Mohinder arrives at his apartment and finds Sylar sitting at his desk. Sylar welcomes him home and expresses concern about his broken nose. Mohinder asks what he wants. Sylar advances on him and, after he’s whipped up a suitable aura of menace, smiles and replies, “Breakfast.” Mohinder turns to see Maya in his kitchen, cheerfully cooking up a mess of chilaquiles. Because this scene was insufficiently preposterous on its own, she’s also wearing a “World’s Greatest Dad” apron.
Maya gushes about how she’s honored to meet Mohinder – she’s read his father’s book and has so many questions about her own abilities. Mohinder asks if she’s aware Sylar’s a murderer. She confirms she is, but it’s okay, seeing as she’s killed many, many people herself with her own ghastly power. Maya guides a shell-shocked Mohinder to a chair, and they all settle in for a deliriously uncomfortable breakfast. Maya paws Mohinder and yammers on about the Black Eye Goo of Death, while Mohinder blinks back tears and wonders why his only meaningful relationship on the entire show has to be with the brain-stealing serial killer. Sylar mentions he spent some quality time snooping on Mohinder’s laptop and asks about the Shanti virus – specifically, does it really take away special abilities? Maya, bless her, asks Sylar, “Is that how you lost your powers?”
There’s a pause while Mohinder processes this nugget of information, then he grabs his butter knife and lunges for Sylar. Sylar draws a gun and jams it into Mohinder’s neck. Advantage: Sylar. Thanks to Mohinder’s files, Sylar knows Mohinder’s blood is the cure for the virus. What’s more, he knows about the Mohinder/Claire turbo-charged mega-blood. It finally – finally! – dawns on Maya that Sylar might be a bad egg. She flips out and unleashes the Black Eye Goo of Death. Everyone collapses. Even little Molly staggers from her room, wailing and dripping black goo from her eyes. Sylar reigns in the mass hysteria and gets Maya under control by convincing her if she kills Mohinder, she loses her best chance of getting help with her abilities. Mohinder comforts Molly and agrees to help Sylar get his powers back.
Apparently, Matt and Nathan went to Maine and found Victoria Pratt’s body in a scene we didn’t get to see. Both Adam’s and Peter’s fingerprints were discovered at the crime scene. Matt and Nathan meet with Angela Petrelli, who gives them some background on Adam and tells them Strain 138 of the Shanti virus is held at Primatech in Texas.
At Primatech, Hiro stops time and confronts Peter about Adam’s ill intentions. Peter still thinks Adam is swell. Peter hurls around lightning bolts, but Hiro teleports here and there and dodges Peter’s blasts, until Peter finally manages to electrocute him. Hiro falls unconscious, and time unfreezes. Adam steals his sword back from Hiro and heads off with Peter.
Claire is still bent on her lunatic plan to reveal her abilities to the world. When her mother tries to talk her out of it, Claire tells her she can’t understand how she feels because she isn’t special like Claire. Claire has been a real charmer this season.
Bob bawls out Elle for escalating the conflict with Claire. Chastened, Elle visits Mr. Bennet and asks for more details about how her father tested the limits of her electrical abilities as a child. Bob comes in, shoos Elle away, and tells Bennet Claire is becoming a problem for the Company.
Adam and Peter hack and blast their way through Primatech until they reach the vault containing Strain 138. Peter tries to open it with telekinesis.
Mohinder takes Sylar, Maya, and Molly to his laboratory in Isaac Mendez’s old loft. Sylar orders Maya and Molly to stay out of the way so he can manhandle and intimidate Mohinder without interruption. Sylar points out the exact spot where he murdered Isaac. Sylar hasn’t quite mastered the art of appropriate small talk. Mohinder insists on drawing blood from Sylar to make sure he has the virus. Sylar, who has good reason to be wary of Mohinder wielding needles after last season’s unfortunate incident with the unanaesthetized spinal tap, balks at this. They stare each other down and growl at each other until, amazingly, Sylar gives in and lets Mohinder jab him with sharp objects – which, by the way, Mohinder enjoys far too much. Mohinder spent all season being hapless and ineffectual with everyone he dealt with (Bennet, Bob, Elle, Niki), and yet he’s the only one who can get away with bullying Sylar. When Sylar’s attention is focused elsewhere, Mohinder shoots a desperate glance up at a mysteriously blinking wall fixture…
Elle sneaks into Bob’s office and snoops about on his computer. Bob has surveillance cameras fixed in Mohinder’s lab; Elle wonders aloud if Mohinder knows Bob is spying on him. Based upon the way Mohinder just looked right at the hidden camera, the answer to that is plainly yes, but it doesn’t look like Bob knows Mohinder knows this. Mohinder: not as dumb as advertised. On the monitor, Elle sees Sylar in the lab with Mohinder.
The comic book-stealing arsonists tie up Monica in a deserted building and set it on fire. Micah and Niki search for her; Micah uses his ability to tell his cell phone to find Monica’s cell phone and pinpoint her location.
Nathan and Matt fly to Primatech. Technically, Nathan flies, with Matt riding piggyback. Upon their graceless and mortifying landing, they make a pact to never mention their flight again. Outside Primatech, a jubilant Hiro greets Nathan.
West stops by the Bennet house to tell Claire he thinks her plan is idiotic. Claire breaks up with him, and West sadly flies away. This would be a touching scene, if only these two weren’t so vile. Mr. Bennet shows up at the front door, alive and well, and greets his daughter.
In the lab, Molly and Maya are left to twiddle their thumbs while Mohinder and Sylar circle each other and exchange meaningful glowers. To cheer Maya up, Molly offers to use her ability to locate Alejandro. When Molly can’t find him, Maya realizes her brother is dead.
Mohinder examines Sylar’s blood and discovers he’s got the same strain of the virus as Niki. Sylar is outraged to learn the Company deliberately infected him. Just as he’s working himself up into a righteous lather, Maya storms up to him, shrieking about how he murdered Alejandro. Sylar shoots her in the heart. He demands Mohinder produce the turbo-charged mega-blood, whereupon Mohinder reveals he’s been carrying it around all this time. Showing a gift for understatement, Sylar tells him, “You and I have trust issues.” He orders Mohinder to test out the blood on Maya: if it brings her back to life, he can use the remaining syringe to cure Sylar.
Bennet reunites with his family. To keep them safe, he’s struck a deal with the Company, but it means he has to leave them. He walks out of the house and meets up with Bob. Again, this would be a touching scene if the entire Bennet clan hadn’t exhausted every ounce of my good will in recent episodes.
Peter finally opens the vault. When Hiro tries to stop him, Peter hurls him out of the way. Adam advises Peter to get rid of Hiro permanently. Matt tries to mentally persuade Peter of Adam’s evil; Peter refuses to believe him. Nathan confronts Peter and, at long last, gets it through his brother’s thick skull that Adam is trying to release the virus, not destroy it. Hiro grabs Adam and teleports away with him, just as Adam drops the vial containing Strain 138. Peter catches it before it smashes on the ground, then creates a mini-nuclear explosion in his hand and destroys it while Matt and Nathan watch. A hidden camera in the vault records their actions.
Mohinder injects Maya’s corpse with the blood. The bullet wound begins to heal. Sylar picks up the remaining syringe and tells Mohinder, “I’m sure Maya will understand if I’m not here when she wakes up.” He turns to leave. Wow. Sylar really intends to let Mohinder and Molly get out of this alive. Yes, Mohinder, there is a Santa Claus. Elle arrives and hurls blue lightning bolts at Sylar. He opens fire at her. The two of them blast each other for a while until Elle knocks him out a window. Sylar takes off, with Elle in pursuit.
Niki intercepts the arsonists as they make their getaway. Even though the virus has deprived her of her super-strength, she does a pretty impressive job of kicking the crap out of them. Niki rushes into the burning building and saves Monica, but it explodes before Niki can escape.
Hiro teleports to his Tokyo office and reunites with Ando. Ando asks about Adam. Because Adam can’t be killed, Hiro buried him alive in a coffin. For such a sweetie, Hiro has a mean streak.
Maya comes back to life. Elle slumps back to the lab, afraid her father will be furious with her for letting Sylar get away. Mohinder reassures her, claiming she saved all their lives. This is kind of a lie, seeing as Sylar was on the verge of releasing them anyway, but it seems to make Elle happy. She beams at Mohinder.
Nathan decides to go public with his powers. Nathan, honey, this wasn’t a good idea when Claire wanted to do it, and it’s not a good idea now. He throws a lame press conference where he spouts some tripe about how he’s seen wonderful and amazing things; honestly, Nathan, I expect more from you. Before Nathan gets to the punchline (i.e. “Oh, by the way, I can fly”), he’s shot twice in the chest by an unseen assailant. Pandemonium erupts. Matt searches the crowd and sees the back of an unidentified man in a dark coat walking away.
Angela Petrelli watches a news broadcast about the shooting. She speaks to someone on the phone: “You do know you’ve opened Pandora’s box.”
Sylar, in an alley, injects himself with the mega-blood. The wounds from his fight with Elle heal themselves up. He tests out his telekinesis by trying to move a tin can and discovers that, yes indeed, his powers are back. And it’s about time, too.
Volume Two comes to a close. Volume Three will start up at some nebulous point in the future after the WGA strike is resolved.
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