‘Truth or Consequences’
Monday’s episode of “Heroes” was titled “Truth or Consequences,” but they should have called it “True Colors” as many characters revealed, or returned, to behaving in their true nature.
Hiro, having sworn off time travel after the death of his father, is back in time travel action in order to stop Adam from whatever he is doing and to take revenge for Adam’s killing of Hiro’s father. During his travels he discovers that in the 1970s The Company created the “Shanti Virus,” a deadly mutation of the virus that killed Mohinder’s sister, and Adam tried to release it in order to save Earth from humanity’s depredations.
Mohinder is utterly controlled by The Company. He has the resurrected Noah Bennet under his control, strapped to a hospital bed. After using Claire’s blood to bring Noah back to life he plans on taking the cure to Niki, who is visiting Micah in New Orleans. He discovers the history of the Shanti Virus in the archives, is unconvinced of its safety anywhere and urges Bob to have it destroyed.
Mohinder’s belief that The Company is ultimately a good force is grounded in the research funded by The Company that develops the cure for a virus that has been killing people with powers. He wants to save lives, and he can save Niki’s. He blames Noah’s “violent ways” for all of the problems he sees in The Company. Is there any end to Mohinder’s naiveté?
However, before he can reach New Orleans with the cure two things happen. Micah’s cousin Damon sells Micah’s backpack to local troublemakers, believing he will get cash for it. Unfortunately, D.L.’s medal for heroism was in the backpack. Micah wants to use their powers to retrieve it but Niki insists on going through the police.
Monica, flush with new powers and wanting to contribute in a positive way, secretly offers to retrieve the stolen items. She and Micah find the house unoccupied and Micah sees to it that the lights are out while Monica learns Ninja-type skills to break into the house. She enters and finds the backpack with the missing items, but before she can get out several men intent on burning down the house enter, find her and drag her away as Micah runs for help.
Niki gets the call from Mohinder that he is bringing her the cure, but she discovers he has gone.
Then Sylar shows up.
We knew Sylar couldn’t suppress his murderous tendencies for long, but he didn’t last long at all. While Sylar taught Maya to control her powers without her brother’s help, Alejandro learned Sylar was wanted for the murder of his own mother.
After informing Maya, they confront Sylar, who admits it, and (mostly) truthfully tells the story of rejection, betrayal as his mother tried to kill him and loss of control ending with her death. Maya feels a kindred spirit in Sylar. She sees him as having a monster inside who “got away,” like her own experience, and chooses Sylar over her brother. However, when Alejandro tries to confront Sylar it ends in Alejandro dead of knife wounds while Sylar and Maya kiss outside.
Maya believes that her brother has left them to return to their home and the pair travel to New York, where Sylar holds Molly hostage in order to force Mohinder to cure him of whatever stripped his powers.
This was surprising, the quickness of Maya’s control of her ability and the dispatching of Alejandro. There is also the question of how Sylar got to Molly. Did Maya disable Matt, or did they actually leave her alone in the apartment?
Bob brings “Noah’s ashes” to the family, where Claire’s mother finally grows a set and holds a gun on him.
But does anyone think to check the urn for a homing device? No. It just seems too obvious…
Bob orders Elle to watch Claire and the family, but Noah’s explanation from last week of how Elle was manipulated as a child and why he worked so hard to protect Claire is not lost on her. She no longer has the trust and drive to please her “father.” We also see some of the underlying insecurity and immaturity as she deals with the pain remaining after being shot by Noah.
Claire is devastated by her father’s death and initially planned to have The Haitian erase her memories of him, but after a calming embrace from West and a confrontation with Elle, she decides it’s time to fight; she is going public with her healing abilities to take The Company’s power over them.
That would be something to see, public reaction to a girl who can heal herself. Would West also reveal his own powers, or should he be kept in the wings “just in case.”
Peter, with is memory returned, is back to being a do-gooder without first thinking out the big picture. Adam has him totally under control and believing that The Company is the ultimate evil, that they must reach the virus to “destroy” it.
Peter and Adam find Victoria Pratt, the bio-engineer who created the Shanti Virus in the 1970s. Peter approaches her alone, telling her about his foray into the future. She pretends to agree to help and tells Peter of the birth of the virus.
Victoria shoots both Adam and Peter. She knew Adam would recover but believing that Peter’s only power was time-travel, did not expect his recovery, Peter is able to come up behind her and knock her own before she can shoot Adam’s head off. Peter extracts the real location of the Shanti Virus, under the Texas “Paper Company,” in Odessa, Primatech.
The hardest part of this episode is figuring out who the bad-guys really are. Adam and Sylar seem to be two of a kind, intent on death and destruction and terrifyingly intelligent, insane geniuses. They are the only clear evil. However, The Company is harder to pin down, having good points and bad. On one hand The Company saves lives, on the other they are willing to hurt and kill people, kidnap and choose who should be able to keep their powers and who should lose them.
Despite Peter’s wish to leave Victoria alive Adam releases her bonds, knowing that she would attack Peter, a convenient excuse to kill her. However, Peter is more interested in stopping the virus and still believes that Adam wants to save the world, so he brushes off the murder.
However, when they arrive in Texas Peter suddenly discovers time has stopped. He finds Hiro, who tries to tell Peter about Adam’s murder of Kaito and his plans, but Peter only sees Hiro as a threat to his own plan to destroy the virus. Hiro sees Peter as a former ally who has turned against him. Hiro charges Peter with his sword while Peter prepares to strike with Elle’s powers.
Don’cha just hate cliffhangers?
View the entire episode and next week’s trailer online at NBC.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Arwyn Rice at arwyn.rice@thecampuspress.com
