The promos this week have been all about the catchphrase, “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” This episode was supposed to explain this warning. Well, by the end of the hour, one cheerleader is saved, one has had her head sliced open, and we still don’t know if the world’s been saved.
The major focus of tonight’s plotlines lie with Claire and Peter, whose storylines converge, and with Mohinder, who’s still soul-searching in India. Minor storylines follow Jessica/Niki, Micah and DL, as well as Hiro and Ando, with the latter also involved in Peter’s search for a cheerleader to save. Nathan appears briefly in an attempt to “save” his brother by being an asshole. (His talent is supposed to be that of flight—seems to me his superpower lies in, you know, being an asshole.)
The episode is called “Homecoming,” so of course there’s Homecoming at Claire’s school, and she’s elected homecoming queen, in spite of having nearly killed the star quarterback, who of course deserved it a lot. Elsewhere in Heroes-land, Peter is determined to “save the cheerleader,” even though Isaac’s painting seems to presage Peter’s own death. And he really should get his hair cut so he doesn’t have to keep pushing it out of his face cause that’s driving me nuts. Isaac should have painted a big ole portrait of Peter at Fantastic Sam’s getting a fauxhawk.
Peter hooks up with Hiro and Ando, trying to get them to Odessa, TX to help him “save the cheerleader.” Hiro, however, has blipped back in time to try to save Charlie (“Memory Girl” from last week’s episode) from horrible bloodsplattery death at the hands of Sylar, who likes to open up people’s heads like tin cans. To quote Jayne Cobb, when does that get to be fun?
In India, Mohinder searches for the boy who popped into his dreams, whom his father had listed as a gifted child who can manipulate other people’s dreams. The kid proves far too easy to find. He claims to be some sort of oracle who’s drawn into people’s dreams to help them answer questions. He’s all enigmatic and shit and about as helpful as oracles usually are. In the end his main task seems to be to supply the incredibly obvious password to Mohinder’s dad’s computer, so Mohinder can see the list of people his father had discovered to be mutant Hero freaks. His crisis of conscience over, he determines to go find all these people and tell them what they are, so they can all save the cheerleader and save the world—or something.
In the Jessica-DL-Micah storyline, Jessica (aka Bad!Niki) is pursing DL with harmful intent. Micah knows about Jessica, which begs the question of how much he’s seen of her murderous bloodsplattery antics. Therapy, anyone?
Isaac is still being force-fed heroin by Horn Rimmed Glasses Guy (aka Claire’s dad) and Eden so he can paint prescient pictures that will hopefully help them stop Sylar and “save the cheerleader.”
Claire is grounded by her father, begging the question of why the hell she wears her damn cheerleader uniform everywhere. Is it so Peter will know she’s the cheerleader so he can save her? If so, it doesn’t work, because Peter hones in on Jackie. Events begin to come together, recreating parts of Isaac’s paintings. Jackie is grabbed and strangled by a dark figure who telekinetically slices her head open like a tin can. This, then, is Sylar. Sylar has some wicked telekinetic powers, like throwing locker doors down a hallway.
Peter sends Claire away and confronts Sylar himself. They both hit the concrete from a don’t-try-this-at-home height, and things look very bad for our semi-heroic Petrelli brother, who ends up lying in a big pool of blood with most of his limbs facing the wrong way. Ew. Of course, Peter’s been in close proximity to Claire, so he’s absorbed her healing powers (just stick him in spandex and call him Rogue) and is able to fix himself in spite of his multiple gross injuries. But Sylar’s already escaped. He meets up with Eden, who mind controls his ass into unconsciousness.
The episode ends with Hiro arriving at Charlie’s diner six months in the past, just in time for her birthday party.
So there we go. Cheerleader saved. Was the world saved? Who the hell knows. Maybe we’ll find out next week.
Interesting Item of Note:
One of the kids at Claire’s high school is wearing a Battlestar Galactica T-shirt.
