Heroes 3.14 “Clear and Present Danger” - recap

Heroes episode 3.14  A Clear and Present Danger
Airdate: February 2, 2009

  Heroes returned to television with a new storyline called Volume 4: Fugitives, and the first few minutes were spellbinding!

Last night, the first episode (Clear and Present Danger) didn’t waste anytime introducing the characters. We know who they are, and what they can do, even though very few of the characters showed their abilities. And yet, even if you have never followed Heroes previously, you can immediately tell there is something different and special about these individuals. They talk about lying low, living normal lives, getting on with their lives, and hints of previous lives that are crazy and scary. And someone thinks they are too dangerous to be out on the streets and they need to be put away.

We already know so much about this episode anyway, from the massive previews, sneak peeks and interviews, but those didn’t take away from the thrill of being glued to our seats. There is enough tension and conflict as the episode rapidly progresses, and hopefully this kind of pacing previews the rest of the season. And yet the story pauses to establish certain relationships. Peter and Nathan still hate each other – the idealistic versus the pragmatic. Hiro and Ando may have switched the roles of superhero and sidekick but there is no doubt Hiro is still more heroic. Mohinder’s and Peter’s views of what their powers mean for the world are both correct and yet so opposite.

And then there’s Sylar. Is he not as villainous and power-hungry as we knew him to be? We know he has parent-issues, but now he wants to know who his father really is. Nothing wrong with finding your roots, but… this is Sylar.

So let’s get on with the episode. The fourth volume’s first episode (Clear and Present Danger) set the stage for the rest of the season.

Senator Nathan Petrelli  (Adrian Pasdar) is the new senate head of Homeland Security and he wants to get rid of “threats to national security”. He’s not talking about foreign terrorists but certain groups of individuals who have special powers that can become a danger to society. Or so he and the President of the United States think this. So Petrelli employs a covert military operation to bag-and-tag individuals with post-human evolved abilities.

Petrelli’s first victim is former girlfriend Tracy Strauss (Ali Larter), who has freezing abilities. That was a totally treacherous way to treat an ex and PR manager, don’t you think? Led by a mysterious man called the Hunter (Zeljko Ivanek), agents surrounds Tracy and darts her a chemical that makes her weak and then tazers her unconscious. This group knows what they’re doing and how to subdue the powers of people they’re taking down.

Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) overhears a conversation between her grandmother Angela (Christine Rose) and Nathan about bringing down Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) and Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg). It had been Angela’s job to distract Claire with college applications but that obviously didn’t work. Claire calls Peter about her suspicions and he advices her to stay put while he talks to his mom.

Peter has been lying low as a paramedic and yet he feels frustrated that he can’t prevent the death of his patients. When Peter hails a taxi to his mother’s home, it turns out Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is the driver. They talk about laying low for a while to draw as little attention to themselves as they can. And yet Nathan is displaying himself in the media preaching about threats to domestic security. Mohinder admits that their powers have the potential to become a danger to society but Peter does not agree. Peter knows the good that his own powers can do, but Mohinder still recalls the monster he used to be, and their experiences have polarized their views about evolved abilities.

Peter didn’t find his mother at the house, but Nathan was there and you can tell there is bad blood between the two brothers. Nathan tries to convince Peter that his great idea is for the good of everyone. But Nathan is a total hypocrite who wants to save his own skin. First he wanted nothing to do with having powers and used to despise his flying abilities. Then he wanted to give the everyone in the world amped abilities because he thought that would give people a fair chance at fighting corruption. Now after Pinehearst burned down, he wants to get rid of everyone but his own family! And he wants Peter’s support about it. But the idealistic younger brother would have nothing to do with Nathan, and so Nathan had him bagged too.

The Hunter and his agents track down Mohinder and guess who’s there to help them! HRG (Jack Coleman)! Claire had been suspicious that her father went back to his previous job, but she would not have known this is how low he got. HRG has always looked at this from one point of view – these people are all dangerous and need to be locked up. Everyone, except his precious daughter Claire.

  The Hunter, HRG and this covert agency capture post-humans one by one. Parkman was taken down just as he was showing Claire his new abilities to draw the future. Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) was taken at the makeshift headquarters for his bestfriend and new-hero Ando Masahashi (James Kyson Lee) who is celebrating his powerhood by going to a strip club. The only person they could not subdue was Sylar (Zachary Quinto).

Sylar is on a quest to find his real family, why he does and what it will do for him, we don’t yet understands. But Gabriel/Sylar starts with his own watch-maker father, and finds out that his own uncle, a taxidermist, was his real father. At the taxidermist’s house, Sylar gets surrounded by the military, but then nobody can take him down and Sylar may have found out who was really after him.

Somewhere in a private airplane hangar, Nathan waits while black vans arrive one by one carrying people in hoods – in orange suits, chained together and drugged. The Hunter tells Nathan about Sylar and Claire. Nathan takes out Claire’s mask, puts her in a car and tells her to forget everything she saw. He obviously doesn’t know his daughter very much. She’s never been one to keep quiet or back down. So Claire kicks her driver unconscious and runs back to the airplane that’s about to take off. Claire sneaks under the wheel well and into the cargo hold where she begins freeing the other prisoners one by one. She got to Peter and he touches Mohinder to absorb his power of strength. Peter fights with the guards one by one but he accidentally touches Tracy’s hands and gets her freezing abilities. Meanwhile Claire goes to the cockpit to tell the pilot to make a landing when she finds her father there! Back in the cargo, Peter accidentally touches the plane’s wall and freezes it! The walls explode and everything goes flying out, including Peter! Mohinder catches him just in time, but as the plane begins to crash… can Peter hold on?

This Heroes episode continues next week with episode 3.15 “Trust and Blood” 

Images: NBC / Trae Patton