No Hiro or Peter on this week’s Heroes. Which is fine, because it left more time for something everybody’s been eagerly awaiting …
Claire and West go on their first date!
But first, Claire has to find an excuse to get out of the house. At the dinner table, she’s all, “Library!” and the brother’s all, “Internet!” and Noah’s all, “Hmmm,” and the mother’s all, “MISTER MUGGLES!” and Claire’s all, “Leaving now,” and turns the corner and West is all, “Did I mention that guy with the horn-rimmed glasses fifty times yet?” and Claire’s all, “More flying, less talking,” and he’s all, “Whooosh!” and Noah rounds the corner and is all, “Hmmmm,” and West is all, “The Hollywood sign?” and Claire’s all, “I like heights,” and he’s all, “Might as well jump,” and she’s all, “Jump!” and he’s all, “Go ahead, jump,” and she’s all, “JUMP!” and she jumps, and he catches her, and (I got the Haitian to delete the next two cheesy lines of dialog and the kiss from my brain), and he drops her off, and he’s all, “Lie about me to your father, but don’t suspect me of betraying you later, which I probably will,” and she’s all, “What did you just say?” and he’s all, “Never mind,” and she goes home, and Noah’s all, “Boys!” and Claire’s all, “Cheerleaders!” and Noah’s all, “Hmmmmm,” and Claire’s all, “Bed now!” Then the Haitian arrives, and he and Noah begin to plan their romantic Texas getaway, and we’re back at Season 1 again, with Claire and her father lying to each other all the time.
Oh, guess what? Maya & Alejandro are still in Mexico! But at least they finally do something interesting — if not unintentionally stupid — when they find Sylar unconscious in the middle of the road and decide to give him a ride. This of course ends badly for the un-super kid driving the car, but since he stole the car from Claire to begin with, we’ll just chalk that up to some delayed karma. Now our merry band of three is heading for New York to find Suresh, and you can almost see Sylar drooling at the prospect of getting his hands on Maya’s black tears power. But for now, he still seems to be neutered.
In New York, Mama Petrelli confesses to killing Kaito Nakamura, and Matt enlists Nathan’s aid to clear her name and find the real Hero Killer. This leads them to a photograph of what I’ll call “The Twelve” — a group of old-schoolers that includes Mama & Papa Petrelli, Hiro’s father, Simone’s father, possibly Simone’s mother, the Midas Touch guy, Linderman, a blonde woman (Victoria Tennant?) next to Linderman, a Hispanic man (possibly M&A’s father?), a white-haired man, Joanna Cassidy(?), and … Matt Parkman’s father (cue the Dramatic Prairie Dog). Which definitively establishes that genetics have a lot to do with whether or not somebody gets powers.
Matt brings the photo home to his wife … er, Mohinder that is. Then he shows it to Molly, hoping she’ll be able to use her power to help him find his father, only to learn that his father is (cue it again) … The Nightmare Man! Not to be confused with The Night Man. After some gnashing of teeth and a surprising lack of empathy on Matt’s part — you know, since he’s a telepath and all — Molly agrees to use her power to find TNM. She tracks him down to an apartment in Philly, at which point, TNM somehow traps Molly inside her own head, effectively putting her in a coma. Nice parenting there, Matt.
Meanwhile, down in New Orleans, WHERE HURRICANE KATRINA HAPPENED (in case you hadn’t already read the newspapers or weren’t paying attention to the dozen or so mentions of it in this episode), a new hero is added to the mix. Her name is Monica, she’s Micah’s cousin, she works at a burger joint but just can’t get a break, and let me tell you friends, she’s got dreams! Someday, somehow, she plans to shake the dust of this crummy old town off her feet and see the world. “You’ll be swell! You’ll be great! Gonna have the whole world on a plate! Startin here, startin now –” Um. Yeah, anyway, she’ll probably get her wish, because it turns out she has some kind of visual learning power, either the same or similar to what Charlie the Waitress had. Should be interesting.