Last night’s episode of ‘Heroes’ saw some major plot progression happen, and information about a new mystery is thrown in. You know, just to make sure that while we’re given a lot of information, there are still plenty of questions to be asked until next week’s pivotal episode. As the heroes take their individual journeys, sans a few (Niki, Peter and Nathan), we learn a bit about their motives. Hiro in particular takes his first real leap towards the hero he’ll become, and Mr. Bennett reveals something about his role in the hero world and how Claire came into his life. Lots of stuff to cover, so let’s get going.
Mohinder: Back in India, Suresh thinks he’s escaped his father’s legacy. At his father’s funeral service he discusses the trip to America, saying he’s not going back. There’s also a girl (Mira) waiting for him in India, and his professorship at Chennai University.
At his office at the university Mira comes to visit him. She wants to apologize for saying some things about his father and the theories he pursued. Mira asks him to come work for her at a genetic research lab, as long as he leaves daddy Suresh’s work behind.
Mohinder is going through his father’s stuff, putting it away, when he finds a book with a key. Mohinder dreams of a conversation he had with his father. In the dream he tells his father, “No body cares,” and the theory is a “fool’s errand.” Mohinder’s father tells him, “We’ll see who the fool is,” then leaves. Dreaming Mohinder then sees the aftermath of the conversation from his father’s end. He tells his wife that Mohinder may be right, but she knows he has to go. He says that he should try to stay, but his wife says, “Why? He will never take the place of her in your eyes. And he knows that.”
Mohinder talks to his mother about the dream, asking her if what he saw was true. He asks how she could allow him to abandon everything, but she says it’s too complicated. Mohinder asks who the “her” was that they talked about in the dream. She tells him that he had a sister who died. She goes on to explain that his older sister, who was three years older than Mohinder when she died, was special. She doesn’t explain any further than that but in this show, “special” usually means extraordinary.
Back at his office there’s a kid there, and Mohinder chases him outside. Mohinder sees his father getting killed in a cab. The cab disappears and the kid is there with the key that was in the book. Mohinder wakes up from the dream and takes out the key. He finds a file with the names Iyer Sanjog on it. When he opens it Mohinder sees newspaper clippings and a picture of Iyer, who is the kid from his dreams.
Eve is with Isaac, and he’s clean. She tells him that she’ll teach him to harness his power without the drugs. Interestingly she also says she went the same thing herself.
Going to work at Primatech Paper Company Mr. Bennett enters into a card-accessed facility. This must be the base of operations.
Eve is there to report on Isaac’s progress and to introduce them. Mr. Bennett tells Isaac that his ability to draw the future is a blessing, and they’ll help them realize it. Isaac asks why they’d do that, and Mr. Bennett tells him, “To be honest with you. I need your help.” They’re giving a bit of a Professor Xavier vibe to him in the scene. There’s the obvious motivation in the episode regarding Claire, but from the way he described wanting to help Isaac understand his powers I got the feeling that Horned Rimmed Glasses and the people he works with are interested in studying and helping the heroes. This could all be misdirection, as the whole Haitian aspect doesn’t fit in with Mr. Bennett being a good guy.
Mr. Bennett tells Isaac the girl in his paintings is his daughter, and she’s going to be killed. He wants Isaac to help save her, and to stop Sylar. Mr. Bennett gives Isaac heroin to help with the vision (promising they’ll help him do it without the drugs eventually), but Isaac won’t throw his life away again. HRG talks about how they’ve been tracking heroes for some time and sometimes people misinterpret their motives. You mean like us viewers who don’t understand why such a seemingly helpful man like you works with The Haitian? That kind of misinterpret? He continues telling Isaac about a time, 14 years prior, that a misinterpretation resulted in death. The child left behind was Claire, and he begs Isaac to help save her. Isaac says he’ll try without the drugs.
Claire shows up at the office with an “emergency.” She needs paper for a banner. “I decided to drop by and try to be a hero.” Eve comes out and tells Mr. Bennett there’s a situation. Isaac can’t harness his powers, so he says she’d have to convince him. He fills a syringe up as she tells him, “You told me I’d never have to.” He gives her the drugs and she goes in to Isaac’s room. She whispers something to him and using Jedi mind tricks convinces Isaac to take the drugs. He is able to use his power now.
Matt has pissed off Audrey for hitting a fellow officer, but when she asks if the guy deserves it Matt confirms he did. I mean the dude slept with his wife.
Ted, the radioactive man, is upset about his wife and threatens to go nuclear. Matt and his partner want to know where this all started, and how (if) it’s related to Sylar. Reading his mind Matt figures out that Ted blacked out and then woke up to everything dying. Matt then asks if he woke up with bruises on his arms, and Ted then shows him something better. A mark just like the one Matt found on himself, is on Ted’s neck.
Here’s another big mystery to add to the list, if not the biggest. Horned Rimmed Glasses told Isaac that people misinterpret their intentions, but how could you not? Kidnapping people and wiping out their memories isn’t an endearing quality.
Ted tells the story about a party he threw and how he passed out and woke up in Tempe, AZ with cuts and bruises on his body. Matt says the same thing happened to him, he blacked out for two days and now can hear thoughts. They think The Haitian did something to them, maybe gave them the powers. The thing is, Matt had these powers before he was kidnapped for two days. It’s just that his memory was sort of wiped. Of course he doesn’t know that, but they’re on the right track for the wrong reasons.
Matt comes home to his wife, who asks if he punched a fellow officer. He tells her he got one month suspension without pay, Matt can hear her worried thoughts. She says something happened between her and Tom. “You slept with him,” Matt tells her and then asks if it’s over. She says yes and asks if they are over. Matt says, “No.” Audrey calls Matt and tells him Ted escaped.
The new girl on the block is a waitress at The Burnt Toast Diner. Hiro and Ando are at the diner, gaining weight for their mission. When she comes to wait on the duo she displays her, “berry good memory.” Charlie is able to retain information at an incredible rate. She even learned Japanese partially from a phrase book. Hiro and his new friend are not alone at the diner, as it appears Sylar is also there.
Hiro tells Charlie, “My skill much more complicated.” When asked what it is Hiro says, “I can teach people Japanese.” Charlie literally becomes almost-fluent in Japanese as she converses with Hiro in the diner. She goes on to flirt with him for a bit, calling him sweet. This results in another one of those signature “I did it!” Hiro moments. After Charlie leaves to go work he shouts in his patented excited voice, “I’m sweet!” You gotta love the guy, he’s just as excited to see what happens as we are.
Charlie goes back to open up a can, but we hear a sickening sound and see blood run down her face. It seems Sylar may have done something to her, as he’s gone now. Hiro comes out of the bathroom to find out his new friend was killed. Though we didn’t get to see exactly what happened to Charlie, the sound we heard just before we saw the blood was extremely similar to the sound of the can being opened. Earlier in the episode, Audrey mentioned to Matt that in her investigation of the Sylar case, she’s seen frozen bodies with missing brains. Did Sylar take Charlie’s brain?
Hiro is very upset as the police talk about what happened. He notices Charlie was killed the same way Isaac was when he went to the future. Hiro tells Ando he has to do something, “I can bend time. I can go back. Why else did I get these powers if I’m not supposed to help? I didn’t do anything when those poker men died. I can’t just sit back and do nothing again.” He tells Ando he’ll go back to yesterday and prevent her from coming to work. If she’s not at the diner, she won’t be killed. Ando tells Hiro that he could be though, and he doesn’t yet have control over his powers. Hiro tells his friend, “If I’m too scared to use my powers, then I don’t deserve them.” He tells Ando to count to five and he’ll be back to celebrate his victory. This is the first time he’s been serious about his ability. One of the best moments of the episode was the earnest way Hiro talked about having powers and using them. It’s the first time we’ve really seen Hiro acknowledge that it’s not all a fun time, and if he wants to do something to help then it’s time to take a stand. Hiro disappears and goes back in time, but when Ando gets to 5 he’s not back as promised. Ando is sitting in the diner and the camera pans to a picture on the wall showing Hiro and Charlie at a birthday party. Just how far back did he go?
Wow. There was an abundance of information this week. We learned that Claire’s parents were killed in a supposed accident due to misinterpretation. Mohinder discovers that he may not be able to get away from his father’s work. Hiro decides to start using his powers to help, rather than the parlor tricks from before. And Matt discovers a connection between himself and another hero. I never thought I’d say this, but there may have been too much. Wait no…there’s never “too much” when it comes to ‘Heroes.’
What did you think of the episode this week? Where and when did Hiro end up? What exactly is the purpose of those marks? Who is Iyer Sanjog?
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