“Heroes” episode 2.01: Four Months Later – recap

“Heroes” season 2 premiere begins with volume 2 – “Generations: Four Months Later“. The story opens four months after the explosion over New York City and the heroes are trying to get their lives back.

Mohinder is offered a Company job. Mohinder is going on his own world tour, giving lectures about a group of ordinary people with extraordinary abilities, that he believes are evolutionary advancements of the human race. Unfortunately, a viral plague targets these unique individuals, deprives them of their powers and kills them. The death of these individuals, Mohinder argues, will deprive the human race an avenue to evolve.

In one of his lectures in Cairo, Mohinder confronts a man who has been following him. This man, Bob, says he believes in Mohinder and offers him a job. They talk over coffee and Bob explains that the Company he represents was formed 30 years ago by like-minded individuals gifted with powers. This group finds people of the same kind, protects them, and trains them to use their abilities for the good of mankind. Bob offers Mohinder the funds to continue his research and come on board the Company. It turns out money is not a problem as Bob himself is a source of limitless supplies – he can turn metal into gold!

Escape into America. Twins Maya and Alejandro are wanted for murder in South America. They escape from the cops and want to go to America to find the answers they need. Alejandro pays some smugglers to drive them to the nearest border. Later inside the truck, Maja reads about Chandra Suresh’s book Activating Evolution and is fascinated by what she discovers. The twins are encouraged that there may be a cure for Maya and Alejandro assures her he will not let anything happen again as long as he’s around her. The truck suddenly stops and the smugglers demand more money from Alejandro or have Maya sit in front with him. When the twin refuses, one of them points a gun at him and speeds away with Maya inside the truck. Alejandro later catches up with the truck and finds dead bodies everywhere, with blood coming out of their eyes. Maya is sobbing in a corner and says she didn’t want to do “it”. They get into the truck again and drive off toward what they believe to be their freedom from this curse that haunts Maya.

Claire tries to fit in with her new school. Claire Bennet, disguised as Claire Butler, enrols in a new high school in Costa Verde, California. Dad Noah surprises her with a new car, the Nisssan Rogue, and he apologizes to her for everything he’s put her through.

Before the first bell rings, Noah warns her to be “entirely unextraordinary” but Claire faces the first of her “tests” she almost gets hit by a truck driven by a student named West. Later in Biology, West approaches her again and asks her if she is an “alien” – one who does his own thing; or a “robot” – one who sticks with the herd. In the Phys. Ed class, Claire wishfully looks over to a group of cheerleaders who are practicing their routines. The cheerleaders taunt a nondescript girl to try out for the cheerleading squad by doing a back-tuck from a tower. Claire steps in and she ends up accepting the dare to do the stunt so the other girl won’t have to. She gets up the tower but backs off at the last minute, much to the snicker of the girls. When everyone else has left the gym, Claire tries the back-tuck but lands on the hard gym floor with a broken leg. She regenerates just in time before West comes back in.

Meanwhile, Noah Bennet Butler gets a job as a real paper salesman for Copy Kingdom. He deals with a really annoying, condescending manager by twisting this man’s fingers and insisting that he will do as he pleases in that office.

West. This boy from Claire’s new school seemed to have taken an interest in her. He sits beside her in Biology class and was surprised that Claire didn’t raise her hands when she knew the answer to a teacher’s question. He also found her on the gym floor, and guessed, from Claire’s shocked look, that she did the back-tuck but didn’t want anyone, or him to find out about it. Later on that night, he stalks Claire from outside her bedroom window, and hears her talking. Actually, he was floating… and then he did a Superman and flew away!

Hiro learns the truth about the legendary Takezo Kensei. After Sylar throws Hiro into a building, Hiro saved himself by teleporting. Unfortunately, he ends up in ancient Japan, 1671, and finds himself in the middle of a crossfire of warring samurais. A solar eclipse takes place again right before arrows whiz toward Hiro. He stops time, gets out of the way and teleports a man on a horse he thought was Takezo Kensei. It turns out, the man is only hired by the real Takezo to be his stand-in to fight the group of bandit Samurais. Hiro gets a big surprise when the real Takezo turns out to be gaijin, a foreigner. Takezo is an Englishman who takes advantage of feudal Japan by fighting bandits for money. Helpless villagers give him money to for protect them from bandits. Hiro is stunned and insists that Takezo is a hero! He’s read all about him in a history book. In fact, Hiro tells Takezo what the samurai’s future was supposed to be – that Takezo falls in love with a swordsmith’s daughter, fights White Beard and saves the town of Utsu from destruction. Unfortunately, nothing in the history book is coming to pass and Hiro was afraid he mya have just changed the future! Hiro and Takezo meet a band of fleeing natives from a burned-down Utsu and the swordsmith’s daughter ends up going after the bandits who kidnapped her father.

Parkman adopts Molly. Matt Parkman and Mohinder Suresh had taken to Molly and adopted her. Parkman finally passes his exams for detective position by reading in on people’s thoughts. And Molly is in a new school but having a difficult time; she’s been having nightmares again. Her teacher shows Parkman a series of sketches that Molly drew of pairs of eyes that seem to be searching for her. When he asks about these dreams and the drawing, the girl gets very upset. Later that night, Molly has another nightmare and Parkman hears her thoughts – she is asking for help, pleading for someone not to hurt her. Suddenly, Parkman hears a man’s voice in Molly’s head “I can see you!” and the girl screams awake, scared that this man is going to kill Parkman if he comes after him.

Nathan and Angela Petrelli’s demise. Nathan Petrelli finds his mom in Peter’s apartment, where Nathan ended up staying after leaving his wife and boys. Angela accuses Nathan of killing Peter. If Nathan was supposed to do as he was told Peter would still be alive, Angela cries. Nathan realizes how cruel and selfish her mom really is and tells her to get out of his life. Outside the apartment, Angela sees a torn photo of herself marked with the strange symbol in red ink.

The fate of Kaito Nakamura. Kaito Nakamura and Ando are waiting for Hiro’s return in Manhattan. Kaito is repentant and wants to make up for whatever time he lost with his son. But he sees a torn picture of him clipped inside a newspaper and his picture with the strange marking. Kaito forebodes that he has been marked to die in 24 hours. Later, Angela Petrelli finds Kaito at the rooftop of Charles Deveaux’s building and they compare the photos. Angela is stunned that “one of them” is out to kill them both, but Kaito expected this. He believes this is payback for all the people their group have had killed. That evening in the rooftop, a hooded man approaches Kaito, and the Japanese recognizes him, but he was surprised that of all of them, this is the man to come after him. The man rams into Kaito and throws him off the rooftop. Ando arrives to find Kaito sprawled on the pavement below, dead. But the other man was nowhere to be found.

Of mobsters and amnesia. A group of Irish mobters are looking for a cargo hold in a pier. Instead of finding Ipods, they see Peter handcuffed inside the hold. When one of them tries to club Peter, he uses his electromagnetic pulse power to throw the man off. They ask him how he got there, who he is, but he can’t remember anything.

… to be continued…

Next week’s episode: Lizards, airs October 1, 2007.

Tags: heroes, episode 2.01, volume 2, season 2, four months later, recap, premiere