Cautionary Tales

A pretty good episode about dealing with the loss of someone you love. Highlight below to see more:

First off, let's talk about Matt Parkman. His power is growing, and he's taking a little bit of advantage with it. Not only can he read minds, but now he can control them somewhat, too. He first realizes it when he tells Molly to come back to the table to finish her cereal using only his mind. Later, he makes his boss let him keep working on the Nakamura case, and finally he forces Angela Petrelli to tell the truth about what is going on.

Angela explains to Matt that Adam can heal himself and that at some point those that can heal will stop aging. She tells Matt that Adam is 400 years old and that he is the one that killed Mr. Nakamura. She also tells him that if he forces her to reveal the identity of the woman in the photo that he will be just like his father. Apparently, Matt forces her because at the end he has her labeled as Victoria Pratt. She also tells Matt that her generation mortgaged their souls to protect Matt's generation. What does that mean? What did they do? And why didn't Matt just let Molly find the people in the photo rather than forcing Angela against her will?

Hiro is attending his father's funeral and refuses to eulogize his father. Instead he travels back in time and meets his father on the roof of the Deveaux building. Mr. Nakamura tells Hiro that he is being childish and that even though they have the power of the gods it doesn't mean that they can play God. His fate is to die, and so he must die. Hiro doesn't really want to believe that, so he takes Mr. Nakamura back to the funeral of his wife. While there, Hiro meets a younger version of himself and realizes that he is being childish. The two return to the roof of the Deveaux building in time for Mr. Nakamura's death.

Hiro seems to leave, but in fact is there when his father is pushed off the roof. He stops time briefly and identifies the killer. Of course, Hiro knows him as Takezo Kensei, but the rest of us now call him Adam Monroe. If Kensei's beef is with Hiro, then it makes some sense that he would kill Mr. Nakamura, but why wait this long? And why is he attacking the other founders of the company? Angela had said that it was because they kept him imprisoned. Does that mean that he is over his beef with Hiro?

After all of that, Hiro returns to the present and finally speaks at his father's funeral. He says that his dad taught him everything that he needed to be a great hero and that as long as he is alive his father will live on through him. It was a pretty nice eulogy, and a pretty nice change from the relationship that Hiro had with his dad when we first met Mr. Nakamura.

Finally, the Bennetts are packing to leave California. Noah is convinced that the company is going to track them down, and Claire is refusing to leave. As a matter of fact, Claire flat out tells her family that Noah is a liar, and that he abducted West. Noah does come clean with his wife, Sandra, about abducting West and that he thought they were doing the right thing. Sandra looks like she almost ready to leave. Noah shows her the painting of his death, though, and says that he really needs her to stay.

Meanwhile, Mohinder and Bob are in California to take out Noah. They are going to use Elle to make the kill.

West and Claire meet in a field somewhere and Claire tells him that she is not going with her family because she wants to stay with him. West still doesn't believe her, so he has to find out for himself. When Noah steps out his front door, West swoops in and abducts him. Since Noah had called Mohinder (still believing him to be on the same side) to use Molly and locate West, this was somewhat good. Noah has to convince West that Claire was not trying to set him up, though. When the two finally land, Mohinder calls and gives Noah a bogus location for where West is supposed to be. Of course, since West is with Noah, he realizes that it is a setup.

Mohinder's plan is to convince Noah to give them Claire so that they can use her blood to save the world. He says that he doesn't want to kill anyone. Bob and Elle are playing along with the intent of killing Noah anyway. When Noah shows up, he refuses to give up Claire and Mohinder forces Noah to drive to a back alley at gunpoint where Elle is waiting to take him out. West gets to Elle first and Noah disarms Mohinder. That was a quick change for West it seems. One moment he's terrified of Noah and the next he's helping him fight off attackers. I suppose he would justify it as trying to protect Claire, but it still seems a little too quick for me for a guy that's spent most of his life living in fear of "the man with the horn rimmed glasses."

Anyway, Noah and West take Elle hostage. Bob has already managed to get Claire as a hostage. Her hatred of her father seems to have played into Bob's hands and she gives him some of her blood. What are they really going to do with it? Do they really intend to save the world? Or are they going to use it to make an army of unstoppable "specials?" I'm betting more on the latter.

I think that Bob intends to use the Shanti virus to eliminate anyone that could stop him and he plans to use Claire's blood make his army immune. Based on what Noah says happened to Elle over the years, it seems that he's already created one little soldier.

Anyway, it was pretty cool when they tied Elle up and put water all over her so that she would shock herself if she tried to use her powers. Why couldn't they figure out a way to keep her in water during the prisoner exchange? If they had, then maybe she wouldn't have been able to take West and Claire down. As it was, Noah seemed intent on killing Bob believing that if he died, the company would die. Mohinder couldn't let that happen, so he shot Noah. Claire witnessed it, and then West took her home. I feel kind of bad for Claire. At least Hiro had a way to say goodbye. The interesting thing, is that Noah was given some blood that healed him and brought him back to life.

Who gave Noah the blood? Was it Claire's blood given to him by Bob? Or was it Adam's blood given to him by Adam and Peter? I'm looking forward to finding out.

So, out of the eight paintings, we've seen them all now. The last one that I couldn't identify before was of Claire on the steps of the high school the night that she and West pranked Debbie. Now what? Is Noah going to be good or bad now that he's back? Is Adam good or bad? What will the Bennets (and West) do?

Tell me your thoughts.