Heroes Volume Four, Chapter Nine: Turn and Face the Strange

Bennet examines Fake Sylar’s corpse, which has a metal spike in the brain. He figures, correctly, that Sylar being dead is too good to be true. When Sandra, upset about Claire’s latest vanishing act, unexpectedly drops by Building 26, Bennet introduces her to Danko. Later, however, Danko encounters another Danko in the men’s room. The first Danko turns out to be Sylar, who’s been using his newfangled shape-shifting ability for mischief. Sylar-as-Danko cheerily tells Danko he’s going to destroy Bennet.

Angela calls Bennet to fill him in about her prophetic dream, which involves a mysterious incident that took place years ago at a place called Coyote Sands.

Bennet discovers that Fake Sylar has been scheduled for cremation. He tracks down the corpse, removes the spike from Fake Sylar’s skull, and orders Danko’s goons to run a DNA test. Bennet is acting completely buggy and mad and paranoid, but since he’s dealing with Sylar, it’s kind of understandable.

Sandra stops by Bennet’s apartment to serve him with divorce papers. They bicker, then Sandra tells him she doesn’t love him anymore and flounces out. But wait! Sandra is actually Sylar in disguise! Oh, how you disappoint me, Sylar. When you said you were going to destroy Bennet, I assumed you meant it in a “leaving a taxidermied Mr. Muggles on the kitchen table” sort of way, not an “adding more tension to Bennet’s already busted marriage” way. This is clearly not your best effort.

Bennet realizes Sandra’s signature on the divorce papers is a fake. Rookie mistake, Sylar. Bennet also discovers that the DNA from Fake Sylar’s corpse is a match for Martin, the shape-shifter. Bennet pulls a gun on Sandra and violently accuses her of being Sylar. Unfortunately, this time it’s the real Sandra. She verifies her identity by knowing the correct location of Mr. Muggles’ pills, then throws him out of her hotel room.

Bennet then impersonates Sylar impersonating Bennet (got it?) and tricks Danko into revealing his alliance with Sylar. Danko claims Sylar has taken the shape of one of his minions. Bennet shoots the minion in the head, then, when the corpse doesn’t come back to life, realizes it totally wasn’t Sylar.

Except it totally was Sylar! After Bennet runs off in a panic, Sylar comes back to life, vomiting up bullets.

Following Daphne’s death, Matt and Mohinder hole up in a cheap motel. Mohinder makes preparations to flee to India to get away from Danko. He tries to convince Matt to go with him, but Matt decides to seek retribution for Daphne instead. They part with a manly embrace.

Mohinder sneaks back into his apartment to get his stuff. To avoid detection by Danko’s goons, he adopts the guise of a Depression-era paperboy. Aw, Mohinder, never change. His apartment is bare; Mohinder’s landlord tells him Homeland Security hauled all his crap away, except for a bunch of old files Chandra Suresh was storing in the basement. So Mohinder sorts through all his dad’s old files. He also sticks a bunch of pins in a map. The deju vu is strong in this scene: all Mohinder needs to do is frown prettily at a computer monitor, and it’ll be just like being back in Season One. From Chandra’s files, Mo finds out about Operation Icarus, an abandoned government project in the 1960s which took place at Coyote Sands

Hiro and Ando road-trip their way cross-country to reunite Baby Matt with Matt. Zany misadventures and gratuitous product placement are involved. Baby Matt keeps throwing super-powered tantrums, which causes their car to repeatedly stall. Poor Ando is forced to make goofy faces to keep the little monster placated. Hiro calls Mohinder, who tells him where to find Matt.

Matt uses Jedi Mind-Tricks™ on Danko to get him to lead him to the person most important to him. This, naturally, happens to be an Eastern European prostitute named Alena. Danko has spun Alena an elaborate web of lives about how he’s a salesman named Jakob with a wife and kids in Chicago. Matt brings Alena to Danko’s apartment and forces him to tell her the truth about his dastardly deeds. Matt tries to kill Alena to get vengeance for Daphne (wrong, Matt, very wrong), but can’t bring himself to do it. Danko shoots Matt, but Hiro arrives, stops time, stops the bullet, and hauls Matt out of there.

Matt is initially cranky about being rescued, but then Ando presents him with his son, and Matt realizes that maybe he should maybe focus on being a good father instead of trying to kill Eastern European prostitutes. I think that’s a decision we can all get behind.

Peter, Angela, Nathan, Claire, and Bennet all converge on Coyote Sands. Angela hands them shovels. Under a closing Mohinderlogue about Icarus, they start digging. When Nathan unearths a human skull, Angela tells him there’s plenty more where that came from.