Hiros

"Hiros"

"Hiros" is the fifth episode of the first season of the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes.

Plot

Template:Spoilers With time apparently stopped, Peter encounters Hiro on a New York subway train. Hiro claims to be from the future and instructs Peter to seek out Isaac, indicating that Isaac's paintings hold the key to preventing the destruction of the city. He also gives Peter one final message: "Save the cheerleader, save the world." After this encounter, Peter is unable to convince the skeptical Mohinder to return to Isaac's apartment. Mohinder has instead decided to return to India to lay both his father's remains and his research to rest.

Meanwhile Claire is being rushed in the hospital telling the doctors she is fine. Then her mother walks in and dials her cellphone. Claire sees Brody covered in blood being treated by doctors. Before she is taken away, Brody mumbles, "Crazy bitch.." through the glass.

In Las Vegas, Mr. Bennet and the cleaner, his associate walk Nathan Petrelli from the hotel at gunpoint. Nathan threatens to kill them both if they do anything to him. Then Nathan tries to escape. But as he runs out of the parking garage he ends up at a dead end. Then when Claire's father tells the cleaner to "put him down," Nathan looks to the sky, leaps, and takes to the safety of the clouds.

Niki Sanders wakes up in the morning in Nathan's hotel room, Niki has no idea where she is. Nor does she know where Nathan is when his security detail asks for him. Then Linderman's henchmen arrives on the scene to tell Niki that her debt is absolved, but Niki insists that she didn't sleep with Nathan. Then the woman shows her footage from the surveillance cameras in the suite whereupon Niki and Nathan have sex.

Back in the New York subway Peter tells Mohinder what future Hiro Nakamura said to him. Peter tries to convince Mohinder not to leave for India but to return with him to Isaac's apartment because that is where Peter's journey starts. But Mohinder tells Peter to lay it all to rest and go home.

Meanwhile, Janice Parkman is worried sick about her missing husband, but worry turns to anger when she discovers him waking up on their couch. As Matt wakes up on his own couch, he recalls working with the FBI, but doesn't know where he's been for the past day. Reading her thoughts, Matt is surprised to learn how much Janice still cares about him, even through they hardly speak anymore.

After suffering a beating at the hands of some unhappy gamblers, Ando and Hiro are tossed from a van and into the Nevada desert. At a diner, the two friends argue. Then as Hiro and Ando argue Hiro tells Ando to go visit his "Internet stripper" (Niki Sanders) Ando looks up and storms out angry. Hiro turns to look out the window just in time to see Nathan Petrelli zoom in to a landing on the scorching desert sand.

Meanwhile, Matt is on the phone ordering two steaks for what appears to be a romantic day in with his wife Janice. Then Matt sees Janice in the hallway and tells her he's sorry for being lazy all this time. And so he tells her that he wants to spend more time with her from now on. As Janice begins to smile Matt askes her to put something nice on.

Hiro, who witnesses Nathan's landing, attempts to befriend him. In the diner, Hiro tells Nathan that he is also special, that he can bend time and space, and about the future disaster in New York, but Nathan doesn’t believe this seemingly insane Japanese man. Nathan then askes Hiro if he won the election, Hiro confirmes. Hiro askes if he can get a car ride back to Las Vegas. Nathan tells him he can come along and together they leave the diner.

Hospitalized after her intentional car crash, Claire tells her father what happened at the bonfire and admits that she attempted to hurt Brody by driving into the wall, but she really just wanted to prevent him from attacking other girls. Mr. Bennet promises he won't tell anyone.

In New York, Peter arrives at Isaac's without Mohinder Suresh. Isaac asks Peter what he wants now after already taken Simone away from him. Peter tells Isaac about his path and that Isaac was supposed to know the way. Then Peter examines the paintings at Isaac's studio and realizes that the paintings are telling a story, with a final incomplete picture depicting a shadowy figure and the cheerleader (Claire).

Nathan drives Hiro back to Las Vegas. While Hiro struggles with the rental car’s controls, Nathan runs into Niki and asks what happened last night and why two men tried to throw him into a van. She doesn't know what happened and doesn't remember a thing about the night before. She tells him that she said goodbye earlier because she didn't want to feel like the person she sees in the mirror. Nathan is confused because she returned later that night (her alterego). Niki tells him that Mr. Linderman blackmailed her into sleeping with him... just like Linderman is going to blackmail him.

Back at Matt's house he surprises Janice with her favorite meals. After Matt romances his wife by fulfilling her wishes as soon as she thinks of them, they make love.

Mr. Bennet then visits Brody's room with his associate. Brody finds Claire a freak and denies raping her. Mr. Bennet then hushes Brody with his hands and tells him he won't let some quarterback make his daughter's life more complicated than it already is. He then opens a curtain revealing his associate to whom he instructs to "Hollow out" Brody's memory.

In Isaac's loft, Peter tries to make sense of all the paintings when one that's unfinished takes his eye: a man standing over Claire. Peter tells Isaac that whatever he is painting is real and that his paintings and the people on them are all connected. Staring at one of the paintings, Peter realizes that he can finish the painting on his own. He closes his eyes. When he opens them, they're clouded over white. He picks up a brush and begins to paint while in a trancelike state.

Later, as Claire is being discharged from the hospital, she visits Brody and apologizes; however, Brody has no memories of Claire, the accident, or even his own name.

Niki Sanders returns home to find the police on her doorstep, searching for her fugitive husband, D.L. Hawkins. Then they hear that somebody is heading for the house over the radio. When the back door opens, their guns come out, but it's not D.L. entering the house. It's Ando looking for Niki, but finds that the real Niki is not as forthcoming as her Internet fantasy version.

As Nathan checks out of the hotel, Mr. Linderman's representative has a few words with him about the tape of his encounter with Niki. Nathan turns the situation around by asking for an additional four million dollars in campaign funds. If he was so important to go through all this trouble for two million, then four million will guarantee his victory, making him even more valuable to Linderman in the future.

After making love with his wife, Matt reads her mind that she wants coffee ice cream, and he goes to the store to get some. The thoughts from the other customers' heads swirl through Matt's mind until he centers on those of a young man planning to rob the store at gunpoint. Matt talks the man out of it and takes the gun, but when the customers see Matt with the gun, they think that he's going to rob the store. Their voices rise in his head until they get to be too much. He passes out.

Ando seems genuinely sad when Niki sends him back into town without any help. Ando confessed to Niki it was nice to meet her in real life. With Ando and the cops gone, Niki thinks she hears something strange in the house, but she doesn't find anything out of place. But she's right. D.L. hides just around the corner.

Ando and Hiro make amends and resume on their journey to find Isaac.

Peter and Isaac stare at Peter's finished painting: a gruesome image of Claire turned upside down, the top of her head missing, splayed out in a sea of her own blood, just like the other murderer in previous episodes. A ringing phone shocks them back to this world, but Isaac tells Peter to ignore it, "Some Japanese guy keeps calling." Realizing that it's Hiro, Peter answers the phone. "My name's Peter Petrelli," he says, "I have a message for you."

Narration

At the beginning

When a change comes, some species feel the urge to migrate, they call it "zugunruhe", a pull of the soul to a far off place. Following a scent in the wind, a star in the sky. The ancient message comes calling the kindred to take flight, and gather together. Only then can they hope to survive the cruel season to come.

Trivia

• When the camera is panning around the train at the "frozen" people one of the people is Hiro, reading a newspaper. This is 17 seconds into the episode.

• When parting ways from Nathan, Hiro tells him "up, up and away." This is a phrase that was popularized by Superman whenever he would take flight.

• When Hiro addresses Nathan, he calls him "Petrelli onii-san", which is Japanese for "big brother Petrelli".

Goofs

• When Peter is finishing Isaac's painting with his white eyes, a lateral camera shot shows his real brown eyes.
• When Hiro and Ando are being thrown from the van onto the desert, one of the guys in the van throws a white suitcase at Hiro, after he stands up, in the next shot, the white suitcase has been replaced with a yellow one. In the previous episode, we can clearly see that Hiro's suitcase was yellow.

External links

• Watch "Hiros" at NBC.com
• Hiros at IMDb
• Beaming Beeman: Episode 5: Hiros Director's blog on the filming of this episode.