Heroes – “Dual” S3E13 (airdate 12/15/08)

Tonight’s voiceover is from Sylar instead of Mohinder – which is much better but still overwrought and kind of boring.

Pinehearst: Peter broods over his father’s body, gun in hand. Nathan shows up, accusing at first until Peter tells him that Sylar did it. Peter says that it was unavoidable – plus the formula needs to be destroyed. Too late, says Nathan, there’s a dozen Marines getting injected right now; we’re making the world a better place – and Peter better not get in the way of it. Peter grimaces: “You sound just like Dad.” He points the gun at Nathan, then backs down. Nathan walks towards him; Peter knocks him out with one punch and strides out. I guess sides have been chosen, then.

Primatech: Bennet is arming his troops - Meredith (hi!), Claire and Angela. They find a bunch of dead Primatech guys in the hall, civilians, not Heroes. It’s Sylar, of course, who has taken over the building, locking them in, turning off the lights, and watching them on the CCTV. Over the intercom, he tells them that he’s killed Arthur, just like “Mommy” Angela wanted – he’s a monster and tonight he’s going to prove to all of them that they are monsters too. Bennet leads his group towards the command post where Sylar is holed up. Angela doesn’t think that they can hurt him but Claire reminds them of the spot in the back of her head that’ll kill her and should do the trick on Sylar too. When they get to the command post, Sylar is gone, taunting them from the intercom: “You’re not hunting me, Noah, I’m hunting you.”

Past NYC: Hiro is still clinging to the lamppost. Current NYC: Parkman, Ando and Daphne go to Mohinder’s old lab (Isaac’s old studio) to get some of the formula from him so Ando can try for some time-traveling powers to save his stranded friend. Mohinder is not there, of course, and Daphne surmises that he’s at the Pinehearst lab. Over Parkman’s ineffectual protests, she superzips off to find Suresh.

Pinehearst lab: Mohinder is getting sicker and sicker, but believes that injecting himself with MORE of the formula will help. Peter pops in, saying that he’s going to destroy all of the formula. Mohinder says he has to have it to save himself; Peter points out that it’s turned the good (boring) doctor into a monster. While they’re arguing, Daphne superzips in and snatches the injector pen from Mohinder’s hand. He gets very cranky, thinking Peter did it, and throws the Petrelli across the room. Just then Knox and Flint stop by. Flint shoves Mohinder up against the wall, fists aflame and ready for some payback. Knox pauses, says they’re here to trash the lab too and proceeds to do so. “Why would you help me?” asks Peter. If everyone else has powers, we ain’t special no more, says Flint. They commence with the trashing.

Upstairs, the injected Marine (who used to play a regular kid on The 4400 who at the end of S3 of that show injected himself with a potion to get powers – it’s like deja vu) finds Nathan and helps him up. Nathan was apparently a little premature in his supposition that all the Marines had been suped up – this kid confirms that he’s the only one who got the shot. Nathan sends him after Peter but before he can even leave the room, Knox has appeared behind him and snapped his neck. Awesome! Knox tells Nathan that they’ll just wait here until Peter finishes destroying the formula. “You’re working for Peter?” says Nathan, incredulous. Yup, confirms Knox, he’s one of the good guys now.

Back at Isaac’s studio, Daphne has brought the formula dosage to her buddies. Parkman points out that Ando may not get the power he wants – maybe he’ll just glow in the dark instead of travel through time – but Ando will not be dissuaded. He jabs the needle into his arm, then collapses to the floor.

Past NYC: Hiro has managed to climb back into the Nakamura apartment, finding his younger self who is sad about his dead mother. Our Hiro is sad too, having managed to prove his father’s doubts about him right yet again. But then he asks Young Hiro to help him find the paper with the formula written on it which is stashed somewhere in the apartment.

Primatech: The group has split up: Bennet and Meredith, Claire and Angela. Claire looks very grown-up and pretty in this episode. Sylar calls Claire on the library phone and tells her that he’ll let her, Bennet and Meredith leave, right now and unharmed, if she kills Angela. Or, if she prefers to keep her grandmother alive, he’ll kill Bennet instead. Claire tells him that if he hurts her dad, she’ll hunt him down and kill him. Sylar: Ooooooooh. Claire stares at the phone, then stares at Angela. She cocks the gun – Angela stiffens just slightly – and shoots the phone. Way to waste ammunition there, cheerleader.

Bennet and Meredith have found a tunnel full of Level 5ers, including that creeptastic puppetmaster. Bennet offers them a deal: whoever brings Sylar down gets out of Level 5. They disperse and Meredith murmurs that they don’t stand a chance. Bennet: “Think about it, Meredith – what do you need to catch a shark?” Meredith, catching on: “….They’re bait?” Bennet: [smile].

Pinehearst: Peter is tearing up the lab while Flint holds a whiny Mohinder back, beating on him a little. When he knocks Mohinder out, Peter complains that he didn’t have to do that. Flint grins and points out that now the lab-trashing can go twice as fast with both of them doing it. How long does it take anyway?

Isaac’s studio: Ando regains consciousness wondering if he’s got his powers yet. Daphne: “So far all we know is that you can pass out really well.” Hee. Parkman encourages him to “give it a try” and Daphne suggests that Ando attempt that eye-scrunch like Hiro does. He does but nothing happens, and Ando punches a table in frustration whereupon his hand sparkles with flickers of red light. “That sure [isn’t] time travel,” muses Parkman.

Primatech: Meredith is walking the corridors alone now, gun held high and shakily. I think she’s going to buy the farm in this episode and Sylar is going to add flame throwing to his arsenal. Meredith finds the arm – and only the twitching arm – of the metal-fisted Level 5er she and Eric Roberts brought in a while ago. She finds this disturbing. I don’t know why she’s depending on a gun instead of her flames. A vial of adrenaline rolls to her feet. When she crouches to check it out, Sylar is behind her and TKs her gun away. He can’t do more than that, however, because suddenly his body is under the Puppetmaster’s control. “Meredith is mine … to love, mine to kill.” He moves Sylar into a karate kid pose but Sylar just growls, “You think you can control me?” and uses some mind mojo to turn Puppetmaster’s brain to mush so that it starts to bleed out his nose. Freed, Sylar grabs Meredith and plunges a syringe of adrenaline into her heart. Gasping, she falls to her knees. “Just one more thing to do,” Sylar rasps.

Bennet turns a corner to find another dead Level 5er – it looks like that Echo mailman who had the supersonic shout. His throat has been cut, which if it is he is kind of poetic. Bennet doesn’t care. What he cares about is Meredith whom he finds in a Level 5 cell. She’s shaking, terrified, flaming out of control due to the adrenaline coursing through her system. Sylar is there too, locking Bennet in the cell with the firestarter. Sylar notes that Bennet maybe should use the last bullet in his gun to take Meredith out before she kills him with her wild fire … and gosh, then how will he ever be able to explain to Claire that he had to kill her birth mom? Sylar says that “Noah” made him what he is and he’s now returning the favor.

These scenes here in Primatech, with Bennet and Sylar, are SOOOOO much better than the scenes with the other doofuses on this show (Peter, Nathan, Mohinder, Tracy – I’m looking at you) … it really makes you wonder why this show has been focusing on the doofuses all fall and neglecting their stronger characters/actors. Sigh.

Speaking of doofuses, Nathan tells Knox that he’s backing the wrong horse – Peter does nothing but disappoint the people who count on him. Knox notes that Nathan must really hate his brother – why else is he so afraid? Nathan barks that he’s not afraid of anyone and the fisticuffs commence, with Nathan getting in a few good shots before Tracy sneaks up behind Knox and freezes him until he shatters. Nathan goggles at her and she simpers, “Miss me?” No no no no no. We did not miss you at ALL.

Isaac’s studio. Ando can’t control the red sparkles. Parkman grabs his arm and the sparkles effervesce wildly. Parkman cries out and half-collapses. When he can speak again, he says that it was like an explosion in his head where he could hear the thoughts of the entire city all at once. Impulsively Daphne touches Ando too and as the sparks erupt, she blinks out of existence, reappearing on the catwalk above the boys. What is interesting is that she has reappeared several seconds before she touched Ando and is able to watch Parkman explain the head explosion and see herself grab Ando’s arm. So, Ando’s power is to accelerate or amplify everyone else’s. That’s cool for everyone else, I guess. The three Musketeers try to figure it out.

Primatech: Sylar puts Bennet and Meredith’s cell on the CCTV to lure Claire and Angela down there. Angela says it’s a trap but Claire doesn’t care. They head down there together until Sylar appears, grabbing Claire by the throat and pushing her up against the wall. When she wants to know where her grandmother is, Sylar says, “You wouldn’t choose before, so I had to up the stakes.” Daddy or granny? Or daddy or mommy? He drops her, sneering, and she runs off to the cells.

Bennet is sweating and Claire watches in horror from outside the cell. Because he’s brilliant, Bennet then tells Meredith to put her palms against the glass and put all the heat she can into it. She does, then backs away as he shoots into the bulletproof glass. It doesn’t quite break, so Claire throws herself through it. Bennet climbs out of the cell; Meredith crouches in the corner. Claire demands that her mother come with her but Meredith says she needs a minute and that Claire should go ahead with her dad after Sylar. “I’m coming back for you,” Claire grits before she and Bennet charge out of Level 5.

Pinehearst: Tracy wants to leave right this minute but Nathan wants to stop Peter first. She’s like, we can still control this situation and put our own spin on it – that’s why you hired me, to fix things. Nathan: I don’t run away and you’re fired.

Parkman has figured out that Ando is a “supercharger” and, what with Einstein’s theory of relativity, blah blah blah, an amped Daphne can run fast enough to break out of the space-time continuum. Okay, says Daphne, if I keep hold of Ando and we keep running, we can get back to sixteen years ago and rescue Hiro. Parkman’s like, what if you go too fast and/or far and end up in the Dark Ages, but the other two won’t listen and red sparkle/superzip out post-haste.

Past NYC: Hiro and Hiro have found the formula in Kaito’s safe, but he catches them and sends Young Hiro to bed. When they are alone, Kaito grabs his samurai sword and demands an explanation. Afraid for his life, Hiro holds up the formula and says that if it is destroyed, it can never be replicated again ever, and rips the paper in half. Kaito is not impressed with this “explanation” and brings down the sword just as a red sparkly blur flashes in and scoops Hiro up. The two pieces of the formula page flutter to the floor.

Now NYC: Daphne, Ando and Hiro return to Parkman in the studio. Ando is ecstatic that he’s superpowered now; Hiro complains that he could have destroyed the formula if they’d just shown up a little bit later. “Remind me never to save your life again,” says Ando. Hiro tells Daphne that they’ve got to get the formula back (you know, this timeline is SO f’ed up right now that none of this makes sense in the slightest) so she takes him over to Pinehearst where they find Tracy pulling the formula out of Arthur’s safe. They tell her that it doesn’t belong to her; she says she’s got plans for it and calls Hiro “Pikachu” (hee!); infuriated, Hiro first bows to her, then punches her in the nose. She sits down hard and they grab the formula and zip on out of there. Anytime someone punches Tracy in the nose is a good time with me.

Holy crap: Flint and Peter are STILL destroying that damn lab. What, is it like ten square acres? They dump over a huge vat of the formula, which washes across the floor and splashes Mohinder, waking him up. Flint fires up, ready to blow the place sky-high, but Peter protests that they’ve got to evacuate the building, and especially rescue Nathan. Flint sneers that he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Nathan … or Peter. And then Nathan clocks him on the head from behind with a length of pipe (not a euphemism). Peter stares warily at his brother. And then Nathan starts whaling on him with his pipe (repeat: not a euphemism). “You broke my heart, Peter.” Whatever. Flint wakes up and crankily sets the lab ablaze. Peter scrabbles around on the floor, finding an injector pen that he stabs into his leg. (Why, I must ask, did he not do this to himself earlier?) The formula acts quickly on him and he is able to immediately absorb Nathan’s power, grabbing him and flying them both out the window as the building explodes. If there is any justice in this universe, Mohinder will have been killed in the explosion. But you just know he’s going to make it.

Primatech: Sylar has Angela. She notes that if he killed Arthur, which he did, then he’s saved the world and that makes him a Hero, not a Villain. Sylar is not interested in her faux maternal machinations and tells her so in no uncertain terms. He asks if she is his mother and she answers honestly: no. Why did she say she was? Because her real sons have been such disappointments that she wanted another chance. She realizes that he’s able to tell truth from lies and admits that she used him. She also tells him that she knows who his real parents are and if he kills her, he’ll never find out. This makes him angry, but also distracted, and Claire is able to sneak up behind him and plunge a big piece of glass into the back of his head, dropping him like a stone.

Bennet runs up, saying they have to leave NOW but Claire tells him to get Angela out. She runs back to Level 5 where Meredith has not calmed down at all. Bennet has followed her, insisting that they leave because the firestarter is about to pull the building down on top of them. Claire pleads that she can save her mother, but Meredith screams, crying, unable to hold back any longer. Bennet and Claire run away as Meredith erupts into a horrific fireball.

Peter and Nathan land in a field somewhere. Nathan is irate: you flew, not me! You took a power back – everything you’re against! Peter: you’re my brother and I love you. Nathan: “That’s not what I would have done.” He flies off, leaving Peter behind. Since when did Nathan become this big asshole? I mean, he’s always been numb but this jerkitude is pretty out of character. Stupid writers.

Mohinder gets the closing voiceover: not dead (told you so), he staggers down a street and catches a glimpse of his reflection (no longer scaly and monstrous) in a window; Hiro and Daphne return to Parkman and Ando with the formula; Claire, Bennet and Angela watch Primatech burn and burn. The end of Volume Three/Villains.

Volume Four/Fugitives. Three weeks later, Senator Nathan is in a limo in Washington, D.C., sharing a file about the Heroes with the President. An extremely closeted Nathan wants to round the Heroes up and put them in a containment facility. The President is agreeable: we’ll get you what you need.

Episode scorecard: Arthur, Knox, Puppetmaster, Metal Fist (and sundry other unimportant Heroes) are dead; Sylar, Meredith and Flint are presumed dead but I’m certain at least Sylar won’t be; I wish Mohinder and Tracy were dead but they’re definitely not; and Nathan has been positioned to be the Big Bad when Heroes returns.

Previously on Heroes / next time on Heroes