Heroes: The Future Looks Bleak

Apparently that world we all dream of where we get to choose our favorite superpower and run amok, leaping off of tall buildings and shooting fireballs out of our hands, actually equals doomsday.

This is the future we find Peter and Future Peter trying to change.  It’s four years later, and people have injected themselves with a formula that apparently gives 50% of the population the power of flight.  Future Peter tells Peter that he must seek Sylar’s help, and then is gunned down by Future Claire.  If this is the Claire we started to see transform in last week’s episode, I’m officially scared.  Luckily Peter escapes.

We’re now treated to a future scene, completely populated with future heroes.  I’m glad the writers decided to go this route instead of seeing everything through Peter’s eyes.  Heroes has become a total “cast” show, which is also where the problem lies.  So much happens so fast in one episode; I can barely digest it all before the next week!

In Future-world, Claire, Daphne and Knox, one of last week’s escaped villains, are a team, and they need Molly to track down Peter.  Remember her?!  (She was afraid of the boogieman in Season Two, who turned out to be Maury Parkman.)  Future Parkman is completely against this idea and has apparently set up shop with Daphne, Molly and a newborn.  He begs Daphne to “slow down,” and realize she has a family (Silly pun, Heroes writers!).  But it’s a battle he loses.

Peter goes to the only place he can think of, I guess, which happens to be Mohinder’s pad.  Mohinder (who’s channeling Quasimodo) warns him not to look for Sylar.  After some mindplay, Peter gets his location and teleports.  What he finds is even stranger than last week’s Sylar/Noah pairing.  The writers are really playing with our heads this season.  I’m not sure I’m prepared!  Sylar has morphed into Mr. Martha Stewart with child, which plays with Peter’s head as well.  It’s clear that he’s not prepared either.

The audience finally gets confirmation that Sylar’s power is an understanding of how things work.  He warns Peter that with his power comes an intense hunger.  (So Sylar isn’t all bad…interesting.)  However, once Sylar gets a glimpse of the not-so-far away future, he helps Peter absorb and understand his power.  Not a second goes by, and Future Claire, Daphne and Knox, ambush the brotherly bake fest.

The scene that ensues is an awesome showdown.  I miss these powers-in-action, en masse scenes.  (I remember watching the Season One fight scene and rooting like I was at a Knicks game.)  However, Sylar’s kid is killed, and the showdown is over.  Instead it’s total meltdown time.  It’s reminiscent of the radioactive man from Season One.  Lots of people die and Peter is captured.  Claire is, of course, unscathed and plans to sadistically torture her uncle, but Nathan puts a stop to it.  He tries to convince Peter that his intentions for the future are pure, but Peter gets a little over excited about REALLY understanding his intentions.  Remember that hunger Sylar warned him about.  It’s a hunger to know more and more.  And ripping a page out of the Sylar handbook, he slices open Nathan’s head.  Back in the present, Peter teleports straight to Sylar and tells him what’s happened to him, and Sylar couldn’t be more happy to finally have something in common with his brother.

Elsewhere in Heroes-verse:

*Mohinder’s rash gets worse, and he realizes there’s no cure.  When he comes to the rescue of a domestic dispute, he realizes his aggression is out of control and gives in to it.

*Tracy’s doc-creator says he made triplets: Niki, Tracy and Barbara.  She tries to get more information out of him, but all he can tell her is that some company commissioned the work.  THE Company perhaps?

*When Nathan finally listens to the invisible Linderman’s advice, he ends up saving a suicidal Tracy who has decided that life’s not worth living when you freeze people to death.  They smooch.  Random relationships are popping up all over the place!

*In Africa, Matt witnesses the future that Past Peter creates.  He sees Daphne’s death after Sylar’s meltdown and is now on a quest to find his animal spirit guide.  This storyline is getting a smidge too crazy for me. Africa-man is officially a turtle?!

*Hiro and Ando, stuck in Level 2 are forced to face their qualms with each other.  Ando hates that Hiro doesn’t trust him and Hiro hates that Ando kills him in the future.  I’d say Hiro should be cut some slack.  After a chat with Angela, Hiro’s destiny quest is reignited as he holds the key to the one thing that can save the world.  But I can’t say that this blast from the past is too happy to see him when he’s dug up!

I could talk about Heroes at length.  Seriously, each episode has an earth-shattering amount of recap material.  (Haha! Catch my own silly pun!) Adieu, until next week!

Season 3, Episode 4: I Am Become Death (originally aired October 6, 2008)

For another take on this episode, check out Timeline Twister by Paul Secrest.

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Photographs courtesy of NBC