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In a twisty, sometimes confusing episode, we see what the future holds if the heroes don’t stop the bomb.

We find Hiro, Ando and Future Hiro at Isaac’s apartment, where Future Hiro has established a complicated outline of events up to the bombs. The solemn Future Hiro wants to find the link that will tell him where to teleport back in time to kill Sylar and stop the bomb. Future Hiro says he stabbed Sylar, but the man regenerated, unlike what is shown in Isaac’s drawings. Sylar is the one who exploded and took out NYC. He is the key to saving the world.

Parkman and his team break into Isaac’s apartment and nab Hiro, but Future Hiro and Ando escape. Parkman is now working for the enemy, one President Nathan Petrelli, who has Homeland Security hunt, capture and interrogate the mutant humans. He’s been incredibly successful in creating fear and uniting the nation against these people. The Haitian works with Parkman and is able to keep people from using their powers when they are near him. Parkman interrogates Hiro and can’t figure out why he doesn’t know anything about the last five years.

Future Hiro and Ando go to Vegas to find Peter, who is the only man who can use his powers despite the Haitian.

Peter is reluctant to help. He and girlfriend, Nikki – who lost D.L., Jessica and Micah in the explosion – have a rough and ready life and try to forget the past and battles lost against the tyrannical government. Peter was told by “brother” Nathan that he was the one who exploded and he feels incredible guilt. Nathan blamed it on Sylar and whisked Peter out of sight.

Without Peter, Future Hiro and Ando go to Bennett, who now aids heroes with fake documents and blood samples to keep them out of the government’s grasp. Future Hiro tells Bennett that Claire was saved, according to Ando and Hiro, so there must be a way to stop the bomb. Bennett has kept Claire safe by making people believe she died.

Bennett goes to Claire, whose blonde curls are gone in favor of dark, straight locks that hid her true identity as much as the fake southern accent. He tells her she needs to leave. She’s been found. She is ready to get married and live a normal life. She doesn’t want to go.

Bennett and Parkman were working together to hide the good heroes, Parkman’s wife and child among them. But after Future Hiro and Ando get away, he pulls out information about Claire from Bennett’s mind so he has something to take back to the president – something significant to make up for the loss of the nation’s top terrorist. He kills Bennett and goes after Claire.

When Claire meets her father, Nathan, at his Manhattan apartment (what happened to Nathan’s wife and kids, anyway?) Claire’s hatred of him shows. She cannot believe he turned on his own kind. To her horror, she discovers Nathan is, in fact, Sylar, in disguise. He kills her to absorb her powers. She is the last he needs. Now, Sylar can eliminate the competition through politically-spun genocide courtesy of an unwilling Mohinder.

The president tells Mohinder that it’s time to kill of the supernaturals. The prez will tell the nation Mohinder has found a cure, but that “cure” will actually be a lethal concoction. Eventually, he will tell the nation they made a mistake and there is no cure. Mohinder balks at this. He had suggested earlier that evolution would cure them. Nathan uses his words against him and gets Mohinder to agree to it. His first victim? Hiro.

Future Hiro, Ando and Peter go to rescue Hiro so he can go back in time to stop Sylar from exploding. Parkman calls the president to tell him that they are under siege. Sylar, in his crazed madness to control the world with his powers, decides to take out Future Hiro and Peter for himself. He flies away from the ceremony – Nathan’s power – to take on Peter, who just now discovers that his brother was murdered by Sylar. (Wonder how he will explain that little “special effect” to his followers, er, voters?)

The end shows Sylar going against Peter, who for the first time figures out that his brother is dead and the show’s Lex Luthor is in control. They battle it out, unseen by viewers. Mohinder kills the Haitian instead of Hiro and helps him escape because he believes Hiro can change the future. Future Hiro is going to help Hiro and Ando go back to the correct moment in time when someone shoots Future Hiro and takes his body. Hiro thinks all is lost, but Ando tells him to believe in himself – like the good friend he is. Mohinder blocks the door from the violent confrontation between Peter and Sylar. Hiro gets them back to New York. Now, to save the world…

I thought it was odd that Mohinder did not figure out that the president was Sylar. He’s already seen through the man once before. Parkman and the Haitian turning evil was equally strange, but I liked Peter as a battle-scarred antihero living in Vegas. I also wondered if Linderman was still alive and bankrolling the presidency, or if Sylar had taken him over as well.

Since Sylar’s in control (remember last week when he painted the president looked suspiciously like him?) we cannot be certain it was Peter who exploded, or nuclear man Sprague (though I didn’t see him in this episode), or the bomb that Bennett wants to plant to stop Linderman’s tracking of heroes. If Sylar can regenerate, it could have been him who exploded. And remember, Sylar killed Isaac and took over his powers. Sylar could very well have hoodwinked the other heroes by drawing his own murder, knowing full well he could not be killed that way.

How will Hiro kill Sylar? And will he do it in time to save the world? And which heroes will survive the Good vs. Sylar? More questions build as the final three episodes of the hit series hits primetime.

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