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Claire and Nathan are hiding out in Mexico, and after Nathan passes out while trying to drink some frat boys under the table for money, Claire takes up where he left off, and her healing power enables her to drop the frats and take their cash. Afterward, Nathan apologizes to Claire for how horrible he's been to her, and tells her he gave her the free pass to win her over. He promises that he's going to try to fix the mess he's made, for Peter and Angela and her, but in the sober light of day, he confesses he has no allies and everything's way beyond his control. Claire is devastated at how lame her bio-dad is, but he gets it together in time to win her back before the episode ends.
Peter tells Angela he only saved her because he wants to know what's going on, and Angela tells him she brought him to the church at which she and Arthur got married to find the answers they both seek. She confesses that she hasn't been able to dream for a while, and it's all her fault, because of what she did to their family. She apologizes to Peter for basically everything she ever did to him, and after Peter informs God that he's pissed at him and everyone else for the mess they're all in, agents invade the church, so Peter and Angela duck into the confessionals to hide. Therein, Angela tells Peter when she was his age, her power manifested and she saw visions of a horrible future. She tried to warn people, but they treated her as a Cassandra, so she turned to lies and betrayal to get her message across. Bennet then finds them, but doesn't let on to the other agents, and after they're gone, Angela succeeds in having a dream, and she says that after they collect Nathan and Claire, they need to visit her sister. Casting director, don't let me down.
In Arlington, Virginia, Danko and Bennet are on a scene where some agents were mysteriously slaughtered, but things become clearer when Danko gets into his car and finds Sylar waiting for him. Sylar basically wants to suck Danko's dick, but since they can't say that on TV, he instead offers to find the guy that killed his men. Although Danko is wary of trusting Sylar initially, Sylar eventually tells him that the guy the murdered agents went after is a shapeshifter. Danko uses his knowledge of Sylar to get the drop on him, but instead of shooting him, he allows Sylar to talk him into accepting his help to find all the other Heroes, starting with the shapeshifter, whom they track down in a strip club -- in Danko's form, and despite my annoyance with any subplot involving Sylar, that was pretty cool. Danko ends up giving the shapeshifter to Sylar so he can steal his power, and if these two want to get married, I have no objection as long as they move somewhere far away to live in wedded bliss. Also, the shapeshifter was in Sylar's form when he died, so Danko uses the corpse to convince Bennet that Sylar is dead so the two of them can have sex on a bunch of Heroes' graves, or something. I only wish I could share Bennet's ignorance of the truth, because that would truly be bliss.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!We open in Patzcuaro, Mexico (a good place to hide out, actually, so nice touch), to which Nathan and Claire have apparently fled. They check into a motel, and after some hijinx in which Nathan speaks Spanish to the clerk while Claire tries English and then the guy assumes Nathan's there to bang his underage daughter, the two of them head to their room. On the way, Nathan tells Claire that while his exposure meant the end of her free pass, "Danko's reach doesn't extend south of the border." Well, given that Nathan's well aware Danko plucked Hiro right out of Japan, I'm not sure what he's basing that statement on, but it's not like the show really wants us to remember anything it didn't put in the previouslies. He promises to "make some calls" and "put some things in motion," and I think he's continuing to be delusional, unless his idea of putting things in motion is getting a bad case of Montezuma's Revenge. Once they check out the room, Nathan suggests they head to a nearby cantina, but Claire points out that they just spent all the money they had on the room, and decides to go for a walk. Nathan absently suggests they stick together for her safety, but Claire basically ignores him and leaves. Dude, she's a blonde chick wandering the streets of a Mexican village alone. Maybe exert a little more parental authority here, because Bennet will slap you silly when he finds out about this if you don't.
Peter and Angela touch down in an alley in New York somewhere, and Angela refers to him as her "guardian angel" and tells him he's a good son. He retorts that he only saved her because he figured she had some valuable information, but she says that's not the case -- in fact, she's looking for answers herself, which is why she had him bring her to their current location. Rain starts pouring down as she goes on, "This is where it's supposed to be," and we see they're standing in front of a large church. She starts heading for the door, and Peter follows, probably prepared to catch his mother in case the place repels her with an electric shock or something.
In Arlington, Virginia, some agents are lying dead in a house somewhere, and Bennet and Danko have arrived to find out what the hell happened. The agent who was left to guard the entrance explains that his three cronies entered the place to try to take a presumed Hero, and the thing he knew, he heard three gunshots, and then he rushed in and found the men as they now are. He then vomits from the ordeal, and Danko orders him back to HQ to get cleaned up. The guy leaves, and Bennet informs Danko that they each took a bullet in the back with no signs of a struggle. Danko tells us their intended target was a male geometry teacher in his early 30s, but he doesn't know what his ability is, only that his DNA was in the national database and set off a red flag. Bennet all but wags his finger at Danko in disapproval, but he's not worried about encroaching on people's civil liberties, as Danko speculates -- he just thinks it's prohibitively dangerous to send in a team without knowing what they're up against. Danko shuts Bennet up merely by mentioning Nathan's name, but he seems kind of out of sorts, almost like a junkie who needs a fix, to be honest...
...so I guess it's no surprise when we cut to him in his car, waiting for the lighter to get hot so he can have a smoke. Del Shannon's "Runaway" is playing on the radio, and after Danko closes his eyes and continues to look ashen and not at all well, Sylar's voice pipes up from the back seat that he loves this song, and I have to confess I first couldn't decide whether to give last week's episode an A- or a full A, and the thing that put me over was that Sylar wasn't in it. After babbling for a bit, Sylar asks if Danko got his "gifts," and Danko takes a moment before evenly responding that Sylar shouldn't have. Sylar, however, talks about "an overture toward collaboration" and "pooling their resources" and the fact that Danko fascinates him, and I'm not sure why he didn't cut all these preliminaries and just wait for Danko under the steering wheel instead of in the back seat. Sylar mentions the bloodbath that occurred inside and opines that Danko's in way over his head with the new guy, and that seems like kind of a cruel expression to use where Zeljko Ivanek is concerned. Sylar, coming closer than most heterosexual serial killers would, offers to find the guy that killed the agents, but instead of taking him up on it, Danko goes for his gun -- but when he trains it on the back seat, Sylar's gone, and I'd complain about him getting out of the car in half a second without any sound, except I know better than to question any development that results in his disappearing. However, after Danko drives away, we see Sylar up on a rooftop in the storm as the bit about "I'm a-walkin' in the rain" plays, and Mr. Shannon's estate may be getting some fat licensing fees but I think the man himself is spinning in his grave. Title card.
Back at Building 26, Danko's yelling at his staff to find the guy that killed their men, but after he blusters and swaggers as best he can, he privately tells Bennet that they need a win. Bennet pushes the hoary "one of us, one of them" idea, which is really ill-advised for reasons that should be coming clear already, and adds that it's a similar strategy to the one Danko himself used when he was running several counter-insurgency operations. Danko's all "Well, I never!" in the face of Bennet's mention of his checkered past, but Bennet merely laughs and says that if Danko were aware of the references he's making, he'd appreciate the value of co-opting the native population. "A little focused manipulation goes a long way." Danko straight-up asks how Bennet could trust any Hero, but Bennet tells him trust doesn't enter into it -- they're merely tools to be used, and the key is to do whatever it takes to motivate them. Bennet then so happens to mention he has reason to believe that Sylar is in D.C., and catching him could be the win they both need. Danko, however, says he's got another assignment for Bennet, and once he's handed him a folder, we see Danko's sending him after Angela. I'd count that as a blessing, you won't be surprised to hear.
Claire joins Nathan in the cantina and triumphantly slaps down several large-ish bills, and if I were Nathan my first reaction wouldn't be mere mild interest in what she had to do to get them, but I never said my parenting skills were anything to write home about. Of course, I DON'T HAVE KIDS. Anyway, Claire sold a necklace that Bennet gave her, but Nathan tells her she didn't have to do that, and, with a look toward several nearby fratty-looking American boys, says he's got everything under control, and I can think of about a thousand ways that sentence will end up not being true and approximately zero where it is. Claire's expression agrees with me, so Nathan whines that their situation isn't exactly simple. Claire's like, how about calling off the dogs you let loose, and in response, Nathan asks for a little gratitude for the free pass and rescuing her and blah, like, NONE OF THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NECESSARY IF YOU WEREN'T WILLING TO BETRAY YOUR OWN KIND JUST ON THE OFF CHANCE YOUR ABILITY WOULD EVENTUALLY BE REMOVED! I enjoy watching Adrian Pasdar, but man, does Nathan need to shut up, both retroactively and going forward. Claire asks why he gave her the damn free pass in the first place, and he evasively says he had his reasons before grabbing the wad of cash and heading over to the frat boys. Claire asks what he's going to do with the money, and Nathan replies, "Turn it into more." Claire looks like she just hopes her necklace isn't going to fund a donkey show.
Peter enters the church (was he standing out in the rain all this time?) just as a service is wrapping up, which I'll admit is about where I usually like to come in. He finds his mother in a pew and sits with her, asking if she thinks hiding in a church is going to keep the agents away, but she tells him she hasn't been able to sleep for a long time (at least, not since last episode), which means any guidance she would normally be getting from her dreams has been absent. Looking haggard and sounding despondent, she says the dreams only come when her sleep is earned, and I know she's having a crisis, but I still find it pretty appalling that she slept well after, say, setting a human being up to be in a snuff film with Sylar. She reminisces about her wedding taking place in this very church, as well as Peter's first Communion and even "Nana's" funeral. About that last, she adds, "You were probably too young to remember, but you held my hand." Aw. She says their family once had love in it, and it's all her fault that that's no longer the case. Peter, not clear where she's going with all this, asks if she's come to the church to be forgiven, but Angela's despair is strong: "I'm not sure that even God has that in him." Well, I suppose my own attitude would be pretty bleak if I hadn't had any REM sleep for a week.
So Nathan's downed some tequila with these guys, and he proposes putting some money on a drinking contest, starting now. Too bad he doesn't have Lucille Bluth around to play ringer for him. Claire pulls him aside and asks if he's nuts, but Nathan waxes nostalgic (and a little drunk already, I'd say) about how they used to do this in his Navy days, and damn if I did not just get an image of Nathan in uniform. When I reopen my eyes some time later, Claire gives up and tells him to go for it, and he tells the frats to line them up. It's a really bad idea, but I'd still rather watch him do this than try to save the world.
Back at Building 26, the guy who puked before thanks Danko for his speech, and then a phone rings. Danko, perplexed, examines a cardboard box to him and finds the phone in question on top of it, and then answers to find it's Sylar calling, and as the "agent" makes himself scarce, Sylar babbles for a bit until he tells Danko that the guy he's after is a shapeshifter, and the proof of that comes when Danko opens the box and finds a severed head inside -- a head with the face of the "agent" that was just in Danko's presence. Danko wastes no time in running after Odo the Changeling with some agents in tow, as Sylar stays on the phone just in case some random person is fool enough to pick up the other end and talk to him.
Danko and friends actually track down Odo in the parking garage and start shooting at him, but Odo flees, on the way bumping into a janitor and grabbing his wrist in a significant manner. He does at least politely excuse himself, though, and show, if you want me to root against the guy you're going to have to make him ruder. Anyway, after he's out of sight and with what looks like a very painful effort, Odo takes the form of the janitor and runs out to the street. Danko and the agents follow him outside, but they have no chance of finding him in the driving rain and large crowd, so they concede defeat. But... they couldn't have called ahead to the front door, perhaps? I mean, I'm not an expert on these things, but do you think locking down the doors so no one could leave the building could have been accomplished by sending out a general alert along the lines of "Lock down the doors so no one can leave the building"?
Back in church, Peter has gotten a dry coat for Angela out of "one of the bins," saying it looks like something she would wear. Angela: "It should. It's mine." Heh. She explains that she made a donation the week before, and continues to flog herself for her misdeeds as she says it's supposed to go to someone who needs it. Peter counters that she needs it, and she takes it without further argument, saving Peter and me the trouble of pointing out that this way she won't risk warping the pews any further. Peter comments that he wasn't aware she was still active in the church, but Angela says she gives mere things instead of her devotion -- just like she did with him and Nathan. As Peter sits uncomfortably, she apologizes for never having provided him with any emotional or spiritual comfort, especially when he was manifesting and she didn't tell him the truth. "You must hate me." Well, if he doesn't, it isn't because you're not making a good case. Peter considers a moment but chooses neither to confirm her suspicions nor to let her off the hook, instead saying he's going to get her a cup of tea. Even that gesture makes me think he doesn't hate her, although I reserve the right to change my mind if he ends up flinging the scalding liquid into her face. Oh, no, there he is, assuring her that he doesn't hate her, and whatever happens, she's still his mother. Angela is disconsolate, however: "I'm afraid that unconditional love isn't really love at all." Honey, if you feel the need to make amends, go for it, but until then I think you should take what you can get.
Nathan and the one frat boy whose eyes are still open are sweatily continuing to pound tequila shots, lots and lots of them, and I know Nathan grew up a WASP but I still think he's in the high weeds here. Claire agrees with me, suggesting that they call things off, and gets her wish when her dad slurs some noble sentiments and then passes out. However, when the frat boy reaches for the money, Claire bets Nathan's watch for a rematch, which the guy calls "really nice," although after the 22 shots the guy says he's had I can't believe he can remotely discern what it is, let alone its quality. He also has the faculties to realize that him having done 22 shots to Claire's none isn't exactly fair, so Claire gamely smiles, says she'd better catch up, and starts pounding away as my liver begs me not to make it watch any more of this.
Sylar returns to Odo's place, only to find Danko waiting for him, gun in hand. Danko calls him "predictable," which is true in that his presence is always going to succeed in boring and angering me simultaneously, and opines that Sylar would do anything to get the shapeshifting ability. If this is their way of reducing Zack Quinto's screentime commitment while keeping the Sylar character around, they'd get points for being clever if they weren't fixing the wrong problem. Danko goes on that Sylar wanting this ability above all others is consistent with his profile, since he likes to take on "accents and affectations," and while I can only remember one time that was actually true (the whole performance with Maya and her hot, hot brother), his larger point that Sylar has been a monumentally inconsistently-written mess-- I mean, that he's "so desperate to be someone else" is taken. Sylar snaps, "You have no idea what I want," like, TRUE, and Danko replies that he could just end Sylar's and our misery now, but of course he's not going to do that, even though he came with a pointy weapon to bury in Sylar's skull. Sylar sits down and tells Danko that while he may have come prepared, he can't catch Odo without his help, and says he can round all the Heroes up. "Then you can take your shot." Can we get that in writing? Danko holds his gun up close to Sylar, but then pulls it away, and Sylar smiles at him until Rip van Winkle finally wakes up.
Angela is praying when Peter comes back with the tea. Instead of rejoining her, however, he looks up at the stained-glass image of Christ in front of him, lights a votive candle in the traditional Catholic way, and gives him a message of his own, expressing his frustration that people like him are on the run and dying and he can't seem to help them. "Do you even care? What you put people through?" He adds that he's tired of fighting and is angry with his entire family, and God as well. "Please, just show up." It's some of the better acting Milo has done on the show, understated while still urgent. Maybe he gets distracted when other people are actually in the scene. A wind then blows his prayer candle out, and he looks back and sees that some agents have entered that church. He doesn't even take the time to look back at the glass and be like, "Dude, seriously?" which I think shows commendable restraint. Instead, while the agents are momentarily distracted by a priest asking what the hell (pardon my language, Father!) they're doing, Peter and Angela hustle into two adjoining confessional booths. I wonder exactly how many rosaries and Hail Marys they'll commit to saying if God will just get them out of this one.
Sylar's searching Odo's apartment for clues as Danko once again looks like he could use twice the recommended daily dosage of Aleve, not that I blame him. While Sylar roots around, he babbles that Danko's a shapeshifter, too, as he has nothing in his apartment to define him. I feel undefined at the moment as well, but that could be because my brain is leaking out my ears in protest of how boring this speech is. Not that the episode as a whole is that much better. Sylar then figures out from Odo's wardrobe and random photographs that he's playing roles that give him power, because that enables him to screw a lot of hot women. That's not my thing, but at least there's a motivation in this storyline with which I can follow along. They then find matchbooks for an establishment called "Garden Of Eden," where they suppose he trolls for said hot women, and head out.
Claire is still downing shot after shot, much to the simultaneous dismay and awe of the frat guy, whom I now totally recognize from In The Valley Of Elah. He notes that Claire doesn't even look drunk, and Claire considers for a moment before giving a palpably fake inebriated giggle, which made me laugh. She keeps up the slurry act as the frat boy says that Nathan, who's still passed out with his head on the table, seems like a good guy, but Claire demurs. She doesn't get any farther than saying she wishes Nathan would just act like a human being, however, before every organ in the frat guy's body yells "No mas!! and gives up the ghost, sending him into blissful unconsciousness. Claire collects her winnings and wakes Nathan up, who reacts to the good news of their financial windfall with a look that suggests he's about to vomit. If that read is correct, I'd suggest not flying back to the motel.
In church, the agents are fanning out, but despite the advisability of silence, Angela can't stifle her need to tell Peter something important. In fairness, though, she's in the right place for it. She says that when she was his age, she was going to be a teacher, but her power manifested and she saw "visions of a bloody future, of deceit and death -- the Apocalypse." She tried to warn everyone, but she was treated as Cassandra, so she took to lies, manipulation and betrayal as her tools to try to avert the future she foresaw. As we see a pair of wing tips methodically approaching their hiding spot, Angela concludes that her methodology cost her everything, but it's the price she chose to pay to save the world. The door opens, and she looks in abject fear -- but it's Bennet, who, after a long moment and a tortured sigh, calls an all-clear to his team, leaving mother and son to thank God for his 11th-hour favor.
At the club that apparently does not have a metal detector or bouncer that frisks at the front door, Sylar and Danko briefly fight it out to look like the person that belongs in the place the least, until Sylar smiles broadly and says that Odo's there. He adds that his current form fits his pattern of imitating powerful men, and then the camera swings over to reveal he's taken Danko's shape for the evening. Much as I abhor this storyline, that made me laugh, not that I can say the same for Danko, who looks like he'd give an arm, a leg, or possibly both just to forget everything about this day.
Back at the club, Danko starts over toward his doppelganger, which is a terrible idea for several reasons, so it's just as well that Sylar stops him. He explains that obviously, Odo thinks that Danko's powerful, so he's parlaying that into getting laid, and, from the fact that he's making out with a girl already, he's doing a decent job of it. "He's a better you than you!" Heh. Odo, however, looks up from his macking long enough to see Sylar and Danko chatting, and bails. Danko and Sylar go after him, but he seems to have a good-enough lead, especially when the two of them get bogged down in a crowd on the dance floor. If only they'd forget about Odo and just bust a move, I'd forgive a lot about this subplot.
Claire drags Nathan back into their room and chides him for flying, probably letting us know that my earlier warning was justified, and then explains that her regeneration power was obviously responsible for her ability to drink more at one sitting than Hemingway. As Claire helps him out of his vest, Nathan apologizes for screwing everything up and for always denying the truth when problems arise. Claire, wiser to the ways of drunks than I would have guessed, suggests they have the conversation in the morning, but he plows on, saying he worries about her all the time and chastising himself for the way he handled the situation when he first found out about her. He sits on the bed as he goes on that he gave her the free pass in order to win her over, and adds that he knows he's cocked everything up, but promises, as he settles into bed, that he'll try to fix the mess he's made. I wonder if that means he's going to clean up the trail of vomit he obviously left between the bar and the motel. He concludes that he's going to fix everything for Peter, Angela and Claire, and Claire wipes away a tear as she allows herself to believe there's a chance in hell Nathan will remember all this in the morning. She tenderly covers Nathan with a blanket...
...and then we're back in the club, as Danko and Sylar, evidently having split up for a while to look for Odo, meet back at the bar empty-handed. The two of them head out, but as they go through the side door, Sylar, who's behind Danko, draws a gun. However, Danko suddenly pulls out his own piece, whirls, and shoots Sylar in the gut -- only it's actually Odo. The real Sylar pops up behind him as Odo falls to the ground and is chagrined that Danko apparently killed him, but Danko pointedly corrects Sylar: "No. He's still alive." Ugh, even given what Bennet said earlier, I cannot believe Danko is rationalizing giving another blue-chip ability to the already far-too-powerful Sylar, but Sylar, looking like a kid in a candy store, reaches his index finger out, apparently not feeling any weirdness at killing, well, himself. Danko, however, asks him if he can do it without the tell-tale scarring, and Sylar, catching on, smiles, closes the door, and leans forward to do the dirty work cleanly as his mirror image embarrassingly squeals like a little girl, and boy, would all the women he's bagged not be impressed to see that. Good thing he's dead.
In the morning, Claire comes to, having slept in the chair, to find Nathan already awake and standing, and unless he previously bought some over-the-counter Vicodin to kill his hangover, I'm calling bullshit that he was able to get out of bed at all. He thanks Claire for her help the night before, but then reneges on the promise he made, saying he has no friends on the Hill anymore and, while he's open to suggestions, is out of ideas. Claire is predictably disappointed at how lame her bio-dad is yet again proving to be, and gets up to go, but turns back to speechify about what an incredible disappointment he is, as Nathan has no choice but to accept his age-reversed role as the scolded party here. She says that when she met him, he was even more amazing than she dreamed, and he could still do anything if he wanted. She cries as she tells him he's supposed to be Superman, and when Nathan hangs his head in shame, she leaves. I'd suggest he drown his sorrows if I weren't afraid that the mere mention of alcohol in his current condition would cause him to befoul some more of the lovely town.
Back in the now-empty church, Angela comes to with her head on Peter's shoulder and happily tells him she had a dream about the female angel depicted on the church's stained glass. She says they have to go grab Nathan and Claire and then visit her sister, and my feeling that it's bullshit that she's never been mentioned on the show before is overwhelmed by my excited curiosity as to who they've cast in the role. The two of them head out...
...and then we cut back to Claire, who appears to be waiting for a bus when Nathan joins her. After discussing her travel plans, she asks what time it is, but his watch is gone -- because he hocked it to get her necklace back. Aw. She's reluctantly happy, and allows him to refasten it around her neck. He tells her he's heading back to the States, and starts to walk off, but then invites her to join him, which, with a smile, she does. They walk off, arm in arm, as "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" kicks up...
...and then Bennet, Danko at his side, is opening a body bag containing Odo-as-Sylar, Danko's pointy knife buried in the back of his head. Bennet looks perplexed, and then a female blonde agent asks him if he's okay before zipping the bag back up...
...while Peter pauses a moment to look back at the image of Christ before Angela happily takes his hand and leads him out...
...and then the female agent joins Danko in his car, grabbing his cigarette away and tossing it out the window: "Those things'll kill you." So will he if you do that again, I'd reckon. Danko asks how zipping up the body bag felt, and in case you're not following along, she turns back into Sylar and replies, "Cathartic, poetic and tactically fortunate." Of course, he takes the air out of his own point by resuming his real form, and it also makes no sense for him to do so, considering they're still on the scene and it's broad daylight, but what the hell, at least the storyline's consistent in its stupidity. Sylar says it'll be easier for them to do whatever the hell they're going to do if people think he's dead, and Danko replies that if they succeed, he'll be the only one left. Sylar completely overacts, as usual these days: "Funny how that works." Oh yes, hilarious! Now go away.
time: The Petrellis do indeed reunite. About time.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then find out which Heroes stars can't stop twittering.
John Ramos is a writer and film producer living in Los Angeles. You can reach him at couchbaron@gmail.com.