Save the cheerleader, save the world. We’ve had those words drilled into our heads since the beginning of the season. Only in tonight’s episode of ‘Heroes,’ titled “.07%” did it occur to me that saving the world doesn’t necessarily mean stopping the big explosion in New York City. As Linderman pointed out at the beginning of the episode, only.07% of the world’s population will be lost in that explosion. That leaves 99.93% of the human race saved, for now at least. ‘Heroes’ returned tonight and put us right back into the mystery, bringing back most of the heroes, all of which seem to have a role to play in the future events.
Mr. Bennet, Matt and Ted (aka Radiation Man) are all being held captive at Primatech where Candice and Thompson await the orders to kill them. Before allowing that to happen, Bennet communicates with Matt telepathically and helps him escape his own cell and then free Ted. By then the alarms have gone off. Bennet tells Matt to tell Ted to use his power to set off an electromagnetic pulse. Ted isn’t sure he can without blowing up the building in the process but Bennet advises him to burn bright rather than burning hot. Ted follows his advice and it works. The two consider leaving Bennet behind but then decide he might be useful to them if they really want to take Primatech down. They get him out and the three escape the building.
They end up at the Burnt Toast Diner where they decide what their next move should be. Matt mentions that Linderman is in charge of Primatech and quickly realizes that Bennet had no idea about this because apparently, he’s nothing more than middle management in the organization. Rather than going to Vegas to find Linderman, they decide to head out to New York City to find a way to take down the heroes tracking system.
Linderman has a talk with Nathan about his future. He reveals to Nathan his power to heal by reviving a dead plant. He goes on to explain that many years ago, he and a group of other people with special powers came together to try and help others like themselves. Eventually the group fell apart as people went on to pursue their own personal goals. Linderman now believes that saving one person at a time wont work. There needs to be something bigger to bring the world together. He’s referring to the big explosion. He tells Nathan that by winning the election he will be on track to be president, as is foretold in all of the artwork he’s collected (which includes a number of paintings, not all of which are Isaac’s).
Nathan tells Linderman that the exploding man is his brother, to which Linderman responds that Peter has his role to play and that his “curtain call” will come the day after Nathan wins the election. Nathan is unsure that this whole destiny thing is necessary and leaves Linderman’s gallery.
Claire found her way to the Petrelli house and meets her grandmother, Angela. Angela knows who Claire is and what she can do. Its clear from the start that this woman has secrets of her own and probably her own special power. She doesn’t reveal this though it felt like she was on the verge to more than once in the episode. Claire looks at a picture of Peter and Nathan and makes the connection, realizing that Peter is her uncle. Angela explains that Peter never knew his brother had a daughter. She also admits that she knew Claire survived the fire when she was a baby, though Nathan did not. She tells Claire that its best if she takes her to Paris until the election is over. Claire wants to meet her father but Angela argues that this is for the best.
Meanwhile, back at Mohinder’s, we get a brief rewind from the last new episode and see Peter come into the apartment. He finds Mohinder pinned to the ceiling. Mohinder barely has time to warn Peter about Sylar before Peter finds himself pinned to the wall. Sylar attempts to slice open his head but Peter’s healing ability keeps closing up the wound. Peter fights back by using his telekinesis and invisibility powers. He knocks Sylar out briefly enough for Mohinder to come crashing down from the ceiling. Sylar raises some broken glass and sprays it in front of him. Though he can’t see Peter, a large shard of glass finds its way into Peter’s skull, killing him.
Mohinder shoves a piece of furniture into Sylar, which knocks him out cold. Now, the rest of us knew that all Mohinder needed to do to save Peter was to pull the glass out. We saw Claire come back to life after that big chunk of wood was pulled from her skull, so it’s likely that Peter can be brought back as well. Mohinder brings Peter back to his home where his mother and Claire are. His mother is devastated by the death of her son. She sends Mohinder away and grieves over Peter’s body.
Nathan returns home and finds his brother dead. Angela insists that they hide Peter’s body until after the election. Claire comes into the room and asks to see Peter. She leans over him and says she’s sad that she didn’t get to know him because she felt like she could trust him. Just then she notices the glass and pulls it out of his head. Peter’s eyes return back to normal and he takes a big gulp of air.
After Peter has a chance to shower off all of the blood, he and his brother have a talk about Claire. Peter thinks that if she’s around maybe things will be different and the explosion wont happen. He tries to convince Nathan to let Claire stay. Just then, Angela walks in. The two of them look at her and Peter says they need to tell her something. Angela interrupts and tells them that she knows about their abilities and that she’s known long before they did.
Later, Nathan and Claire have a heart to heart. He tells his daughter that until the election she should go to Paris but that after he wins she can come home to her family. Claire is sad but seems to accept this.
Jessica is on the outs with DL, now that he is aware of her situation and the fact that she has an agenda. She leaves after an argument because she has to meet with Linderman. When she arrives, Linderman requests that Jessica loan Micah to him. Jessica refuses but its clear that Linderman was only extending the request as a courtesy. Later he sends Candice, posing as Niki/Jessica, to Micah’s house to retrieve him. Linderman goes along, introduces himself to Micah and asks him if he wants to help save the world. Micah, believing his mother approves of this, goes along with him without question.
Isaac has been staring at the painting he did of himself lying on the floor with the top of his head sliced off. A courier arrives to pick up Isaac’s final installment to the Hiro comic. He is apparently a comic-geek and a huge fan of Isaac’s work. Isaac tells him that this is the last edition to the series and shows the guy the cover. At the top it has the “9th Wonders” logo and underneath it says “Hiro In The Future.” He gives the guy his sketchbook as well, to keep as a gift, saying that maybe it will be worth something some day. The guy is beyond grateful and leaves.
When Sylar shows up, he’s a bit surprised to learn that Isaac was expecting him. Though Isaac glances briefly at his gun, he doesn’t really try to stop Sylar from pinning him to the floor using paintbrushes to nail him down. Isaac tells Sylar that he knows he’s meant to die now but that he will die a hero because he’s going to show them how to kill Sylar and stop the bomb. Sylar ignores this and proceeds with the skull-slicing.
As foretold in Isaac’s comic, Hiro and Ando are indeed in the future. They’re in New York five years from the present and looking over the devastated city. There are cranes and machines working on the buildings ahead of them. It’s apparent that people are trying to rebuild what was lost in the explosion. Ando suggests Hiro blink them out of the future so they can get back to the present and try to change it but Hiro thinks it might be wise to stick around and figure out what happened so that when they go back, they know how to stop it.
They go to Isaac’s place, hoping that because Sylar was captured, Isaac survived. When they arrive, they find the loft cluttered with drawings and newspaper clippings hung from the ceiling like some kind of weird puzzle. They deduce that it is some kind of timeline mapping out the events that followed the explosion. We see a clipping of Nathan Petrelli with a caption that implies that he did in fact unite the people after the catastrophe that destroyed most of New York City.
They hear a noise and a man approaches. It is future-Hiro.
So what did you think of the episode? Do you think future Hiro will give present-Hiro the information he needs to stop the explosion? Is stopping the explosion what really needs to happen because Linderman doesn’t seem to think so? And speaking of Linderman, who else was in this secret society of heroes? Hiro’s dad? Peter and Nathan’s mother? Angela Petrelli and Kaito Nakamura would be about the right age to fit into that club and both seem to know a lot more about what’s going on thanthey’ve admitted.
Here’s a crazy theory for you all to ponder. I think when Peter was dead he looked back on his life and realized how ridiculous his hair was. Anyone notice the new hairstyle he was sporting post-mortem? Much better!
Post a comment below with your ideas and theories or check out our Heroes forum here!
