Time travel gives me a headache.
After watching this week's episode of Heroes twice with a Tylenol chaser, I actually think I have a handle on the timelines. I think.
One thing about the future, you need a program to tell who's on what team. Either that, or a razor.
A razor?
Trust me.
This week picks up right where we left off at the end of the last episode, with the "You," "Me?" exchange between Hiros.
It's five years in the future, New York has been half destroyed by Sylar and ever since, Future Hiro and his soul patch have been trying to sort out the timelines to figure out what mistakes led to the disaster. The strings all over the studio are the timelines of various people, a sort of three dimensional model to help him keep it all straight. Hiro relates that Future Hiro's message to Peter Petrelli allowed him to save Claire and keep Sylar from stealing her regenerative powers. Apparently, Future Hiro even went so far as to stab Sylar but he regenerated.
(*Theory Sidenote. It's only a theory, but I've got a hunch about this one. Oddly, this theory is one of the few things this week that DIDN'T give me a time travel headache. We'll come back to it at the end of the recap.*)
As he explains all this, Homeland Security, led by none other than Matt Parkman, burst in and take Hiro while Ando and Future Hiro escape.
Future Hiro has lost the happy-go-lucky attitude that we've come to know and love in Present Hiro. Apparently, after the explosion, the world and he got a lot darker. The event turned the government against those with special abilities and Hiro into a terrorist, fighting against the oppression any way he can. In this case, the only fight worth fighting is in the past and for that, they need to get Hiro back, and since the Haitian can somehow block Future Hiro (and any other special person's) power, they need Peter Petrelli's help.
The two men teleport to Las Vegas to find Peter, seeking out his girlfriend who turns out to be none other than darling Nikki, but she won't give him up. The best she's willing to offer is information that Bennet is still somewhere in Texas "rustling cattle". Peter watched the meeting from his bar stool, but since he was invisible, neither Ando nor Future Hiro saw him or his funky new scar tissue and stubble.
(Confused recapper side note: How does Peter, who we know has the ability to mimic Claire's power, have a scar? This one's a headscratcher no matter how you "slice" it, unless, he got the scar while in the clutches of the Haitian. Perhaps Peter was one of those "Prison breaks" of Future Hiro's that Parkman mentioned.*)
Parkman has Hiro and with the Haitian nearby, his powers are nullified. Parkman knows all about him, but he doesn't realize that he has a Hiro who is five years, a square inch of facial hair and a murder free conscience younger than the man he's really after. Hiro knows nothing about the terrorist activities of his future self, and Parkman can't figure out why not. He calls the President, Nathan Petrelli and gives him the news. President Petrelli is less than pleased that such a fortuitous event should happen on the very day of the five year anniversary of the explosion in New York. He instructs Parkman to get the information on what he's sure is a plan that the terrorists are hatching, by any means necessary.
Petrelli hangs up with Parkman and summons Suresh and his stubble to the Oval Office.
The President wants Suresh to go to New York and help with the Nakamura situation, but he also has larger issues on his mind.
"Five years ago, you and I allowed a man to blow up in New York."
"...allowed a man to blow up in New York." Strange choice of words, don't you think?
Petrelli outlines how the situation is getting worse and by Suresh's own numbers, the population of those with special abilities is getting exponentially larger. The four simple genes that Mohinder isolated are hard coded into the DNA of those with the abilities and there seems to be no hope of changing that. The President feels that the time has come to move on to the next level, beyond policing, tracking and outlawing their breeding, it is now time to eliminate the subspecies. The fact that he's one of them doesn't seem to bother him all that much.
"Let's be honest, I can fly. I'm hardly dangerous."
Deciding just who is a threat and therefore subject to your plans for genocide is always so much easier when you're in charge.
Back at Homeland Security, Parkman is busy bruising his fists on Hiro's face, but he's not getting the information he needs, even with his mind reading ability. As he continues the interrogation, he gets a call telling him that Suresh has shown up at Isaac's studio. Aside from sporting the worst prop beard in history, Mohinder is there trying to decipher the timelines that Future Hiro set up.
Claire's Dad, Bennet, is indeed in Texas. It seems "cattle rustling" is a euphemism for spiriting special people out from under Homeland Security's nose with vials of normal blood to fool the litmus test they've devised. Future Hiro wants Bennet to bring some of the powered individuals he's helped to hide out of the shadows to join his and Ando's rescue team.
"I'm only asking for the ones I brought you. D.L., Candice, Molly Walker. And they'll all be safe when we succeed."
Ando plays the one card they have left. The fact that he knows that Claire is alive because of what Future Hiro asked Peter Petrelli to do for her. Bennett agrees to try to help.
In Isaac's studio, Suresh explains the timelines to a skeptical Parkman. He doesn't buy that Nakamura is a time traveller who can change the past, but obviously Mohinder does. The fact that one of Future Hiro's important dates coincides with an event on a subway ride he took with Peter Petrelli that he remembers seems to convince him.
Hiro's message to Petrelli was, of course, save the cheerleader, save the world. Sure enough, Claire Bennet is alive and well. She's back in Texas, working as a waitress, living under an assumed name and assumed hair and eyebrows.
Papa Bennet shows up at her place of work to warn her that the heat is on and it's time to move again. Being engaged, she's reluctant to lose the normal life she's begun to build, but she still takes the bag he brought for her. A normal life just isn't in the cards for a woman who can't be killed. To punctuate just how serious her situation is, a news bulletin showing over 200 arrests of "undocumented individuals" across the country in the most recent Homeland Security sweep. It's the most successful operation since the Linderman Act was introduced.
Future Hiro lays out some of his plan to Ando. D.L.'s phasing and Candice's illusions will help them get into the Homeland security building. Ando is more interested in his future, specifically what happened to him in the last five years. Future Hiro dodges the question with some Star Trek time travel double-speak.
"So, my friend is still in there."
Just as Future Hiro starts to tell Ando something he needs to know, a tazer hits him, incapacitating him.
Parkman.
As he realizes that Hiro can indeed travel through time, the ambushers become the ambushees. Peter Petrelli to the rescue. A little telekinesis, a little stopped time and a teleport later and Parkman has precisely dick.
Speaking of dick, when Bennet arrives on the scene, we learn that he's still playing both sides of the street, calling Parkman about Future Hiro and Ando, in return for Parkman's continued cooperation in helping to keep Claire hidden. Since Parkman's son, Matthew, is also special, the two men have common cause. Parkman lets Bennet protect the harmless ones in return for him ratting out the dangerous ones. Like D.L., Candice and Molly Walker, perhaps?
When Bennet sees the body of the woman who was assisting him, Parkman turns on him. Since the second Hiro Nakamura has slipped through his fingers, he has to have a plum to appease the President. Bennet's daughter will do nicely.
Parkman wastes no time rounding her up.
Mohinder has taken over the interrogation of Hiro and he wants to know what "Save the cheerleader, save the world" means. Suresh recounts how Future Hiro stopped time on the train and imparted that message to Peter Petrelli. He wonders how Isaac Mendez, the man he and Peter were on their way to see, could be so incredibly accurate in his future artwork, with the single exception of the last issue of "9th Wonders" which includes a panel depicting Hiro stabbing Sylar with his sword.
"History didn't happen like this. You didn't kill Sylar. You're trying to change the past. Trying to stop Sylar, is that it?"
"If you could save millions of lives, wouldn't you?"
Peter Petrelli and Ando have a little chat about Ando's place in history. It's in a grave. He died in the explosion in New York and his death also killed all the hope and optimism in his friend, turning him into the obsessive man with the soul patch.
The President arrives in the loft where Isaac died. Mohinder tries to explain that he thinks that Hiro might actually be able to stop Sylar before he explodes, preventing the tragedy altogether. Petrelli isn't convinced that time travel is the answer to the world's current problem. His final solution is going the course he plans to take, despite Mohinder's objections.
"I was elected to make hard decisions. I understand how things work.
He plans to lie about a new treatment. When the "treatment" is revealed to be deadly, the grief of the world will unite them behind his decision, his leadership.
As he squeezes agreement out of Suresh, Parkman brings him the news about the duplicate Hiro he didn't capture. When Parkman suggests that the Hiro they have in custody should be put down, the President instructs Mohinder to do the deed. A test.
Parkman also gives the President the good news about Claire.
The reunion is cut short by a large dose of the truth.
Sylar.
Thanks to Candice, he's been able to become Nathan Petrelli and President. Now thanks to Claire, he's about to become immortal.
Claire represents the last power he really needs. Once he has her regenerative abilities, all he needs to do is eliminate all the other special individuals and he will truly be the most powerful man on the planet.
While Future Hiro and Ando discuss what Peter told Ando about his death, Peter and Nikki have a revealing conversation.
It seems that Nikki's alter ego, Jessica, is gone. No details are given, but it seems like Nikki was the tougher dog in that fight. What she doesn't understand is why Peter is still fighting, since the war is long over and they lost.
Guilt.
It was him, not Sylar, who exploded in New York. Nathan lied to protect him, leading the world to believe that it was Sylar who exploded, not Peter. If he can find a way to reverse that, then he's willing to risk everything.
President Petrelli addresses the nation from New York on the anniversary of the explosion. In the midst of his speech, Future Ando, Peter and Ando teleport in to the Homeland security facility to rescue Hiro.
"Should we stop time?"
"Naw, I haven't had a good fight in years."
Please allow this comic book geek an "Oh, baby."
Oh, baby!
Hiro gets to do some swordplay and Peter has a very Neo moment in his trench coat as he tosses the last unconscious guard across the lobby. Petrelli's speech works very well as an ironic backdrop to the whole thing.
Oh, baby! Ok, that was two. So sue me.
Upstairs, where the Haitian's power blocks their powers, the two special men will be at the mercy of Parkman and his armed contingent.
As Nathan announces his "cure" to the world, Mohinder prepares to administer it to Hiro. Only at the last second, he gives it to another patient.
The Haitian.
Having read Isaac's comic book, he realizes that he was supposed to do it so Hiro could escape and stop Sylar. Obviously he isn't aware that Sylar isn't the man who destroys the city, but one crisis at a time.
On the other side of the door, Future Hiro has fought his way through the guards and only Hiro's desperate plea for Mohinder's life saves him.
And here we see why I suggested that a razor might tell you more about this week's episode than a scorecard or program. These three all seem to be shaving impaired to one degree or another and lo and behold, they're the good guys.
Parkman, Bennet and Nathan/Sylar? All clean shaven, the sneaky bastards. Never trust a man who has time to shave in the middle of a superhero crisis.
Future Hiro tells his younger counterpart that it is time to return and use what he's learned to stop the bomb from destroying New York. Unfortunately, Hiro hasn't learned to control his powers to that degree and he's afraid that he and Ando could end up virtually anywhere...or anywhen. Before Future Hiro can save the day by taking the two men to the proper place and time, Parkman's gun throws a wrench into the works. Peter uses his powers to slam the door before the man can do any more damage.
A call to the President asking for reinforcements brings them in a most unexpected form. The President himself flies in to take control of the situation, flying his own personal...person. Airforce None.
As Future Hiro lays dying, a hand phases through the door and drags Peter into the hall, tossing him past the men trying to batter down the door.
Parkman, despite his surprise at seeing the President appear so quickly, takes orders like a good soldier and continues trying to beat the door down.
Peter is less taken aback and has the presence of mind to realize that his brother can't phase through walls. Sylar reveals himself, taunting Peter with his knowledge of what really happened in New York.
Giving back his sword, the sword that Future Hiro was carrying, Mohinder tells Hiro that he has to go. Now.
In the hall, Peter and Sylar square off for a final battle.
With some encouragement from Ando, Hiro teleports them, this time to the right time and place. Personally, I think that the sword had more to do with his success than Ando's cheerleading.
(*Sidenote resolution: Remember how I wondered how Sylar could regenerate since he had yet to take Claire's powers? I'm betting that Linderman is the one who helps him "become" Nathan by betraying Candice to him AND is also the one who heals him after Hiro stabs him, putting Sylar in his debt. Just a theory*)
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