Heroes: Episode 10

Truth & Consequences

I knew that was Joanna Cassidy!

This was an extremely uneven episode, particularly disappointing after the awesomeness of last week. There were some bright spots - Elle trying to start the car and her subsequent face-off with Claire, Bennett's scene with Mohinder in the beginning, every scene Ando was in, Mrs. Bennett holding the gun on Bob, Micah beating the crap out of his obnoxious cousin, even Claire's little soliloquy about how much she hurts after her father's death - a lot of bright spots, actually. Yet I found it to be just an OK episode. I think part of the problem is the writing - stupidity is not a good plot device.

OK, so what happened?

Sylar, Maya and Alejandro have made it as far as Virginia already. For some reason, Maya finds Sylar attractive and ditches Alejandro for him. Actually, what happens is Sylar shows Maya that she can control her own power (by stupidly upsetting her so that she will cry the black tears at him and then have to stop it herself so he wouldn't die, and Sylar is damn lucky she figured out how) and doesn't need her brother. Meanwhile Alejandro, who supposedly can't speak any English, finds a news article on the Internet- in English - about how Sylar murdered his mother. Sylar convinces Maya that it was an accident, she believes him, Alejandro leaves but then comes back to Sylar's motel room and Sylar kills him and then makes out with Maya outside his room.

Nikki goes back to New Orleans to see Micah. She tells him that she has the virus but that Mohinder is working on a cure for it. He wants to give her his dad's bravery medal, but it was in his backpack and his juvenile delinquent of a cousin stole it for the comic books it contained and then the gangbangers he was selling the comics to stole the backpack from him. Monica, who is having a particularly stupid night ("So that's why Clark Kent wears glasses!" Seriously, Monica? And why even bother waking Micah up to tell him that you're going to go get his backpack for him if you don't want him to do anything?), and Micah head over to the gangbangers' house to retrieve the backpack. Monica uses a freerunner's jumping techniques to get in the house and she finds the backpack. But then the gangbangers come home and they catch her and throw her in the back of a van. Micah runs away.

Hiro and Ando look through Kaito's old papers to see if there is any record of Kensei in them. They find a photo from 1977 showing Adam Monroe (Kensei), Victoria Pratt and Kaito at Primatech Paper in Odessa, TX. (you know, for an ultra-secret superhero organization, these guys took an awful lot of pictures of themselves) Hiro travels back to 1977 to the Odessa lab and finds out that Adam wanted to release the mutated virus (strain 138) into the general population in order to "save the world" - basically annihilate everyone and start all over again. Kaito and Pratt catch him trying to steal it and lock him up. Pratt wants to destroy strain 138 but Kaito won't let her. She leaves The Company in protest.

Hiro returns from the past and tells Ando that he must go to Odessa to kill Adam and avenge his father's death. He grabs his sword and blinks out of there, leaving poor Ando alone. I think Hiro and Ando are like peanut butter and jelly - they should always be together. Hopefully Ando will have a part in next week's episode.

When Bennett wakes in his hospital room, Mohinder is there. Mohinder and Bob are the ones who saved him. He tells Bennett how he saved his life using Claire's blood and Bennett gets all fierce because he doesn't want him near Claire. Mohinder and Bennett argue about The Company's motives. Mohinder still believes The Company's intentions are good while Bennett tells him that they are the ones who invented the virus, you moron! Wake up, Mohinder!! Gah!

Back at the Bennetts, Bob delivers Noah's (fake) ashes to a pistol-packin' Ma Bennett. The family spreads the ashes at the beach (actually, Claire does - you'd think her mother and brother would have been standing beside her, wouldn't you?) and Claire spots Elle watching her from a car. She confronts Elle and tells her that she's going to go public with her ability and then The Company will have to leave her and her family alone. Smart, Claire, then you'll only have the rest of the world to worry about.

Peter tells Adam about the Shanti virus and Adam tells him he knows who made it: a bio-engineer named Victoria Pratt who used to work for The Company. They find out where she lives, go there and it's Joanna Cassidy! Told ya! Anyway, Peter gets the location of strain 138 - Odessa, TX - out of her by reading her mind. Why doesn't Peter read Adam's mind to see if he's telling the truth? Stupid Peter.

Peter tells her that he wants to destroy the virus but she tells him she doesn't believe him because Adam is not a good guy and wants to release it. Peter's so kind-hearted he could never believe anyone could be that bad, I guess. Adam gets all tricksy and releases Pratt from her bonds, knowing she will try to shoot Peter, and then Adam can kill her. And he does. Wait - all of that buildup for this character and she's gone, just like that?? What the heck? Adam pulls out a photo of Pratt and scrawls the Godsend symbol on it in her blood and drops it on her body. Nice.

Here's a question: If Victoria Pratt left The Company 30 years ago, what the heck was she doing in a photo that was apparently taken within the past couple of years? Did they have a reunion or something?

Mohinder combines Claire's blood with his own and comes up with a cure for the virus. Yay! He tells Bob about the cure and how he wants to destroy all strains of the virus that The Company has stored. Bob agrees. (yeah, right) Mohinder calls Nikki to tell her that he has found the cure and is on his way to New Orleans to give it to her (oo!). On his way to the airport (I think), Mohinder gets a call on his cell phone from Sylar. He and Maya are in Mohinder's apartment with a sleeping Molly and he wants Mohinder to come home now. Yikes! Where's Parkman?

Peter and Adam are walking through the Primatech Paper warehouse when time stops for everyone but Peter. It's Hiro, come to kill Adam. Hiro tells Peter that Adam killed his father but Peter doesn't believe him; he believes someone he just met instead. Peter raises his hand to Hiro, threatening him with a ball of electricity. Hiro raises his sword above his head and charges at Peter and...you have to wait until next week to find out.