Heroes recap: “I Am Become Death” - airdate 10/06/08 (S3E4)

Mohinder is looking bad, the skin of his back peeling off in large chunks. He calls it a “rash.” Tracy learns that she is one of three identical triplets: Tracy, Niki and Barbara/Bobba, endowed with special abilities. She wants her ability removed and gets angry when the doctor says he can’t or won’t; she almost freezes him in her fury but reins it back in time. Ugh: Parkman’s African vision quest again. I’m bored.

Four years in the future: ScarPeter and Regular Peter are in NYC. It looks just like regular New York, except tons and tons of people have superpowers now, having purchased or stolen the injection. ScarPeter says that these powers are the new weapon of choice and the earth is in danger – people aren’t using restraint. ScarPeter says that it’s up to regular Peter to find Sylar as Sylar's ability-absorbing power will enable him to save the world. Just then, Dark Claire shows up with a gun and shoots ScarPeter and it looks like she kills him. Peter makes a dash for it as she aims at him; he races past the Haitian, who is standing there nullifying everyone's abilities, and strikes him down for some reason. Dark Claire is pissed that she let a Peter get away.

After the commercial, Dark Claire and Future Daphne look at ScarPeter lying on a morgue slab. Future Daphne has straight hair – looks kind of like Elle. Knox is there too: apparently they’ve all been tasked with killing Peter. Claire shares the bad news that there’s a second one they have to get now too. Knox says they should use Molly since she can find anyone but Daphne is reluctant to do so. Dark Claire puts on her resolve face, however, and I bet Molly will be enlisted.

In the present, Hiro and Ando bicker in their Level 5 cell: Ando’s feeling are hurt that Hiro doesn’t trust him. A rift is forming. At Nathan’s office, they’re picking out furniture (WTF?). Invisible/imaginary Lindeman flits around and Nathan thinks he may be a figment of brain damage from the shooting. They go back and forth and it’s boring even when Lindeman tells Nathan his path is leading to the presidency.

Maya and her breasts visit Mohinder in the lab. The place is a mess and she tries to wheedle him into spending some time with her. He snaps at her and she storms off. I could NOT care less about these two. Mohinder is way stressed because the “rash” is spreading, as is his aggression.

In the future, Peter finds the lab, which looks to be long abandoned. Some of Isaac’s old paintings are still there – I kind of miss Isaac. “What do you want?” comes from out of the shadows. It’s Mohinder, growling and hooded and scaly and scuttling about in the depths of the room. The formula he injected himself with is wrong, he says. Well, duh. Peter says he needs to find Sylar; Mohinder won’t tell him where Sylar is but Peter pulls the location out of his head and teleports away as Mohinder protests ineffectually.

Peter finds himself at Claire’s old house in Costa Verde. Mr. Muggles is there (!), as is a cute little boy who says, “Hi, Uncle Peter!” Sylar comes over to Peter and gives him a big hug, clearly glad to see him. Peter stands there, jaw on the floor, unable to form any coherent thoughts whatsoever. And then Sylar Junior asks, “Where’s your scar, Uncle Peter?”

Future Sylar takes then Peter in the other room, correctly deducing that he is from the past. He acknowledges that it must be a surprise for Peter to come here to learn that they are brothers (“Brothers?” grunts Peter) but that he’s sorry, he can’t/won’t help. “I’m not going to give my ability to you … [the hunger] turned me into a killer, a monster … and I am not going to willingly condemn you to hell.” Peter says that if Sylar he doesn’t help him, this world that has Sylar’s family in it will end. He challenges Sylar to paint the future to see if he isn’t right. Afterwards, Sylar teaches Peter how to access his ability.

Still in the future, Parkman is holding a crying baby while Daphne tries to get him to let her use Molly – who is sitting sadly on her bed in another room. Parkman wants Molly to be a normal girl, not used like a bloodhound. She points out that Peter is the murderer and the villain, not her. Parkman says she’s a wife and a mother and she needs to slow down (ha ha) and spend some time with her family. Daphne is persuasive, however, and she gets Peter’s location out of Molly. Dark Claire and Knox are waiting for her in the hallway and the three of them set off for Costa Verde.

My timeline is all screwed up now because the next thing we see is Knox holding onto Sylar’s boy (whose name is “Noah” – awww!) and Dark Claire holding a gun on Sylar and Peter. She says all she’s after is Peter: she’ll let Noah go when he’s dead and one bullet to the back of the head should do it. Peter pleads with her – what happened to you? – and as she answers, he darts forward and punches her straight on the jaw.

And the fight begins: Daphne darting around, landing punches that Peter can’t avoid; Knox drawing fear from poor little Noah as the boy crouches behind the kitchen table. Sylar recognizes what Knox’s power is and notes that he’s not afraid of him. Knox nods to Noah and says “he is,” before beating the crap out of Sylar and throwing him across the room. To land on the kitchen table and crush his own son against the wall. Holy shit – that’s harsh for NBC. Peter and Daphne are horror-struck and I think Sylar’s about to revert to his old ways.

Peter recovers first and takes advantage of the situation, TKing Daphne into the wall and knocking her unconscious. Sylar starts POUNDING on Knox and – uh-oh – his fists are starting to light up like Atomic Ted’s used to. Dark Claire raises her gun but she’s too late: screaming for his dead son, Sylar goes fully nuclear and there’s nothing left of Costa Verde but a mushroom cloud. Damn.

Back at present time Level 5, Hiro and Ando are still trying to escape through the vent. Ando manages to open the grate and tells his former friend, “good luck with your escape” – he’s not going because it’s clear that Hiro doesn’t want him around. Of course, Hiro needs a boost to get up there. Also of course, mid-escape the Haitian appears to ruin everything. Back at the lab, Mohinder is discouraged that he is unable to remove the abilities from himself or anyone else.

Tracy, feeling all guilty, tries to turn herself in for freezing the reporter to death but, in her angst, freezes the telephone she’s trying to use. Later, Nathan is praying again when Tracy stops by to hand in her resignation. She seems very somber, saying “I know what I have to do now.” As she heads out (to a bridge to kill herself), Lindeman sends Nathan after her to save her, which he does with the flying. She’s pretty surprised. They go back to her/his? apartment and he pours her a drink, asking “You okay?” She just stares at him: “So you can fly? … I have to show you something” and freezes his bourbon solid. He thinks it’s cool (pun intended), marveling that her hands are still warm. She leans in for a kiss.

Four years in the future: President Nathan and First Lady Tracy give a press conference to mourn the total loss of Costa Verde. In Dark Claire’s morgue, she and the Haitian have tied Peter up next to dead ScarPeter. Claire snarls that over 200,000 people died in Costa Verde and she wants him to feel pain for every death. Then she picks up a scalpel and starts cutting: “One … two …” She is interrupted when Nathan comes in, wanting to speak with his brother. “Is this the president or my father speaking?” Claire wants to know. It’s both, says Nathan.

He clears the room and starts to untie his brother, saying that he knows that Peter is trying to keep the world from splitting in two. But Peter can’t do it alone: Nathan’s mobilizing an army of people with abilities. Peter is aghast. “Congress has agreed to full proliferation because of Costa Verde, because of you.” Peter doesn’t know what to think and tries to read Nathan’s mind … then TKs Nathan against the wall, whispering “I know you think what you’re doing is right” before slicing open his brother’s forehead a la Sylar. As the Secret Service pounds on the door, Peter teleports out, completely shocked at what he just did

Level 5, present day: Sylar sits in his cell as Peter teleports in, launching himself across the room and pinning Sylar against the wall. Peter growls that he took Sylar’s ability in the future and now needs to know how to control it. Sylar grimaces, chuckling, realizing that with the ability, Peter also took the hunger. “You’re just like me … brother.”

As Parkman continues his vision quest, Future Parkman and Molly watch the aftermath of the Costa Verde explosion on television, shaken. There is a knock at the door: it’s Daphne. She smiles wanly at her husband and murmurs, “I wasn’t fast enough.” As she falls into Parkman’s arms, we see that the entire back of her body is incinerated with radiation burns. Parkman snaps out of the vision and insists that he must find Daphne. There’s some more mystical animal guide stuff but I refuse to pay attention to it.

Back at the Company, Angela Petrelli has Hiro and Ando in front of her. She wants to know where Hiro’s father’s half of the formula is. She tells them that the formula will grant powers to all regular people and since the formula is lost, it is Hiro’s fault that the world will end. But she goes on to manipulate the gullible Hiro, saying he will be able to unlock the key to the mystery – in fact, he’s the only one who can. Why? Because he’s got to go to Japan to rescue Adam … who is still looking gorgeous after all that time trapped in his coffin! He’s a little pissed off at Hiro, however.

Next time on Heroes / previously on Heroes