Carnival. Hiro is moping over his lost Charlie while Samuel gives a shout-out for recycling. Then, public service announcement done, Samuel tells Hiro that what he wants him to do is to go back in time eight weeks and find Mohinder, take a 1950s research film form him before he destroys it, and bring it back to Samuel. Then he’ll give Charlie back. Hopefully, just because Samuel gets this film he’s after doesn’t mean he won’t still kill Mohinder. I so want that jackass dead.
Nine weeks ago, in India. Mohinder has a job teaching junior high school students. His girlfriend Mira nags that he promised to throw away all his father’s old research, which only brings him pain. He dramatically dumps a box of stuff into a rubbish bin and they go off together, arms around each other. BLECK.
Washington, D.C., present day. Tracey mopes in a diner, staring at a poster for the Carnival while Samuel’s magic compass spins in her hand. She doesn’t know what to do – should she join Samuel’s crew? – and starts to get upset. Her power flares up: the cup of coffee freezes in her hand, startling the waitress. Tracey takes off.
Nathan’s office. Nathan and Peter try to figure out what happened to Nathan: why he woke up in a Carnival and why no one cared that a senator had gone missing. (Turns out Angela Petrelli told everyone Nathan was on vacation.) Then, before this can get much more boring, the Haitian shows up. He tells Nathan to stand back as he’s here to speak with Peter. Then, ominously, right before cutting to commercial, he tells the younger Petrelli that he needs to know “the truth.”
Benet’s apartment. Claire (wearing teeny tiny shorts) stops by with laundry. She’s displeased when the door is ajar, and grabs a knife. Inside it’s just Tracey. The door is busted because she can’t control her power anymore: she just touched the doorknob and the metal froze and shattered. Then, as she’s talking, Tracey’s own hands and arms start to crystallize. The two girls just stare at each other, horrified.
Nathan’s office. Angela sent the Haitian to clear out Peter and Nathan’s memories but he doesn’t want to do it, saying that he doesn’t want to be involved. But then, rather than giving Peter any straight answers, he sends him on some cryptic errand: go here, see what your mother has done, try not to get too upset about it.
India, nine weeks ago. This is just excruciating. Mohinder can’t sleep and pages through his dad’s old research materials in the middle of the night. He finds an old research film and sets up a projector: it’s from Coyote Sands and apparently Mohinder has never watched it before. On the film, Dr. Suresh notes that when too many Heroes are gathered together in the camp, energy flares are present. Also, there’s a Hero baby about to be born and an overload of seismic activity violently rattles the compound during the birth. Do we think this Hero baby is Samuel, he who can move the earth? Yes, we do!
Benet’s apartment. Claire puts a nearly frozen Tracey into a scalding hot bath and goes to get her some tea. While she’s gone, Tracey first thaws, but then her power reasserts itself and starts to freeze the water. She climbs out of the bath, nearly frantic since she can’t control herself any longer. Claire pats her on the shoulder – there, there, it’ll be all right – and then the younger girl freezes solid. Oops. Benet is not going to be pleased about that.
Nathan and Peter open a self-storage unit at the address the Haitian gave Peter. There’s a coffin in there. Nathan is inside it. Three-way! “This is just weird,” says Peter, master of the obvious that he is. As they stand there, Nathan starts to get flashes of memory: Sylar, Parkman, a hotel room. They decide to go to L.A. to find Parkman. But when they reconvene at Nathan’s office, they learn that Parkman is in critical condition in a Texas hospital, having apparently tried to commit suicide by cop. Peter points out that he’s a healer these days and if they can get in to see their friend, he can help.
As Tracey struggles to drag the frozen Claire to the bathtub, Claire’s foot breaks off in her hands. That was excellent. Poor Tracey just sobs. But fear not - Claire has thawed out and says: “Tracey, it’s okay. I heal – it’s what I do.” She takes the foot back from Tracey and sets it on the floor with a clunk. Hee.
Carnival. Hiro is struggling, unable to time-travel. Tick-tock, says Samuel.
India, nine weeks ago. Stupid Mohinder is obsessively frigging around with more of his father’s stuff, building his own magic compass using his father’s notes, but stupidly falls asleep while doing so. In the morning, Mira finds him drooling on the workbench and is pissed off, saying that he promised to let all this go. Mohinder babbles that he’s made a breakthrough: he can use this compass to find Heroes (“Specials,” he calls them) and that he’s learned that if the baby in the film (now grown) surrounds himself with a large enough number of Heroes he can … but Mira has had enough and tells him that she won’t wait for him this time.
Texas hospital. The Petrelli boys sneak into Parkman’s room and Peter heals him. Unfortunately, disembodied Sylar pops back into view too, and is practically drooling over Nathan. Thankfully not mincing words, Parkman tells the Petrelli boys what happened: Nathan, Sylar slit your throat and you died, but then I stuffed your consciousness into Sylar’s body. The Petrellis are all, huh? So then disembodied Sylar gets impatient and somehow pulls Parkman’s consciousness out of Parkman’s body, and jumps in himself, so that now the Petrellis think they’re talking to Parkman but they’re really talking to Sylar. Disembodied Parkman, whom nobody but Sylar-in-Parkman’s-body can see, squawks helplessly. Sylar-in-Parkman reaches out a hand and tells Nathan that he can fix everything – he just needs Nathan (by which I mean Nathan-in-Sylar’s-shapeshifty-body) to take his hand. Because if “Nathan” takes “Parkman’s” hand, Sylar can jump back into his own body, displacing Nathan’s consciousness. Or not, it’s hard to say. Good lord-n-butter. Could they possibly make this more difficult for us poor recappers?
After the commercial, Nathan thinks that this all makes sense, realizing that all these new powers that have manifested aren’t really his, and reaches for “Parkman’s” hand. Peter refuses to accept this and tries to keep the two of them apart, so “Nathan” uses Sylar’s TK and bats him across the room . A guard comes in and amid the confusion, Nathan touches Parkman’s hand. Sylar winks out of existence and Parkman is thrust back in his rightful body, shouting that he can’t see Sylar anymore. Nathan picks his unconscious brother up and flies out the window.
Carnival, eight weeks ago. Mohinder has found his way to the Carnival, using his handmade compass. He finds Joseph Sullivan, Samuel’s not yet dead older brother, and starts babbling about superpowers. Joseph cuts him off, introducing Mohinder as an author when Samuel appears, but doesn’t let the two talk, sending Samuel away on some errand. Joseph looks sternly at a sputtering Mohinder and asks to speak privately with him.
Desert. Nathan has flown Peter to some isolated mountaintop. He doesn’t think it’s safe for his brother to be around him, and tells Peter that there should be a road around here somewhere that will take him back to civilization. Peter’s like, um, no, and copies Nathan’s power. In it together, brothers forever, they both fly off.
Back at the Carnival, Joseph says that Mohinder is correct about Samuel’s increasing power but says that his brother doesn’t know the extent of it since Joseph has spent his life keeping Samuel away from too many Heroes. Samuel has a bit of a power-hunger to him and could be dangerous where he to know how strong he could be: “We must keep this genie in the bottle.” Mohinder protests, saying Samuel’s power could increase a thousandfold and Josef is all I KNOW, dumbass, burn that film and get the frack out of here. Mohinder leaves, finally doubting that he knows what he’s doing … and since he really hasn’t gotten a single thing right in the last four seasons it’s clear that he’s not a quick learner. As he leaves, the camera pulls back to show that Samuel has been eavesdropping on the two of them the whole time. This must be the awakening of a megalomaniac.
Later, in his motel room, Mohinder leaves a message for Mira, admitting that she was right, this trip was all a mistake and he’ll be on the next flight home. He picks up the infamous film and drops it into a trashcan. As he’s about to set it on fire, Hiro teleports in, freezes time and switches the 1950s film with a dummy one he’s brought. And before he leaves, Hiro whispers to Mohinder to be careful with Samuel.
Benet’s apartment. Tracey hasn’t accidentally frozen anything for over an hour and is feeling pretty good about it. She and Claire talk about Samuel and his magical band of Carnies, and Tracey says that she’s thinking about joining him. Claire sounds like she’s thinking about it too. When Benet comes home, arms laden with groceries, he sees Claire’s frozen foot on the coffee table: “Ladies, how was your day?” “Same old, same old,” smiles Claire.
Samuel bursts into Mohinder’s motel room, glaring at the flaming film canister. He shouts that Mohinder must tell him what was on the film, what it is that will make him strong. Mohinder refuses to tell him anything so Samuel crushes a rock and sends the shards flying into Mohinder’s chest. Mohinder cries out and crumples. Immediately afterwards, looking at the fallen body, Samuel gasps that he’s sorry and flees. After he’s gone, Mohinder sits up with a massive gasp: he’s wearing a bullet-proof (rock shard proof, rather) vest, compliments of Hiro. Stupid meddling Hiro. Why do the producers refuse to kill this damn, useless, annoying Mohinder off? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
After the commercial, stupid Mohinder realizes that he is the one that set Samuel off with his research: he must be stopped. Hiro’s like okay, that’s good, but you have to wait eight weeks because I have to save Charlie. Mohinder says that he can’t sit around doing nothing while Samuel builds his power for two months. They bicker, Mohinder adamantly refusing to wait, so Hiro takes matters into his own hands. He freezes Mohinder in time, then teleports him off to somewhere out of the way. To Riverdale Psychiatric Hospital, actually, and in a straitjacket. He won’t cause any trouble there. Nice job, Hiro!
Washington. Tracey goes back to the diner where Samuel joins her. She tells him that she’s not sure what she’s looking for, but she just knows that she can’t keep on living the way she has been. He says he’s glad she called and he knows that they can work together to make this a better world for people with abilities.
Back in Peter’s apartment (?), Nathan is moping because he isn’t really Nathan, just a collection of memories in a mass-murderer’s head, and no one will be able to see him as anything else. Peter can’t really argue with him there.
Previously on Heroes /
next time on Heroes
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