Heroes - Dual

The anti-climatic mid-season cliffhanger episode of Heroes left me with only one question:

Is Sylar really dead?

I sort of doubt it.

Meredith, on the other hand, seems to have suffered the ignominious fate of self-immolation and Knox was frozen to smithereens by Tracy.

Mohinder, however, survives to continue his cheesy voice-overs.

There really is no justice in the battle between good and evil now, is there?

Starting off with Nathan's throw-down to Peter: "Eventually you're going to have to choose a side," the finale of Volume Three tried to live up to both aspects of its title. On one hand, "Dual" explored the thin line between good and evil. On the other, "Duel" highlighted the clashes between the various characters: Peter vs. Nathan and Sylar vs. Claire.

The jury's still out as to who were the winners in last night's episode.

Peter managed to trash Nathan's laboratory--although when push came to shove (and there was a lot of pushing, shoving, punching and general smacking around in the episode), his high standards against the distribution of abilities excluded injecting himself with Suresh's formula.

Which was weird, because I thought the last syringe was snatched from Suresh's hands by speedster Daphne. Ando injects himself with it in order to get the ability to time travel so he can rescue Hiro. After regaining consciousness, he asks Matt and Daphne if he has any abilities. "So far all we know is that you can pass out really well," snarks the speedster.

Ando tries to teleport himself to save Hiro but is unsuccessful. Daphne tells him to scrunch like Hiro did. Matt cautions him to "Scrunch gently." So let's review: we have the "brain mojo thingy" and "scrunching."

After much effort exerted in scrunching, Ando is still in the present with no time travel ability. It soon becomes apparent that the power that he did get was ability to amplify or super-charged other people's abilities. So, in concert with Daphne's speed, he is able to travel back in time and rescue Hiro who is just about to destroy the formula.

Ando and Daphne manage to swoop in and save Hiro from being turned into human shish-kabob by his Daddy who does not recognize the future version of his son, but before Hiro is ability to rip the formula to shreds. Although Hiro wasn't able to destroy the formula in the past, he and Daphne speed travel to Pinehearst to retrieve the formula in the present.

Tracy Strauss has the same idea, but the formula is snatched from her hands after Hiro clocks her in the face. That'll teach her to call him "Pikachu."

Back at Primatech, Sylar has Claire, Angela, Noah and Meredith in lock-down as he pursues his vengeance against Angela, who lied to and manipulated him and Noah, who helped turn him into a monster. As Meredith walks through the halls littered with body parts, she is jumped from behind by Sylar who injects her with adrenaline. Sylar locks Meredith--whose fire powers are out of control--in a cell with Noah.

While Claire helps them to break out of the cell, Sylar deals with Mommie Dearest. Angela admits that she is not his mother but tells him, "I know who your real parents are. If you kill me, you'll never find out."

Way to go, Angela--always good to keep a bargaining chip up your sleeve!

As Sylar begins to slice her skull, Claire manages to sneak up behind him and drive a shard of glass into his brain.

Chapter Thirteen casualties:

Meredith - dead
Knox - dead
Eric Doyle - probably dead

On the other hand, Peter's got power(s) again and Ando is now one of the "evolved." And best of all, the tribal guy appears to be alive and well with head attached!

Of course they're all in danger now as Nathan's secret meeting with the President means that all those with abilities will now be hunted down and confined.