After a couple of slower episodes, it’s nice to see things up and running again on ‘Heroes.’ In tonight’s episode, titled “Run!” Hiro and Ando made it to Vegas only to get sidetracked on their mission. Jessica is out working off her debt for Linderman. Mohinder finally got one of the list-people to call him back. Matt took a job as a bodyguard. Claire met up with her mother once again and found out that her biological parents are as much of a disappointment as her surrogate ones.
Hiro and Ando made their way to Vegas. Both were feeling somewhat disheartened about their journey, which seems to have taken so many detours. Ando says he will find hope and Hope he does find. While walking through a casino kitchen they come across a showgirl who is crying. She says her name is Hope (no subtlety there) and tells them her sad story about an abusive boyfriend and how she left her bag in his hotel room. Though Hiro is reluctant to have anything to do with this, Ando convinces him that they should help her. The two dress as hotel waiters and get into the guy’s room through the use of a room service cart. Hiro finds a rifle in the guy’s closet and this is enough reason for him to abort this mission. Ando pretends to agree but once Hiro’s out the door, Ando closes it behind him. The man comes out of the shower and Ando quickly hides under the bed.
Hiro returns to the dressing room and overhears Hope telling her boyfriend that she got two Chinese guys to help her steal the bag. Hiro realizes they’ve been scammed and trips over a rack of clothes. Hope tries to play it off like she was talking to her mother but Hiro calls her out (and corrects her by telling her they are Japanese, not Chinese). Hope punches Hiro in the face, knocking him out. When Ando returns to her with the bag she thanks him and convinces him to go with her, explaining that Hiro left because he said he didn’t need him anymore. She seals the temptation with a kiss and Ando leaves with her. Hiro is locked in a closet nearby. When the door opens the man from the hotel room is there, pointing a gun at him.
Claire’s biological mom, Meredith, calls Nathan to tell him that Claire is still alive. Nathan is concerned about how this could affect the impending election and offers her and Claire $100,000 to keep quiet about the situation. Meredith agrees and Nathan says he’ll fly out to give her the money and meet his daughter. Claire calls Meredith and her mom tells her that she spoke with her father but that she doesn’t know if it’s a good idea for Claire to meet him. Claire ignores that and, despite being grounded for cutting school, goes to Meredith’s trailer park. Meredith tells her that her father agreed to give them $50,000 (lie.) and that she’s entitled to half of that. She goes on to say that she’s probably going back to Mexico. She takes a picture of Claire on her cell phone and lets her very disappointed daughter walk away.
Claire doesn’t leave the trailer park though. She waits until her father shows up and listens to the conversation Meredith and he have about her. Nathan hands her the envelope with the check and asks where Claire is. Meredith tells Nathan that Claire showed up with her bags packed all ready to go home with him (lie). She then asks him if he’d like to meet her but after what she said, Nathan doesn’t think it would be a good idea. Instead he takes a good look at the photo Meredith took of Claire and leaves. Claire watches as Nathan gets back into his car. She’s so upset and disappointed that she throws a rock at the car then runs off before Nathan sees her.
Earlier in the episode her mother and father had come home from the doctors. HRG told Claire her mother had to see a neurologist because she’s been having headaches. Claire reminded him rather pointedly of her mother’s memory loss. When Claire returns home from the trailer park she finds her mother in the kitchen cooking. Her mother is yelling at the dog she normally treats with more love and adoration than anyone else in the house. She doesn’t recognize Mr. Muggles and throws an oven mitt at him. She then goes on to tell Claire she doesn’t know who she is either. Not good. Seems like maybe the Haitian worked one too many mind-wipes on Mrs. Bennet.
Mohinder is spending all of his time trying to track down the people on his father’s list. He finally gets one guy to call him back. The man, named Zane, leaves a panicked message for Mohinder and asks him to come and see him in Virginia as soon as possible. Sylar gets to Zane first though. When Mohinder shows up, Sylar pretends he is Zane and shows him the power he recently acquired from the now deceased Zane. In a nutshell, he can melt metal and other objects. Mohinder asks Sylar for a DNA sample and hands him a cotton swab to wipe on the inside of his cheek with. Sylar goes into the kitchen where Zane’s body is, swipes his cheek and hands it back to Mohinder. He then offers to help Mohinder find the rest of the people on the list. Mohinder agrees. Little does he know, he’s going to be allowing Sylar to have much easier access to the other heroes (and their powers).
Jessica is posing as Niki in front of Micah and D.L. She explains to the Niki-reflection that she has to go back to working for Linderman to pay him back for getting her out of prison. She receives a package with a picture of a man and heads off to take care of the job.
Matt gets a job as a bodyguard. His first assignment is to pick up a man named Mr. Malsky (the man in Jessica’s photo) and escort him to his destination. He thinks this is just a babysitting job but packs his gun anyway. Mr. Malsky is a portly man who has no desire to discuss the weather with Matt on the drive. Matt reads Malsky’s mind and hears him thinking that he hopes Matt knows how to use his gun. This puts Matt on alert. They arrive at their destination and walk right past Jessica as they enter the building. Malsky works out a deal to buy some diamonds for cash. Matt reads the diamond seller’s mind and hears him thinking that Linderman’s guy will be showing up any minute to kill Malsky. Matt rushes Malsky out of there, telling him it’s a set up. Malsky leaves the cash, grabs the diamonds and leaves with Matt. He asks him how he knew but Matt doesn’t explain and they head to the elevators. Through more mind reading Matt learns that Malsky stole two million dollars from Linderman (probably the money he collected from DL on Linderman's behalf). He then hears Jessica thinking on the elevator. The two run for the staircase but Malsky’s asthma slows them down.
They head downstairs as Jessica follows after them. They get out of the stairwell and are on a deserted floor with empty cubicles. Matt hears Jessica thinking in the stairwell and ends up overhearing her talking to Niki. He assumes there are two of them in the stairwell because he can hear both of them talking. He sneaks up on Jessica and handcuffs her to the stair railing. He asks where her partner is. Jessica is briefly caught off guard that he could hear Niki but quickly uses it to her advantage, telling him she’s probably off killing Malsky. Matt leaves her there and runs to find him. He hears Malsky thinking about a location – “fourth one over, third one back.” Matt calls the police for backup and just then Jessica returns and knocks Matt out the window. They were pretty high up and the only thing that saved him was the sign, which hung on the side of the building. Matt managed to climb back into the building by the time the cops arrived. Jessica was long gone by then and Malsky was dead (his body was folded unnaturally in half).
The cops take Matt’s statement about the woman and a possible partner as well as a suitcase of diamonds. The suitcase and the woman are both gone though and as Matt no longer has any credibility with the cops he once worked with, they don’t really believe him. He confirms this by reading the one cops thoughts. He then remembers the “fourth one over, third one back” thought that Malsky had running through his mind and deduces that he must have hidden the suitcase in the ceiling. He counts the tiles, finds the suitcase and then, rather than handing the diamonds over to the police, he pockets them. He probably figures if they think he’s a joke and that he’ll never wear a badge again, he might as well keep the diamonds for himself.
The episode ends with Jessica getting her next assignment. She opens the package and pulls out Nathan's picture.
Peter, Isaac and Simone were all absent from the episode. I’m a little disappointed that Hiro and Ando keep getting detoured. As for the Claire stuff, I think they’re setting things up for a “I’m your father” moment between Claire and Nathan. He now knows what she looks like but she only saw the back of his head and doesn’t know his name. It’s only a matter of time before their paths cross (maybe through Peter) and perhaps then he can redeem himself. Meredith might have a cool power but her character is weak. She’s not entirely without a heart but she is definitely out for herself. Hopefully she’ll go to Mexico and not return.
I’ll end this recap on a somewhat humorous note. After last week’s episode in which George Takei made a guest appearance as Hiro’s father, there were two Star Trek references in tonight’s episode: The first was when Hope called Hiro, Sulu and the second was Hiro’s “Live Long and Prosper” gesture that he gave to the man pointing the gun at him. Clever.
