Heroes - Episode 2

Synopsis:
Another girl is jealous of Claire and competes with her in nearly everything. When the sheriff's department shows up looking for the girl who saved the man from the burning train, the other girl takes the credit. Claire lets her, but asks the sheriff how the man is doing. There is an odd accident in which Claire is hit by a football player and breaks her neck (it actually turns all the way around in a nice bit of sickening special effects). Only her friend sees it happen luckily, but unluckily he tells her the videotape of her "exploits" is missing.

A cop who has failed his exam to become a detective stands dejectedly outside a crime scene. Inside, a woman is pinned to a wall with knives, while a man (most likely her husband) has been frozen solid and the top of his head sawed off, his brain removed. The cop hears a little girl's voice begging for someone not to hurt her. Following the voice, he finds her hiding in a closet. The detectives are skeptical about how he was able to find her and accused him of committing the crime in order to "play hero." Without realizing it, he overhears the thoughts of the detectives and tells them that "Silar(spelling?) did it." They are alarmed that he knows the name and the detectives become even more suspicious.

A strange man pretending to be an exterminator breaks into Mohinder's apartment and tries to bug his phone. The man pulls a gun on him and after a short tuffle in the hallway of the building, one of Mohinder's neighbors, a young pretty woman, scares him away with her own pistol. She befriends Mohinder and tells him that she had befriended his father, too, and had spent a lot of time with him. She did not know he was dead and is very upset when Mohinder tells her. She also tells Mohinder that his father told her about his work and the map he used to track "patient zero," someone he suspected as being one of the evolved humans. She finds his father's answering machine and listen to part of a conversation he had with a man named Silar, who was obsessed with Mohinder's father. They seemed to have been working together and had a parting of the ways. Mohinder's father wanted nothing more to do with Silar. Later, they find a flash drive with his father's research on it; he had found a way to find the evolved humans.

In Times Square, Hiro finds a comic book that features himself and his amazing feat of teleportation. Stealing it from the vendor, he looks for the artist, Isaac, and find him dead in his studio - apparently shot and the top of his head and brain removed. Stupidly, Hiro picks up the gun and police find him standing over the body. They question him and he tells the truth, that he teleported here from Tokyo. He tells them to call his friend at work to confirm that he had seen Hiro just yesterday. His co-worker however tells them that Hiro went missing 5 weeks ago. Hiro thinks it is October, but in reality it is the middle of November. Suddenly, there is a flash of light and through the window, a mushroom cloud can be seen. Hiro "wakes" and finds himself back on the subway train in Toyko.

Isaac is confronted by his girlfriend who tells him the paintings and visions mean nothing.

Niki leaves her house to pick up her son and has another blackout that lasts 4 hours. She gets to her friend's house and they have a conversation about Niki's boyfriend/husband/ex-husband who seems to be on the lam. Niki tells her about the incident and she urges her to go to the police or leave. When she returns to her house with them, her garage has been cleaned and the bodies are gone. She finds a set of keys to the red cadillac parked outside her house. The bodies are in the trunk with instructions to follow a map. She does and finds a spot marked by a shovel. She doesn't have to dig long before she finds skeletal remains.

Peter wakes in the hospital and asks his brother what happened. Nathan denies that he flew and tells Peter that he tried to commit suicide. Later their mother reveals their father was depressed and had tried to commit suicide twice before succeeding. She tells Peter that his father had delusions of grandeur and became depressed when they turned out not to be real. Peter worries that he has the same problem as his father and later confronts his brother, again on a rooftop. He threatens to jump. While they argue, Nathan suddenly relents and looks at his brother in wonder. Peter is floating several feet off the ground. Nathan finally admits that they both flew.

Claire confronts her dad, Mr. Glasses, about her birth parents. At first, he is against the idea, then later he tells her that he contacted the adoption agency and started the process for finding her birth parents. Mr. Glasses seems to be a loving father, but sobers and becomes colder as watches the stolen tape of Claire.

Analysis:

First thing - It seems that Nathan wins the election, if we can believe Hiro's time traveling incident!

Second, Mr. Glasses is way over the top evil. I was very glad at first to see how loving he seems when he interacts with Claire, but that seems to be an act. I really hope they give some depth to this character. Also, the shady character of Silar isn't impressing me just yet (especially if he is "just another serial killer"), although I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt for now.

I'm a bit disappointed my theory is disproved - it seems that both brothers have the gift of flight or possibly something more.

Also, I am somewhat impressed by the horrific scenes of the "lidless" bodies. Besides being pretty gross, they are frightening and intriguing - where did those brains go and what is Silar doing with them (if it is indeed Silar's doing). I'm really surprised this got past the FCC.