Suresh can't control his monster, somebody changes sides (just as I predicted), Daphne forgives herself, Hiro does his best Peter Pan, Peter grows a pair, Matt writes a self-help book, Jeph Loeb gets paid to shill his own books (the damn hack), Claire feels pain and doesn't like it, Sylar never changes, and people die - but not really.
Suresh must have decided that he'd have better luck trying to stop the eclipse than figuring out the power serum since he's just staring at diagrams of the sun and moon while Flint flicks his lighter and tries to look scary. Arthur pops in and says that Suresh just has to figure out what happened because Arthur is vulnerable without his powers. Suresh points out that perhaps Arthur might be a teensy bit paranoid and Arthur just stares at him like "Frickin DUH!" and has Flint burn Suresh's hand a little bit to give him some proper motivation.
Later, Suresh tries to get Flint to let him inject him with some type of serum, saying it's necessary to track the changes in his body. They engage in that whole "Do you really think I'm that stupid/Yes, actually" schtick and then Suresh clocks Flint with a microscope and they fight very unconvincingly. I'm really rooting for Flint in this fight, but nobody ever listens to me. Suresh nails Flint with the microscope again and takes off to go see Maya.
Down in Haiti, Nathan's chained up with a couple of sisters in a shack in what I assume is the Haitian's brother's village. Nathan tries to start up a conversation with the girls, but the Baron shows up and drags one of them off to sell into prostitution. Nathan tries to act hard and tell the Baron that he won't let him do this, but the Baron just laughs and tells him that he doesn't really have any choice.
Elsewhere, Peter is whining the Haitian into submitting and helping him save Nathan. Peter's whining is very powerful - he and the Haitian show up just as the Baron is about to rape the girl he dragged off. The Baron gives the whole clichéd you'll have to kill me to stop me speech and the Haitian pistol-whips him into unconsciousness. They free Nathan and the other young girl, but hear the Baron and his men coming. Peter tells Nathan that he and the Haitian are too important and Peter will hold the men off to buy them time.
Claire is wheeled into the ER, unconscious, while the doctor questions her mom. The doctor doesn't believe that Claire was only shot a few hours ago because her body is filled with infection. The doctor points out that either Claire has never been sick at all before (no immune system) or her mom is lying and suggests she explain it to the police.
Eventually her mom is allowed to see Claire. Claire whines a bit about how much it hurts and loses consciousness and flatlines. The doctors try, but they can't save Claire and she dies.
In the back of my head, The Count from Sesame Street says "ONE fake death! HA HA HA!!"
Sylar and Elle are still in that empty house, doing the sappy talk. Elle feeds Sylar a line about them being able to start over and be their own people now that they have no powers. Sylar doesn't really respond since Elle notices a bright red dot on his chest and jerks him aside. HRG busts in the front door, but Sylar and Elle are already on their way out the back. HRG only manages to shoot Elle in the thigh.
When he gets into the alley behind the house, he notices a big splotch of blood on the ground and taunts the two villains. Somehow, he doesn't notice a trail of blood leading to a yard 40 feet away where they're hiding, though, and takes off in the opposite direction to find them.
By the time HRG does find their trail, Sylar and Elle have already made a run for a local Supermarket where Sylar bandages Elle's gunshot wound and runs into the back before HRG comes into the front. Sylar puts Elle into a service elevator to get her out of the way while he tries to fight or delay HRG. Elle gets back to the warehouse floor just as HRG slits Sylar's throat with a box cutter and leaves.
The Count in my head chants "TWO fake deaths, HA HA HA!!"
At Daphne's farmhouse, she is telling Matt about her cerebral palsy and how she feels that they've lost their powers because they went against Arthur. She feels she had it coming because she's a bad person. Matt tries to convince her that it's not her fault and she's a good person, but she doesn't want to hear it and has her dad throw him out, so he wanders off to find Hiro and Ando.
Speaking of whom, they're still at the comic shop, trying to get Seth Green and Breckin Meyer to help them. Breckin seems to be buying into it, but Seth still thinks he's being tricked. Hiro digs into the back issues of "9th Wonders", but Seth insists that he buy anything he wants to read. Hiro throws down his credit card and buys them all.
On a side note, the "And this one" that Hiro buys is "Ultimate X-Men" 96. No, Jeph Loeb didn't write this one, but those red letters at the top say "Countdown to Ultimatum". "Ultimatum" is a crossover that will be written by... yup, Jeph Loeb, who's still a damn hack.
Matt finally catches up while Hiro's sifting through the back issues and joins the speculation on how they can get their powers back. Breckin, who has read all of the issues of "9th Wonders", speculates that - since their powers kicked in when the last eclipse happened - their powers will kick back in when this eclipse ends. Actually, this would lead me to believe that their powers would be gone until another eclipse came, but whatever.
Matt thinks that this is a brilliant idea and flips ahead in the current issue to see a panel of Daphne speeding away from her house. He rushes back to see her before it happens. Ando begins to explain the theory to Hiro, but he freaks out, yells that he doesn't want to grow up, and runs into the bathroom as the camera pans across panels depicting all of the crappy things that have happened to Hiro since he got his powers.
....and then the eclipse ends.
Just as Suresh knocks on Maya's door, his nasty skin condition comes back and he hides from her and returns to Pinehearst. When he arrives, Flint is still knocked out and Arthur's watching over him. Arthur mentions that the eclipse has shown them all who they really are and, while they'll find a cure to Suresh's condition together, he'll have to deal with the monster he has inside of him by himself.
Peter's losing his gunfight with the Baron's men very badly when Nathan and the Haitian come back to help him out. The Haitian starts laying people out with his Vulcan death grip shit and Nathan flies the Baron into a truck. I can't remember what the Baron's power is, but it must have something to do with invulnerability, because being crushed into a truck doesn't seem to faze him. Peter wants to take a shot, but the Haitian says that this is his fight and steals his brother's mind.
Afterwards, the Haitian leaves the Petrelli's to take the sisters back to their village, with no mention that I heard of him coming back to help them against Arthur. Nathan tells Peter that he respects that he's always made his own decisions, even if Nathan didn't always agree with him. Nathan then tells Peter that he's joining Pinehearst to help Arthur in his plan to create armies of superhumans. Peter tries to talk him out of it, but Nathan doesn't listen and flies off. I believe I called this last week when I predicted that we'd still see people switching sides.
Matt catches up with Daphne in the cornfield outside her house and they resume their talk about whether or not she's a bad person. He finally convinces her that she's had bad things happen to her and just because she did some bad things to get ahead, that doesn't mean she's a bad person. He forgives her for planning to double-cross him and tells her that she needs to forgive herself, but first needs to spend some time with her dad, which she proceeds to do. Matt heads back to the comic shop to meet up with Hiro and Ando.
Hiro is still insisting that he doesn't want to grow up, but Seth gives him a speech about being a hero and stepping up and how much good the grown-up Hiro has done. Hiro finally comes out and they begin to discuss what their next move should be when Breckin - for some reason going over panels with a magnifying glass - notices that a grownup Hiro and Claire are in the background of a panel depicting Kaito Nakamura handing over baby Claire to HRG. Somehow, they decide that this means Hiro should take Claire to this moment to regain his memory. I get that Claire should be able to heal his memories, but still... this was a bit of a leap.
Claire, to nobody's surprise, healed once the eclipse ended. Her mom snuck her out of the morgue and took her home. When her dad finally arrives, she chastises him for never being there when she needs him and mentioned that she died while he was off taking care of things he felt was more important. HRG realizes that if Claire died but healed, that probably means that Sylar's still alive, too, and tries to get his family together to run. Unfortunately, Sylar and Elle are already there.
Sylar slams HRG against the wall and begins to telepathically slit his throat when Hiro shows up and teleports Sylar away. Hiro then pops back and teleports Elle away and then pops back once more to take Claire back to the moment that Kaito handed her over to HRG.
I assume that this somehow is supposed to make Claire feel more tender towards her father, but it just seems to reinforce to me that he took her on as an assignment, no matter how much he grew to care about her.
Elle and Sylar were both teleported to some remote beach or island. As they talk about what happened, Sylar begins to lay Elle down like he wants to get freaky. When he has her pinned down, he tells her that she was wrong about them being able to start over because nobody ever changes and begins slicing her head open.
Elle screams, Sylar sighs, and we get "To Be Continued..."
"THREE fake deaths, HA HA HA?!"
