Heroes Volume Three, Chapter Seven: Eris Quod Sum

Mohinder faces off against Tracy and Nathan. Using his bug-man super-powers, he rips Maya out of her cocoon and leaps up through the skylights (Mohinder’s lab has skylights?). He takes Maya to Pinehearst and meets Arthur Petrelli. Arthur steals the Black Eye Goo of Death power from Maya and cures her, then puts Mohinder to work perfecting Pinehearst’s version of the power-giving formula. When Mohinder confronts Maya later, she’s monstrously peeved at him for turning evil and sticking her in a cocoon. Equipped with cash, a wheelie suitcase, and a shiny new American passport, she storms out of his life. Vaya con Dios, Maya! May you find happiness and a decent character arc elsewhere, because you sure weren’t finding either here.

When Claire and Sandra return home from tangling with Doyle, they discover their lights on the fritz, Lyle unconscious, and crazy Elle hanging out in their living room. A super-powered catfight between Elle and Claire ensues. Lyle takes a baby step toward justifying his existence by tossing a bucket of water on Elle and shorting out her powers. Elle asks Claire for help: she’s lost control over her abilities. Claire whines a bit about how she can’t feel pain anymore; Elle, who is in constant agony from the bajillion volts of electricity coursing through her body, fails to give her much sympathy. Elle and Claire decide to go to Pinehearst together to seek a cure. Sandra objects, which provokes one of those Bennet family domestic squabbles I love so much. Because the entire family remains in thrall to the whims of a sullen teen girl, Claire prevails.

Arthur Petrelli and Maury Parkman bawl out Daphne for discouraging Matt from joining Pinehearst. Arthur orders her to kill Matt. When Maury objects, Arthur breaks his neck. Wow. Adam Monroe last week, Maury Parkman this week, and it looks like Maya’s been booted off the show as well. They’re just systematically purging any lingering stench of Volume Two, aren’t they? Elle, hon, I’d watch your back if I were you.

Arthur gives Peter to Mohinder as a test subject for his diabolical experiments. Peter tries to stop Mohinder by warning him about the evil alternate future. He makes the strategic error of informing Mohinder that, thanks to the mistakes in the formula, he’s no longer dewy and beautiful in the future. This only heightens Mohinder’s resolve to correct the formula by using Peter as a lab rat.

Sylar escapes from his cell on Level Five with the psychic help of a still-comatose Angela Petrelli. At Angela’s urging, Sylar arrives at Pinehearst to rescue Peter and gets into a super-powered scuffle with Mohinder. Defying all conventional logic and a few laws of physics, Mohinder defeats Sylar. Arthur eventually has to haul Mohinder off of a bloodied and unconscious Sylar. Peter escapes in the melee.

Arthur and Sylar have a father-son chat, during which Arthur warns him of the inherent danger in trusting his mother: Angela tried to drown Sylar at birth because her precognitive dreams told her what a creepy monster he’d become. When Peter bursts in to rescue his brother, Sylar decides to toss Peter out a high window instead.

Peter lands in front of Claire and Elle, who’ve arrived at Pinehearst following a harrowing journey in which Elle’s short-circuiting powers almost crashed their plane. Elle interprets the fact that Peter doesn’t have his healing abilities anymore and, indeed, is hemorrhaging blood all over the sidewalk as a positive sign Pinehearst can help her. Above Claire’s protests, Elle scampers off to get fixed.

Mr. Bennet and Meredith show up at Mohinder’s lab to help Tracy and Nathan sort through the chaos and cocoons Mohinder left in his wake. Tracy is somewhat nonplussed to discover Nathan and Meredith are the biological parents of Mr. Bennet’s adopted daughter. Bennet wants to take Nathan and Tracy to Primatech to make sure Mohinder’s experiments on them haven’t had any adverse reactions.

Matt returns to the apartment he shares with Mohinder, where he’s confronted by a gun-toting Daphne. When Daphne can’t bring herself to kill Matt, Knox arrives and murders them both.

But wait! Matt and Daphne aren’t dead! Matt just did one of his psychic projections to make Knox think he killed them so he’d go away. Matt wants Daphne to go with him to Primatech so they can find some way to escape Pinehearst for good.

But wait! Daphne secretly calls Arthur and tells him their scheme to ensnare Matt is proceeding exactly as planned. Keep an eye on Daphne, Matt. She’s a tricky one.

Claire and a somewhat mangled Peter hide out in Peter’s apartment. Peter wonders how he survived a seven-story fall without his healing ability. He thinks Sylar protected him by using his telekinesis to slow his descent. He also thinks this is proof of Sylar’s secret brotherly love for him. Oh, Peter, Peter, Peter. When will you ever learn? Claire calls Nathan, who shows up with Tracy. After Peter tells Nathan their father is alive and evil, Nathan and Tracy (who reveals she’s been working as a consultant for Pinehearst for the past year, which seems like a mighty convenient way to get her more fully involved in the action) head off to confront Arthur.

In Africa, Usutu convinces Ando and Hiro to eat some kind of foul paste, which will enable them to go on a mind-expanding spirit walk. Hiro’s eyes turn white, and he passes out.

A fine episode, and one that handily defeats my theory that pretentious Latin titles are a harbinger of pretentious episodes (I offer Battlestar Galactica’s “Sine Qua Non “ and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges” as supporting evidence). “Eris Quod Sum”, by the way, apparently means “I am what you will be”, though it could just as easily be translated as “Mohinder straddles Sylar and punches him in the face a bunch of times.” Either variant works for me.