Season 3: Episode 313: "Dual"

Episode 13 marks the mid-season finale for Season 3 of Heroes, villains. Here's a recap of this episode which originally aired December 15, 2008 on NBC.

Episode 13 opens with a montage of scenes including Peter in the future witnessing what happens when the formula is released, creating all sorts of people with abilities. Also shown is Hiro freezing time in the future. Sylar narrates and discusses how we choose right from wrong and good from evil.

Peter is shown crouching down over his dad, gun in hand. Nathan enters thinking Peter killed him. Peter informs him it was Sylar, and now they must destroy the formula. Nathan continues to tell Peter this is the plan they need to follow, and that a dozen marines are being injected with the formula. Nathan tells Peter it's their plan to make the world a better place. Peter points the gun at Nathan. Nathan tells Peter he needs to choose a side. Peter pretends to hand the gun to Nathan, then punches him out.

Over at Primatech, HRG, Meredith, Claire and Angela are preparing to go to Pinehearst to help Peter. HRG and Angela see a murdered prison guard. All of a sudden, the lights go out and the doors begin to seal, windows begin to shut. Sylar is in the control center and begins speaking over a PA system. He tells them Arthur Petrelli's dead. Another dead guard is shown in the room with Sylar. Sylar tells them that before the night is over, one by one he'll prove they're all monsters just like him.

HRG hands a gun to Meredith and Claire and tells them to protect Angela at all costs. Sylar continues speaking over the PA, trying to convince them they're all villains. He tells Claire they're more alike than any of the others, because of the way their parents are. Claire yells out they're nothing alike. HRG and Meredith pair up and find the control room. HRG opens the door, sees someone seated in a chair and goes up to it. As he turns the chair around it's a dead guard. Sylar lets HRG know over the PA, he's hunting him.

Hiro continues to cling for his life high on a pole above the city streets, 16 years back in time. Hiro begins telling a pigeon that lands on the pole that he failed his mother and needs help. Matt Parkman goes with Daphne and Ando to Suresh's loft. They find it abandoned, so Daphne decides to rush off to Pinehearst and find Suresh.

Suresh is about to inject himself with the formula in hopes it will cure him. Peter enters the lab before he can, and points the gun at Suresh saying the formula's a weapon and they must destroy it. Suresh is just about to inject himself when all of a sudden Daphne speeds through and grabs the formula, then runs off. Suresh thinks Peter did something and throws him over a table. Just then, Knox and Flint enter the lab. Flint holds Suresh up with a hand on his face, threatening to burn his face off. Peter yells for them to stop, but Knox says they want to destroy the place too. Knox begins throwing tables over. Peter asks why they're helping him. Flint says if they make the formula, they're not so special anymore.

The only Marine injected with the formula helps Nathan up from the floor. He tells Nathan that after he left, Tracy Strauss became concerned and held up on injecting anyone else. Nathan exclaims that Peter's going to ruin everything and orders the Marine to go get him. All of a sudden, Knox is behind the Marine and breaks his neck. He tells Nathan he's working for Peter because he's one of the good guys now.

Daphne speeds back to Suresh's loft and presents the one dose injection of the formula. Ando snatches it out of her hand, eager to inject himself. Matt warns him that time travel might not be the power he will get. Ando asks Matt if he's ever had faith in something even when others didn't. Matt looks at Daphne and says yes. Ando injects himself, then gets woozy and falls to the floor with a thud.

Hiro begins to sldie down the pole he's on to the wall, then pulls himself up to the rooftop. Hiro goes inside the home and sees young Hiro. Young Hiro tells his older self he misses his mother. Future Hiro asks young Hiro to help him find a paper with numbers and calculations on it.

Claire and Angela are in an office room of Primatech. Sylar calls the phone in the office and tells Claire the way she can walk out alive with her dad and Meredith, is by holding her shotgun up to Angela's head and pulling the trigger. Sylar then tells Claire to ask HRG sometime what he and Elle did to make him into a monster like he is today. Sylar says soon HRG may be dead, unless Claire shoots Angela. Claire tells Sylar if he touches HRG, she'll hunt him down and kill him. Sylar asks Claire who's the monster now. Claire cocks the rifle and shoots the phone, then says "You are".

HRG and Meredith go to level 5, where HRG releases the three prisoners, including Doyle. HRG tells them the one who brings him Sylar's head gets their freedom. Doyle asks him why they shouldn't just run, and HRG says because they're all locked in by Sylar. The 3 villains go in different directions in search of Sylar. As they leave, Meredith tells HRG they don't stand a chance. HRG asks her what you use to catch a shark, and Meredith realizes the villains are bait to get Sylar.

Peter continues to destroy the lab as Suresh yells at him that he's working with thugs and killers now. Flint shoves Suresh across the room, causing him to fall to the floor. Peter rushes over to check if Suresh is alive or dead, telling Flint he didn't have to do that. Flint says now they can get their job done twice as fast.

Daphne wakes up Ando by splashing water in his face. Ando begins chanting that he is the master of time and space, trying to teleport. Matt and Daphne suggest he scrunch his face up like Hiro does. Ando tries it in various ways with no luck. Frustrated, Ando slams his hand down on a table and it emits reddish sparks. Matt remarks that definitely wasn't time travel.

Meredith is walking down a dark hall solo, gun in hand. She sees the arm of one of the villains cut off on the ground, fingers moving. A small glass bottle rolls up to her. Meredith crouches down with a flashlight to see that it's Adrenaline. All of a sudden, Sylar is behind her down the hall. He tells her adrenaline can kick start a dead heart, as he uses telekinesis to fling her gun away. Just then, Doyle steps out from a room and uses his ability to suspend Sylar. He tells Sylar that Meredith is his to love, and his to kill. Sylar snickers asking if Doyle really thinks he can stop him. Just then Sylar uses an ability to cause Doyle to bleed through his nose and fall to the ground, as if Sylar did something to his brain. Meredith quickly picks up the gun, but as she gets up, Sylar's there. Sylar snatches the gun away, then injects Meredith in the chest with a syringe. He says he has one more thing left to do.

HRG is still on Level 5, rifle in hand. HRG finds an open cell and Meredith's in there. She emits fire uncontrollably from her hands. Meredith says Sylar pumped her full of adrenaline and now she can't control the ability. She urges HRG to run, but as he turns, Sylar is outside the cell and makes the door shut. HRG grabs a gun, but Sylar reminds him it's bulletproof. He tells HRG at the rate Meredith's going, he'll need that one bullet in the gun. Sylar asks HRG when this is all over and Meredith's dead, what lie he's going to tell Claire. Sylar tells HRG he helped make him into who he is, so now Sylar's returning that favor.

Knox keeps an eye on Nathan in an elaborate office at Pinehearst. Nathan tells Knox he's backed the wrong guy in Peter. Nathan says he feels kinda sorry for Peter. Knox asks Nathan why he's afraid then, if he thinks Peter's going to stop him. Nathan looks at him and says he's not afraid of anybody, then hits Knox in the face with a glass snowball. Knox begins to beat up Nathan around the room and is ready to give him the KO punch, when all of a sudden Knox turns to complete ice. Tracy Strauss is shown behind him, and then Knox falls to the ground shattering.

Ando continues trying to contain his new uncontrollable ability. Matt grabs him and all of a sudden it causes intense pain to Matt as he hears a ton of people's thoughts. Matt said it was like an explosion of thoughts and everyone in the city at once. Daphne touches Ando and she teleports out of the picture across the room, then is watching herself with Matt and Ando from a few minutes ago. As Daphne comes back to the present with them, she tells them she think she traveled back in time.

HRG and Meredith continue to deal with Meredith's pyrokinesis ability being out of control in a closed cell at Primatech. Flames shoot out from her palms. Claire and Angela are able to see it all happening on a monitor. Angela tells Claire Sylar's showing them all this to lure them to him. Claire says she doesn't care and starts to lead Angela down the hall, rifle in hand. All of a sudden, Claire thinks she's with Angela, but turns and Sylar's there. He thrusts Claire against a wall and says since she didn't choose earlier, he's upping the stakes. Sylar tells her to choose her dad, or grandmother now. He releases Claire after saying he already knows she'll try to save daddy.

Claire rushes down to Level 5 where HRG and Meredith are stuck. HRG tells Meredith to concentrate her heat from her palms on the bulletproof window of the cell. She does and HRG fires the only shot in his gun, which barely cracks the glass. Claire tells them to stay back and runs into the glass, shatterng it, to get into the cell and free them. She picks up a glass shard as her weapon and tells Meredith to come help them. Meredith tells her to go on without her and get Sylar. Claire vows to return for her mother.

Tracy urges Nathan to get out of Pinehearst. Tracy says she can spin this to get him out of it. Tracy says they can take the formula and start over. She tells Nathan she's a realist, and Nathan tells her she's fired, then walks out of the room.

Matt and Daphne realize that Ando's ability is to magnify the ability of others when he zaps them. Matt and Ando figure that when Ando supercharges Daphne, its like Einstein's theory of relativity or the space-time continuum. Daphne is able to run faster than the speed of light, and time travel. She decides to try it and holds Ando's hand so they can go try to save Hiro 16 years ago.

Young Hiro 16 years ago helps his older self steal the formula calculations on a sheet of paper from Kaito's safe. Kaito finds them and is angry, telling young Hiro to go to sleep. He sees his safe has been broken into, grabs a Samurai sword and begins to go after Hiro to get the paper back. In the kitchen he corners Hiro near the fridge and demands he explain himself, with the sword aimed at Hiro's chest. Hiro tells him the formula must be destroyed tonight. Kaito demands it back again, and Hiro rips the paper in half. As Kaito goes to swing at him, Hiro is rescued by a flash, Daphne and Ando. They arrive back at Suresh's loft with Hiro who says they should have arrived later since he was about to destroy the formula. Daphne says she knows where the formula is and will help them go destroy it.

Daphne and Hiro race off to Pinehearst just in time to see Tracy Strauss pulling the formula paper from a safe. Hiro demands she stop because it is his sacred duty to destroy the formula. Tracy laughs with the formula in hand calling Hiro "Pikachu". Hiro touches her then bows respectfully and punches her in the forehead, knocking Tracy to the floor. Hiro grabs the formula, and he and Daphne speed out of there.

Meanwhile, Peter and Flint continue trashing the lab at Pinehearst. They dump a huge vile of liquid onto the floor which splashes all over Suresh on the floor. Flint gets ready to torch the place with his power. Peter tells him not to since Nathan is still there. Flint says he could care less about anyone else there. Just then a pipe knocks Flint down from behind, and Nathan is there. He punches Peter in the gut, then swings the pipe at Peter's leg, knocking him down. Nathan tells Peter he broke his heart, and just then Flint, enraged, lights the place up. Peter sees Nathan trapped in a ring of flames, so he grabs a nearby syringe, injects himself in the leg, and recovers his abilities within a moment. Peter rushes forward using his power of flight and flies Nathan out the window just as the place explodes in flames.

Sylar continues to hold Angela captive. Angela tells Sylar since he killed Arthur, he saved the world. Angela said she always dreamed that he'd be able to do good. She says she cared for him as a mother, but Sylar stops her. He uses his ability to tell if she's lying or not. Angela admits she's not his mother and that she wanted to manipulate him because he was weak and malleable. She said she wanted him to work for The Company as a killer, since her sons were such disappointments. Angela also tells Sylar she knows who his real parents are and if he kills her, he'll never know. Sylar begins to choke Angela using an ability and screams for her to tell him. Just then, Claire arrives behind Sylar and jabs a glass shard into the back of his head. Sylar falls to the ground bleeding as Primatech regains its controls.

HRG enters the office and says they need to leave now. Claire tells him to get Angela out and rushes to Level 5 to get Meredith. She finds Meredith is emitting even more fire than before. Claire tells her to come with her since she can save her. HRG rushes to Claire and says the whole place is about to blow up. Meredith tells Claire to go without her. Claire tells her mother she loves her, and then Claire & HRG rush out of the building just as it explodes in flames.

Peter and Nathan land on the ground in a woods area away from Pinehearst. Nathan yells at Peter that he went against what he said before by injecting himself with the formula. Peter says he had no choice and saved Nathan because he's his brother and loves him. Nathan gets angry saying he wouldn't have done the same, and starts walking off without Peter.

As the show winds down with Suresh narrating, various scenes are shown. Suresh is walking down a dark road, when a car pulls up. He sees his reflection in the mirror and he's seemed to regain his old look back without his skin lesions. Tracy Strauss is the driver and picks him up. Hiro and Ando return with the formula which Hiro tears up. Matt and Daphne embrace each other and Matt sees a vision of the profit, Usutu looking at him. Angela, Claire & HRG watch as Primatech burns in flames. Volume 3 ends.

Volume Four, Fugitives begins three Weeks Later in Washington, DC. Nathan is in the back of a limo with a mystery man talking to him about the fugitives. Nathan tells him that he had a plan in place earlier but these various individuals thwarted it. Nathan says he wants to round up the people with abilities and put them in a facility where they can't harm others. The man flips through files and papers about Matt Parkman, Hiro, Tracy, Suresh, Micah and others. He tells Nathan he'll get him whatever is needed. As Nathan exits the limo, he says "Thank you Mr. President", and the calvacade drives off with Nathan standing there. To be continued...

Full recaps of NBC Heroes Season 3 episodes.