Episode:Collision

Collision
Season:	One
Episode number:	104
First aired:	October 16, 2006
Written by:	Bryan Fuller
Directed by:	Ernest Dickerson
Previous episode:	One Giant Leap
Next episode:	Hiros

Summary

• Matt awakens to find himself face-to-face with Mr. Bennet and the mysterious man.
• Claire recovers from her autopsy and returns to school, where a discovery about Brody prompts her to seek revenge.
• Hiro and Ando explore Las Vegas, but are sidetracked from their mission.
• Niki meets with Linderman's assistant and works out an arrangement.
• Mohinder tries to warn Nathan, then receives an unexpected visit from Peter.
• Nathan and Niki meet as Linderman planned, but when Niki gets cold feet her alter-ego takes over.
• Isaac's paintings begin to show a pending threat to his fellow heroes.
• When time grinds to a halt, Peter receives a surprise visitor.

Synopsis

The episode begins with Matt Parkman waking up in a bed in some kind of medical lab. In comes Mr. Bennet. Matt's confused and thinks he's at a hospital initially or that it's part of some FBI or CIA operation, but Mister Bennet tells him that's he not part of any organization that has initials. It soon becomes apparent to him that he's in some kind of danger. Mr. Bennet had Matt drugged at the bar the previous night. Mr. Bennet knows of Matt's powers and, glancing at a brainwave readout, muses that Matt is trying to read his thoughts. Apparently the man at the bar last night has some power to block telepathy and keeps Mr. Bennet safe... for the most part. As he's leaving Matt asks him about Claire and it becomes clear that his telepathy isn't being totally blocked. Mr. Bennet muses that Matt is farther along than they thought. He asks the man from the bar to erase his memories of what happened, saying "go deep and clean him out".

A mortician is performing an autopsy on Claire. Apparently she had been dumped naked in the river after having been killed the night before. The mortician removes the branch from her skull and the wound begins to heal. Before Claire regains consciousness, the mortician leaves the room to answer a phone call. Claire wakes up, adjusts her skin so it will heal, steals a lab coat, and manages to sneak out of the morgue.

Claire returns home, sneaks inside, and gets cleaned up. Unfortunately she forgets to wash her feet which her father notices. He suspects she has been out all night with the quarterback and scolds her. He tells her he's disappointed in her, that he loves her, and that she can tell him anything. Claire doesn't know that her father has already seen the tape. He tells her there's going to be "a throwdown" when he gets home from work.

Later at school Zach tries to convince Claire to tell someone about what Brody did last night, but she refuses. She has no marks on her and no one would believe her. Brody sees Claire, panics, and runs off.

Claire is approached by another girl, Lori, who asks what happened between her and Brody last night. Claire finds out that she's not the first woman Brody has tried to take advantage of.

Hiro and Ando arrive in Las Vegas and Hiro is trying to figure out how to say "You are going to die in five weeks and New York is going to explode." in English so that Isaac will understand him. Ando tells him how to say it and offers to teach him how to say it phonetically. Ando's attention is quickly caught by a casino and he wants to do some gambling.

Niki and Micah are at the same casino and are escorted upstairs to visit Mister Linderman concerning the money Niki owes him. She's told that he will forgive her debt if she does a "favor" for him. There's a politician from New York arriving and he wants Niki to keep him distracted.

Nathan is seen getting into a car when Mohinder runs up and tries to talk to him. He tells Nathan that his name is Dr. Suresh and that his life is in danger. He mentiones Sylar and asks if Nathan may have developed any strange powers. Nathan refuses to speak with Mohinder and leaves.

We find Peter now in bed with Simone. His doorbell rings and Nathan is at the door. He accuses Peter of talking to Dr. Suresh and sending him after him. Nathan offers Peter some money under the guise of helping him out, but Peter refuses it. Peter and Simone subsequently discuss the status of their relationship with Simone telling him that she needs some time before jumping into another relationship.

Nathan arrives in Las Vegas and ends up literally bumping into Niki. They start to hit it off and eventually end up in Nathan's room talking. Nathan wonders out loud what it would be like to fly over the desert, not in a plane, but to really fly over it. While talking Niki tells Nathan that her husband is a criminal and ran off and that she has a son Micah. Nathan tells Niki that he's got a wife and kids. Nathan kisses her, but she tells him she "can't" and she ends up amicably leaving.

As Niki is waiting for the elevator we can see her reflection in the elevator door. When the doors open one of Mister Linderman's thugs grabs her and assaults her for not doing what she was sent there to do. She threatens her and her son if she doesn't go back. Suddenly Niki tells him, "Niki's not here anymore" and attacks the thug. As the elevator doors open the thug is knocked to the ground. Niki places her heel over the side of his head and tells him that if she threatens her or her son again, she'll put her heel through his skull.

Niki's alternate personality still in control, she heads back to Nathan's room. She strips down for him and The Symbol can be seen on her right shoulder blade.

Eventually Hiro catches up with Ando to find he's lost all but one dollar of their money. The last dollar is bet on a game of roulette, 26 black. Hiro stops time and places the ball so that Ando will win. While he has time frozen, he also saves a glass that was in the process of being tipped over as someone bumped into a nearby waitress. Hiro expresses guilt in having used his powers to for monetary gain, but Ando compares it to Peter Parker (of Spider Man) selling photos of Spider Man for money and Hiro seems to concede.

Hiro uses his power to manipulate Ando's cards while he plays poker, swapping his poor hand with his opponent's flush and winning. Afterwards they are both seen coming down an escalator in matching suits in a scene reminiscent of "Rain Man." At the bottom of the escalators they're met by men who throw them out of the casino and into the waiting arms of some thugs they cheated in Poker. Ando, speaking in English, claims that Hiro has super powers and can defeat them all. Hiro, not understanding English, stands there smiling. One of the thugs punches Hiro in the face knocking him to the ground leaving Ando alone and scared.

Mister Bennet approaches Niki and Nathan asleep in the same bed and says "Just take the one."

Peter goes to the apartment of Dr. Suresh and meets Mohinder, where he confesses that he has a power. Mohinder is skeptical of Peter when he claims that his power is the mimicry of others, citing his flying with Nathan and his drawing of the future after meeting Isaac as examples. He offers to take Mohinder to meet Isaac and try to make his power work, but Isaac doesn't answer his door: he's high on heroin and his eyes are glazed over as he's painting a picture of Claire running from a large black being.

We find Claire sitting on the same bleachers that she appears to be running up in Isaac's vision waiting for Brody. She asks him for a ride home, but asks if she can drive. She drives at high speeds while confronting Brody about what happened the previous night. Brody claims no one will believe her and accuses her of getting drunk and coming onto him. When he claims there's nothing she can do about it, she crashes the car into a wall at high speed.

Peter is riding in a subway talking to Mohinder about super powers when suddenly time crawls to a stop. Peter, however, appears to be unaffected. He wanders the train for a bit in confusion. Eventually an unknown Japanese man can be seen in the back of the subway car. He approaches Peter and in well-spoken English informs Peter that his name is Hiro Nakamura and he is from the future. Hiro says he did not recognize Peter "without his scar" indicating that Peter should be involved in some sort of facial injury in the future.

previous: One Giant Leap

Collision

next: Hiros