Anyway, we open “18 Hours Earlier”, with a close-up of an eye. Huh, what other show frequently opens with that shot? You know, the one that last week’s episode was highly reminiscent of? Sylar wakes up, but he’s surprised to find himself in the form of the agent he replaces. By the way, the morphing effect they use is super-creepy. It really looks like Sylar’s facial features are moving around. Then, a bloody tooth falls out. Man, shapeshifting is gross.
Matt calls his ex-wife to let her know that the baby is OK. She’s a little cold with Matt, which disappoints him. Sure, it’s not like the love of his life just died or anything. He’s returning Baby Matt to his mother, and at this point he just wants out. Hiro and Ando assure him that Matt isn’t afraid of anything. I love this, because it’s such a nice touch that these guys even mythologize people that they actually know. Matt tries to talk them out of raiding Building 26, mostly because they have no plan whatsoever. That, however, has never stopped Hiro.
Sylar’s sitting outside in his true form, and Danko’s not happy with him. He was spotted on camera, only he’s supposed to be dead. Sylar’s starting to lose himself. Even more disturbing, that tooth he pulled out was an “extra”. Yeah, his body isn’t always reassembling itself correctly. Danko pushes for him to stay in disguise at all times, since he has to hunt down Sylar. Sylar sees the wisdom of this, at least momentarily. Then he uses his head-opening power to carve on his own arm “I Am Sylar”. Most disturbing appearance of an episode title ever! And of course, the scars heal almost instantly, so he can’t even keep this remnant of himself.
We meet a new character named Tom Miller, played by the great Clint Howard. He gets a text from Rebel telling him to “Get Out Now”. Sure enough, Sylar shows up in his living rook. Tom tells Sylar not to startle him. “I could hurt you”. Tom thinks Sylar might be Rebel, and Sylar plays along. Sylar asks for a demonstration of his power, so Tom sets a porcelain figure on a table. He snaps his finger and turns it to dust. Sylar, probably because it’s more fun, tells Tom that the agents are on their way, and he has to choose between them and Sylar. Of course, since Tom think he’s talking to Rebel, it’s an easy choice. And then Sylar opens up his head.
To recap, Sylar can now destroy objects by looking at them and snapping his fingers. Remember when he went out of his way to get super-hearing? He has moved on.
Later, Danko and his team burst in to find Tom with a busted head, and “I AM SYLAR” scrawled in blood on the wall. Hey, this is a nice way to connect the Sylar we know so well with the early version from Season One, before they’d cast anyone in the role. He was always writing bloody messages and it seemed out of character once we actually met him. I guess Sylar has his moods. Also, one of the agents accompanying Danko is Sylar in disguise. He’s multi-tasking!
After the awkwardness, Sylar lets Danko know about the text from Rebel, as if that’ll make up for things. Sylar’s coming apart a little more, so Danko suggests that Sylar find an anchor to keep him together. OK, I really wasn’t even going to make a joke about Sylar finding a Constant, but then Danko suggest that it’ll help “when you’re feeling… Lost”. Stop setting me up, Danko! Danko shows Sylar his anchor, his father’s pocketwatch. Sylar, the watchmaker’s son, is really interested in this and knows everything about the watch from listening to it. Nice thematic tie-in!
Hiro and Isaac sneak into Isaac’s loft, because that dude apparently paid his rent far in advance. Hiro’s plan, since the loft is being monitored, is for Ando to be bait. Then, Hiro can stop time on the bad guys. The best thing about this scene is that Ando has given himself the hilarious superhero name of “The Crimson Arc”. Ha! Anyway, they bicker over whether or not Ando’s power is stupid, and then the bad guys start shooting. Hiro freezes time, and is surprised to see that Ando isn’t frozen. I was confused as to why that is surprising, but maybe I have false memories of Ando staying unfrozen in the past. Maybe that never happened. Am I making Heroes fan-fiction and not realizing it? Anyway, Ando is happy not to be bait.
In Sylar’s new apartment, he rummages through some boxes. It’s a collection of creepiness, as the boxes contain mementoes of his (adopted) mother, including the scissors with which he killed her. And then, Sylar sits down to talk to a hallucination of his mother. Hey, did you guys think Sylar’s mommy issues were going to go away after he confronted his father? If so, you were wrong! This scene is made much creepier by the fact that most of the shots are just of Sylar, so the camera is reminding you that he’s gone crazy. Oh, wait. Did I say that made it creepier? No, it turns out that Sylar was also shapeshifting into his mother and having a conversation with himself! Gah! A knock at the door brings him back to reality, then he foolishly answers the door as himself. Luckily it’s Danko, who’s bringing him news that they’ve found Rebel.
Ando hilariously refers to Hiro’s time stopping as his “me time”, and compares this shared time-freezing to Batman visiting the Fortress of Solitude. Ando, we’re pals and all, but there’s no way you’re Batman. Bennet is Batman. He then gets a great line to Hiro: “You’re a little fascist, like Superman”. Ha! Hiro then unfreezes time while Ando’s in the path of the tranquilizer darts. Yeah, Hiro’s sticking with the old plan. At least he freezes time again and finds a gunman who’s just his size.
There’s a quick scene of agents searching for Rebel, and then Sylar happens upon Micah. Play the orphan card, Micah! After the commercial, Micah tries to win Sylar over by telling him he’s special and that “you can save us all”. Sylar does like being special, and it seems like Michah’s ploy is working.
In the prisoner transport, Hiro freezes time to clue Ando in on the plan. Hiro turns off the gas that knocks Ando out, and unfreezes time. Only, he forgot to take off his glasses. Once another guy notices the change, the Crimson Arc swings into action! He zaps everybody in the truck, which saves Hiro but also sort of trashes the “Sneak into Building 26” plan.
Micah’s making a run for it, with Danko and Co. in hot pursuit. When they catch up, everybody who’s not Danko is horrified that they’re supposed to shoot a kid. Still, they do. Ahhh! And as Micah falls into the water, we see Micah watching from further away. Hey, neat! Sylar took his shape to help him escape. Later, Danko asks why Sylar didn’t take Micah’s powers, and he claims he has too many powers now. “Dead is dead” says Sylar, when Danko complains that they didn’t find the body. And yes, that was the title of a Lost episode a couple of weeks ago. They’re actively screwing with me now. Hey, they actually fooled Danko! Danko tells Sylar they’ve found more people using Micah’s system, and he’ll have to go after the most dangerous ones.
Aww, Sylar took Micah in. He’s not all bad! Well, until Micah wakes up and sees Sylar’s shapeshifting conversation with Mommy. Micah tries to explain that his mother sort of did the same thing, which seemed stupid to me until I started typing it and remembered all of Niki’s mirror conversations. Micah really tries to inspire him, and tells him he can turn into “somebody who can make a difference. Like Nathan Petrelli.” Sylar gives him the chance to leave in one piece, and Micah wisely accepts that offer.
Next, we see Sylar rooting through Nathan’s office. Why does Nathan have medals? Was he in the Armed Forces? Anyway, Sylar’s mother convinces him that he could be President (which she said in the episode where he killed her), and then Sylar starts threatening her. Or himself, I guess. His mother offers forgiveness, and it’s better not to try to map out Sylar’s psyche at this point. It looks like a Sunday strip from Family Circus where Billy is leaving a dotted line all over town, only in this scenario, he occasionally chops people up with an ax. And then, Sylar takes Nathan’s form.
Matt brings Baby Matt back home, and even though he’s talking adorably to the baby, it’s too quiet. I really thought he was going to get shot at this point, but instead, Janice just comes to greet him. So maybe I’m slipping… Oh, wait. Matt picks up some stray thoughts and realizes they’re being watched. He tells Janice to pack so they can get away.
Now we see the Nathan Petrelli press conference as it happens. I sort of like the way that Adrian Pasdar is playing this scene a little differently than he’d play real Nathan. Nice touch. He talks up an Obama-esque agenda of change. Finally, we go back to the diner where it all began. Nathan thinks he can fix this by himself, and it always works out really well when he tries that. He thinks if he can just stop Sylar from meeting the President, everything will be OK. Clearly, Nathan hasn’t realized that next week is the season finale, and he’s horribly injured in every season finale.
Hiro and Ando approach Building 26 under the cover of darkness. Ando demands that they be equal partners, and Hiro agrees. All seems to be well, until Hiro tries to freeze time and drops to the ground with a splitting headache and a bloody nose. Uh oh. And in these parts, we always call power-induced nosebleeds “Maxwell Lord Syndrome”, even though nobody else gets that joke.
At the Parkman house, Matt finds his old badge and is reminded of who he is. He’s not going to run – he’s going to stay and fight so that they can have their lives back. In Washington, Real Nathan confronts Fake Nathan. And then, Sylar gives us a season long payoff. Remember back when he was imprisoned and thought Angela was his mother? She basically offered up a girl who had the power to know the history of any object, and this power was never mentioned again. Well, Sylar’s been going through the office, and he knows all the stuff that Nathan had done and everybody he’s betrayed, just by touching his stuff. And Sylar’s sort of right, actually. I like his line “I’m not going to be you. I’m going to be better than you.” Sylar goes to open up Nathan’s head, but there’s a shot and Nathan drops. Danko took him out.
In the ending montage, Mohinder and Matt are ambushed as well. Bennet, Claire, and a couple of Petrellis are stopped at a roadblock. Finally, Sylar refuses to change shape for Danko, so Danko knifes him in the back of the head. Sylar drops, but then gets up again. He seems perplexed as to why he’s not dead. My guess? All the shapeshifting has messed up his anatomy enough that the sensitive spot in his brain is not where it used to be.
So going into the finale, all of the Heroes have been incapacitated in one way or another, and Sylar is now unkillable. I feel like the next episode should only be a couple of minutes long, what with the inevitable killspree. It’s going to be ugly, folks.
