Heroes/.07%

.07%
Season 1, Episode 19
Airdate	April 23, 2007
Production Number	119
Written by	Chuck Kim
Directed by	Adam Kane
Stream
← 1x18 Parasite	1x20 → Five Years Gone
Heroes — Season One

.07% is the nineteenth episode of the first season of Heroes. While Matt and Mr. Bennet plot a daring escape from Primatech, the Petrellis have a family reunion, Jessica has an altercation with Linderman over Micah becoming tied up in his plots and Sylar comes to a deadly endgame with one of the heroes.

Starring: Santiago Cabrera (Isaac Mendez), Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah Sanders), Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman), Ali Larter (Niki Sanders), Masi Oka (Hiro Nakamura), Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh), Leonard Roberts (D.L. Hawkins), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli)

Guest Starring: Eric Roberts (Thompson), James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli), Missy Peregrym (Candice Wilmer), Matthew John Armstrong (Theodore "Ted" Sprague)

And: Malcolm McDowell (Daniel Linderman)

Co-Starring: Sally Champlin (Waitress), Dutch Johnson (Linderman's Guard), David S. Jung (Courier Fanboy), Paul Ganus (Primatech Agent), Benjamin Byron Davis (Linderman's Guard #2)

Plot Overview

• Primatech Paper Company, Odessa, Texas. Sunken in a depression, Mr. Bennet is briefly reconciled with his daughter before he realizes that it's Candice tormenting him on behalf of his superiors through shapeshifting into his daughter's image. She's told to leave the room and Thompson takes her place, but he insists that he doesn't know where his daughter went. Thompson doesn't care, because Bennet is on death row as far as he's concerned. He's just waiting for the order.

• Corinthian Hotel, Las Vegas. In his office, Mr. Linderman reveals to Nathan Petrelli that he too has a power. He apparently can heal organic material, which he demonstrates by bringing a plant back from the brink of death.

• Primatech Paper Company, Odessa, Texas. Matt Parkman awakens in a dizzied stupor with the voice of Mr. Bennet in his head. The two strike up a psychic bond in hopes of escaping from the company's clutches before they're both executed. Much to his chagrin, Matt is forced into a partnership with Bennet and promises to follow his directions to the word.

• Corinthian Hotel, Las Vegas. While examining one of Isaac's paintings in Linderman's office, Nathan sees one of Hiro and Ando from when they saved the girl from an out of control truck. Much like Linderman, Nathan says that they too are intending to save the world, even if it meant stealing Linderman's sword. But when he discovers that the explosion painting is factored into Linderman's idea of a better world, he also finds that he is the man who is supposed to lead humanity into the dawn of a new era following the explosion that will rally mankind towards a common cause. Nathan claims that he's so far down in the polls that he has no hope of winning any sort of election, but Linderman has one final painting with Nathan's fate: a presidential victory.

• Primatech Paper Company, Odessa, Texas. The guards have been alerted by Matt banging on the pipes, but this is part of Bennet's plan. Matt manages to dislodge a rusty pipe and knock out the guard which came to check on him. He grabs the man's pass card and moves into the hall.

• Suresh's Apartment, Brooklyn. Peter arrives at Mohinder's apartment, where he discovers Mohinder stuck to the ceiling. Mohinder tries to warn him about Sylar, but it's too late. Peter is shoved against a wall and Sylar goes to work on his attempt to remove Peter's brain, but his healing ability kicks in and Sylar is knocked backwards. Peter goes invisible, but a chunk of glass becomes lodged in the back of his head. Sylar moves in for the kill, but is knocked unconscious by Mohinder.

• Angela Petrelli's Home, Manhattan. Despite just finding out that she's related to the man who saved her life, Claire finds the fact that Angela Petrelli kept her existence a secret troubling. Angela tells her that she needed the protection and that her life, no matter her regenerative abilities, is in danger because she is associating with her true family. Angela offers her the chance to move to Paris and escape from "this madness."

• Suresh's Apartment, Brooklyn. Sylar sputters awake, with the list of powered people missing, although he fails to clean up a scrap of paper with Isaac's name and face on it.

• Isaac's Studio, Manhattan. Isaac is shipping off his final batch of 9th Wonders, in which Hiro is sent into the future, to his editor via his "best messenger." He also gives away his sketchbook to the fan as a final gesture, knowing he will soon be murdered by Sylar.

• Jessica & D.L., Las Vegas. The revelation of Jessica driving Niki's body has sent D.L. into a frenzy of packing, hoping to escape her madness with Micah before something bad happens to them because of Linderman. In the middle of their argument, which ends in D.L. comparing her to her father, an agent of Linderman's arrives in a black SUV to request that she meet with his boss.

• Primatech Paper Company, Odessa, Texas. Mr. Bennet leads Matt into a supply room where he steals a coat to be less conspicuous. He proceeds to bust Ted Sprague out of his cell, but they've discovered that he's missing and an alarm is tripped.

• Angela Petrelli's Home, Manhattan. After the struggle with Sylar, Mohinder managed to escape to Manhattan where he brought Peter's corpse to the address he found in his wallet. They bring his body inside her home and she demands that he leave. He does so without a word, allowing Angela to grieve over her son's body. While he's leaving, Claire witnesses him walk out of the room.

• Corinthian Hotel, Las Vegas. "Fearsome Jessica" is greeted by Linderman, much to her surprise considering that the man himself never meets with anyone. He asks her for a small favor, but it's far larger than he is willing to admit; he wants to borrow Micah's abilities to repair his plan which is quickly unraveling. Jessica doesn't agree, however, because her son was never part of their deal.

• Primatech Paper Company, Odessa, Texas. With alarms blaring, Mr. Bennet tries to push Matt and Ted along the correct path to escape from the facility. Their first task is to create an EMP to stop the alarms but neither of them know what he's talking about. Bennet says for Ted to "burn bright" instead of hot with his radiation. Ted gives it a shot and the building's power is entirely blown out. Matt convinces Ted to go with him back in the building to get Bennet. The three of them pick up and leave.

• Angela Petrelli's Home, Manhattan. Nathan has arrived back in Manhattan when he received the news of his brother's death. Nathan is in tears, but his mother suggests that they hide Peter's death in order to keep his election aspirations up. Claire steps out into the room where Peter's body lay and discovers the shard of glass embedded in his head. She yanks it out and he comes back from the dead, healing almost immediately. He and his brother have a brotherly bonding process, which causes Nathan to reconsider saying "No" to Linderman's proposition if his brother could survive the explosion. His train of thought is interrupted by Peter pleading with his brother to accept his daughter into the fold of their family and not let their mother ship her off to Paris.

• Burnt Toast Cafe, Texas. The three fugitives from the company are sitting down in a cafe where Mr. Bennet briefly explains that the company can find both of them through their tracking system, so they need to destroy that in New York to truly be free. Matt suggests that they go to Las Vegas to take out Linderman, but his idea is shot down quickly and they return to the original plan.

• Jessica & DL, Las Vegas. Despite her initial protests, Jessica is playing along with Linderman's requests to borrow Micah. He exits his car and calls off the guards to greet Micah in person. The cars drive off with Micah in tow, but Jessica suddenly shapeshifts back into Candice. The real Jessica pulls up and Candice walks away as if nothing had just transpired.

• Suresh's Apartment, Brooklyn. Absolutely overwhelmed by the situation Sylar has placed him in, Mohinder has called in Primatech to help him out. But, Thompson isn't the one that he was expecting to meet and he isn't happy that Thompson is trying to co-opt his research instead of helping him stop Sylar. He eventually relents, however, and decides to hear Thompson out.

• Isaac's Studio, Manhattan. The moment of truth has arrived, Sylar has found Isaac's studio. He tells Sylar that not only does the opposition stop him, but he is killed in the process. Sylar is thoroughly amused by this prospect, considering that there's no painting to prove it. Isaac is pinned to the ground, as if being crucified, by two paintbrushes and admits that he can't fight the future and that he's wasted his life trying. But he reconciles this fact with his realization that his role in this world is to tell "them" how to kill Sylar and stop the bomb. After this bit of information, he's finally murdered and absorbed into Sylar's power repertoire.

• Angela Petrelli's Home, Manhattan. Claire meets with Nathan in his office, where he tells her that he wants to be there for her but he can't because of his political career and the deal with Linderman. He recommends that she take the week with her grandmother in Paris and then she can come home and be part of the family.

• Isaac's Studio, Manhattan. Sylar is testing out his newfound powers by painting a man in a suit, possibly Nathan, in the Oval Office.

• Five Years in the Future, Manhattan. Hiro and Ando are in the future, playing out the events of the last 9th Wonders comic book. They discover that they didn't stop the bomb and New York City is in ruins. Instead of going back immediately, Hiro suggests that they discover what went wrong and then go back to stop it. He goes to Isaac's apartment but finds an elaborate web of news clippings fitted into a timeline. The caretaker of this web turns out to be the future version of Hiro.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Exploding Man: The event that will destroy a huge chunk of New York City along with everyone in that explosion radius is either being orchestrated by Linderman or he's simply an opportunist using the tragedy to further his goals. Either way, he wants the 4.6 million people to die so that humanity as a whole will rally behind the charismatic force of Nathan Petrelli.
• Powers Coincidence: The various powered people coincidentally meeting up, particularly in Peter's vision of the future where all of the heroes were gathered around him, has happened before. Linderman explained to Nathan that in his time, he and several other people with powers gathered together to positively change the world, but all of them seem to have fallen down the road of personal gain rather than overall benefit.
• 9th Wonders: The final issue of Isaac's 9th Wonders comic go off to his editor and briefly displays two panels. One shows a man who looks like Hiro, possibly the future version, swinging his sword and the other shows a hand injecting a syringe of some kind of drug into the neck of someone else.

Characters

• Mr. Linderman: It is revealed that Mr. Linderman also has a power and is one of the first to discover their powers. He has the ability to heal organic material, including plantlife as he demonstrates to Nathan.
• Nathan: Nathan will undoubtedly become the next President of the United States as long as he plays along with Linderman's plan to let the New York bombing happen. He has also vowed to take Claire in as his legitimate daughter after he wins the election.
• Claire: Claire finally meets her biological father, but he asks her to leave with her grandmother for Paris until he wins the election and (although he doesn't say it out loud) after the bomb goes off so that she'll be safe.
• Isaac: Though Isaac's fate has been known for quite a long time, Sylar finally gets around to murdering him. However, Isaac indicates that the way to kill Sylar and stop the bomb is in the final issue of 9th Wonders, sent off for publication earlier that day.

Trivia

The Show

• Title Reference: The title of the episode refers to the percentage of the world's population that will be killed in the explosion that will occur in New York City. It works out to approximately 4.6 million people total.

Allusions and References

• Watchmen: Linderman's plan to save the human race with one dramatic blow against mankind is extremely similar to Ozymandias' endgame plot in Watchmen, a 12-issue maxiseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons published by DC Comics. In the comic, Ozymandias predicts that there will be a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union which will escalate to nuclear annihilation. His solution to this problem is to orchestrate one massive alien attack which will rally the people of the world together against the outside invader.

Quotes

• Peter: (examining the shard of glass) What do you do with something that killed you?
  Nathan: You could put it under your pillow.