In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Bryan Fuller returns! Hiro and Ando are embarrassingly dumb for a while, and then they realize that Matt Jr. is a human remote control, which I think is the best power I've ever heard. [Agreed. -- Angel] There is a good moment when Hiro admits to Ando what happened with his mother near the end of the last chapter, but they don't have time to dwell on it, because Janice comes home -- right before agents show up to take her and her son away. However, Ando's power has evolved into a useful weapon -- but more importantly, Matt Jr. uses his power to reactivate Hiro's time-freezing ability (although not his teleportation). That doesn't really make sense, given that Arthur stole his powers rather than deactivating them, but the more the show decides it wants to forget about Arthur, the more I agree with it, so I'm not complaining. Hiro and Ando then take Baby Matt and resolve to help his dad.
Bennet meets up with Angela, who tells him that he's their side's last hope now that Nathan has been outed, and suggests Bennet give Rebel up to Danko to regain his trust before telling him she's planning to disappear. Her timetable is upped, though, when she foresees herself being kidnapped right out of her town car, and the vision allows her to escape the real thing by a split second. She walks off into the rain and then meets up with Swoosie Kurtz, which is such an awesome cast as a socialite peer of Angela's that I can't even use words to describe it, although she only gets a little cash and an umbrella out of the deal. But just when the agents catch up to Angela and are about to take her, Peter makes his first appearance at Minute 46 and flies her to safety, and he totally rules this chapter, as he and his mother hide out in the Statue Of Liberty and contemplate their move.
Sylar, being the biggest drama queen in history, doesn't confront Danko, but instead leaves an incapacitated Doyle in his apartment as some sort of sick present. I'd complain, but Sylar isn't actually in the episode, so I'll take what I can get. Danko then shows Mohinder a room full of drugged-up Heroes that are considered armed and dangerous, and we learn that Daphne's at death's door before Danko makes Mohinder another resident of the place. Bennet floats the idea to Danko of letting Tracy go as a way of getting to Rebel, and Danko agrees, but insists that Bennet kill both Tracy and Rebel once he finds them. Soon after, Rebel indeed shuts down enough of Building 26's systems to allow Tracy to escape -- but Danko and Bennet get more than they bargained for, as Tracy frees Mohinder and Matt on her way out, who in turn pick Daphne up. With their combined powers, the four of them make it out safely, but Bennet soon catches the in-it-for-herself Tracy and orders him to lead her to Rebel in exchange for her freedom.
Meanwhile, Matt and Mohinder get Daphne to a hospital, and Matt uses his mental powers to allay any suspicion on the part of the staff while making sure they get Daphne better, which they do -- except it's too late for her, and Matt can only plant lovely parting thoughts in her head before she shuffles off this mortal coil. We finally learn that Rebel is Micah, not that that's a surprise, but when Tracy finds this out, she's horrified, as now she knows she's made a deal to set up her own nephew. However, Micah's powers are equal to the task of keeping the agents at bay, and after he chews Tracy out for her duplicitous ways, Tracy has Micah run to safety before freezing a whole bunch of agents -- and herself in the process. Danko finishes her off, and that's two spectacular ends Ali Larter has met on this show. Can't wait to see what they've got in store for Barbara.
Want more? The full recap starts right below! We start with several shots of Danko shaving, and the show can toss in whatever dramatic score it likes, but it's not going to make it any less boring. I mean, come on. Danko saw the stupid rabbit on the desk -- he wouldn't have called in, just in case? I can buy Sylar playing cat-and-mouse in the apartment, because he's a bigger drama queen than Blanche DuBois and he's also done it before, but Danko really shouldn't be going about his day like nothing's amiss. Anyway, Danko pauses mid-shave when he hears an electronic voice telling him that the front door is open. And here I thought the suspenseful music was related to the question of whether or not he would cut himself shaving. Danko fetches one of probably eighty-seven guns lying around the place and goes to investigate, but instead of Sylar, he finds Doyle strung up in a harness like a marionette, with makeshift curtains draped around him for effect and a big red bow and a tag that reads "My Gift To You" tied around him. All this surely means that Danko is going to be the latest "lucky" object of Sylar's Daddy Issues, and I wish Sylar would pick a big leather queen to latch onto one of these days, just to make his continued existence slightly less tiresome.Heavy rain is causing a huge traffic jam, although the resultant honking they're depicting is a little out of control even for New York, and then Bennet, a newspaper over his head, hops into Angela's town car with bits of toilet tissue stuck to his face. What a tease that all the actual shaving nicks happened off-screen! Way to passport the important stuff, show! Angela suggests that this be their last such conversation, as it's too dangerous for him to be seen with her, and after Bennet snits that he's sure she doesn't actually care about his safety, she replies that she's worried about having all their fates in the hands of a man "too distracted to pack an umbrella on a cloudy day... or use a proper razor." Well, I'm not going to defend him on the second point, but boy, if I could get back the money on all the ten-dollar umbrellas I've bought on the streets of New York on rainy days in my lifetime. Angela then expresses remorse over the fact that saving her sons has meant the end of her relationship with them, and although she admits Nathan will likely eventually forgive her, she thinks she's lost Peter for good. She goes on that now that Nathan's been outed, everything depends on Bennet, and when Bennet tells her that Danko doesn't trust him, she suggests he earn his trust. "Give him some kind of feather to put in his cap. Give him one of us." She suggests Rebel as the sacrifice, and Bennet's surprised, as he thinks Angela might personally need Rebel's services sooner rather than later, but Angela says she's getting out of New York that very night, "before something unfortunate happens." Chances of that are a lot lower now that Bryan Fuller's back. She sends him on his way with her umbrella and a snarky comment about how now he can't say she never did anything for him, and given what ends up happening to her she should at least have asked for his newspaper in return. But what he offers is probably more valuable: "I wouldn't go home if I were you. Don't say I never did anything for you." The sass drains from Angela's face, and when Bennet's gone, she sighs raggedly.
Danko shows Mohinder into a room containing numerous Heroes, all lying unconscious on gurneys and hooked up to a steady stream of drugs. Danko explains that everyone in the room is considered armed and dangerous, including Mohinder. Mohinder asks about Daphne, and upon discovering she's in the room, goes to her as he says he wants to speak to Nathan. Danko, amusement on his face, says that Nathan flew away, so Mohinder urgently tells Danko that he can't do anything to help Daphne, who's dying, there. Danko, however, says he doesn't want him to help her, and instead of possibly catching on and starting with the smashing, Mohinder asks why he brought him there. Danko: "I figured it'd be a whole lot easier than carrying you!" Of course, some goon appears and injects Mohinder with a charge, knocking him out, and I don't know if Mohinder got his scientist credentials via a mail-in offer or what, but the guy is dumb. Danko has the guy hook Mohinder up, and also asks that he make up a bed for Tracy...
...who's in her room, looking at a chyron of "Chapter Seven" that's appeared over the heaters. We then cut to a side view of the title, which Tracy gets rid of by blowing her icy breath over it. Ordinarily I'd think this scene a bit of a waste, but it's a lot more fitting given that the title is "Cold Snap." Title card.
Bennet joins Danko in the Armed And Comatose room, and Danko tells him that with the "recent management changes," the two of them need to get along, so he's got a present for him -- Doyle. I bet Sylar's going to throw one of his trademark hissyfits when he finds out his new crush is a re-gifter. Danko doesn't admit to that, however, simply saying he's "smarter than the average bear" when Bennet asks him how he caught Doyle, and with that line and his diminutive stature I cannot believe Bennet didn't pick up the thread and call him "Boo-Boo." Bennet suggests, in order to reciprocate, that he deliver Rebel to Danko -- only he thinks, given Rebel's recent interest in Tracy, that they should let Tracy go and see if she leads them to him. Danko's reluctant at first, but Bennet prevails on him by promising that he'll kill Tracy if the endeavor doesn't work. Danko doesn't say "Your funeral," but I wouldn't be surprised if he were thinking it.
Oh, Lord, Hiro and Ando both are actually under the impression that their Matt has been turned into the infant in front of them, like, I know you guys must be jet-lagged but this is still pretty ridiculous even for you. The faces the baby makes are hilarious, though, and then Ando comes up with the bright idea that maybe it's Matt's kid, not Matt himself, although he does wonder if Matt's even aware he has a son. However, Hiro thinks, for no reason whatsoever, that they're supposed to save the elder Matt. Ando's like, Rebel gave us this address, so why are you being an idiot other than the obvious, but he then realizes that Hiro is afraid of the baby, who keeps playing around with the TV. Hiro tries to deny that, but he's extremely unconvincing even to a non-Japanese speaker, so Ando does what any character worth watching would do, which is give Hiro shit: "Is it because of their little baby razor-like fingernails?" Heh. Hiro tries to say that Heroes change the world, "not diapers," and I'm glad for his sake his own parents didn't share that opinion, and he then gets annoyed with Matt Jr.'s flipping the TV on and off and unplugs it, which is one of the few things that could get you summarily ejected from my home. Matt Jr., however, is unfazed, because moments later, the TV clicks on again, and Ando goes wide-eyed: "The baby has a power." No, he has THE power, but close enough, and Hiro finally catches up as well: "They're coming for Matt Parkman's baby."
Traffic is still hell, but the rain isn't the only problem, as Angela asks her driver why they've stopped, and gets her answer when some agents yank him and then her out of the car -- only it's a vision, as she wakes up with a start in the back seat. Wide-eyed with fear, she tells the driver not to stop, but he starts to say something about the traffic when the door opens and he gets pulled out. However, this time the camera follows him out, so when another agent opens the back door, it's no surprise that Angela's gone. She strides toward the camera purposefully, already drenched, as the agents try to figure out where she went, but she's way ahead of them as she finds a gentleman of an appropriate age and asks if he wouldn't mind if she walked along under his umbrella, and he graciously agrees. Just don't give in if she asks you for some dry socks -- you'll never get them back.
Bennet reports to Danko that their men lost Angela, but they soon have bigger problems, as a bunch of Building 26's systems suddenly go offline. Bennet's all, "Rebel Rebel," like, now you're so quick with a pop-culture reference with a repeating name?
The heaters in Tracy's cell power down and the door opens, and if it was all this easy I wonder what Rebel was waiting for all this time. Oh, wait -- he was awaiting Bryan Fuller's return, just like the rest of us. With her power disinhibited, Tracy easily frees herself, and then we cut to the hallway, where she notices a security camera swivel to point toward a certain door. She breathes Rebel's name, and as if to answer, the door opens, so she runs through it -- and finds herself in the Armed And Comatose room. She quickly frees Mohinder and Matt, but when they insist on taking Daphne with them, Tracy bails, thinking Daphne will slow them down too much. The logic doesn't really hold, because the advantage she'll gain from having Matt and Mohinder's powers to back her up certainly outweighs the loss in speed, as is demonstrated when she comes to another door -- through which a bunch of commandos come crashing, ready to take her. Not sure why this happened if the plan was to allow Tracy to escape, but maybe there was a communication breakdown somewhere. Anyway, Matt appears at Tracy's side and uses his ability to get them to pass without incident, and elsewhere, Danko tells Bennet that if Tracy leads him to Rebel, he's to kill them both. "Chalk it up to self-defense." That'll be a harder sell when they find out who Rebel is, but maybe people will buy that he's an underage, very short black belt.
Tracy's in one of the dressing rooms of a clothing store, having procured herself a new outfit. She uses her power to freeze off the security tag on the sweater, but when she opens the door to the stall, she runs straight into Bennet. After chiding her for not sticking with Matt, as that would have enabled her to avoid him easily, he enters and draws his weapon, saying he thinks he can pull the trigger faster than she can turn him to ice, but he'd rather not take that chance. She replies that he'd do well not to test her, as she's feeling one hell of a cold snap coming on now that she's out of that heated room, so after an interruption from the dressing-room attendant that they both play off, Tracy tells Bennet she doesn't know who Rebel is, and Bennet tells her if she leads him to Rebel, he'll let her go, but otherwise her life is over. Not sure if Bennet is planning on keeping his word here, given what he told Danko, nor am I sure that it makes sense for Tracy to trust Bennet to do so, but regardless, she looks reluctantly convinced.
In a hospital, Matt races down a hall calling for help with Daphne in his arms, and some medics get her on a gurney and call for preparation for surgery. Matt tells the lead guy that Daphne's name is "Janice," which I won't bother commenting on because Daphne's going to do it for me, and then babbles that the injury is from an accident on a duck-hunting trip, and while it may be a stretch to take that as a dig at Dick Cheney, I'm going to do so regardless. The lead guy says they have to report all gunshot wounds to the police, but Matt uses his mind mojo to get the guy to drop that idea, and also to tell him to stick around and make sure she's okay, presumably because Mohinder was just on him to be prepared to make tracks out of there. When the medics all have left, Matt and Mohinder both look worried, probably not for exactly the same reasons.
Hiro is saying that Matt Jr.'s ability is "Toddler Touch And Go," so I suppose it's not completely accurate to call him a human remote control, yet I'm not sure that's going to stop me. He goes on that he's like the Genesis Device in Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan -- creating "life from lifelessness" -- which I don't see at all, but there are numerous reasons I'm not about to get involved in a geek argument with Hiro. As Matt Jr., by touching every toy in the room, turns the place into FAO Schwarz's wet dream, Ando protests that they can't just take the kid away, so Hiro gets the brilliant idea to leave a note, like, I'm sure Janice will be really heartened when she reads this:
"Mrs. Matt Pahkman! Your baby is Hero! And I, Hiro, am also Hero! So obviously I must kidnap him! Yatta!"
Or, you know, whatever marginally more sensical thing he actually gets around to writing once he finishes scolding Matt Jr. for all the commotion he's causing. Ando hilariously says he's seen this kind of thing on Dr. Phil -- Hiro had a cold Daddy. "You have childhood issues, which means you have child issues." Well, he certainly has childish issues, but Ando may be onto something here. Hiro sarcastically thanks him, but when Ando brings up his mother, he tells him he's being insensitive. Ando doesn't see what the big deal is, given that she died sixteen years earlier, but Hiro confesses what happened last chapter, when he time-traveled and met his mother again, and then she died in his arms. Ando sensitively asks why he didn't tell him, and Hiro continues to busy himself with packing a bag for Matt Jr. as he says he was afraid he'd cry if he did. Ando says he's about to cry himself, which Hiro warns him off doing so he won't cry, and it sounds comedic on the page but it really isn't -- it's actually an affecting emotional beat that the show needs to remember to throw in more often. Ando asks if this business is why Hiro's scared of the baby, but Hiro denies being afraid of him -- it's just that he wants to be brave for him. Just then, they hear the front door close, so they pick up the baby and head for the closet...
...only the toys are still going bazoo, so it doesn't take Janice long to search the place and find, amid a pile of stuffed animals, her son, along with Hiro and Ando, buried among the toys except for their smiling faces. She notes that they're not from the babysitting service, and given what we saw of said service's last offering I'd guess she was tipped off by the fact that Hiro and Ando are actually playing with the child.
Tracy's walking down the street when she realizes that an ATM is calling her name, and when she investigates, the thing spits out some cash and a train ticket from Union Station, along with a locker number. She thanks Rebel, as well she should, because it's one thing to give her a place to go, but it's another to pay for a cab to get her there. She takes off, but when we pull back from the curb, we see Micah is watching her, so it unsurprisingly (although still satisfyingly) looks like he's Rebel. He calls for a taxi as well, and we can hear his voice has changed since he was last on the show. At least he doesn't appear to have grown twelve feet in his time off like Walt on Lost did.
Oh my God, I was so psyched when I read Swoosie Kurtz was guest-starring as an old friend of Angela's, but it's even better than I thought, because the opening shot shows her reading Ronald Reagan's memoirs. Ha! She's sitting in a restaurant, and when Angela joins her, she's startled by the fact that she resembles a drowned rat. "You look like you've been mugged, and the first thing they stole was your dignity." Hee. Nice to meet someone who can make Angela feel small. Angela admits that she's having a bad day, and Swoosie tells her she doesn't know from bad days, as "people with badges" detained her for three hours that morning, and they even interrupted her Pilates session! She pointedly goes on that they had all kinds of questions about the company she keeps, "or kept," and clutches her glass of wine as she says she's in no mood to be ambushed. Angela, however, doesn't engage in any kind of verbal dancing, telling "Millie" that she's in trouble, and Swoosie says she knows she wasn't the same after Arthur died, but wonders what it is she did to get in such hot water. "Is it pills? And can I have some?" Part of that may have been implied. Angela says she dug her sons a very deep hole, and she's trying to rectify that. She tells Swoosie she could use a change of clothes, a car, and whatever cash she's got on her, as she needs to disappear. Swoosie: "You want my advice?" Angela: "No." Heh. Swoosie, however, doesn't hear that as she counsels Angela to turn herself in: "Just because there's a road unfurling in front of you doesn't mean you have to take it!" Genuinely saddened by her friend's apparent disinterest and probably more broadly by the fact she really has no one to whom to turn, Angela tells Swoosie it was nice to see her, but Swoosie, seemingly cottoning on in the eleventh hour to how desperate Angela really is, uncomfortably gives her a couple hundred bucks, which is all the cash she's got on her. Angela thanks her, and helps herself to her umbrella on the way out, which isn't going to do much to change Swoosie's impression of her as a thief.
With her son in her arms, Janice tells Hiro and Ando to leave, as she's called the police. However, when Ando asks if she knows that her baby is "special," Janice looks guilty, and after closing the door, tells them that it started during the eclipse, "just like it did with his dad," like, DON'T GET ME STARTED WITH THAT but I'll give Bryan Fuller a pass on a lot of things, in case I'm being too subtle about that. Janice asks if they're there because of what Matt Sr. did, and Hiro says yes without having the faintest idea what she's talking about because he is still very often an idiot, so she has to get Matt Jr. to turn on the TV, which is showing a news clip of Matt's supposed attack on the Capitol Building. She says she came straight home after she saw the story on the news, and didn't that start two episodes ago? If they keep having chapters that last approximately a week, the characters are not going to appear to age well. As they watch the story, Ando and Hiro explain about the government conspiracy and warn Janice that they're coming for her son, and just like that, there's a knock at the door. Hiro thinks it must be the police responding to Janice's call, but, eyes wide, she confesses: "I never called the police." That would be a DUN!...
...and we cut to the front door, at which a couple agents tell Janice they have a warrant to bring her and her son in for questioning. After ascertaining that they're there because of what happened with Matt Sr., she asks why they need to question a non-speaking infant, but they don't really answer, only saying that the warrant is for the both of them. She tells them Matt Jr. is at the babysitter's, and rather too-eagerly offers to take them there, so while they initially agree, it's not a shock when they send in a team to search the house. Ando and Hiro realize they're trapped, so Ando hands the baby off to Hiro and fires up his hands as Matt Jr. reaches out a hand to stroke Hiro's face, which prompts a sound effect, the significance of which will become clear very soon. When an agent busts into the room, Ando zaps him with electrical energy, but then another guy hits Ando in the face with his gun butt. Ouch. Hiro closes his eyes to brace himself -- and time stops. Like I said in the recaplet, I'm not sure this makes sense, since Hiro's ability was removed permanently, but I suppose if you think even now he's ability-ready, if you follow, it would make sense that Matt Jr. could reactivate his power, just like an eclipse would if that's what eclipses actually did in this reality. Hiro surveys the scene and celebrates, even asking the baby if he can say "Yatta." I'd certainly take him saying it over you, dude. Hiro then touches Ando and tries to teleport them out of there, but that apparently requires a different remote, as that power is still silent. Hiro, however, doesn't let that faze him, and with the aid of a baby sling for Matt Jr. and a wheelbarrow for Ando, gets his allies out of there.
Daphne wakes up in her hospital room to find a lot of balloons and flowers wishing a speedy recovery -- to Gwen Stefani. Ha! I love it when this show remembers to be funny. Matt admits to "convincing" the staff of her ersatz identity, although he doesn't mention whether he had to use his mind mojo to do so, and goes on that she's been out for a couple of days. Daphne recalls that his original cover story was that she was "duck-hunting Janice," and rather than suggest that she might have been hallucinating from the pain and infection, Matt admits that that's the name of his ex-wife. Daphne is basically out of there as soon as she hears this, even though in practice it takes her a little longer than normal, but after some talk about them not having a "believable backstory," her pointing out, again, that it's pretty silly for them to be together just because of a tripped-out spirit walk, and most tellingly, her getting him to avert his eyes while she pulls on some clothes, she tells him she doesn't want to be his "surrogate Janice," and superzips out of there. Figures that just when she goes back to her telling-it-like-it-is self, they get rid of her (SPOILER!).
Tracy gets to the appointed locker at Union Station and finds some new ID for her inside. She takes a breath, probably already having misgivings about the setup, but those increase a hundredfold when Micah reveals himself to her and tells her he's Rebel. She takes him aside, and after he goes on that he thought they could help people together, she confesses her real play here. He's obviously disappointed, not understanding how she could do that to anyone, but tells her he was prepared for her to be followed, and uses his phone to send a fake warning about an emergency gas leak, which gets announced over the station's PA system. The two of them then disappear through a door that looks like it leads down a long corridor, which should give Micah plenty of time to tell his aunt how amazingly disappointed he is in her.
The rain has stopped, which is too bad for Angela, because there's nothing to block three agents catching a clear view of her face as they approach her on the sidewalk. She does a one-eighty but sees three more coming from the other direction, so she ducks into the commercial building right to her, ignoring the doorman's attempts to get her attention. I'm sure that's not the first time she's failed to pay the help any mind. The agents quickly pursue her, but she manages to get in the elevator, shooting eye rays of death at them even as they draw their guns. The elevator doors close right before they reach her, but some commandos join the agents and get to work on the elevator's control panel. I'm not sure what Angela's plan is here -- you'd think she might anticipate what's coming and hop out -- but she could just be hoping to buy as much time as possible. However, the commandos get the elevator moving back down, and when Angela realizes it, her face gives in to resignation and genuine fear. However, just as the elevator is about to get to the lobby, she hears a thud on top of the car...
...and when the doors open, Angela has her arms around Peter. YES! That ruled, because I didn't expect him to show up and help her, much less this close to the end of the episode. The agents cock their guns, but Peter just curls his lip sardonically and flies his mother straight up through the door in top of the car. The camera moves to show an awesome shot of them heading up into the sky before we head into the last commercial break.
As they pedeconference, Tracy excitedly compliments Micah on being so prepared, even speculating that he must have been a Boy Scout, but Micah snits that Boy Scouts are also trustworthy, which is something she obviously knows nothing about. She admits she's not proud of herself, but gets less so when he calls her on having gotten into politics to protect the civil liberties of the everyday American. Tracy gasps in shock: "God, you read my bio?" Hee. It's every politician's worst nightmare -- a constituent that pays attention. Micah says that he read everything on her and thought that meant he knew her, and for a kid that's so ridiculously tech-savvy, he sure doesn't know much about the internet. He goes on that she's nothing like Niki, who was an everyday American and also a hero. As they walk through a parking garage, he asks what side she's on, and the ensuing sound of squealing tires lets us know she's going to have to give a meaningful answer to that question without delay. The two of them hide behind some parked cars, but fear is all over Tracy's face as she sees the phalanx of agents headed their way. However, her eyes then dart up to the sprinklers, and she asks Micah if he can tell them what to do. He says that he can tell the fire alarm to tell the sprinklers what to do, and while I appreciate the clarification, the time constraints of the situation would have allowed me to accept a simple "Yes." She has him turn them on, and once the place is good and wet, she tells him to find a way out. He asks her to come with him, but she says she can't, and the smile on her face shows that she's quickly made her peace with what she's about to do. It's a testament to the directing and the writing in this episode that this rather abrupt character change plays as believable, I have to say, and Tracy tells Micah, "Keep doing what you're doing, Rebel," before shooing him on his way. Before he disappears, though, she cautions him to "stay ahead of the ice." Oh, this is going to be good. The action slows down as Tracy emerges from her hiding place and approaches her assailants, and once they've tightly surrounded her, she closes her eyes and freezes the entire scene in a spectacular effect. We see Micah making it safely through a door just before the ice reaches him, and once Tracy observes that, we then get a closeup of her eye going milky and frozen and a last exhalation before she turns entirely to ice. Obviously, she might have tried a different approach that would have at least given her a chance to escape, but she chose the path of self-sacrifice, making sure both that Micah would get away and that she wouldn't be taken alive. In fact, not only did she have an amazing death, like Niki did, she died to save someone else, also as Niki did. You know Ali Larter's coming back as Barbara, though. Anyway, Danko, who wasn't in the garage for the ice storm, now has made his way through the Arctic tableau to Tracy's frozen statue, and he draws his gun, puts it right to her heart, and pulls the trigger. Micah stops running for a moment, probably knowing what he just heard, and Tracy falls to pieces, and I just wonder if Danko's sick enough to mix Tracy into his highball. Bennet joins Danko, unable to conceal the emotions on his face, and breathes, "She said she had a hell of a cold snap." Danko asks if there's any sign of Rebel, but Bennet says no, so Danko leaves without another word, and Bennet looks horribly bummed as Tracy's remains start to flow into the storm drain.
Hiro arrives at the airport, with everyone on the scene frozen in time, and since when do his powers reach this far and for this long? I mean, it's pretty funny to see Ando still immobilized in the wheelbarrow, but that kid must pack a bigger punch than I thought. Either that, or Hiro unwittingly got some fallout from Ando's use of his jazz hands earlier. Anyway, Hiro steals a bottle from a mother (I'm guessing) who's feeding her kid, and I guess he's got to do what he's got to do, but in this era of pumps I hope Matt Jr. doesn't get too attached to breast milk that didn't come from his mom. Speaking of whom, Hiro assures Baby Matt that he'll see his mother again when this is all over, and she'll be very proud of him. He goes on that he hasn't cried once, "but if you want to cry, it's okay." It is heartening when they give Masi Oka something interesting to do. Anyway, with this message delivered, Hiro unfreezes time, and they amusingly don't forget to show the woman get a "Where the hell did that bottle go?" expression on her face before Hiro explains what happened to Ando. He goes on that now they have to save Baby Matt's dad: "Time is once again on our side..."
...which leads to a nice cut to Daphne, subtly ironic given that we don't know what's up with her yet. She's back in Paris, sitting on a metal beam that's part of a neon sign on a rooftop and looking out at the Eiffel Tower across the night sky, when Matt finds her. She notes that he got there awfully quickly, and he tells her he flew. She asks what he means, and by way of answering, he floats up into the air. She smiles and says she didn't know he could fly, and I'd tell her to join the club but that's going to be a moot point in a moment. She steps onto his feet and they float up into the night, but after a quick montage of them flying around, she asks him to let her go. He feigns confusion, but she says they must still be in the hospital, and he's obviously using his power to give her a happy ending because she's about to die. He tells her he's sorry, but she's not -- she just thinks he deserves the real thing someday. His voice breaks as he says he wanted to make her happy, and she smiles as she tells him he did. She asks him to fly her to the moon, and they zip off into the sky...
...but their smoke trail fades into a flatline on her heart monitor. Mohinder at least has returned to console the grieving Matt, although he might secretly be happy that his competition's gone. Seriously, though, bye, Daphne -- I liked you, even though your relationship with Matt was frustrating and creepy, as even you knew. If you'll forgive the expression: Godspeed.
Peter and Angela look out into the night, and as Peter asks his mother what their move is, the camera pulls back to show they're hiding out in the top of the Statue of Liberty. Nice. Instead of hearing her answer, we cut to black, and after nineteen misses I was seriously wondering if I'd give the show an A-range grade the entire season, so I don't think it's too early to say that it was worth sticking around for the return of Bryan Fuller. See you time!
John Ramos is a writer and film producer living in Los Angeles. You can reach him at couchbaron@gmail.com.
Discuss this episode in the Heroes forums, and see how Peter stacks up against our favorite TV bachelors!