Who are the Real Villains on Heroes’ ‘I Am Become Death’?

On tonight’s episode of Heroes, “I am Become Death,” Peter and Matt both see (one by dream and one by time travel) four years into the future and given what they see you have to wonder which of our heroes are actually heroes and which are villains.

Peter and Sylar face off against Daphne and Claire four years in the future.

In the future – in which anyone can have an ability if they want – the line between right and wrong is blurred.  But it’s clear that sides have been chosen – at least by some.

Peter – future and present – was on one side.  He doesn’t think people can be trusted with abilities.  Therefore, it’s ironic that his actions end up creating an army of people with abilities and he himself acquires an ability he can’t handle.

On the other side are a leather-clad Claire, a longer-haired Daphne, Knox and the Haitian.  What this side wants – besides Peter dead – is unclear. 

In the first clash of sides, Claire kills Future Peter, but Present Peter escapes.  How did Peter die?  I thought he had Claire’s healing ability.  Sure the Haitian was there, but Present Peter knocked him out which should have made his power useless.  Is a bullet in the back of the head really deadly for Peter?  Why can he be killed, but Claire can’t if he got his power from her?

The second battle is at the Bennett house where Sylar – I mean Gabriel – is playing June Cleaver with his son, Noah.  Is anyone else blown away by the fact that the supreme villain from the last two seasons is not only playing house, but has a son of his own now.  Just who is Noah’s mom?

It seems unclear if Gabriel has chosen sides in the future, but Claire is definitely holding a grudge against him.  However, after painting the future – which showed what? – Sylar gives Present Peter his power to understand how things work.  Unfortunately, in the ensuing battle Little Noah is killed by Knox and Sylar goes supernova, killing 200 thousand.

Daphne gets away, but dies in Matt, her husband’s, arms in front of Molly and their daughter Danielle.

Peter and Claire also survive.  And she is enjoying torturing him until President Nathan and First Lady Tracy stop her.  While trying to understand Nathan’s motivation, Peter becomes the monster he always thought Sylar was.

Still the question remains, who is the real villain(s) here?

Meanwhile back in the present, Matt wakes up from his future dream and chooses a turtle as his spirit totem to guide him to changing the future.  Seriously, he couldn’t have chosen a faster animal?  At this rate, he has no hope of changing anything, let alone getting out of Africa this season.

Tracy learns that she is one of identical triplets – Niki and Barbara are her sisters – who were subjects of DNA manipulation by The Company after their parents died.  After they were given their powers, the triplets were separated which begs the question, where is Barbara?

Frustrated that Zimmerman can’t cure her and unable to confess ton killing the reporter, Tracy takes a header off the office building after resigning.  But Nathan – at the urging of imaginary Linderman – saves her life.  And the beginning of the future relationship is born.

Hiro and Ando spent most of the episode arguing with each other in a cell in Level 2.  Just when Hiro is about to escape sans Ando, Angela tells Hiro that he holds the secret to unlocking the mystery behind the formula.  Reenter Adam.

Finally, Mohinder spent the episode playing The Fly and he was even less helpful in the future.  All we know is that he didn’t get the formula right.

My biggest question is based off the preview for next week when Angela tells Nathan that they gave him his power.  Who was “given” powers and who was born with it, if anyone?  Zimmerman made it sound like he wasn’t the only one working for The Company.  How many others were conducting “experiments?”

What did you think of the episode?  What questions did it leave you with?

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Heroes’ Sylar Goes to Work for Mommy in ‘One of Us’

Paternity seems to be the key to the shockers on the third season of Heroes.  Last week we learned that Angela is Sylar’s mom and this week in “One of Us, One of Them” we find another one of our heroes questioning their origins.

Working with HRG, Sylar poses as an FBI agent, complete with Irish accent.

After a tender bonding moment (as if Angela knows anything about maternal nurturing) in which Mama Petrelli tells Sylar – excuse me “Gabriel” – that she’s sorry she gave him up for adoption and promises to provide him with inspiration, guidance and comfort, Angela serves Sylar lunch – I mean a new power. 

Why does she give him the power to read the history of any object?  Is she expecting him to need that particular power in her plans for him?  Or was she just offering him a power as a peace offering?

Next Angela partners Sylar with the one man who hates him most – HRG.  She believes that Noah – who insists he hasn’t reenlisted but simply wants to return the escapes – can provide Sylar with the structure he needs.

Despite protesting that Sylar is a killer, Noah agrees to take Sylar to rein in Jesse/Present Peter, Knox, The German and Flint.  Looks like HRG will play mentor to Sylar . . . at least until he finds Sylar’s weakness.

Meanwhile Angela’s youngest son (at least of the ones we know about) is still trapped in Jesse’s body.  Jesse is originally from Las Vegas.  Anyone else think that’s more than just a coincidence?  It seems like everyone on this show is either from New York, Las Vegas, Texas or California.  Could Jesse be related to one of our other Vegas residents or former residents?  Maybe he’s Linderman’s son?

Either way, Jesse is jonesing for revenge against HRG and has masterminded the current plan to rob this bank and draw out HRG.  However, Peter’s resistance to the plan make it easy for the others to figure out he’s not the real Jesse.

After a little fear – or maybe its adrenaline – Peter discovers – and uses – Jesse’s Black Canary-like power before Future Peter shows up to free him.  But the whole “possession” leaves a few questions.

Did Peter have access to his own powers while he was hijacked?  Now that he’s come in contact with Jesse’s power has he acquired it?  Where was the real Jesse during Peter inhabitation?  Was he also in there?  And where did the two Peter’s go?

When Future Peter rescues his present self (anyone confused yet), he leaves HRG at the mercy of Jesse and his flunkies – until Sylar saves the day, but not without acquiring a new power.  Guess Sylar’s reformation isn’t complete.

HRG and Sylar return to Level 5 in Hartsdale, NY with Flint.  The German and Jesse are dead — those stories were short-lived. And Knox is still on the loose. 

Daphne comes between Hiro and Ando.

Also in Level 5 are Hiro and Ando.  Seems they tried to relieve the Haitian of Angela’s half of the doomsday formula in Berlin only to have it stolen by Daphne while they argued between themselves over Ando’s “sidekick” status.

Meanwhile, Matt continues his “spirit walk” with Usutu in Africa, discovering a series of paintings Usutu has done of Parkman’s life beginning with his encounter with Molly.  All the paintings have come to be except one – of Matt with a woman holding a baby.  Did anyone think the woman looked like Daphne?

But Usutu tells him the future has changed, then goes all white eyes and paints over it.  In the new picture, Matt is carrying a woman that is injured/dead.  I still think it could be Daphne.  Matt asks if he can change the future and Usutu helps him meditate.

Claire is trying to do some changing of her own.  Tired of being a victim, she asks Meredith to help her learn to fight using her powers.  Instead Meredith tries to scare her into giving up her vengeance plan and focus on being a teenager.

Claire says sure, pretends to be the good cheerleader and heads out on her own mission with a Primatech box in tow.

Back in DC, Nathan – sans any visits from the mysterious Linderman vision – gets swore in.  But it’s Tracy that’s the real story of the night.  When Nathan visits her she is clearly struggling to grasp the apparently newly revealed power to freeze and continues to deny any knowledge of Niki Saunders.

Tracy goes to Micah for answers about Niki.

After a visit with Micah at a funeral home in New Orleans, Tracy discovers that she and Niki share a birth date and a birth place, but not a body.  Tracy is a separate person from Niki, not a separate personality.  And Tracy – and presumably Niki – were created by one Dr. Zimmerman.  Big questions here.

Who is Dr. Zimmerman?  Exactly how did he create Tracy?  Did he create Niki too?  Or was she the model from which Tracy was created?  And who did he think Tracy was when he answered the door?  Did he call her Bobba?

What is Zimmerman’s relationship to The Company?  There’s no way someone was creating people with powers and The Company not know about it.  What does this mean for the other people with powers?  Has he had a hand it that?  Could he be Sylar’s papa/creator too?

What are your thoughts on this week’s episode?

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Heroes Returns with Double Feature Season 3 Premiere

Tonight Heroes returned with a two-hour premiere – “The Second Coming” and “The Butterfly Effect” – opening Volume 3:  Villains with a literal barrage of plot twists.

Hayden Panettiere as Claire Bennet and Milo Ventimiglia as Peter Petrelli. Courtesy Adam Taylor/NBC

I know that NBC is trying to gain back some of the momentum the series had in the first season, but sometimes less is more.  I think that they threw a little too much at us to even start to digest.

After the disjointed Volume 2, I was left with a whole series of questions about the plot and one major question of whether the show was still worthy of my play list.

After tonight, I have even more questions and I’m still not sure if Heroes has recaptured the magic from Volume 1.

Let’s start with what tonight’s episode answered.

A future Peter shot his own brother during Nathan’s press conference in Odessa where Nathan planned to expose his powers. 

Apparently four years in the future, Peter – who has the ability to teleport – feels the need to run before traveling back in time, but not before he has a run-in with a dark-haired future Claire.  It seems not all is well for our heroes in the future with the masses knowing about their powers.

But once in the present, future Peter finds out that changing history isn’t as easy as it sounds.  While he might have prevented Nathan from revealing their secret, he did not actually kill his brother.

A miraculously recovered Nathan believes that he was “touched by God” while at the same time believing that he was healed by Linderman – a Linderman who we believe is dead and apparently only Nathan can see.

This tidbit then begs the question – who healed Nathan?  Is Linderman alive and invisible?  Is he a figment of Nathan’s imagination?  Or is someone cloaking themself to appear as Linderman while not being seeing by others?

Either way, the revived Nathan gets noticed by New York’s Governor (Bruce Boxleitner) and his staffer/lover Tracie Strauss – formerly known as Niki Saunders to viewers (and Nathan) – and is tapped to fill a senate seat.

It seems that Niki survived the fire in New Orleans, but has assumed another alter ego.  This one has the power to freeze nasty little reporters that might expose skeletons in the closet.  Poor William Katt.  What an end for the Greatest American Hero!

Meanwhile, future Peter sends Matt to an African desert when Matt discovers he’s not the present Peter.  While in Africa, Matt meets Usutu (N’Tare Mwine) who tells him he must go on a spirit walk.  Why doesn’t Matt just read his mind to get the answers he wants?

Nevertheless we learn the Usutu paints the future – I’m assuming he meant literally, but I guess it could me figuratively too.  It’s easy to guess that the rock painting that Matt saw in the desert is Usutu’s work, but what about the painting Mohinder saw?  How did Usutu get to New York?

Heroes - Season 3 - "The Second Coming" - Sendhil Ramamurthy as Mohinder Suresh. Courtesy Adam Taylor/NBC

Speaking of Mohinder, he’s been busy playing mad scientist after sending Molly somewhere to be safe.  He uses Maya’s adrenaline to develop a serum that will give anyone injected with it special powers.  Maya, however, is still left without an antidote for her deadly power.

Mohinder – apparently coming up short in the common sense department – decides to inject himself resulting in heighted senses including super strength and super lust for Maya.  But no good deed goes unpunished and Mohinder starts to lose his skin. 

In another act of stupidity disguised vaguely as wisdom, future Peter tells Claire not to rush to the injured Nathan’s side, leaving her to continue hiding in Santa Cruz, CA where Sylar easily finds her.

After a chase scene right out of a teen horror flick, Sylar finally takes Claire’s power.  But he doesn’t kill her.  Instead he leaves her with a gift – he takes away the pain.  He also tells her she’s special and that neither of them can ever die.  But we know differently – if the brain stem is severed (like it was to Peter is Volume 1), death can happen.

With his new found power, Sylar heads to Section 5 where the biggest and baddest villains The Company has captured are imprisoned.  The same place where future Peter imprisons present Peter (anyone confused yet?) is the body of a prisoner named Jesse (Francis Capra).

Sylar starts off by killing Bob and acquiring his power to turn medal to gold, but Elle short circuits the rest of his plans.  While she’s able to capture Sylar, her power surge inadvertently released the rest of the prisoners which included HRG, Jesse, Knox (Jamie Hector) who absorbs fear and uses it as a weapon, Flint (Blake Shields) the flame thrower and The German (Ken Lally).

But never fear, there’s someone to step up and fill Bob’s shoes – Angela Petrelli, who promptly fires Elle.  Angela confirms that her power is premonitions – that’s how she knew who future Peter was. 

She also had a premonition in which Matt, Hiro, Peter, Claire and others are left dead while the likes of Adam, Tracey, a black guy I didn’t recognized and what looked like Governor Malden face off against Angela and Sylar.

Seems Angela has taken a liking to Sylar.  He’s her new project – and judging from the previews for next week, HRG’s new partner.  But the big reveal is when Angela tells Sylar that she is his mother. 

Is she speaking literally or figuratively?  Just how many people has Angela slept with?  There’s Peter and Nathan’s dad, Kaito, and apparently Sylar’s dad (whose identity remains a mystery).  There is even speculation that she’s Matt’s mama too – but I have no proof to back that one up.  This woman really gets around.

Lastly, we have Hiro and Ando who find out that Kaito left Hiro in charge of half of a dangerous formula whose only cure is the purity of blood.  Hiro immediately loses his half of the formula to speedster Daphne (Brea Grant).

In the quest to find her and retrieve the formula, Hiro travels to the future where he sees a super charged Ando kill him.  Of course, now Hiro treats Ando differently and that is going to be the exact reason Ando turns on Hiro in the future.

More interesting, I’d rather know who Daphne is working for?  And who has the other half of the formula – at least until Daphne steals it.

Micah, Monica and Molly are all missing this episode.  Jessalyn Gilsig reprises her role as Meredith Gordon, Claire’s biological mom.

I felt like I was running through this entire episode trying to keep up.  Didn’t the creators learn anything from last season?  I can only hope that the show finds its groove soon and settles in.

What did you think was the most interesting twist?  What was the biggest surprise of the night?

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