Heroes Volume Three, Chapter Thirteen: Dual

The final episode of Volume Three opens with that rarest of rarities: a Sylar monologue, in which he babbles on about cosmic jokes and the “dark proof of God’s absence.” Sheesh. Merry Christmas to you, too, Sylar.

After his brief flirtation with soul-searching and introspection, Sylar seems to have decided heroism is for losers. He storms the Primatech building and locks Claire, Angela, Bennet, and Meredith inside. While Angela and Claire hide out in Angela’s office, Meredith and Bennet head down to Level Five and release all the prisoners to use them as bait to trap Sylar. When Sylar attacks Meredith, puppet master Eric Doyle comes to her rescue. Sylar knocks Doyle out and stabs Meredith with a syringe full of adrenaline, which makes her abilities malfunction. He locks Bennet and Meredith in a cell together and scampers off to cause more mischief.

When Angela and a shotgun-toting Claire try to rescue Meredith and Bennet, Sylar attacks them and absconds with Angela. Claire sets Bennet and Meredith free, but Meredith, who can’t get her flames under control, insists on remaining behind so she won’t accidentally hurt anyone.

In Angela’s office, Sylar forces Angela to admit she’s not really his mother. Angela confesses to lying, but also claims to know the identity of his real parents. Before Sylar can kill Angela, Claire stabs him in the back of the head. On Level Five, Meredith loses her battle to control her powers and blows up the entire Primatech building – and ostensibly herself right along with it.

Meanwhile, Matt, Daphne, and Ando hang out in Mohinder’s lab. Ando is still hell-bent on implementing his crackpot scheme to give himself abilities so he can rescue Hiro. To that end, Daphne speeds off to Pinehearst to swipe the power-giving serum from Mohinder.

At Pinehearst, Nathan finds Peter standing over Arthur’s corpse. Peter wants to destroy the serum, while Nathan wants to carry out Arthur’s plan to give people abilities. The brothers get into a scuffle, which ends with Peter knocking out Nathan and heading down to the lab to destroy the serum.

Meanwhile, a dying Mohinder tries to inject himself with the corrected serum to fix his corrupted abilities. Peter bursts in and pulls a gun on him, then Daphne bursts in and swipes the syringe out of his hands, then Knox and Flint, who have arbitrarily decided to ally themselves with Peter (because they became fast friends with him during the earlier bank robbery? Yeah, I'm confused, too), burst in and manhandle him. Flint, who is looking for payback for the vicious, improbable beating Mohinder dished out, threatens to burn off Mohinder’s face. Aw, Flint, give him a break: Mohinder’s beautiful face has already been through far too much trauma lately.

So you remember the Marine who received super-powers last episode, the Marine who got a huge chunk of screentime and a fleshed-out backstory about his time in Iraq, the Marine with the painstaking character development that suggested he’d play an important part in future events? Yeah, he’s onscreen for about five seconds this episode before Knox breaks his neck. Knox then takes Nathan prisoner, but Tracy creeps up behind him, freezes him, and shatters him into a million pieces. Tracy urges Nathan to escape with her, but Nathan ditches her and heads to the lab to confront Peter.

Daphne returns to Mohinder’s lab with the serum. Ando injects himself and ends up with the ability to super-charge other people’s powers. When Ando uses his new ability on Daphne, she moves fast enough to travel through time. Matt uses the Theory of Relativity to explain how this is possible, and while it’s great to find out Matt has cracked open a science book or two, I will be just as happy if Matt never again starts a sentence with the phrase, “According to Einstein…” Ando and Daphne combine their powers to travel back in time to find Hiro.

Sixteen years in the past, Hiro dangles from a flagpole on the Deveaux building. He chats with a pigeon and struggles back up to the balcony. Inside the apartment, he runs into the adolescent version of himself. Hiro impersonates a chef and consoles Young Hiro over the death of his/their mother, then asks for his help breaking into the safe where Kaito keeps the powers-giving formula. Young Hiro, who is a trusting sort, agrees to this. Kaito catches Hiro stealing the formula and pulls a sword on him. Hiro attempts to defend himself with a baguette; Hiro, sweetie, I don’t want to have to warn you again about excessive zaniness. Hiro rips the formula in half, but before he can destroy it, Daphne and Ando zip in and transport him back to the present.

Hiro wants to finish the task of destroying the formula, so he and Daphne head over to Pinehearst. When they find Tracy stealing the formula from Arthur’s office, they swipe it away from her and zip off.

In the lab, Flint beats Mohinder unconscious. Peter dumps out buckets and buckets of the power-giving serum, which looks a lot like cherry Kool-Aid. Mohinder, who has spent an inordinate amount of time this season covered in gunk, manages to get drenched in the serum. Nathan arrives and starts whacking both Flint and Peter with a lead pipe. I’m not entirely sure why he does this; Nathan’s motivations became a little opaque around the time he decided Arthur’s plan for world domination via giving everyone super-powers sounded sensible and sane.

Flint torches the lab. Trapped by flames, Peter injects himself with the formula to get his abilities back, then flies away with Nathan. Once they’re safely away from Pinehearst, Peter and Nathan squabble some more. Nathan is furious with Peter for giving himself abilities, and I’ll be damned if I know why, seeing as: a) Peter just saved both their lives, and b) Nathan has been a big cheerleader for the idea of giving everyone else abilities. Nathan flies off in a huff. This is the point where I officially give up on trying to suss out what’s in Nathan’s head.

Mohinder staggers down the road away from Pinehearst. Tracy, who appears to bear him no ill will for that time he drugged her and strapped her down and tried to use her as a lab rat, pulls up and offers him a ride. Before hopping in, he spends an ungodly amount of time checking out his beautiful reflection in her windows. I'd mock his vanity, but I’m just thrilled to report that, yes, the icky crud is finally gone, gone, gone, and he's once again smooth-skinned and impossibly lovely.

Volume Three wraps up with a Mohinderlogue about Good and Evil over a montage of images: Bennet, Claire, and Angela watching Primatech go up in flames, Hiro ripping up the formula and exchanging bows with Ando, Daphne and Matt embracing, and a non-decapitated Usutu--or at least a vision of him--appearing to Matt. Meanwhile, Nathan gives the President files on everyone with powers and tells him he wants them all rounded up and imprisoned, which is all too X-Menny for words. The President, by the way, is played by Michael Dorn, and I’m giving fair warning: if he becomes a recurring character in Volume Four (“Fugitives”), I will not be able to resist the urge to refer to him President Worf.

So thus ends Volume Three, which was pretty consistently entertaining, warts and all. “Fugitives” starts up in early February, and provided Sylar stays evil and Mohinder stays beautiful, I’m looking forward to it.