Heroes Episode Summary: "Distractions", Chapter 14, Season 1

Hiro confronting his "distractions" in "Distractions"

*Updated*

This is my Heroes TV Show Spoilers blog episode summary and spoilers clues for Chapter 14 of Heroes, Distractions - Season 1, Episode 14.

First, the obvious. One spoiler we repeatedly forecast was that Claire the cheerleader meets her biological mother with huge trepidation and wonder, as seen in the photo. And that happened, right in the trailer park, as Meridith and Claire bonded. Zach accompanied Claire to the trailer, but had the good sense to stand back as the superhero titans met, avoiding the possible fireworks, literally, after all dear old Mom is a very unstable firecracker ... er firestarter.

The big reveals of this episode were:

• Jessica / Nikki now is in Linderman's pocket
• Peter can remember powers
• H.R.G. thought Claude was dead
  
• Claire's biological father...

Nathan, Peter’s womanizing flying politician brother turns out to be as bad as everyone thought. The spoilers were a bit off on this one, but Nathan is Claire’s biological father, not H.R.G. or Linderman. That makes sense, since we already have seen infidelity from him, a clue to his checkered past. His attempts to suppress Peter, also another clue. His infatuation with a clean public persona also was a clue.

The mega spoiler is the rumor floated by the creators that Claire’s bio-dad is someone working with H.R.G. This means, Nathan is in league with H.R.G. if a real spoiler rather than misdirection.

Hiro wraps up his family "distractions" - Mr. Sulu, George Takai, aka Mr. Nakamura, and sister Kimiko, as the word "distractions" flashed on the screen (captured above, thanks Heroes-Wiki). Hiro’s dad is chairman of Yagamoto Industries, a conglomerate and is training Hiro from the ground up in business. Hiro's destiny awaits his return to Japan.

The big reveal is Kimiko, Hiro’s sister, and Ando is in looooooooooove with Kimiko. Did you notice he put on cologne to meet her? It turns out Mr. Nakamura cannot lure Hiro back and returns with Kimiko installed as his new heir, and Ando longing.

The spoiler is we have not seen the last of Kimiko, and expect more of her (and Ando) in Heroes Season 2 - unless her contract is not renewed ;) .

Jessica/Nikki the dual personality finally busts loose. Turns out elephant restraints cannot hold a Heroes superhero like Jessica. She breaks them like confetti and tasers the psychiatrist. Interestingly, Nikki/Jessica faints afterwards and is subdued. Sinister, and unseen Linderman doctors the evidence and she is exonerated of the murders, so she is freed by Linderman’s lawyer. Now she is owned by him. The spoiler for next week is that Linderman turns Jessica out as an assassin, and Jessica suppresses her good Nikki persona.

Claude Raines, the invisible man, has had his superpower for 15 years. He trained other Heroes, possibly Nathan. It seems the older Heroes heroes know or were associated with each other at one time. Claude knows H.R.G., and possibly Nathan. The Heroes spoiler for Chapter 15 of season 1 of the Heroes series (next week) is that H.R.G. thought Claude was dead, and teams up with Isaac to track him.

Claude is training Peter to retain his powers one at a time – first by clearing his head of negative attachments. He does that by trailing Simone, Peter’s present and Isaac’s former girlfriend. They track her to Isaac’s roof, where of course he sees, but does not hear Simone’s conversation with Isaac.

Peter misinterprets Simone’s embrace with Isaac as further infidelity, and finally is cleared of his attachments. Devilish Claude subscribes to the “sink-or-swim” school of Heroes superpower training, and pushes poor Peter off Isaac’s three-hundred foot tall building. Claude fully expects Peter will kick in brother Nathan’s Heroes flying superpower to save himself. Instead, Peter falls and falls and falls, and smashes into a taxicab – predicted by Isaac. No flying power! But Claire’s healing power kicks in just in time and Peter heals himself from the plunge.

Peter learns he can hold on to Heroes superpowers, by remembering the feeling they gave him and the person who donated them. He still needs to increase his sponge, i.e. retention ability.

Now, the creepy scene of the night, features Sylar in his Primatech Paper suit. He meets Mrs. Bennett and cute Mr. Muggles the dog. Mrs. Bennett teases us with H.R.G.’s still unknown name, and classically, Mr. Muggles’ chewing on Sylar’s shoelaces elicits a reprimand, rather than the name. Just as Sylar is about to kill Mrs. Bennett, the ever ambiguous H.R.G. arrives and shoots Sylar. I do not see how a gun can kill superhero Sylar, much less the Haitian who H.R.G. sends after him.

As usual, H.R.G. orders the Haitian to wipe Mrs. Bennett's memories … for the hundredth time leaving her a vacant Stepford wife. A faint wiff of memory remains, so the spoiler may turn out to be Mrs. Bennett.

The preview spoilers showed Mohinder unwittingly teaming up with Sylar, his dad's murderer. Although Mohinder knows the name "Sylar", he doesn't know the face and Sylar uses a false identity.

Claire Spoilers for Distractions and Heroes Previews

Heroes Spoilers ahead...

The upcoming Distractions episode of Heroes has a number of themes discussed in our earlier spoilers post.

One spoiler theme of course is "Meet the Parents", or more correctly, let's explore Claire the indestructible cheerleader's biological past. Claire has been naturally curious about her bio-parents. Whenever she or her adoptive Mom got too close in the past, controlling daddy H.R.G. (Mr. Bennett) arranged those brain cells to be erased by the Haitian mind-eraser. Now, Claire has broken out and is about to find out. The spoiler is that in Distractions, she meets her birth mother, played by Nip/Tuck's Jessalyn Gilsig. The meeting is shown in the first of the spoiler preview videos below.



In true Heroes fashion, the plot thickens when that happens, as TV Guide states. This will be a major theme of the February sweeps period, promises series creator Tim Kring, "a really big shocker. ... "We'll see the inciting incident that allowed him [H.R.G.] to gain possession of her."

There are a lot more spoiler clips floating around the Internet now. Here are the ones we found:

Sylar escapes from Primatech Paper leaving H.R.G. (Claire's adoptive father in his cell. H.R.G. seems genuinely scared ... Oh, he lives by the way.

Isaac the future painter and Simone.

Nikki/Jessica in Psychotherapy - about to get loose

Peter in training from Claude Rains, the invisible man

Heroes Preview trailer, showing Sylar at Claire's home threatening to murder Mrs. Bennett

Heroes Spoilers Chapter 14 - "Distractions"

As I said in my spoiler post yesterday, here is my Heroes spoilers blog for the next episode of Heroes - Season 1, Episode 14, which is called "Distractions". As usual, lots of spoilers here blah blah so if you want to remain in suspense until the broadcast, stop reading now ...

Distractions is a family relationships episode. Hiro's complicated relationship with his mega-billionaire father Sulu, er Mr. Nakamura, and his corporate climbing sister will be explored. Also H.R.G.'s (Mr. Bennett) deceptive relationship with his wife and of course healing daughter Claire will be explored.

Heroes' Hiro and his relationship with his father and sister spoilers: George Takei (who plays Mr. Nakamura aka Sulu) gave a candid interview in TV Guide, which if believed provides a lot of Hiro's family backstory. It turns out little cheerful Hiro is among the richest people in the entire world, his Dad arriving last week in a new $400,000 Bentley. What? you might ask. Hiro the faceless company man in the cubicle is rich. Yes indeed. His Dad, believes in training his children into the company from the bottom up. Learn humility and skill in the Japanese way. So, Sulu ... Mr. Nakamura cannot tolerate the risk of his son wondering around in danger in America. He wants Hiro home secure with his bodyguards. After all there are evil people in the world who might seek to gain ransom from a rich man using his wayward son Hiro

Now, what does this have to do with a magic samurai sword spoiler, which Hiro seeks to regain his Heroes hero status? Hiro Nakamura it turns out is the descendant of a long line of Shogun aristocracy. What is one of their family relics... a samurai sword of course! Back to Linderman.

As for the Bennett dysfunctional family unit: H.R.G. has been living a lie for years. His wife Mrs. Bennett has discovered on numerous occasions Claire's power, as well as H.R.G.'s sinister alter ego. Even worse, she learned of the true circumstances of Claire's adoption. Ever wonder why she has an unnaturally vacuous look? That's because she has been subjected to the Haitien's mind erasing every time she remembers or discovers anything. Ambiguous H.R.G. will do anything to keep her and Claire clueless. However, the Haitien's mind-erasing power is not like a precision guided smart bomb taking out a terrorist cell. Nope, the repeated erasures on Mrs. Bennett have wiped out a lot of innocent brain cells, to the point she almost is a Stepford Wife.

The big Distractions Heroes spoiler is that it all falls apart for H.R.G. Sylar is on the loose and out to wreak havoc with H.R.G. ... and of course eat Claire the cheerleader daughter's brain. Sylar takes H.R.G.'s ID, puts on a Primatech Paper suit and off he goes to H.R.G.'s home, leaving H.R.G. helpless in a cell in basement of Primatech Paper. Can you hear the Heroes web game creeping up? Also, Claire's adoptive Mother finally gets clued in, interestingly by Sylar. Does she survive the Sylar encounter? Our bet is yes, since again, she has no Heroes super power to offer him.

Anyone wondering if Sylar gets re-captured? The answer is no. The Heroes spoilers picture above is a publicity photo of Sylar still on the loose in Heroes Episode 15 (two weeks)! Thanks Just Jared.

Claire's biological father also will be revealed, and he has some kind of power too. Like father like daughter.

Then of course there is the renowned dysfunctional family unit of Nikki / Jessica - the good / bad dual personality mom, D.L. the fugitive dad who can walk through walls, and of course Micah, with the Heroes cash machine superpower - the breadwinner child. Nikki goes in for more analysis by the jail psychiatrist, who of course demands to speak with Jessica, without handcuffs. So Jessica is provide with an opportunity to get loose.

Here is the "official" word from NBC.com. As usual, an tantalizingly vague episode summary is provided, with some nice spoilers mixed in. Take this summary, and spoiler in general, with a grain of salt, and for the fun they are.

The title refers to the dysfunctional family spoiler - y aspect of the episode: "With Their New Paths Becoming Clearer, Some 'Heroes' Family Relationships Are Driven Apart".

Then they go into the episode teaser spoilers:

Hiro struggles to make his father (guest star George Takei), a corporate tycoon, and ambitious sister (guest star Saemi Nakamura) understand his new heroic path in life. Niki has a chance to be with D.L. and Micah again, but will she really be with them? Claude (guest star Chris Eccleston) attempts to teach Peter to harness his abilities, but the process could shatter Peter's faith in those closest to him. Determined to find her birth mother (guest star Jessalyn Gilsig), Claire makes her way to a trailer park in Texas.

The trailer park is home for Claire's biological mom. Will Claire find her bio dad? Not in this episode.

Meanwhile, Sylar makes a shocking move against H.R.G. -- and his family.

He will not manage to kill Claire the healer though.

Heroes Chapter 14 Spoilers Update - "Distractions"

This is a little update on the spoilers for the upcoming episode of Heroes, which is called "Distractions". I will be posting the full spoilers post for this episode with some all new items I've learned tomorrow.

Here are a few: Sylar, Heroes' resident serial killer dispenses with H.R.G. and heads home in a Primatech Paper suit to visit Claire, or more correctly eat her brain. He has some Sylar fun with mom. Not sure if H.R.G. survives but we are 100% certain someone dies in one of the February episodes.

Interestingly, the Canadian preview was somewhat different from what was shown by NBC in the United States. Some more emphasis on Nikki/Jessica, and insight into how she gets loose. Here it is from YouTube:




Oh, and here are some general Season 1 and Season 2 spoilers from the mouth of creator Tim Kring, who knows what he is talking about ... or is giving out misdirection ;) Tim would like to see Sylar stick around.... So rumors were that Zach Quinto (Sylar) is on a one-season contract, and this means they may be negotiating renewal. Time will tell. As for the theme of whether New York blows up in the season finale, that storyline will be concluded, so we will know whether the catastrophe successfully is avoided. However the season-ending cliffhanger will concern whether certain characters survive.

Heroes Chapter 13: "The Fix" Episode Summary

This is my Heroes TV Show Spoilers blog episode summary of the interesting twists and turns for Chapter 13 of Heroes, The Fix.

This was a fast-paced episode of Heroes, difficult even to keep up. Ok, first with what is obvious to regular readers of this blog: Star Trek's George Takai made his premiere as Hiro's dad - fresh from Japan to track down his Heroes Hiro superhero son.

Zack, Claire’s computer guru sidekick is convinced again. So Claire is worth having as a friend, just like study-buddies in the photo. Huh? I never was convinced that a teenage boy like Zack would turn down Claire the cute cheerleader as in the Godsend episode of Heroes last week. So finally the universe has been fixed, in The Fix.

Peter has the good sense to escape from Nathan, his flying brother, and Mohinder who wants to "fix" him. Mohinder is sounding more and more like a problem… he wants to “study” and “help” the superheroes, just like ambiguous H.R.G. It will be much more interesting in coming episodes to watch Peter and the invisible man Claude Raines. I love Claude’s story. Invisibility, how intriguing…much less with invisible clothes! Conventional invisibility requires the hero to strip down to be invisible. Not Claude and Peter the power sponge. Their clothing becomes invisible too. No need to fix that.

Hiro is powerless without his magic samurai sword. Actually, the spoiler is that it is all just psychological. Hiro THINKS he is powerless and therefore he becomes powerless. He only needs to regain his confidence. Hiro retains the power to bend time, just has lost his confidence to use it.

Back in the top-secret underground facility of Primatech Paper in Odessa, Texas: Sylar played dead and now H.R.G. of horn rimmed glasses fame is in a whole world of hurt – stuck in a room with Sylar, Heroes’ bad boy. We all have assumed he has no powers, and if he does not he now is at Sylar’s mercy. On the other hand, Sylar murders for the purpose of learning how you tick … how your Heroes superpower works, so he can absorb it himself. Now if H.R.G. has no power as everyone believes, then perhaps he will not be killed by Sylar as he has nothing to offer.

Claire’s mother is Meredith Gordon – a firestarter. It is not surprising that Claire’s mother has a power too. What is surprising is that she gave up Claire willingly despite her superpower. As soon as Claire hangs up, her mother calls her biological father, and we are promised you won't believe who he is. Here at the Heroes spoilers blog, we know :) Either H.R.G. or someone close to him.

Micah, the son of Nikki/Jessica and D.L. – has the ATM power. Talk about profitable.

Matt the mind reader and pregnant Janice. The spoiler is that he is uncertain whether the baby is his. After all, she had an affair just before the pregnancy. My read of her body language is that she has no guilt, at least about the baby, so pure speculation, not spoiler, is that the baby probably really is Matt's. Can’t wait to see what power the baby has, but the spoiler is we all will have to wait for Season 2 to learn if at all. By the way, I wish Matt would stop whining and do something productive with his superpower. Being able to read minds is nothing to ignore.

Jessica / Nikki gets psychiatric treatment after D.L. sneaks through the walls in her padded cell for a visit. In the last scene, the psychiatrist insists that Nikki let violent Jessica speak with her. The spoilers are: Not a good idea. Jessica wants out and this presents an opportunity.

There are 36 people on the Heroes list compiled by Professor Chandra Suresh, Mohinder’s dad. Who might they be? Are you on the List?

Heroes Spoiler Season

From the teaser trailer and some other super secret hidden sources maybe, we've now isolated a few more spoilers.

Niki, half of the the dual personality with Jessica, is informed by her lawyer or someone really official looking that the prosecution is going for the death penalty. It is not clear whether it is her, her disappearing husband D.L., or Ted the radioactive guy who they want offed. The last we see of Niki in the ad is an injection and her lying face down in a padded mental hospital room.


Most chilling is Mohinder saying to Nathan the congressman that his brother Peter is the most important person on the entire list. Peter the power sponge is the key, as we have said before.

Claire's increasingly less creepy dad H.R.G. (horn rimmed glasses) joins with Mohinder to form an alliance. As seen in the publicity photo at left, H.R.G. says, here's my card, let's do lunch. We do not know if Mohinder is being used now, since we still have not learned who H.R.G.'s puppet master is. After all, it is no coincidence that indestructible Claire wound up being "adopted" by H.R.G.

Hiro has a naively presented interaction with Nathan, where Nathan cannot get his accent. This carries the theme of bringing Nathan into acceptance of his super flying power.

We Are Family ... Not

What's going on with this? Is D.L. Hawkins, the disappearing guy, Nikki (or is it Jessica?) Sanders and Micah (electronics-wonder-kid) back together again as one happy family? Big spoiler?

No, this one really is not an official Heroes TV Show Spoilers blog spoiler. We noticed this PR photo and thought it was ironic the whole family was together. Is NBC sending us a message about a future together? I don't think so. They just were all in the same place when the photographer came by! But you know, I'd really like to see it happen. Talk about dysfunctional family fun...