Heroes/One Giant Leap

One Giant Leap
Season 1, Episode 3
Airdate	October 9, 2006
Production Number	103
Written by	Jeph Loeb
Directed by	Greg Beeman
Stream
← 1x02 Don't Look Back	1x04 → Collision
Heroes — Season One

One Giant Leap is the third episode of the first season of Heroes.

Starring: Santiago Cabrera (Isaac Mendez), Tawny Cypress (Simone Deveaux), 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), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli)

Guest Starring: Clea DuVall (Agent Audrey Hanson), Nora Zehetner (Eden McCain), Cristine Rose (Angela Petrelli), Tina Lifford (Paulette Hawkins), Lisa Lackey (Janice Parkman), James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi), Eugene Byrd (Campaign Manager), Matt Lanter (Brody Mitchum), Danielle Savre (Jackie Wilcox), Thomas Dekker (Zach), Jimmy Jean-Louis ("The Haitian")

And: Jack Coleman (Noah Bennet)

Co-Starring: Adair Tishler (Molly), Ashlee Gillespie (Lori), Riki Lindhome (Car Rental Lady), Mark Nearing (State Trooper), Rick Scarry (Bartender), Matt Eyde (Uniformed Cop)

Plot Overview

Nathan uses his brother Peter's tumble off a skyscraper to his campaign's advantage. Hiro tries to convince a friend that it is their destiny to travel to America to save the world, and he succeeds. Claire finds herself desperately trying to have a social life after her relationship with the football quarterback takes a dark turn relating to her powers. Niki follows a mysterious voice to the middle of a desert, while Matt and Suresh separately hunt for Sylar.

• Mohinder Suresh Voice-over: "When evolution selects its agents it does so at a cost. It makes demands in exchange for singularity and you may be asked to do something against your very nature. Suddenly the change in your life that should've been wonderful comes as a betrayal. It may seem cruel, but the goal is nothing short of self-preservation... survival."

• Unknown Location, Nevada Desert. Niki follows the map to a road dead-ending in the desert. There's a shiny shovel sticking in the sand waiting for her. She starts digging, but finds a body just under the surface. She recognizes a ring on the body and takes it befor reburying the body. She starts digging graves to hold the other bodies in her trunk.

• Union Wells High, Odessa, Texas. Claire Bennet tells Mr. Bennet that she'll be out late with friends. Mr. Bennet asks if she means the quarterback. Claire says yes. He tells her to be careful, and to not say out too late. Jackie tells Claire that she's going to use her rescue of the man from the train to run for class president.

• An office, Tokyo, Japan. Ando Masahashi is watching Niki strip on her website when Hiro Nakamura comes up. He hasn't shown up for two days. Hiro shows Ando the 9th wonders comic featuring himself, and tells him that he teleported to New York in the future. Ando asks Hiro of that's what he's been wasting his time doing, making a comic book? Hiro tells Ando that he can prove it, but they have to leave right away. Reluctantly, Ando goes with Hiro.

• New York. Peter Petrelli is attempting to fly again, this time starting from 6 feet off the ground. He falls onto his face. He goes to see his brother Nathan. He tells Nathan that he tried to fly, but couldn't, and show him a book by Chandra Suresh that talks about the potential for extraordinary abilities to manifest themselves. He wants to find Suresh, but Nathan just wants Peter to shut up and go away, and to keep Peter's leap from a 15 story building out of the press.

• Mohinder Suresh's apartment, Brooklyn, New York. Eden McCain uses a key Chandra gave her to enter Mohinder Suresh's apartment. When he sees her he relaxes and puts down the gun he took from the fake pest control man. He's frustrated because Chandra's algorithm to track gene migration seems to be a bunch of gibberish. He tells her about a man with glasses that followed him from his father's apartment in Madras to New York. The map he took pictures of in Chandra's Madras apartment is useless unless he can find someone who has superhuman abilities. Angrily he tosses Chandra's laptop across the room. A secret compartment in it pops open. Inside is a small notebook filled with notes and DNA samples. There is a key attached opposite a page with the name Sylar and an address in Queens, New York City.

• FBI Office, Los Angeles. Matt Parkman is being interrogated by FBI Agent Audrey Hanson. He tells her that he thinks the girl he found was talking in his head, like he could read her thoughts. She tells him that if he really can do that, why doesn't he read her thoughts? He concentrates and hears her think that no one believes in her. She's convinced, and offers Matt a chance to work with the FBI.

• Union Wells High. Zach is worried about the missing tape showing Claire's ability. Claire tells him that if it turns up, claim he just did some special effects wizardry. Claire tells Zach that she just wants to be normal. If news of her ability got out she's afraid that she would be labeled a freak or used as a guinea pig, probably both.

• Isaac Mendez's studio, Lower Manhattan. Simone wants to sell some of Isaac's paintings and get him straight. He asks her how he's supposed to paint the future without drugs. He says that all the paintings he's done lately have come true, and that might include the nuclear fireball consuming New York that he painted on his floor. He tells Simone that he has to stop it. He gives her an ultimatum of his own: If she doesn't believe in him, she can leave. Simone dumps Isaac. Isaac gets a phone call from Hiro Nakamura, but he doesn't understand Japanese so he tells Hiro that he must have a wrong number and hangs up.

• Tokyo Hiro and Ando are on a street somewhere in Tokyo. Hiro tells Ando that he has to save a schoolgirl near here from being hit by a truck. He's identified the location from the comic book. a large group of schoolgirls approaches. Hiro tells Ando to look for one with a red bow in her hair. Hiro spots the girl and the truck and tells Ando to stop the truck. Ando tries to flag the truck down, but it swerves to avoid him and heads right for the girl. Hiro concentrates and goes into Bullet Time. He picks up the girl and carries her out of the truck's path before time resumes its normal pace. He puts the girl down and tells Ando that he did it excitedly. Ando is startled at Hiro's sudden appearance many meters from where he was previously, and finally believes him. He'll go with Hiro to America.

• Unknown Location, Nevada desert. Niki finishes burying the thugs. Micah Sanders wakes up in the back seat and asks his mother where they're going. She tells him they're going to see his grandmother. Niki and her mother-in-law Paulette don't particularly like each other. Niki shows Paulette the ring she got off the corpse in the desert and tells her that she got it off the body of a man she thinks D.L. murdered. Niki tells Paulette that she thinks D.L. did the robbery and killed his crew. Paulette tells Niki that she thinks D.L. was framed. If he really did commit the robbery, he would have taken Micah to go live with him on a tropical island.

• FBI Building, Los Angeles. Audrey wants Matt to talk to Molly and find out what she knows about the deaths of her parents. If Matt really can read minds, he can get the information even if she doesn't say a word. Matt asks who Sylar is. Audrey tells Matt that he's a serial killer who has left a trail of death across a dozen states. His Modus Operandi is to impale people with household objects, and there's no sign of physical contact with his victims. Not all the killings involve any mutilation of the head or neck, so many people don't connect them with the Sylar killings.

• Sylar's apartment, Queens, New York. Mohinder and Eden arrive at Sylar's apartment. He knocks, but there's no answer. The key from the notebook doesn't fit the lock, so he breaks in. Mohinder documents everything he sees. There is a copy of his father's book, and an open book on what appears to be brain surgery. Mohinder finds a secret passage behind a mirror. There is a map similar to his father's from Madras, but there are dozens more pins and strings. Eden recognizes a picture of Nathan Petrelli. There is a wall covered in messages saying "I have sinned" under a big "FORGIVE ME" in red paint.

• Basement of FBI Building, Los Angeles. Matt and Audrey emerge from the elevator and see Sylar (a white man in a dark baseball cap and nondescript clothing) trying to take her. They race down the hall, passing an FBI agent who has been impaled with a chair. Sylar runs off and Audrey chases him. Matt pauses to make sure Molly is all right. She's thinking "how did he find me?" Matt tells her that he doesn't know. Audrey aims at Sylar, but Sylar telekinetically shoves her back into a wall and forces her to aim her gun at her own head. Matt races in and shoots Sylar six times. He falls down. Matt checks on Audrey, but behind him Sylar gets up. Matt whirls around, but Sylar has escaped, apparently upward.

• Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Hiro and Ando are flying to Los Angeles. Ando says that if Hiro calls him in the future, shouldn't he be in Japan waiting for his call? Hiro tells Ando that they're going to change the future. Ando asks him if they have to fly coach. Hiro shows Ando the panel of them flying coach in the comic book.

• Mr. Deveaux's building, New York. Peter meets Simone in the lobby of her father's apartment building. He tells her that he's quitting. Simone doesn't want Peter to quit, he's taken great care of her father. Peter tells Simone that he feels destined for greater things.

• Near Odessa, Texas. There is a bonfire celebrating the football team's victory. Jackie is telling her story of rescuing the man from the burning train. The quarterback, Brody Mitchum starts flirting with Claire. He knows quite a bit about her. Claire asks if he's been spying on her. Brody kisses Claire and they go off alone. Lori Trammel anxiously watches them go.

• Parkman house. Matt arrives home. His wife Janice is angry at him for missing their marriage counseling session. He tries to talk to her, but hears her think that she just wants him to leave. He says "Fine, I will," and leaves.

• Near Odessa. Brody and Claire start to make out, but Brody gets a bit too forward and she tells him to cut it out. He doesn't. She tries to leave, but he pins her to the ground and tries to rape her. She kicks him and tries to run off, but he grabs her and she falls onto a log. A spike of wood pierces her skull. She seems dead.

• Near Las Vegas. Niki and Micah are driving. Niki tells Micah that she knows he loves his father, but when the police catch him, D.L. will go to jail. Micah tells her that he doesn't think he'll get caught. Niki asks Micah if he knows where D.L. is, but just then a policeman pulls them over. He works for Linderman and is going to take them to see him.

• Nathan Petrelli's Campaign Headquarters, Midtown Manhattan. Peter and Simone make a toast. Simone notices Peter's new confidence. Peter tells her that he's been in love with her since the first day he met her. Nathan Petrelli makes a speech. He says that he entered politics because of his father's death. His father was sick and no one helped him, they let him suffer in silence. He follows that by saying that Peter is sick and tried to kill himself, and he's saying this because no one should suffer alone. Furious, Peter leaves.

• Los Angeles International Airport. Hiro and Ando rent a car. The comic says that they're going to Las Vegas, but it ends with them leaving LAX. They're on their own from there on out.

• A bar, Los Angeles. Matt is having a drink. He listens to the thoughts of various people in the bar, but when he tries with a strange man with the helix symbol on his necklace, he gets nothing. Matt gets off the bar stool, and suddenly passes out.

• Sylar's apartment. Mohinder and Eden bring hte police to Sylar's apartment, but it has been completely cleaned out and is empty. The graffiti in the secret room has been wiped out as well.

• Outside Nathan Petrelli's Campaign Headquarters. Peter hits his brother, angry for humiliating him and lying about him in front of the entire city. Nathan doesn't mind, he knew he had that coming. Peter stalks off. He meets Simone and tells her that he didn't try and kill himself. Simone knows. They kiss in the rain.

• Isaac's Studio. Isaac is flipping through a sketchbook and sees a sketch of Simone and Peter kissing in the rain.

• Coroner's office, Odessa. The stick is removed from Claire's head. Shortly thereafter, she wakes up and discovers that she's in the middle of her own autopsy.

• Mohinder Suresh Voice-over: "This force, evolution, is not sentimental. Like the Earth itself, it knows only the hard facts of life's struggle with death. All you can do is hope and trust that when you've served its needs faithfully... there may still remain some glimmer... of the life you once knew."

Trivia

The Show

• The URL on the video of Niki that Ando is watching - www.lasvegasniki.com - redirects to 9th Wonders website.

Quotes

• Peter: To destiny. May we recognize it when we see it.
  Simone: To love. May we stay away from it when it's unhealthy for us.

• Claire: Holy sh—