Well, the promos didn’t lie. In tonight’s episode of ‘Heroes,’ titled “Unexpected” someone flew and someone died. Actually two people died but one of them wasn’t exactly a main character. The main character who died was sort of getting in the way so I can’t say I’m entirely disappointed by the events that took place in this episode. Also in tonight’s episode, Claire finally stood up to her father, Matt, Ted and a new hero teamed up to get some answers and Hiro made a huge decision about the future of his mission.
I’ll start with the Hiro portion of the episode since that one was pretty quick. He and the guy from the hotel room left Vegas to track down Ando and the Showgirl, Hope. The man gives Hiro some wisdom about the problems that can arise when you have a partner and how it’s better to work alone. They find Ando and Hope and a shootout begins. A bullet grazes Ando and he and Hiro hide out in the baggage compartment of a bus. Hope runs up to them and points the gun at Hiro. He and Ando both close their eyes, waiting for the inevitable. Hiro manages to use his powers to force the bullet back into the gun. It wasn’t entirely clear how he did this because once it happened, time returned to normal pace and the cops tackled Hope. In the past, he’s been able to stop time in order to escape danger but in this case it seemed like he was able to stop and reverse time on the gun alone.
After Ando gets patched up, Hiro tells him that he’s going to go it alone from now on. Ando tries to argue but Hiro tells him he doesn’t want to lose him. It seemed like the conversation he had with the man plus seeing his friend get shot was too much for him and he doesn’t want to put his friend in any more danger. It’s about time. Hiro lets Ando take the car and he boards a bus. Comic book fans (and anyone whose seen Mallrats enough times) will have recognized the bus driver as the great Stan Lee.
Mohinder and Sylar (posing as Zane) meet with a woman named Dale, who has super-hearing. She listens to rap music to block it out when she needs to but explains to them that she can hear a rainstorm 40 miles away and that she can even hear people’s heartbeats. She hears Sylar’s heart beating fast and wonders why he’s so worried. He lies and says he’s just excited about everything. Dale isn’t ready to deal with all of this though and Sylar and Mohinder say they’ll come back tomorrow.
Predictably, Sylar comes back that night, kills her and takes her powers. When the two return the next day, Sylar is complaining about a headache. He now has the super hearing abilities but until he learns how to master them as Dale did, he will be able to hear anything and everything. Mohinder doesn’t put two and two together, probably because he’s so shaken up by finding Dale dead. He tells Sylar that he thinks it must have been Sylar that did it. How many more people is Mohinder going to lead Sylar to before he starts to realize what’s happening?
Ted, the nuclear guy is approached by a woman named Hana. She has a sort of e-power that allows her transmit and receive electronic signals. Her party trick is that she can send and receive instant messages and probably browse the web as long as there’s a computer nearby. Anyone whose been keeping up with her story in the graphic novels knows there’s a lot more to it than that (Check out the ‘Heroes’ website on NBC.com for more about her background or you can read Wikipedia’s breakdown of it here.)
Hana convinces Ted that they have had their memories wiped by Mr. Bennet and that they need to go to him to get some answers. Ted enlists the help of Matt, whose at home playing with his stolen diamonds. After an argument with his wife about the diamonds, which she found out were stolen when she went to get the ring he gave her resized (What was he thinking giving her a stolen ring?!), Matt gets the call from Ted and agrees to meet with him. Hana and Ted give Matt the rundown, explaining that Mr. Bennet put isotopes in their blood so they can track their movements. That’s what the two lines on their neck signify. They convince him to go with them to find Mr. Bennet.
Mr. Bennet was busy tracking Claude, the invisible guy who was helping Peter. With Isaac’s help, they find Claude and Peter on the roof with the pigeons. Peter’s made some huge strides with controlling his power. While sparring, he uses telekinesis to block Claude’s attack and then explains that he must have picked that up from Sylar. Just then, Mr. Bennet and the Haitian show up and, wearing infrared goggles, which allow them to see Peter and Claude even when they’re invisible. They shoot Claude in the neck with what looked like two darts (perhaps some kind of taser device?). They shoot Peter but he uses his Hiro-ability to stop the darts. He grabs Claude, jumps off the building and flies away. After Claude wakes up he blames Peter for H.R.G tracking him down. Apparently, Claude was once one of H.R.G’s subjects. He briefly explains what H.R.G. does (kidnapping people, running tests on them and then erasing their memory) and he storms out, telling Peter he has to go it alone now.
Peter goes to find Isaac, believing he is responsible for helping Mr. Bennett find them. Isaac tries to lie but Peter becomes enraged and uses his telekinesis to throw Isaac across the room. Isaac grabs the gun that Mr. Bennet gave him (telling him to use it to save the world – meaning – kill Peter) and points it at Peter. Peter becomes invisible and toys with Isaac by moving around the room and making objects fly at him. Isaac turns towards where he thinks he hears Peter and shoots twice. Instead of hitting Peter, he hits Simone. She had let herself in using the key Isaac gave her. Peter holds her and he and Isaac watch her die.
If a main character had to die in this episode, I’m kind of glad it was Simone. Earlier in the episode she was strongly suggesting to Nathan that they come forward about their abilities and what’s going on. That alone was irritating enough, considering she’s not one of the people who would end up on some lab table if the truth came out. Also, I didn’t like the love triangle between Peter, Isaac and Simone. The show is still too new to be getting into unnecessary dramatic plots. Though I expect her death is going to drive an even bigger wedge between Isaac and Peter.
Finally, Claire deals with her mother’s disappearing-re-appearing memory issues. One minute she doesn’t know who Claire is, the next she’s fine. She tries to explain some of what’s going on to her mother but Mrs. Bennet collapses and has to be hospitalized. HRG leaves New York when he finds out and meets Claire at the hospital. Claire tried to tell the doctor what her father was doing to her mother but typically the woman didn’t believe her. She yells at her father and admits that her memory was never erased. Mr. Bennet seems genuinely remorseful about the situation and especially what’s happening to his wife but Claire refuses to accept his apology. They return home with Mrs. Bennett and after her brother takes their mother upstairs, Claire tells her father that she wishes she could run away but she has to protect the family from him. Even telling Claire about Sylar trying to attack her mother wasn’t enough to convince Claire that his intentions were good.
Just then, Matt, Ted and Hana show up with guns and tell him they want answers. Hopefully they (and we) will get some of them in next week’s episode.
What did you think of the episode? Did you enjoy the lack of Niki/Jessica as much as I did? I love that Peter is finally coming into his own as a hero. He finally seems to be getting a solid grip on what he can do. I’m also glad Hiro finally realized that Ando is a liability and also that keeping him with him could end up costing Ando his life. I’d like to see what he ends up doing now that he’s on his own. Overall I can’t say this was my favorite episode but the story does seem to be progressing a bit more which is nice.
