After last week's super extra cool episode, this week was a bit of a let down, not just in comparison, but because it was mostly a filler sort of episode, in which things happened to bring us up to where we need to be for the season finale. They did seem like good plot progressing sorts of things, but also not all that exciting overall. Plus Peter? Not nearly as hot this week. This makes me sad.
Hiro and Ando have returned to present day New York. Hiro plans to use Isaac's comic book as a guide, but there's no dialogue in the talky balloons. He says they'll go ask Isaac. Which'll be hard since Isaac is dead. They go to the loft and find Isaac's body, as well as Sylar. They tail Sylar and tiff a bit about whether to go ahead and kill him, or try to stick to the timeframe of the comic.
Sylar goes to visit his mom. (Ellen Greene, collecting snow globes instead of carniverous plants.) Apparently Mom has contributed to Sylar's craziness. Sigh. It's always Mom's fault. He demonstrates some of his powers, but when he hurts his mother, she hides in the bedroom. Sylar seems genuinely shaken by his role in the coming destruction of New York. Mom isn't very sympathetic. She threatens Sylar with a pair of scissors. In the ensuing struggle, Mom Sylar is killed.
Hiro comes in and freezes time to kill Sylar, but is unsuccessful. Sylar breaks Hiro's sword. Hiro and Ando teleport away. They have two days left to eliminate Sylar. Sylar paints the explosion on the floor with his mother's blood. (Um, ewwww.) He aspires to be president, just like Mommy wanted.
Matt, Ted and Bennet are still teamed up. Ted seems to have gained some control over his powers--he can thaw out and jumpstart cars now instead of just blowing things up. Micah remains in Linderman and Candice's custody, while DL and Niki discover secret records hidden in Linderman's secret archives.
Thompson introduces Mohinder (still all scruffy, by the way) to Molly Walker, a little girl who has the same disease as Mohinder's sister, who died from it. Molly needs the cure Mohinder's father developed. According to Thompson, Molly is the only one who can stop Sylar. She can find people, and apparently has a bead on Sylar, but her power isn't working right now. Mohinder finds the antibody in his own blood, and is able to cure Molly.
Claire, back with the Petrellis and her regular annoying hair, prepares to go to Paris. Peter convinces her to stay, to help stop Ted. Peter asks her to kill him if he gets out of control. Wait, I thought Dean was doing that. Oh, sorry, got my shows mixed up again.
Mom Petrelli speechifies Nathan about how he has to continue with Linderman's plans, which includes allowing New York City to be blown up. Looking for Ted, Claire is reunited with her father. Peter starts to absorb Ted's powers. As we all know by now, this is not a good thing.
Overall, not a bad episode, just a dialing back of the pace in preparation for the finale. I'm not sure I liked the bits with Sylar's mother, though. It seemed like a bit of a cop-out to fall back on Mommy Issues to explain Sylar's psychosis, and her accidental death also played into that usual pattern. It would have been nice if they'd tossed in an extra twist of some kind there. As it was, it was okay, but seemed too much like the usual stereotypical treatment of nutty megalomaniacs.
