"What kind of person are we? Does the hero, or the villain inside us, win the day?"

Ah, yes. The hero/villain question at the heart of Volume Three of Heroes [1]. In this week's episode we get more of the scoop on who Tracey is (or rather, who she's not), Angela Petrelli insists that Sylar has simply been "misunderstood," and the pairing up of HRG and his new partner turns out to be surprisingly awesome. And then there are the Claire, Parkman, Hiro and Peter storylines, so to chat about it .

• Angela Petrelli gets all maternal on Sylar, telling him she never should have given him up for adoption, and now she's going to take good care of him. She pairs Sylar up with HRG, saying that Sylar has has just been misunderstood and needs structure. HRG: "So your solution is to send the psychopath after the psychopaths."
• The escaped Level Five guys go into a bank and raise hell. One of them formulates a plan to lure HRG to the bank and take his revenge on him.
• Uh-oh — Mom showdown. (Also, I love it when hero and non-hero life life collide: "Um, we don't smoke in the house"). Claire says she was hoping her mother would teach her how to fight so she won't be the victim all the time. Her mother tells her, "There are some things you can't fight, Claire." She then tortures her daughter into telling her the truth about why she wants to get bad guys. Claire screams, "To hurt him, okay? To hurt him like he hurt me!"
• I like how the African guy, Usutu, makes Parkman's name sound a little like "Pac-Man." "It's your spirit walk, Pac-Man, not mine." Usutu paints images of Parkman (Parkman and Molly, Parkman getting thrown out the window by Jessica, etc.), just like Isaac Mendez used to paint scenes of the future. But then there is a painting of Parkman with a woman and a baby, which Usutu says isn't the future anymore. "The future changed."
• Sylar wants to know if Angela is really his mother; it seems like Angela's really getting to him. I like it when Sylar feels stuff. He says he thinks HRG is right, he's just a killer. Angela: "No, it's not your fault, it's your ability, there's a hunger that you cannot control, it's made you that way. But we're going to fix that." Later, HRG says to Sylar, "You do realize she's playing us, right? This is all one big game to her."



• Hiro, Ando and Daphne all end up at the movie theater where the Haitian is getting back the half of the formula for Angela Petrelli ("Given recent events, Mrs. Petrelli thinks it wise to keep her half closer to home"). Daphne tries to drive a little wedge between Hiro and Ando, which Hiro immediately recognizes: "Don't listen to her, Ando. She's trying to divide us. It's villainy 101."
• Ha! I really enjoyed watching Sylar cop an accent and take charge of the hostage situation with the cops. I don't just love to hate him in this episode, I really like him.
• In New Orleans, Tracey sees Niki (who looks just like her) lying in a coffin. She meets Micah (poor Micah!) who looks up Tracey's old records, which have some key similarities to Niki's. They get a name: Dr. Zimmerman. When Tracey visits Dr. Zimmerman she asks, "Do you know me?" Dr. Zimmerman: "Know you? I created you."
• The campy piano music of the Chaplin movie is perfect for Hiro and Ando's bumbling mission to get the briefcase from the Haitian, which Daphne promptly swipes.
• Peter gets out of Jesse's body and disappears into the future. Meanwhile, the real Jesse is back in his own body and he advances on HRG, only to be stopped by Sylar. HRG yells at Sylar, saying that he told Sylar to stay put. Sylar: "You told me that to make sure I wouldn't, didn't you?" Sylar then traps Jesse in the bank and slices open his forehead, telling HRG he can't fight it. "It's the hunger."
• Claire's mom: "You gotta learn to save yourself before you can save the world." But Claire is still intent on getting the bad guys, and drives off with a Primatech box.
• Parkman sees a painting of him carrying the woman who was holding the baby in the earlier painting, and he asks if he can stop this future scene. Usutu brings Parkman to his house (where a turtle climbs over the 9th Wonders comic book, ha). Parkman eats some stuff, then puts on Usutu's headphones and gets the milky white future-seeing eyes, like Isaac Mendez and like Usutu.
• Nathan is sworn into office, which Tracey misses altogether. Later Nathan is seen reading the Bible (Genesis).
• Hiro and Ando are now at Level 5! There, the Haitian asks HRG if he's being replaced (by Sylar). HRG: "Only for a while. Just until I find his weakness. And then I'm gonna kill him."

In the preview for next week's episode, Sylar is wearing an apron and kissing Mr. Muggles! This episode was fine and all, but I look forward to seeing that.

Photos courtesy of NBC [2]