Heroes Volume Five, Episode Nine: Brother’s Keeper

At the Sullivan Brothers Carnival, Hiro stares at Charlie’s waitress nametag while Samuel tells him he needs to go back in time eight weeks to a motel room in Texas to prevent Mohinder from destroying a film from 1961. If he can deliver the film to Samuel, he’ll save Charlie.

Nine weeks ago in Chennai, Mohinder lectures a girl on plate tectonics while his Volume One fiancée, Mira, beams at him. He tells Mira he’s thinking of making lamb biriyani for dinner. It’s worth pointing out that he’s clean-shaven and looking especially pretty. Mira, who is familiar with the way Mohinder’s side projects tend to get him into trouble, urges him to throw out a box he had delivered filled with his father’s Coyote Sands research. Mohinder agrees and throws the box away.

In a diner in Washington DC, Tracy looks at the spinning compass Samuel gave her and gets into a debate with the waitress about carnival freaks. When she picks up her coffee mug, her power malfunctions, and the mug freezes and shatters. Tracy hurries out.

Peter and Nathan go to Nathan’s office, where his staff seems only mildly surprised to see their errant Senator back after his prolonged absence. His helpful assistant tells him that Angela let her know he was on indefinite vacation. The Haitian -- Rene -- arrives. Obviously suspecting the truth about Nathan, Rene orders him to stand back while he speaks to Peter. Why the Haitian, of all people, would have any reason to fear Nathan/Sylar, I can’t even begin to guess.

Claire lugs her laundry over to Noah’s apartment and finds the doorknob has been smashed. She sneaks inside and stalks the intruder around with a butcher knife for a while, then discovers it’s just… Tracy, whose freezing power is malfunctioning again. Claire fixes her a hot bath, and Tracy strips down to her underwear and soaks in it. The water starts to freeze over. When Claire grabs Tracy, Claire freezes solid. Horrified, Tracy tries to move Claire into the bathtub to thaw her, but Claire’s foot breaks off. Tracy starts sobbing at this, which seems like a perfectly reasonable reaction. Claire regenerates, foot and all.

Later, Tracy, powers firmly back under control, drinks tea with Claire and compares notes with her about Samuel. Noah comes home and sees Claire’s spare broken-off foot resting on the coffee table.

The Haitian -- Rene -- tells Peter Angela sent him to wipe Nathan’s and Peter’s memories. He implies, strongly, that he knows what’s going on, but he refuses to give Peter a straight answer, because where’s the fun in that? Instead, he gives him a card with the number for a storage locker scribbled on it and tells him the answers can be found there.

In India, Mohinder lies in bed with Mira, wide awake. He sneaks out of bed and rummages through his box o’ crap, which he’s salvaged from the trash, and extracts the film reel about Chandra’s experiments at Coyote Sands. You know, the film reel that Mohinder lost in the desert after getting nabbed by Danko’s goons? I guess it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Mohinder could have sent someone into the desert to look for it and mail it to him in India, right? He watches black-and-white footage from 1961, in which Chandra speaks of wanting to alert the authorities to the dangers of having so many people with abilities in one location. A small force emanates from individuals with powers -- get a bunch of them together, and the force increases exponentially, like magnetism. One of the residents of Coyote Sands, a pregnant woman, is about to give birth to someone possessing a great deal of magnetic energy. Off screen, the woman gives birth, and chaos erupts. Chandra ducks for cover as the walls rattle.

Peter visits the storage locker with Nathan, who is disgruntled that Rene didn’t want him in the loop. There’s a coffin in the storage locker; Nathan peeks inside and sees his own corpse. This begs the question: Angela, why on earth are you keeping your son’s body in a storage locker? I mean, really. Nathan touches his corpse and gets an impression of the events of his death: He sees Sylar and a hotel room, and hears Matt’s angry voice. Peter and Nathan decide to find Matt to search for answers. Nathan’s extremely useful assistant locates Matt at a hospital in Texas, where he’s in critical condition after getting riddled by bullets by cops last episode.

Nine weeks ago: While the film still runs, Mohinder launches into some incredibly intricate project, scattering bits and pieces of debris all around. Mira finds him asleep on his desk, the filmstrip flapping, crud all around him. He wakes and tells Mira enthusiastically that he’s made a remarkable discovery. He’s built a compass, which will help him locate the super-magnetic baby who was born on Chandra’s film. Mira is not amused. She tells him to think carefully about what he has to lose -- if he disappears again, she won’t wait. I’m flabbergasted that she waited this long for him in the first place. Mohinder’s a catch, granted, but around the time he moved to a different country, and started raising a small child, and found himself another girlfriend, maybe it was time to stop holding a torch for him.

Peter and Nathan break into Matt’s hospital room, and Peter uses his healing power to restore Matt’s health. Matt, aware that Sylar is still in his head, yells at Peter and Nathan to get away. Sylar takes over Matt’s consciousness again. Sylar-as-Matt tells Nathan that Nathan is really Sylar. He urges him to take his hand. Peter tries to stop this nonsense, but Nathan uses telekinesis to shove Peter aside. A guard bursts into the room to see what all the ruckus is about. In the chaos, Nathan and Matt touch hands, and there’s a transfer of energy. Nathan picks up unconscious Peter and flies with him out of the hospital as Matt, handcuffed to the bed, yells after him.

Matt uses Jedi Mind-Tricks™ to persuade the guard to wheel him into the morgue on a gurney. He manipulates the guard into thinking Matt died.

Eight weeks ago: Mohinder’s compass leads him to the carnival, where he runs into Samuel’s brother Joseph. He informs Joseph that Samuel can dangerously magnify his ability. Joseph claims he has no idea what Mohinder is talking about. When Samuel joins their conversation, Joseph tells him that Mohinder is researching a book on carnival folks.

Safely away from the hospital, Peter and Nathan (or, rather, “Nathan”) discuss their next move. When it seems like Nathan is planning on leaving him behind, Peter steals his flight power so he can stick with him. Hang on -- if Sylar passed into Nathan’s body which is really Sylar’s body, is he going to be able to fly? Can Sylar fly? Did Nathan retain his flying power even when he was in Sylar’s body? This is confusing. They fly off together. So I guess that answers that.

Joseph tells Mohinder that Samuel has no idea of the true nature of his ability. Joseph has been trying to keep him in the dark, because Samuel has great ambition that can be dangerous. He’s kept the carnival deliberately small to keep Samuel’s powers under control. Joseph advises Mohinder to burn Chandra’s film, then kicks Mohinder out of the carnival. Unseen by Mohinder and Joseph, Samuel lurks outside the trailer, listening.

Mohinder calls Mira from a motel room to tell her uncovering his father’s research again was a mistake. He places the film in the trash can, douses it with lighter fluid, and strikes a match (psst, Mohinder: Film is highly flammable. No lighter fluid needed!), but before he can ignite it, Hiro freezes time and saves the film. He warns the still-frozen Mohinder to be careful: the “Evil Butterfly Man” will be coming for him.

Before vanishing again, Hiro unfreezes Mohinder, who drops the match and starts the fire in the now-empty trash can. Samuel bursts in, demanding to know what’s on the film. Samuel crushes a rock into pebbles and, when Mohinder refuses to give him any information, hurls the pebbles at him. They embed themselves in his chest. Mohinder collapses. After Samuel leaves, Mohinder wakes up, coughing and gasping, and notices he’s wearing a bulletproof vest. Hiro pops up out of nowhere and says, “Hello, old friend.”

Hiro explains that he’s come from eight weeks in the future to save the film -- he saved Mohinder via bulletproof vest kind of as an afterthought. Mohinder wants to stop Samuel before his power can grow stronger, but Hiro needs Mohinder to disappear for eight weeks in order for Samuel to release Charlie when Hiro delivers the film. Mohinder and Hiro squabble about it, and Hiro freezes time again. He teleports away with Mohinder.

Present day: Hiro delivers the film to Samuel and asks for Charlie back.

Mohinder wakes up wearing a straightjacket in a padded cell in an asylum in Florida. An attendant calls him “Ahmadi” and tells him it’s time for his medication. Above Mohinder’s protests, the attendants drug him.

Matt calls Janice to tell her Sylar is back in his own body and, hence, out of his own.

Samuel joins Tracy at the diner and tells her she can accomplish great things with him.

Peter and Nathan discuss how Nathan is actually Sylar. Peter tries to argue that it doesn’t really matter, but Nathan points out that Peter is always going to see Sylar whenever he looks at him.