Heroes - Our Father

While I do miss warm and fuzzy Sylar, skull-slicing Sylar had all the best lines in last night's episode of Heroes. Determined to find out the truth about his parentage, he tracks down Sue Landers whose ability is to be a human lie detector.

"How does it work?" he asks her. "Does it tingle?" When Sue's co-workers burst through the door to wish her a Happy Birthday, they are horrified to witness a blood-covered Sylar. "Cake!" says Sylar gleefully. Later, the blood-spattered serial killer shares an elevator with a trembling suit who nervously shakes his head no when Sylar asks if there is a problem. "Hmm, it does tingle!" Sylar muses of his new ability.

Ando and Matt Parkman tag-along with Daphne the speedster to track down the unpublished issue of Ninth Wonder. "I like teleporting better. Less windy!" mutters Ando. The dispatcher at the delivery company denies knowing anything about the sketches, but Matt does his brain mojo thingy and determines he's lying. The dispatcher tries to dodge them, but he is outpaced easily by the speedster.

With the sketches in their possession, the trio is dismayed to find that Hiro is lost in time. Having gone back in time sixteen years with Claire, Hiro is delighted to see his mother. Having just witnessed Kaito handing baby Claire over to Noah, Hiro follows his younger self into the next room. "Should I stay with me or should I go with you?" Claire asks him.

Eavesdropping on Kaito's conversation with Hiro's dying mother (who ironically is a healer who apparently can't heal herself...), they learn that she has the catalyst and the plan is to transfer it into baby Claire. Claire races off to prevent that from happening, while Hiro pretends to be the newly hired chef in order to spend more time with his Mom.

Claire runs into her Mom Sandra struggling with the new baby Claire and offers her help. Calling herself Bonnie, she ingratiates herself with Sandra, but Noah is suitably suspicious when he returns to find the strange young woman taking care of the baby. Claire manages to convince Noah not to take the phone call from the Company ordering him to bring Claire back for the catalyst.

Meanwhile, Hiro introduces himself to his mother who heals his stolen memories (Yay--he can speak his broken English again!) and inbues him with the catalyst. After the catalyst leaves her body, she dies. Claire returns and Hiro tells her that he has the catalyst. But not for long--in an instant Arthur shows up, removes the catalyst and powers from Hiro and throws him off the balcony.

He teleports Claire back to the present with a message: "Tell Angela I've won."

Via the unpublished Ninth Wonder, Matt, Daphne and Ando discover Hiro's dilemma but cling to the hope that if Arthur has the catalyst, he can perfect the formula and then perhaps there will be another time traveler who can go back in time and rescue Hiro. Ando even volunteers for the job...

But back at Pinehearst, there are plenty of volunteers in the form of ready, willing and able Marines. One in particular is name Kyle Baldwin--uh, I mean "Scott." Maybe not so coincidentally, Chad Faust of The 4400 appears on Heroes as the first volunteer to be injected with Promicin--um, I mean "the formula." He's a bit freaked out when he sees that the injection is being administered by the molting Mohinder, but after convulsing for a few minutes he settles.

"How do you feel?" asks Nathan. Rising, Scott rips the bolted down chair out of the concrete floor and throws it through the plate glass window. "I feel good," he responds. Mmm--me, too! I hope we get a few more episodes of the newly minted hero who main ability in my book is extreme hotness...

Angela sends Peter and the Haitian to kill Arthur. The Haitian blocks Arthur's powers while Peter aims the pistol--but in usual Peter fashion he can't pull the trigger. When he finally does at the last minute, the bullet stays in suspended animation just inches from Arthur's head. Sylar stops time in order to have a brief reunion with the Petrellis. "No place I'd rather be than with family," he tells Arthur and Peter.

He asks Arthur whether or not he's his father. Arthur tells him of course, but with his new lie detector ability Sylar knows he's lying. He lets the bullet finish its path to Arthur's brain.

For those keeping score: that's four dead - Arthur, Elle, Sue Landers and Hiro's mom. And yet Mohinder and Maya are still alive.