Heroes: Season 3, Episode 4 Review: I Am Become Death

I Am Become Death
Original Airdate: October 6, 2008
Writer: Aron Eli Collette
Director: David Von Ancken

Much like "Five Years Gone" and "Out of Time", this episode shows us a grim version of the future if our heroes don't change it. As mentioned in my earlier review, this is a necessary evil for a show where two characters can time travel. It's all about finding a new avenue for it, and this time it works as Peter literally learns the method to change the past.

Since Future Peter prevented Nathan from coming out as an evolved human, what exactly changed that still makes Claire kill Future Peter and eager to do the same to present Peter? People all over the world with enough money or street knowledge can get access to the powers serum, so there's no need to hunt down those with them naturally. However, anyone with powers exponentially amplifies the problem of controlling those with dangerous ones. While the flying people aren't a problem, the guy who creates a devastating earthquake is.

This is connected to the formula Mohinder is concocting. Future Mohinder, whose horrible mutations we'll hopefully see soon, claims he botched the formula. Perhaps the formulas in play are different, and Mohinder's is the worse evil. His does involve using a sample from someone with innate abilities, so evolved humans could be slaughtered for mass production.

Mohinder's mutations in the present grow more profound. His aggressions turn away Maya (whose accent is almost completely gone) and his intervention in a domestic dispute turn ugly when he presumably kills the man who seeks retribution for having his head smashed into the wall. He's also producing sticky stuff from his hands. In the future, it's implied that Mohinder's physical mutations have worsened and he is now a lot like an insect (and maybe a snake if the rattle queues are an indicator).

It's still up in the air which side in the future is truly bad. Future Claire is sadistic in punishing Peter, and now hangs out with Knox and Daphne, the former clearly bad and the latter morally indifferent. The Haitian's involvement implies Company, but it's not clear enough to confirm. Alternatively, Future Peter lacks faith in mankind, not to mention his botched changing of the past lead to the nuking of 200,000 people and Matt refers to him as a terrorist. It's pretty early in the season to know for certain, but I've been inclined to believe Future Peter is the villain and Peter is being duped (again).

So Peter's quest to stop this future leads him to Gabriel (this Future Sylar will be referred to by his legal name), whose life is a complete 180 from his life as Sylar. Instead of scalping people and stealing powers, he's content raising his son Noah at the Bennet household. If Sylar's power really is an addiction, he must've gone to power rehab and is staying "sober" for his son's sake. Considering the age of the child, he's either going to be conceived soon or has been conceived already, assuming he isn't Bennet who took the serum and reverse aged.

If it is his biological son, Gabriel named his son after one of his biggest present nemeses. It could be because Bennet is partially responsible for domesticating Sylar, or doing something heroic to assure that. Since Noah is the grounding for Gabriel and his death causes Gabriel to go to his dark side again, that's a logical conclusion. It's worth noting that Bennet is no where in this future and Gabriel's allowed to live at his home relatively unimpeded.

Earlier it was said that Sylar's power arsenal was wiped clean after being infected last season. However, in 2011 Sylar uses both precognition and induced radioactivity, two powers believed to be lost. This could be either them going back on what they've said (which is easy to forgive as it hasn't been made official on the show) or he regains them from other people in the interim. One of the escapees could at least be able to emit dangerous levels of radiation.

On that note: how exactly does Claire survive a nuclear explosion that kills 200,000 people? Yes she can regenerate, but an explosion would destroy her entire body, unless somehow she could regenerate continually during the explosion, which is a tall order. Obviously Peter survived since he has radioactive powers (and presumably Sylar survived as well), but Claire? I don't think so.

It's odd that it took them this long for Peter to demonstrate Sylar's original ability or why he couldn't just use it since he's already encountered Sylar several times, but it works in terms of the story. To know how to change the future, knowing how things work and cause and effect is necessary to do what's necessary to change it. Future Peter tried doing it without using said power and it lead to a lot of big problems, so he sends Peter off to try to set things right.

However, this power comes at a price as Gabriel warns. This season has established that Sylar's power creates an addiction to wanting more and the leads to people losing the top of their heads. Peter, who wanted to believe in the inherent good of people, finds himself committing fratricide (at least for the future version) in the need to learn how his brother's brain worked. This could lead to the darker, scarred Future Peter. With Peter back in the present in Sylar's Level 5 cell, there are some interesting prospects for future episode (like maybe them teaming up).

Another factor in this future is Matt, who saw what's going to happen, albeit from Africa. While it isn't surprising the future woman in the painting is her, it helps keep Matt in the main story, and that's important when he's far away from everyone else in the present. However, the animal spirit guide he picks to locate the speedster is ironically a turtle, so this may take a while.

One problem with the jump between the present and future is the obvious captions telling us which time it is. It should be obvious which time we're seeing if Mohinder's tape recorder in the present gets buried in dust between scenes. Maybe the one exception is the establishing shot and the cut between Nathan and Tracy in 2007 to when Nathan's president and she's first lady.

Tracy uncovers that she was subject to tests that altered her DNA to give her special powers, as were her triplet sisters Niki and the unseen Barbara. Until this episode, it was implied that Jessica was Niki's twin sister, but that doesn't seem likely now. They now have another mystery of this third sister for Tracy to find en route to figuring out who she is. Also, there is the added mystery of who is seen in the rogue's gallery from Angela's dream.

Obviously upset that her powers have accidentally killed someone and feeling like a monster, she tries to kill herself only to have Nathan swoop in to save her. Whatever Linderman wants, Tracy clearly has a role to play (beyond being the future first lady).

Hiro and Ando have a break from Daphne outsmarting them to hash out the problems they've been having since Hiro saw Future Ando killing him using the sitcom device of trying to get out of a locked room. While they find some temporary peace, they now have to deal with Adam in the equation.

How Adam knows anything to prevent this formula from being released is anyone's guess, but his motivation was obvious back in season two. Adam is a powers supremacist, as he hoped his release of the virus would eliminate all normal people except a few evolved humans. Surely he would want to prevent everyone from gaining their own abilities. Of course carrying a 300 plus year grudge against Hiro, not to mention the rift between Hiro and Ando Adam can exploit, should make their dynamic fun to watch.

So far this season is shaping up really well. The use of the future storyline may have been too soon, but it had to happen for the sake of the plot. The episode title, taken from Oppenheimer's quote (from Hindi text) after the first atomic bomb test, foreshadows several characters becoming darker versions of themselves. It may be premature to whip out the "Heroes is Back!" banner, but if these episodes are an indicator, that may be soon.

Overall Score: 8/10