Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Heroes through the current episode, “Angels and Monsters,” originally broadcast October 13th, 2008.

Another week, another doozy of an episode of Heroes. At once shocking, confounding and intriguing, from beginning to end “Angels and Monsters” was Heroes at its best. Does that mean it was not without its faults? Of course not. Mohinder’s storyline continues to drag down the series. But for the most part, it was pure Heroes.

The Peter and Nathan Petrelli storylines came together in this episode, when Angela brought Nathan to see a comatose Peter who, after snapping Sylar’s neck had attacked his own mother. Sylar quickly healed himself and knocked Peter out. Angela put him in a medically-induced coma and tried to use him to convince Nathan to join her attempt to fight the real villains. Unfortunately for Angela, once Nathan learned that he (and Tracy Strauss and her siblings) had been given their abilities by The Company, not God, he refused to even listen to his mother and walked out on her.

In “I Am Become Death” (originally broadcast Monday, October 6th, 2008), Future Peter revealed to Peter that not everyone was born with abilities. And in “One of Us, One of Them’ (originally broadcast Monday, September 29th, 2008), Tracy Strauss learned that as an infant she had been given abilities by one Dr. Zimmerman, along with her sisters Niki and Barbara. Angela reveals in this episode that The Company did experiment on infants, using a formula to engineer abilities in otherwise regular people. Nathan was born without the “genetic code” for an ability but his father, upset that his son had no power, decided to give him one. This revelation shatters Nathan’s worldview.

The formula, split in twain for so long, is now in the hands of the shadowy group Angela is attempting to stop. In Future Peter’s timeline, this formula had allowed an untold number of people to develop powers, but they could not control themselves, things got out of hand, and the government stepped in. Some of those with abilities (like Future Claire, Future Knox and Future Daphne) hunted down others with abilities (like Future Peter). Future Peter tells Peter that someone in his timeline (aka the present) is developing the formula.

In reality, the formula is simply being brought together by Daphne, the Speedster, who is working for a shadowy organization. She, like Nathan, is being directed by Linderman. Unlike Nathan, Daphne is for the most part willing to do whatever Linderman tells her to do. Told to contact and recruit a handful of people with abilities, including Mohinder and Matt. Hiro and Ando, after freeing Adam and losing him in a bar frequented by those with abilities, try to join up with Daphne and Knox. In order to do so, Hiro has to kill Ando. Shockingly, he does so, thrusting a sword through his friend’s chest. Even Daphne is disturbed.

I have to believe Hiro had a plan when he stabbed Ando. He may not have told Ando about it, but he has to have one. We know he doesn’t want to travel into the past but I simply will not accept that Hiro would ruthlessly murder his best friend, even if it would help save the world. The relationship between Hiro and Ando, which has been a wonderful aspect of Heroes since the beginning, has been strained during Season Three. Hiro thinks he is a failure as a hero and fears what Ando will do to him in the future (Hiro saw his future self killed by Ando). Ando, meanwhile, just wants to help his friend and help his friendship. It seems to have gotten him killed.

After getting Hiro to join up, Linderman tells Daphne that there is just one more person for her to recruit: Matt Parkman. We never saw her talking with Mohinder, who was one of the people Linderman wanted her to talk to, so unless that happened off-screen, he still needs to be brought into the fold. Matt wasn’t in this episode, thankfully, but he learned in previous episodes that in the future he is married to Daphne (and she dies) and the last time we saw him he was setting out on a quest to find her.

There is another Parkman in “Angels and Monsters,” Maury, Matt’s father. He has the same ability as Matt, only he uses his power for evil. He is working for Arthur Petrelli, the supposedly deceased husband of Angela and father of Nathan, Peter and Sylar (and grandfather of Claire). At the end of “Angels and Monsters” we see Maury communicating telepathically with a bed-ridden Arthur, who seemingly cannot speak. It was Maury who placed Linderman in the minds of Nathan and Daphne. He tells Arthur that Knox and Hiro have been recruited and that Knox will bring Adam by the next day.

Thus, it appears that Arthur Petrelli is the head of the shadowy organization in possession of the formula, at odds with Angela Petrelli and The Company. Even Angela seems to have been unaware that her husband was still alive. During one of her visions/dreams, after finding the dead bodies of Tracy and Nathan and watching Peter collapse in front of her (with a pipe sticking out of the back of his head), Angela is approached by a man who tells her she’s dangerous because she can see the future. We never see the man’s face, but Angela is shocked to see him, saying “No, it can’t be.” But it is. The man, who wears a ring, tells her she won’t be able to stop him because she won’t be able to move. Back in her study, Angela sits silently, with only her eyes moving.

As in the first season, it is taking a while for all the characters to come together. This time, rather than fighting Sylar, they will be taking sides, forming up behind either Angela or Arthur Petrelli. At the end of “Angels and Monsters,” not everyone has become part of the main storyline. Claire is still on the sidelines, doing her own thing. She buys a Taser and goes after one of the Level 5 escapees by herself. His name is Stephen and he killed a man over an argument about a lawnmower by sending him into another dimension through a portal he can open at will. After she knocks him out, she learns that he isn’t the monster The Company says he is and only wants to see his family.

She gives him the last phone number The Company has for his wife but before he can meet her, Noah and Sylar bust in. Everyone is shocked. Stephen, who thinks Claire set her up, opens a portal and escapes. Claire screams for her father’s help as they all hang on for dear life. But it is Sylar who keeps her from being sucked in. After some indecision, Claire tells her father where Stephen was going to meet his wife. But she never showed up. Claire tries to comfort him, but Noah pulls his weapon and points it at Stephen’s head. He wants Stephen to kill Sylar for him. In the end, Stephen opens a portal and lets himself be sucked in. He really wasn’t a monster.

Later, Noah drives an angry and quiet Claire home.  He tells her that he did what he had to do. Sylar chimes in to explain that Claire finally sees her father for what he is: a user. When they get home, Claire gets out of the car without a word. Noah follows and begs her to tell him that she understands that he is doing what he has to in order to protect the family. She says she does understand, but it is a weak response. Through much of this, she has appeared distant and unemotional. Much like Future Claire, in fact.

So, as “Angels and Monsters” comes to a close, the lines have now been (more or less) clearly drawn. On one side are Angela and The Company, which presumably means Noah and maybe even Sylar. On the other side are Arthur, Maury, Daphne and Knox, plus Hiro and Adam, although the latter two are not willing participants. Peter is still unconscious but would no doubt be working on the side of his mother. Nathan and Tracy have gone off to see Mohinder, who is doing his own creepy, sticking-people-to-walls thing that only bears mention because he stuck Maya to a wall, and have not chosen sides. Claire is seemingly on her way to becoming the stony hit woman seen in Future Peter’s timeline and there is no telling where she will stand.

And finally, there is Meredith. When Sandra Bennett realizes that Claire isn’t at a cheerleading sleepover, she and Meredith look through the files on the Level 5 escapees. Meredith recognizes one, a horrible man named Eric Doyle, who lives nearby. She says she’ll go check him out and promises to bring Claire home safe and sound. She does go to see Eric Doyle, but he apparently has the ability to make people do whatever he wants them to do. Meredith is having dinner with him and is forced to give him a kiss. Creepy.