Seven Minutes to Midnight (Episode 8 recap)
This was a Phenominal episode in terms of story advancement. Two new heroes are revealed and we get a little clarification about some past questions.
Quit reading now, if you don’t want to read spoilers.
Mohinder returns to India to bury his father and resume his life as a college professor. He is given his fathers old office in the university and when he is moving in we catch a glimpse of a computer running the program that contains the symbol. the same program we saw earlier in New York, when Mohinder is first going through his fathers belongings. We are introduced to Mohinder’s former flame, Mira. She has issue with Chandra suresh’s theories and hopes that Mohinder has put them behind him. She also is in genetics as head of research for some company. Mohinder has multiple dreams while in India, many concerning past events. First is a vision of is father leaving for New York to prove his theories and the revelation of a sister, the second is of his fathers death at the hands of Sylar. Yes, Sylar. You can tell by the watch. In both visions a young boy with a soccer ball acts as sort of a silent guide and in the seconf dream he reveals a key to Mohinder, a key that has shown itself several times in Chandra Suresh’s things. The key opens a drawer which contains the file of a boy named Sanjog Iyer and refers to sleep and dream abilities. the boy is the one that has appeared in his dreams.
We are introduced to Charlie in this episode as well, Charlie is a waitress at a diner in Midland Texas (Fiday Night Lights tie in? you be the judge.) that seems to have the ability of a super memory. woo hoo. She seems able to remember and comprehend anything she reads. She is in the diner and ends up serving Ando and Hiro. She is able to read some writing on Hiro’s jacket and they hit it off after that. After several scene of good natured flirting, she ha to go in the back to do some work. Let me backtrack for a second here. Throughout this scene we see a shadowed figure (Sylar) sitting in a corner drinking coffee. the figure also uses telekinetic powers to move the coffe cup to his hand. We also see the watch on his hand in this scene. Charlie goes in the back about the same time Hiro runs to the restroom. While in the back she hears noises. she gets a little jumpy, but goes back to what she was doing, then suddenly she stops and we see blood running down her face. Sylar has cut her head open like previous victims. When hiro come out of the restroom he sees this and remembers it as being identical to how he finds Isaac killed in the future. After being questioned by the cops, hiro resolves himself to go back in time to try and correct this, so that Charlie doesn’t die. Ando tries to talk him out of it, but after the card game massacre, Hiro doesn’t want to let that sort of thing happen again. He tells Ando that he will be back before he can count to five and then disappears. Ando counts down to five, but hiro doesn’t reappear. Later we see a picture of Hiro and Charlie on the bulletin board of the diner.
Eden has helped Isaac kick his drug habit and tells him that they will help him to learn to use his ability without the drugs. She tells him that they will not let his vision of New York happen. Isaac is introduce to Horn-Rimmed Glasses Man (Mr. Bennet) and he proceeds to tell him about how they have been tracking, locating and monitoring people with special abilities for some time. He tells Isaac that the girl in the paintings is his daughter Claire and that Sylar will be trying to kill her at Homecoming. He also tells Isaac that he adopted her 15 years ago after her parents were killed, while his people were collecting her. He ask Isaac to try and paint some vision of the future that will help him find Sylar and save Claire. After several failed attempts HRG tries to gt him to go back on drugs to do the painting. He tells him it’s just for this one time, but Isaac refuses. HRG tells Eden to get him to use them and do the painting. Eden is obvously not pleased about this, but does it for HRG. Later we see Isaac, with his eyes glazed over, painting.
Matt Parkman gets called in by the FBI chick to once again help her out with questioning Ted (Nuclear Guy) about what is going on. Ted reveals that he had been abducted and reveals a connection of Mystery Man (the Haitian) and the double marks on the shoulder with Matt. He and Matt try piecing some things together, when Homeland Security shows up considering Ted a terrorist. Ted implores Matt to find the Haitian. It is at this time that it is revealed that Matt has been suspended for punching a fellow officer (who slept with his wife) and isn’t supposed to be there. Matt goes home and his wife realizes that he now knows. He asks her if it’s over and she says yes. She asks him if it’s over between them and he tells her that he doesn’t know and then the phone rings. The call is from FBI chick telling him that Ted has escaped.
So we now know that it was Sylar, not HRG that killed Chandra Suresh and we know that HRG has been tracking and Monitoring supers for a minimum of 15 years. Still not too sure about the symbol. Plus I think the picture of Hiro and Charlie implies that he managed to save her. Here’s to hoping!
November 14th, 2006 at 9:25 am
It WAS a great episode! (Frankly, I wasn’t disappointed to see less of Niki…my least favorite character so far.) Next week’s preview looked really exciting!
November 14th, 2006 at 9:30 am
So - we’re positive Claire’s parents died during HER retrieval? I wasn’t sure how to take that story, and wasn’t sure if maybe they weren’t after her parents.
Last night’s episode was GREAT. And I agree with Polly, Niki is my least favorite right now.
November 14th, 2006 at 10:13 am
This cleared up what I missed while I was snoozing through the first 1/2 hour of the show. The one thing I don’t get (and I’ll probably have to keep watching) is WHY isn’t Hiro back yet?
Great summary!
Jill
November 14th, 2006 at 10:27 am
It was my favorite episode so far. With the whole Niki/Jessica thing, I’ve always thought she had more of a mental disorder than a super power!
Kim: Maybe I misstyped. I was under the impression that her parents were taken by HRG and died, leaving Claire parentless. But based on the fact that Chandra knew that his daughter (Chanti) was special maybe it is something that can be determined at a young age.
Jill: Thanks! Based on the photograph on the diner wall of Hiro and Charlie, I think he has already changed the past, but I’m not sure whay he wouldn’t be back yet unless stopping Sylar required him to do things differently. Also you get into the whole paradox of time travel issues with Hiro, so you never know what they are going to do with this.
November 14th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Best part of the whole episode: Hiro yealling “I’m cute!”
haha! I love that guy!
November 14th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Wouldn’t it be neat if they had Hiro go back in time to save Chandra from getting killed by Sylar. If they just did that, it would be easier for them to find one another and for this guy to explain things to them.
November 14th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Allison: I think the line was, ‘I’m sweet!’ and it was one of my favorites. At least once an episode he has one of those moments. I look forward to them everytime. Unfortunately future Hiro doesn’t seem to be as light hearted as present day Hiro, but hopefully that doesn’t change for a while.
Dana: it would be interesting, but I think his attempt to save Charlie is going to set up a reason as to why he shouldn’t be going back in time to change things. Otherwise, they’d just bring characters back a few episodes after killing them off.
November 14th, 2006 at 11:53 am
I think Hiro must change, and I think he’s starting to change already. Saving the world is a pretty serious business.
But, I agree that his unbridled enthusiasm is a nice contrast with the other characters and their individual angst.
November 14th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Did anyone else notice that Charlie (girl in restaurant) knew words in Japanese that were not in the book.
I think that she knew Hiro from before, as in, it was him that gave her the book.
It seems that the show needs to do that to preserve the timeline which Hiro has changed/was going to change.
The real question being, does she now die?
November 14th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
I think I agree with Joel that Hiro may have given Charlie the book. She got it on her birthday a few months before, which is the picture that changed from her alone to her and Hiro. Maybe he’ll come back with a better grasp of English, which in the future we know he has. He told Peter he couldn’t say too much, it would change things. And if Sylar really wants to get to Charlie, he will.
November 14th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Interesting call Joel, I hadn’t considered that possiblity. I’m not so sure though, other wise she would have recognized him in the present day at the diner. Time travel continuity can get tricky. I’ll have to re-watch it to see if there are any other hints that might give some of that away.
My thoughts are that this event is the one that teaches Hiro some of the limitations of trying to alter time. that’s just my theary though.
November 14th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
I also thought it was a great episode. Did anybody else find the fact that HRG said he and his wife couldn’t conceive disturbing ? How do you explain Claire”s brother? And who was with Matt Parkmen when he blacked out? I thought it was HRG and his side kick? I didn’t miss Niki but I like Peter’s vibe. I also think Hiro going back and fixing things could get a bit tricky but i’m sure Charlie’s talent is important to the group. Plus she could help in making Hiro a bit more serious.
November 14th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
HRG said they were having trouble conceiving, not they necessarily couldn’t conceive, so it might be possible that the son is theirs.
The Haitian and HRG were there for Matt. The Haitian is the one that blacked him out and he spoke with HRG and the Haitian before they wiped his memory. That was a few episodes ago.
I’m kinda interested in Niki. They have to be taking the character somewhere. I’, beginning to think she has less to do with HRG and more with Sylar, but that is pure speculation at this point.
November 14th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Sorry, when we see the picture, she is still dead, despite the picture on the board. In addition Hiro looks a bit disconslate in the picture, like things are not going the way he hoped.
November 14th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
I cant tell whether hgr was lying to issac or not but great episode
November 14th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
I cant tel if HGR is lying or not
any1 kno?
November 14th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Actually they never specify whether she is still dead or not, also whose to say that it doesn’t take time for the changes in the past to impact the future. This is one of those things that definitely keeps you guessing
HRG is the bad guy you like. He’s the unkown variable that you see in shows like the x-files. Just when you think you have him figured out he does something that throws you.
November 15th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
Yeah! Alex Krycek!
November 28th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
[...] This episode touches on quite a few characters. If you’re like me, having Hiro in this episode was awesome. His story seems to be the thread that holds the whole story together. I think this story, as it relates to Hiro, really touches on the limitations of his abilities. As the episode title implies, we go back six months in relation to the current storyline, with Hiro appearing in the diner on Charlie’s birthday in April, not October as he originally thought. Reader Joel picked up on the fact the Charlie could speak Japanese that wasn’t in the book and that Hiro had probably given her the book. Hiro involves himself with Charlie trying to convince her that she needs to leave to save her life. At first she is skeptical, mistaking his powers for magic tricks, but eventually he convinces her of his abilities. She reveals to him that she has a clot near her brain and that she is going to die, but that he has given her a new appreciation for life and that she loves him. As she goes to kiss him he teleports back to Japan in current time. He manages to get back to Ando, but not by using his power. It appears that his power has a mind of it’s own. From what I can tell it seems he is unable to save Charlie. [...]