In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Claire's still getting messages from Rebel, who insists upon using all caps. Claire has the good sense to respond like normal person. However, she does cave and do what Rebel asks. Especially since it involves helping a fairly cute employee at a comic book store. I'm just disappointed it isn't Breckin Meyer or Seth Green. Anyway, she warns Alex (who can breathe underwater) that he needs to hit the road and avoid HRG at all costs. He ends up hiding out in her closet. Which is fine, since Claire also had time to tell her mommy all about HRG's wrongdoings in New York, and mom kicks him the hell out of the house. Which leads to HRG getting drunk at a bar, but his drink has been roofied by Matt, Mohinder and Peter, who did nothing at all this episode except carry HRG out of a bar.
Hiro and Ando play wedding crashers in New Delhi, but Ando finds the bride Anna (played by a woman who I sadly recognize from Superstars of Dance) first and talks her out of walking down the aisle before Hiro can reenact Parkman's picture. Then Ando gets kidnapped by a very irate groom and Hiro gets to save the day, just like he always wanted. And then they get a fax (because neither of them has a cell phone, apparently) from the multimedia Rebel, who instructs them to save Parkman.
Meanwhile in Nathanland, his little pet project is on the verge of being shut down by DHS agent Moira Kelly (who has gotten very old since her toe-picking days). She's doesn't believe in super powers, and she's all kinds of pissed off that her old co-worker Tracy is tied to a chair under some heat lamps. She comes to put a stop to their torture, until she sees Tracy in action, at which point she wants to give them extra cash. Danko apparently unleashed Tracy on a poor unsuspecting security guard, to save his job.
Danko is also pretty surveillance-happy, and is eagerly chasing down Sylar who is off roadtripping out west with his little mini-me. Sylar gives Luke some brotherly (?) advice about having an objective, but then ditches him as they escape from Danko's lackeys. Or at least it seems like he does, but then in true Sylar fashion he goes and kills a whole van full of agents. We don't get to see it though, sadly, but the van was a rockin' and there were a whole bunch of dead bodies laying in it afterwards. Sylar stomps off with his little boytoy over his shoulder and a fancy new laptop in hand. Luke tries to thank him, but Sylar brushes it off and turns on the radio as "Psycho Killer" plays … which is so appropriately amusing that it almost makes this random storyline a little more bearable. -- Angel Cohn
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The Bennets are having a rare family breakfast, and Sandra, her wary side-eyes showing that she's more clued into the room temperature than last time, awkwardly says she hopes Bennet's new job will keep him around more. Lyle asks what a consultant does, exactly, and I've often wondered that over the years, but the best answer I can give you is "get paid." Actually, though, the consultants I've known travel, like, a lot, so while it's probably a good cover for Bennet it does seem like he's humoring Sandra here, not that that's a surprise either. I'd bet right before we joined the scene, he was telling her how they're eating the best waffles anyone has ever had in the history of time. Anyway, Bennet gives an uncharacteristic and unnecessary look to his disapproving daughter before explaining his fake job to his son, but Claire's busy reading another text from Rebel, which reads, "Need your help. Must warn target." Claire writes back that she can't, and then Sandra asks about her trip. Bennet says her name with a clear subtext of "Lie to your mother like a good little girl," and Claire plasters on a fake smile and says there isn't much to tell. Well aware that most girls Claire's age would not shut up about their college visits if you nailed their tongue to the table in front of them, Sandra smells a rat, though not the one she thinks, and asks, "Which ones did you like, Noah?" Bennet gives Claire another look as he says he liked Brown, but Claire is not interested in having this ersatz conversation anymore, and bolts for points upstairs. When she's gone, Bennet "gently" tells his wife that maybe community college would be a better fit for Claire for now, and after Claire just blew up his spot there, I'm pretty sure that's all he's going to pay for. He volunteers to go talk to her...
...and then we cut to her room, wherein he's asking what the hell that display just was. Claire says she can't lie to Sandra anymore, but Bennet says she'll be safer not knowing. Claire: "You've been telling me that since I was fifteen." Seems like longer. Bennet points out that Federal agents are dead because of her (not exactly, but that does seem to be what Danko thinks, which is what's important, I guess) and because of that he's being watched, and if the both of them don't toe the line, they are in some real trouble indeed, even if Guantanamo is closing. He then informs her that she'll be starting classes on Monday at Costa Verde Community, as she's already enrolled. "And come Monday morning, you'd better be parked in that front row with a sharp Number Two pencil or there is going to be hell to pay." Not knowing that a sharp pencil really can mean the difference between life and death, Claire looks pissed, so when she gets a text instructing her to warn "Alex" at Sam's Comics on Buford, she gets a look on her face that tells us she's out of there.
At "Building 26," which I guess is Mutants Are Bad Central, Danko has pictures of many Heroes up on a bulletin board and is telling his team that their accounts are frozen, and their program has access to traffic-cam feeds from all fifty states. "The Patriot Act gives us a lot of leeway here." That's one word for it. Someone asks about Claire, and is bummed to hear that their arrangement is such that they still can't touch her. Danko slags Nathan off to the group, which is a mistake, because he's quietly entered the room. He informs the group that he knows they want revenge on Claire and others, because when you capture and detain people like animals you should totally begrudge them resistance, but then tells them that many of the people on the board aren't dangerous -- just scared. But just when you think Nathan might be shifting positions here (and isn't he overdue already?) he says that since they know they're being hunted, they're going to be harder to find, so he put in a request to the White House that morning to double their funding. He exhorts the group to know the targets, track them down, and bring them in alive, and we see a picture of Sylar on someone's monitor. If anyone has trouble committing those eyebrows to memory, he should really look for another line of work.
Speaking of whom, The Gay Station-Wagon Road Trip is continuing apace, and Sylar's losing patience as his overcaffeinated Padawan learner (oh God, is that why they named him "Luke"?) won't shut up about diners and pie and whatever, saying they're not stopping. When Luke still won't divulge the whereabouts of Sylar's dad beyond "West," however, he pulls the car over. Kids don't learn from that kind of about-face, Sylar. After Luke lies a couple times about the dad's exact location, Sylar grabs him by the throat and says he slices people's heads open, and Luke's smile as he breathes that Sylar is a serial killer heads straight to the erotic asphyxiation place without passing Go. I'm sorry (like, really, really sorry) but it's true. Sylar's a little offended at the characterization, but I'm sure that's because he's been telling guys he's not into labels for years. He asks why he shouldn't slice Luke's head open, but Luke knows the game here and says if he does, Sylar will never find his dad. Sylar sits petulantly for a moment and then tries to regain some face by saying this isn't a road trip. Not only is it a road trip, it's going to turn out gayer than The Living End, but whatever you need to tell yourself, dude. "Born To Be Wild" kicks up, but in a nice twist, after they pass under a crossing highway, we pan up to a traffic camera as the music turns ominous...
...and then, back at Building 26, that one guy who's allowed to talk gets a positive ID on Sylar and calls Danko over. We then pan right to another monitor, this one tracking Claire...
...who's just walking into the comic-book store. She asks the guy behind the counter if he's Alex, and I don't know if that's the case, but he is definitely a bespectacled Justin Baldoni, last seen by me as the rather hot Reid Bardem on Everwood. As Demian would say, woof. Anyway, Justin is in fact Alex, and he tells her they don't get a lot of girls in there. Lose the glasses and that'll change, guy. Claire urgently tells him he needs to get out of there, but he thinks she's playing a prank at the behest of his friend "Victor." "This is payback for the whole birthday thing, right?" No, but feel free to go on. Anyway, a different camera angle suggests there might be surveillance on them already, but Claire doesn't get anywhere until she picks up a utility knife (I think they have them to cut the plastic open without bending the comics) and slices a gash in her hand, which wipes the smile off Alex's face. As her skin heals in front of his eyes, she tells him he's in danger -- and it's worse than she knew, as the door jingles, and she sees Bennet enter. She's partially obscured and he's not looking her way yet, so she hisses, "Move. Now!!" She takes Alex's hand, and they run straight into the title card. Gotta watch out for that thing.
After Claire and Alex take cover by crouching low in one of the aisles, she informs him that there's a man who's in there looking for him that's very dangerous. He tells her he has a car out back, and just as Bennet is checking in with some dude in the back that Alex is in fact working, the two of them move for the front door. But Alex ends up running straight into Bennet, although Claire's stealthy enough not to get caught as well, and she observes as Bennet tells Alex he's from the County Clerk's office and he's got some outstanding parking violations, and could they maybe go talk outside? Claire, however, again shows her increasing skill at the cloak-and-dagger stuff by calling Bennet and feigning distress over their fight that morning, and while Bennet's attention is focused elsewhere, Alex suddenly throws one of the comic-book racks onto him and runs. Claire books it out the back way before Bennet gets his glasses on, and then Bennet chases after Alex, but does a quick mental calculation of Alex's age and rather obvious excellent physical condition, and decides to call this one in. Claire catches Alex at his car and the two of the hightail it out of there. Alex has a red Jeep convertible, which bodes ill for their hopes of staying out of sight, but I'd still prefer it to a station wagon.
Hiro and Ando have arrived at a wedding site in New Delhi, and Hiro is his typical irritatingly overenthusiastic self about the possibility of saving the bride depicted in Matt's drawing. Hiro goes to find out what time the wedding starts, which is a great way not to draw attention to yourself, and when he's gone, Ando muses to himself, "Stop a wedding... makes no sense." You may not be familiar with the idiom, Ando, but around these parts we call that "preaching to the choir." However, Ando then sees a rather attractive woman nearby in a beautiful sari that looks much like the one from the drawing, and suddenly the whole mission starts to add up. He follows her into a tent...
...inside which he introduces himself, noting that she's crying. She introduces herself as "Annapurna," (oh, show) and admits that she's sad, and he counsels her to call off the wedding. I'm sure this is meant to be, but the wedding planner's still going to have his head on a stick. Annapurna, in wonder, says she's been lost and begging the heavens for a sign about her marriage, and Ando runs with that by sparking up his hands just as Hiro appears and schoolmarmishly asks what he's doing. Ando, however, doesn't hear him, as he's focused on Anna's joyous declaration that Ando is the sign, the one she's been waiting for. Hiro tries to babble that he's the sign, but he might as well be selling time-shares for all the attention he's getting.
Back at Building 26, Danko asks Nathan if they've gotten any response from the White House, but Nathan is focused on the fact that Moira Kelly is looking at the photos on the bulletin board. I don't have much of a reaction to this development, but if Chad Michael Murray shows up the episode will get an automatic F. Fair warning. She turns and shakes hands with Nathan, introducing herself as "Abby Collins" from Homeland Security and briskly informing Nathan that the President has transferred oversight of the operation to DHS. Danko bitches about bureaucrats, but Nathan smoothly starts to lead her on a tour as he says the funding increase he's asked for is to strengthen the holding facility so they can deal with the prisoners. Always good to have a plan! Anyway, it doesn't take long for Nathan to realize that Abby doesn't believe the whole mutant powers thing, but realizing that levitating would ultimately be too damaging to him even factoring in the look on her face, he settles for asking who put her on the case. As Danko watches from a distance, she tells Nathan that people close to the President are concerned about his exposure to the project. The project that no one knows about, that is. Things go from bad to worse when he lets it slip that he has a prisoner on the premises, and she demands to see her immediately.
The Gayest Station Wagon In The Country pulls into a roadside diner's parking lot, and after Luke babbles some more, Sylar gets off a good one: "Luke. You really gotta stop trying to be my friend, or I'm gonna have to kill you." Luke then spins a yarn about how Sylar's dad likes birds, and they used to go bird-watching together, and when Luke mentions a wagon Sylar's dad had, Sylar suddenly recalls, "He used to pull me in that wagon." Ick. Sylar wistfully recalls some more Daddy Issue Details that you couldn't pay me enough to recap, and Luke momentarily gets on my good side by pissing all over this nauseating reminiscence: "He sold you for money, you know." Nice. Sylar knows full well this is true, so he asks why he would even tell Luke that, and Luke speculates that maybe he reminded him of Sylar. Ugh, so Sylar's the Kelly Taylor and Luke's the Tara Marks of this equation. No wonder I hate this storyline so much.
Abby and Nathan enter the room in which Tracy is being held prisoner, sitting in a chair with her wrists chained, and Abby's horrified. Nathan thinks her reaction is because of the use of extreme heat in the room to counter Tracy's freezing power, but it's actually because Abby knows Tracy from her lobbying days. Tracy seizes her opening and begs Abby to do something, and Abby, in no uncertain terms, tells Nathan that she's shutting the operation down that very day, and on top of that, she's going to file human-rights violations against Nathan with the Attorney General. "This is torture. You're through." Abby's new around here, obviously. Tracy yells Abby's name, but she's already ridden her wave of righteous indignation out the door.
Alex and Claire pull in somewhere, and Alex can't believe that the government is just locking people up. Claire asks if he has a power, and after a long moment, Alex confesses he can breathe underwater. If they purposely gave him a power that's eventually going to lead to him taking his shirt off, not only do I appreciate it but I think the writers have gotten smarter. He goes on that he never told anyone, and he didn't know there were others. If that's true, I wonder how they found out about him. He confesses that he always felt..."like a freak?" Claire supplies with a conspiratorial smile. She then gets serious again and instructs him not to go home or to use his credit cards or cell phone. He quite reasonably asks what he's going to do, and she tells him they'll figure it out, but her attention is distracted by a car passing behind them, which she observes via the side mirror. She says it's the second time that particular vehicle has passed, and asks if the car is registered under Alex's name. The look on his face is all the answer she needs, and they get out and run. (That doesn't completely explain how Bennet tracked them down, but I'm guessing the traffic cameras came into play again.) No sooner have they taken cover around the corner than a couple cars pull up (I suppose Bennet was waiting for backup before he tried again to take Alex) and some agents get out, one of them noting the car's still warm. Claire gets in a quick "I told you so" but the two of them don't wait around to see anything more.
Anna and some other woman apparently own a restaurant together, and they give Ando food with which to stuff his face before Anna tells Ando and Hiro that her grandfather disapproved of her decision to open the place, because he thinks women are chattel...er, "believes in tradition," which is why he arranged the marriage she just walked away from on the word of a stranger with pink jazz hands. She adds that the fiancé, "Deepak," is a powerful and dangerous man and above the law, before going to get them more food. When they're alone, Hiro, who's acting like such a baby that he might actually have been holding his breath this whole time, bitches at Ando for taking away his chance to get his powers back, or whatever, and Ando accuses him of not being able to deal with the fact that he has no abilities and is only a sidekick. Their tiresome argument is thankfully interrupted when a rather irate man who's clearly the jilted fiancé appears and storms into the back to tell Anna what's what. Ando goes back to try to intervene, and Deepak shows what he thinks of that idea by picking up a pot big enough to cook enough basmati rice for the entire wedding party...
...and hearing the struggle, Hiro runs back with a loaf of Italian bread as his weapon, and it was funny the first time but give it a rest, dude. Despite the fact that less than two seconds should have passed, Deepak apparently not only knocked Ando out but dragged him off somewhere, so either Deepak's a speedster or Hiro felt it was necessary to go out and buy the bread before entering the fray. I could believe either of those, sadly.
Bennet calls in to talk to Danko, who informs him that Claire's car is parked at the comic-book store. Bennet tries to tell him Claire had errands to run, but Danko doesn't really bother acknowledging that as he replies, "We'll talk." Bennet's not always easy to read, but the "Oh, shit" look on his face is pretty apparent.
At the diner counter, Luke blows bubbles into his milkshake as Sylar contemplates killing him for the six hundredth time, and then chastises him for screwing with someone by surreptitiously using his power. He lectures Luke about their powers not being there for amusement and having an objective. "Know your endgame before you lift a hand." This is rich coming from the only character on the show that makes Nathan look consistent by comparison. More retread of Sylar's Daddy Issues makes me throw up my hands and beg him to just find the guy already, and Luke apparently agrees with me, as he finally writes down the address and gives it to Sylar, saying it's two more days by car. Sylar points out that there's nothing to stop him from killing Luke now, but Luke says he just hopes he won't. That decision is put on hold, however, when Sylar sees a couple suspiciously agent-looking men enter the joint, and he instructs Luke to follow him to the emergency exit. Luke thinks they can take the men, but Sylar tells him they're only the scouts, and to prove his point, two commandos appear in their path, followed by a guy who presses a gun to the back of Sylar's head. Luke, however, does gun molls everywhere proud by pretending that Sylar's been hurting him and begging the men to be sure to protect him. He succeeds in distracting the guy holding the gun to Sylar's head long enough that Sylar is able to telekinetically wave him away, and from there, Sylar's able to keep the men at bay long enough to blast open one of the windows so he and Luke can escape. Well, to be more accurate, it's so he can escape and shaft Luke by keeping him locked out of the car and driving away. Luke's so distraught at his boyfriend's betrayal that he barely notices when one of the commandos zaps him to the ground, and Sylar watches the scene getting smaller in the rearview mirror as he drives away.
Sometime later, Anna is telling Hiro that Deepak will let Ando go if she marries him, and she's going to go through with it...
...and then the ceremony is happening, except Hiro interrupts and loudly proclaims that Anna is being coerced into the marriage. The girl from Slumdog Millionaire is like, "Gee, never heard of that." Hiro also announces that Deepak is holding Ando hostage, and when he then reiterates that Anna doesn't want to marry Deepak, the grandfather stands and asks if that's true, and Anna confesses that it is, and after some subtext that I think is meant to illustrate how important the restaurant is to her but actually makes it seem like she and her fellow café owner are an item, Deepak tries to drag Anna away, but Hiro catches him and decks him with a punch not quite as girly as we've seen from him in the past. He then menaces Deepak with a sword, which is the exact scene depicted by Matt's drawing, and Deepak calls off the wedding and says he'll return Ando, which is exactly the sort of thing men who are above the law do to inspire the necessary fear and respect. Hiro gives his typical squealy "I did it" reaction, which is another little habit of his that's long past ready for Retirement Village. How about getting some dignity as your ability?
Claire gets back to her car to find Bennet waiting for her, and he's not in the mood for her lame attempts to cover, while she, in turn, is not enamored of hearing about the vague consequences of him not being able to control her, evidenced by her reply: "That's the thing, Dad. You can't." I like my words unminced too. She drives off, and Bennet looks beaten.
Back at Building 26, Danko reports Sylar's escape to Nathan, and the bad news mounts, as Abby appears with an order for them to cease and desist the operation in its entirety. As Nathan leads her off to try to talk her out of this, Danko gets a shifty look on his face and disappears. Nathan tries to get Abby to believe, even for a moment, about the powers, but she says it still wouldn't justify torture. As he continues telling her about the scary abilities that are out there, we intercut shots of Tracy realizing something's up with her chains, and she pulls on them and eventually succeeds in ripping them out of the floor. Just as Abby is making it clear that Nathan's getting nowhere, an alert goes off, and they go see what's up...
...and when they round a corner, they see Tracy holding a guy hostage with her chains around his neck, surrounded by several other employees. Now, I think Tracy would be too smart for this -- she heard Abby say she was going to shut the operation down, so why take this rather obvious bait? I mean, even now, she sees Abby standing there, so why not go quietly, since it's pretty obvious she's not going to be allowed to escape? If we were dealing with a hotheaded, impulsive character, it wouldn't bother me, but Tracy's supposed to know all the angles. This development is too easy and not well done. Regardless, the guy elbows Tracy in the stomach and tries to attack her (not that anyone seems to notice that bit) and she responds by grabbing his arm, freezing him, and throwing him into the wall, on which he shatters rather spectacularly. She then gives Nathan a baleful look before she's taken down. Nathan's then all "See? See?" in Abby's direction, and Abby, for her part, looks like she's going to need some help getting her chin off the floor.
When we come back, Abby's back at the bulletin board, and she tells Nathan he'll have all the funding he needs. I asked this before, but: What did you expect? You treat someone like an animal and then label her a murderer when she kills with her back to the wall? I'd expect that kind of reductive reasoning from Neocon Nathan, but it seems like a big about-face for Abby. Like I said, this part of the story is too easy.
In Costa Verde, Sandra apologizes for prying about the trip, but wonders if they had any fun -- maybe they saw a Broadway show? Claire: "Dad was a little busy...abducting innocent people." In fairness, some Broadway shows have nearly driven me to do the same. As Sandra listens in chagrin, Claire lays it all out about the government program, mentioning the camp-like atmosphere and the hunting of harmless people, and apologizes, saying she just can't lie to Sandra anymore. Just then, Bennet comes home and, referring to the bag in his hand, uncertainly asks, "Indian food?" Well, Bennet, the good news is you'll have leftovers. Sandra instructs Claire to go on upstairs, and the steel in her voice makes me laugh at the fact Bennet was afraid of Danko all this time. She starts in immediately, saying she thought he could change. He counters that he doesn't have a choice, an assertion to which Sandra loudly puts paid, and Claire is listening but I have the feeling it's getting ugly enough that she's closing the door real soon.
Nathan comes in to see Tracy, who's safely rechained, and tells her she's never getting out of the cell, but she turns the conversation around, saying she knows what he did -- the broken chain and unlocked door set her up to escape. She sneers, "You know what? time I will." Nathan looks discomfited, and walks out.
The commandos have finished up at the diner and are loading up their van. Once the doors are closed, it starts to back up, but suddenly stops and shakes like it's the sixties and it's owned by a bunch of horny hippies. Back at Building 26, the men hear the commandos' strangled cries, which soon die down. The van doors open again, and one lone commando, bloody briefcase in hand, hops out -- and removes his mask to reveal he's Sylar. He turns back and removes the drug shunt from Luke's nose, and then -- no lie -- takes him away in a slo-mo fireman's carry. I wouldn't be surprised if this plotline were banned from being aired in Utah.
Back at the restaurant, Ando is apologizing, saying he should never have interrupted the course of destiny. I've been over this, but what is he even talking about? Those drawings aren't guidelines! They always come to pass! No matter what he did, that scene would have happened! Oy. Hiro, for his part, says he was sent to India to learn he doesn't need powers to be a hero. No one mentions anything about brains, which is probably just as well. Anna then comes over with a fax addressed to them (?) and they read it's from Rebel, giving an address in Los Angeles with the words, "Save Matt Parkman." What, no "Save the security guard, save the world?" Does that not have a ring to it?
Bennet enters Claire's room, bag in hand, and Claire sniffs that he must have straightened things out with Sandra and is now off to his new assignment. Her bravado crumbles, though, when Bennet tells her Sandra kicked him out, and he knows she's right -- he keeps too many secrets. Voice unsteady, he tells her he's going to try to be a better person, husband, and father. "And not tell lies. And if we all work really hard to be honest with each other, maybe we can heal these wounds." Jack Coleman is bringing it here, so it's no surprise when Claire's face starts to break even as he assures her he'll be around, and they'll get through it. His "I love you, Claire-Bear" is the last straw, and she heads into his arms. He holds her for a bit, crying himself, and then leaves, and when he's gone, we see Claire had another reason to be affected by the part about honesty, as Alex emerges from his hiding spot in the closet. I hope his ability allows him to breathe with all the awkward in the air.
Luke thanks Sylar for coming after him, and after Sylar gives a long-winded disclaimer about how he just came for the commandos' laptop/tracking device that has "getting a blowjob from a guy doesn't make you gay" written all over it, Luke points out that Sylar could have left him there, to which Sylar has no response other than to turn on the radio, which starts playing "Psycho Killer." Sure, I chuckled, but I'm not sure the licensing fees were worth the joke.
At Building 26, Nathan intones a name in Danko's direction -- the name of the guy Tracy killed. Danko is unperturbed, so Nathan accuses him of letting Tracy out, and Danko cops to it, saying he saved Nathan's ass. "I'm sorry he had to die." Nathan suggests he go apologize to his bloodstain, and Danko looks into the hallway, in which someone is actually scrubbing up the blood from the floor. I don't know if that was meant to be hilarious, but it certainly got me laughing harder than the song did.
Bennet is drowning his sorrows at a hotel bar as he fiddles with his wedding ring. After the bartender chats with him briefly, she steps away, and when she's gone, Bennet's eyes lose focus and he realizes he's been drugged. He falls to the ground, but then quickly gets picked up -- by Peter, Matt, and Mohinder, who tell the bartender that their "friend" had a few too many, and they'll get him home safe. I'd speculate as to what's going through her mind, but the Sylar storyline pretty much gayed me out for the week. time: All About Bennet. See you then!
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what vlogger Sean Crespo thinks about Heroes when he has No Prior Knowledge!
John Ramos is a writer and film producer living in Los Angeles. You can reach him at couchbaron@gmail.com.