Alan K. Henderson's Weblog

(Episode: Upon This Rock. Spoilers ahead.)

Earlier this season Emma received the gift of a cello from an unknown source. The mysterious donor pays a visit - Samuel. He tells her that her power can attract people to her when she plays music, including a specific person she concentrates on. They go to Central Park and he shows a photo to her. The man in the photo shows up during her playing - an emotionally disturbed man living in the park. He has an ability to make new plant life generate or existing plant life to regenerate; during her playing he leans against a winter-denuded tree and its leaves start growing back.

Claire spots a Primatech box in Samuel's trailer. Eli thwarts her first attempt to snoop when Samuel's away. Later she makes a run for the hall of mirrors. Eli follows, with his illusory replicants on guard. Inside there's one of him and a bunch of Claires; Eli lunges for one of the images, and is knocked unconscious by the Claire holding a stool.

In the trailer she finds her dad's files and a map of a valley. She is interrupted by Doyle, who doesn't want her to ruin what seems to be the first place that ever felt like a home. He eventually lets her go from his telekinetic hold, and tells her to talk to Lydia. She tells Claire that the carnival was a good place until Samuel took over, that he needs to be stopped.

She tells about Joseph's murder. Claire confronts Samuel with this information, and about the valley. Samuel says he killed out of rage, and deeply regrets the incident. He shows her the valley in the map, a barren place. His recruit from Central Park is present. Samuel uses his ability to tap into a water source, and the recruit makes grass, trees and flowers grow in the immediate area.

In the episode are references to a lost (perhaps unrequited?) love of Samuel's, someone named Vanessa.

Hiro appears in present-day Tokyo. He witnesses an attempted purse-snatching and drive off the perp with a food vender's cleaver. Cops take him in, find his business card and reach Ando. Hiro is speaking gibberish, with various comic book, sci-fi and Sherlock Holmes references. Hiro tells the cops he has a tumor and it seems to be getting worse.

(That may be a partial explanation; at least some of the scrambling must have resulted from the "mind meld" with that memory manipulator guy Damien at the carnival.)

At the Yamagato offices, Keiko wants to call a neurologist, but Ando has a hunch that Hiro's brain is only partly scrambled, that he's trying to communicate something specific. Hiro mentions a "Danger room" - which is his personal nickname for his comic book collection.

The clues involve one of the past wrongs that Hiro has made it his mission to right - a sanitarium located on an Arkham Street somewhere in Florida...

Nathan is now officially dead; his remains are found in a small crashed plane that he was allegedly piloting. No doubt Angela set this up.

Will Claire be told the real story? Who will run for Nathan's open Senate seat? Is there a yet-disclosed reason that desolate valley so special to Samuel? Stay tuned

Two episodes aired Monday. I will get to the other later this week.

Labels: Heroes, Television