Heroes: Villains (Episode 308)

We're the bad guys.Greetings, True Believers.  We've got another linear story line this week, so I'll be foregoing the usual breakdowns.  This episode, "Villains", would have been much better off calling itself "Secret Origins" instead.  The secret origin is one of the most highly respected story a comic book can tell, usually being the set-in-stone rules for characters.  This time, not so much.  And lack of magical turtle does not help.  Shall we?

There's a certain element of "Back to the Future Part II" in this episode.  We get to see scenes that we've previously seen in earlier seasons and episodes, but from new angles.  We start in the desert where Hiro eats the magical mystery paste and passes out.  Usutu tell Ando that Hiro must see the "fork in the road" where some turned to good and others toward evil.  Hiro witnesses a series of events from one year ago (Heroes time, not ours).  

Arthur and Angela Petrelli are hosting a party (their anniversary, I believe), and they're all dressed to the nines.  Arthur is proud that Nathan has just been made an assistant district attorney, and is happy that Peter has been able to help others (but refrains from using the word "nurse").  He and Angela are affectionate and truly seem to love one another.  Also in attendance at the party is Linderman.  He greets the Petrellis as his "king" and "queen".  Linderman asks Nathan if his office is truly going to begin an investigation in his dealings, and Nathan says of course.  He knows Linderman is no good, and even having his family associate with him is bad for them.  Arthur and Linderman speak privately, and Linderman asks what Arthur to poke around in Nathan's mind.  Arthur says he has, and he sees trouble, but he isn't worried.  Linderman is worried that if Nathan investigates him, he'll learn that Arthur is really the one pulling all of the strings.  There's only one solution - take Nathan out.  Arthur says that he'll try and talk with his son first, but if he can't convince him to look the other way, certain actions will have to be taken.  

In Memphis, Tenn., a convenience store is being held under siege.  Throwing fire every which way is Flint and a female accomplice.  Fling finds joy in popping the Jiffy Pop with his powers a bit too much.  He has to be calmed down by his sister - Meredith!  That's right, Claire's got another new uncle.  There is a man in the store who will not listen to the flamethrowers - long deceased Company agent Thompson (Eric Roberts!).  He uses a fire extinguisher to quell the fire and shoots a taser at Meredith.  Flint bolts out the door.  

At a small watch repair shop in Brooklyn, a certain Gabriel Grey is preparing a noose.  He cannot stop thinking about killing the telekinetic man from Season 1.  The guilt is eating him up, so the only thing to do is take is own life.   Luckily for him, Elle enters the shop, she's him dangling by his neck, and zaps the rope without him seeing.  He falls to the ground and asks for forgiveness.  Elle wants to know what it is that he did wrong, and he tells her that he took something from a man that didn't belong to him - nice way to spin "murdered him in cold blood".  Elle says that he's probably still a good man, and he's got a second chance at life since the rope "broke" and all.  He calls her an angel.  Outside, Elle enters a Primatech van where HRG is watching a series of monitors.  Elle wants to know why this isn't a simple "bag and tag" mission.  HRG uses a metaphor about how whales in captivity don't sing or communicate.  What they are doing is keeping Sylar in the wild so that he will be drawn to more people with powers.  Sylar's a unique sample, because "power transfer" is a very rare ability.  Not for the Petrellis it isn't!

Thompson hold Meredith in a cell (not quite Level 5 but still pretty bleak).   He tells her that her gift can give her a special opportunity - the Company would like to train her to become an agent.  She says absolutely not because she hates the Company.  Although, she has a quick change of heart- if they stay away from Flint, she'll work for them.  Thompson says that she's really in no position to negotiate - she's a prisoner or an agent, no in between.  Looks like she has no choice but to become an agent.  

Angela asks Arthur to please come to Peter's nursing school graduation party, but Arthur is too busy.  She insists that once his powers manifest, Peter is going to be a great man.  Nathan shows up and asks his father to reconsider being Linderman's lawyer.  Arthur is a stubborn man and tells him no, but asks Nathan to reconsider the investigation.  Nathan is just as stubborn - not going to happen.  He leaves, and Arthur cuts the head off of a flower.  Cut to Nathan's accident from the Season 1 flashback episode - a car runs him and his wife off the road, Nathan goes flying into the air, the car crashes.  At the hospital, Nathan tells the family that Heidi (his wife) will probably never walk again.  He's convinced that Linderman was behind it.  He tells his father that it is time to choose a side - his client or his family.  

Arthur and Angela are getting ready for bed.  Angela says Heidi's spine has been broken into 3 pieces, and she's very worried about Linderman.  Even more importantly, she's worried that Arthur might have ordered Linderman to make the attack.  Arthur says of course it wasn't him.  Over in Austin, TX., Meredith is on a training mission with Thompson.  He tells her to keep her powers in check.  They meet Danny Pine, a homeless vet living in a tent city.  They pose as people from the V.A. about setting him up with low-income housing.  Pine is confused - there was a different rep there last week.  Meredith is quick to improvise, saying the other guy was reassigned.  Pine doesn't believe them and turns his arm into metal, bashing Thompson on the side of the head.  He goes down and Meredith turns on the fire, engulfing his metal arm.  To finish off the one-two punch, she tasers Pine and he goes down.  Meredith is grinning ear-to-ear and Thompson tells her "Welcome to the Company."  

In Queens, Sylar is still being monitored by HRG.  Sylar's taking down Dr. Suresh's maps and leads of potential other "special" people.  Elle enters carrying a pie.  She's been worried about him.  In his hand is a list and he says it of people who are like him, but tosses it in the trash before she can see.  He feels the need to "come out" to her, and shows that he can move objects with his mind.  Feigning ignorance, she asks if there are more people like him out there.  

Back in Texas, Thompson tells Meredith she's not an agent just yet - there's still a test of loyalty.  She is escorting Pine to a cell when she walks past another one containing her brother.  Turns out he was captured by an invisible man (Claude!).  Flint says they're going to make him an agent too, and he can't wait to work with his big sister.  

Sylar and Elle are having a picnic in the apartment, enjoying some delicious peach pie.  Sylar says that his power is too overwhelming, and that if power is a drug, he's like an addict.  He talks about the hunger, but tells her that ever since he met her, he's been able to fight it (which further explains how he was able to keep his hunger in check in the future - the love of his son was too great, so it seems as if he's got some real feelings for my favorite blonde spark plug).  Elle returns to HRG and hands him the crumpled up list.  HRG knows that Sylar is a killer, but Elle argues that maybe he can change - his suicide attempt was a wake up call to be a better man.  HRG sees what's going on - she likes him.  Her father's been training her since she was a little girl to follow orders, and they must do as such.  They're planning on using Trevor Zeitlin, a fellow on the list, as bait, in order to prove Sylar's a monster and then take him down.  

Linderman and Arthur talk, and Arthur tells him that Nathan's alive and pissed.  Another attempt on his life would arouse too much suspicion, and maybe they should postpone the attack on New York.  Arthur says absolutely not.  They have to finish this - Linderman suggests bringing in an associate from Montreal, but they are interrupted - Angela has overheard them.  She brandishes a knife but Arthur telepathically tells her that this has to be done.  He forces her mind into saying that Nathan must die.  

We jump back to present day Africa.  Hiro sits up but his eyes are still white, and he yells "murder!".  Usutu tells Ando that he is trapped between the past and the present and they must not wake him, less they lose him forever.  He has Ando mix up another concoction and tells him not to inhale the fumes.  Hiro is disturbed and so he wants to wake, but his spirit walk is not complete.  They hold the mixture in front of his face, and upon inhaling the fumes, Hiro resumes his spirit walk.  

Meredith lets herself into Flint's cell and tells him to escape to a nearby train yard.  The Company is tricking Flint into thinking they'll make him an agent, but like Meredith says, their father used to tell him God gave him a big sister instead of a brain.  Harsh!  They make it to a train and talk about fleeing to Mexico.  The Company is bad, no two ways about it.  Then, from behind the boxes, Thompson emerges and tasers Meredith.  Flint thinks she's dead so he turns on the fire.  Meredith isn't even unconscious, and slips away.  Thompson is about to get Flint when Meredith calls out, drawing the attention to her.  Flint jumps out of the train, and Meredith tells Thompson that the Company is her sworn enemy.  The fire in the train has gotten out of control so they two of them have to jump, just barely escaping an explosion.  

Don't mess with Mama.Angela Petrelli is cooking dinner (who knew she could be domestic?) and Linderman enters.  He makes a joke about his pot pies (season 1, love it) and she tells him that Arthur isn't here.  Linderman insists that he's not a bad guy, and still has a "shred of morality", and that's why he has to tell her that Arthur is destroying her.  She knows that he's up to some big project, but the details are fuzzy.  That's because Arthur has been removing memories from her head, and he can heal those mental scars - whenever the Haitian removes a memory, it messes with the brain, and Linderman's healing power can fix that.  He knows they're going to kill Nathan, and if she really wants to know what is going on, and to remember everything, it is her choice.  She chooses to be healed and she remembers everything.  

Meredith is in cuffs as Thompson escorts her.  The train they were on has derailed and is on fire in the background.  He asks her why she hates the Company, and she say that they killed her baby daughter.  The Company came for her in the middle of the night, a firefight broke out, and the house exploded with little baby Claire still inside.  Thompson realizes what she just said.  He cuts her free and tells her to run.  At the train wreck, enter Claire, dressed in her Odessa cheerleader uniform - it's the scene from the pilot when she saves the life of a man stuck inside the train.  

Elle and Sylar are having dinner and there's a knock at the door.  It turns out that Elle invited someone else, a man from the list - Trevor.  He shows off his power - he makes a gun out of his finger and explodes glasses.  She says that he's special too and Sylar gets jealous.  He telekinetically swipes Trevor away and yells at Elle to leave.  She zaps him, and he's surprised she's got a power too.  He pushes her across the room with his mind and she runs out.  Sylar begins to buzz off Trevor's head.  Elle gets to the van and HRG is watching the carnage inside.  He's utterly fascinated, noting how he has to expose the brain in order to take the power.  Sylar finishes the job, his hands covered in blood, and runs out of the apartment, leaving a pair of bloody handprints on the door.  Elle is convinced they turned Sylar into a monster and they've not set him loose on the world.  HRG says they aren't missionaries, there to save souls.  He's got one more loose end to tie up and Mohinder pulls up across the street, driving his cab from the pilot.  HRG gets into the cab (as Peter exits it) and they have their quick scene from the pilot. 

Meanwhile, Arthur and Angela are enjoying dinner - Arthur's mother's recipe for soup.  He can tell there is something on Angela's mind (like memories!)  She's surprised he's even able to tell that without using his powers.  Enter the Haitian, the all purpose power-blocker.  Arthur begins to feel sick, and Angela wonders if she even knows her at all.  Arthur can tell the jig is up and calls his wife too sentimental.  He's planning on rebuilding a better world, but she doesn't buy it.  Arthur gets sicker and Angela admits that she didn't really use his mother's recipe.  Arthur collapses.  Angela orders the Haitian to incinerate the body, and if anyone catches him, tell them that he was an operative killed in the field.  Unfortunately for her, Nathan walks in and sees his father on the floor.   He thinks he's had a heart attack and they take him to the hospital. 

Angela and Nathan wait at the hospital, but decide not to call Peter unless they have more news.  The doctor comes out and tells them that Arthur is gone.  Angela, coldly, asks for a cremation of the body right away.  The doctor goes back into the room, and there we see Arthur attached to the machines we first saw him in.  He is psychically talking to and controlling the doctor!  He said he told the family he was dead, but that the poison in his system has permanently damaged his body.  Later, they are having Arthur's funeral and Nathan and Peter reminisce about their father.  Angela tells them not to idolize him simply because he is gone.  She is a woman scorn, and is glad to be rid of this monster.  

Hiro fully wakes up from his spirit walk, screaming that Arthur Petrelli is alive.  He and Ando have to warn Angela and Nathan.  There is a blood curdling scream and Hiro investigates.  On the ground is Usutu's body...without a head!  Following the bloody trail, Hiro sees his head.  Hiro turns around to find Arthur Petrelli!  He says that he knows Hiro's been dreaming about him.  He grabs Hiro by the head and Hiro screams!

Holy Power Steal, Batman!  Does this mean that Hiro is about to die, or simple be stripped of his powers?  Lots of big revelations are on the way, including a two-part episode called "The Eclipse", which will finally explain the importance of the show's logo.  Big stuff ahead.