Heroes 3.14: “A Clear and Present Danger” Recap

The phone rings in Tracy’s house. It’s the Governor, calling to ask if she’s watching the interview on TV. She turns it on and it’s Nathan, discussing how he is now so closely aligned with President Worf on ‘unprecedented access to the average American’s most private details.’He claims that it is his duty as the Chairman of the Senate Commission on Homeland Security (RED FLAG!) to ‘˜protect and serve’the people of America. While the interview plays they attempt to distract us from the dialogue with shots of Tracy sliding out of her fancy dress, under which she is wearing nothing. But I am immune because a) I am a woman and b) I can’t stand Ali Larter. So this means I hear Nathan saying that there is a real threat to the American people, and it’s important that they take precautionary measures. (REDDER FLAG!) Tracy is also getting freaked out but not about the interview. She suddenly doesnt like the window in the bathroom being open, and I can’t hardly blame her since we get a shot of her from that perspective and it looks like there is a pinhole camera set up, watching her. She’s getting edgy, like her Spideysense is going off and she goes over and closes the window, and starts cautiously looking around her apartment. The interviewer says it looks like Nathan is talking about taking away civil liberties and Nathan dodges the question, which is pretty much the Reddest Flag of Foreshadowing ever. Within seconds, Tracy is confronted by a man covered completely in black with goggles and a big gun. She grabs him and uses her SuperFrost power but he shrugs it off! She tries to run, but there’s nowhere to go because the room is filled with more of these guys. She stops to ask, ‘Do you want me to beg?’and in the next beat we hear Nathan on the TV say ‘I’m continuing my passion for the protection of an entire nation’. Then Tracy says, ‘Well, screw you!’and I like to think she’s talking to Nathan and not the goons. She is approached by a goon with clear goggles instead of black, which has to mean he has a better IMDb resume, and therefore must be the leader. Meanwhile Nathan is talking about how God has a mission for him and he has strong religious convictions blah blah and I’m wondering why they don’t just come out and rename him George W. Bush with all the connections they are trying to beat us over the head with this whole ‘evil like a Republican’symbolism here. The goons tie her up, taking special care to cover her hands. The head goon uncovers his face and we see he’s played by Zeljko Ivanek, who TV fans will recognize from House this past fall (he takes the staff hostage to see if they can finally figure out what’s wrong with him) and Lost a couple years ago (He played Edmund Burke in the greatest character kill-off ever, being flattened by a bus that comes out of nowhere.) His character name here is The Hunter, and he makes the final obvious connection by calling someone and saying ‘Tell Petrelli we got the first one.’

Tokyo: Ando is standing with his eyes closed while Hiro opens a giant door to a building. He tells Ando to open his eyes, and that this building used to be a fire station but Hiro bought it from the city and turned it into a lair. And it is completely and totally awesome. If the Superhero thing doesn’t work out they should turn it into a nightclub called ‘Ando’s Lair.’Hiro also gives him a cool leather jacket, and a really, really uncool spandex bodysuit. He also made up a logo thats basically a sideways lightening bolt. Ando is impressed with the lair, happy with the jacket, totally put off by the bodysuit. Ando thinks he knows whats going on here; that Hiro lost his powers and is doing this to live vicariously through Ando. Hiro says ‘No!’and I believe him. Hiro knew how badly Ando wanted to be special and make a difference when Hiro was a hero, and now Hiro gets to help him do that the way Ando helped him. But Ando doesn’t even want to be a superhero any more because he doesn’t think his power is cool enough. All he does is boost the power of other superheroes. He says thanks but no thanks. Hiro isn’t thwarted that easily and shows him even more ‘cool’stuff, like the ‘Ando-cycle, which is way cooler than an ordinary motorcycle. Hiro tells Ando it has state of the art two-way communications with ‘base camp’and then totally unnecessarily mentions it needs a password, which, Hiro hints, is the name of someone very important to him. Then Hiro grabs something off the desk and hides it behind his back as he tells Ando about the GPS implant. What GPS implant? The one Hiro shoots into his arm when he’s not expectiing it. Now I’m not so keen on that jacket since it couldn’t offer any protection from that implant gun. Apparently Hiro implanted one in himself earlier. Ando has had it with the shots and the spandex and the high expectations and tells Hiro to get himself a different superhero. Then he fires up the motorcycle and drives off. Dude, I don’t think it’s really kosher to refuse the job and then take off with the best swag. Seems a bit unethical.

NYC: Peter is working as an EMT and is doing CPR on a guy in the street at the scene of an accident. They are unsuccessful and they pronounce the guy dead. Then Peter and his emo-bangs whine about how he should have saved the guy, he should have gotten to him faster, he should have been stronger. His poor partner has to coddle him by reassuring him that there was nothing anyone could have done. Over and over. I wonder if this guy hates being partnered with Peter? ‘Ah crap, I’m scheduled to work with Petrelli. The last time we were on duty it took five hours to get him to stop mumbling ‘˜I should have saved that girl.’And that was only a sprained ankle. C’mon, somebody switch with me!’

Also NYC: Claire is looking at college catalogues at Grammy Petrelli’s house. She doesn’t seem excited about going to college. She’s moody and cranky. You can definitely tell she’s related to Peter. She tells Angela that she’s appreciative and all, but she’s not interested in college. Angela tells her she’s talked about this with Claire’s father, and Claire zings back, ‘Which one?’Good question. Both of them by the way, and the Daddy Committee agree that this is her best chance for a normal life. Claire wants to know how anyone can have a normal life when ‘he’is still out there. Angela asks who is out there, but I can’t believe she hasn’t figured out who it is that Claire is afraid of. It has to be the makeup artist that covered poor Claire in a thousand layers of goop. How did she go from fresh-faced cheerleader to painted trollop in one season? It’s frightening. Wait, turns out Claire says she’s afraid of Sylar. Angela tut-tuts her, because they saw Primatech burn to the ground and they found dental remains. How come she doesn’t specify Sylar’s dental records? Claire argues, saying she found an article in her Dad’s desk that said there was a man in Memphis who went missing and at his house, the entire upstairs was filled with salt water. Neat trick. Also, Dad keeps going on trips like the old days, so she just knows what’s going on and she should be helping. She doesn’t like being benched, and makes it clear that if she has to seek out Sylar by herself, she will.

Baltimore, MD: Speak of the Devil! Sylar is walking into the store of a watchmaker, while an old record player plays ‘I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire’by The Inkspots. The shop is empty so Sylar walks around the work station and handles some of the tools and a watch lying there. He hears the cocking of a rifle and calmly looks up at an old timer with familiar looking black glasses and a cranky demeanor. He calls Sylar a ‘damn thief.’Sylar calls him ‘Martin Gray’and tells him he is his son, and that he has a few questions.

In the moldy-looking love-nest of Daphne and Matt, she is arriving home from work at 10:30 am. It sounds like she is working as a delivery person and is supposed to be doing the job legitimately, not with the help of her superspeed. Considering how fast she got it done, she’s busted. Matt razzes her a bit about how he doesn’t use his ability to rise to the top of the force, but she totally busts him by pointing out that’s because he’s just a security guard. Are they already married or something? But then she gets all supportive and says he should start his own detective agency and she’s willing to front him the cash. It would be gotten through less than honest means, but still, it’s cash. He declines. He pleads with Daphne to consider living a normal life, and she finally agrees. This is, of course, the perfect opportunity for Usutu to make himself visible in the kitchen to only Matt. Because that’s just the epitome of normal.

Back to Grandmother’s house we go: Claire comes down the stairs looking like she’s fixing to sneak out when she realizes that Angela is on the phone and that she’s talking about her. She wants in on this conversation so she does the ‘pick up the extension’trick just in time to hear that Nathan needs his mom to keep her away from Matt and Peter when they take them down. He repeats, make sure she’s as far away from them as possible. But Angela is distracted because she has seen Claire eavesdropping. Claire slams down the phone and storms out. Angela tells Nathan they have a problem without trying to stop her.

Back in Maryland, Martin is telling Sylar that he’s a much different person now than he was when Sylar was a boy. Martin offers to answer questions but Sylar just wants to hear whether or not he is Martin’s kid. Martin admits he got him from ‘a man who needed money’because Sylar’s mother really wanted a baby. More specifically, it was Martin’s brother and he is still alive. Luckily for Martin, Sylar has that lie detector power so he knows Martin is telling the truth.

Back at the accident scene in NYC Peter’s partner is asking him if he’s going to see his brother since he’s in town. He also mentions that the way Nathan is talking about ‘˜homeland security’is pretty scary to him, since his family is from Iran. He tells Peter that Nathan is speaking in code, that because people like him (the partner) are different it means they are scary, but then sarcastically says that Peter wouldn’t understand that. How wrong you are, Iranian EMT. Peter’s phone ringa and it’s Claire. She breathlessly overacts the information that they have to stop Angela and Nathan. She has figured out it is not Sylar that’s behind the disappearances of ‘specials’. Peter doesn’t understand so Claire has to repeat it –slowly– and also mentions that they are going after Matt today. I notice she doesn’t mention that they also said they are rounding up Peter as well, especially after he says ‘I’ll go talk to my mom.’He hails a cab, because apparently in NYC an EMT can just walk right off the job when their shift is over. I guess they don’t have to worry about any kind of paperwork on guys that they pronounce dead in the street. Unless he just gets his Iranian lackey to do it. In one of those big TV coincidences, the cab that picks up Peter is being driven by Mohinder. He is looking good, and considerably less scaly than the last time we saw him. They joke about the first time they met, and Mo mentions that ‘everyone’is under the radar, except of course Nathan. Mohinder thinks Nathan’s right about needing to restrict people with powers, giving himself as an example of powers gone wrong. Peter asks if he’s sure that segregation, internment camps and having to hide under ground is a ‘good idea’too, and Mo just says ‘we agree to disagree.’They part on friendly terms. Mohinders next fare is, unfortunately for him, The Hunter. ‘Where to, my friend?’Mo asks. ‘Well since you like the idea of internment camps, how about there?’The Hunter pretty much says. Mo drives to the top of a parking garage and is surrounded by more guys in black, and they want him to get in the van. So Mo gets out of the cab and rips the door clean off, smacks The Hunter, uses it to shield himself from bullets and runs down the ramp. So by being “cured” he only lost the scales, and not the superstrength? Suddenly, HRG pulls up out of nowhere and saves Mo! Yay! Mo jumps in the back and they drive like crazy all around the parking garage while HRG shouts questions frantically. ‘Have you had any contact with Claire!? What did Peter say to you!?’Mo is a little confused and even more so when HRG drives right back up to the roof and back to The Hunter. Then he says ‘Sorry, Mohinder’and jabs him in the leg with an electrical shocker thingie. I don’t think he’s really sorry at all.

Petrelli House: Peter walks in to find Nathan there. They have one of those painfully polite hostile conversations about Nathan’s national security plans. Nathan admits that this is not one of their father’s ideas, this one is all Nathan’s. He should probably start outsourcing when it comes time to come up with new ideas because his really blow. Peter calls him a ‘self-loathing hypocrite.’Nice to see Peter no longer idolizing his brother. Nathan says he’s sorry, and hey, how about Peter help him out and give him some advice? Is this one of those keep-you-enemies-closer ploys? Peter gives him the advice to kiss his ass. Then they make dinner plans. What? By the way, Nathan is just wondering what abilities Peter has these days.

Moldy Love Shack: Matt asks his turtle how he got out of the cage. Usutu wonders why he’s talking to a turtle. Matt wonders what Usutu is doing there considering the door was locked, he comes froma long way away, and the last time he saw him, Usutu was headless. Usutu tells him he’s an illusion, and that Matt has been chosen to be a prophet. Matt just wants to be normal. And he can’t tell the future in paintings because he can’t even draw. Cue the white eyeballs: Matt starts sketching.

Tokyo: Hiro is tracking Ando and trying to apologize via the 2-way communicator. He tracks Ando’s GPS implant and sees he’s at a strip club. Hiro is disappointed because Ando has a destiny and he should be fighting crime. Ando goes back to picking up chicks when through the earpiece he hears a fight. Hiro won’t answer him so he rushes back to the lair.

Matt is finishing up about a half dozen drawings. Claire bangs on the door and rushes in to warn him about being taken down. Matt doesnt really listen, he wants to talk about his new skill. He shows her the drawings and they focus in on a picture of Matt with something coming out of his neck. They learn pretty quickly that it’s a tazer type dart, and they are surrounded by goons.

Peter arrives home and Nathan is there. Dude, stop stalking your brother! Nathan apologizes and tries to explain more about his plans, and hints that Peter needs to make a certain “decision” that will result in Nathan being able to protect him. Peter repeats that he’s not “with” Nathan on this. Nathan seems to accept this pretty easily, and asks for a hug. Don’t do it Peter! I figure he’s going to jolt him but he doesn’t. Someone behind him does. It’s HRG.

Sylar arrives at Sampson Gray’s house/taxidermy studio. Gee, that sure seems about right; that a guy who cuts up things to take the insides out would be involved in Sylar’s lineage. Sylar walks right in, calling out for Mr. Gray. He sees a picture on the mantle of a kid in thick rimmed glasses that looks a lot like a young Sylar. He also sees a snow globe. He hears the squeak of a door somewhere, when he looks around he spots a cigarette smoldering in an ashtray. He kindly puts it out when suddenly he gets hit in the back with a dart. Silly mortals, they think that will have an effect on Sylar! While he’s still staggering they throw a bunch of those restraining poles they use on dogs and prisoners. It doesnt take long for Sylar to turn the tables on them, throwing them off and zapping them with his own type of shocks. He grabs one goon and levitates him, demanding answers. He asks if he walked into a trap, and who sent them. He clams up, but Sylar has a way of getting people to open up, so to speak.

Ando is at The Lair trying to figure out Hiro’s password. It’s someone important to Hiro. He tries ‘˜Kaito’and ‘˜Kensei’before realizing that the password must be ‘˜Ando’. Bet you’re sorry you doubted him now, eh Ando? He tracks Hiro to what looks like an airport.

We cut to a hanger with a C-123 military transport plane. There are also a bunch of shackled, orange clad prisoners. They have black hoods, black goggles and the heavy-duty ear protector head sets like the ones I make my kid wear at the race track. There is also some sort of device attached to each prisoner that has a keypad and numbers on it. Did I mention Nathan is there? Of course he is. The Hunter jumps out of an SUV to meet up with Nathan, and tell him they have a couple of situations. Nathan can guess that one of them is Sylar, and that they probably didn’t listen to him when he said they had to put a bullet in his head. He’s more surprised about the second problem, which is that they have captured Claire. They uncover her head and we see that the device is feeding some kind of gas into her nose to make her pretty wobbly. He has her uncuffed and sticks her in a limo, telling her she’s getting a free pass. Claire’s limo is barely out of the hanger when she kicks the driver in the head and knocks him unconscious. She hops out and chases the plane down the runway, sneaking on board by way of the landing gear when it stops to get the clearance for take off. After it is in the air, she emerges form a small door and hides behind some boxes. When the gaurds are all up at one end she starts yanking off masks. She finds Hiro, Mohinder and Peter and yanks out their nose lines. Peter reaches over and grabs Mohinders hand and grabs a little of his superstrength. Claire keeps unwrapping prisoners, like Tracy, Matt and someone I don’t recognize. Peter pulls free from his restraints and charges down the aisle to beat the crap out of the guards. He yells to Claire to go to the cockpit. She notices a zappy thingy on the floor and takes it with her. She disabled the guard and walks right into the cockpit. She tells the pilot they are going to be making an unexpected landing and then turns to the co-pilot who is HRG! They stare at each other, hardly believing the other one is there. Peter tries to free some more Specials and accidentally grabs some of Tracy’s ice power. It’s tough to tell if he is stealing the power, like his dad could do, acquiring his power like he usually does, or only able to use one power at a time, since once he gets the ice-ability, he gets beat up by the guard, like maybe his superstrength is now gone. We don’t see Mo and Tracy use their abilities after they are touched by Peter. It all goes by a little fast and hopefully we’ll learn more next week. After getting knocked into the wall, Peter touches it and it begins to freeze solid, and then it shatters, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane. He grabs ahold of some netting, but a guard isn’t so lucky, getting sucked right out of the hole. Hey, it sure is a good thing the Heroes are strapped to their chairs! Oops, maybe not. The one closest to the hole gets sucked out, chair and all. We don’t know who it is, they are still covered up, but they’re a goner since they still have the tube attached that knocks them out. It’s a little disquieting to see. The net Peter is holding onto starts to break free, but at the last second Mohinder grabs him and holds on until the episode ends. Again, I don’t know if Mo broke free with his superstrength or if he was let go by Claire. Also, I don’t understand the big deal if Peter does get sucked out since, supposedly, he should be able to fly. So has he forgotten that, or was it displaced by the last power he took?

There’s a lot I don’t know about this episode. I don’t know what’s going on with Peter’s powers. I don’t know how Hiro got from Japan to this airport that’s probably in America, just to be put on a plane to who knows where. And I don’t know anything about the weapons The Hunter is using, whether there are actual zappy dart things in the world, or if they were made up for the show. But I do know that this is a promising start to a so far ill-recieved season. This may very well be Heroes’last chance to keep the show on the air. I sense they may be borrowing from some formulas that seem to work well. In fact I already smell hints of Lost and Prison Break, but I’m ok with that. I like most of the characters and I am glad to see they will be working together for the near future.