Chapter Four 'Hysterical Blindness':
Volume: Five
Written by: Joe Pokaski
Directed by: SJ Clarkson
Original airdate: October 12, 2009
Synopsis:
Claire and Gretchen decide to pledge a sorority, the very one that her mother Sandra once was a member of. At the initial meeting, she finds out that Gretchen has spent most of the meeting talking all about Claire. Back at their dorm room later, Claire is put off when Gretchen borrows a sweater without asking but blows it off as Gretchen goes to further get ready. A book drops from the shelf and in picking it up, Claire notices that Gretchen has been researching Claire, showing a number of pages of searches related to pictures of her, school webpages, and newspaper reports. When Gretchen returns, Claire tells her to go along to the sorority mixer and she will catch up with her later. At the mixer, Claire begins making friends with many other sorority girls when suddenly a sorority flagpole comes crashing down, almost hitting her and the girl she was talking to. When she looks up, she sees Gretchen standing there alone. Back at the dorm room, the two begin arguing about what happened, but Gretchen reveals she isn’t doing anything suspicious but actually just has a crush on Claire as she kisses her. The sorority girls soon show up and invite both of them to join the sorority.
As Samuel and his family sit down to breakfast, with one of their elderly members using a fire ability to heat up a hot plate of waffles, he tells the group that he knows someone is going to be joining them soon. Someone to mend their broken circle. Lydia later sees Samual planting seeds in the ground and asks him who the person is, but guesses that even Samuel doesn’t really know. He later tries to use his ink to have her show a tattoo but nothing comes to the surface, frustrating him further. Becky, the head of the sorority, shows up and talks to Samuel, telling him that she has done what she could and that Claire is now in the sorority and a sister. As she talks with him, it’s revealed that she, using her invisibility ability, was the one who dropped the flagpole, pushed the book over, and actually killed Claire’s roommate Annie, and placed the suicide note, all in an attempt to isolate Claire, hoping it would lead her to the carnival family.
Peter meets with his mother, trying to connect again with people, but Angela seems very overly concerned with why Nathan hasn’t shown up, not really listening to Peter. Eventually Peter has to go to work and leaves her as she mentions that she wants to just wait and see if Nathan shows up. Emma is confronted by her doctor again, who suggests she might be experiencing hysterical blindness but Emma calls her out on how much she is checking up on her. The doctor says she only checks up on patients like this when they are actually her own daughter. Emma dismisses her mother’s suggestion to stop grieving someone named Christopher and the idea of going back to finish her doctor residency, and goes on about her day. As she walks around the city, she gets distracted by the lights she sees from the sounds around her and almost gets hit by a bus, but Peter runs in quickly and saves her. She is shocked and just walks off, and as Peter tries to speed run back to work he finds he has lost that power. As he kicks over a garbage can he suddenly sees lights emanating from it as it crashes and he realizes he has acquired a new power. At work, he sees Emma listening to a group of children singing and begins seeing the colors emanating all around the room. He and Emma make a connection as she realizes that he can see what she sees. The two later talk and he explains how some people have abilities, but she is slow to believe. He demonstrates using a piano and the two start getting closer, with Peter asking her to have lunch later to talk about it all. However, he makes a joke about the file room and Emma takes it the wrong way and runs off. Arriving home, Emma finds a cello and begins to play it, until she lets out a final strong chord and sees the sounds lash out strongly and rip several holes in her walls. Peter meanwhile, returns home, contemplating the day when he sees someone behind him. He turns and sees Hiro, who greets him, surprised to see Peter, and then suddenly collapses.
Sylar, healed and having escaped his grave, stumbles down the road until a passing police captain named Lubbock picks him up and takes him in for questioning. Having seemingly developed amnesia, the detective brings in a psychologist, Dr. Madeline Gibson, to try and help out, and starts to make some inroads with him. As Sylar tries to remember who he is, eventually even starting to hear how Gibson’s watch is not working correctly, eventually the Captain is able to ID him as Gabriel Gray who is wanted for murder. He dismisses Dr. Gibson and goes into the interrogation room, turning off the camera, and preparing to coax a confession out of Sylar for the murder of his mother. Sylar panics and instinctively uses his telekinesis to toss the man through the observation window. Sylar escapes and finds Dr. Gibson in her car and asks her to help him like she promised, and despite him holding a gun, she lets him in and the two drive off. He tries to tell her that he isn’t Gabriel and would never murder his mother, but she eventually stops the car and tells him to just take the car and go. He wants her help but soon the police arrive in hot pursuit. She convinces Sylar to give himself up, but Lubbock’s aggressive nature causes Sylar to again instinctively activate his lightning powers. The captain fires first, hitting Sylar with several rounds as he falls onto Dr. Gibson and stumbles down a hill. He gets up and she watches in amazement as he heals from the gunshots. She tells him to run and Sylar takes off, the police following behind. Sylar makes his way through the woods and eventually sees the lights of a carnival, and is beckoned in by Samual. The police arrive not far behind, but find only an empty field.
Back-issues:
Becky was played by Tessa Thompson. She's best known as Valkyrie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Bianca in Creed and its sequel from the Rocky Series, and she was a lead in Westworld. She was part of a podcast called The Left Right Game (an idealistic journalist tries to make a name for herself by following a group of paranormal explorers, obsessed with a seemingly harmless pastime known as the Left/Right Game. The journey takes her into a supernatural world that she and the other members of the expedition cannot handle. Or survive). She was a lead in Men In Black: International, Sorry To Bother You (in an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a universe of greed), Annihilation (with Natalie Portman, Benedict Wong, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition in which the laws of nature don't apply), a BBC series called Copper (in the 1860s, an Irish-American Civil War veteran joins the New York City police force), as well as 20-some episodes of Veronica Mars and various other movie roles. She did appear on 1 episode of Rizzoli and Isles, if you’re looking for that Dawson’s Creek connection.
The detective was played by Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame. Most recently he was in Quantum Leap as Magic Williams, in both seasons of the new revival show. He’s had a number of one off roles, but continues to show up as a guest star in popular shows such as Modern Family, Twin Peaks, Gracie and Frankie, Law and order, and How I Met Your Mother.
Dr. Gibson was played by Christine Adams. She’s had a large number of roles including a supporting cast role in 9 episodes of Agents of Shield, and a lead in the CW show Black Lightning playing Lynn Stewart for 58 episodes. She was also the voice of the Alchemist in Netflix’s Castlevania series, and a supporting cast member in Miller’s Girl (with Martin Freeman and Jenna Ortega. A creative writing assignment yields complex results between a teacher and his talented student). She was a supporting cast member along with Jack Coleman (HRG) in a short lived show called Ordinary Joe (centres on Joe Kimbreau as he makes a pivotal, life-changing decision at his college graduation and follows him on three parallel timelines: as a police officer, as a music star, and as a nurse. The show was canceled cliffhanger). She was a lead in the 1 season show Terra Nova (centres on the Shannons, an ordinary family from 2149 when the planet is dying, who are transported back 85 million years to prehistoric Earth where they join Terra Nova, a colony of humans with a second chance to build a civilization, Spielberg produced, 4 million per episode). She was even in Doctor Who for an episode with Christopher Eccleston, and Simon Pegg guest starring (The Long Game).
This is an early role for Sydney Sweeney who appears as a young girl at the Carnival.
Chapter Five 'Tabula Rasa':
Volume: Five
Written by: Rob Fresco
Directed by: Jim Chory
Original airdate: October 19, 2009
Synopsis:
Hiro awakens in a hospital bed, Peter watching nearby, telling him he knows about his health condition. Hiro is adamant that he is there to help Peter with a problem, but Peter wonders if he is there so Peter can help him instead. Peter takes Hiro’s powers and goes to leave but runs into Emma who asks him if he sent a cello to her and that she is worried something is wrong with her abilities. Unable to help her at the moment, he recommends she talk to Hiro about her abilities as he teleports away before her eyes. She talks to Hiro and wants to know how to turn off her power but he tells her that it’s a wonderful thing to have a power and realizes he might be there to help her, not Peter. Not being able to turn off her power is not what she wants to hear and leaves Hiro alone. He finds her later in her cubicle but his push to get her to accept her power leaves her cold as she walks away again. He decides to put on a magic show in the children’s ward, and Emma shows up, having seen his invitation. He tells the audience he will make Emma disappear and freezes time as she starts interacting with the colors she sees, seeing them as beautiful now as he tells her she will learn how to use her power to do good things in the world. She helps him with his illusion and after great applause the nurses hustle him back to bed, demanding he stay there. Hiro talks with Emma, recalling Charlie and how he forgot that he has to save her as well. Later, Emma heads to the piano in the hospital rec room and begins playing, seeing the colors manifesting around her. People stop to hear her play, including Hiro, and she is appreciative, starting to take Hiro back to his bed when he suddenly disappears.
Peter shows up at Bennet’s apartment and tells them about Hiro’s problem. Bennet finds the records of a boy named Jeremy that he bagged and tagged once that was able to heal. Together Peter and Bennet teleport to find him. When they arrive, they notice a dead bird and many dead plants surrounding the house. Upon entering the house they smell death and find Jeremy's parents dead. Immediately Jeremy starts shooting at them from upstairs but Peter notices that he isn’t shooting to kill. Peter goes around the back while Bennet heads upstairs, managing to convince Jeremy he isn’t there to hurt him. The two talk and Jeremy tells Bennet how his power changed and now kills instead of healing. Peter suddenly teleports in and tries to disarm Jeremy but a shot is fired. Peter stops time, but is too late as the bullet has already pierced his body. Peter collapses and starts bleeding out. Bennet yells to Jeremy to heal him but the boy is too scared, worried that everything he touches dies. Bennet points out that he is touching his arms and manages to get the boy to focus enough to actually bring Peter back to life, saving him. Bennet sends Peter back to the hospital in a truck, now having obtained Jeremy’s healing power, while Bennet stays behind to set up the house so it looks like the parents died of carbon monoxide poisoning, When Jeremy asks him how long he is going to be staying, Bennet says until he knows Jeremy is ok.
Peter returns to heal Hiro but is told by Emma that he has gone, with Peter finding Hiro’s note to save Charlie. Hiro meanwhile, finds himself three years earlier at the Burnt Toast diner, looking through the window to see Charlie, alive and well.
Lydia and Samuel talk about Sylar and how something has changed in him from the stories they heard about him. Lydia says it seems like two sides are at war within him. Samuel, thinking that a great damage has been done to Sylar has come here to heal and invites him to hangout with them all for the day and get to know everyone, as he shows him that everyone in the carnival has abilities. When Samuel asks him what they should call him, Sylar answers the first name that pops into his head: Nathan. Samuel sends him off with Lydia, momentarily experiencing a flashback when he shakes her hand, remembering having shaken a lot of hands in his past, recalling memories of being a politician perhaps. Meanwhile, Samuel has Edgar invite Captain Lubbock to the carnival under the ruse of doing something nice for the local law enforcement, but hoping it will bring out the true Sylar who would kill the captain. Sylar spends time with Lydia, which makes Edgar jealous, causing him to confront Sylar later by throwing knives at him, embedding them in Sylar’s shovel handle. Sylar in turn uses his telekinesis to send the blades right back at Edgar, sticking them into a post next to him causing Edgar to charge at Sylar who uses his powers to knock him back into a wheelbarrow of cement. Samuel breaks it up and walks Sylar away who sees planes flying overhead and briefly shape shifts to Nathan’s face, saying he remembers flying planes once. Samuel introduces Sylar to another member of the carnival who takes him into the house of mirrors, performing a ritual on him that allows Sylar to start seeing his past within the mirrors and all the things he did and people he killed. The experience traumatizes Sylar and he refuses to believe that he did those things.
Samuel finds him and tells him that what matters now is who he wants to be going forward, manipulating him into believing that Sylar is who he is because of the outside world, and offering him a place there with them at the carnival. Samuel tells him that the police captain has arrived at the carnival, citing him as a problem that needs to be taken care of and Sylar goes to find him. When he finds Captain Lubbock, the captain raises his gun but lightning emits from Sylar’s hands suddenly, causing the captain to shoot. Sylar stops the bullet with his powers and then electrocutes the captain. As the captain waits for the inevitable, Sylar suddenly backs away and starts walking out but Edgar runs in with his ability and cuts the man up, killing him, telling Sylar to clean it up. Later, Samuel has a ceremony to welcome Sylar into their family, baptizing him in water, as Edgar asks him what good is a lion that can’t kill. Samuel says it could be better this way as they can make a better Sylar who will belong to them forever.
Back-issues:
Jeremey was Mark L. Young. Recently (2020) he played a main lead in Filthy Rich (10 episode series, The heirs of a wealthy Southern businessman hatch a plan to get a piece of his fortune). He has had a number of one off roles here and there, but was also a lead in the 12 episode series the Inbetweeners (Four high school friends are not cool or popular, but not total dorks, either).
Heroes EU:
Amanda's Journey Part 1
Amanda's fire-starting ability leads her to Peter.
Amanda's Journey Part 2
Tracy steps up to save Amanda from herself.
Webisodes:
Episode Title: Slow Burn Part 5
Written by: Jim Martin
Directed by: Chris Hanada and Tanner Kling
Original release date: October 26, 2009
Synopsis: Lydia talks with her daughter Amanda about her arrival. Amanda shows Caleb her ability.
Episode Title: Slow Burn Part 6
Written by: Jim Martin
Directed by: Chris Hanada and Tanner Kling
Original release date: November 2, 2009
Synopsis: Amanda seeks out Samuel with Caleb's help while Lydia seeks out Amanda with Edgar's help.
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