Heroes: Episode 2.08

Four Months Ago

This show really does a great job with the episodes that either flash back, like this one and "Company Man", or that glimpse the future, like "Five Years Gone", doesn't it? I wonder why that is? Perhaps it's because they are required to tell a lot of story in a short amount of time. Whatever the reason, it makes me happy.

And wasn't that teaser amazing?

We begin with Peter and Nathan, flying higher and higher, away from Kirby Plaza, with Peter becoming more unstable with each passing second. To save Nathan, he pushes away from him and flies up through the clouds. As an unconscious and badly burned Nathan falls back to Earth, Peter explodes, regenerates and flies back and catches him. Peter exploded and regenerated offscreen, however, so we don't know the specifics. And we probably never will.

Peter brings Nathan to the hospital and is then take captive by Bob and Elle and brought back to The Company. They convince Peter that they can cure him of his powers by using power-suppressing drugs that he has to take every day. Oh, and The Haitian is working with Bob. Just exactly where does The Haitian's loyalty lie? He's switches sides more often than Anne Heche. Badump bump!

While staying at The Company (locked in a cell with a hospital bed, to be exact), Peter becomes Elle's personal plaything and there's a lot of inappropriate touching and invasion of Peter's personal space by Elle. She tells him that she's been diagnosed as a sociopath, and she's spent practically her entire life locked up at The Company labs. She cuts Peter's hair and that makes me like her more than I probably should.

Adam is in the room (cell) next to Peter and the two start conversing through the air vent that runs between their rooms. They get to know each other and Adam tells Peter that he's been locked up in there for 30 years after trying to go public with his powers. He also tells Peter about his healing power, and that he's over 400 years old. He convinces Peter to stop taking his meds and they use Peter's phasing ability to escape.

OK, a few questions at this point: How did Peter acquire DL's phasing ability? If you're immortal, at what point does the aging process stop? When your ability first manifests itself? Will Claire then always be a teenager? And what kind of super-secret, high-security facility does not have video camera surveillance in their "guest rooms"??

Poor Nathan has been burned beyond recognition. Mrs. P tells Heidi that Nathan was burned in a car accident, that he's inherited the crazies from his father and to not believe anything he says about flying and powers and bombs and such. Heidi believes her. Mrs. P is conspicuously touching Heidi the entire time she's speaking to her, which makes me believe that her power is some kind of persuasion, and she possibly has to touch people for it to work. Plays nicely into her Machiavellian presence behind Nathan's campaign last season, like Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate.

Peter and Adam escape and go to Nathan's bedside. Adam injects his blood into Nathan's IV and Nathan begins to heal immediately. As Peter and Adam leave the hospital they are ambushed by Elle and The Haitian. A chase ensues and The Haitian catches Peter, tosses him in a shipping container, handcuffs him to the wall of the container, gives him his "S" symbol necklace and tells him that because of the kindness of Peter's mother (!), he will give Peter a chance for a fresh start instead of bringing him back to The Company. He erases Peter's mind completely and leaves the container, closing the doors behind him.

I did have one huge complaint about this episode: They sacrificed information on what happened to Sylar, the Bennetts, and Matt and Mohinder in the four months since Kirby Plaza in order to show us who Maya and Alejandro killed back home. See, Alejandro had just married his sister - wait, that's not Maya! (didn't she look just like her?) Anyway, Maya's not happy about the marriage and walks in on the bride cheating with her ex, and she gets upset, and we all know what happens when Maya gets upset...but it's pretty cool this time because she doesn't just kill the bride and the ex - she wipes out the entire wedding, which is pretty much the whole town. Yikes. She ends up a nun in Venezuela for about 5 minutes and then she and Alejandro go on the run. These two had better pay off, BIG TIME.

It turns out that DL didn't die from his wounds at Kirby Plaza (yay!), and after being treated at the hospital, he, Nikki and Micah head back home to Vegas. Oh, but not before Bob approaches Nikki in the halls of the hospital and tells her that he can cure her mental illness if she comes with him. She doesn't want to leave her family, so they compromise and she goes home with some drugs. Life is good, and DL has a new job as a fireman and he even uses his power to rescue a child from a fire and gets an award for his bravery. However, Nikki stops taking the meds because of the way they make her feel, and a new party girl personality named Gina emerges, and she takes off to LA. When DL goes to get her he's shot and killed by some sleazy coke dealer/pimp/scumbag and Nikki blames herself. She decides to return to Bob and The Company for help with her multiple-personality disorder.

We return to the present day at the end of the episode, and we see Nikki saying goodbye to Bob and leaving The Company labs. Hey, isn't she contagious or something?? Is it a good idea to let her wander around on her own?

Also in the present are Peter and Adam in Montreal. Adam suggests that it's time for them to get a move on and change history. You know, I'm not so sure about how evil I think Adam is; Bob keeps vacillating on the Bad Guy Meter as well. It'll be interesting to see who's telling the truth. I'd also love to know for once and for all what The Company's agenda is!

ETA: I forgot to mention that this entire flashback episode began when Adam told Peter that he could recall all of his lost memories because he has the ability to heal himself. When we returned to the present day in Montreal, Peter told Adam he had remembered everything.