…and Nathan Met Niki…and Peter Met Hiro…and…well, you get the idea. Lots of meetings going on.
So Matt wakes up on an examining table, looking into the eyes of Claire’s dad, who assures Matt that they’re just testing him and that he just needs to relax. Of course, he’s lying, so it’s uncertain as to whether we can trust his claim that he’s not FBI or CIA. He assures Cop Boy that he’s very special…just as special as his buddy, who then proceeds to not only wipe out Matt’s memories but also apparently prevent him from appearing at any other point during the episode.
Claire manages to put herself back together – so to speak – after waking up on the autopsy table and more or less makes it home in one piece. She manages to endure a few stern comments from her father, along with a grilling from her buddy about the events of the previous evening, before discovering that the football player who raped her has done it to other girls. She quickly extracts her harsh revenge on him…not that he doesn’t deserve punishment, but, damn, that kind of crash could kill a guy!
Mohinder tries to warn Nathan about a possible attempt on his life, but he doesn’t buy it, saying, “Can you be more specific? 12 percent of the populace doesn’t approve of me.” Nathan then proceeds to go yell at Peter, certain that he’s the one who told Mohinder where to find him…and, although he didn’t, it leads Peter to go hunt down Mohinder. After bitching at Peter, Nathan then promptly flies off to Las Vegas where…what’s this?…he meets up with Niki. And, boy, does he meet up with Niki; she’s been asked to roger him roundly in order to even things up with Mr. Linderman. As it happens, though, she really digs him…and although she begs off at first, her better (?) half thinks better of it. Then again, you work up a sexual appetite after kicking a guy’s ass. By the way, there are a lot of great lines in the episode, but the best has to be, “Niki’s not here right now.”
It’s weird that, when Peter meets Mohinder, for someone whose dad has done nothing but go on about the untapped human potential, Mohinder’s pretty damned skeptical of Peter’s claims. Still, he listens…and, during a subway ride together, Mohinder starts to warm up to Peter. Meanwhile, Isaac and his woman have a decidedly tense one-on-one about his powers and her evening with Peter…but, for the first time, Isaac’s finally stopped whining and started taking control of his abilities. “I’m going to save the world,” he says to himself…and you damned well believe him, particularly after he discovers how to access his future visions without shooting heroin. When he sees and subsequently paints Claire, it’s the second time in the episode one of the other heroes has referenced her in some capacity – Matt asks “who’s Claire” immediately before getting his memories wiped by Claire’s dad’s buddy. Not that it’s any secret that Claire is clearly the tie that binds the heroes together; the “coming next week” segments have been spoiling that for the past few weeks. Why ruin it for us, you bastards?!?
The moment when Hiro looks skyward and offers a look of apology right before he stops time and allows Ando to win is brilliant…not quite as brilliant as Ando preying on Hiro’s knowledge of super-hero mythos to convince him to continue cheating, but almost on par with the expression on the face of Ando’s cowboy-hat-sporting poker opponent when he watches his full house turn into junk before his eyes. Nice “Rain Man” moment when the pair of them come down the escalator wearing matching grey suits…right before they get thrown out of the casino and into the path of the now very angry cowboy-hat-sporting poker opponent. I can only presume the scene of Ando shitting himself will appear on the “Heroes: Season 1” DVD set as a special feature…
So the two big mysteries at the episode are…
1) Why did Claire’s dad only want one member of the post-coital couple in Vegas?
2) From how far in the future did Hiro come to speak to Peter? Because there ain’t no trace of an accent in his English…
Did I mention how much I love this show…?
