In tonight’s episode of ‘Heroes,’ titled “Distractions” the heroes got… distracted. Hiro spent the entire episode convincing his father he had another destiny, Claire went to meet her mother, Jessica made good use of the taser the psychiatrist unintentionally provided for her and Peter came a few steps closer to harnessing his powers. Oh, and the plot thickened in the last few moments of the episode when we learned the identity of Claire’s father.
Sylar trapped Mr. Bennet in his cell and headed off to the Bennet household to reunite with Claire. Unfortunately for the psychopath, Claire was off meeting with her mother and wouldn’t be home until later. Sylar is friendly towards Mrs. Bennet, though his questions about Claire eventually cause her some alarm. When she tries to call her husband, Sylar drops the friendly act and uses his telekinetic abilities to knock the phone out of her hand and then smashed her into a hutch. Just as he’s about to kill her, Mr. Bennet comes through the door and shoots him. I guess we can assume the Haitian found Mr. Bennet in Sylar’s cell and got him out. Despite getting shot, Sylar runs off, getting away. HRG gets the Haitian to wipe his wife’s mind. This is not the first time the woman has had her memory wiped and this definitely explains why she’s been so clueless to what’s going on with her husband and daughter.
Hiro and Ando talk to Hiro’s father, whom we learn is the CEO of the company that Hiro worked at. His father wants him to go back to Japan and offers him a promotion to Vice President if he agrees. Hiro’s sister tries to convince him by saying that his behavior reflects poorly on the business and on his father’s leadership abilities. Hiro ends up convincing his dad that his sister would be better fit to run the company. While his dad still doesn’t approve of Hiro’s mission, he accepts it.
Niki meets with the psychiatrist, who uses mild hypnosis to draw Jessica out. She assures Niki that she knows how to use the taser if Jessica gets rough. Niki tells the doctor a story about how great Jessica was at playing the piano. Jessica eventually comes out and predictably breaks the chains and grabs the taser off the table before the doctor can get to it.
When the guards arrive in the room, they find a clueless Niki lying on the floor and the doctor barely conscious with burn marks all over her. After the guards knock Niki out and drag her to her padded room, they eventually return to tell her that she’s being released. The charges were dropped against her because an inmate on death row confessed to all of her crimes and there’s DNA to back it up. Niki suspects that Linderman is behind this. She begs them not to make her leave but its no use. When we last see her, she’s at home and getting ready to play a board game with Micah. Its obvious right away that this cheerful woman is not Niki, but Jessica (this is confined by the tattoo on her back that always appears when Jessica takes over). Niki is trapped in the mirror across from Jessica. Jessica leaves Niki’s reflection behind as she goes off to play with Micah.
Isaac is intent on finding Peter. He claims its because he wants to help prevent Peter from destroying the city. He urges Simone to stay away from him and goes on to explain that he’s trying to use his power to paint Peter’s location but it isn’t working. He also discusses his feelings for Simone. Though she doesn’t seem to reciprocate his emotions, its clear that she still cares about him. Simone sees a painting Isaac did from the rooftop of his building. It shows the two of them embracing. She finds Isaac on the rooftop and he explains to her that the painting is the future he hopes they can still have together. Simone says they’ve had a lot of memories on that rooftop. Isaac is frustrated about his abilities and what use they might be. Simone asks why else would he be able to paint the future unless he could do something about it. She believes he’s meant to help change what he sees in his paintings.
Peter continues to allow Claude to teach him how to harness his power. Claude explains that Peter is still too distracted by the people in his life. He tells him he needs to let them all go. Claude takes Peter to follow Simone. The two witness the rooftop scene, though Simone and Isaac don’t know they’re there. After Simone and Isaac leave, Claude tries to use what they saw as a way to help Peter detach himself from the people he cares about. He says if he can let all of them go he should be able to use all of the powers he’s come in contact with even if the people who had them aren’t nearby.
To prove his point, he tells Peter to fly and throws him off the roof. Peter drops thirty stories, lands on a taxi and is impaled by a piece of metal. He painfully pulls himself off the taxi and regenerates himself. When Claude comes down, Peter is angry but gets over that fast enough. He says as he was falling he remembered Claire. He describes Claire and her abilities to Claude and then it hits him. In order to use the powers, he shouldn’t be blocking them out. It’s just the opposite; he has to focus on the individuals and then he can adopt their abilities. As he’s saying this, his eyes glaze over like Isaacs, he becomes briefly invisible like Claude and then it starts to overwhelm him. He says its happening again and starts to freak out. Claude fixes this by punching Peter in the face.
Claire visited her mom at the trailer park. After they chitchat for a while, Claire eventually shows her mom what she can do. Her mom, in turn shows Claire how she can make fire in her hand. They bond over this and as Claire is leaving, she asks her mom about her father. Her mom says she’s not ready to get into that but that she’ll work on it for next time. She gives Claire a necklace she got in Mexico.
When Claire returns home, Mrs. Bennet yells at her for ditching school. Claire is confused by this and reminds her mom that she gave her permission to go to see the manatees. Her mom has no recollection of this and after finding a piece of broken glass, Claire realizes that something must have happened while she was gone and that her father had her mom’s memory erased again.
Meanwhile, Claire’s biological mother makes a phone call to Claire’s real dad. The way she introduces herself on the phone, its clear that she hasn’t been in touch with him for some time. She explains that Claire is alive and it is then that we see his face – It’s Nathan. This was a popular theory that was going around (based on the watch and rolled up sleeves that we saw in the preview) but still, it is a clever twist. Not only is Claire Nathan’s daughter but this also means that Peter, who seemed to really connect with Claire when they met briefly, is her uncle.
At the end of the episode, Isaac is looking at a painting he did of Peter, half visible leaning against the taxi. He calls HRG and tells him that he thinks Peter is in the city and possibly invisible. I loved the breakthrough Peter had at the end of the episode. I hated the idea of him cutting off the people he cares about, as that seems to be a huge part of his motivation as a character.
I’m not sure what to think about Hiro’s story in this episode. What was the point of his meet-up with his father and sister? Will it be relevant to his story later on? It seemed to get resolved a little too easily.
I’m started to get irritated with the Niki/Jessica story. I don’t know how many whiny Niki scenes I can sit through.
What did you think of the episode? Do you think Peter will be able to harness his powers in time to avoid destroying the city? Where did Sylar go and why isn’t HRG concerned about him coming back to the house? It seemed kind of odd to me that he’s not taking the family and heading off to parts unknown.
