Heroes Reborn recap: 11:53 to Odessa

The world was not saved during the fall finale of Heroes Reborn tonight. Gotta hold something back for the last three episodes, right? But we did see some story lines merge and a few characters show signs of growth in this episode.

Let’s start with the Bennet roadtrip.

The action picks up in the immediate aftermath of the ice cream parlor shootout/flameoff. (Lemme tell ya, I used to live in Carbondale, Ill., and we’d have been lucky to have an ice cream parlor that charming, even if it were singed and riddled with memory-erasing pennies.) Noah’s hustling Malina out of there, and Luke trails them like a lost puppy, offering to help. Noah is deeply skeptical of this 30-something man who recently met his daughter and now won’t leave her side. Despite Luke’s earnest protests that he’s no longer an evo murderer, Noah tells him to bounce.

On the drive, Malina asks Noah about her mother, and he lights up as he talks about Claire. “Tough. But thoughtful. She always rooted for the underdog. Stubborn,” he says, ever the proud father. “You remind me of her.” Awww, poor grieving HRG.

When the duo stops for gas, Noah notices a tail. “Nice product placement!” he greets Luke. (Okay, fine, he compliments Luke’s car.) Luke again turns on the pleading puppy-dog eyes to offer his help. He’s pushing so earnestly and so hard for atonement and acceptance that even though we know he’s had a change of heart, I almost go around the bend to not trusting him again. Noah apparently feels similarly because they yet again leave Luke behind.

Malina and Noah hit a snag when an apocalyptic storm, presumably brought about by polarity problems, stops all traffic on the highway. Malina steps up to get her X-Men Storm on. Thankfully, she doesn’t ask what happens to a toad when it’s struck by lightning.

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As she’s trying to quell the storm, a car gets flung onto the freeway on a collision course with Noah. Nooo! But at the last minute, a black-clad arm zips into the frame to whisk him away. It’s not clear whose hand it is, but oh, how I want it to believe it’s somehow Hiro’s. The loss of his powers was a blow. In the original series, he treated his newfound abilities with such glee, such unmitigated joy. Yes, he’s lived the last 15 years without them, raising a son and generally demonstrating maturity, stability, and other types of positive character development. But a nonpowered Hiro feels a little empty, and here’s hoping we didn’t see the zapper here so we can be surprised when somehow Hiro’s powers get reset. (Um, if he’s still alive at all, that is.)

Anyway, Malina succeeds in calming the storm, and because people are terrible, they immediately start blaming her for the weather and threatening her with guns. Thankfully, Luke’s there with his fingers of fire to get her safely away. She only leaves once she accepts that the only thing she can find of Noah are his crushed glasses.

NEXT: Erica’s eyebrows of evil

At Erica’s compound, Tommy comes with no memory of the night before and no ability to jump away thanks to Phoebe.

Erica works her amazing villainess eyebrows as she taunts him with everything he was made to forget: his adoption, his sister, his destiny. Then she tells him about the impending apocalypse and explains that he’s the only one who can reconnect the time bridge between the present and the future, where her company’s been building a colony to save mankind.

So he jumps himself, Erica, Phoebe, and Quentin into a desolate world that looks a lot like the Utah dessert. In the distance, Erica proudly points out Gateway, the first city of the future. She gives Tommy the tour, and he’s starting to look impressed. Then he asks how this place will fit 70 billion people. Oh, sweet summer child. Erica says it’s the first colony of many, but COME ON.

However, Miko’s also in the future colony, having landed there after freeing Hiro from Evernow. She Captain Americas two dudes in an elevator (without even asking them if anyone wanted to get off before they got started. Rude), then enters the facility to discover a roomful of strapped-down evos — including herself.

Her father finds her then and explains that she’s a construct of his real daughter, whom Renautas kept alive following an accident. Miko takes the news well, all things considered. Hachiro then tells her she needs to find the Master of Time and Space — yes, again, but a new one this time. To get his weeping daughter-construct moving, he calls out to alert the guards, forcing her to run off.

Phoebe and Quentin, meanwhile, have a side conversation in which she accuses him of feeling guilty about what they’re doing at the colony, giving us hope that the butterfly that turned Quentin to the dark side might flap him back around to hero status before the season ends.

Erica asks Tommy to send Quentin and Phoebe to the present. He does, and then Miko appears, whomps some guards, and tells Tommy that her mission is to free him. Tommy immediately jumps away from the colony with her, leaving Erica miffed that her brainwashing attempt hadn’t kept him there once Phoebe’s power-dampening vanished.

Oh, and a construct Hachiro from the future tells Ren to go to the Gateway in Odessa so he can travel to the future to help Miko on her final mission. Ren wanders outside and sees a bus to Odessa with a conveniently placed Gateway Renautas ad on the outside. He hops onboard.

NEXT: Checking in at Sunstone Manor

Outside of beautiful Sunstone Manor, René (still so glad he’s alive!), Taylor, and the rest of the Hero Truthers agree that the shapeshifter should take the form of Erica and go in with Taylor to rescue Micah.

Taylor coaches him in Erica 101: “Controlling, condescending, and humorless,” she tells Faux-rica, who’s clearly uncomfortable walking in heels and behaving like a horrible human being.

Inside, Matt Parkman continues to break my heart by being evil. This time, he strolls in to extract Malina’s location from Farah, who’s tough enough to resist his mental probing. So he brings out the big guns: Carlos. Parkman the mind reader quickly susses out that Carlos and Farah love each other, even though they’re not together, and he taunts Carlos for being as useless here as he was in Afghanistan. Then Parkman holds a gun to Carlos’ head to get Farah to talk. It works, and Farah’s ready to spill Malina’s location when a guard arrives with news of “Erica’s” arrival.

When Parkman meets with Taylor and Faux-rica in his office, he “hears” Faux-rica thinking in a decidedly masculine voice. Busted! Taylor tases him and sets off to find Micah, leaving Parkman with the shifter.

One of the Harris clones then enters his office and discovers two Parkmans. Without missing a beat, Harris shoots one of them dead.

“How did you know that wasn’t me?” the real Parkman cries.

“Oh, I didn’t,” Harris tells him.

Parkman then hears Harris thinking about how disposable he is, and suddenly Erica’s plans don’t seem so peachy keen.

Carlos, meanwhile, overpowers his guard (while handcuffed, it must be pointed out) and frees Farah by taking out a guard who’s preparing her for a neck-based medical procedure. Unfortunately, his lady love is sedated and doesn’t respond to his voice or light slaps to her cheeks. And so Carlos leans in and kisses her.

Ew. EWWW. Look, this isn’t Once Upon a Time. She’s not going to wake up from true love’s kiss. I think this is supposed to be romantic, but really, Carlos is just kissing an unconscious woman. That’s not swoon-worthy. That’s a little assault-ey, actually. And when she wakes up, it’s not to yell, “What exactly are your lips doing?” Instead, she tells him, “The slap did the trick.”

Ugh. This is supposed to be a huge moment as Carlos reclaims his bravery, but now it’s got creepy overtones. Anyway, Farah and Carlos bump into Taylor, who quickly convinces them that she’s on their side, and finally, finally Carlos’ story line connects to the main arc this season!

Now we cut to Micah, stuck in a glass box as Parkman demands that Micah work his tech mojo (while presumably connected to the Renautas system by the Matrix-esque cord plugged into his neck) to verify that Parkman and his two kids are on the list to be evacuated to the future colony. They’re on there, and I’m taking this as a sign that Parkman’s starting to doubt Erica’s intentions, which will hopefully lead to a Luke-ish change of heart. Because seriously, I can’t handle a villainous Matt Parkman.

And this is where the episode leaves us: with Taylor, Carlos and Farah (but no Micah) meeting up with the Hero Truthers outside of Sunstone, where they’re greeted by waves of Harris clones. They split up to run, looking hopelessly outnumbered.

So there’s your fall finale. The good news is that you’re not left with a painfully unresolved cliffhanger that will torture you for the next month and a half, while at the same time, you’ve got several questions to ponder until the show returns in January: Who’s got Noah? How will the Hero Truthers escape? Will Parkman and Quentin see the error of their wicked ways? Is Mohinder alive to voiceover again? Can Quentin escape Erica’s influence? Will Farah explain consent to Carlos? Is Emily on the hook financially for the damages to the ice cream parlor?

See you in January to (hopefully) get answers to these questions and more!