Heroes Reborn recap: Sundae, Bloody Sunday

Heroes Reborn is back in the present this week. “Sundae, Bloody Sunday” reveals the subtle changes to the timeline that resulted from Noah’s trip to the last in the recent two-parter. It’s an hour that’s all about the choices these characters make and how they have to live with the consequences.

Sunstone Manor, somewhere in California:

Let’s start with Carlos and Dearing, whose story wasn’t the worst for once. It turns out Dearing didn’t double-cross Carlos and passing out was just a side effect of drinking that liquid that made him test positive for the evo gene. Dearing is still going along with their plan to infiltrate Sunstone and save Carlos’ nephew and the priest. The traitor to his people is confident their plan will work just as long as Carlos avoids Sunstone’s director because it’s rumored he can enter and mess with people’s minds. Hm, wonder who that could be?

Carlos makes it through the initial screening without a problem and is taken inside to be processed. Sunstone Manor is a weird place. The evos are quite docile thanks to Matt Parkman the director’s hypnotic voice, which can be heard over the intercom system. It’s clear that the manor is run by Renautas because they’re on the lookout for evos with “essential” powers like teleportation.

Dearing waits in reception while Carlos tries to rescue his friends. Unfortunately for him, today’s the day the manor decided to start testing bounty hunters to make sure they weren’t evos turning in other evos. Dearing tries to escape but is knocked out and apprehended. Eventually, Carlos finds Jose and Father Mauricio, but they refuse to leave because they’re under the director’s mind control and believe they’re happy right where they are. The nurses/guards find Carlos and tase him into submission.

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When Dearing wakes up, he finds himself in a meeting with the director. The show pretends we haven’t already guessed that it’s Matt Parkman and refuses to show us his face as he interrogates Dearing. (It’s actually quite annoying because we just met the character in last week’s episode. There’s no way we could’ve forgotten about him already.) Because he has betrayed his own kind, Matt determines that Dearing isn’t worthy of being saved and tells him to decide his own punishment. At this point, it becomes clear that we’re inside Dearing’s head because he walks into a room that looks like it was decorated by Dexter Morgan, picks up a gun, and kills himself.

This is one of those times when a scene in Heroes Reborn is improved (slightly) if you watched the original series. In the time between the two shows, Matt has basically become his father, who used his powers to torture people and make them unsafe inside their own heads. It’s a disappointing development for his character because, at one point, he was disgusted by his father’s actions. (To be fair, I can’t completely remember what happened to Matt in the final season, so maybe this change makes sense.) It’s isn’t clear, however, if Matt running Sunstone is one of the consequences of Noah traveling back in time or if this was always going to happen.

Once Dearing is handled, Matt goes to meet with Carlos. Using his powers again, Matt forces Carlos to relive the attack on his unit in Afghanistan that earned him a medal. It’s revealed that he froze in the middle of combat and hid instead of fighting alongside his unit. Matt finds out Carlos knew Farah and realizes he’s slightly more useful than he thought.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Taylor makes contact with Hero Truther, and they plan a meeting. When she arrives at the spot, she’s kidnapped by a group in black masks. Hero Truther — a.k.a. the Anonymous of evos — pretends to be Renautas to test Taylor and make sure she isn’t leading them into a trap. When she passes, Remy — Yes! Remy is alive thanks to Noah’s actions — reveals that they’re trying to find their leader, Micah, who has the power to control technology and was captured by Renautas. Can you guess where he’s being kept? Yep, Sunstone Manor.

NEXT: Family reunion

Carbondale, Ill.

It turns out that Noah’s time-traveling shenanigans didn’t ruin Tommy and Emily’s teenage romance. When we check in with them tonight, they’re strolling down the street hand-in-hand like the world doesn’t need saving. But Tommy decides it’s time to return to the real world, so he teleports to his mother’s hospital room, and she tells him the truth about his identity, purpose, etc….Obviously, Tommy has a hard time processing it, but then Noah shows up and confirms it’s all true.

On Noah’s orders, Caspar pays Emily a visit at work. He plans on taking her memories to, you know, tie up a loose end, but he decides he won’t because memories are what define us, especially the ones of your first love. Their weird conversation is interrupted by Joanne, who shows up with her gun. Caspar tries to use his penny trick, but Joanne doesn’t fall for it, which leads to a hostage situation in the ice cream shop.

Luke and Malina aren’t too far away from the action as they’re heading to Carbondale to find Tommy. Along the way, Malina tries to get Luke to open up about his past (when she isn’t gushing about the car’s features in some of the most egregious product placement ever), but he refuses. Instead, they talk about other heavier topics like fate and how the only time Luke’s son, Dennis, felt normal was when they let him watch movies. (Heroes Reborn isn’t subtle in its belief that mass consumption of media is one of the ways we’re all connected).

Using Emily’s phone, Joanne calls Tommy, and he comes rushing to the ice cream parlor. When he arrives, Caspar is using that amazingly soothing voice of his to talk her down. (ASIDE: Life would be so much easier if we had Pruitt Taylor Vince talk us out of making terrible mistakes like finishing an entire carton of Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Ice Cream in one sitting.) Caspar throws his penny briefcase in the air hoping one of the pennies will touch her and zap her memories, but Tommy distracts her, and she shoots Caspar in the head. And, that’s when Luke walks in.

Luke’s presence actually makes the situation more dangerous because Joanne becomes increasingly more volatile when she sees that Luke has embraced his powers, and Luke admits that he didn’t enjoy killing all of those evos. (While the show definitely passes judgment on Dearing, it doesn’t do so with Luke.) When Luke tries to use his powers to stop her, Joanne fires at Emily; however, Tommy stops time like Hiro. As he walks around the frozen ice cream parlor (ha!), he sees Malina, who was sneaking in through the backdoor. Instead of staying to meet her, he teleports Emily back the hospital. When time unfreezes, Joanne runs off and is picked up by Harris (what?!). Luke chases after her and leaves Malina alone.

Tommy informs Noah of Caspar’s death when he and Emily arrive at the hospital. He tries to teleport himself and Noah out of there, but his powers stop working. They try to leave the old-fashioned way but end up getting corned by Phoebe and Quentin, who reveals his true allegiance. In that moment, Noah realizes how much damage his recent Anastasia-like escapade caused. With no other options, Noah is forced to let Quentin and Phoebe take Tommy.

The Evil Siblings escort Tommy to one of Erica’s homes where she has prepared a feast to welcome him. (Hannibal’s dinners are way more aesthetically pleasing). As Tommy sits down at the table, Erica promises to show him how he’s going to save the world. Let’s hope Tommy doesn’t fall under her spell.

TIME FOR TONIGHT’S BIG SURPRISE

The final scene of the night jumps 7,596 years into the future where we find Miko — Yes, Miko! — meditating in the middle of a desert, or what’s left of the world after it ended. What’s going on? I don’t know, but I’m kind of excited for next week’s episode.