Aired on November 27, 2006
Six months ago, Hiro arrives at the Burnt Toast Diner from the present, just in time for Charlie's birthday; however, he thought he was only teleporting himself back one day. In Brooklyn, Chandra Suresh hands Gabriel Gray a copy of his book, telling him that he believes he has taken an evolutionary step forward.
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Officer Matt Parkman asks a young woman named Eden for her license and registration. When he notices a bottle of alcohol in her car, he asks her to step out, but she refuses. Eden tells him that he really wants some donuts, which somehow compels him to leave her alone. As Matt drives away, the Haitian looks on with impassive eyes.
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Destiny comes calling for Claire. A cheerleader has dropped out of the sqaud, opening a slot, as Jackie excitedly tells Claire. The two girls start a tug-of-war over the outfit causing Claire to slip and put her hand through a pane of glass. As her parents tend the wound, Chandra Suresh calls Mr. Bennett to speak to him about his daughter.
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Niki Sanders announces a year of sobriety at a Las Vegas AA meeting. As she recounts her travails, her eyes alight on Hal, her estranged father. After the meeting, he begs to be a part of her life again, but she's resistant to give him another chance.
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At a Manhattan party, Peter celebrates his graduation from nursing school and notices that Nathan is worried about something - the DA wants Nathan to prosecute Linderman, a reputed mobster who does business with their father. If Nathan brings Linderman down, their dad will go down, too.
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With Eden tied to a chair, Mr. Bennett lays out a list of her criminal transgressions. In a strange voice, she commands him to let her go, but he doesn't give in as the Haitian looks on. He tells her that with her ability "no person in the world can say no to you... now there is."
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Hiro gets a job bussing tables at the diner. One day, he presents Charlie with a birthday gift: a Japanese phrase book. She skims the book and instantly remembers everything she reads. She doesn't believe that he has an ability to stop time, but when she blinks, she suddenly has flowers in her hands and an order has been brought to a table full of customers.
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D. L. finds Niki sitting in front of her sister Jessica's grave, a sister who died in 1987 at the age of 11. She tells D. L. that Hal is back, and she's struggling with whether or not to incorporate him back into her life.
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Driving home from the party, Nathan tells Heidi that he finds Peter self-righteous and self-centered when a van rear ends them. With Heidi screaming for help, she looks over to see that Nathan is gone... he's hovering high above the car! With no driver, the car makes a crash landing.
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Peter awakens from a dream about the accident with a phone call from Nathan: Heidi's in surgery. At the hospital, Nathan is reluctant to believe that Peter dreamed about the event, but then caves in and admits that Peter was right - there was another car involved and it belonged to Linderman's men.
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Charlie still doesn't believe that Hiro has a special ability. He tells her of an old Japanese tradition that says a person who folds 1,000 origami cranes is granted one wish. He closes his eyes. When he opens them, 1,000 paper cranes hang from roof. He hands her a ticket to Japan and begs her to go. She agrees and he reveals that he bought himself a ticket, too.
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Chandra conducts a series of tests on Gabriel Gray, but the only thing he comes up with is the fact that Gray is healthy. When Chandra tells Gray that he may not have a special ability, Gray flies off the handle in a fit of rage. Gray takes a sticky note that bares the name of "Brian Davis," a man that Chandra believes is telekinetic.
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After dinner, Hal presents Micah with a laptop. When Micah leaves the room, Hal offers to pay for Micah's education at a private school. Hal goes to check on Micah, discovering that he's opened up the computer. Hal goes off the deep end, screaming at his grandson. In an angered rage, Hal hands his daughter a check and heads for the door.
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A steely-eyed Niki arrives at Hal's to tell him that she remembers his secret. "I'm not Niki. It's me, daddy. Jessica," she says, slamming her father against a cabinet. She begins to choke just as he "accidentally" choked Jessica to death when he was drunk and in one of his abusive rages. Niki returns his check and demands that he go away and never come back.
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Mr. Bennett arrives home to find Claire practicing a cheerleader routine in her bedroom. Claire is conflicted over being a cheerleader, unsure of the whole thing because Jackie is such a "bitch." When he asks to see her wounded hand, she removes the bandages to reveal that it's perfectly healed.
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Matt tells his wife that he failed the detective exam again. She tells him that he should just tell them the truth: he's dyslexic. She tries to comfort him with some affection, but he can't accept the gesture, feeling unworthy of her love and admiration.
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Peter is ready to give a deposition against his own father, but Nathan stops him: "dad's dead. He had a heart attack this morning. Take comfort in the fact that he didn't know his sons were about to stab him in the back."
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Charlie tells Hiro how happy he makes her right before she delivers some terrible news: there's a blood clot in her brain and it's terminal. "I love you," she says in perfect Japanese as they lean in for a kiss. Hiro closes his eyes, but when he opens them, he's on the top of his old office building in Japan, doing exercises with the rest of the employees.
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Gabriel repairs a watch when the door opens and Brian Davis sheepishly enters the workshop. "Yes, I called you," Gabriel says, looking down at the watch and its brand name. "My name is... my name is Sylar." Brian amazes Gabriel with his telekinetic powers and asks Gabriel to make the ability go away. "Why would you want that?" Brian asks. "You're broken," Gabriel/Sylar says. "Don't worry... I can fix it. It's an evolutionary imperative." Sylar smacks Brian over the head, knocking him to the floor in a pool of blood.
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Eden agrees to work with Mr. Bennett. Her first mission is to go to Chandra Suresh and get Claire's name off his list.
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Chandra is amazed as Sylar demonstrates a newfound telekinetic ability by moving a glass across a table. The glass goes flying off, smashing against a wall. Sylar apologizes for getting angry the other day. "I'm different now. I feel like I've been given a chance to start over. New life. New identity. New purpose." Sylar tells Chandra that he can feel all the people out there waiting to unlock their true potential, "We'll find them together."
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At last, Hiro arrives back at the Burnt Toast Diner. Ando is thrilled to see him, giving his long-lost friend a hug when he walks through the door. Hiro, however, isn't happy. He tried to save Charlie, but couldn't, and realized that the power is bigger than he is, that he can't change the past... that he failed.
At the other end of a strange and violent night, Claire's father tells his bloodied daughter that he's known about her ability for years and admits to doing things he wasn't proud of to keep her safe. When she confesses that Lyle and Zach also know, he demands that she not tell anyone else, especially her mom.
In the local jail, another confession takes place. Peter admits to Nathan that he feels like he can't stop the nuclear blast that's coming. "That's because you can't," Sylar tells him. Peter looks up with a start to see that it's Sylar he's talking to and not Nathan. The young nurse panics... and awakens him from this terrible vision.
Niki takes aim and fires, shooting D.L. through his shoulder. When she crosses the street to get her son, both D. L. and Micah are gone, having fled into the woods. Micah watches in stunned amazement as his dad puts a hand straight through a cabin door and unlocks it from the inside.
Mr. Bennett arrives at Primatech and lets Sylar know that his abilities won't work there. Bennett believes that so many alterations to Sylar's DNA has corrupted his mind, made him insane. In the halls, Eden is confused as to why they have orders to keep Sylar alive when she can force him to commit suicide right then and there.
Audrey and Matt question Peter, but he won't talk. When Matt tries to read his thoughts, Peter cries out in pain. When it passes, Peter can also read thoughts and lets the two cops know that the cheerleader that needed saving is not the one that Sylar killed.
Suresh returns to his father's New York apartment to find a note from Eden welcoming him back. His attempts to warn the authorities that someone is after the people on his father's list fail.
Hiro believes that he failed to save the cheerleader, but tells Ando that they most forge ahead to find Peter so they can prevent New York from destruction. They're interrupted by a phone call from Isaac, asking to meet.
With Mr. Bennett in the room, Audrey questions Claire about the homecoming events. She asks if Sylar exhibited any unusual traits, but she's cagey with her answers. From around the corner, Matt attempts to read her mind, but can't seem to get through - some kind of static interferes with his ability. Little does he know that the Haitian is just out of sight.
Niki is distraught to find D. L.'s bloodied jacket in the woods. She falls to the ground in anguish. When she gets up, Jessica lectures her about moving forward with the hunt. Micah's voice calls out for "mom." "I'm coming," Jessica replies as she gets out her gun.
After Mr. Bennett thanks Peter for saving his daughter's life, Claire asks her father to wait outside while she speaks with Peter alone. Claire tears up when she tells Peter how alone her ability has made her feel until now. "You're my hero," she tells a beaming Peter.
When she comes through the cabin door, D. L. pushes Jessica to the ground. She bounds back, grabs a hold of him, and flings him through the air, accidentally throwing Micah against some rocks in the process. Micah screams in pain, but reaches out to hug his mom when he's convinces that it's her and not Jessica.
Zach brings Claire the tapes of her healing and she destroys them. The following day, Claire summons Zach for an emergency. She's freaked out that Lyle can't remember anything, "Like they made him forget." Zach feels like he's being played with and Claire realizes that they've gotten to him, too.
Isaac can't believe that he's holding the "9th Wonders" comic in his hands since it hasn't even gone to the printer yet. Hiro tells him that in the future, he saw Isaac dead with his head cut off, but Isaac assures him that Sylar is now captured. Isaac shows Hiro some drawings he painted while sober a couple days ago, drawings of Hiro with Charlie at the diner. They believe it's their destiny to stop an "exploding man."
Niki worries that Jessica is stronger than she is, that Jessica is out of control and not to be trusted. Niki walks over to the police swarming outside the Burnt Toast Diner and tells them to arrest her for murder.
While staking out Primatech, Matt admits to Audrey that he'd feel like a "chump" if he goes back to his wife. She tells him to grow up and forgive her. They spy Mr. Bennett emerging from the building having a chat with the Haitian. Matt recognizes him as the man who was at the bar the night he was abducted. Matt tries to read a thought, but only gets one word - Sylar - before blood drips thickly from his nose.
Hiro tells Isaac to concentrate on a blank easel. Isaac doesn't think he can paint the future without drugs, but then his eyes glaze over and he begins to move his brush across the canvas. Later, Hiro and Ando watch as Isaac paints a picture of Hiro battling a dinosaur with a sword.
Claire calls her dad about Lyle and Zach's erased memories. He tells her to stay put and he'll be right there. She hangs up the phone to see the Haitian coming into the room. He grabs her and tells her that her father sent him to make her forget, just like he's done to her mother, "so many times." He asks Claire if she can keep a secret, because it's very important that she not forget.
Eden calls Suresh to tell him that "I'm not who you think I am... I'm a bad person... I want to explain it all to you and soon." She tells him that she wants to make things right, "Starting by killing the man who killed your father." Eden faces Sylar with a gun and commands him to use it to blow his own brains out. It doesn't work. He smashes the glass, grabs the gun, and shoots her in the head.
Nathan arrives to get Peter out of jail, but doesn't want to listen to any of Peter's babble about saving the cheerleader. Peter topples over, passing out. When he comes to, he's standing on the streets of New York, streets that are filled with hundreds of stopped cars. Slowly, the other heroes emerge, circling Peter with terror on their faces. Peter is confused, but not for long. When he looks at his hands, he realizes that he is the exploding man.
Peter coughs, sputters, and awakens in his brother's arms. "It's all my fault. The explosion. It's me."
