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O.M.G. In ALL CAPS. This was, by far, the best episode of Heroes this season – and with a banger of a twist in the last two seconds.

Kensei has turned into a cruel, power-hungry fiend. He started off a drunk, but Hiro helped him become a hero by believing in him (and helping him fulfill the tales of history books from Hiro’s childhood library). But Kensei turned mean when he realized that Hiro and the swordsmith’s daughter had fallen in love. The princess was supposed to be his, not Hiro’s. He negotiated a lucrative deal with White Beard (Why is it that White Beard wanted Hiro, anyway? I thought that was a bit odd, since W.B. doesn’t really know Hiro.). In exchange for the hero, Kensei gets half of the country – and the princess. Kensei ties up the girl and her father and drugs Hiro with opium. But the girl is strong. She breaks her bonds and slaps Hiro into sobriety just in time to zap them out of the tent.

Hiro goes back to destroy the guns that the swordsmith was forced to create for White Beard, who wants to overtake 1671 Japan. Hiro still naively believes that he can get Kensei to come around. After all, he’s a hero, right? Wrong. The two end up in a bloody sword fight. A fire breaks out near the gunpower. Hiro tries to get Kensei to blink out with him, but the man refuses and dies in the ensuing explosion. Hiro transports to the area beneath the cherry blossoms, where he gives his love one last kiss before returning to the future – and not messing up time again. She says she will tell the stories of Kensei so they remain in the future for Hiro.

Hiro blinks back to the future, where he presents Kensei’s mask to Ando. They are so excited to see each other. Then, Ando has to break it to Hiro that his father was murdered.

Nightmare Man needs to die. Parkman and Nathan last week found out that The Company’s Bob is the next target, so they hightail it down to the offices, where they hook up with Bob, Mohinder and Nikki to take down the demented hero. Now, Bob and Nathan have a little talk and Nathan discovers that a man named Adam Monroe tried to bring the heroes together for the greater good, but eventually became too arrogant and terrifying in his ideals to bring the heroes to superiority. We don’t get to find out exactly what the Old School heroes did to him, but Bob does say that Adam is controlling Nightmare Man – Parkman’s criminal old man. (Can we actually believe a word The Company man says?)

Before we find out more, Nikki is breaking down the door. Nightmare Man has control of her and she’s got the virus. She’s intent on giving it to Bob, the next Old School victim. She and Nathan have it out, but she ends up stabbing herself because she is tired of not being in control. It was the only way.

Parkman, who fell asleep by Molly’s bed, finds his father and pulls him into the nightmare where he and Molly are locked. Parkman is strong and leaves his father locked up tightly there – in the same house where he abandoned Parkman when the cop was 13. Parkman’s got some abilities and I’m curious to see where that goes – especially since it was Bob who told him about it and said he was the only one who could stop Nightmare Man.

Claire and West have a falling out after he discovers that her father is HRG – the man who abducted him and gave him his flying powers. He thinks Claire is a trap. HRG calls Mo and tells him about one of the paintings. He doesn’t want Mo to take a Company-isue gun. But Mo isn’t so sure he wants to work with HRG anymore to take down The Company, and he tells Bob as much near the end – as he takes the weapon. Bob assigns Mo to get Claire, who may be the only one who can save the heroes with her regenerating abilities.

Peter and Caitlyn get separated by a decontamination unit in the dark future. He’s dead, according to their records. They call in Mama Petrelli, who gets Peter to remember who he is. Then, she tells him he must do something to stop the virus – like use the powers he absorbed from Hiro last season to go back in time. She says Nathan was killed in the first batch of deaths. There were thousands more who died and the rest of the world is hiding away, hoping they don’t catch it. Peter sees Caitlyn, who is being deported, and gets upset. He is instantly transported back to (I think) the house in Montreal.

He hears a noise and flashes out some sparks, but they are absorbed by a hand in the doorway. It’s a friend – the one who left Peter a note in Montreal saying that The Company was bad. He’s Adam Monroe, showing up to help his friend, Peter. The mysterious Adam Monroe is none other than Kensei.

O.M.G. How did that happen? Did he absorb Hiro’s ability to teleport just before the explosion? Is this a crazy descendent? Did he pull a Peter after the explosion and come regenerate? Has he spent hundreds of years perfecting his powers so he could overtake the world – and take down the Old School heroes? Bob isn’t exactly the kind of guy I’d believe on first blush; perhaps did Kensei get screwed again (at least in his own mind) so he decides to take his revenge out on the O.S. heroes?

My imagination is running wild – and that’s exactly what I want in a TV show. I can’t wait to see what happens next week – about Kensei, Petrelli family secrets and the deadly virus set to spread like wildfire and cause a massive evacuation of NYC in June 2008. What can the heroes do to save the world this time? Once again, teen Claire will find herself in the middle of it. Hopefully West will be there with her to help her through it.

Writers did an incredible job of laying together the plots of Hiro, Nightmare Man and Peter, all the while leaving fans with more questions than answers. It’s unfortunate that the writer’s strike started and could potentially put the show on hiatus come Jan. 1. Interestingly enough, Heroes didn’t start off that great this season. I wonder, did they purposely do crappy episodes and lead up to the great ones just before the strike so the public would demand their (triumphant) return? I’m all for fairness in wages, but taking us from the drama and cinematic tube excellence of Heroes to more reality TV leaves me sick to my stomach.

But I digress.

Chapter Seven in Book Two of the Heroes phenom is exactly what fans expect each week: Fast pace, incredible plot twists, emerging heroes – and powers of heroes we know, emotionally-charged scenes and new mysteries layered within the ones we are just starting to figure out. Do not miss this episode. I feel like I need to watch it again just to catch the little stuff I missed while jotting down notes like a speed demon.

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