Watching Heroes

The season premiere did not disappoint. We were reacquainted with several of our Heroes, seeing a glimpse of their “new” lives as they try to blend in as ordinary people. I’m going to do this recap by character, instead of chronologically, as I think it will (hopefully) work better for this particular episode.WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED, DON’T CLICK. VERY SPOILER HEAVY RECAP FOLLOWS!

Claire has begun a new life with her family, now calling themselves Burnet, in Costa Verde, California. She is starting her first day of high school and her dad instructs her to blend in. He tells her not to raise her hand in class, and not to even think about trying out for cheerleading. She agrees but as she starts to go to class, she is almost hit by a truck. In class, she meets West, the boy who was driving the truck. He asks if she is an “alien or a robot.” He explains that everyone is one or the other. During class, Claire knows the answer to her teacher’s question about evolution and jots it down in her notebook, but doesn’t raise her hand. West notices that she has written the answer. Later, in gym class, she is playing badminton while the cheerleading squad practices nearby. As they start to harass a classmate, Claire stands up for her and they challenge her to do a back tuck off of a tower in the gym. Claire agrees and climbs the tower, but after getting to the top, remembers that she is to “blend in” and tells the cheerleaders she can’t do it. The gym clears and Claire stays behind on top of the tower. The mats below have been removed, but in the empty gym Claire does the jump anyway, breaking her leg on the landing. Her leg heals just as West walks in and asks what she is still doing there. She looks stunned and wonders to herself if he saw anything.

Meanwhile, Claire’s dad goes to work at a copy store where he is apparently the assistant manager. The manager is a young man who likes to throw his weight around and wastes no time berating HRG about being late and not having the new toner installed. HRG takes his crap and goes to work. Later, as HRG is taking a coffee break, the manager starts in on him again. HRG says he will be out in a moment when he finishes his last sips of coffee and the manager tells him to get out there now to serve the long line of customers. HRG takes a gander out the door and sees that there isn’t a long line of customers and says he will be out when he is finished with his coffee. The manager points his finger at HRG and tells him to get out there now, prompting HRG to grab his finger and with one twist he puts the big talking, little man on the table. He calmly, yet forcefully, tells the power hungry twit that he isn’t taking his crap anymore and will be taking breaks whenever he feels like it.

We later catch up with the Bennets, all together at home, during dinner. Yes, Mr. Muggles was there. They are painfully trying to make conversation, although it’s clear they are all uncomfortable in their new roles. During dinner the phone rings and HRG excuses himself to take the call. The call was from Mohinder (I’ll go into their conversation below). Claire retires to her room and makes a phone call to Nathan (which I’ll discuss a little later). We see West outside, looking in her second story window. As the camera pans out, it appears that West is hovering. He then flys away, Nathan Petrelli style.

We catch up with Mohinder Suresh giving lectures in Cairo about the virus that threatens to strip our Heroes of their powers and eventually kill them. The same virus killed his sister, Shanti, and threatened Molly in season 1. A man confronts him after the lecture and mentions his sister, prompting Mohinder to grab him and throw him against the wall, demanding to know who he is. The man, obviously from The Company, says he wants to offer Mohinder a job and Mohinder says he has been there and done that and isn’t interested. Mohinder ends up having lunch with the man, who says he can offer Mohinder all the money he needs to complete his research on the virus. Mohinder balks, telling him that the research would be very expensive. The man takes a spoon off the table which, as he holds it, begins to turn to gold. He explains that money will be no object as The Company has their own Fort Knox. Mohinder seems impressed. He later calls HRG to tell him he is “in” with The Company and they can commence with their plan.

Matt Parkman is now in New York City. When we first see him, he is completing a test to become a detective. He uses his mind reading ability to differentiate between a captor and a hostage during the test and manages to impress the boss. He passes and receives his detective badge. Later, we see him picking Molly up from school. Her teacher expresses concern because Molly has been falling asleep during class and drawing some disturbing pictures at school. He tells the teacher that she has been having nightmares. The drawings are full of eyes and the symbol that we’ve seen in various places throughout the show (Kensei’s sword, Jessica’s tattoo - you know the one). Matt takes her home, to Mohinder’s apartment, where he and the good doctor apparently live and share custody of Molly (My Two Dads anyone?). We learn that he is now divorced, but no details are given. He confronts her about the drawings and she gets very angry and says she doesn’t want to talk about it. She asks if she can finish her dinner in her room. Later, as Molly is in the middle of another nightmare, Matt comes into her room and listens to her thoughts. He hears her screaming, “Don’t kill me” and holds her when she wakes up frightened. He tells her to tell him where the person is and he will get them. She says she can’t, it’s too dangerous. The person will kill him, too.

We meet two new characters, Maya and Alejandro, who are trying to make their way through Central America to Mexico and ultimately to the United States. Maya has been reading Dr. Suresh’s book and tells Alejandro that they need to get to New York so he can help her. As they are running from police, we see a wanted poster and find out they are wanted for murder. They buy passage on a truck which will take them closer to the U.S. border, but the driver and his friend are interested in Maya and threaten to throw them off unless Maya rides in the front with them. Alejandro refuses to let her, so they punch him and take her anyway. He chases after them and eventually finds the truck stopped on the side of the road. The driver, his henchman and all the passengers are dead, bleeding out of their eye sockets. He finds Maya sobbing and says they must take the truck and flee. She asks about all the bodies and he says they will get to a safe place and bury them.  

Hiro, of course, has teleported into 1671 Japan, where he finds himself in the middle of a battle. He sees a man, who he believes is his hero, Takezo Kensei, in danger. To save his hero, he teleports himself and “Kensei” out of the battle, only to find out that it isn’t his hero after all. He then meets Kensei, who turns out to be an Englishman who’s actually not very heroic at all. Hiro wonders how this can be, and tells Kensei of the stories he grew up listening to. As he mentions the village that Kensei saved, he notices a village on fire and realizes that he has changed history with his actions. Hiro realizes he must find a way to fix history so Kensei will save the village and marry the swordsmith’s daughter. He tries to convice Kensei, who promptly punches him in the face and knocks him out.

Hiro’s father, Kaito, is in Kirby Plaza (the scene of last year’s finale) waiting for Hiro to return. He is joined by Ando, who brings him a newspaper. As he picks up the paper, a photo falls out of it. It is a photo of Kaito with the symbol drawn over his face in red (blood, perhaps). Kaito says that the photo means he will die today. We later see Kaito and Ando on the rooftop (you know the one) and Kaito tells Ando he needs a sword and sends him to get one. As Ando leaves, Angela Petrelli arrives…

 And on to The Petrellis - Nathan is doing his best hobo impersonation. He has a nappy beard and apparently spends his days hitting the bottle. We first see him in Peter’s apartment with his mother, Angela. His mom blames him for Peter’s “death” and is packing up some of Peter’s things. Nathan, drunk, tells her not to pack them up, as Peter will need them when he gets back. She tells Nathan if he had just stuck to the original plan, none of this would have happened. We learn that Nathan’s wife has left him. Later we see him sitting in a bar, as he takes a phone call from Claire. He tells her not to call him, that he can’t help her. She tells him that she misses Peter too and she doesn’t know how to fit in with her new life. As he hangs up, he looks into the mirror and sees a horribly disfigured reflection. Meanwhile, Angela has found a photo of herself, marked in the same way as Kaito’s.

Kaito and Angela meet on the rooftop to discuss their photos. Kaito tells Angela he is leaving for Japan and he suggests that she get out of town too. Kaito says that someone is trying to kill all of them (the older generation of Heroes) mentioning that Linderman, Mr. Petrelli and Deveaux (Simone’s Dad) are already dead. He says something about there only being 9 of them left. Angela leaves and eventually Ando returns, but not before a hoodie clad mystery man arrives. He rushes Kaito and they both tumble off the rooftop onto the ground. Ando witnesses it and runs to the edge, looking down to see Kaito’s bloody body on the ground below.

Cut to Ireland, and three unsavory characters looking for a cargo container. They find the container and open it to reveal a man inside, who is chained to the wall. As one of them approaches the man, he shoots off a ball of energy from his hand, knocking the man away. As he looks up, we realize that it is Peter Petrelli, alive and well. One of the men asks who he is and he says, “I don’t know.” Around his neck is a necklace, that looks remarkably like that of The Haitian. Could he have something to do with Peter’s amnesia?

Missing from this episode were Niki, Micah and D.L. and everyone’s favorite villain, Sylar. We did get a glimpse of them in the previews for next week though.

Hopefully I didn’t leave anything out. I’m sure if I did, you’ll let me know. Now, discuss…

(Nod to SVFan.com for the screencaps)