Heroes 3x04 "I Am Become Death"

[trillianastra]

Heroes season three, so far... is fantastic. Episodes one, two and three brought us right back into the story perfectly and introduced some (frankly) awesome new characters.


Then there was episode four.




So we start with Peter and Future!Peter teleporting to a point four years in the future from our perspective (the world Future!Pete is trying to prevent). Everything looks just the same...


...until you see that almost everyone in this world has an ability, and that those abilities are openly displayed. Future!Peter also reveals that Sylar is a necessary part of what needs to be done. Peter is confused, but it's not long before Claire shows up. With a gun, a dye-job and a BAMF attitude. She shoots Future!Peter, and is about to kill Peter too, but he escapes.


BAMF!Claire, by the way, is now hanging out with Future!Knox and Future!Daphne. A little... random, but anyway, BAMF!Claire wants to use Molly to find Peter. Her mentioning this to them is important... because in this future, Daphne and Matt are married. With a baby. And raising Molly together. Bit weird at first... but now I've had time to think about it, it sort of fits. So Daphne talks Matt into asking Molly to find Peter, and she tells them that he's in Costa Verde.


(While this is happening, Peter's gone to see Mohinder. Who has apparently mutated fully into... something... and now spends a lot of time hiding in the shadows and wearing hoodies. Anyway, Mohinder tells him that Sylar is in Costa Verde, specifically the Bennet house.)


So Peter teleports to California, to the house that, in the present, is occupied by Sandra, Claire and Lyle. In future!Costa Verde, however, Sandra and Lyle are nowhere to be seen... instead the house is occupied by one Gabriel Gray, who we first see wearing an apron and cooking waffles for his son, Noah, who is around four years old. (And who has got, GOT to be named after HRG.)


A son who calls Peter "Uncle". So before little Noah can ask any awkward questions, Sylar/Gabriel pulls Peter to one side, fills him in on the "I'm your brother" situation, and explains that he spends his days caring for Noah as atonement for his actions in (his version of) the past. There's some other stuff involving the world being in danger (again), but what hit me was Sylar/Gabriel showing Peter a Very Familiar Broken Watch, saying that he wears it as a reminder of what he used to be, what he did.


Story-wise... Peter picks up Sylar's original ability, intuitve aptitude... which isn't exactly a good thing, as that particular ability comes with a "hunger" that if uncontrolled can lead you to kill others for their abilities. They don't get much further than that, because BAMF!Claire, Future!Knox and Future!Daphne show up looking for (and still trying to kill) Peter.


So there's a fight... during which Noah is accidentally killed. Gabriel/Sylar's radioactive power (Ted's, remember?) activates involuntarily from grief/anger, resulting in a nuclear explosion that wipes out all of Costa Verde and its 200,000 inhabitants.


Peter next wakes up in an unknown location, with BAMF!Claire about to torture him. Specifically, she wants him to feel the pain of every one of the 200,000 deaths... but she's interrupted by Nathan, who is now the President, with this little exchange:

"Stop. I'd like a moment with my brother alone."
"Is this the President speaking, or my father?"
"Both."

Nathan tells Peter that Congress has just approved a superpowered army because of Costa Verde, inviting him to read his mind to prove that he has good intentions. Which Peter starts to do, but the "hunger" takes over and he instead kills Nathan (Sylar-style), before teleporting out when he realises what he's done. He teleports himself back to Level Five in the present day, where Sylar explains that because he now has the "intuitive aptitude" power, he also has the "hunger"

And in the present day....

- Mohinder is studying the freaky rash oh his back. Maya is worried about him... and I'm starting to think there's something hinky about that Loft, because Mohinder/Maya is starting to look a lot like Isaac/Simone...
- Mohinder also finds out that he can't reverse what's happening to him. (Oops...)
- Tracy's gone to see Dr Zimmerman, who tells her that she's one of identical triplets - Tracy, Niki and Barbara - who were injected with a formula that gives people powers.
- A bit later, Tracy resigns from her job working for Nathan, and later that night she tries to kill herself by jumping off a bridge, but he saves her. (NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: When Nathan is President, Tracy is his First Lady.)
- Matt is in Africa seeing the future and finding out about his future wife Daphne. Also, according to Heroeswiki, African Dude's name is Usutu. And Matt's totem animal had better turn out to be that tortoise.
- Hiro and Ando have been caught by the Company and are in Level 2, which is obviously where they keep the less dangerous people. They're in the middle of an escape attempt when the Haitian shows up and takes them to Angela.
- Angela explains the formula, and claims that someone is watching and manipulating them all. She also claims that Hiro has "the key".

Cut to a cemetery, where Hiro and Ando are digging up a casket, which opens to reveal one very pissed Adam Monroe, and the episode ends with the words

"Hiro, you son of a bi~~"

Incidentally, in the future!world, certain people are notably absent - HRG and Hiro in particular.


The trails played for Heroes on the Beeb centre around the phrase "what side are you on?"

Having seen this episode... I really have no idea. And I really, really can't wait for Episode Five.

EDIT: The title of this episode comes from a Robert Oppenheimer quote - "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" - said on the day Hiroshima was destroyed by the atom bomb. It's from the Bhagavad Gita originally.

Comments

[missfuneralsong.livejournal.com]

I'M ON GABRIEL'S SIDE. AND ADAM'S. IT WOULD BE A LOT EASIER ON ME IF IT TURNED OUT THAT WAS THE SAME SIDE. Also, DDDDDDDDDDDD: :DDDDDDDDDDDDD HEROOOOOOOOOOOOOES.