Peter, Claire and Ted
Peter glows as he stands next to Ted. Battling to get the power under control, he tells Claire that she knows what she has to do. Claire takes the gun from her bag, but Peter brings the power under control before the gun is required.
HRG gives Claire directions to a town in Nebraska which has a population of fifteen. I not sure what the minimum size a settlement has to be before you can call it a town, but I would think that fifteen is less than that minimum.
Ted and Peter agree to travel to the town rather than hand around and blow up New York. Meanwhile, Sylar is eavesdropping on their conversation from a distance, making use of his super-hearing.
Peter, Ted and Claire go off to rent a car. On the way, Claire asks why they’re driving and not flying.
Ted says that’s because he’s a fugitive. This is overheard by Sylar, who thinks to himself that he can use that fact to gain Ted’s power. His thoughts are in turn heard by Peter
A little while later, the three leave the car rental place to be met by FBI agents, led by Audrey, the one who Matt worked with. They arrest Ted, and Peter and Claire are able to get away as a result of Peter turning them invisible. Audrey thanks Sylar for tipping them off.
That evening, the FBI vehicle transporting Ted encounters a man standing in the middle of the road. That man is Sylar, who flips the vehicle over and forces the doors open. He finds Ted hanging upside down, and cuts his head open.
Peter and Claire, having obtained a car, find themselves in the middle of traffic jam which is going nowhere. They get out to have a look at what that the problem is, and they see the overturned fan with Ted inside, minus the top of his head.
Peter realises that Sylar is the one who blows up the city not him, thus rendering all the self-doubt and soul-searching he’s been through pretty pointless. He tells Claire that he doesn’t think he can stop Sylar as the last time they fought, Sylar killed him.
Hiro and Ando
Ando tries to convince Hiro to carry on even though the sword is broken, pointing out that it still has a sharp edge. He suddenly has an idea – they can try and get the sword fixed.
He looks through the yellow pages and finds an advert for a bladesmith who specializes in rare weapons. In the middle of the ad is the symbol which has been so prevalent throughout the series.
The two arrive at the sword shop, and find that Hiro’s father is waiting for them. He tells Hiro that he’s reached the end of his journey, and asks to speak to him alone.
That’s a bit of misdirection, as the journey that his father is talking about is the journey to restore his power. When Hiro says that he failed to stop the villain, his father says that he will teach him.
The two of them begin practising swordplay, which I think is a bit pointless, as Hiro is never going to become an expert swordsman in such a short space of time. While they’re sparring, his father brings up a story that Hiro had him tell him every night.
In the story Takezo had to sacrifice himself in order to save a princess. Hiro says to his father that he understand what he needs to do save what is important – he must be strong enough to cut out his heart.
Eventually Hiro is able to deliver a “lethal” blow to his father, and they agree that he is ready. Hiro returns to the shop to tell Ando the good news, but Ando is gone.
The shop owner says that Ando bought a sword and then left, saying that if Hiro wasn’t going to save the world, then he would. So this means that Hiro and his father decided to spend hours practising, without telling Ando about it. No wonder he got bored and left.
Everyone else
Linderman meets with Nathan and tells him that he’s going to win the election even though the polls have him five points down. The conversation shifts to Nathan’s father, and Linderman reveals that Nathan’s father had some sort of power, although he doesn’t say what it was.
Nathan’s wife Heidi comes to speak to Nathan and Linderman leaves, but not before saying that he’s going to give them a gift. He takes Heidi’s hand and holds it for a while, healing her, although obviously Heidi’s not aware of what he’s doing.
Once Linderman’s gone, Heidi expresses her concerns about him to Nathan. While she’s talking, her foot moves, which Nathan points out. She tries standing up, and to the amazement of both of them, she is able to do so.
Candice tries to win Micah’s favour by giving him some comics, including the first issue of the Silver Surfer, although considering how good he is with technology, he probably downloaded it a long time ago. Candice’s comments during their conversation suggest that what we see as isn’t her real appearance. Linderman arrives, and tells Micah that if he does what he asks him, he’ll make sure that Micah’s parents have enough money to live happily ever after.
Candice takes Micah to a polling booth, where he uses his power to rig the election so that Nathan wins. That certainly wouldn’t be possible in South Africa, as we vote with pencil and paper rather a computer terminal.
Nathan watches the election results on TV, and sees that he’s currently leading the election, but only has 36% of the vote, and the next candidate has 31%. He’s interrupted by Jessica and DL, who want to know where Linderman is.
While they’re talking, the results change to reveal that Nathan has won the election with 64% of the vote. Now wouldn’t the election conveners find it suspicious that he’s gone from 36% to 64% in such s short space of time?
Not to mention that it completely contradicts what the polls said. There’s obviously some inaccuracy in the polls, but a victory of that sort would be way outside any acceptable margin of error.
Matt and HRG enter the company’s building, and Matt uses his ability to convince a security guard that he knows him, and because of that let the two of them in. The two of them get to a lift, and HRG tries the keypad next to it, but his access code no longer works.
While they’re looking around for someone from whom they can get the access code, Jessica and DL arrive. The two of them walk through a security gate, without anyone noticing, which shouldn’t have happened with any half-decent security set-up.
HRG introduces himself and Matt and says that they have similar goals. Jessica makes reference to her having thrown Matt out of a window. All four of them take the lift, and HRG and Matt get off on Molly’s floor.
Mohinder checks on Molly, saying that she’s responding to treatment. She claims that she’s better and demonstrates it by sticking a pin into a map.
The location she’s marked is the building they’re currently in, and she says that’s where her other hero – the police officer who rescued her – is. Thompson comes in and says that Mohinder and Molly need to go to a safe location and that there’s a helicopter on the way.
The reason for wanting to move Mohinder and Molly is revealed when Thompson looks at a security and points out HRG and Matt to Mohinder. He enters the corridor, and shoots at the two intruders but Matt, having heard Thompson’s thoughts, is able to pull HRG to safety.
HRG and Matt split up, something which was HRG’s decision as Matt has no means of defending himself, and Thompson is able to sneak up behind Matt. HRG in turn sneaks up behind Thompson and shoots him in the head a couple of times. HRG gives Thompson’s gun to Matt.
The two enter Molly’s room and discover that Molly is the tracking system they’ve been after. Matt is shocked that they came here to kill Molly, and HRG says he knew the tracking system was a person, but not that it was a little girl.
Any further argument is curtailed when Mohinder hits Matt over the head with a fire extinguisher. He picks up Matt’s gun and points it at HRG, who in turn has his gun pointed at Molly.
HRG tells Mohinder that if he shoots him then Molly will die. I’m not quite sure how that works as guns don’t come equipped with dead man’s switches, although HRG to be referring to some other means of Molly expiring rather than him shooting her.
Jessica and DL enter Linderman’s office and they ask him where Micah is. Linderman tells them, but adds that DL will never see his son, as Jessica is going to kill him.
Linderman opens a bag and dumps money onto a table, saying that he’ll give Jessica $20 million if she kills DL. Jessica tells DL that she wants to take the money and that she would even kill him for it, but that’s not what Niki would do.
She turns back into Niki, and it appeared that she did so willingly. I’m not sure if this is the last we’ll see of Jessica though.
Linderman draws a gun, and DL steps in front of Niki as he shoots. The bullet hits DL and he collapses.
Linderman steps closer to Niki, but before he can do anything DL sticks his hand into Linderman’s head. Whatever he did with his brain worked, as Linderman falls to the ground, dead.
We then see Nathan giving his victory speech, intercut with a scenes of Candice and Micah in their apartment, Ando walking in the street carrying a sword while using Isaac’s comic as a guide, Audrey watching Ted being zipped up in a body bag, and Niki holding DL who is lying on the floor, possibly close to death.
The episode closes with Sylar standing on top of a building playing with his new-found power. He looks out at the city and says one word, “Boom”.