Good things come to those who wait and this week’s good thing was the best episode of ‘Heroes Reborn‘ to date.

Picking up where last week ended, we have two pairs of white hats channeling their inner Gitmo on the baddies for information. Noah, along with Taylor and Quentin are having an improvised waterboarding party with Harris Prime to discover the location of Hiro, Francis (Taylor’s beau), Phoebe (Q’s sister) and the rest of the missing Evos. He gives up the goods, as does Captain Dearing who, at the hands of Carlos, mentions Sunstone Manor as the place where all Evos go. Carlos and the good Captain arrive but there’s one caveat; only Evos can get in. Dearing gives Carlos a vial that will register him as an Evo but leaves out one glaring fact—it’s hell on the body.

The white hats face off against the bad guys

On the same line of places, Miko has discovered her mission is not to rescue her father, rather to free the “Master of Time and Space”. Hmmm…sounds like Hiro to me. When the Fortress in the game disappears, she pops back into the real world and confers with Ren. Based on a character she remembers from the digital world, they pinpoint the real life location of the fortress, the same Renautus facility Noah and Quentin are pointed towards by Harris Prime. The trio make their way through security and, after dealing with the Kaiju Bandit in the game world, Miko runs into Noah and the others in the facility corridors. Thinking they are enemies, she goes on the attack, her slow and telegraphed moves easily evaded, allows Harris to get away. Noah convinces her they are on the same mission—to rescue Hiro—and the new trio of white hats make their way deeper into the bowels of the facility.

Hiro and Noah–back in Odessa before the June 13th tragedy

They eventually find their way into the basement lab where Richard—Erica’s right hand scientist—lets the good guys in on Erica’s master plan. The weird device disappearing crates and the science team? It’s harnessed Hiro’s powers of space and time, transporting things into the future. Though the particulars are still muddled, Noah’s goal remains unchanged; free Hiro. That’s when Harris and his clones, alongside the Shadow, AKA Phoebe, appear. Her dampening powers prevent Miko from going back into the game but after taking out some clones, Quentin distracts his sister long enough for Miko to fulfill her destiny. She frees Hiro but not without cost. Phoebe ends up killing her brother while Miko has to sacrifice her own life to free Hiro. When he sees his old friend for the first time in years, Noah is able to convince Hiro to take him back to the day this all started: June 13th at the Odessa Summit.

After getting the location of the missing powered folks from Harris, Taylor split with the group and returned to the Renautus HQ, only to find all the Evos gone. She steals the surveillance videos and some files from her mother’s office and broadcasts the message of her mother’s duplicity on the internet. You know what they say about a woman scorned—especially after finding out she’s pregnant. As expected, Erica doesn’t take this news too well and, to add to it, Harris Prime informs her that Hiro’s no longer in their control.

Tommy takes Emily on a pretty cool trip out to Paris

In Illinois, Tommy goes to see Emily, spilling to her all about his mother. Needing a break from the insanity, he takes Emily on a little trip to the Eiffel Tower. He wants to be normal so goes against logic when they see the Tower is scanning people for their Evo-status. One altercation and a visit to a Seine river magazine stand where Emily shows him how heroes were once loved and Tommy finds an issue of 9th Wonders, the two return to their hometown. After Emily removes the tracker from Tommy’s arm, the two finally share a kiss. Maybe, just maybe Tommy’s ready to take on his responsibility to save the world…

But he’s not alone in that. After hitching a ride on the logging truck, Malina finds herself at a boating dock where she runs into fellow Evo Luke. The two initially pass one another with no words but, when she witnesses Luke trying to drown himself, she acts, pulling him from the depths. Luke admits to looking for a sign and when Malina shows Luke the picture of the boy she’s supposed to find—Tommy—it all seems like it’s a sign. He asks her why she needs to find him and the answer is simple enough…

“Because,” she says, “together we’re going to save the world.”

strong>Hero Space

  • It’s been quite obvious the last few weeks how down I’ve been on this show but, if I can criticize, I can also credit. Far from perfect, ‘Game Over’ did seem to refocus the direction we’re heading in this maxi-series. Yes, some of that direction was based on overwhelming coincidences of people coming together but, at the same time, that’s always been one of the narrative elements of Heroes from the very beginning.
  • Welcome Back, Hiro Nakamora! The mascot for all things good in this franchise has returned, wiser, more powerful but still Hiro. Though it matters not now, one has to wonder how someone so powerful was captured and then placed in a video game. It defies the laws of credulity but, hey, we are talking about a medium where two teens are responsible for saving the world…As it stands, Hiro and Noah have tripped back to June 13th (which, by the way, they really should have referred to it by something other than the date. That’s just lame) but to do what, we’ll just have to see. How much can they change before returning without making everything go arse over teakettle?
  • Though we welcome Hiro back into the fold, we say goodbye to two of our newer characters. Miko, though she looked and behaved like a human seemed to be nothing more than a code written to save Hiro. Quentin was decidedly human and gets taken out by his sister’s shadowy tentacle/dampening power. One thing their “deaths” show is that sacrifices must be made. Who’s next on that list? Well, for the first time in the series’ life, I’m actually excited to tune in next week.