mama Petrelli's mind so she's aware of her husband's betrayal. Mama Petrelli uses The Haitian to suppress her husband's mental powers, and despite the fact that she calls him a visionary, she poisons him. Her plan to incinerate his body fails, though, when Nathan unexpectedly returns home, so she has to pretend that Papa Petrelli had a heart attack. However, Papa Petrelli, even in his damaged state, is able to control the doctor to the point where he's forced to lie to Mama Petrelli that he's dead. At the funeral, Nathan and Peter's bangs sadly make out until Mama Petrelli tells them to get over it.
Flint and Meredith are brother and sister, and creepy Eric Roberts apprehends Meredith in a La Femme Nikita-type deal. Meredith, however, hates The Company, but complies with the directive to become an agent. Creepy Eric Roberts takes Meredith on a mission, and when Meredith unexpectedly kicks some ass, it looks like she's the newest Company darling -- until she learns that her brother was captured by The Company, who told him that they'd make him an agent too. Meredith, realizing from the fact that her brother is kind of challenged and that The Company has betrayed them, breaks Flint out, telling him that he can never trust The Company. Creepy Eric Roberts then shows up and tries to apprehend them, but Flint escapes, with brother and sister avowing that they're sworn enemies of The Company. Eric Roberts lets Meredith know that Claire is alive, however, before letting her go
Sylar is out of control, and tries to hang himself, only to be saved by Elle, who assures him that everything will be okay and tries to give him solace -- but it's all a plan, engineered by a ruthless Bennet, to try to figure out what makes Sylar, if you'll forgive me, tick. Sylar doesn't want to be a killer, and Elle believes him and falls for him at the same time, but Bennet pushes her to get Sylar to kill someone, so she invites a Goth Hero over, who Sylar tries to kill. Elle, having a crisis of conscience, zaps him to try to stop him, but she fails, and Sylar kills the guy. Elle is freaked at what she's done, while Bennet displays a scientific detachment about the whole thing, telling Elle they're agents and they follow orders. That always works out, right?
Finally, Hiro wakes up, only to find NeoIsaac decapitated and Papa Petrelli menacing him. I bet he really wishes Nathan hadn't interrupted that cremation!
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Shut up, Mohinder.
Okay, I suppose I have to do a little more than that. We get a replay of Hiro eating the Magic Carpet Paste and collapsing. We zoom in on his milky eye...
...and then we're at a gala gathering at the Petrelli Manse, eighteen months earlier. Papa Petrelli is toasting Nathan as "the finest assistant D.A. New York has ever known," and no offense to Nathan or anyone else who's held that position, but we're not in the Batman universe where people might seriously care. Nathan and Peter are looking sharp in their tuxes, however, and I'm also happy to see Peter's floppy bangs again, not that they're aesthetically pleasing -- they just take me back to a time when the show was, you know, good. Papa Petrelli then praises Peter for his "compassionate heart," and Peter gets in a good one to his brother: "Told you he couldn't say 'nurse' out loud." Heh. Papa Petrelli then toasts Mama Petrelli (screw it -- they're "Arthur" and "Angela" from now on -- my fingers can't take it anymore) as "the love of [his] life," and due to the way they proceed to paw at each other, when Nathan tells them "Get a room," the next thing out of my mouth is, "Jinx!" Angela lets us know that they've now been married for forty-one years, making her better preserved than I realized, and then Linderman appears and offers the two of them rather solicitous congratulations. (Does Malcolm McDowell have something on the writing staff? They keep finding ways to give him work, you know?)
After the Petrelli parents disappear, Linderman then turns to Nathan and asks, "Are the rumors true?" Notice how guilty Peter suddenly looks. Actually, he's heard that Nathan's office is about to launch a full-scale investigation "into all things Linderman," and after Nathan makes a joke that shoots for both menacing and funny and lamely achieves neither, he and Peter run off to keep the rumors alive, leaving Linderman to ask Arthur what he sees in Nathan's mind. Arthur uses his mind mojo (I wonder if he stole that power from someone?) and then replies, "Trouble." Linderman somewhat sarcastically says he can handle the heat, but Arthur tells him he's more worried about himself, and Linderman urgently responds, "He's gonna see your hand behind every enterprise I've been working on for the past twenty-five years!" I guess Caligula was too effed up even for Arthur. Actually, I forgot that we saw Nathan and Peter discuss this in Season One. Linderman suggests Arthur try one last time to convince Nathan to back off, but Arthur thinks that would be futile, so Linderman asks what they should do. Arthur: "Read your Shakespeare. When the son challenges the father, only one is left standing." Unlike when the son challenges the stepfather, and no one survives. Arthur concedes that he owes Nathan one more talk, but says if that doesn't work, he'll kill him. He then looks at Nathan, and given that he's been staring at him and Linderman like a psycho this entire time, I think Arthur's pessimism about their upcoming chat is warranted.