Heroes Volume Two, Chapter Ten: Truth & Consequences

Peter wanders around plague-stricken New York City circa 2008, calling out for Caitlin. He finds himself back in present-day Montreal with Adam, having failed to rescue Caitlin via teleportation. When Adam learns the future plague is caused by the Shanti virus, he tells Peter about one of the Company founders, Victoria Pratt, who first retrieved a sample of the virus from Shanti Suresh in 1977 and used it to create a biological weapon. Adam convinces Peter they need to destroy all remaining strains of the virus to prevent the upcoming catastrophe.

At the Bennet home, Bob delivers an urn containing what he claims are Mr. Bennet's remains to the family. As Mrs. Bennet holds him off at gunpoint, Bob assures her the Company will leave the family alone out of gratitude for Mr. Bennet’s years of devoted service.

Bob tells Elle to keep the Bennets under surveillance for a while. When Elle complains to her dad about her wounded arm, Bob reprimands her for her carelessness in getting shot by Bennet.

Bennet comes back to life in an empty room, befuddled and muttering Mohinder’s name. Mohinder sails in, fusses with his IV, straps him down to the bed, and confirms he used Claire’s blood to resurrect him. It’s official: too many people on this show have magical blood. Bennet tries to give him hell about betraying him and stealing Claire’s blood, but Mohinder takes the moral high ground, which is actually kind of hard to do when you’ve just shot someone in the eye. He tears into Bennet about his recent erratic behavior, i.e. murdering his former partner and being a total jerkwad to Mohinder: “You put us on this path with your violence and paranoia.” Then he knocks a few dents out of his halo and goes swanning off while Bennet bellows after him. Ha! Bennet, you just got outmaneuvered by Mohinder. That’s really embarrassing. Okay, sure, it’s a little disturbing to see how Mohinder seems to have drunk the Company Kool-Aid (though I still think we’re going to see a pretty spectacular double-cross from him somewhere down the line), but after his recent string of catastrophes, it’s nice to see him do something that turns out well.

Somewhere in Virginia, Sylar and Maya share a romantic picnic lunch. They wear cozy sweaters and snuggle together while sipping wine beside a lake; it’s both adorable and surprising to discover Sylar's idea of a perfect date comes straight out of the Napa Style catalogue. Sylar ruins the mood by telling her Alejandro probably hates her for murdering his bride. Maya freaks out and unleashes the dreaded Black Eye Goo of Death, but Sylar gives her a crash course in getting it under control without any help from her brother. Poor Alejandro just became 100% expendable.

Peter and Adam head to Maine to confront Victoria Pratt. Adam lingers behind while Peter does the talking. He tells Victoria about the future plague and the imminent death of 93% of the world’s population. Victoria figures it’s caused by an uber-lethal strain of the Shanti virus known as Strain 138. When Victoria discovers he’s in cahoots with Adam, she shoots both Adam and Peter with a shotgun. Victoria tries to blast off Adam’s head, which she claims will destroy him beyond the ability of his power to regenerate. How very Highlander. Peter regenerates and knocks her out before she can fire.

In Tokyo, Hiro and Ando sort through Kaito’s belongings. From a photograph, Hiro discovers Takezo Kensei is now known as Adam Monroe. He also finds an order Kaito signed in 1977 authorizing the permanent confinement of Adam. Figuring this might be the reason Adam murdered Kaito, Hiro teleports to 1977 to investigate. He winds up at Primatech Paper in the middle of a bioresearch containment breach: Adam tries to release Strain 138, but is apprehended by Victoria Pratt and Kaito.

Alejandro, who was not invited along on the picnic, spends a little quality time googling Sylar. After sifting through all the pornographic fanfiction, he discovers a newspaper article about how Sylar is wanted for his mother’s murder and shows it to Maya. Maya asks Sylar for an explanation. He sticks fairly close to the truth (he was defending himself when his mother attacked him after he revealed his abilities to her), though he leaves out the parts about how: a) his ability involves slicing open heads and stealing brains, and b) after killing his mother, he painted a nice mushroom cloud with her blood on her living room floor. Because she’s a bit of a sap, Maya forgives him. She points out that she’s killed simply loads of people herself with the Black Eye Goo of Death and feels very bad about it. Maya tells Alejandro she and Sylar are setting out on their own, now that she can control her powers without Alejandro’s help.

Adam and Peter ask Victoria for the location of Strain 138. She accuses Adam of plotting to release it to start an epidemic; Adam claims he only wants to destroy the virus. Peter reads Victoria’s mind and discovers Strain 138 is held at Primatech in Texas. It’d probably save Peter a lot of future bother if he'd take a second to read Adam's mind as well, just to make sure he's telling the truth about not wanting to destroy the world. Peter does not read Adam’s mind. Peter’s kind of dumb this episode. Adam kills Victoria under the guise of protecting Peter, and they set off for Texas; it’s kind of like the Sylar/Mohinder road trip last season, only without all the unsettling sexual chemistry.

Niki returns to Micah in New Orleans and breaks the news she has the virus. Micah’s odious cousin (and here I use “odious” with affection, in that I think the young actor is doing a dynamite job of making his character as loathsome as possible) steals Micah’s backpack containing his valuable comic book collection and D.L.’s medal of valor, which in turn gets stolen from him by a bunch of thugs. Monica decides to use her abilities to get it back.

Sylar is confronted by Alejandro in his motel room. Sylar knifes him. Adios, Alejandro. We hardly knew you, and you were stuck in everyone's least favorite subplot, but you were cute and innocuous. Vaya con Dios. Maya knocks on Sylar’s door. Thinking fast, Sylar whips off his clothes, opens the door wearing only a towel, and smooches Maya to distract her attention from her brother’s bloody corpse. It works.

Mohinder comes up with a cure for the mutated Shanti virus. How does he do this? By mixing Claire’s super-healing blood with his own virus-curing blood, thus creating some kind of turbo-charged mega-blood capable of both defeating the mutated virus and raising the dead. Oh, for crying out loud -- I'm throwing a bake sale to raise money for this show to hire a science consultant. Mohinder asks Bob to destroy all existing strains of the virus to prevent it from ever falling into the wrong hands. Bob doesn’t think there’s much risk of that – after all, the Company has a great deal of security – until Mohinder points out that he himself operated undetected for weeks inside the Company as the world’s most obvious double agent. Just imagine what someone less incompetent could do! Bob can’t argue with this logic, so he agrees to destroy the virus.

Mohinder then calls Niki to say he's on his way to New Orleans with the cure. Niki goes to tell Micah the good news and discovers he’s snuck out with Monica.

With Micah standing guard in case of trouble, Monica sneaks into the house where the comic book thieves have stashed the loot. She gets nabbed by a roving band of arsonists, who throw her into the back of a van while Micah watches from his hiding spot. Micah: cute kid, but he makes a terrible lookout.

Claire scatters Mr. Bennet’s fake ashes and monologues about how she’s sorry her idiocy got her dad killed. Her mother and brother stand deferentially in the background several paces behind Claire; it’s not at all clear why the scattering-ashes duty is Claire’s sole province, apart from her being just a little bit more special and important than the rest of her family. By the way, you know how I sometimes also use the word “odious” in reference to Claire? In those cases, I’m not doing it with affection. Claire spots Elle observing the proceedings from a parked car. As Claire storms toward her, Elle has a divine bit of physical comedy where she tries to start her car with one arm in a cast and the other hand carrying a giant Slurpee. Elle and Claire get into a tiff which ends, weirdly, with Claire threatening to reveal her own secret to the world.

Mohinder is in a taxi, presumably en route to fly to New Orleans to cure Niki. He's got several vials of the super-powered turbo-charged mega-blood with him; I really can’t see why he shouldn’t siphon off a bit to heal his broken nose. He’s had the nose bandage and the purple bruises for weeks now, and while I do understand it’s supposed to be some kind of visual representation of his fall from grace, I’ve missed seeing that beautiful face in its natural, non-mangled state. Right now, Mohinder’s probably feeling pretty good about resurrecting Bennet and finding a cure for the virus and not screwing up anything else, so naturally, in true Mohinder fashion, it’s time for disaster to strike.

It does indeed, in the form of a phone call from Sylar. Sylar sits in Mohinder’s apartment, stroking Molly’s hair and barely suppressing his glee. With what might be best described as flirtatious malice, he tells a horror-struck Mohinder he gave the babysitter the rest of the night off and urges him to hurry home. While it would have been much smarter for Sylar not to give Mohinder this advance warning of his presence, I do appreciate the time and care he devotes to finding new ways to mess with Mohinder’s head.

Hiro returns from 1977 and tells Ando about the virus. He teleports to Primatech to stop the outbreak. Meanwhile, Adam and Peter arrive at Primatech. Adam and Peter explore the facility, until time stops for everyone except for Peter. Peter looks around and spots Hiro, who has his samurai sword brandished. Hiro informs Peter he’s chosen the wrong side in deciding to trust Adam and charges at him, sword raised.

Next episode: the conclusion of Volume Two and, if there’s no hasty resolution to the WGA strike, the premature conclusion of the entire season.

Heroes Volume Two, Chapter Nine: Cautionary Tales

Huh.

What an utterly bizarre episode.

Ever since the discovery of one of Isaac Mendez’s missing paintings way back in episode three of this season, we’ve known Bennet was destined to take a bullet to the eyeball at some point. For the past couple episodes, thanks to yet another precognitive painting, we’ve had a pretty good idea Mohinder would be the one pulling the trigger. We’ve all tried to puzzle out how things could escalate to such a point. How, we wondered, could their relationship deteriorate to a stage where gullible yet morally pure Mohinder would deliberately kill sympathetic yet morally gray Bennet?

Sure, there’d been some groundwork laid, what with Bennet growing increasingly paranoid and brusque with Mohinder, and Mohinder seeing evidence the Company might be less evil than Bennet had led him to believe, but still, it’s a mighty big leap from misunderstandings to murder. Could Heroes possibly pull off the killing of Bennet in a way that doesn’t undermine everything that’s been established about Mohinder?

In a word?

Nope.

Nope, not at all. Not even close. Not within a country mile. Not in this universe. Not unless this is all part of Mohinder’s ingenious scheme to embed himself deeper within the Company so he can bring it crashing down.

Which, for the record, it totally is. Or probably is. I’m pretty sure it is, at least. Remember how crafty Mohinder was back in episode two of this season when he managed to convince Bob – and the audience – he’d had his brain wiped by the Haitian? You know how he’s been a reckless idiot in all his dealings with the Company since then? Either he’s been erratically written – a strong possibility in a season that devoted seven episodes to mucking about in feudal Japan – or the writers are banking on the audience assuming Mohinder's a nitwit to give him a chance to pull off something really cool in a future episode. I think it’s the latter. Call it about an 80% certainty Mohinder knows what he's doing here, even if the audience doesn't yet.

This, of course, still leaves a 20% chance Mohinder is a total moron.

We open in Costa Verde with Bennet ordering the family to pack up and leave town. Claire, as usual, is being a brat. She tells her father she hates him and refuses to leave. The upside to Bennet getting shot in the eye? It'll bring these tedious father/daughter squabbles to an end.

In Tokyo, Hiro and Ando attend Kaito Nakamura’s funeral. Hiro prepares to eulogize his father, but instead decides to go back in time to prevent his death. He teleports to the rooftop of the Deveaux building at the moment of Kaito's meeting with Angela Petrelli. The subtitles helpfully tell us this was “One Week Ago.”

Wait. This whole season thus far has taken place in one week? The murderously long sojourn of Sylar and the twins through Central America and Mexico, Peter’s adventures with the Irish mob, Mohinder's treks to Haiti and New Orleans, Molly’s coma and the subsequent drama with Matt’s evil father… this has all taken place in one week? Really?

Okay. That's cool. Just checking.

Back in Mohinder’s apartment, Molly offers to help Matt locate the remaining people (i.e. the ones Matt's father didn't get around to killing) in the photo of the twelve Company founders. Matt tells her he doesn’t want her using her powers anymore. Molly kicks up a fuss, but a subtle mental suggestion from Matt quiets her down. This gives Matt ideas. Bad ideas. He tests out his growing abilities by mentally compelling Molly to sit back down at the table and finish her cereal. Bad, Matt. Very, very bad. But kind of funny.

Mohinder (whose nose bandage has officially outstayed its welcome) arrives in Costa Verde and meets poolside with Bob and his new partner, Elle, who, we learn, is Bob’s daughter. Mohinder still insists he’s not choosing sides between Bob and Bennet. He also insists he wants to do the right thing. Both these claims seem a tad disingenuous, considering how Bob and Elle are currently discussing how they’re going to kidnap Claire for her blood and kill Bennet. This is the same Mohinder who, a few episodes back (which, in this season's condensed chronology, was probably yesterday morning) was apoplectic at the thought of injecting Monica with the modified virus. In what universe is Mohinder going to think kidnapping Claire and killing Bennet is an acceptable course of action? Sure, he wants to save Niki, but he’s never been an end-justifies-the-means kind of guy before – why would he start now?

West confronts Claire about how her father kidnapped and conducted experiments on him as a kid. Claire swears she didn’t know anything about that when she met West, but West remains unconvinced.

Matt, still working on the Kaito Nakamura murder case, tries to contact the FBI. His boss tells him to give it up– Angela Petrelli, after all, already confessed to the murder. Matt uses his new-found mind control ability to convince his boss to give him another week on the case.

Bennet confesses to his wife about abducting West. She’s not too thrilled about this, but, because her character development is limited to “likes small dogs” and “dotes on her husband”, she forgives him. He shows her Isaac's paintings, including the one of him lying dead, as explanation for his recent erratic behavior. He thinks West might be the one who winds up murdering him. He calls Mohinder and asks him to use Molly’s ability to locate West.

Mohinder, meanwhile, is in the midst of being groped and fondled by Elle. This is all under the guise of fitting him with a shoulder holster, and under other circumstances, I'd be delighted at the prospect of some hot Elle-on-Mohinder action. Right now, however, I'm too confused and depressed by how Mohinder behaves in this episode to get excited about it. Elle proclaims Mohinder “adorable” and asks her father if she can keep him. Heck, Elle, he’s only operating at about 45% of his usual awesomeness right now. You should see him without the nose bandage and the eye bruises and the surly disposition.

On the roof of the Deveaux building, Kaito and Angela replay their argument from the season opener. When Angela leaves, Hiro approaches his father and warns him of his looming death. Kaito is very Zen about it and accepts his fate.

West grabs Bennet, soars with him up in the air, and threatens to drop him unless he tells him whether Claire is scheming against him. Bennet convinces West of his daughter’s ignorance. When West sets him back on the ground, Bennet tackles him. They wrestle for a while, until Bennet gets a call from Mohinder. Mohinder claims Molly used her ability to track West and provides a street address where Bennet can allegedly find him. Since Bennet is currently sitting on top of West at an entirely different location, he puts it together that Mohinder is lying. Bennet is smart like that.

Bob arrives at Claire’s school and pretends to be a school board member wanting to talk to her about the incident with the head cheerleader. Bob slips up and uses Claire’s real last name instead of the surname the Bennet family adopted for their new life in Costa Verde. Claire runs home, but Bob shows up there and apprehends her.

Mohinder asks Elle for permission to talk to Bennet before she, y’know, kills him. Mohinder climbs into the backseat of Bennet’s car and has a terse chat with him about how he needs some of Claire’s blood. It goes poorly. Bennet harangues him, rightly, about turning over to the Company’s side, saying he warned him explicitly of the tactics the Company would use to indoctrinate him: “I couldn’t have been more clear about that.” Mohinder pulls a gun and orders him out of the car. Elle shows up and crackles her electric bolts ominously. Before she can attack, West swoops in and knocks her out.

Mohinder raises his gun, and it's the moment predicted in Isaac’s painting. Bennet punches Mohinder (right on his broken nose! At this rate, he's never going to be rid of that bandage!), then prepares to kill him, until West talks him out of it.

Bennet returns home with captive Elle in tow and learns of Claire’s capture. Where's Mohinder? He's not with Elle, and he's not with Bob. Did Bennet just let him walk off, knowing he's still armed and an active danger to his family? Or did Mohinder and Bennet have themselves a little off-screen powwow to compare notes about how this is going to go down? Boy howdy, I hope it's the latter. Via Bennet, we learn about Elle’s ghastly childhood – the Company tested the limits of her electrical abilities until she went half-mad from the pain, then wiped her memory. It’s good to have unequivocal confirmation at last that, yes, Bob is a bad guy and yes, the Company is evil. No gray area about it.

Bob takes some of Claire’s blood. Again I ask, where’s Mohinder? Why is Bob drawing blood instead of having his pet geneticist do this? I think Claire’s blood is a red herring. I think this whole mission has only two purposes: to test Mohinder’s loyalty and to eliminate Bennet. If Mohinder and Bennet are sticking to their original plan, it’s highly advantageous to them if the Company a) thinks Mohinder is willing to kill for them, and b) thinks Bennet is dead. Just throwing that out there. Bob receives a call from Bennet informing him he has Elle. They set up a hostage swap.

Hiro teleports himself and his father to Hiro’s mother’s funeral to show Kaito why he can’t let him die just yet. Hiro meets an improbably chipper younger version of himself. It’s nice to discover Hiro has always had his cheery demeanor, but… it’s his mother’s funeral! Shouldn’t wee little Hiro be prostrated with grief? This all somehow convinces Hiro that Kaito is right about the inevitability of Fate, and he agrees not to try to prevent Kaito’s murder. They teleport back to the Deveaux building, where once again the hooded figure rushes out from the shadows and pushes Kaito to his death. Hiro freezes time to get a look at his father’s killer: it’s Takezo Kensei, aka Adam Monroe.

Matt interrogates Angela Petrelli, using his mind control to extract the truth about Adam and the murders of the founders of the Company. She knows what he’s doing and tries to talk him out of it, but Matt goes ahead and uses his powers anyway. Bullying Angela Petrelli seems like the kind of thing that will come back and bite you on the ass, Matt. She's a lot meaner than you are. Matt asks for the name of the final unidentified woman in the photograph. Angela pleads with him not to make her give up the identity. She warns him if he forces the information from her, it will mean he’s turned into his father.

There’s a standoff on the beach: Mohinder and Bob bring Claire, Bennet and West bring Elle. They swap blondes. As soon as Claire is released, West grabs her and flies to safety. Elle zaps them out of the sky with her electric bolts. Bennet shoots Elle in the arm, then aims his gun at Bob. Mohinder gets his gun out and, yep, shoots Bennet right in the eye.

Yeah. Taken at face value, it doesn’t make much sense, does it?

I don’t know how this will play out over the next few episodes. It’s entirely possible we’re meant to interpret these events at face value: Mohinder, despite the best of intentions, has drifted into the Dark Side™. After all, we did get a glimpse of Mohinder’s possible future moral ambiguity in last season’s Evil Alternate Future episode, in which Future Mohinder is pretty much President Sylar’s bitch. I hope this doesn’t turn out to be the case: we’ve seen the character of the Morally Shady Indian Geneticist too many times (X-Men 3 and Street Fighter spring immediately to mind), and apart from being a cliché, there are quasi-racist overtones Heroes would do well to avoid. Mohinder’s much more interesting as a vaguely insufferable straight arrow.

In Tokyo, Hiro returns to the funeral and eulogizes his father.

Matt examines the photo of the Company founders. The mysterious woman is now labeled as “Victoria Pratt”. Seems Matt yanked the information out of Angela over her protests.

On a gurney in an empty room, an IV of blood drips into Bennet’s corpse. The bullet hole in his eye repairs itself, his color is restored, and Bennet sits upright, alive and confused. It’s possible he’s in the custody of the Company (though he appears to be wholly unrestrained) and that it’s Claire’s blood in the IV. It’s equally possible neither of those things is true.

Next week: Hiro pulls a sword on Peter, Mohinder arrives home to find Sylar lying in wait for him, and the internet collapses under the resulting deluge of pornographic fanfiction.

Heroes Volume Two, Chapter Eight: Four Months Ago

We kick things off with one of Mohinder’s inscrutable voiceovers. They never make much sense, but I like listening to them anyway. The accent, you see. It’s pretty. By the way, this is all we’re going to get of Mohinder this episode. As much as a week without Mohinder is an ugly, joyless prospect, it’s probably for the best. The poor boy’s been awfully frazzled and flighty the past few episodes; he could use some time off to get his head together before he does something really reckless, like, say, shooting Mr. Bennet in the eye.

We pick up in Montreal with Peter’s encounter with Adam Monroe, the man formerly known as Takezo Kensei. Now that he’s an immortal, vengeance-driven villain instead of an inept samurai imposter, he’s scads more fun. Yet another reason to celebrate the end of that damnable feudal-Japan plotline. When Peter fails to recognize him, Adam figures the Haitian wiped Peter’s memory. He tells Peter to tap into his regenerative power to heal his mushy little brain. Peter thinks reeeeeeeally hard, and we flash back to…

Four months ago, to the epic battle against Sylar at Kirby Plaza: Peter’s on the verge of going nuclear. Nathan grabs him and soars into the air. Peter urges Nathan to drop him and fly to safety. When Peter explodes, the blast hits Nathan, who plummets toward earth. Peter regenerates in time to swoop down and save him.

Nathan’s looking a little extra-crispy, so Peter rushes him to the hospital. Veronica Mars pops up and hits Peter with a blast of blue electricity. Kristin Bell’s name here is actually Elle, but that’s the downside of playing an iconic character: Bell will be stuck with the Veronica moniker for the rest of her career.

Note to self: Form a band called “Veronica Moniker”.

Still four months ago: In the Dominican Republic, Alejandro gets married. Maya snipes about how she doesn’t like her twin’s new wife. She’s being kind of an ass about it, though her misgivings are justified when she finds the bride in flagrante with one of the guests at the reception. Maya freaks out and slaughters everyone at the wedding except for Alejandro with the Black Eye Goo of Death. So now we know why Maya and Alejandro are on the run.

Bob and Elle take Peter to Company headquarters, where Bob promises to help Peter control his powers. Thirty years ago, Bob claims, the Company tried to develop a formula that would suppress abilities, but abandoned their research due to complications. Thirty years ago, we recall, Mohinder’s sister Shanti died from the very first case of the virus. It’s looking like the Company engineered the virus in the first place. It’s an interesting twist, though Mohinder’s dance card is overbooked with blood vendettas already – he doesn’t need to add anything else to his list of grievances to avenge.

Four months ago: In the hospital, Niki and Micah learn that D.L., who was shot by Linderman, is going to make a full recovery. Bob shows up at the hospital and pays D.L.’s medical bills as the Company’s way of making amends for all the trouble Linderman brought them. Niki has her alter ego Jessica under control now, but Bob worries another split personality might manifest itself to fill the void. He offers to help her control her abilities, but to do that, she’ll have to leave D.L. and Micah and enter the Company’s treatment program. Niki refuses, opting to control her mental problems through medication.

Elle gives Peter a haircut. AHA! We have Elle to blame for the loss of Peter’s floppy bangs! I’m working on a theory that Peter’s personality is entirely contained in his hair. The evidence backs me up: he went from a sweet, romantic dreamer with long bangs in season one to a short-haired moody lump in season two. While the Company works to develop their inhibitor, Peter takes a whole bunch of pills each day to keep his abilities under control so he doesn’t explode. He strikes up a friendship with the man in the room next to his… who happens to be Adam.

Elle delivers Peter’s daily dose of medication, flirtation, and light torture in the form of her electric shocks. Elle is at once infantile, overtly sexual, slinky, and sadistic; it’s a doozy of a combination. She cheerily informs Peter she’s been in the care of the Company since she was diagnosed as a sociopath with paranoid delusions as a child.

Nathan, still hospitalized with hideous head-to-toe burns, tells his wife Heidi, who has been fed some polite fiction about a car crash, the truth about his superpowers and about Peter exploding. Angela Petrelli takes Heidi aside, lies about Nathan having a hereditary mental disorder, gropes her a bit in the guise of offering solace, and speeds along her daughter-in-law’s decision to estrange herself from the Petrelli family. Angela is a force to be reckoned with.

D.L. gets a job as a fireman, where his ability to phase through solid matter comes in mighty handy during rescues. Niki’s meds make her bleary and depressed, so she chucks them down the sink. She manifests another personality, Gina, who runs off to Los Angeles to snort coke and go clubbing. So now Party Girl Gina joins Psycho Killer Jessica in Vegas Stripper Niki’s brain. Why can’t one of Niki’s personalities be, I don’t know, Brainy Astrophysicist Hortense? Literary Scholar Evangeline? D.L. tracks Niki/Gina down and gets into a scuffle with a shlubby club kid, who shoots him in the chest. Exit D.L.

At D.L.’s funeral, the omnipresent Bob approaches Niki once again. This time, she agrees to enter treatment at the Company.

Adam breaks the news to Peter that his stay at the facility might be somewhat less than voluntary. Peter is not convinced, even though: a) he’s kept in a locked cell, and b) he isn’t allowed to contact his family to let them know he’s still alive. Sometimes Peter is kind of a dumb bunny. Adam tells Peter it’s a pity they can’t escape – if they were only out of the facility, Adam could heal Nathan’s terrible burns with his blood…

Peter stops taking his power-suppressing pills, then uses his abilities to break himself and Adam out. At the hospital, Adam injects some of his blood into Nathan’s IV. Nathan magically heals and returns to his full handsome Pasdarian (Pasdaresque?) glory.

Elle and the Haitian track down Adam and Peter, who make a hasty plan to split up and meet again in Montreal. The Haitian catches Peter. Instead of returning him to the Company, he wipes his memories and chains him up inside a shipping container bound for Ireland. We don’t know why he does this. The Haitian is rivaled only by Mohinder in the way he embarks upon random and unfathomable courses of action.

Back to the present: In Montreal, the little trip down memory lane heals Peter’s scrambled brain. Adam asks, “Shall we save the world?”

Next episode: Bennet and Mohinder finally have it out, as their ill-conceived partnership comes to a bitter conclusion. It’s all fun and games until someone gets shot in the eye. I’m hoping it’s West.

Heroes Volume Two, Chapter Seven: Out of Time

Feudal Japan: A lot of stuff happens, some of which is even sort of important. Here’s the key thing: this plotline finally ends. Hiro duels with Kensei, there’s a big gunpowder explosion in which Kensei presumably dies, Yaeko promises to preserve the timeline by making sure the legend of Kensei is passed down intact, and Hiro teleports home to present-day Tokyo.

In Ukraine, Bennet glowers at the final series of precognitive paintings. He calls Mohinder at Company headquarters and asks all kinds of pointed questions about why it looks like Mohinder will shoot him in the eye in the near future. He wants to send Mohinder photos of the paintings, but Mohinder balks – his new partner Niki is watching him too closely to risk it. Bennet insists, claiming his family’s safety is at stake. Mohinder: "So that makes me expendable?" There’s a long, long pause while Bennet tries to think of some answer other than "Yes". Mohinder squawks a bit about how they’re supposed to be working together to bring down the Company, then notices Niki standing in the doorway, clearing her throat politely.

The sad part? Carrying on a chatty conversation about destroying the Company while Niki is within earshot is not the most reckless thing Mohinder will do this episode. Watch and wince.

Nathan and Matt, fresh from their skirmish with Matt’s father, Maury, arrive at Company headquarters. They tell Bob, Mohinder, and Niki about the photo of Bob with the half-helix symbol, which indicates he’ll be Maury’s next target. The group schemes to take down Maury. Bob wants to inject him with a mutated version of the virus so he’ll lose his powers; Mohinder’s super-special magic blood can cure him after he’s neutralized.

New York, 2008: Peter and Caitlin wander around the evacuated city. They’re apprehended and decontaminated by men in hazmat suits. The evacuation is due to a super-lethal outbreak of a modified strain of the virus (they’re calling it the "Shanti Virus" after Mohinder’s dead sister), which has killed 93% of the world’s population thus far.

Costa Verde: Claire wakes up to find West in her kitchen, chatting with her mom and making waffles. West gleefully shows her a newspaper article about last episode’s idiotic prank. It’s all attributed to the nonsensical ramblings of a drunken cheerleader, but the article draws attention to Claire’s amazing regenerative ability.

Niki accompanies Mohinder while he fills a syringe with the modified Shanti Virus to inject into Maury. They debate about the Company: Niki’s convinced it’s a force of good, while Mohinder’s still skeptical. Maury arrives and uses his mental powers to make Niki hallucinate about D.L., who goads her into trying to kill Bob. When Mohinder tries to stop her, Niki decks him with her super-strength and breaks his nose. Egad, Niki, why don’t you take a jackhammer to the Venus de Milo while you’re at it? Niki grabs the syringe containing the virus and goes after Bob.

Bob fills Nathan in about the mysterious Adam Monroe: he’s one of the founders of the Company, and he’s a) super-powerful, and b) really, really evil. He’s also the man behind the attempted murders of the other founders; Maury is only doing Adam’s bidding. Bob also tells Nathan that Peter’s alive.

Niki, still under Maury’s mental control, punches through the door to get to Bob. Nathan tries to calm her down. Niki returns to her senses long enough to deliberately infect herself with the virus, which takes away her super-strength.

2008: So, 93% of the world’s population is dead, right? It comes as no big shock to find Angela Petrelli among the lucky 7%. At the decontamination center/morgue, Peter meets his mother and, after some initial confusion, recognizes her. Great merciful Zeus, his memory returns! At last, progress! According to Angela, Nathan died in the first outbreak of the virus. Peter must return to the past and prevent the virus from becoming an epidemic. Peter teleports back to present-day Montreal… but accidentally leaves Caitlin behind in the plague-ridden future.

Claire and West, easily the most loathsome couple on television, make out on the couch. Bennet returns home from Ukraine. West recognizes him as the man who kidnapped him a few years ago and flies away before Bennet sees him.

Matt’s powers enable him to enter his father’s nightmares. He finds Molly and frees her, then mentally battles Maury and traps him in a coma.

In Tokyo, Ando and Hiro have a joyous reunion. It’s great to see them together and happy again… until Hiro asks about his father. Ando tells him of Kaito’s murder.

Mohinder, who somehow manages to look beautiful and elegant even with his nose wrapped in plaster, can’t cure Niki with his blood – the virus has mutated too much. Bob thinks he might have another way to save her. He gives Mohinder a file on Claire: the Company was alerted to her whereabouts due to the newspaper article about her stupid prank. There’s a chance they can use Claire’s regenerative ability to find a new cure for the virus. He also gives Mohinder a gun: in order to bring in Claire, they’ll have to get her father out of the way. Bob tells Mohinder that Bennet murdered Ivan. Distraught about the virus and horrified by this evidence of Bennet’s increasing ruthlessness, Mohinder confesses he’s been working with Bennet to destroy the Company. This little bombshell doesn’t seem to surprise Bob.

Bennet finds out from his wife that Claire’s been sneaking around with West. In a panic, he orders his family to pack up and leave town. Claire pitches a fit and refuses to go.

Back in Montreal, Peter meets up with the mysterious Adam Monroe… who turns out to be Takezo Kensei.