We start in the future with Peter being held at gunpoint by Claire. Peter says he’s going to go back to fix things so that the camps and experiments and all the rest never happen. Claire seems not to care, and raises the gun to shoot him anyhow, saying “I’m sorry, Peter. I always loved you.” Before he can be shot, however, Peter stops time, takes the gun, and time-travels back to the present, just as Nathan is about to make his announcement. We then see the final scene from last season’s finale, but this time from the point-of-view of the shooter. It’s the future version of Peter who shot Nathan. Future Peter walks off as present-Peter runs after himself. Present-Peter tracks the future Peter into the men’s room, where he finds a hat and coat used by future-Peter to disguise himself.
Claire sees the news report about her real father, Nathan, being shot, and calls Peter, wondering if she can help. Her blood, after all, could be used to save him. Nathan is taken in to an intensive care room while Peter watches helplessly.
Time passes, and eventually the doctors come out of the room. They tell Peter that they’re sorry, but that Nathan died. Peter goes in to see the body of his brother, when unexpectedly Nathan gets back up.
Hiro is in his new office (which used to be his dad’s) playing with the passage of time. Why? Because he’s bored. He saved the world, and now has nothing interesting to do. His boredom is brought to an end by the arrival of Ando, who doesn’t understand why Hiro is unhappy when he has all this wealth and power. Hiro complains that it’s not like destiny is going to knock on his door when suddenly, someone knocks on his door. And who should it be but his family’s lawyer, who brings a DVD to Hiro.
Claire, meanwhile, is watching tv and being bored when she decides that she needs to go to see Nathan, regardless of what Peter said. She packs her bag to leave, but as she opens her door, Sylar is there. Sylar lightly banters and intimidates her as he tells her he’s there for her power. Claire attacks him and tries to flee the house, but as she is doing so, Sylar uses his telekinetic abilities to lock her in. Claire grabs a knife and tries to find a place to hide herself, as Sylar stalks her in a scene that could be right out of any high-school slasher flick. After some cat and mouse games, Claire hides herself in a closet.
We then cut away to Maya, who is also hiding by a door as someone tries to break in. She attacks the intruder – who is Mohinder. Mohinder explains that he has gotten Molly off to a safe place, and then tells Maya that his research has led to a dead end, and that he has given up and is returning home. Maya gets upset, and Mohinder almost becomes the latest victim of her death powers. She apologizes and starts to leave, but then he has a brainstorm and starts asking her questions about what triggers her powers. Mohinder finally realizes that it isn’t simply a genetic issue, but that adrenaline is the key.
Hiro plays the DVD from his father, where his dad tells him that he is now the guardian of a great secret. And to be that guardian, all he must do is never open the safe in the office. Hiro, of course, is bummed that his “great destiny” is to simply not open the box, and decides that he must open it anyhow. He ransacks the office until he finds the way to open the safe, and then opens it using his thumbprint, commenting to Ando that his dad must have actually wanted him to open the safe.
The safe contains an envelope holding half of a chemical formula, and another DVD from Dad, this one starting with “I told you not to open the safe, but clearly you did anyhow.” His father then explains that there are many people who are willing to do anything to get that formula, and now Hiro must truly protect it.
As Hiro and Ando discuss the formula, someone zips through stealing the formula out of Hiro’s hands. When Hiro stops time, he follows the thief and meets Daphne, the super-speedster thief. Apparently Hiro’s time-stoppage isn’t a complete stop, because Daphne is able to talk to him and interact with him. She knocks him out and zips away, still holding the formula.
Peter goes back to the storage closet where his future self hid the gun. Matt is there, having already taken the gun, and he questions Peter about what happened and why he did it. Peter reveals that he is actually the future Peter, and that he did it save the future. He then zaps Matt into the future, and goes back out to ensure that Nathan doesn’t talk about the powers again, now that he’s survived.
Nathan awakens in his hospital room, fully recovered. He gets dressed and leaves his room, just as his dear brother goes in search of him. As Nathan leaves the hospital, there is a news crew outside talking about his miraculous recovery. They follow him as he walks from the hospital into a chapel, where Nathan begins to talk to the people within about his recent close encounter with the divine.
Nathan tells the people in the church (and the news crew, and Peter) about the fact that he realizes he was sent here to do great things, but that the message comes from God. He says that the message from God is that we are all connected, and must save ourselves. Peter goes to him just as he collapses.
Meanwhile, Mohinder tells Maya that he has now found the source of the superhuman powers, thanks to her. He tells her he figured out a way to give powers to anyone – which is kind of the opposite of what she wanted.
Sylar, meanwhile, continues to taunt and terrify Claire. As he does so, he finds Noah’s files on all the villains kept in Level 5. Sylar clearly looks at this as a wonderful opportunity. While perusing the files, he is distracted enough for Claire to sneak up on him and stab him. Although perhaps mortally wounded, Sylar is still together enough to telekinetically force Claire to a wall where he begins the process of opening her head to get to her brain.
Claire awakens on the table to find Sylar digging through her brain, trying to find the key to her powers before he bleeds to death. Eventually he does find the key to her power, but not before revealing that he does not, in fact, eat people’s brains in order to take their powers. He just has to be able to see and touch that part of the brain. He does so, and then stands and removes the knife, revealing that he now has her power. Sylar leaves, taking Noah’s files with him, but before telling Claire that she is different than the others – she’s special, and can never die. And now, neither can he.
Mohinder’s tests are going well, and he reveals to Maya that he has found the way to give superpowers to everyone. Although Maya tries to tell him that he needs to destroy the research, Mohinder is unconvinced. He is falling into mad scientist territory here, blind to the risk involved with giving superpowers to potentially anyone, and even suggesting he would use himself as the first test subject.
In the hospital, the Petrelli brothers have a discussion about Nathan’s new religious beliefs, and whether or not Nathan intends to reveal the existence of their new powers. Nathan reveals that he has no intention of revealing them now, and so Peter leaves, allowing Nathan to live. After Peter is gone, it is revealed exactly how Nathan survived – Linderman enters the room, revealing that he used his powers to bring Nathan back. Of course, the question then becomes how Linderman survived his death during the first season. But we’ll find out more about that later on.
The news of Nathan’s miracle continues to spread, and a Senator is in a nicely furnished apartment watching the news. He comments to his mistress/assistant that he has found someone special, an when she comes into view we see that it is none other than Jessica/Nikki! Again, we thought she was dead, and she seems to be going under a different name now, but a shock regardless.
Parkman awakens from whatever process future-Peter used on him, and finds himself in a vast desert.
Meanwhile, Hiro and Ando are discussing the paper and the formula, and the superspeed thief. Ando suggests that Hiro could go into the past to ask his father, but Hiro says that he will never again go into the past. On the other hand, he could go to the future to try to get information. He does so, and sees his future self confronting Ando over the formula. Future Hiro draws his katana on Ando, when future-Ando blasts him with a burst of energy. Hiro watches then as the entire city begins to collapse around him, and before anything too bad can happen, he returns to the present – to see the present version of his closest friend, who he knows might kill him in the future.
Time travel is a pain in the butt to deal with, huh?
Mohinder takes the formula to the docks, possibly contemplating Maya’s suggestion that he destroy it. Of course, he does no such thing, but instead injects himself with the formula. The formula makes him collapse to the ground in pain.
And in Nathan’s hospital room, mother Petrelli looks over her wounded son. She goes outside and confronts “Peter” starting off by asking what he did to Peter. She tells the future Peter that he screwed everything up, and she repeats the question again asking what he did to her son. Future Peter says he put him “someplace safe”.
That “someplace safe” seems to be Level 5, where the Company has it’s most dangerous powered individuals trapped, including a bald man screaming “I’m Peter Petrelli.” We see a few other superpowered people, and also see that Noah Bennet is trapped in there.
A monologue by Mohinder begins as we get a montage of Claire being at home when her mother comes home, Linderman standing over Nathan, Matt finding a painting of a shattered world as he wanders the desert, and finally a group of thugs find Mohinder’s unconscious form. They draw a gun on him, but Mohinder then dispatches them using newfound superhuman strength. As he stares down at his hands, with the power they contain, we again see the painting of the shattered world behind him.
[Edit]
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