HEROES Recap: String Theory

Title: “String Theory” (according to my Tivo) or “Five Years Gone” (according to the credits)
Original Air Date: 4/30/2007
GMMR Recapper: Julie (TV and Sympathy)

“What if they can’t stop the bomb? What if New York is destroyed? What if they can’t save the world?” That’s what this episode intends to explore. Let’s hope it’s not just a waste of a week.

We pick up at Isaac’s loft where last week we left Hiro and Ando meeting future-Hiro. Though I guess since this is the future, he’s not future-Hiro in this case, he’s present-Hiro, and it’s past-Hiro who’s meeting him. Tricky. After negotiating who will get future Hiro to spill about what happened (Hiro to Ando: “I scare me. You do it.”) they manage to learn what went down five years earlier: the day after Nathan’s election, Sylar exploded the city. Now future-Hiro is constructing a giant spiderweb-like timeline of people and events that will show him how to go back and fix things.

Exactly how messed up are things? Well, let’s take a look at our favorite heroes.

Hiro: As we’ve already seen, future Hiro is a sword-wielding bad-ass, even if he’s lost some of his optimism and naivete. He’s plagued by his inability to prevent Ando’s death (!!!) and he’s trying to protect and defend the remaining heroes in the world, whose numbers are increasing daily. More and more people are becoming “special”, and the powers that be are finding that mighty threatening to the security of the nation.

Matt: Parkman has gone to the dark side. As head of Homeland Security, he’s responsible for a large government initiative to identify and round up all the gifted individuals and lock ’em up. Yeah, that includes past-Hiro, who he nabs at one point and imprisons. His whole telepathy thing is pretty handy for interrogation, I’ll admit, and he’s paired up with the Haitian, who appears to helping with Mutant Roundup 2011. His wife let him, so he’s focused on being totally devoted to Mr. President and his country and his misguided cause.

Mohinder: An even-stubblier Suresh now works for the President as well. He’s still a professor, now in charge of trying to come up with a way to “cure” the heroes of their powers. But he doesn’t think he can do it, so the President offers another solution: how ’bout a little good old-fashioned genocide? I consider this a little drastic, but Mohinder seems to be on board…or is he?

Nathan: If this plot has a very X3 vibe to it, then Nathan is Brian Cox’s character — and that’s doubly dangerous, since he’s the ruler of the free world. Well, “free” is a relative term, considering how they’re locking people away for a few puny variations in their genetic code. And President Petrelli is prepared to do a lot more, like, for instance, total eradication of anyone with a potentially dangerous power. And he’s such a good guy, you know, that he’ll dupe them into thinking he’s curing them, when he’s really killing them. Ice. Cold.

Peter: Petrelli Junior, on the other hand, is scarred, super-powerful, and still a genuinely good guy. And did I mention that he’s kinda hot? Maybe I just find mentally flinging people across a room hot — though if that were all it took, you’d think I’d be drooling over Sylar. Though flying under the radar in the future, Peter’s dedicated to his little hobby of saving the world and protecting others when he can, motivated by guilt, ’cause it was really him who exploded NYC. Keep that on the DL, though, would you? Or…don’t…’cause that’s a touchy subject with his girlfriend for a couple reasons.

Niki: Since the deaths of Micah and DL in the NYC blast (get it? DL? sorry), Niki’s retreated from the heroic life. Still living in Vegas, she’s busy stripping, macking on Peter, and running from a past she still can’t seem to forget. She’s left Jessica behind (except as a stage name) and doesn’t seem to be suffering from any Hulk-like personality issues. And her hair is, like, super long and blonde. Totally hot!

Claire: Claire-bear, on the other hand, is rockin’ some brown locks and a cutie of a blond fiance. She’s waitressing in Midland, keeping her abilities a secret, until Papa Bear pops up and tells her people are on her trail. Ruh-roh!

Bennett: Everyone’s favorite bespectacled patriarch is part of the Underground Hero Railroad, helping give the gifted new identities so they can escape imprisonment or punishment. Still working both sides, however, he does supply the bad guys with info about some of the heroes — for example, when future-Hiro goes to him for help getting past-Hiro out, he lets Parkman know. Parkman, however, still doesn’t treat him so favorably…

Things come to a head on the five year anniversary of New York’s explosion. Future Hiro and Peter combine forces and prepare to break in to Homeland Security and break past-Hiro out so he can travel to the past and fix things by killing Sylar for good. Mohinder prepares to give past-Hiro a lethal injection, as President Dickwad ordered him. President Petrelli prepares to give a speech to the country about the horrible events of that day, but beforehand, he takes care of a little bit of unfinished business.

What business might that be? Dealing with Claire. She’s been brought to the Petrelli mansion, and while Nathan’s up for a touching reconciliation, she just criticizes his politics and storms out. Or…she would…if he didn’t telekinetically freeze her in place on her way out. While he has her captive, he tells her about an old friend of his, Candace the shape shifter. Why would he mention her? Oh, no reason…That bit of exposition out of the way, he gets down to business. Brain-removal business. Killing Claire. Because this whole time, he hasn’t been Nathan, he’s been SYLAR. Oh, snap.

Meanwhile, Peter and future-Hiro have busted into Homeland Security, easily managing to get past Matt and his minions. Suresh has betrayed the President and killed the Haitian, prepared to let past-Hiro out so he can go prevent this horrible future. Way to sack up, Suresh. Things look good, but then they go awry when Matt succeeds in shooting future-Hiro and calling President Evil to warn him of the fiasco. President Evil immediately flies out of his press conference (!!!) to take care of things, setting the scene for a huge showdown between Sylar and Peter. “Brother vs. brother. It’s almost biblical.” Hands aflame, they head for each other, as future-Hiro’s flame burns out. Aw. 🙁

In desperation, past-Hiro and Ando make a break for the past, happily returning to the exact moment they left — and the still-pretty New York City. “Now, the hard part,” Hiro says, as he prepares himself for the coming battle. He’s going to have to kill Sylar in order to prevent the future he just left. That’s quite an assignment, but then again, he’s quite a guy.

Aaaand my Tivo cuts off the preview for next week. So, this was an interesting episode. It’s not just filler, exactly; it’s not just a do-over. The thing that’s important to remember here is that while we as an audience knew things that happened in the future, Hiro doesn’t know everything. The only things that get brought back to the past are what Hiro and Ando learned. We’ll see how they affect the future next week, and whether Peter will continue to get hotter. Tune in Monday!

Julie is a GMMR recapper extraordinaire, but she also has her own fabulous TV website. Head over to TV and Sympathy to read more from Julie.