Genesis (Heroes)

"Genesis" is the pilot episode of the NBC supernatural drama series Heroes. It was directed by David Semel and written by Tim Kring.

"Genesis (Heroes)"

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Synopsis

Mohinder: The episode opens up with narration by Mohinder Suresh, a university professor in Madras, India. After news of his father's death in New York, Mohinder suspects that his father was murdered due to his genetics research. He goes to his father's apartment to look for clues and to finish his research. However, someone is already there, but he manages to narrowly escape, before heading to New York to investigate his father's death.

Taking a job as a taxi driver, he encounters Peter, who asks if people are destined for anything more important, to which Mohinder talks about evolution. His next fare turns out to be a mysterious man who takes a lot of interest in his former profession as a professor, who also happens to be the same person who was in Mohinder's father's apartment. Getting spooked, he abandons the cab and runs away.

Peter, Nathan, and Isaac: ***Pre-Air version*** Peter is haunted by dreams in which he is flying and attempts to get his brother Nathan to listen, but he's too busy with his political campaign to notice. After their mother is arrested for shoplifting, Peter has a talk with his mother while Nathan is still worried about how this will affect his campaign.

Isaac's story opens with him attempting to destroy several of his paintings, after realizing that he was able to depict the image via precognition. While under the influence of heroin, he painted an image of a suicide bombing in Israel three weeks prior to the actual event. His girlfriend comes to visit him and tries to get him to stop destroying his paintings and tries convincing him that he's normal, suggesting that the suiciding bombing image was painted the same morning. Isaac convinces her by showing her his most recent painting, which is exactly the same as her standing in his doorway three minutes previous. Realizing his problem, he elects to end his addiction to heroin by going cold-turkey and handcuffing himself.

As Peter (see below) finds him later, with his hand severed, but was able to paint a picture depicting Peter in mid air, as well as a large apocalyptic floor painting of a nuclear explosion in the city.

Later, Peter stands above a building and summons Nathan to prove that he can fly. However, after jumping off, we quickly learn that it is not Peter who can fly, but his brother Nathan, with whom he shares a psychic connection.

• • • In the aired version of Genesis, Isaac's conversation with his girlfriend (and Issac showing her the picture of herself) never takes place, instead she walks out, and Isacc notices he painted a picture of events that were currently unfolding on the television (from Clare's story.) Isaac does not handcuff himself (or cut his hand off) but rather O.D.'s, and after Nathan catches Peter in midair, he accidently lets go of him.***

Niki: After doing some webcam work, Niki prepares for the day with her young son, but is forced to leave early when thugs come to their home. After visiting her son's private school and is given bad news about her son's tuition, she leaves and sees her reflection. Haunted by what she sees, she takes her son to a friend's house while she goes to deal with her debt problems. As the two thugs were sent by a person she borrowed money from, she attempts to reason with them, only to be faced with assault. As she wakes up, the room is in complete disarray and the two thugs are dead, but has no recollection of what happened. She looks in the mirror and sees her own reflection, who gives her a "shush" gesture.

Hiro: With intense concentration, Hiro discovers he has the ability to teleport and manipulate time, successfully causing the subway train to be 14 seconds late and causing his clock to tick back one second. After repeated attempts to convince his coworker of his abilities (which include teleporting into the women's restroom at a nightclub, causing him to be ejected), he teleports himself to the middle of New York City.

Claire: Claire's story opens up with her getting her school classmate to videotape her climbing up to an 80-foot height and jumping off, then brushing herself off and re-locating her dislocated right shoulder, before saying to the camera, "That was attempt number six." She confesses her fears about being seen as a freak to her classmate, right before rescuing someone from a semi-truck/train accident and then fleeing without injury.

After coming home, during dinner she attempts to tell her mother about her abilities, but is quickly shunned, as her mother views Claire saying, "I walked through fire and didn't get burned" as metaphorical. Believing herself to be adopted or from somewhere else, Claire asks about her "real parents." Her father comes home, and turns out to be the mysterious man who encountered Mohinder.

Trivia

• NBC, Nissan, Apple and NCM teamed up to give theatre-goers a chance to get a free download of this episode from the iTunes Store starting on September 1, 2006.
• The advance screener version of this episode used the tracks "Vespertilio" and "Eptesicus" from the Batman Begins score composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. The version available from iTunes and airing on NBC uses original music.
• The screener version of the episode also had a different title: "In His Own Image".
• The bespectacled man who talks to Mohinder in the cab mentions the surnames "Smith" and "Anderson". This is a reference to the antagonist and the protagonist of The Matrix trilogy (Agent Smith and Thomas Anderson, respectively).
• The monster on the cover of the comic book the kid reads is the same monster that appeared on Hiro's computer when he turned back his clock.
• The web cam that Niki was making is actually viewed by Hiro's co-worker later in the pilot episode.