Heroes: Season 3, Episode 4: I Am Become Death

Sorry to all of my readers out there (the millions and millions of you) that I was unable to provide a review for last week's episode, but I was busy or something like that. I hardly remember what I might have been busy doing at this point, so it doesn't really matter. And since I don't even really remember what happened in that episode (Episode 3 titled One of Us, One of Them), I probably would not be able to give a very good review anyway, or at least a good review by my standards. What does matter is that I'm back with my review of I have Become Death.

I found this to be an excellent episode. This is not because it cleared up any of those troubling time travelling issues that I discussed in the review of the season premiere (honestly, I've given up on them ever truly resolving these problems), but because it provided more clarity of what is going on in that crazy, crazy world four years in the future. The first thing that was absolutely cleared up for me is that Mohinder Suresh is an idiot. This point can no longer be argued. Okay, so this is not some huge revelation.

However, Mohinder the Freak did prove himself useful as, after Scarred Future Peter Petrelli was apparently killed by Crazy Future Claire (this does not really make sense, but I'll get back to it later), Present Day Peter in the Future was able to visit Mohinder who instructed him on what he needed to do to perhaps prevent this future from coming to be: Peter had to find Sylar.

Sylar's ability is that he knows how things work. He knows how everything works. And by learning how to use Sylar's ability (Peter had of course been exposed to Sylar's ability in the first season, but had never explicitly used it), Peter believed that he might be able to determine how the ability-granting-formula worked and thereby find a way to reverse its effects. (Or at least I think that this was the theory that Peter and Mohinder, ahem, Mohinder the Freak, came up with.) And so Peter teleports to where Sylar resides and is in for a shock.

Peter discovers that Sylar is now going by his real name Gabriel, Sylar (or Gabriel) has a son, and Sylar is actually his own brother. Eventually Sylar realizes (by way of his son) that this Peter is the Peter of the past (or really the present, as we are viewing the show), and he does not know that Sylar is no longer "evil." So Peter tells Sylar that he must instruct him on how his power, intuitive aptitude (as it is called in some places), works. Sylar is reluctant to do so, realizing the danger that this represents for Peter, but Peter finally convinces him to do so after having Sylar paint the future.

Just as Peter finishes learning Sylar's power Claire, Daphne, and Knox arrive (it would take me too long to explain how they found Peter and Sylar - hint, Molly Walker), with Knox threatening to kill Sylar's son unless Peter submits to Claire, who plans to murder him. Peter uses super speed acquired from Daphne to knock Claire out before she can fire the gun, giving Sylar's son a chance to escape. Knox and Sylar confront one another and Sylar tells Knox that he is powerless since Sylar is not afraid of Knox. Knox replies that Sylar's son is the one who is afraid. Knox punches Sylar across the room and the resulting collision kills Sylar's son. Sylar flies into a rage and absolutely pummels Knox to death. Sylar then goes nuclear, exploding and destroying the city in which he resided.

Next we see Peter strapped to a table, unable to move while Claire paces about around him. It seems that Peter is unable to use any of his powers as the Haitian is there to block him from using them. (There is something about the Haitian's power that troubles me as well, and I might discuss it further at some other time.) Just as Claire is about to kill Peter (and again, based on what has been revealed in previous episodes, this should not be possible) when Peter's brother Nathan, the President, walks in and stops her. Claire and the Haitian walk out as Nathan releases Peter. After some discussion about Peter wanting to fix the disastrous state that he finds this world in, Peter eventually finds the hunger for power that had driven Sylar taking control of him. Peter telekinetically holds Nathan in place and then starts to slice open Nathan's skull. Before he can finish slicing the skull off, but it looks like perhaps after he has already killed Nathan, Peter stops and then teleports to his own time to Level 5 of Primatech where Sylar is being held and tells him to help him stop the hunger or something like that. And Sylar laughs or something and tells Peter that it is too late and that Peter is already like him.

Great episode, and I'm done with this post. It has gotten a bit long and so I'll discuss that other stuff that I said that I'd get back to in another post. If you have a problem with that, too bad.