Don't Look Back (Heroes)

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For other uses, see Don't Look Back (disambiguation).

Heroes episode
“Don't Look Back”
"Yatta!" Hiro Nakamura in Times Square, New York.
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 2
Writer(s)	Tim Kring
Director	Allan Arkush
Production no.
Original airdate	October 2, 2006
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Genesis"	"One Giant Leap"

"Don't Look Back" is the second episode of the NBC supernatural drama series Heroes. It was directed by Allan Arkush and written by Tim Kring.

1 Plot
2 Narration
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The episode begins with the narrator Mohinder Suresh speaking and Peter Petrelli standing on a building. Peter then jumps off determined that he could fly, forcing his brother Nathan to save him, proving that he is the one who can fly. However, Nathan loses his grip and Peter plummets down. Peter then wakes up at a hospital with his brother watching him. When asked about what happened, Nathan denied anything about being able to fly. Later, Peter's mother relates how his father suffered from depression, beginning with delusions of grandeur, and that he had committed suicide.

Rushing through the streets of New York, Hiro Nakamura happily greets people because he teleported himself to New York within a blink of an eye. He runs through the streets until he notices a comic book called 9th Wonders! depicting the previous events he had in Japan. After "buying" it (he hands the vendor a Japanese banknote and runs away before the vendor can do anything), he reads it and looks to the back to see that the writer and artist is Isaac Mendez.

Upon wakening to a voice message from her son Micah, Niki observes the destruction in her garage and flees the scene and taking the video camera. On her way to pick up her son, she stops at a traffic light and reviews the video footage. The video cuts out before the carnage begins, but she does hear screams of terror. Suddenly she notices that her car is sitting in a parking lot and her clothing has changed. She also realizes that she has blacked out for four hours. Picking up her son, she returns home to clean up the mess and discovers that the garage is spotless and discovers a set of keys. Seeing her reflection, her reflection motions behind her, pointing to a red convertible across the street. Entering the vehicle and testing the keys (they work), she checks the vehicle's registration, which is under her name. A note tells her to follow a map in the trunk. Upon opening the trunk, she discovers the mangled bodies of the two thugs.

In New York, Mohinder finds a man in his father's apartment. The man claims he is an exterminator, but Mohinder quickly realizes that the man was planting an eavesdropping device. The man pulls a gun. After a struggle that leads out into the apartment hallway, a girl picks up the gun, and the man flees. The girl introduces herself as a friend of Mohinder's father and enthusiastic about his theories on genetics; her name is Eden.

Hiro goes to the address listed on the comic book for Isaac Mendez. He knocks on the door, only to discover it is open. He steps in and looks around calling out Isaac's name. Glancing at a table in the room, he notices a comic book page on Isaac's drawing table, depicting future events. Looking up, he sees a trail of blood and becomes nervous. The blood leads to a gun, which he picks up to defend himself if someone was still in the house. A few steps later, he sees the corpse of Isaac on the floor with the top of his head sawed off and the brain nowhere in sight. Police squads then break in and arrest Hiro.

It is night now, and Niki follows the map to deserted stretch of land with the intention of burying the mob thugs while her son sleeps in the back of the car. Upon digging in with the shovel, she discovers that bodies are already under the ground, including one with a ring that she recognizes.

Mohinder and Eden discover a portable hard drive in his father's pet's cage. Mohinder discovers that the hard drive appears to have all the genetic research that his father had done on tracking those with special abilities.

Back in Texas, all the cheerleaders in Claire's high school are called together to be questioned on the daring rescue from the fire of the previous day. Although a police officer identifies Claire, Jackie (one of Claire's fellow cheerleaders and rival) falsely admits to the rescue, which diverts attention from Claire. Later, while at football practice, Claire learns from Zach, the classmate who videotaped her, that the videotape of her exploits is missing. Suddenly a football player accidentally tackles her, breaking her neck in the process. She quickly fixes her neck before anyone except Zack can notice, hops up, and appears unscratched.

In Los Angeles, California, police officer Matt Parkman is at the crime scene of an investigation. Frozen solid, the parents then had their brains removed by cutting a horizontal line through their skullcaps. One of the daughters was still missing. Matt "hears" a faint whisper coming from within the house. He slowly searches around, listening only to the whispers. He opens a hidden panel under a staircase, where the daughter hides. FBI agent Audrey Hanson questions him on how he knew that the girl was there and that the suspect's name is Sylar, given the limited number of people privy to the case. Hanson also brings up the fact that Parkman failed the detective exam numerous times and suggests that he may have had something to do with the kidnappings to make him look like more of a hero. When asked as to how Parkman knew the name "Sylar," he admits that he heard it from Hanson, although doesn't admit that he read her thoughts. Parkman is arrested for suspicion of the murders.

In Texas, Claire's father reveals to her that he has started the process of contacting Claire's biological parents via the orphanage. After a tender moment, Claire leaves happy at the knowledge her father considers her an adult. The camera pans back to her father revealing that he has the tape of her exploits.

Peter meets with Nathan on top of a building, where Peter threatens to jump off to prove that Nathan could fly. Nathan finally admits that he had flown, caught Peter, lost control and Peter fell but that Peter flew near the end of the fall. Peter accuses Nathan of telling him what he wanted to hear, until Nathan points to Peter's shoes; Peter is hovering 3 feet off the top of the building. Peter and Nathan embrace. The camera fades to the stick figure doodle that Peter drew while in the hospital, which depicts the same event.

Back at Isaac's apartment, the police question Hiro with the help of a translator. He had no passport, no baggage, no American money, and the only identification being a card identifying him as an honorary member of a Marvel Comics fan club, the Merry Marvel Marching Society. When asked how he got to America, he replied he "teleported" here, and he can control the space/time continuum. The officer doesn't believe him and says he hasn't seen him on Star Trek before, to which Hiro responds with a Vulcan salute. Hiro requests to make a phone call to his friend Ando Masahashi in Japan. A Japanese-American officer enters, Detective Furokawa (Tadao Tomomatsu) to translate for the first officer and asks Ando on the phone when the last time he saw his friend Hiro was. Ando replies he hasn't seen him in five weeks. Confused, Hiro looks at his watch, which shows the date as October 2. However, the officer takes out today's paper, dated November 8. The paper's headline shows that Nathan wins his congressional race "by a landslide". Outside there is a bright flash, followed by a powerful nuclear explosion. Concentrating very hard, he teleports and reverses time until he is on the subway, back in Japan, October 2.

[edit] Narration

At the beginning: We all imagine ourselves the agents of our destiny. Capable of determining our own fate. But have we truly any choice in when we rise... or when we fall... or does a force larger than ourselves bid us our direction? Is it evolution that takes us by our hand... does science point our way... or is it God who intervenes... keeping us safe?

At the end: For all his bluster, it is the sad province of Man that he cannot choose his triumph. He can only choose how he will stand when the call of destiny comes... hoping that he'll have the courage to answer.

[edit] Trivia

When Hiro buys the comic book, he pays with a 1000 yen note. This translates into approximately $8.48 American. As a typical 2006 newsstand price for comics is about $2.99, the vendor actually got more than his money's worth.
As Hiro is running away with the comic book, he can be heard shouting, "Otsuri iranai yo!", which translates to "Keep the change!", or literally, "I don't need the change."
The date on Hiro's watch, October 2, is the same date this episode first aired in most North American areas.