Heroes 4-15 “Pass/Fail”
Hiro wonders if he’s dead, and Sark tells him that’s up to the Judge. The Judge? None other than Hiro’s dad, George Takei! He is accused of willfully altering the timeline for personal gain, a crime punishable by death.
That’s promising, but now we’re back to a Claire scene. She arrived for a study group, only the man at the chalkboard turns out to be Sylar, and he’s written “Why Clare Bennet” on the board and surrounded it with tiny crazy-guy notes. Maybe there are clues on the board, just like the one in Rip Hunter’s lab!
At the Carnical, Vanessa is alarmed to wake up in a dingy carnie trailer. She heads outside, only to see Samuel waiting for her. He tries to force her to reminisce, but she’s pretty creeped out. His point is that he broke her record player when they were kids, but he fixed it. She’s unimpressed, but agrees to stay for breakfast.
While Hiro is in the hospital, he’s also on trial in his subconscious. In a nice touch, the courtroom is actually the old Burnt Toast Diner. That is where he started wrecking things, after all. Hiro demands a lawyer, so the judge provides him with Ando. Or Dream Ando, I guess. Sark’s first witnesses are Ando and Hiro’s sister. Hee.
Claire threatens to kill Sylar. He says it feels like a lifetime since he killed Nathan. Brother, you don’t know the half of it. He shows Claire his magic tattoo of her face. We can also now see that he really just wrote “Why Claire Bennet” a million times on the board, in an array of sizes and fonts. Sylar makes a vague threat involving Gretchen, and now Claire is paying attention.
Sylar promises that Claire will see Gretchen again as soon as she answers a few questions. Take your time, Claire! He starts listing their similarities – they’re adopted, their fathers were killers, they can’t be killed themselves, etc. Sylar’s point is that despite the similarities, they ended up so different. Claire starts to storm out, but Sylar stops her in his tracks. He really wants to know what it is that’s wrong with him. He’s going to use Lydia’s powers to read Claire by touching her. Since when was that Lydia’s power? He totally goes all creepy uncle and kisses her.
Samuel and Vanessa are in an ice cream parlor, where he orders her favorite, a strawberry milkshake. He keeps citing memories they share, and it’s clear that Vanessa no longer wants anything to do with him, but Samuel just keeps trying to bring up an emotional reaction. He actually puts two straws in the milkshake, which is skeevy and also sort of sweet.
In the hospital, Hiro is fading fast. Back in the mental courtroom, the young versions of Hiro’s sister and Ando are testifying that Hiro changed the past to make them fall in love. Modern Dream Ando calls that a selfless act. Sark asks if that means that altering the timeline is OK as long as nobody gets hurt. Hiro agrees to that. Sark is happy with that answer, as he’s ready for his next witness. Sylar.
In the real world, Sylar is impressed at how much Claire is like him – she uses her power to make it impossible to connect with other people. Actually, I think she just uses her personality for that. He also taunts Claire about almost being a lesbian – in fact, he suggests that Gretchen really is the one she loves. Claire then jams a pen into Sylar’s eye and runs away.
Dream Sylar says that he’s killed hundreds of people, and that Hiro told him that if he didn’t kill Charlie, he could kill the cheerleader and whoever else he wanted. Hiro did say that in the revised timeline, to be sure. Interesting that Sylar wasn’t changed at all by the revision, though. Sylar was killing everybody he could in the old timeline, too. Of course, they have an irritating tendency to overlook any ramifications of changing the past – exactly one thing is altered, without any further repercussions. The cheerleader that Sylar mistakenly killed in the first season to pop up and remind everybody that somebody did indeed get hurt. However, Sylar killed her in the original timeline anyway. Of course, this may just be Hiro’s hallucination rather than an actual cosmic tribunal. Still, it’s vexing. Sylar then goes on to list all the other people he killed, but once again, he killed them all in the original timeline. I’m going to have to start smacking people.
However, Sark’s point is that Hiro should have stopped Sylar from killing all those people, instead of letting them go free. OK, that makes a little more sense. Hiro leaps to his feet to talk about how wonderful Charlie was. Cue Sark and his final witness, Charlie. But Sark points out that she can’t come because she’s lost in time. Because of Hiro. The prosecution rests.
Samuel is talking about the cottage where he and Vanessa talked about living when they were kids. He’s starting to get to her, because she is apparently a moron. He runs her out to Lot 48, where he and Plant Guy are building their park. Only, the Carnival has moved since that happened, and I’m kind of confused. But that was a pretty sweet Parks and Recreation reference on my part, right? She is impressed, but says she can’t pack up and live with him. She has an actual life that she can’t leave behind. They make out so that he can hide his tears. And as with most things I say about Samuel, I assure you I did not make that up.
Claire runs across campus to her dorm, where Gretchen has been tied up and gagged. As they hug, the lights go out and then the windows explode. Claire and Gretchen make a run for it and hide in a dark room. While they wait to die, Claire apologizes for being the way she is. And I think she admits that she’s into Gretchen, but she’s afraid. They’ve very oblique about it, though. She could be apologizing for anything, frankly. This scene goes on for a really long time, with Claire talking way too much for somebody who’s supposed to be hiding. Gretchen suggest that for Sylar to become human, he has to give up all his powers. Well, that hasn’t worked any of the other times he’s tried it, but maybe this time… But it’s actually awesome, because the whole time, Gretchen was a shape-shifted Sylar! He never laid a hand on Gretchen, which means we can look forward to her sunny presence for a little while longer.
Sure enough, Gretchen’s moping around in the cafeteria, and Claire gives her a hug. She tells Gretchen how lucky she is to have her, and they decide they want to hold hands, so they do. They head off, hand in hand, to talk. Sylar watches them go. Yes, with as little as four episodes left, they spent about 17 minutes of screentime on Claire’s discomfort with hand-holding. Cripes.
Back in Hiro’s head, George Takei asks for Ando’s defense. He calls Hiro to the stand. Hiro is worried because that always backfires on Law & Order. Ha! Ando’s first question to Hiro is “How long have you known the defendant?” Hee. Hiro testifies that his one goal has been to be a hero. Ando says that Hiro was only the victim of a con, and then in a great gag, Sark busts him for “reciting the opening to Quantum Leap”. Man, why can’t more scenes be like this one? Hiro admits that he had poor judgment, but he tried to make the world a better place. George Take finds him guilty, just as the doctors in the real world try to restart Hiro’s heart.
We then see Hiro in the operating room, but time has stopped. The dead people from the diner wait for him in a group. He follows them into the light but then stops. He wants to change his plea to “guilty”. “If this is the end, then I want to go out with honor. Doing the right thing. I want to go out a hero.” George Takei gives him his blessing and gives Hiro his sword. The crowd parts to reveal Sark waiting with a sword. The two go at it, while in the real world, Ando watches the doctors try to resuscitate Hiro. With some fancy swordplay, Hiro manages to gut Sark. He then turns to see his mother, bathed in white light.
She tells Hiro that she’s proud of him, and he walks toward the light. He tells her that he’s ready to go, but she says “no”. He has a destiny – she’s not here to take him, but to heal him. She gently kisses his forehead, and at that moment, Hiro has a pulse. You know, that was kind of a cheap way out, but I was surprised at how emotionally involving this whole sequence was. Look, we might be down to the last few episodes, and we’re limping to that finish line, but I still love Hiro.
Back in the ice cream parlor, Samuel fiddles with the jukebox before selecting a melancholy number. He intimidates a waitress who was just minding her own business, and then he starts the ground shaking. They feel the quake all the way back at the carnival, and then we see a long shot of entire small town disappearing into the ground. Hey NBC? This might not have been the best week for that, you know?
In our montage of short scenes, Vanessa smells a flower. Claire and Gretchen hold hands and giggle. Ando watches over an unconscious Hiro. And then Sylar shows up at Matt’s house – Janice tells Sylar that Matt isn’t home, and then asks “have we met?” This is going to be messed up.
Next week: Sylar wants more brain surgery, and Bennet has a sniper rifle. Bennet should always have a sniper rifle, basically.
