This week's episode of Heroes [1] goes back a year, filling in some blanks and connecting some stories with others we've already seen. Is it wrong that I might've liked this episode more than the others recently because it includes bits of season one?

The episode goes back to show how some of the heroes became villains in the first place. As the opening narration explains when Hiro goes all white-eyed, "To fight evil, one must know evil. One must journey back in time and find that fork in the road where heroes turn one way and villains turn another." From there we see what Hiro sees — the secret goings-on in some of the heroes lives a year ago.

To chat about this episode, .

• It's interesting: It used to seem like Linderman was the ultimate in evil villains but as it happens, Arthur is so much worse. Arthur tells Linderman he'll try to convince Nathan to keep his office from investigating "all things Linderman," and if it doesn't work Arthur will kill him. He then references Shakespeare: "When the son challenges the father, only one is left standing."
• Turns out Meredith and Flint "fireball hands" are siblings and the Company's Mr. Thompson (Eric Roberts) hunts them down, takes them to the Company and tells Meredith she can become an agent for the Company or remain a prisoner. She hates the Company, but chooses the agent option over prisoner.
• Wow, Sylar tried to hang himself? Elle walks in just in time ("showing up out of nowhere, like an angel") and saves him. "Forgive me," he says to her before starting to cry.
• Nathan still wants to bury Linderman in "a very deep hole for a very long time," so Arthur is the one who causes the car accident in which Heidi is injured! That's some fatherly love. It breaks my heart to see Angela — who was once so much more innocent — trust in Arthur, who is such a jerk.



• Also sad: Elle has feelings for Sylar! Sylar's happiness at the peach pie ("That's my favorite kind!") is so sweet. Elle wants the Company to back off of Sylar but HRG says they need to witness Sylar killing someone, and Elle needs to follow the Company's orders or else she's on her own.
• Poor Angela! Arthur just gets in her head and makes her believe things, like "Nathan has to die." Linderman tells Angela he can heal the scars that Arthur leaves every time he puts thoughts in her mind and erases her memory, saying, "Arthur is betraying you in the most heinous way possible. He's going to kill your son." She slaps him and calls him a liar, but he continues: "You have to decide: Do you want to live in blind obedience, or do you want to know the truth?" She chooses the truth.




• Meredith captures her first "special person" successfully (though for getting a blow to the head with a heavy metal fist, that dude she's working with recovers amazingly quickly), and feels accomplished. Soon, however, she discovers Flint has been taken in by the Company and he says he's going to be an agent, too. She thinks they're tricking him because he's dumb. "Remember what daddy used to say? God gave you a big sister instead of a brain." They try to escape, but Mr. Thompson finds them, and Flint jumps off the train. Meredith tries to escape as well, after setting the train on fire, but ultimately Mr. Thompson captures her again. However, as soon as she tells him she hates the company because they killed Claire in a fire, he lets her go free. I definitely did not see that coming.
• It's so sad how Elle deceives Sylar, even when she doesn't want to. She introduces him to another "special" guy, Trevor, but when it comes down to Sylar getting the hunger and doing his brain thingy to him, Elle caves, electrifies him and tells him he doesn't have to do this. In the end, though, he tells her to leave and opens Trevor's brain as HRG watches.
• Angela poisons Arthur! "I lied. It's not your mother's recipe." She is my new favorite character. "You were a visionary, but somewhere along the line you lost your soul." Nathan comes home and gets his father to the hospital where Angela and Nathan are told Arthur's dead. In truth, Arthur is alive and still has his power — but is now paralyzed. At his memorial service Angela instructs Nathan and Peter to "not idolize your father because he's dead. He wasn't a god, he was a man. Deeply flawed in ways you will never know."
• Elle feels guilty about Sylar: "He had a soul, Bennet, he could have been saved." HRG, ever the Company Man, tells her simply that they're agents and they just have to follow orders. He then gets into a cab driven by Mohinder, goes to JFK.
• Then the crazy ending! Hiro awakens/comes out of his spirit walk thing and finds Usutu beheaded (gross!). Suddenly, Arthur appears and grabs Hiro's head. Hiro starts screaming.

Photos courtesy of NBC [2]