We've got a very exciting episode this week, folks. We find out the source of Nathan's powers, the man behind the stolen formula and the villains, the mystery of what's going on with Linderman, more clues towards what exactly Suresh turning into, and (possibly) what Nathan Petrelli's powers are, though I don't completely have it figured out.
We open with a Nathan V.O. questioning whether he's an Angel or a Monster, a hero or a villain, a man or a mouse, blah blah blah, that leads into a Nathan/ Phantom Lindeman confrontation about what's really going on. Of course, there's no real revelations here. Lindeman is still trying to convince Nathan that he's on a mission from God and Nathan's still not buying it. They really get nowhere before Tracy wakes up and interrupts the "conversation".
Nathan and Tracy then get into a conversation about why she was going to kill herself. She tells him the story of the reporter she killed. They talk about whether she should turn herself in and Nathan is against it, saying that they cannot reveal their powers because it would interrupt their work for God. Tracy tells him that their powers didn't come from God, but from a Doctor in Rosita, CA. This, of course, prompts Nathan to take her to The Company to confront his mother.
Suresh slides up on a drug dealer in what I assume is Central Park to get a fix. The dealer rattles off his inventory, but Suresh doesn't need the drugs, he needs the dealer and knocks him out. We then see him dragging the dealer's body into the lab, with a trail of blood following the body. Suresh drags the body into a back room, where we see a cocoon on one wall. Suresh looks at his back in a mirror and it appears to be developing scales. Just then, he hears Maya come in. She has a flier about Suresh's missing neighbor, who attacked Suresh and was dragged into the lab at the end of last episode. Suresh begins to sweet talk Maya about her impending cure, but she notices the blood trail and makes a very hasty exit. Suresh returns to the back room and we see his neighbor in the cocoon.
Suresh is turning into a spider!
Later, Maya comes back to the lab and discovers the cocoons. She tries to cut Suresh's neighbor out, but Suresh comes back and all she can do is hide. While Suresh is looking around the lab, she activates her power and he realizes that she's there. He gets her to stop by asking if she really wants to be a killer then attacks her and puts her in one of the cocoons.
When Sylar reveals that he's Peter's brother, Peter snaps...Sylar's neck. Mama Petrelli busts in and begins to yell at Peter, but he stops her in midair and slams her against the cell wall. He demands that Mama tell her secrets and begins to cut them out of her head when she refuses, but Sylar recovers and knocks Peter out before he gets very far.
Mama tells Sylar that she'll take care of Peter and he takes off with HRG to pick up a target. HRG has a secretive smile on his face as he leads Sylar out of Level 5. In the car, HRG makes it clear that he still doesn't trust Sylar and would rather have let him rot. Sylar insists that he's trying to change.
At Casa Bennett, Claire's two moms are wondering where she is. Firechick is trying to calm down Mrs. Bennett, who's digging through HRG's files on the escaped Level 5 inmates. Firechick reminds Mrs. Bennett that Claire can't be hurt, but also gets worried when Mrs. B points out a man who can create vortexes into nowhere. Claire may not be able to die, but she would effectively cease to exist if she went into one of these vortexes. Firechick finally begins to share Mrs. B's concern when she recognizes another fugitive and goes to look for Claire.
Speaking of that Vortex guy, we see him in his now empty apartment, on the phone with his sister, trying to find out where his wife and kids are. He hears a noise and begins to explore, but Claire steps out behind him and shocks him with a taser. As he regains consciousness, Claire tells him that she's taking him back to Level 5. He disarms her using a vortex and begins to talk to her about what happened to get him into Level 5. He realizes that she's not with the Company and pulls out a card marked "Pinehurst" and asks if she's with them. She says that she is with neither. He slowly convinces her that he's not a killer and the only people he hurt was an accident. Claire finally begins to understand that she could easily be in his position and agrees to help him find his family. Just after he sets up a meeting with his family, HRG and Sylar barge in.
The man creates a vortex and escapes in the confusion. Claire is almost sucked in, but Sylar somehow catches her even though he's on the other side of the vortex. The three then have a very tense conversation wherein Claire is angry that her father is working with Sylar, Sylar tries to convince her that he's sorry, and HRG simultaneously tells Sylar to never talk to his daughter and tries to convince Claire to tell them where Vortex dude is going. HRG finally convinces Claire that he just wants to talk to Vortex Dude and, if he did nothing wrong, they'd make other arrangements. Claire finally tells her Dad where Vortex Dude is going.
When Claire arrives at the carousel where the vortex dude was supposed to meet his family, he is sitting alone and dejected because his family is scared of him. While he and Claire are talking, HRG shows up and offers to let him go free if he sends Sylar into one of his vortexes. The man doesn't want to be a killer, but HRG explains that by killing Sylar, he'd actually be doing the world a favor. In the end, the man can't do it and sends himself into a vortex. Afterwards in HRG's car, Claire refuses to talk to anyone. She's disgusted with her father for dealing with Sylar and for trying to turn a man into a killer to serve his purposes. Sylar figures out that HRG was trying to have him killed and tries to drive a wedge between the two Bennetts by pointing out HRG's tendency to use people.
When Claire goes into the house, Mrs. B is excited to see her and figures that Firechick must have found her. Claire, of course, has no idea what Mrs. B is talking about. Cut to a scene of Firechick sitting across from the villain she recognized. She appears to be trapped and following his mental commands to eat and kiss him, even though she's fighting it. This is an incredibly creepy scene, even if it lasts for less than a minute.
In the headquarters of this "Pinehurst" company, Daphne is speaking to - surprise! - Linderman, who convinces her to help recruit people to their cause. Daphne seems interested as long as she gets paid, but as she flips through a folder of dossiers - including Knox and Suresh - she decides that they're all bad news and she'd rather not deal with it. Linderman convinces her otherwise.
Hiro's still getting choked out by Adam Monroe and teleports him back into the closed casket until Adam behaves. This continues back and forth, Hiro phasing Adam in and out of the casket until Adam agrees to help them find the person who stole the formula. Interestingly, Adam's first guess is Angela Petrelli and he notes that he knew the formula would be trouble and that even he told them to destroy it.
Monroe takes them to a bar that he claims is the "go-to destination for specials for hire", and thus a place where Daphne is sure to show up. Monroe and the bartender then engage in what appears to be a pre-planned confrontation that results in Hiro getting knocked out and the bartender "chasing" Monroe out the back door. When Hiro regains consciousness, they rush out the back door to find Monroe, but can't find him. Monroe jumps out of a dumpster after they pass and begins to run, but Knox knocks him out and tosses him into the back of a van. Knox calls someone to tell them that he's found Monroe and asks the person what he should do about "the two Japanese guys." Hiro and Ando go back into the bar and commiserate over their failure when Daphne and Knox show up to recruit them. Unfortunately, the two villains are unconvinced as to Hiro or Ando's villainy and ask Hiro to kill Ando to prove himself. Hiro makes a speech about making sacrifices to save the world and appears to stab Ando through the heart with a sword, but I don't buy it. He must have done some kind of time-trick or something, even though Ando looks pretty dead.
Back at The Company, Nathan and Tracy arrive to find Peter being kept in a medically induced coma, presumably to keep him from attacking Angela again. Angela tells Nathan about Peter getting Sylar's ability and hunger. Nathan introduces Tracy, but Angela already recognizes her. She confirms that Zimmerman did work for The Company, creating synthetic abilities in a number of infants, including Tracy, Niki, their sister, and.... Nathan. She shows Nathan and Tracy the lab results and they realize that she's telling them the truth. She justifies the experimentation on Nathan by telling him about his father's disappointment in his lack of powers and their supposition that his lineage would mean he could handle the synthetic powers. She tells Tracy that there's no justification for what was done to her and that's the reason that the formula was split up.
Angela then tells them that the formula has been stolen and asks for their help, but they want nothing more to do with her and leave, making plans to see Suresh for help.
Later, Angela dozes off in her chair and suddenly hears a scream. She wanders down a hallway to find out what happened and sees Tracy lying in a pool of blood and Nathan leaning against a wall with a bloody forehead and blank stare. She looks up to see Peter standing with bloody hands, but he falls forward to reveal a pipe buried in the back of his head. At this point, I realized that she was having a dream. A mysterious man (we never see his face, only a class ring) greets Angela and tells her that he can't have her seeing the future. She tells him that she'll stop him, but he tells her not to be ridiculous, she won't even be able to move. She then wakes up, but still can't move. On her desk, out of focus, is a picture of a man that matches the profile of the man in her dream. I'm not sure if we would realize this without the spoiler that he would be showing up in this episode, but this is obviously Arthur Petrelli.
Daphne speeds onto the Pinehearst grounds and meets Linderman to tell him that everyone's on board, though she's unhappy about the killing(s). Linderman blows off her concerns and hands her one more dossier - Matt's. Daphne realizes that Lindeman isn't really there, but he tells her that this doesn't matter - she still has a job to do. Daphne speeds off and a figure creeps out of the background. As he comes into focus, we realize that it's Matt's dad and the whole Linderman thing starts to make sense. Matt's dad reports to a man in a hospital bed who is apparently speaking to him psychically. As the camera shows several different angles, we see Arthur Petrelli's ring on the man's finger. Matt's dad gives a report and confirms my suspicions - Linderman has been put into Nathan's mind and Arthur is behind all of the villains.
Dun...dun...DUNNNNNNNNN.... the plot thickens! I don't know about you, but I'm getting very excited about this season.
