Heroes/Better Halves

Better Halves
Season 1, Episode 6
Airdate	October 30, 2006
Production Number	106
Written by	Natalie Chaidez
Directed by	Greg Beeman
Stream
← 1x05 Hiros	1x07 → Nothing to Hide
Heroes — Season One

Better Halves is the sixth episode of the first season of Heroes.

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

Guest Starring: Nora Zehetner (Eden McCain), James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Ashley Crow (Sandra Bennet), Thomas Dekker (Zach), Karri Turner (Lisa), Colby French (Hank)

And: Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet)

Co-Starring: Mark Allan Stewart (High Roller), Dean Napolitano (LVPD Deputy), Paul Raci (Ernie the Weasel), Stephen Full (Lowlife)

Plot Overview

Niki discovers she's her own worst enemy when her husband D.L. returns. Isaac and Peter try and figure out their next move. Hiro has a crisis of faith after he fails to save someone. Mohinder packs, planning to return to India. Claire meets her biological parents. A mole is revealed.

• Mohinder Suresh Voice-over: "Evolution is an imperfect and often violent process: a battle between what exists and what is yet to be born. In the midst of these birth pains, morality loses it meaning. The question of good and evil reduced one simple choice: survive or perish."

• Isaac Mendez's Apartment, New York. Peter Petrelli answers Isaac Mendez's phone. When he learns it's Hiro Nakamura, he tells him he has a message: Save the Cheerleader, save the world. Hiro and Ando Masahashi are confused - what cheerleader. Peter asks Isaac, but neither of them know. Peter tells Hiro and Ando that a version of Hiro from the future Hiro that carries a sword, came back in time and gave him that message. Peter tells Hiro to come to New York and they'll find her together. Peter and Isaac look at the paintings. Peter thinks they look like panels in a comic book, but there's a panel missing. Isaac says that Simone must have taken it to sell. He doesn't remember what was on it, he was high when he painted it.

• Bennet house, Odessa, Texas. Claire Bennet's adoptive parents tell her that her birth parents can be there tomorrow to see her. Claire says that she's ready.

• Niki Sanders House, Las Vegas Niki Sanders is startled when her husband D.L. eludes the police watching her house and slips in. She tells him that he has to leave, Micah doesn't need this complication in his life. D.L. tells her that Micah needs his father, she is still his wife and this is still his home. A cop hears them talking and knocks on the door. He asks Niki if everything is all right. Niki doesn't give D.L. up and the cop leaves. She tells D.L. that she's angry on him for puling the job. D.L. tells her that he didn't do it, he stepped out of the job, but someone else stepped in, a woman who killed his crew and framed him.

• Near the Bennet house, Odessa. Claire and Zach walk to Claire's home. She tells him that she's meeting her birth parents today. She isn't sure how she can find out if they have abilities too, but she isn't going to tell them about her ability. She thinks Mr. Bennet would unspool if he found out what she can do.

• Montecito parking structure, Las Vegas, Hiro and Ando are about to leave for New York. Ando wonders if New York will explode at the same time they get there. Hiro says that if they get there it won't. Ando wonders why Future Hiro didn't just come back in time to them, and not this Peter character that they don't even know. Hiro says that the Future Hiro didn't want to risk causing a rift in the space-time continuum. Ando says that Hiro doesn't know what he's talking about. As they prepare to leave, they are blocked in by a large vehicle. It's the cowboy that they cheated earlier. He says it's time they paid him back.

• Bennet house, Odessa. Claire's biological parents arrive. Zack leaves.

• Niki Sanders house. Niki lets D.L. stay for the night, but he has to leave in the morning. D.L. said that in the morning he's going to see some people who laundered two million dollars — the amount stolen in the robbery he was convicted of — for a woman. D.L. wanted to go to bet, but Niki told him he's sleeping on the couch. He isn't happy about this, but a few minutes later, Niki changes her mind and invites D.L. to bed. They have sex.

• Poker game, Unknown location, Las Vegas. The cowboy insisted that Hiro and Ando use their cheating abilities to win back the money they cheated him out of. As soon as the last cards are dealt, Hiro goes into Bullet Time, picks up all the hands and rearranges them to give Ando a favorable result - a much more subtle method of cheating. Ando drops something and as he reaches down to get it, he sees that his opponent is armed. He announces that he's going to the bathroom and takes Hiro with him. Hiro asks what Ando is doing, and Ando says that one of the players has a gun and is afraid he will kill him. He tells Hiro he has to get them out of there, but just then someone else arrives at the game. Hiro and Ando hear one of the poker players ask who invited that woman. Then the violence and screaming starts. Hiro tries to concentrate so he can stop time and save them, but Ando distracts him.A body slams into the bathroom door, splintering it. Blood seems through the crack. The mysterious perpetrator leaves. Hiro is upset that he couldn't save the poker players. He and Ando leave through the window.

• Niki Sanders house. In the morning, Niki wakes up in bed with D.L. It's a nice moment, until D.L. tells her that he noticed her getting up in the night. She doesn't remember that. Micah comes in and is happy to see his father.

• Mohinder Suresh's apartment, Brooklyn, New York. Mohinder Suresh is packing. He's heading home to India. He tells Eden McCain what Peter Petrelli said about a man form the future appearing in the subway and telling him to save a cheerleader. He thinks Peter is crazy. Eden says either that or he really did encounter a time-traveler. Mohinder thanks Eden for all her help, but says he's leaving. Eden tells him that if he leaves now, he'll always wonder if his father was on to something after all. He tells her goodbye, but she thinks he'll be back. They share a long kiss, then Mohinder says goodbye. Eden says "see you later." Mohinder leaves.

• Niki Sanders house. It's breakfast. D.L. is spending time with Micah. Micah is a big fan of comic books. D.L. apologizes to Micah for not being around. Micah asks D.L. how he got out of prison. D.L. told him that he walked out. Micah asked how? D.L. said he had a secret, like Superman. Micah goes to get more comic books. Niki comes into the kitchen. She says it's going to crush Micah when he has to leave again, the manhunt for him won't go away. D.L. asks Niki to help sneak him to a place where some of Linderman's men are. He wants her to hear that he was framed from the mouth of the person who did it.

• Outside the poker game, Unknown location, Las Vegas. Niki pulls her red convertible up outside the location D.L. specified. He gets out of the back seat. The door is locked, but D.L. phases his hand through the door and unlocks it when Niki isn't looking. They go in and are greeted with a horrific scene. Everyone there is dead, most have been ripped to pieces.

• Bennet house, Odessa. Claire meets with her biological parents. They tell her that they aren't currently a couple. Claire was the result of an unwanted teen pregnancy in high school. Her biological father wanted to keep her, but her mother didn't. Claire asks about their medical history, asking if there was anything weird of out of the ordinary she needed to know. She is disappointed at the ordinary answers she gets.

Mr. Bennet and Sandra Bennet are eavesdropping on Claire's conversation when he gets a call. It's Eden McCain. She's been spying on Mohinder and Chandra Suresh. She tells him that Mohinder has left for India, and she was unable to stop him, but she thinks he'll be back. She tells him that Peter Petrelli claimed he could fly, and said there Peter told Mohinder he encountered a time traveler who told him he had to "save a cheerleader". Mr. Bennet froze. He wasn't expecting to hear that. She asks him what to do about the precog (Isaac). He tells her to bring him in.

• Niki Sanders house. D.L. and Niki are shaken. He asks her if she's ever see anything like that before. Niki tells him that she has... in the garage. She tells him that after he left, she borrowed $30,000 from Linderman. When she didn't pay him back on time, he sent some thugs after her. They made her strip for them, but they got physical and she was knocked out. When she woke up, they were both dead. One was torn in half. She tells D.L. that she's gone over that a thousand times in her head, and she can't think of any other explanation other then she was the one who did it. She says she left in the middle of the night... D.L. tells her that can't be right, someone must he setting her up, framing her, it must be the same one who's framing him, making sure he can't clear his name. They'll have to do it on their own. Micah comes in looking for his backpack. Niki finds it, then loses a few minutes. She finds Micah in his room packing. He tells her that she brought the backpack in a few minutes ago and told him to pack because they're going to grandma's. Niki is confused and goes to her bedroom.

D.L. comes in and talks with Micah. He says that his mother has had a rough day. Micah asks him if he's getting back together with Niki. D.L. says that it's hard when someone thinks their partner did something that they didn't do. He doesn't know if he and Niki are getting back together. Micah told him that Niki has a secret like his, too.

In her bedroom, which has large mirrors, Niki is losing her grip. She collapses, back to a mirror and asks what's happening to her. Her alternate personality, Jessica, tells her she needs to pull herself together. Niki says this can't be real, it must be a tumor or a hallucination. Jessica says that she's as real as Niki is, and they're not crazy. Jessica asks what D.L. will do when he finds out what they've done. Jessica was the one who stepped into D.L.'s crew, framed him, killed his crew, stole the two million, killed the thugs in the garage and the "bitches" at the poker game. They've been very busy. Niki is shocked and confused. The people at the poker game were torn apart. Niki asks what the people at the poker game did to her. Jessica says that leaving witnesses would be sloppy. She just took care of Niki, like she always does. Alternate Niki says that this is what they're going to do now: Niki is going to take the money, take Micah and get as far away as possible. D.L. won't understand, he'll think she's crazy. D.L. will figure out who framed him, and once that happens, he'll take Micah away from her, and probably kill her before he leaves. If Niki doesn't do what her alternate says, D.L. will take Micah away from her forever. Niki asks Jessica where the money is.

• Montecito parking structure, Las Vegas. Hiro is still upset with himself that he failed to save the poker players. Ando tells him that if he tried he'd have been killed (and he's probably right given the delay of some seconds that Hiro needs to activate his powers.) Hiro isn't swayed and still believes he failed. Maybe he isn't the hero he thinks he is. Ando tells him that heroes need to take a journey, they can't start at the end of the path. Hiro wonders if he's on the wrong path. Ando tells him that since he can bend time and space, maybe he can go back and fix things, like a do-over.

• Bennet house, Odessa. The Horn-Rimmed Glasses Man escorts Claire's biological parents to their car. It's clear from the conversation that are not Claire's biological parents. They either worked for the Horn-Rimmed Glasses man, or were doing him a favor.

Inside, Claire and Sandra talk. Claire tells her mother that she was hoping her biological parents would help her figure out who she was, but they don't know any better then she does. Sandra tells her that she has to figure that out by herself. Sandra told Claire that she was surprised how easily Mr. Bennet tracked down the biological parents. When Claire was a baby, they thought she was sick with some genetic illness and they couldn't track them down then. Claire asked what was wrong with her, all Sandra said was that Claire had a cough.

• Niki Sanders house Niki retrieves the stolen two million dollars from her attic, but is spotted by D.L. when she drops down. "All this time?" he asked incredulously. Niki tried to explain that there was this other person that she can't control, but D.L. didn't want to hear it. He said he as taking the money, and Micah. Jessica took control and told him that he's not taking anyone. She slammed him with the suitcase, hurling him across the room. Micah heard the noise and came in. He didn't see D.L.. Jessica told him that they're just moving furniture, shooed him out and closed the door. When she turned back, D.L was gone. He phased out of a wall and grabbed her from behind. She took his wrist and slammed him into the bed. They grappled. Micah came in again and distracted her. D.L. had one hand choking her and his other hand was phased inside her. She started falling unconscious and D.L. dropped her to the floor. Micah rushed toward her, but D.L. scooped him up and left with Micah as Jessica passed out.

• Isaac Mendez's Apartment, New York. Isaac stares at a painting of Niki passed out, and rubs away some paint, revealing Jessica's tattoo. There's a knock at his door. It's Eden McCain. She asks if she can come in.

• Mohinder Suresh: "Evolution is an imperfect and often violent process. Morality loses its meaning. The question of good and evil reduced one simple choice: survive or perish."

Arc Advancement

• Hiro successfully makes contact with Peter Petrelli and starts to head for New York.

Characters

• Eden McCain works for the Horn-Rimmed Glasses Man.

Trivia

The Show

• Missing in Action: Matt, Simone, and Nathan didn't appear in this episode.

Quotes

• Peter: Save the Cheerleader, save the world.

• Peter: What cheerleader, where is she?
  Isaac: I don't know.
  Peter: You painted her.
  Isaac: So did you.

• Isaac: Tell him about the guy from the future.
  Peter: This is the guy from the future.

• Hiro: I had a sword?

• Ando: It is the way we roll!

• D.L.: You ever seen anything like that?
  Niki: I have...in the garage.

• Niki: I've been over it a thousand times in my head. I didn't see anything, anyone. I was the only person there. It was me!

• Eden: Also, there may have been an encounter with someone who can stop time.
  Horn-Rimmed Glasses Man: Really? That's cool.

• Jessica: We framed D.L., killed his crew, stole the two million, killed the thugs from the garage and those little bitches at the poker game. We've been very busy.
  Niki: But they were torn apart!
  Jessica: Yeah well, what can I say?
  Niki: But they didn't do anything to you!
  Jessica: Leaving witnesses would be sloppy.

• Ando: Every hero is on a journey to find his place in the world. But it's a journey. You can't start at the end, otherwise they can't make a movie about it later.