by Adam Bryant
Ah, self-discovery. This episode of Heroes finds several characters pondering who they are and what their next move should be. Sylar shape-shifts himself into a ball of emotional mess which he longer identifies with, Hiro finally accepts that two heads are better than one on his path of heroic destiny, and Parkman decides being a part of his son's life is about more than changing diapers. Plus, Nathan tries his best to stop the program he initiated and Sylar does his best Norman Bates! Huh, you ask? Read on for the details.
Two of a kind
After delivering baby Matt Parkman to his father, Hiro and Ando plead with Parkman Sr. to take them to Building 26 to take down Danko and his men. But Parkman's priorities have changed, and his "game changer" baby boy makes him realize he doesn't need two dead heroes on his conscience. So, Hiro and Ando (henceforth to be known as Crimson Arc) set out on their own to find Building 26. Unfortunately for the "dangerous but ladylike" Crimson Arc, Hiro still wants to use Ando as bait. They have the same argument they've had about 100 times this season, ultimately ending with Ando comparing Hiro to Superman...because he's a fascist. Ouch.
Ando gets a slight upper hand, however, when Danko's men storm in, forcing Hiro to freeze time. But because Hiro was touching Ando when he stopped the action around him, Ando is free to move and manipulate time as well. Hiro plays along like he's happy, but ultimately, sets things in motion long enough to have the tranquilizers take Ando down. Hiro has his bait, and after outfitting himself as one of Danko's men, he thinks he has his way back to Building 26. (Having a little heart, Hiro turns Ando's dope machine off, instructing him to play possum until they get inside.) Too bad that Hiro forgot that the guy he was pretending to be doesn't wear glasses. When they become suspicious, Ando has to take action, unleashing the Crimson Arc's justice on all Danko's men to keep them from Tasing his pal.
With that, Hiro decides he and Ando should indeed be partners. They take the GPS off one of the incapacitated agents, and find their way to Building 26, but just as Hiro gets set to stop time and scope out the scene he is stricken with a terrible headache and a nosebleed. (Shades of Lost, anyone?) How will Crimson Arc solve this one?
Father knows best
Parkman heads back west to return his son to his ex-wife, Janice. Once there, he senses Danko's agents nearby, and Janice makes a plan to head off to a lake house with the baby. And before she even knows what she's done, she invites Matt, which he is thrilled by. But as they ready to leave, Parkman sees his old police badge and has a change of heart. He tells Janice that he must go back and stop Building 26, or else they will never have a life together. He isn't sure what their life is, but he wants to fight for the chance to find out again. Of course, he has to keep the handful agents who've surrounded them in the house at bay first. For now, he has them under mind control, so stay tuned.
A boy's best friend is his mother
Yes, all the other action of tonight's episode was all just a mild diversion from the Sylar show. (The episode was named for him, after all.) We learn through the episode just how (and why) Sylar came to be impersonating Nathan on national TV, and it all starts with a case of shape-shifter identity crisis. While living as Agent Taub, Sylar finds himself unable to control the restructuring of DNA that makes his shifting possible. Side effects include extra teeth, an errant blue eye and apparently a penchant for self-mutilation (at least for the sake of this episode's title screen). Sylar gives his sob story to Danko, who could care less. Danko also warns Sylar that if he can't continue to live as Agent Taub, he will hunt him down like the rest. Luckily, Danko — he of eight different lives, wives and languages in recent years — tells Sylar he needs an anchor (or Lost fans might say a constant?) to remind him who he is no matter how many shifts he goes through.
Sylar's anchor becomes his (believed) mother Virginia Gray, who he murdered back in Season 1. He finds a box of evidence from her unsolved murder and takes to shifting back and forth between the personalities, even carrying on a conversation. (Hitchcock would be so proud.) Turns out, Sylar pinpoints the moment that he killed his "mother" as when he became lost, having eliminated the only person to have ever loved him. But by bringing her back, he is able to again convince himself that he can be and do anything. Even be president.
That notion was also helped along by Micah aka Rebel. Danko learns from a man's body in Virginia (a one-man wrecking machine who Sylar killed and took his powers of disintegration before the agents arrived) that Rebel is still in the D.C. area. They track him to a warehouse and kill the power, erasing his ability to use machines to his advantage. Sylar finds Micah first, and Rebel appeals to Sylar to come back and help his people, those with abilities. He apparently smooth talked him, because before you know it, Sylar-as-Micah leads Danko's men to a pier where they shoot him. The real Micah looks upset as he watches his doppelganger fall into the water, but I'm sure he's happy to live to rebel another day. Danko isn't convinced Micah's dead, but a re-shifted Sylar convinces Danko that Micah isn't a healer. "Dead is dead," he says. (Are we sure we're not watching Lost?)
When Micah sees a late-night chat between Sylar and Virgina while crashing on Sylar's couch, he compares Sylar to his mother. Micah says his mother became someone else on the inside in order to help people, and tells Sylar he could do the same on the outside. He suggests he become Nathan Petrelli and shut down this hunting operation. Sylar suddenly wants nothing to do with Micah and kicks him out, warning him that he will kill him if their paths cross again. But, of course, Sylar does pose as Nathan, though it seems his only goal is to get close enough to the president to fulfill his dead "mother's" dream of seeing her boy rule the country. "I won't let you down, Ma," Sylar says.
Nathan leaves his family at the restaurant to stop Sylar from getting to the President, and refuses Peter's help, choosing to end it on his own. Back in his office, Nathan stares in the mirror of Sylar and gets a lesson in his own self-loathing, brought to him by a guy who only recently decided his life was worth living. But before Sylar can crack Nathan's skull, Danko takes the senator down with some tranquilizers. Danko tells Sylar to get back into his Agent Taub costume to help them bring in the remaining big guns (Mohinder, HRG, Claire, Peter, etc.) they got from Micah's things at the warehouse. When Sylar refuses, Danko puts a knife in the back of Sylar's head. But while that used to be the magic act to stop the energizer bunny from beating his drum, (gasp!) Sylar isn't dead. "That hurt," Sylar says with a deadly smirk. To be continued...
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