Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Crash And Burn
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 15 | Aired on 02.09.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.After a quick review of the final bits of the last episode, we cut to "43 hours later," and Nathan lets an unknown person on the other end of a phone call that while Bennet and the pilot managed a successful emergency landing, the plane broke apart, and some of the prisoners escaped. We then cut back in time to the scene of the crash (and the rest of the episode is intercut with Nathan continuing to tell the story to the unknown person on the phone), which is swarming with commandos (presumably reinforcements) trying to track down the escapees. Mohinder, Matt, and Hiro are in one group, and when Matt's eyes suddenly go white, he leads them to an RV park (?) so he can draw the future, while Mohinder basically tells Hiro he's useless and should go home. Look who's talking. Matt's drawing shows Daphne in mortal danger, so he and Hiro head back to the crash site. Speaking of whom, Daphne shows up in Tokyo, worried about the missing Matt and having heard from blabbermouth Hiro about the secret lair, and she takes Ando to Russellville, Arkansas, the location to which he tracked Hiro.
Claire and Peter are running off when Bennet intercepts them. He lets Peter go in exchange for Claire coming with him quietly, and then the plane is destroyed by some missiles of unknown origin. The next day, Nathan is on the scene, chewing ZI out for authorizing the air strike, and we learn that as much of a traitor as Nathan is to his own kind, if you're a Hero, you'd still prefer him to ZI. Bennet tells Claire that his involvement with Nathan's plan is the price he's paying for assurances of her safety, but she welcomes both her dads to cram it right before Daphne shows up and whisks her away. Daphne and Claire then both get shot before Matt mind-controls the commandos on the scene to turn and kill each other. Matt, Hiro, and Ando escape, while ZI recaptures the indestructible Claire and Daphne is left to… bleed to death? Possibly really quickly? There's so little fanfare there that I find it hard to believe she's dead, although I think the show wants us to think it. ZI menaces Claire to the point where she realizes he's really, really serious, and then Bennet sends her home while assuring her he'll do what he can for the others.
On the run, Peter finds Tracy, who complains about her life, or something, before Peter talks her into going with him -- a decision it seems he might regret when she secretly arranges to sell him out to Nathan in exchange for her freedom. Tracy is ready to go through with it but then realizes that ZI, Bennet, and others are at the rendezvous as Nathan's backup. Peter momentarily uses Nathan as a shield, and then, given Tracy's betrayal, has no ethical problem with abandoning her by absorbing Nathan's power and flying off into the night. I wonder if ZI has any idea of how Peter's power works, because it'll be very interesting when he finds out that Nathan's one of them. Also, Nathan tells Bennet he knows he had a clear shot at Peter, and when Bennet admits that's true, Nathan thanks him for not taking it.
Back at Taxidermy Central (how completely tacked on did this subplot feel this week?), some woman and her troubled kid named Luke show up to find Sylar waiting for them, along with that commando from last week, who apparently isn't dead but probably wishes he were after hearing Sylar babble about his dad for seven days straight. Sylar's plan is to torture the kid and mother in front of the commando as a psychological inducement to give up information on his dad. Turns out, however, that Luke's a Hero himself, and rather than kill him and take his power, which is microwave manipulation, Sylar allows the kid to tag along with him even after the kid kills the commando, so now we have two mutants with Daddy issues in a self-contained boring storyline.
Late in the episode, Matt, Mohinder, Hiro, Ando, and Peter all hook up and review Matt's drawings, and Hiro decides he must go to India and retrieve his powers. The five of them, led by Peter, agree to abandon their old lives and take the fight to the enemy. Also, Claire gets a text from an unknown person going by the handle of "Rebel," who tells her, "There is hope. You can still fight back." I'm with Rebel on the merits, but he or she is going to have to stop texting in all caps or we're going to have a problem.
Finally, we get the reveal of who Nathan has been telling all this to, and it's the completely obvious choice -- Angela, who now isn't jazzed about Nathan's plan, for whatever reason. I'm starting to see where Nathan gets his penchant for flip-flopping, that's for sure and certain. At the end, Nathan has Tracy sent off to internment over her declarations that he's one of them, and maybe I'm imagining things and maybe also no one cares, but this chapter is pretty good so far.
Who has the best powers? Find out.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!So after the previouslies, we revisit the final bits of last episode, and then cut to a chyron that reads "43 hours later." In a washed-out, almost black-and-white image, we see Nathan calling an unknown person and telling him or her how Claire got on board the plane somehow, and all hell broke loose. His casual reference to both Claire and "Noah" really ends any suspense about who it might be on the other line. I mean, unless his dad's alive again, but I suspect even an entity as dense as this show has learned its lesson on that front. The look of the image combined with the conceit of telling the story from the future feels familiar and is probably an homage to something, but if so it's not coming to me at the moment. Anyway, we fade into the episode title card...
...and then back to the plane post-landing, which is in a clearing surrounded by light woods. It's night, and commandos are swarming as Hiro desperately runs from their searchlights. He takes a bad step and falls, complete with girly screaming (have you ever heard a man cry out on such a high frequency?), over a small bluff, and then gets dragged to his feet -- by Matt and Mohinder, who pull him flat against the bluff's wall so the commandos won't see them. When he judges it safe to speak, Matt asks Hiro if he got his powers back (like there's any reason that would have suddenly happened, or like they'd all still be in this predicament if he had) but Hiro intones that he's powerless. "A Hero's path is never easy." As evidenced by your inability to keep your feet up top, I guess. Noting some aerial searchlights heading their way, Mohinder starts off as he says they have to keep moving, but Hiro babbles about seeing Peter and the cheerleader and how it's their duty to save them. Instead of pointing out that saving the cheerleader is so two seasons ago, Matt instead opts for the equally valid assertion that the commandos are in no way fucking around. Matt then starts to walk off, and when Mohinder grabs his shoulder, Matt turns to reveal his eyes have gone white. He gestures with his head and then resumes his march, and Mohinder and Hiro uncertainly follow. They'd be a lot more uncertain if they knew that Matt's looking not for safety but the nearest box of Crayola crayons, but it's not like they have any brilliant ideas, either.
Back nearer to the burning plane, Peter and Claire babble and run until Bennet appears out of nowhere and grabs Claire while pointing a gun at Peter and ordering them both to come with him. Claire asks how he can be a part of Nathan's plot, and he replies that it's much more complicated that she knows. Well, let's see -- are you collaborating in order to ensure Claire's safety? Because not only is that not very complicated, it's the biggest "lather, rinse, repeat" the show has to offer. I don't mind the consistency -- it's actually refreshing -- but I just can't believe that either of them has the energy or motivation even to discuss it at this point. Anyway, Bennet clearly seems to think he should shoot Peter but can't bring himself to go through with it, and Claire opts to stay with Bennet as a reward, telling Peter to run, which he does. When he's gone, Claire opines that people will ask questions about the crash, but Bennet informs her she's mistaken, and no one's going to know a thing. An ominous whistling accompanies this declaration, and when Claire, dread in her voice, asks what he did, he answers by looking to the sky, from which a missile appears and blows up the plane. I hate to argue with such a dramatic display, but if someone were going to ask questions about a mysterious plane's mysterious landing, I'm not sure an ensuing mysterious explosion would get them to go about their day like nothing happened. But I could be overestimating people's average intelligence and curiosity. Having hit the deck, Claire and Bennet regard each other, and Claire starts to cry as we cut to the title card. It's a good sign for this chapter that I'm not doing the same.