Synopsis for
"Heroes" Chapter Six 'Shades of Gray' (2009)

"Heroes" - "Chapter Six: Shades of Gray" - March 9, 2009

We pick up where we left off, with Eric Doyle, the puppet master, noshing on Claire's popcorn and asking for her help in Costa Verde. Claire tells him to get out. He says he can't go back out there. Sandra arrives and freaks. It turns out that Rebel said Claire would help him. Sandra threatens that there are agents outside. Turns out there aren't, Rebel made a fake call so the Doyle could get in. He wonders why they aren't hunting Claire. She admits she "got a free pass." He's shocked that she turned her back on her own kind. When Sandra protests, he shuts them both up and hangs them up a bit as he explains they don't know what it's like to be hunted and live on the street (his puppet theatre was torched in this week's online GN) and come to the last person in the world you'd think would help you for help. He lets them down and says he won't force her to help him. He sheds a tear and says that's not who he is anymore. He walks away.

Nathan runs into Danko in the hall and Danko is grumbling about the mess Peter made. Nathan says if Danko had only released Parkman and Daphne like he asked everything would be cool. Danko says he made the right choice, Peter just got lucky, and wonders how he got lucky and how many people knew Peter was on that rooftop. And then he looks at Nathan a little funny. Nathan answers his phone and is surprised to be told that Matt Parkman is in front of the Capitol Building with a bomb strapped to his chest since he was supposedly in Danko's custody. Danko says last he checked he was. Nathan heads for the roof access and Danko is again perplexed.

We cut to Parkman and his bomb vest. He's woozy from whatever Danko injected him with as a swarm of police show up. They ask him to deactivate the device. He says he doesn't know how. Nathan shows up and Matt thinks Nathan has turned him into a terrorist. Nathan says this was Danko's doing and he didn't sanction it. Matt doesn't believe him but when Nathan tells him to read his mind to prove it, he can't because of the drugs. Nathan says he'll have to trust him.

Danko goes into the main room where an agent informs him Matt's vest is ready but they have a problem since Nathan is now on the scene. He sees him on the screen and wonders how Nathan got there so fast. Danko has the agent activate the vest saying that Nathan can become a martyr to his own cause. He tells the agent to blow the bomb and he hits the button.

For some reason the bomb doesn't go off, the weapon is blocked. The agent tries to run it through a different server. HRG asks what's going on but Danko ignores him.

Back at the scene, Matt is freaking. Nathan points out that they're surrounded by bomb techs who are probably thinking about how to disarm the bomb and that Matt should read their minds. He hears "red wire" and Nathan goes for it until Matt hears something else and tells him to back off. Then he hears black wire and even though he's not positive Nathan pulls it - just as Danko's agent got him back on line and Danko tried to detonate the bomb. No kablooey. Matt pulls off the vest and when he turns Nathan decks him and the police move in. Nathan apologizes, explaining he couldn't have Matt using his power.

Sylar arrives at a dilapidated trailer. He enters and spies a wheelchair among other detritus in the run down place. He sees a man bent over a workbench in an enclosed area. Sylar knocks on the glass door and the man, who has his back to Sylar, tells him to come on in. Sylar steps through a sliding glass door and Samson Gray thinks it's a delivery man until Sylar announces that it's Gabriel, his son. The man says "is that so?" but doesn't turn around. Sylar's pappy wonders what brings him way out here. Sylar says he had some questions about who he was but then he remembered his father abandoned him and killed his mother. So, what now, asks daddy? Sylar says now "I kill you." The man finally turns and, with an oxygen tank in tow, says "fine, you kill me or the cancer does." Same diff. He says either way he dies. He walks past Sylar and says "I haven't got all day."

At Building 26, Asian Tech is clueless who could slip in and out of their "high security network" with such ease. Danko is trying to figure out who the computer hacker is. (So Micah's file never made it past the President? Brotha gotta cover his own!) Nathan, also back, says he wants to know too, so he can thank him. This rankles Danko who says that the safety of his friends and family is obviously more important than national security. Nathan points out that Parkman wasn't a threat until Danko strapped a bomb to him. Danko says Matt and Peter exposed the operation so he did what he had to and put a face to the threat. Nathan says people could've died. Danko points out that people have already died, unless Nathan doesn't count Danko's men. (So the other "prisoners" on the plane all survived? Including the guy who flew out, still strapped in to his chair?) Nathan tries to relieve Danko of his command. Danko says he answers to the president and if he does this the president will want proof and it will be Nathan's word against Danko's. He offers Nathan good luck on trying to get his men to turn against him. Nathan excuses himself and calls HRG over. He starts to say he wants to put a new team together with HRG in charge once Danko is gone but he's interrupted by the sound of Tracy's very loud voice on video yelling "you're one of us, Nathan, you're one of us!" Danko is replaying video of her in the holding cell. Nathan wonders what Danko's point is. Danko says that maybe the operation has been compromised from the start. He knows all about HRG's family baggage but he's beginning to wonder about the Petrelli family bloodline and skeletons in the closet. He says he thinks they both know what Nathan's is. He remains impassive. Danko says it looks like they're both building a case against each other. Nathan challenges him to see who gets there first. HRG watches Nathan walk away.

A drugged and orange-suited Tracy is manhandled down a hallway. For a split second on a computer screen Tracy sees the words "Help is coming. Have hope."

Nathan and HRG storm down a hallway. Nathan is pissed Danko went over his head. HRG wonders what he expected. He says that by showing his hand he's put both of them at risk. HRG tells him to take a play from his mother's book and keep his head.

Nathan enters Tracy's hot box. He apologizes to Tracy for all this. Tracy finds it hard to believe. Nathan says he still cares about her and if she'd use her head she'd realize he'd been helping her all along. She is unmoved. He says he's still the same guy. She says he sacrificed her for his own gain. (So he is still the same guy right?) He says she doesn't have to like him but she does need to realize he's her only hope. Danko enters. He wonders if Nathan has a soft spot for this one and if he shouldn't go too rough on her. Nathan tells Danko to knock himself out.

Back in the main room, Nathan dials up Tracy's interrogation on a monitor. Danko asks Tracy for everything she knows about Nathan. She has him lean in and tells him "he was lousy in bed." He asks about the "one of us" remark, and if Nathan has an ability. Tracy feigns ignorance. Danko looks up at the video camera (at Nathan).

Claire is feeling guilty for not helping Doyle like Rebel wanted her to. Sandra says Doyle was a psycho and that Claire did the right thing, Rebel can't be sending them surprise guests like this. Claire proposes she get a cover job at the comic book store- replacing Alex- and help people there, so they don't threaten Sandra and Lyle. Sandra doesn't like it but agrees.

Cut to Claire applying at the comic book store. The geek in charge wonders if she can handle Wednesday. She has no clue, so he explains it's new comic book day. Then he asks if she'd rather have the power of flight or invisibility. She's freaking, not sure what the right answer is. He says there isn't one. He says it's simply "the" question and asks what type of hero she is. She looks downcast and mumbles she doesn't know. He says he hopes she won't cry, it's just comics and stuff. She turns to leave, but he informs her she got the job. He says every guy in the place has been staring at her since she walked in, so she'll have no trouble selling comics and she can learn all the geek stuff later. We see all the boys peering not-so-shyly at her. (This one's for you, fanboys!)

Sylar checks out his dad's pitiful home. Dad is surprised he's still there. Sylar calls him pathetic and says he used to be a killer. Dad realizes Sylar was looking for a fight and has disappointed him. He tells Sylar, like life often does. Samson releases a rabbit out of a cage and starts to control him but gives up, wheezing. He says he hasn't used his powers in years. He also says that he thinks he and Sylar are alike. Sylar protests that his father knows nothing about him and they're not alike. Dad says they both pick easy targets, like that helpless rabbit. Sylar can't believe Dad is drawing some kind of moral line. Samson scoffs at that idea. He says it's simply who they are, they kill. But that Sylar also attacked easy pickings, small prey. Sylar defends his massacres by saying they had something he wanted and that it isn't his fault they weren't strong enough to fight back. Samson wonders why Sylar hasn't gone after the considerably more powerful agents who are after them. Sylar thinks about it. Samson says Sylar may discover the hunt is meaningless if there's no challenge in it and all the power in the world won't matter to him if he's lived an unsatisfying life. He strokes the rabbit as he says this. He then holds it by its scruff and asks if Sylar wants to know more if he wants to kill him now and holds out a knife to Sylar. Sylar looks around and thinks. He takes the knife and asks, "what do I do?" "Cut him." Sylar stabs the bunny rabbit.

Danko is watching video of Peter's rooftop rescue. HRG enters. Danko wonders if HRG knew anyone who could fly at Primatech. He says plenty of people. He probes for a bond between Nathan and HRG through Claire and HRG points out that neither one of them knew Claire was Nathan's daughter when HRG adopted her. HRG redirects Danko by telling him the question he should be asking is who would want to save Peter and drops Angela's file on his desk. Danko wonders if Angela would betray her son. HRG says he gave up long ago trying to figure out what Angela would or wouldn't do.

Angela's phone rings in the back of her limo in New York City. HRG explains Nathan's created a problem with his power play against Danko. She says they're better off without him. HRG agrees, but worries Nathan is moving too fast. He warns Angela to stay on her toes since he pointed Danko at her and that he does his homework. Pulling out a pair of socks(!!), she says she does hers too. (Apparently, she either got away scott-free or actually PAID for these socks?)

Claire is taking off from her first shift at the comic book store, trailing a line of smitten boys. She eyes the agents in the vans. She calls HRG. He's standing in a hallway as Matt Parkman is dragged woozily by as she asks how he managed to lead two lives for so long. He says he's the worst person to ask. She asks which path she should take. He asks which answer she wants: the one that'll make her feel better or the truth. She doesn't know. In that case, neither does he, he says. He says he misses her and hangs up. The van speeds past her. She gets a message from Rebel that the agents have found Doyle nearby and asks Claire for help.

Rachel Mills corners Doyle. He forces her to put her hands up and then point her own gun at her head. He says he wants to kill her but what he really wants is his old life back. So instead of making the agent shoot herself he spins her into the wall knocking her out. The male agent (Jason from GN/iStory?) had come up behind Doyle while this was happening but Claire spins him into the wall, knocking him out. Doyle turns and is surprised "Barbie" helped him.

Danko enters a swanky restaurant in Manhattan. He approaches Angela and asks for her help. She continues dining, saying everything he needs to know is in the Primatech files. He says he's curious about a health issue. He points out that Elle, Hiro, Matt, Claire, and Peter all inherited abilities from their parents. Angela says, "genetics are complicated" and "that two blue-eyed parents can sometimes produce a brown-eyed child." "So, Nathan was the misfit?" asks Danko. She says, "sometimes these things skip a generation." He says he doesn't believe her. She says she's known dozens of men like him, her company used to employ dozens of them: no family, nothing to hold him back, operating in the shadows doing all the awful things others won't. "That's what makes [him] useful...and expendable." She brings up an incident in Angola where many civilians died. He doesn't look pleased that she knows this, rises, says she's a very resourceful woman and leaves. She sucks down an oyster and smiles at his departing form.

It's raining on the trailer as Samson tells Sylar that a man needs a hobby to do with his hands to keep his mind from wandering as he works on the rabbit. Sylar says he fixed watches, hoping to please his (adoptive) dad. Samson wonders how that worked out for him. He says Sylar is still looking for some kind of connection and that the only thing people are good for is disappointment. Sylar wonders if that's why he killed his mother and abandoned Sylar. Samson says all he remembers is that it didn't matter to him, so few things do. He instructs Sylar to cut the thread on the newly stuffed rabbit. Sylar cuts himself and watches the wound close. His father looks at him with wonder and asks how he did it. Sylar says it's an ability he picked up from a cheerleader in California and maybe it's proof that not everybody gets old and dies. Samson says then he just has that much longer to suffer then. He grabs for his oxygen and tells Sylar to set the rabbit on a cabinet. As he does, arrows come flying into Sylar's body, pinning him to the wall. Samson is amazed how quickly his abilities have come back. Sylar wonders if his Dad thinks he'll really be able to stop him. Dad says he wants that power. Then he starts to whistle. That must be one of his abilities, because it seemingly is putting Sylar, still pinned to the wall by arrows, to sleep.

A groggy Sylar wonders why his father is doing this since he'd seemingly given up and that power didn't matter to him. Samson, who is all fired up now, starts rattling off all the things he's going to try now that he has the promise of immortality and this time he'll do it right. He doesn't stop until he's worked all the way up to world domination more or less. He goes to cut Sylar's head but Sylar easily pushes him back and pulls out the arrows. His father is surprised he can move. Sylar says he can and as a hunter he figured his father would know when someone was playing possum. Sylar wraps a cord around his dad's neck that strangles him but not to death. His dad points out that taking the power wouldn't kill Sylar that he would be okay. But then, Sylar points out, so would Samson, and he can't have that. He says he got his answers and he's off to put them to good use. Realizing that Sylar is leaving him there to gasp for air he asks Sylar to kill him. Sylar says he will die eventually, slowly, painfully, and alone with his sickness. His dad begs. Sylar, grabbing the rabbit, calls his Dad small game and splits.

Danko is looking at the most wanted photos. Nathan enters and says the president sided with him and Danko is out. He tells the agents in the room to get on board or get out while the getting's good. Danko can't believe Nathan is hitting reset on the whole operation because of him, and says he may have friends now, looking at HRG, but he'll be alone soon enough. HRG confirms that Nathan went to the president. Nathan says yes and says he's eager to meet Danko's replacement as Nathan leaves the room. He asks if HRG is coming. They head towards the elevator and Nathan says he hopes HRG has a plan. He does, it's a little unorthodox but it's tested. Nathan, standing in the glass elevator, spies Danko glaring at him and tells him it's over. Danko, who has a video camera winking behind him, pulls a weapon and tells Nathan that he just doesn't understand that rules of conduct and bureaucracy mean nothing to him. He says that the people with powers scare him and he's noticed Nathan has never shown fear and he wondered why. The camera stops blinking. Nathan says he doesn't have time for this and makes to walk away as Danko shoots two bullets into the window behind him. He rushes Nathan and pushes him out. Nathan, of course, saves himself by levitating halfway down and Danko freaks. He looks up at Danko and flies off. Danko spins around to HRG and says, "tell me you didn't know about this." HRG says nothing.

Doyle sits on a park bench and Claire brings him new identity papers, there is no trace of Eric Doyle left, now he is "Jason Tyminski", thanks to Rebel. He wonders if by sparing the agent's life he earned Claire's help. She says it's not about him, but her and who she needs to be right now, which is someone who helps. He thanks her and begins to walk away. She asks if he meant what he said about changing. He just smirks at her and walks off.

Hiro and Ando enter a house at 63 Varna Avenue, L.A. They think Matt Parkman is here and needs saving, according to the note they received in India. A twenty-ish girl comes out, yelling at them it's about time they showed up. She's quit the babysitter agency and thinks these two are her replacement. They say they're here to save Matt Parkman. She's glad. She thrusts a baby into Hiro's arms, who refuses at first. "No thank you." She shoves the baby into his hands, "Take it!" This is Matt Parkman, it turns out, and he's a handful apparently, as she all but runs out the door, complaining. (btw, he has blue eyes, while Matt and Janice both have brown!)

Mohinder arrives in voice over to tell us about the interplay between generations as we see:

Claire falls back on her bed thinking, and then getting a text from Rebel saying her free pass is up and that agents are coming.

Samson Gray sitting in a chair, oxygen mask in one hand, cigarette in the other.

Danko bringing a bag of groceries home and seeing the newly stuffed rabbit on his desk. As we see Danko on one side of the wall looking at the rabbit, we see Sylar waiting on the other.

Agents assault the Bennet house, pushing Sandra and Mr Muggles! back onto the couch with Lyle at gunpoint. They head upstairs and bust into Claire's room. One agent checks under the bed, but fails to notice the window is open. She is gone. We see her hovering outside the window in Nathan's arms.

To be continued....