Heroes: It's Coming (Episode 309)

Bad to the BoneGreetings, Friendly-Neighborhood readers. Back to the old format this week with branching storylines.  Despite showrunner Tim Kring being behind the wheel for this week's installment, we didn't get a whole lot, mostly because this episode serves as setup for the next two episodes, "The Eclipse Parts 1 and 2".  Magical Turtle is no where to be found, but instead, we get waffles.  

Pre-Teen Titans: Arthur Petrelli still has Hiro by the head.  Ando dives in to try to save the day, but Arthur suspends him in midair, then proceeds to fling him away.  Arthur speaks about someone having one job to do (presumably headless Usutu), and he is none too pleased that Hiro's been dreaming about him.  Arthur's eye is drawn to the giant cliff-side painting of the eclipse, giving Ando the opportunity to tackle Hiro, saving him.  Ando tells Hiro to teleport them out of there, but all Hiro cares about is waffles.  What?!  Hiro has no idea what Ando's talking about, so Ando closes Hiro's eyes and tells him to picture them anywhere else.  They appear on the floor of a bowling alley in Tokyo - one that specializes in selling American-style waffles.  It appears that Mr. Petrelli has not taken Hiro's powers away.  He's done something far worse.  

It looks as if Mr. Petrelli took away years and years of memories from Hiro.   Hiro wants to know why Ando looks so old.  Yes, Hiro believes he is 10 years old.  Later, over the most glorious looking stacks of waffles, Hiro can't believe that he's really 28 years old.  He and the girl at the table next to them exchange spit balls.  Ando explains that Hiro has abilities, and is a "master of the space-time continuum."  He tells Hiro to concentrate, and sure enough, he's able to slow down time.  On his second attempt, he stops it completely and proceeds to set up a series of pranks - he points the spit-ball girl at her companion, he puts ketchup on a man's seat just as he is falling into it, he takes a floating bowling ball out of the air, unties a man's shoes, and then unscrews the cap to the salt shaker.  Time resumes and Hiro is overjoyed. 

Next, Ando has Hiro teleport.  He goes so successfully and they go to Hiro's favorite comic shop.  Ando had suggested the roof in New York or Odessa, TX as a way to jar Hiro's memory, but Hiro insists the comic shop is the "source of all knowledge."  Hiro catches up on years of back comics, and isn't too pleased with the state of the Marvel Universe (Cap's dead, Spider-man revealed his identity to the world, and the Hulk is RED?!)  They spot a copy of 9th Wonder with Hiro on the cover, and Ando shows him that this book tells the future, as well as gives them direction (good, because they need it.)  The panels show them in Africa, Mr. Petrelli attacking Hiro, and even this very scene.  The preview for the next issue has a full-page painting of the eclipse, with the subtitle "It's Coming!"

Runaways:  Peter is trying to convince Claire to get away from him, no matter what.  He needs her to "stay innocent."  Just then, there's someone trying to force their way in the door.  Peter heads out the fire escape and Claire stays behind to let him get away.  It turns out to be Knox and Flint.  Claire stands toe-to-toe with Knox, who is getting a bit pumped up by her fear.  Claire utters the most nonsensical line about being the "defensive player of the year" and jumps out the window.  Peter watches her sail by.  She heals on the ground and rejoins Peter.  The attackers pursue.  On the side of a building is an enormous painting of the broken Earth.  Peter pauses a moment to take this image in. 

Peter and Claire flee to the sewer, because it's always safe to hide down there.  Peter again insists that they split up, but Claire won't hear of it.  He finally confesses to her that in the future, she'll kill him.  He sees that she is becoming a killer and is trying to prevent that.  This is all his fault - he came to her rescue in Season 1.  She will not leave him.  They hear a sound and Peter runs.  Once again, Claire runs interference.  Knox (by name), tells her to stand down, but she freaks out - how did he know her name?  Turns out they aren't after Peter - they were sent for her.  Knox grabs her.  Peter attempts to stage a rescue, telling the bad guys to give her up or die.  They're not scared of Peter, but Peter's set a trap.  There's a leaking gas line by them, so when Flint flames on, the gas catches fire.  In the ensuing chaos, Claire escapes with Peter.  

Total Eclipse of the Heart:   There are four couples in this episode with major parallels to each other.  First, we have Arthur and Angela Petrelli - one runs Primatech (the good guys), the other heads up Pinehearst (the bad guys).  Their parallel couple is Nathan and Tracy.  By the end of the episode, each declares allegiance to one side.  Then we have Sylar and Elle, the dark side couple, and they mirror Matt and Daphne, the light couple.  Bear with me on this one.  

Arthur teleports to Sylar and they wonder how Peter was able to survive his fall.  Arthur says that Sylar's hunger is for power, not for killing people.  He needs more and more powers, and the way to do so without killing is to access his empathy.  He knows Sylar is capable of feeling empathy because clearly he saved Peter's life.  Arthur leads Sylar into a large room and closes the door behind him.  Inside is Elle, chained to the floor.  Her powers are still on the fritz, and when she sees Sylar, she unleashes a massive amount of electricity at him.  Sylar gets fried, and "Heroes" recreates a very famous panel from "Watchmen".  Sylar, for a moment, is Dr. Manhattan.  

Arthur goes to see Mohinder, who has fully set up shop at Pinehearst.  So far, the formula has not produced powers without side effects.  Arthur sees on one of the lab's monitors a picture of a solar flare.  It seems he and Mohinder share a fascination.  Mo believes there might be a connection to people with powers and the last eclipse, but it could be nothing but a coincidence.  He also hypothesizes that some sort of catalyst is needed to balance out the formula, and this catalyst would need a human host.  Arthur immediately knows that Kaito Nakamura must have known this and kept it a secret.  Too bad he's dead.   In the adjacent room, we see one of Mo's test subjects, a horribly mutated man strapped to a bed. Meanwhile, Sylar recovers, but Elle's still pissed.  After all, Sylar did kill her father.  He understands that she deserves vengeance.  She blasts him again and he takes it.  

Matt and Daphne arrive at Primatech and they find Angela trapped in a coma, that is, after Matt sees a vision of Usutu walking the halls.  Matt tries to read her mind to see what has happened, and he can see that she needs help.  Daphne says she'll find a nurse, but secretly dashed off to see Mr. Petrelli.  Arthur is looking through a dossier that contains pictures of Kaito and Claire.  If you recall, Kaito was heavily involved with the cover up surrounding Claire's mom's "death", and handed the baby over to HRG.  Daphne enters and tells her boss that Matt's trying to help his wife.  He's confident that Matt won't be able to help her.  Daphne also asks that Matt be spared from any harm.  Arthur doesn't like that - he threatens to send her back to her old life because she's in no position to negotiate.  

Mind Taking!Daphne returns and Matt tells her that he's going to have to enter Angela's mind - she's worried that it isn't safe.  Matt's not thrilled about this, because the only other time he did this was when he and his father faced off last season.  He's going to need her to snap him out of it if he gets in trouble in there.  Elsewhere, Elle is still attacking Sylar.  He claims that he never wanted to kill her father or any of the others.  He was in pain, but now he's trying to control these urges.  They have a bit of a therapy session and Elle hits him with the motherload.  Elle is in pain of her own - her powers are hurting her and she wants it to end.  She asks Sylar to kill her.  Sylar presses his fingers together, assuming the motion he's used dozens of times before.  Is this the end of Elle?

Outside of Pinehearst, Nathan and Tracy arrive.  Turns out the company was named after his dad's favorite fishing spot.  He doesn't know why his father never tried to contact him to tell him he was alive. He's afraid he's too much like his old man.  Nathan enters the building and sure enough, there's his father.  Arthur offers a hug (don't do it!) and luckily Nathan's not really in a hug sort of mood.  Tracy, however, is willing to shake his hand.  Her powers stay in tact.  Arthur admits he should have enlightened his son to his "role" in all of this.  They speak alone about destiny and other "Star Wars"-like things.  Nathan has the talent to lead a nation, but he doesn't want to hear this - Arthur sounds too much like Linderman.  He knows his father wants to destroy the world, but Arthur is insisting that he has the formula to stop it.  Arthur calls him his favorite son (yeah right!) and together they can save the world, as well as save the Petrelli family legacy.  

Sylar uses his telekinetic power to free Elle, rather than kill her.  The trouble is that she wants to die.  If she dies, her pain will end.  Sylar says that he'll take away her power and her pain, but he won't kill her.  He's really trying to be a good person, but she knows that they're just monsters.  Sylar doesn't believe that, and it was their parents who made them monsters.  She saved his life (as seen in last week's episode) and in doing so, gave him the will to live.  She says that the only reason she saved him was because the Company wanted to use him like a lab rat.  Sylar forgives her, but now she has to forgive herself.  A little trite, but it works.  Her pain is gone, and now Sylar has her power.  He sheds a tear and then bursts out laughing.  Creepy.  

Some time has passed and now Elle and Sylar are getting along like gangbusters.  She still has her power and she teaches him how to properly wield it.  This leads to some close quarters contact between the two, including her pressing her head against his chest while holding his arm.  Outside, Nathan is not happy about his meeting with dear old dad.  Tracy calls him out, saying that he's just giving up.  She thinks the world needs to know about people like them, but Nathan said the last time he thought that was a good idea, he ended up with a few bullets in his chest, courtesy of his time-traveling brother.  Nathan's going to fly to Primatech to see if his mother knows anything else that can help them, and he asks Tracy to return to Washington, D.C. to cover for him.  Nathan lifts off and Tracy heads back into Pinehearst.  Arthur is sorting out art supplies when Tracy comes in.  He offers to take her power away, but that's not why she's there.  She thinks that Pinehearst has a public relations problem, and they need to put a human face on what they plan to do.  They can't use Arthur because he's still presumed dead, so it must be Nathan.  Tracy believes that she can convince Nathan to join their side.  

Trust No OneMatt is now inside of Angela's mind.  He starts off by seeing her vision of everyone dying, and even how she was trapped in her own mind by Arthur.  Then, he's in the halls of Primatech, where Angela is chained to a chair.  He attempts to free her but she insists there's no escape.  Even if he can unchain her, the doors and windows are locked.  Arthur is far too dangerous.  Matt doesn't buy it and opens the door, only to find Daphne.  She gives him a hug and stabs him in the stomach!  Back in reality, Matt is saying "Daphne" and repeating "No."  Daphne tries to wake him, but when she touches his stomach, she sees that he's bleeding from his mental stab wound.  Daphne takes Matt's hand and tries to enter his mind.  She is successful, but now Matt is seeing two Daphnes.  Mr. Petrelli appears and tells him that women are liars.  He reveals that Daphne works for him.  He threatens Daphne again, about returning her to her old life, but he needed to know how much she cares for Matt.  It turns out that she is in love with him.  Angela chimes in, saying that she and Arthur used to be in love like that.  She also knows that secretly, her husband still loves her, even just a little bit.  He doesn't deny it.  Angela tells Arthur to let her go, and her handcuffs fall to the floor.  Just like that, they're all out of the mental plane and back in the real world.  Matt's stab wound is gone, and Daphne says that she really was in there with him, and she does love him.  Angela snaps out of her coma and thanks Matt.  Peter and Claire show up, and they say that Daphne can't be trusted.  Matt defends her and says that Peter is the one not to trust - remember that Future Peter sent him off to Africa.  Peter pleads with him, insisting it wasn't "him", and Matt reads his mind - he's telling the truth.  

Mohinder's test subject is not doing well.  His vitals are failing and he begs for death.  Mo injects him, most likely to put the man out of his misery.  Nathan shows up at Primatech and tells everyone that Arthur has the formula.  Angela says that the good news that he doesn't have the catalyst or the human host.  She's glad that Kaito took that secret to his grave, so now Arthur will be out of luck.  Unfortunately, Claire doesn't think that they're safe just yet.  She recalls that when Sylar was poking around in her brain, he told her that she was "special".  She's pretty sure that she's the host.  Now, the good guys and bad guys gather their teams.  For the good guys, we have Angela, Nathan, Peter, Claire, Matt, and Daphne.  For the bad guys, we've got Tracy, Flint, Knox, Sylar, Elle, and Mr. Petrelli, who now has white eyes and is drawing.  Naturally, he draws the eclipse.  It's coming.  

Next time:  NO MORE HEROES!  It looks like everyone is on the verge of becoming de-powered.  Awesome.  Pick up Marvel's "House of M" for a taste of things to come.  Until then, "Heroes", please do me a favor - quit ripping off "Watchmen."  We got a new trailer for the movie last week, we don't need you to emulate panels.  Until next time.