Peter
I felt that Hiro’s message to Peter was a bit of a let down. There I was, hoping for some big reveal, but instead wound up with the cryptic, “Save the cheerleader.”
OK, Hiro did give Peter some instructions as well, but why is it the message to someone about to embark on a quest is never laid out clearly? Just once I’d like the wise old teacher to hand the intrepid young hero a copy of The Idiot’s Guide to Completing the Quest, Beating the Bad Guy and Getting the Girl. Then again, maybe that’s why I’m not a writer on a hit TV show.
After Hiro had disappeared and time had resumed its natural course, Peter tried to relate the encounter to Mohinder. As Peter sounded even crazier than Mohinder did when he approached Nathan, Mohinder didn’t believe Peter’s story and refused to continue travelling with him, thus ending his brief appearance in this episode.
Part of Hiro’s instructions were for Peter to return to Isaac’s, which he duly did. There he found Isaac out of his trance, but with a new batch of paintings.
Peter was able to pick out the ones involving Claire (who is obviously the cheerleader Hiro was referring to) and discovered that they formed a comic book-like story. However, none of the paintings revealed any clues as to who or where Claire might be.
The final painting in the sequence wasn’t finished, and when Isaac said he would be unable to finish it without shooting up, Peter was able to copy his power and do it himself. The picture wound up being one of Claire with the top of her head sliced open. This means that unless something is done, Claire’s going to have an encounter Sylar in which even her power won’t be able to save her.
Claire
In the meantime, Claire had been rushed to hospital following her encounter with a brick wall in a car moving at high velocity. No one seemed particularly bothered by the fact that Brody was severely injured, requiring a neck brace and one of those things sticking up his nose that I’m not sure of the proper term for, she didn’t have a scratch and was up and about not long after they brought her in. Surely someone should be asking questions about that.
One person who’s not asking questions is HRG, Claire’s father. He’s watched her video, so he knows something of her powers, and he also made the comment that she’s very special and something is happening to her. This suggests to me that he knew about, or at least suspected, her ability when he adopted her.
While Claire’s storyline is still a little disconnected from the others, one thing I’m enjoying is that it adds another dimension to HRG. Very often the only time we see a villain is when he’s doing something nasty, but here we get to see him being a normal family man as well, concerned about his daughter.
Of course, he’s not quite a normal family man, and has a rather unusual associate, namely the Haitian, who he called in after Claire told him what Brody had tried to do to her. It appears as though the Haitian as the ability to make people forget things, something which he demonstrated quite effectively on Brody, who no longer even remembers his own name, let alone his stint as a serial rapist.
Matt
The Haitian’s apparent ability to alter people’s memories was also evident with Matt, who reappeared after being missing for a day. His wife, Janice, was a little upset, but he was able to calm her down, due to his ability to read her thoughts.
He continued to make use of this ability to prepare (well technically order) one of her favourite meals for her. This led to the two of them winding up making love on the sofa, where he was able to give her a really good time. While it’s understandable that he would behave that way, he’s basically acted like Mel Gibson in What Women Want, so I’m going to deduct points from the writers for reminding me of that movie.
After shagging his wife silly, Matt went to a local convenience store to get some coffee ice cream (waste of good ice cream if you ask me, but then I don’t like coffee). There he was able to hear the thoughts of the other customers, one of whom was planning to rob the store.
Matt was able to defuse the situation, but when he picked up the would-be robber’s gun he was so overwhelmed by everyone else’s thoughts that he collapsed once again. He’d better learn to control his power better or else he’s going to do himself a serious injury.
Nathan, Niki, Hiro and Ando
One person who escaped serious injury was Nathan. It turns out that he is the one whom HRG and the Haitian took, although it wasn’t quite clear what they were planning to do with him. In the end, HRG told the Haitian to erase Nathan’s memory, but he was able to fly off before anything could happen.
While Nathan was busy avoiding death, Hiro and Ando had been dumped outside a diner on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The two of them had an argument, in which Ando expressed his displeasure at Hiro’s quest to save the world.
Ando left the diner, leaving Hiro there to see Nathan land after his escape from HRG and the Haitian. Nathan went into the dinner in order to arrange a lift back to his hotel, and Hiro introduced himself.
I have to say that Hiro’s command of English seems to fluctuate a bit. One moment he seems as though he can barely understand a word, and the next he’s fluent enough to have a reasonable conversation with Nathan.
After giving Hiro a life back to Vegas, Nathan returned to his hotel where he encountered Niki. She told him that she hadn’t wanted to sleep with him, but she’d had no choice, and that the whole incident had been caught on tape.
This poses a problem for Nathan, as his campaign is built around “family values”, but he was able to turn the situation to his advantage, demanding four million dollars from Linderman as opposed to the previously agreed two million. His reasoning was that if he’s important enough to Linderman that he’s prepared to blackmail him, then it’s important to Linderman that he wins, and four million will go a long way towards doing so.
Niki returned home to find a bunch of policemen in her home who told her that her husband, DL was spotted at a convenience store close by. Just then a male person approaches the house, and after a moment of suspense we learn that it’s not DL, but Ando.
After leaving Hiro, Ando headed to the one person he knows in Las Vegas, Niki the internet stripper, hoping that they could be friends (or even more). After explaining that her internet persona is completely different from what she’s like in real life, Ando leaves, along with the police.
Later on we see Niki walking through her house, and hidden in the shadows is DL. DL is not the Haitian by the way, but I can understand why it might seem that way, as we never get a really good look at him.
After leaving Niki, Ando headed to the garage where he and Hiro had left their car. Hiro was waiting there, being unable to drive it. The two of them decide to call Isaac again.
Isaac doesn’t answer, claiming that it’s a Japanese guy who keeps leaving messages. Peter, realising that it could be Hiro, answers it and when Hiro introduces himself, Peter says that he has a message for him.