With only one more episode to go before we get to see how the first season of ‘Heroes’ will end, things are really starting to heat up in New York City. God, I hate puns. In tonight’s episode, titled “Landslide,” a paraplegic was healed, one ‘Hero’ was killed, another is dying, teams were split apart, an election was rigged and Candice ate a lot of food. And in the end, Sylar stood atop a building, playing with his new power.
Hiro and Ando found a man who can fix swords. While many of us may have had our doubts as to whether or not Ando could’ve found such a man in the Yellow Pages, I temporarily forgot where they were. Gotta love New York. They run into Nathan Petrelli who is surrounded by press, as it is Election Day. Hiro tries to warn Nathan about the future, telling him that he becomes a bad man. Nathan tells him that they can’t stop the explosion. More like he wont stop it. Hiro calls Nathan a villain repeatedly as Nathan climbs into his limo and drives away.
When Hiro and Ando arrive at the sword shop, Hiro’s dad is there to meet them. He asks Hiro to speak with him alone. Ando strongly urges him not to go, believing Kaito will somehow talk Hiro out of continuing on their quest to change the future. Out of respect, Hiro decides to go with his father, leaving Ando to wait for him in the sword shop.
Kaito and Hiro go into some warehouse-like back room of the store. Kaito tells him that he knows all about his power and his journey. He said he was surprised that it was Hiro that would be the one to continue the Nakamura legacy. He makes references to the organization he once belonged to (we’re assuming he’s referring to the Linderman group that disbanded years ago) and talks about how the group fell apart and that some of its members lost their way.
It turns out Kaito is an expert swordsman. The two spar for a while and Kaito begins talking about the Takezo Kensei legend. He reminds Hiro that it was the only story he begged his father to tell him when he was a child. Hiro recalls the legend. He realizes that it is a metaphor for what he must do. It wasn’t clear how long Hiro and his father were training but Hiro did make some major progress. When they’re through, Hiro goes to leave and get Ando so they can go fight Sylar. The sword-fixer tells him that Ando took a sword and left to fight Sylar on his own, believing Hiro was convinced to abandon the mission.
As per Linderman’s instructions, Candice keeps Micah entertained by giving him rare comic books, including the very first issue of “Silver Surfer.” (NBC shamelessly plugs The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer). When Micah comments on how much she’s eating she responds with some remarks about how she’s really “huge” and also talks about how intolerant the world can be to people who are different. In other words, Candice isn’t as thin and gorgeous as she appears to be.
She asks Micah if he’d be willing to help her out and in exchange, Linderman will see to it that his family will be well taken care of. Micah, who showed his lack of a moral compass in the episode where he ripped off an ATM machine, agrees. She takes him to a place where people are voting and disguises herself as a black woman, claiming she’s Micah’s mother. Candice brings Micah into the voting booth with her and asks him to “talk to the computer” to make it so that Nathan Petrelli gets the most votes. As he’s doing this, Micah realizes that this voting station is networked to all of the other voting stations in the city. He uses his power to swing the Petrelli vote so that he’ll win in a landslide. The effort seemed to wipe him out but it worked. Nathan won the election with 64% of the votes.
Earlier in the episode, Linderman paid a visit to the Petrelli’s to give Nathan some more words of encouragement. When Nathan’s wife wheels up to him, she’s cordial but not friendly. He takes her hand and holds it for a minute, then says goodbye and leaves. Afterwards, Heidi starts going on about how crooked Linderman is and how he shouldn’t have accepted his help in the election. Nathan notices that she moved her foot. She looks down and realizes she can move her legs. Heidi gets out of the wheelchair and hugs Nathan, overjoyed. Linderman healed her.
Later, after winning the election, Nathan privately assures his wife that she must stay in the chair for the time being, saying, “People don’t believe in miracles.” It’s true. If she climbed out of that chair after he won the election, people would assume she was only in the chair to gain sympathy for her husband.
Claire, Peter and Ted split up with Bennet and Matt, deciding that the best course of action is to get as far away from the city as possible. If they cant stop the explosion, maybe they can at least get it away from the city. Sylar is following them though and Peter knows it because he can hear his thoughts. They go into the rent-a-car place and when they come out, the FBI is there, with Audrey (Matt’s temporary friend/partner) waiting to arrest Ted. Their reason had something to do with Ted allegedly causing a van full of FBI agents to blow up in California. Ted claims that he didn’t do it but Audrey tells him it was an act of terrorism and that he’s headed to Guantanamo. He gives her instructions on lead-lining his cell to protect the other inmates. I guess he’s just a really thoughtful terrorist, huh, Audrey?
Meanwhile, Peter used his invisibility power to hide Claire and the two escaped from the FBI. They head off to try and get out of the city.
Sylar, who was responsible for tipping off the FBI, meets up with the truck hauling Ted out of the city. He causes the truck to flip over. When he opens the back door, Ted is shackled to the floor of the truck, which is upside down. As he hangs there, begging for Sylar to help him (not having any idea of who Sylar is). Sylar proceeds to slice his head open. Claire and Peter, en route to escape the city, happen across the accident and realize that Sylar now has Ted’s power.
Bennet and Matt go to the building where Linderman’s people are keeping whatever it is they’re using to track down the heroes. They run into Jessica and DL there and the four acknowledge the fact that they’re all against Linderman so no one attacks, though Jessica does make a cute remark about once having thrown Matt from a window. I’ll get to DL and Jessica’s reason for being there in a minute.
Matt and Bennet head up the elevator and when they get off, Thompson is waiting for them. They were spotted on the elevator surveillance. Just as Thompson is about to shoot Matt, Bennet shoots his old friend in the head, saving Matt’s life.
They use Thompson’s security card to get into Molly’s room. Mohinder and she both heard the gunshot and he told her to hide. Bennet knows that the thing Linderman’s using to track heroes is a person but he apparently did not realize it was a little girl. She’s crying and scared. Bennet says killing her is the only way to keep his daughter safe. Mohinder comes out of hiding and holds a gun to his head. Bennet is pointing his gun at the girl. They are at a stand still.
Jessica and DL are determined to get Micah back. They go to visit Nathan and demand to know where he is. Nathan is unsure enough about Linderman to give these two his whereabouts, probably believing that regardless of what happens after the election, it might be for the best if Linderman dies. The two head off to Linderman’s offices, where they run into Matt and Bennet. DL and Jessica are able to walk right into Linderman’s office.
They demand to know where Micah is. Linderman tells them but then goes on to tell DL that he’ll never see Micah again because Jessica is going to kill him (DL) first. He shows Jessica a bag full of money, promising her $10 million if she offs her husband and walks away. Jessica says she would kill DL for that money but that Niki wouldn’t. Then, either Niki overpowered Jessica or Jessica allowed Niki to come through. Either way, Niki is back and she hugs DL. Linderman goes to shoot her but DL stands in his way and gets shot. Just as Linderman is about to shoot at Niki again, DL, sticks his hand into the back of Linderman’s head and squeezes his brain until he dies.
We don’t actually see the hand squeezing but judging by the blood coming from Linderman’s eyes, there was some serious hemorrhaging going on in that head of his. Niki runs to DL’s side and holds him as he lies there dying from the gunshot wound.
So what do you think is going to happen in the big finale? Will Hiro find Ando in time to keep him from getting killed? Is Peter the exploding man, or is it Sylar? Will Bennet actually try to shoot that adorable little girl?
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