Heroes recap: “Truth and Consequences” – airdate 11/26/07 (S2E10)

The dropping: Everyone’s travelling this week. Easily leading Peter astray, Adam racks up the frequent flyer miles, going from Montreal to Maine to Texas, in search of the Shanti virus. Hiro, not needing frequent flyer miles, jumps from present day Japan to somewhere in 1977 to present day Texas, in search of Adam and the virus. Mohinder takes some of the anti-virus in his carry-on bag from New York to New Orleans, hoping to cure Niki. And Sylar and Maya, this year’s sketchiest couple, finally make it to New York, dumping some excess baggage along the way.

I can’t believe this boring and annoying episode is the follow-up to last week’s great one. Sigh. Peter for some reason is obsessed with saving that annoying Irish chick (about whom I’ve already forgotten) but Adam wants to “save the world,” not just one girl. They track down Victoria Pratt, who developed the Shanti virus, to make her tell them everything she knows about the virus. Bob delivers Bennett’s supposed ashes to the remaining Bennett family members and promises to leave them alone. Then he goes out to his car and tells Elle that it was her fault everything went wrong. She is ordered to follow Claire and keep an eye on her. Mr. Bennett awakens in the Company’s hospital cell and finds Mohinder there. “Didn’t you shoot me?” Bennett asks. Mohinder insists that he didn’t have a choice and has subsequently saved Bennett with Claire’s blood. Mohinder goes on to whine about all the good the Company is doing. Mohinder sucks.

Niki has come to New Orleans to tell Micah that she’s sick with the virus … but don’t worry, Mohinder is working on a cure. Meanwhile, Micah’s moronic cousin Damon takes Micah’s backpack containing his collection of rare comic books (and the medal D.L. received for firefighting valor) and gets the pack stolen by a bunch of thugs. Micah is pretty upset about this and wants Niki and Monica to use their powers and help him get the medal back. Niki refuses but Monica looks like she’s considering it.

EEEEEUUUUUWWWW and, also, boring: Sylar and Maya are drinking wine together in a park. He manipulates her into controlling her own power, thus obviating the need for Alejandro. Maya is annoying and Sylar is creepy. Hiro and Ando are going through Kaito’s belongings, looking for a clue as to where Kensei might be hiding these days. They find a photo of him from 1977 and, luckily, it has his new, non-1671 Japanese name written on the back. Hiro time-travels back to 1977 to learn more. He watches his ‘70s-era father lock Adam up for trying to spread the pandemic virus; then he watches ‘70s-era Victoria Pratt try to convince Kaito to shut down the Company’s virus program. Hiro totally misses the point that his father was promoting the production of these viruses and therefore was not entirely a good guy.

Adam and Peter have found Victoria Pratt in “Searsmont, Maine” – I don’t think it looks much like Maine, actually. Victoria tries shooting them both but she misses their heads so they just heal. Peter uses his stolen Parkman-power to pull the location of the mutated virus out of her head and then Adam kills her. Peter is stupid enough not to get worried about his new partner’s itchy trigger finger. Also, Milo Ventimiglia is making some weird acting choices here. Maya tells Alejandro that she can now control her own power and isn’t it wonderful! Ever the buzzkill, he shows her an article he’s found saying that Sylar is wanted for the murder of his own mother. Sylar talks his way out of that one, even tearing up a little. Stupid Maya argues with Alejandro, saying that she too is a murderer and she chooses to stick with Sylar. Soon afterwards Alejandro confronts Sylar alone and Sylar quickly stabs him in the chest, killing him. Maya knocks on Sylar’s door to thank him for all he’s done for her and they totally start contrivedly making out. Maya and Peter could start their own “I’m stupid” club.

West finds Claire searching through the moving boxes, looking for the wind chimes that will summon the Haitian: she wants him to delete all her memories of her dad because it hurts so much. West comforts her as best he can, telling her that forgetting her father is not the way to go. She realizes he’s right. Mohinder has put together a cure for Niki’s virus using a combination of his and Claire’s blood. He’s going to take it to Niki in New Orleans. But before he does that, he gets all manly and tells Bob that he wants to hunt down and destroy all the remaining viral strains. Like Bob’s going to take orders from you, you hack. In New Orleans, Monica and Micah sneak out to get the comics and the medal back. Monica downloads some sweet climbing moves from her video iPod and infiltrates the thugs’ house. Unfortunately, they come back while she’s in there. They grab her, knock her unconscious and throw her in the back of their van. Why doesn’t her fancy muscle memory kick in from all she’s learned before – she doesn’t even fight back! Unseen and in way over his head, Micah runs for help.

Claire spreads what she thinks are her dad’s ashes by the ocean and sniffles that she’s sorry. As she’s saying goodbye to West, she sees Elle who is not so stealthily drinking a supergiant Slurpee in her car. Elle drops her drink because she’s clumsy with her arm in the sling. There’s an odd editing jump and then she gets out of the car to confront Claire. I don’t know why she doesn’t just zap Claire – maybe she can’t spark so well if she’s wounded – instead letting the younger girl get all up in her face. Veronica Mars would never have put up with that from a cheerleader. Punching in the car window for effect, Claire says she’s going to go public with her abilities and tell the world what the Company did to her father. Mohinder, in a New Orleans cab, gets a phone call: it’s Sylar and Maya, calling from Mohinder and Parkman’s apartment in NYC. Mohinder wigs, understandably. I don’t know why little Molly is alone there in the apartment – where is Parkman? He wouldn’t leave her there by herself.

Peter and Adam have gotten to the Primatech Paper Co. in Odessa, Texas, and are heading to the labs in the lower levels. Suddenly, everything freezes but Peter: it’s Hiro, stopping time, but since Peter can do that too, he is apparently immune to the effect. Brandishing his sword, Hiro says that he’s here to avenge his father’s murder. Peter says he can’t let Hiro hurt Adam. Um, hello? He’s, like, invincible, you incredible dumbass. Hiro says he’s got to try anyway and rushes at Peter, sword raised. Peter starts to spark up and prepares to fight.

Next week: Mr. Bennet comes back (thank god!). And it looks that that fool Mohinder has dropped the syringe with the magic Claire+Mohinder blood cocktail so that Sylar can find it, inject himself and get back to being a bad guy.