Hiro’s trip back in time six months ago served as a great storyline excuse to get some backstory on all our favorite characters with mixed results. It seems like a great idea, but in theory it ends up being filler most of the time. Some because honestly, we don’t really care about what happened to them before their powers, but it’s partially made up for by finding out about Sylar’s origins.

Hiro’s tale at least is the most connected to the present storyline. He meets with Charlie in his attempt to save her life. Right away we get the picture snapped that goes on the wall for six months.

Wisely the first shot we go to is Gray and Son’s Clock Store, where we see Gabriel Gray is reassmebling gears in a watch which he is able to fix. Chandra Suresh walks into the shop and immediately Gabriel tells him his watch is broken. Chandra denies it is so, but Gabriel listens to it for a moment and tells him that the watch is running two seconds slow, expressing that he just has a knack for knowing how things work…what makes them tick. It’s a great clue to what exactly Sylar is doing when he is cutting people’s brains out.

Chandra stays behind and Gabriel realizes that’s not why he came. Chandra gives Gabriel his book and tells him to check it out.

Next we jump to some meaningless scenes. We see Eden had met with Parkman and stopped him from arresting her for stealing a car by telling him to go eat donuts. Eventually we get to see her becoming the employee of Bennet. Meh.

Even more meaningless is the prequel to Teenage Drama. Jackie and Claire get into a fight because Jackie is a shallow bitch. Yawn. The fight leads to Claire putting her hand through a glass door. Her mother helps clean the wound before taking her to the emergency room.

In a slightly more intriguing sequence we see Mr. Bennet’s phone rings. On the other end is Chandra who introduces himself and tells him he needs to speak with him regarding Claire.

Back at the Burnt Toast Diner, Hiro learns from Charlie that he teleported six months back instead of a day. After considering whether or not to try again, he realizes he might not get it right in time.

In an interesting twist, Niki’s storyline from six months ago is actually far more interesting than her normal storyline. We see that Niki’s father has a sordid past as well and he wants to get to know DL and his grandson.

Of course it only goes to show that the more interesting story in the present, that of Peter and Nathan is boring and run of the mill in the past. It’s somewhat interesting that Peter and Nathan’s father was involved with the mobster Linderman and somewhat intriguing to find out what happened to Nathan’s wife. But I just don’t care about everything else.

Chandra and Gabriel continue their investigation, that will involve some non-invasive tests on his mind. Gabriel, obsessed with the idea that he could be special agrees wholeheartedly to any test Suresh has.

In a humorous sequence back at the Burnt Toast, Hiro calls Ando for help. I never understood why people would do this. Do they think the person will understand? But Hiro doesn’t get Ando — he get’s Hiro…and hangs up.

Hiro gets a job as a busboy, giving him time to convince Charlie that he has powers and of his mission. He also realizes that Charlie’s power was beginning to emerge. She can remember anything that she reads. Hiro uses his powers in many ways as proof, but Charlie is thick headed. He finally buys Charlie a ticket to Japan if she’ll just go so she won’t be around. It is here that Charlie tells Hiro that she has a blood clot and that she’s living on borrowed time. This leads Hiro to believe that it’s fate that she died when she did and he can’t change the past.

In a surprise twist we learn that Jessica is a real person, in fact, it was Niki’s sister who died years ago. As Hal, her father tries to make up for lost time, he buys Micah a computer and promises to send the boy to private school. Unfortunately he shows his true colors moments later when he yells at him for taking it apart. He leaves insinuating that there’s more he has to apologize for even if Niki doesn’t remember it.

Back to Chandra and Gabriel where we find that testing is going not so well. Chandra can’t find anything special with Gabriel who gets upset. His obsessions begin to get the better of him and we see Sylar born. As he gets nearly violent screaming at Chandra, asking him if he’ll give up on all the special people. Chandra forces Gabriel to leave but not before Gabriel gets the contact information from one of the people on his list.

Bennet is the next at Suresh’s apartment, gladly listening to the theories. He asks specifically about what will happen to Claire, but Suresh doesn’t know. Suresh wants to test Claire, but Bennet doesn’t think it will be appropriate.

Jessica comes out to play and thrashes Hal, warning him never to come near Niki again. We discover that whatever happened to Jessica, Hal was involved and then turned his rage onto Niki.
When Hiro tries to kiss Charlie, he is teleported back to the present on a rooftop in Tokyo where his coworkers are exercising. Fearfully, Hiro tries to teleport back to Charlie but is unable to do so and we don’t know why.

Back at the clock store, we see Brian Davis, the name of the person that Gabriel had snatched from Suresh, walk in. Gabriel searches for an alias and looking down at a watch, he decides on Sylar. Brian shows Sylar his power which is telekinesis. Sylar quickly makes Brian his first victim…and the evil begins. Sylar’s character is well developed, but I do wish the whole episode had been Sylar As it is, it is a quick fall from the innocent watchmaker to man who eats brains because he wants to be special. I want to like it, and it is eventually believable that someone could be tempted by gaining these poweres, but it could have been better delivered if we were to see it develop in that fashion instead of forcing us to fill in the blanks.

He goes back to Suresh to prove how special he is. Suresh is suitable impressed and the two begin their journey towards discovering more people with powers…for obviously different reasons.

We end up where we began as the powerless Hiro takes the bus back to Ando where he has to admit that he couldn’t save Charlie.

In an episode that is this hit or miss, I would generally call it an average one, but I do think that the good was more good than the bad was bad.

B-

Previous - 1.09

Next - 1.11