Review: Heroes - I Am Become Death

Within the reviews I'm going to try and look at each review from the perspectives of each of the main characters, but because there are so many some of these could get lengthy. These are not spoiler free, so please be mindful of that when reading. Nice. We have our first cryptically named episode in "I Am Become Death." It only took four episodes, but it seems like Heroes is starting to hit its stride and get more coherent. There was a lot of future in this episode, which as always can be tricky, but it was worked into the story well. And how does that future look? Pretty bleak if you ask Future Peter. Future Peter shows Present Peter the future he tried to avoid, a future where everyone has powers courtesy of either Mohinder's labwork or the successful completion of the two incomplete formula pieces. Mohinder is really freaking out as a result of using the formula to give him the powers. It seems like they're taking him down the Lizard route, giving him scaly skin and a mucus substance that drips from his fingers. I like what Mohinder's character is going through, as he lashes out at Maya that he is trying to find a cure for her when its obvious he's trying to find it for himself. I feel like his injecting himself was way too convenient though. As a scientist, he would have at least tried the formula on an animal first to see the reactions, as opposed to just injecting himself by the East River instead of disposing it. Claire is part of a group that I like to call the Resistance along with Speedster (Parkman is together with Speedster, and both are parents of their own child as well as raising Molly), Knox and the Haitian, apparently seeking to kill Future Peter. When Claire kills Future Peter, she sees Present Peter there and decides that they have to go find him, and use Molly to do so. This all leads to a massive melee at the Bennett household which is now the Sylar household, where Gabriel/Sylar has learned to suppress his hunger to raise his son Noah (but where is the mother?). Peter needs to take Sylar's power, as it will allow him to figure out how the formula works so he can save the world. Which is interesting because since Sylar already has that power you would think they would just tap him to do it, but I'm guessing there's someone manipulating all this for their all gain and then it all comes crashing down. The Resistance members show up and essentially set off the Tedd in Sylar (by inadvertently killing his son), who goes nuclear and wipes out half of Costa Verde. As a result Peter is captured, Knox and Speedster (and 200,000) are dead, leaving Claire and the Haitian. Nathan arrives as President of the US to speak with his brother, promptly releasing him and the hunger inside. Peter effectively kills Nathan the Sylar way, and in a last ditch effort to reclaim himself teleports to the present where he confronts Sylar. Now Peter and Sylar have the same power and the same desire to figure everything out, meaning the insane hunger that goes along with it. Things are about to get interesting. Hiro and Ando (in their effort to escape Level 5) are confronted by the Haitian, meaning they can't escape. Which is a shame, considering they resolved that whole trust issue thing. In any case, Mrs. Petrelli tasks them with finding the formula that they lost, and that requires the unearthing of an old friend in Kensei. It was only a matter of time before he came back, and you really get a sense that all these hereos really are being manipulated since he was viewed as a villain last season. The interesting thing about this episode is that the entire episode is viewed through Parkman's hallucinogenic inducement while in Africa. Could he have taken a natural version of the formula? If so, does it manifest its power based on the powers the user already has? Since Parkman can read minds, it would make sense that a variation of his power would allow him to see the future. Although the Spirit Guide can also see the future when he ingests the same compound, so maybe there's a way to specify the ability. Which would make sense considering so many people were flying and fast in the future, as you could essentially pick your ability. We're at an interesting fork in the proverbial road where we're going to start finding out which characters were born with their powers and which ones were created. Tracy is part of three triplets (along with Nikki and Barbara), and apparently were all created. Nathan is part of three brothers (Peter and Gabriel), and it seems that they were all created. And yes, Gabriel is really their brother, if the future is any indication. As the season progresses more of this will rapidly unravel, and it seems that the "villains" tag doesn't necessarily mean heroes versus villains. Rather, it means that things are not as you think they are, and that heroes will become villains and vice versa. Overall score: 90 out of 100