TV Recap: Heroes - Into Asylum

Things are beginning to look interesting! I messed up and thought last week was a rerun, so I try to hit the high points this week. This week, Angela and Peter begin to form a plan, Danko gets a new partner, HRG continues to play both sides, and Claire finally smack some sense into her father. THIS... is Heroes.

First of all, apparently I missed an episode last week, though I was sure it was a rerun. The highlights of that episode:

~ Micah was finally confirmed to be Rebel. Is anyone really surprised?

~ Tracy planned to use herself as bait to help catch Rebel/Micah, but decided to help him escape instead and died in the process.

~ Daphne died from the gunshot wound becoming infected, probably for good this time.

~ Baby Parkman's power is the ability to "turn things on." He turns on Hiro's ability to stop time, though not his ability to teleport, just as agents are raiding the house they've been hiding in. Hiro, Ando, and Baby Matt all escape.

~ Angela was almost captured, but Peter showed up just in time to fly her away.

Now on to this week's show. Several of Danko's agents were killed trying to capture a science teacher whose DNA had raised some red flags. HRG gives Danko crap not for violating civil liberties, but for going after a posthuman without knowing their powerset. Danko blows him off, noting that HRG hasn't been terribly successful, either.

When Danko goes to his car, Sylar's waiting for him and offers a partnership, noting that they both want the same thing - to kill people with powers. Danko pretends to hear him out, but is really just going for his gun. When he finally draws the gun, though, Sylar is gone.

Back at Building 26, Danko gives a rousing speech to his subordinates, exhorting them to remember their fallen comrades whenever they go out in the field to complete their missions.

HRG again suggests his old model of "one of us, one of them", saying it's not trusting the posthumans, just using them as weapons and likening it to the military working with the locals to complete their objective. HRG wants to go after Sylar next, but Danko instead sends him after Angela Petrelli once again.

After HRG leaves, one of the survivors of the science teacher massacre stops by to thank Danko for a rousing, inspirational speech. Just then, a cell phone sitting on a box starts ringing. When Danko answers, Sylar's on the other end to tell him that he's found a body that Danko's people missed and that he figured out what the science teacher's power is - the proof is in the box. Danko then does a passable Brad Pitt impression by asking "What's in the box?" They totally go with the Se7en rip-off when Danko opens the box and finds the head of the agent who just was in his office. The science teacher is a shapeshifter.

Apparently convinced, Danko joins up with Sylar to hunt down the shapeshifter. Their first stop is his apartment, where Sylar plans to get into their target's head by sorting through his belongings. He finally finds a closet full of costumes - priest's frocks, police uniforms, and so on - and draws the connection of men in power. He then finds a group of pictures of different men (in those costumes) and women and concludes that the shapeshifter likes to pose as men of power in order to get a little lovin'. He then conveniently finds a matchbook from a club and the game is afoot.

At the club, Danko and Sylar finally spot... Danko hitting on a girl. Danko is nonplussed, but Sylar is amused that the shapeshifter thinks that Danko has some kind of power. They begin to close in on him, but the shapeshifter spots them and makes a run for it. Eventually, Danko and Sylar meet back up and claim to have lost him again, maybe for good this time, and plan to leave, but they're both acting weird. Danko leads the way out of the club, and Sylar draws a gun just as they exit, but Danko spins around and shoots him first.

The real Sylar then comes running and is shocked that Danko killed the shapeshifter. Danko points out that he's still alive and tells Sylar to avoid the whole head cutting thing.

The next day, HRG shows up at the scene to see "Sylar's" body being zipped into a body-bag with a knife jabbed into the back of his head. Everyone now thinks Sylar is dead, which makes things very convenient for him and Danko.

Angela and Peter have fled to a church so Angela can pray and be angsty and apologize to her son a million times, which is literally all that happens until some agents show up and the Petrellis hide in a confessional. Angela keeps yammering to Peter and apologizing until the confessional door is yanked open. Luckily for them, it's HRG. After staring at them a moment, he yells "Clear!" and the agents leave the church. Now over her emo phase, Angela has decided that it's time to find Nathan and Claire, so that their family is finally whole, and then go find her sister, whom Peter seems to be surprised to find out even exists.

After hovering outside her window, Nathan and Claire are hiding out in Mexico. There's plenty of their typical bickering - Claire is disappointed in her father and wants to know why he gave her a free pass, Nathan just says that things are complicated and there's nothing he can do to fix it anymore. After losing a tequila drinking contest to earn some money (Claire wins the rematch due to her regeneration not allowing her to get drunk), Nathan is in a more confessional mood. He tells Claire that he gave her a free pass in the hopes of winning her over in a single gesture. He also babbles about dealing with problems by ignoring them and making a big mess of everything. He promises to fix everything in the morning and passes out.

In the morning, though, Nathan goes back to saying there's nothing he can do. Claire then launches into a speech about always thinking he was a great man and could do anything. Nathan tries to insist that he's just one man and can't do anything. Claire insists that he can fly, he can do anything. He parting, tear-filled shot, is "You were supposed to be Superman!"

She appears to finally have gotten through to him, because he meets up with her on the street and invites her to come along as he heads back north.