Heroes: Building 26

Everyone’s been staying busy since many of them crashed in the midwest. Claire saved a comic book geek and stood up to her dad…again. Ando and Hiro were the worst kind of wedding crashers. Nathan was put in hot water, and Sylar grew closer to his new buddy Luke.

Though most of our heroes didn’t cross paths Monday night, the episode felt a lot more cohesive and focused. We followed on a few storylines, and many of our heroes didn’t even grace our screens. As long as they stick to a clearly defined path and concentrate on more of our heroes’ internal struggles, I don’t mind less Peter or Mohinder. We’ll see them when we need to!

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

One thing is clear after tonight. Luke is, most definitely, not a shy teenager. If I were cooped up in a car with Sylar, I wouldn’t be able to control my nervous eye twitch. Yet Luke continues to push Sylar as close to the edge as possible. He quickly labels Sylar a serial killer and taunts that his father sold him for cash. Even knowing that Sylar can read minds, he repeatedly lies about where his father was and where they were going. (How annoying is that feeling of not knowing where you’re going until you’re right at the turn? I feel your pain, Sylar.) By holding information hostage, Luke convinces Sylar to stop at a diner. It’s here that they really bond when Sylar shares his code (á la my favorite murderer Dexter Morgan.) And right before the moment gets too gushy, SWAT Ninjas drops in. They get off a few rounds in Sylar, but Luke distracts the men long enough for his new mentor to get to the car. Luke runs after him but is greeted with a locked passenger door. Seemingly doomed to join Tracy, Luke is caught, but Sylar returns, killing all the ninjas still hanging around. He tells Luke, he only came back for the mens’ tracker, and that he was just lucky, but I say Sylar is our new baddie with a heart of gold.

Bollywood Wedding

Ando and Hiro reach the destination depicted in Parkman’s drawing. Hiro’s so excited, it’s like he just drank eight cups of coffee. He goes off in search of the Indian bride, but Ando find her first. She never wanted this wedding, but it was arranged to get the groom of her father’s back. When Ando shows her his supercharge power, she confesses that she prayed for a sign from God signaling to her it was okay to be a runaway bride. Hiro’s disappointed because Ando took his destiny from right under him, but Ando thinks he’s just jealous. Unfortunately, destiny proved again to be unfaltering when Hiro has to save Ando, who was kidnapped by the very angry groom, and convince the bride (again) to call off the wedding. It’s at this point, Hiro gets his own sign, when he realizes the reason he was sent to rescue the bride was not to regain his powers but to realize he can be a hero without powers.

Operation Go

Nathan doesn’t only have the Hunter to worry about when Abby Collins, played by the lovely Moira Kelly (One Tree Hill), turns up to shut down his operation. She’s had enough after she sees Tracy, an old Washington acquaintance, inhumanely strapped down in an extremely hot cell. (Things look pretty bad for our pretty boy.) Until…Tracy escapes! Amid her struggle with some of the ninjas, she ices and disintegrates one of them, and that’s all Abby needs to witness to change her mind. (Maybe a little fast of a shift but okay.) Nathan will now have all the money and aid he needs to get the job done. Later, when Nathan visits Tracy, she confesses that she knows he loosened her straps and wanted her to escape. Of course, he would never, but this sets off a lightbulb in his head. He beelines it to the Hunter and questions how he could sacrifice one of his own men. The Hunter SO creepily acknowledges that sometimes, when you’re in a war, there will be casualties.

Rebel With a Cause

Contact with the anonymous texter has gotten Claire all jazzed up, and you can’t put Baby in a corner. Rebel sends her a text message that says to warn Alex at the comic book store. I guess it’s a small town, so off she goes. A baffled Alex wonders why a pretty girl walked into the store looking for her, when Noah arrives. Using some stealthy cell phone action, Claire distracts her father long enough for the two of them to escape. Alex shares his super lung powers with Claire on their ride back to Casa de Bennet. (How is this kid dangerous, again?) At home, she spills the beans about dad’s real job to her extremely gullible mother who promptly kicks Papa Bear out. In a tender moment, Noah and Claire say goodbye to each other, and he promises to try and learn how to be a better man. But we know Claire isn’t going to try and be a less pain-in-the-ass daughter, especially since once he leaves, she pulls Alex out of the closet and throws him a sleeping bag.

I will say, this is the first recap that wasn’t a brain-spasm to write. Everything flowed really well, and I even liked the final surprise scene where we see a drugged Noah and get screen wide reveal of Peter, Parkman and Mohinder. What are those sneaky boys up to? I’m finally interested, writers. You hooked me again, and it only took two great episodes.

Season 3, Episode 16: Building 26 (originally aired February 16, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out Monsoon Wedding Crashers by Paul Secrest.

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Mondays at 9/8C on NBC

Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal, Chris Haston