"On the sixth day, God created man in his own image. Now it's up to us to figure it all out." Thus begins (in an opening narration by Sylar instead of Mohinder, which I think is a nice change of pace) the final episode in this Heroes [1] volume, "Villains." As has been the case in many of the chapters of this volume, the episode explores what makes people good or evil, heroes or villains, etc. etc. etc.

Sylar plays a little psychological murder game with the foursome he's locked inside Primatech (Claire, Meredith, Angela, HRG), trying to make them kill each other. Meanwhile, Ando, Daphne and Parkman work to bring Hiro back to present-day and Nathan and Peter have differing opinions on what to do with the formula. For more on this episode, .

• Nathan comes upon Peter gazing upon their father's dead body. He tells Peter that he's going to finish what their father started, even though Peter thinks no good can come from it. Peter punches Nathan out and heads down to the lab.
• At Primatech, Sylar traps HRG, Meredith, Claire and Angela in the building and talks to them over the PA system: "You did this to me. And before the night is over, I'm gonna prove to you, one by one, that you're all monsters. Exactly like me.".
• Meanwhile, present-day Hiro, who is stuck in the 16-years-ago-past, recaps some things for us while gripping the pole and chatting to a pigeon. "I lost the formula. I failed my father. I lost my destiny."
• Mohinder's infection has spread to his lungs and he hopes the formula will cure him. Peter, Flint and Knox burst into the lab, all of them planning to destroy the formula. Flint explains that with the formula, they're not so special anymore. Knox goes to keep an eye on Nathan so he won't interfere with the lab destruction.
• Daphne speeds through the lab, stealing the one dose of the formula that Mohinder was holding. She gives it to Ando who injects himself even though Parkman (quite logically, really) wonders what if Ando doesn't get the exact power he wants?
• Hiro climbs his way back up to the apartment where he talks with his child self and asks the younger Hiro to find a piece of paper of his father's with numbers and figures on it.
• Claire would like to give the tempermental Sylar "a good spanking." Wouldn't we all, Claire? Wouldn't we all.
• Sylar tells Claire that he'll let her, HRG and Meredith walk out alive if Claire will murder Angela. Otherwise, Claire is endangering HRG's life. She promises Sylar that if he hurts HRG she'll hunt him down and kill him.



• Ando tries to teleport, repeating that he's the master of time and space. Parkman tells him to scrunch his eyes gently because he doesn't want to go back to the Stone Age (ha!). Rather than time travel, however, Ando got the power of supercharging other peoples' powers. They figure out that supercharging Daphne's speedstering causes her to travel through time.
• HRG tells the Level Five guys that whoever brings him Sylar will be granted freedom, though he tells Meredith that they're actually bait for Sylar. Puppet master guy, Doyle, tries to control Sylar, but that doesn't work out so well for him. Sylar injects Meredith with adrenaline and then Meredith can't control her fire. Sylar shuts HRG in a room with her and has left him a gun with one bullet in it. Claire ultimately works with Meredith and HRG to shatter the glass and free them from the cell.
• Nathan tells Knox that everyone always roots for Peter but in the end he always winds up losing. He starts a fight with Knox which Tracy ends by freezing and then shattering Knox. Tracy thinks that as a politician, Nathan can't recover from a disaster like this one, PR-wise. She says they can start over, but Nathan ends up firing her.
• Older Hiro finds the formula just as Kaito walks in, notices the open safe and grabs his sword, calling Hiro a thief. Hiro finally holds up the formula, saying that if he destroys it then it can't be used. He tears it in half before disappearing. In that moment, Daphne and Ando bring Hiro back to the present. Daphne and Hiro then go to Pinehearst where Hiro punches Tracy in the face and grabs the formula.
• Speaking of the formula, Flint and Peter are still trying to destroy the lab. They tip over a giant tub of the stuff, some of which reaches the knocked-out Mohinder and his scalies go away. Flint goes to set the place on fire, but Nathan hits him with a metal thing, then hits Peter with it — repeatedly. Flint sets the room ablaze anyway, but then Peter injects himself with the formula and crashes with Nathan through the window and flies them away to safety. Nathan wants to know why Peter saved him and Peter says it's because Nathan's his brother and he loves him.
• Angela says Sylar's a hero because he killed Arthur, but Sylar's not having any of her nonsense. He says she's not her mother and she confirms this. She says she wanted him to work for the Company. She saw that he was "flawed, weak, malleable. Someone I could manipulate because that's what I do, because you're right. I'm a monster, too." She says she knows who his real parents are. He starts to force her to tell him but just then Claire gets him in the back of his skull, and he goes down. Claire goes back to the cell to save her mother, but HRG and Meredith tell her to run. As they do, Meredith unleashes her fire and Primatech is set aflame.
• Tracy picks up Mohinder in her car.
• "Each one of us is capable of both the dark and the light, of good and evil, of either, of all. And destiny while marching ever in our direction can be rerouted by the choices we make. . . by the love we hold on to and the promises we keep."
• We get a glimpse of "Fugitives," which picks up three weeks later. Nathan is in D.C. explaining that he wants to round up all these special people and put them someplace where they won't be a danger to anyone. As he leaves the car, he thanks the President.

"Villains" is over! Heroes returns Feb. 2.

Photos courtesy of NBC [2]