1.21 The Hard Part

Hiro and Ando have teleported back to a pre-exploded New York, where Hiro is excited about his chance to change the future. They are off to see Isaac in the hopes that the unfinished comic can be filled in.

Claire is being shipped off to Paris until after the election, but not before Peter makes an emotional plea for her to stay in New York and fulfill her destiny to save the world.

In a snowy used car lot, Ted thaws out an escape Volvo while Bennet stops Matt from calling his wife. Bennet, as Mr Expository Guy, refocuses the team on their goal of heading to New York to wipe out the ‘Walker’ system.

His eyes rolling to white, Sylar paints Ted and believes that Ted is the exploding man. He also believes he will steal Ted’s powers and be the one that explodes. He calls Mohinder for help. Sylar kills the heroes as his own logical form of natural section, but he does not want to kill millions of innocent people. But when he hears Mohinder dialing 911, he hangs up.

Fed up with Jessica’s attitude, D.L. heads off to retrieve Micah from Linderman. Nii convinces Jessica to go too, otherwise she says D.L will be killed.

Candice has the task of babysitting Micah and assuming the look of Niki. It’s unclear whether Micah is aware that he is being duped.

Outside the very high-rise where Micah is being held, Mohinder meets with Thompson. Thompson wants Mohinder to join them, but Mohinder turns it the other way. Thompson asks Mohinder to help him cure Molly Walker, who has the same disease that killed Mohinder’s sister Shanti. Mohinder sees this as a distraction, but Thompson assures him that Molly is the only one that can stop Sylar. What Mohinder doesn’t know is that Molly is also used to find all the super people, not just Sylar.

Sylar calls someone on the phone, says he is concerned about his future, and gets an invitation to visit. As he shaves, Hiro and Ando arrive and find Isaac dead. They hide behind the painting of Ted. Sylar emerges and stands in front of the painting. "I can hear you," he says. Sylar flicks the painting away with two fingers, but Hiro and Ando are not there – they have teleported away. They follow him. Ando says Hiro should kill him now, but Hiro wants to follow the script of the comic (which says that he kills Sylar two days from now, after the election).

In Las Vegas, D.L. and Niki materialize inside Linderman’s art gallery. They find a detailed of their life. D.L. assumes that he, Niki, and Micah are all the result of a Linderman science experiment. With Linderman in New York, they assume Micah is there, too, and they head to ‘ground zero’.

As Mohinder takes blood from Molly, she explains that her ability is to be able to find anyone in the world. However, because she is sick, it’s not working at the moment.

Peter convinces Nathan that Ted may be the bomb. Nathan promises to make a few calls and try to track him down. But Nathan’s first call is to Linderman.

Sylar arrives at his destination – his mother’s apartment. As Gabriel, he is looking for a motherly love and the reassurance that he is okay as a watchmaker, but his mother wants him to do and be more. Little does she realize what ‘more’ means to Sylar.

Nathan meets with Thompson and expresses anger that he was not told about Ted Sprague. Claire sees them meeting and expresses anger to Peter that Nathan is chummy with the man who was out to hurt her and her father.

Micah was aware that he is not being minded by his real mom. At the first opportunity, he uses his powers to disable the door lock and escape. But behind every door that he runs to, he finds the same room the started in. Finally, Candice emerges from the shower, no longer hiding in another body. She quietly tells him he needs to ‘behave’.

Sylar shows his mom his powers. At first, it is beautiful and innocent, as he turns a spray of water into falling snow, and the room becomes his mother’s favorite thing, a large snow globe. But Sylar starts the other globes flying and one hits his mother, and, bleeding, she flees in fear. Hiro and Ando watch all this through the window.

Mohinder tells Molly that he is unable to find a cure. Molly remains upbeat and tells him the antibody he needs to find is just hiding, in the same way as the boogey man they need to find is hiding.

Sylar pleads with his mother to come out of her room. Ando pleads with Hiro to kill Sylar now. Hiro says he cannot kill a man who is asking for forgiveness. So Ando drops the bombshell and tells Hiro that he – Ando – was killed by Sylar in the explosion. Sylar ‘accidentally stabs and kills his mother. As she falls toward the floor, Hiro freezes time and enters the room. His sword drawn, he moves to chop Sylar’s head. But Sylar unfreezes time, and when Hiro doesn’t act fast enough, Sylar promises to kill him. A distraction by the entering Ando gives Hiro enough time to teleport himself and his friend out.

Mohinder has found the cure – the antibodies in his own blood – the very same blood that would have cured his sister had be been born earlier.

Hiro and Ando are ‘safe’ back in Isaac’s apartment – but the sword is broken.

Peter again asks Claire to stay, this time giving her a handgun and telling her to shoot him is he gets out of control.

Prodded by Linderman, Nathan’s mom makes a visit to Nathan’s office to convince him not to get cold feet. Nathan is uncomfortable with knowingly allowing the bomb to explode, not believing that it will be a good end.

Sylar paints the image of a mushroom cloud on the floor of his mother’s apartment, using his mother’s blood.

As Claire confides to Peter her frustrations, Matt, Ted and Bennet show up. Claire hugs her dad. Peter begins to absorb Ted’s powers, and his hands glow prophetically as he fights to control the power.

Comments

This episode is more about convergence upon New York. Consequently, nothing much really appears to happen.

Memorable Moments

• As Candice quietly threatens Micah, the image on the television behind him is of an animated shark holding a knife and fork and baring his teeth

• The cliffhanger ending as Peter fights to stay in control and Claire thinks about what she may have to do if he cannot

Quotable Quotes

Peter: I explode! Like a nuclear bomb.
Claire: Nuclear.
Peter: Yeah.
Claire: Like Ted.
Peter: Who the hell is Ted?

Thompson: Are you ready to come to work for us?
Mohinder: As far as I can tell, you’re all a bunch of untrustworthy gundas.
Thompson: Is that a ‘no’?
Mohinder: No, I’m not gonna work for you, you’re gonna work for me. You’re gonna show me everything you do, everything you know…and I’m going to use it to help me stop Sylar.
Thompson: And why would I do that?
Mohinder: You raided my father’s office in Chang Mai – planted Eden as my next door neighbor. You want what I have – the formula. I can find more of them. You’re the one who needs me.
Thompson: Some people died because you led Sylar right to them. And now you blame yourself, so you become a vigilante. Hmmm…it’s cute.
Mohinder: Is that a ‘no’?

Sylar: Maybe I don’t have to be special. That’s okay to just be a normal watchmaker. Can’t you just tell me that’s enough?
Sylar’s mom: Why would I tell you that when I know you could be so much more. If you wanted, you could be president!