Heroesville: Heroes 3-22 “Turn and Face the Stranger”
Sandra and Bennet finally get a scene together after weeks apart. Sandra’s upset about Claire being gone, and Bennet’s still talking about Sylar. Well, in all fairness, Claire has been kind of a jerk lately. I like the way Danko shows up just to be creepy, but he doesn’t even show up on Sandra’s radar. And then, Danko meets himself in the bathroom. The Danko we’ve been watching is the disguised Sylar! Oh, this power is going to be fun. Sylar is planning revenge on Bennet, so this episode is already full of vengeance.
Angela calls Bennet about a mysterious place called “Coyote Sands”. This place is so mysterious that even Bennet doesn’t know what it is. Bennet, who’s usually smarter than this, wants to confirm that the body is really Sylar. And of course, the only way to do that is to pull the spike out of his brain and see if he comes back to life. I hope he’s thought out the second step of his plan. The bodies have all been taken to the crematory, though. That’s right, Danko’s racked up such a body count that they have to dispose of them on a weekly basis. Well, sure. They take up a lot of room, you know.
Mohinder breaks into his own old apartment by using his Fly strength to push the lock in. All of his papers and belongings are gone, and the landlord is irritated by this whole mess. Turns out, Homeland Security took it all. Well, except for some of Suresh Sr.’s papers that are still in basement storage. Man, remember when every episode has Mohinder doing something with the big map in his apartment? He hasn’t been back there in a long time.
Hiro and Ando try hitchhiking, with Ando’s immortal line, “Who’s going to pick up two Japanese guys and a baby?” Finally, a truck stops for them. Hilariously, the driver is a Japanese man with a thick southern accent. That shouldn’t make me laugh, but it does. And then Baby Matt starts crying, and the truck dies. His powers are emotion-based. Happy Matt makes things work, Sad Matt makes them break down.
Sure enough, Matt’s using the evil side of his powers again. This time, he’s inducing paranoia in Danko, and convincing him that the person closest to him is in danger. Hey, Matt! Know who used to do stuff like that all the time? Your evil dad, that’s who. And this brings us to kind of a dark place where Matt wants to find out who’s close to Danko so he can hurt that person in revenge. I don’t like Dark Matt, you guys.
Bennet finds Sylar’s body at the crematory and, sure enough, pulls the spike out of his brain. The agents are clearly perplexed by his behavior, especially when he seems disappointed that Sylar doesn’t come back to life. He goes so far as to order that the body not be cremated, which you have to think Danko will hear about.
Shortly thereafter, Bennet invites Sandra to come talk to him. Sandra presents him with divorce papers, and Bennet’s really making a case for himself. At the beginning of this scene, I assumed it was Sylar disguised as Bennet, but he seems really hurt by what she has to say. In fact, she’s being more than a little unreasonable. “I don’t love you. I don’t trust you. I don’t even respect you.” He really did try to keep his family safe, and this is about the coldest we’ve ever seen her. But when she storms out we see that Sandra was actually Sylar in disguise. They actually got me with that one. Well played!
Back at the truck, apparently Hiro and Ando told the driver all about Baby Touch and Go, because he demands that they “move the magic baby” away from his truck. Man, those guys can’t keep a secret. It’s like they’re both Kate or something. Finally, Ando hits on a funny face that pacifies Little Matt enough to get the car working again. And it is kind of a hilarious face, actually.
So Danko went to see a woman who’s way out of his league. She also thinks his name is Jakob and that he lives in Chicago. That’s right, the person closest to him doesn’t actually know anything about him. They live in the same city, but he pretends to live elsewhere, which is crazy. Obviously any relationship with Danko will hinge on a lack of regular contact, so I shouldn’t be surprised. Matt can’t bring himself to shoot her, and that’s when she notices him. She assumes he’s from the “escort service”. So that means that the person closest to Danko is a prostitute that he patronizes? That is just about the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. I mean, she seems sort of interested in Danko as a person, but still…
Bennet can’t bring himself to sign the divorce papers, and that’s when he notices that the signature doesn’t look anything like his wife’s signature. A call from the lab confirms that the blood on the spike was actually James Martin’s. Bennet knows Sylar is alive, and that he’s a shape-shifter. That is not a comforting discovery.
Matt talks with Elena the escort. She talks about Danko’s wife and kids, and I don’t believe for one moment that they actually exist. Matt feels sorry for her and decides to let her in on the truth about Danko.
Hiro and Ando leave the gas station, not noticing Claire and Nathan checking a map. Yep, they’re headed for Coyote Sands. At that moment, Mohinder sees a reference in his father’s research to that same Coyote Sands. And then Bennet puts a gun to Sandra’s head. “You say one word, and you die”. Boy, if that’s not Sylar, he’s going to have some explaining to do…
Sandra is clearly freaked out, probably because she’s not actually Sylar. She tries to tell him things that only the real Sandra would know, but Bennet just assumes that Sylar killed Parkman and can read minds now. Luckily, a call from Lyle about Mr. Muggles pills confirms for Bennet that it’s the real Sandra. Both actors do a nice job in this scene with such a rollercoaster of emotions. Sandra throws Bennet out, and this is just killing him. He’s going to lose everything, and he knows it.
Elena arrives at Danko’s apartment and Matt takes them both hostage. Danko’s really upset about losing the one thing in his life that he can keep separate from the actual person that he is. He confesses everything to her, and it’s pretty clear that Matt’s using his powers to compel him to keep talking. When Matt realizes that Danko actually cares about Elena, he turns the gun on her. He’s back to wanting to kill an innocent person to hurt Danko. Of course, Matt can’t actually bring himself to do it, which means Danko gets his hands on a gun. Matt, despondent, tells him to “finish it”, and right after the gunshot, Hiro freezes time and wheels Matt out of there. And then Elena walks out on Danko, so now he has absolutely no human connections. That ought to work out well.
Bennet heads to Danko’s office, and he’s not wearing glasses, so you know it’s really Sylar. He tells Danko that he got his hands on some of Bennet’s old Primatech files. And then he pulls a gun on Danko because he really is Bennet. Man, every show should have at least one shape-shifter on it. Bennet knows that Danko’s working with Sylar now, and he demands that Danko turn him over. Hee.
Matt is kind of upset that Hiro saved him, but things change when he meets Baby Matt. (Sorry for the choppiness of the recap this week, but this episode seems to be made up of one million really short scenes. It’s paced very strangely.)
Bennet pulls a gun on Agent Donner, the Agent that Danko said was Sylar in disguise. Of course, once Bennet makes a scene, Danko tells everybody that Bennet’s crazy. Donner opens his big mouth and says that the divorce is making Bennet lose it. In fact, Bennet shoots him in the back of the head and tells everybody that he’s going to heal. He does not. Wow. Bennet just killed a guy by mistake.
Except, after the commercial, he does get up and heal. OK, they managed to fool me again. Sylar actually made himself bleed in order to sell the performance. Oh, man. I think they broke Bennet right there.
Then we see Matt happily playing with Baby Matt. Danko calls Elena and tries to explain to her answering machine that even though he lies to her, in a way, he’s being honest. This does not compel her to pick up the phone. Well, at least somebody learned something this week.
Angela and Peter arrived at Coyote Sands, just ahead of Nathan and Claire. Peter kind of flips out that Nathan’s there. Angela never intended for any of them to see what was there, but now it’s the only way to save them. She hands out shovels. “You want answers, you’re going to have to dig”. Wait a minute, the promo they’ve been airing is the last scene of the episode? That seems like cheating. We end with the Petrellis digging, and Nathan finds a skill with what appears to be a bullet hole in the forehead. Peter asks “You know him?”, and she answers “I knew all of them”. When asked how many there are, her only response is “Keep digging”. And then Bennet shows up as the Petrellis unearth more and more skeletons.
OK, that was kind of creepy. Do the Petrellis have a massacre in their past? Like, there’s no way that whatever happened at Coyote Sands isn’t 100% horrifying at this point. And if they drag this mystery out one more episode, I swear I’m going to punch somebody.
See you next week for The Secret History of the Petrellis! For real this time!
