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Heroes buying into the slick lies of men with their own wicked plans are setting the world up for massive deaths from the Shanti virus.

Oh, where to begin in this tangled web of heroic deceit?

Hiro and Ando try to find Kensei’s trail after Hiro discovered last week that the Japanese hero had somehow survived more than 400 years. They find his trail alright – and proof that he’d been friends with Papa Nakamura. Hiro finds a photograph from 1977. He goes back in time to Primatech, when they are putting Kensei away – and it’s not because he could regenerate, like Mama Petrelli told Parkman this season. No, it’s because Kensei tried to release the deadly 138 virus strain to kill off the world so he could take it over. (Wouldn’t it be cool to be immortal and kill off nearly everyone, leaving only a few to procreate and be your slaves for life? Bet it is in Kensei’s mind.) Papa Nakamura doesn’t destroy the virus, as scientist Victoria Pratt wanted. She walks out and Nakamura hides the virus at a Primatech storage unit in Odessa, Texas – the very place where the series started. Hiro zips back to real time, and grabs his father’s sword – the one with the Kensei mark – and says he will kill the man for taking his father’s life.

But it’s not going to be that easy.

Peter and Kensei track down Pratt to find out where the virus is being stored. Peter has seen the future and he wants to stop it. He believes Kensei, known to him as Adam Monroe, wants that as well. Peter confronts Pratt and she gives him a bogus location. She gets angry when she discovers he’s working with Kensei. She shoots Peter, then gets ready to blow off Kensei’s head – the only way to kill him – when Peter regenerates and saves Kensei. They tie up Pratt and Peter uses the abilities he absorbed from Parkman to get the real location. Kensei releases Pratt from her bonds – a set up – she reaches for her gun and Kensei kills her. Justifiable? Peter seems half content to buy that, but he’s a good guy. He should get that there’s more than meets the eye. They go to Odessa to get the virus and destroy it when time stops. Peter looks around and sees Hiro there with his sword. Hiro says that Kensei must die for murdering his father. We end with Peter and Hiro going at it. They are willing to destroy each other while the psychotic Kensei gets the virus. (AAAHHH!!! What’s going to happen?!?!?!)

In other Heroes news:

• Mohinder saves HRG with Claire’s blood and shows his stupid crazed loyalty to The Company. He takes the blood and discovers that it cures the virus. He tells Bob he wants all strains destroyed. Bob says yes. Is Mo really that dumb? Apparently if he turned on HRG and now believes wholeheartedly that was a mistake. I still wonder if this is the real Mo, or an imposter. (Shapeshifter, anyone?) The virus is his own sister’s blood. Has he not figured this out yet? After all that document searching? Oh, and he knows about strain 138 and wants it gone, gone, gone.
• Bob goes to HRG’s family and gives them his ashes. Claire has to say good-bye to her father - and West – since her family is moving immediately to Salt Lake. Bob says they are safe now. The Company won’t bother them. (They don’t need to since they have HRG as a play toy now.) But after Claire dumps her father’s ashes in the ocean, she sees Elle – and then sees red. Claire confronts her, with West at her side (Love it!) and she says she’s going to tell the world about her abilities so they are no longer targets.
• Micah’s backpack gets stole and his cousin, Monica, goes to get it. But she’s caught by the band of thugs and Micah runs away to get help. Mohinder has called Nikki to tell her that he has a cure and he’s flying down to New Orleans to give it to her. She panics when she realizes Micah isn’t in his room. Give me some Jessica, folks!
• Sylar uses the old divide-and-conquer theory – and little Sylaresque mind play - to split Maya and her brother Alejandro. He tells her she can contain her power – and that she needs to get away from her brother, who hates her for killing his wife on their wedding day. Maya finds that she can control it and she credits Sylar with this. But Alejandro shows her that Sylar is a killer, but Sylar weaves a tale of self defense, which the idiotic Maya believes. Sylar gets his rocks off later in the night when he murders Alejandro, then kisses the lovely Maya, his next victim… just as soon as he gets his powers back. He and Maya somehow land on Mohinder’s doorstep and are babysitting little Molly. Sylar calls Mo for a meet and Mo knows he’s in deep now that the Bad Boy has the little girl.

“Truth and Consequences” is all about knowing the real truth – not the watered-down versions with just a grain of fact mingled with an hourglass full of fiction, and about what the real truth means to humanity. Mohinder buys into the lies of Company man Bob. Claire and her family believe the ashes Bob brings to them are of her father, HRG/Noah. Peter buys into the well-crafted tales of Adam/Kensei. Maya buys into Sylar’s (in)sincerity as the evil hero uses the old divide-and-conquer tactic to destroy her relationship with her brother.

It’s a fabulous display of how humans totally mess up saving the world. I still believe we needed more of Mo’s brainwashing by The Company. He just turns way too quickly on HRG, who is now his play toy.  There were some rough cuts in this episode – like Sylar and Maya suddenly appearing in Mo’s apartment with Molly. (Where was Parkman, anyway?) I figure that’s a strike issue, so I’ll cut them some slack on that one.

I totally want to see Claire kick Elle’s ass. This is the first time I’ve really seen tough with a capital “T” in that character and I loved it. We have great play in the young (Tell the truth!) versus the old (Hide, hide, hide – and take over the world!). I also enjoyed the comic feel of the shots in this episode. Just the right touch of staging and lighting brought some visually delightful shots full of stark contrasts. I don’t remember that so much last season. I also appreciated the storytelling. They did just enough of each scene, then pulled away to the next, instead of being too quick or too long.

Heroes has struggled this season, with dragging plotlines and out-of-character movements - not all of which can be attributed to the writer’s strike. Having a shorter season might have been the best thing to happen to Heroes this year. Creators don’t have time to pussyfoot around with pulling everything through the standard 24 Prime Time episodes. They have to wrap it up – now – until producers get smart and pay the writers what they deserve.

Let’s see if next week’s finale makes viewers want more from a third season. Apparently two heroes will die. (Major characters, or peripheral ones?) I’m curious if these converging plotlines will merge, or if we’ll suffer a cliffhanger ending that will hang over us until the strike is over.

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