Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Apocalypzzzzzzz
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 17 | Aired on 02.23.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Mohinder, Matt and Peter have Bennet prisoner in a motel in Costa Verde, and they use a painful combination of phenobarbitol and Matt's mind-mojo on Bennet to learn about this sequence of events: Bennet met with Angela five weeks earlier, and Angela told him she was done with The Company and suggested he let his past go, but he wasn't really psyched about the prospect of just hanging out with his family and doing nothing else, so when Nathan showed up at his door a week later and told him about his plan, he didn't take much convincing. A week after that, Bennet met Danko and pitched the "one of us, one of them" idea, but the reception was frosty at best, especially since Danko disabused Bennet of the notion he'd be running the show. A couple weeks later, Bennet tried to hold an olive branch out to Danko, but Danko clearly still didn't have all that much use for him or his belief that the Heroes should be thought of as human beings.
Matt also discovers where Bennet keeps all the weapons he used while he was with The Company, and Peter takes the opportunity to go grab a good supply. However, Danko catches this move on a security camera, and he sends an interception team, but Peter manages to elude it. Matt then discovers that Bennet approached Mohinder about the imminent government program, but Mohinder didn't believe him and thus didn't tell anyone. This leads to a fight between Mohinder and Matt, and while that's going on, Bennet escapes -- like, nice job guys. Peter, however, cleans up their mess by catching him again, and then goes after Danko when Matt fishes his address out of Bennet's mind. Peter gets the drop on Danko and ends up shooting him in the arm, but when Nathan turns up and tells Peter that if he kills Danko, he'll be signing a death warrant for Matt and Mohinder, Peter flees the scene. Danko immediately orders his team to find and capture them, and, seeing them coming, Matt is about to kill Bennet, but Bennet tells him that Daphne's alive, and Matt goes back into his mind and confirms that. Meanwhile, Mohinder works out his guilt over not telling everyone about the government program when he had the chance by holding off the commando team and getting himself captured. Matt eventually gets taken too, but Peter's once again there to save him, and remember when Peter used to screw everything up? He obviously even made sure not to touch Matt's skin so as not to change powers in mid-flight! Mohinder, however, isn't as lucky as Matt, and is forced to listen to Nathan ask for his help. In the end, Bennet tells Danko that he's got his complete dedication, and Danko obliquely suggests they conspire against Nathan. Bennet agrees, but when Danko's gone, we see Bennet is loyal to neither Danko nor Nathan -- he's still working for Angela and has infiltrated the government operation. That was a great twist, but it's somewhat ruined when in the end, Matt paints yet another apocalypse -- this time D.C. is going up in flames. Just when it seemed like the show was learning from its mistakes.
Want more? The full recap starts right below! We start at a motel in Costa Verde, and it becomes clear very quickly that what we're seeing happened before last week's ending, so bare bones: Peter's gotten his hands on some Phenobarbital, which Matt says they'll need to give Bennet in order for him to read his mind on account of Bennet being so well-trained. This is coming from the guy who was able to force three men to kill each other two weeks ago, so either Matt's ability is conveniently variable in its efficacy, or Bennet's the Jabba The Hutt of this particular tale. Matt then makes more sense when he points out to Peter and Mohinder that they did nothing wrong and in fact all have jobs that are designed to help people, and they were still made to be fugitives. Mohinder's still got reservations (possibly for reasons other than you think) but Peter's on board with the drug-aided interrogation idea, so off they go......into the scene we saw last week, which I feel no need to recap again, except to say that I do wonder how the drug came into his drink, but maybe Matt mentally compelled the bartender to put it in there. Also, Peter gratuitously throws an arm across Bennet's waist like he's going to cop a feel, which I guess is what happens when your brother breaks up with you.
Later, the three of them have Bennet tied to a chair, and Matt informs his cohorts that the drug is working...
...and we fade to a black-and-white flashback that we're helpfully informed happened five weeks ago, and Bennet is sitting on a park bench sipping coffee when Angela walks up and joins him, exactly like two Cold War spies pretending they're just out for some air as they exchange information, which is appropriate given the episode title but will be more so later. Bennet informs her that ten people died the night before in Ohio when "a house spontaneously caught on fire." If this is the show's subtle way of telling us that Meredith is still alive, I'm happy to hear it. All this is beside the point, however, because Angela tells him it's over -- Primatech is gone, and about time too. She gives him an envelope that she says contains a severance check (knowing what happens, I wonder if there's perhaps a message inside as well) and a box, which he opens to find a nice watch. He asks why she's doing this, and she replies, "'Bag and tag', 'one of us, one of them' -- it's an antiquated system, desperately trying to remain relevant." Sounds like Angela would be a good person to put on the task of getting rid of Nielsen ratings. She says she's told too many lies, but she hopes it's not too late to put her family back together, and I in turn hope that doesn't mean she's planning on removing the bullet from her husband's brain. After Bennet looks down at the watch again, he tells her what he did for Primatech is all he's ever known, and asks what he's supposed to do now. She counsels him to take care of Claire and of himself before getting up and taking her leave...