Heroes: Turn and Face the Strange

Things are so much more coherent in this new arc. I should give props to the writers because it makes my job of retelling the story that much easier. This week, Matt and Danko came head to head, when Matt sought revenge for Daphne’s death. Mohinder found some long lost files. And things began to unravel for the Company Man.

I’ll focus on the two major storylines this episode, but I’ll be sure to point out some of the more minute things that happened as well, so don’t worry. I always love a good HRG storyline, and this one didn’t disappoint.

The tension between Noah and Danko is still building. Clearly, Danko does not trust Noah, while Noah knows that something is a little off about the death of Sylar. Both have to put those thoughts on hold when Sandra shows up at Building 26, wanting to get some answers about the whereabouts of her daughter.

Noah tries to soft pedal her, but she’s not having any of it. He’s done it to her before, and she’s tired of it. (For such a small character, they’ve done some great development from Season One with her character.) We know she’s safe with her other papa, but Noah doesn’t want to divulge that information to Sandra because, of course, he’s protecting her. (I would slap him. Since when did their partnership become unequal? He doesn’t get to make ALL the decisions, and then, claim that he’s protecting her. Sorry, man!)

Later on, Sandra returns to Noah’s apartment, serving him with divorce papers. He’s crushed, but is this real? Of course not, guys! It’s Sylar, toying with him and doing a damn good job at it. This is the hint that Noah’s been looking for, though. When his wife’s signatures don’t match up, he requests to see Sylar’s body, which is about to be cremated. He gets there in the nick of time, and removes the glass from “Sylar’s” head. When he doesn’t come back to life, he runs the guy’s DNA and finds out it’s another hero which sends him into a tizzy. Tizzy is probably too gentle a word for what ensues, but let’s roll with it.

He confronts Danko, acting like he’s Sylar, and happens to catch him because Danko has momentarily gone stupid. Having exposed Danko and Sylar’s pairing, Danko says that Sylar is posing as one of their agents. When Noah confronts the agent, in front of everyone, it escalates to the point where he shoots the agent and expects him to heal. After lots of blood seeps out, it looks pretty clear that Noah just murdered an innocent man in cold blood. It’s at this point that he BOUNCES! Really fast. I would too. Of course, afterward, we see the agent get up, heal, morph in to Sylar and spit out the bullet. So Danko did lead him right to Sylar. Good thing Noah didn’t go for the kill or Sylar really would be dead.

When Danko’s not at Building 26, he’s basically being followed and held at gunpoint by Matt who has vengeance on the brain. He uses his mind tricks to make Danko feel like something is off and take him straight to the person he cares about the most. This person happens to be an escort, the only person he can get loving from, but the escort does seem to really care for him.

Once Danko’s gone, Matt goes in, intent on killing the woman, but we know Matt’s a softie. Instead, he tells her everything about Danko’s evil ways and all his lies and forces her along with him to confront Danko at his apartment.

There he holds her at gunpoint, screaming for Danko to fess up. In the end, he does, but he even goes so far as to say that he doesn’t care AT ALL for her and would never put his job and duty of eliminating the threat that those with powers cause.

This drives Matt crazy, and it’s so crushing to see his raw emotions and what Daphne’s death has done to him, but he still can’t pull the trigger. And Danko sees his opportunity to take him down. He shoots, but time freezes.

Hiro’s here to save the day. “That was close,” he says, as he zips Matt out of there, leaving Danko to deal with the woman he loves who no longer wants anything to do with him. Here, we also get to see Danko’s emotional side, as it’s clear he really does care for her.

SIDENOTES

Luckily Hiro came when he did, because with all the searching he and Ando have been doing, toting Baby Matt Parkman along, it seemed like they would never get there. So cute to see Baby Parkman and Big Parkman reunited. Babies always make people more sane, and Matt’s back to his smiley ways.

Mohinder also happens to find some of his father’s documents that were left in storage. They point to an Operation Icarus (Now in mythology, Icarus, trying to escape Crete, flew too close to the sun with wax wings and plummeted to his death. What this has to do with anything beats me.) Whatever it is, it’s cause enough to pull out the old yarn and map and start connecting people and places and events again. Oh Mohinder, some things never change.

Angela has a vision of a place called Coyote Sands. It somehow linked to Mohinder’s newly discovered operation, though we know not why or how. (It’s already ominous, but the more they refer to it during the show with no explanation, there more I want to rip my hair out. Tell me! I’m so impatient.) She brings along Peter, and they meet up with Nathan, Claire and Noah.

The two reunions of Peter and Nathan, who are still on the outs, and Claire and Noah, who are in that awkward “I am your father, and I know what’s best. But I’m all grown-up and want to save the world” phase, will definitely be interesting. But what’s more interesting is the never-ending pile of bones they find buried. How does Angela know this place, and what happened? (She looks absolutely distraught and haunted, by the way.)

All I know is we’ve only got a few more weeks to watch, and I’m still interested, whereas last arc, it would have been more interesting with the TV on mute! So hooray for Heroes, once again one of my weekly pleasures.

Season 3, Episode 22: Turn and Face the Strange (originally aired April 6, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out Marital Whoa by Paul Secrest.

For more on Heroes, click here.

Mondays at 9/8C on NBC

Photographs courtesy of NBC