Heroes Volume Four, Chapter One: A Clear & Present Danger

So it’s been a couple of months since the destruction of Primatech and Pinehearst. Tracy chats on the phone with the governor while watching a televised interview with Senator Nathan Petrelli, who is now heading a Homeland Security subcommittee on Rounding Up Undesirables. Because it’s been months since we’ve seen Ali Larter in her underthings, this all happens while Tracy changes her clothes. As Nathan blathers on about God and country, a scary balding guy and his team of masked goons burst in on Tracy and taser her unconscious.

Claire is staying in New York with Angela and Nathan at the Petrelli mansion. Angela seems to think her granddaughter (who now has her GED, which means we can finally say farewell to all those half-assed and derivative high school plotlines) has a shot at attending an elite university. This is rather optimistic of Angela. Claire listens in on a phone call between Angela and Nathan about how they’re sending goons after Peter and Matt.

Peter, meanwhile, is working as an especially earnest and self-recriminating paramedic. When Claire calls to warn him that Angela and Nathan are planning something, he kind of wanders away from a current medical emergency and hails a taxi, which is driven by Manhattan’s most beautiful cabbie. Mohinder and Peter rehash their meet-cute from the pilot episode, which would be sort of obnoxious if they weren’t both totally adorable about it. They discuss Nathan’s plans to protect the general public from people with special abilities; Peter is vehemently opposed to this, while Mohinder mildly argues that their powers are too dangerous to leave unchecked. He’s actually being sensible and introspective, which: a) is very unMohinderlike, and b) probably won’t last much past this episode.

After Peter leaves, the scary balding guy gets in the cab, pulls a gun on Mohinder, and forces him to drive to a parking structure, where a number of masked goons are waiting to restrain him. Mohinder rips off the door of his cab and uses it to whack the bald guy, which neatly answers the question of whether he retained his powers after losing his scales during his dip in the power-granting Kool-Aid. Bennet arrives and rescues Mohinder, then cheerfully tasers him and hands him over to the goons. Mo seems shocked and outraged at being betrayed by the guy he once shot in the eyeball. Karma, Mohinder. It’ll bite you in the fanny every time.

In Tokyo, still-powerless Hiro converts an old firehouse into a cool superhero lair for himself and newly-powered Ando. He presents Ando with a spandex costume and a motorcycle. Ando is cool with the latter, but not so much with the former. He’s also not cool with Hiro secretly embedding GPS tracking chips under their skin. Ando, who suspects Hiro is overcompensating for the loss of his own powers, storms out in a huff and heads to a strip club. Back at the lair, Hiro gets tasered and captured by masked goons.

Sylar’s in Baltimore, where, sadly, he is neither hanging out with the cast of The Wire, nor starring in Hairspray. Instead, he’s on a quest to find his real father. Yawn. Seriously, Sylar, I’m sure you can come up with a more interesting way to occupy your time. He breaks into a watch repair shop, confronts the guy whom he thinks is his dad, and talks about his abandonment issues. This is far and away the dullest part of the episode, though it’s salvaged by the fact that Quinto is kinda looking smoking-hot these days. Anyway, his alleged dad passes the buck and tells Sylar he’s actually someone else’s kid.

So Sylar moves on to the next likely paternity candidate. No one’s home, but Sylar finds some compelling evidence that maybe he’s in the right place: a) it’s the home of a taxidermist, which seems like a suitable occupation for the father of a serial killer, and it’s cluttered with b) snow globes and c) baby photos of Sylar. Masked goons storm in and try to apprehend him, but Sylar uses his eight billion abilities and slaughters them.

Matt, who is now working as a security guard, is living with Daphne in Mohinder’s apartment. The question of where Mohinder is living remains unanswered. Matt bitches at Daphne for using her super-speedy abilities to help her with her new job as a courier. A tedious domestic squabble ensues. Back when Matt was stuck in his loveless and naggy marriage, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed the bulk of their domestic problems were triggered by Janice. Then Matt shacked up with Mohinder and bickered nonstop with him, and now he’s getting crabby with Daphne. Matt, buddy, I hate to break this to you, but you’re kind of a nag.

Matt is visited by an apparition of Usutu, who is looking pretty hale and hearty considering his recent decapitation. Usutu tells Matt he’s been chosen to be a prophet. Upon hearing this, Matt develops the patented Isaac Mendez Milky-Eyes™ and starts to draw. When Claire stops by to warn him about Nathan’s diabolical plans, Matt shows her a prophetic sketch of himself and Claire getting apprehended by armed goons.

Immediately thereafter, Matt and Claire are apprehended by armed goons.

Peter returns to his apartment and finds Nathan lurking in his living room. When Peter tells Nathan he wants no part of his crackpot scheme to imprison everyone with special abilities, Bennet creeps up behind him and tasers him. Lots of primary characters get tasered this episode. It’s perversely satisfying.

Our heroes are drugged, manacled, masked, and loaded onto a plane. Nathan takes Claire out of the group, tells her to forget what she’s seen, and sends her home. Claire secretly jumps aboard the plane just before takeoff. This is preposterous, of course, but it’s awfully nice seeing Claire being useful and proactive. She rouses Peter, who swipes Mohinder’s super-strength and helps Claire free the others. Claire breaks into the cockpit and discovers the plane is being flown by Bennet.

Peter accidentally absorbs Tracy’s ice ability and, during his scuffle with the goons, freezes the side of the plane and creates a gigantic hole in the hull. The plane nosedives. Peter is almost sucked out through the hole… but Mohinder grabs his hand and saves him.