Broken Frontier

Okay, so Season Two of Heroes was a bit disappointing. There was a lot of buildup and, because of the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, the season was not able to deliver the payoff most viewers were expecting. However, with “Volume 3: Villains,” show creator Tim Kring is holding nothing back. In Heroes' two-hour premiere event, journeys are set in motion, alliances are shattered and, probably most importantly, some very evil people are unleashed upon the world.

The first episode, “The Second Coming,” brings us four years into the future, as Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) is pointing a gun at her uncle, Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia). Apparently, the future isn’t all that nice for people with powers, and it’s all because Peter’s brother Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) revealed their existence in an infamous press conference. To set things right, Future Peter travels back in time to the present and shoots his brother in the chest. That’s right. The assassin at the end of last season was Peter from a possible future.

Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) becomes wise to the time-travelling assassination plot, but when he confronts Future Peter, he’s transported to the middle of an African desert. As for Present-Day Peter, he’s locked away in the consciousness of a prisoner on Level 5 of the Primatech Paper factory (the Company), which houses some of the most dangerous criminals on the planet. But more on Level 5 later.

After taking two bullets in the chest, surely Nathan is dead, right? Not if Season One baddie Daniel Linderman (Malcolm McDowell) has any say in the matter. He uses his healing power to bring Nathan back to life, which the latter attributes to divine intervention. Supposedly touched by God, he’s changed his mind about going to the press with his abilities. “We could be angels,” he tells Future Peter. Unfortunately, as Peter’s mom Angela (Cristine Rose) tells him, he’s just made the future a whole lot worse for everyone. Oops.

Not that the present is all that much better, just ask Claire. Not long after hearing about the attempt on her father’s life, the power-stealing murderer Sylar (Zachary Quinto) walks right into her bedroom. If viewers recall, Sylar really, really wants Claire’s healing ability. Viewers may also recall that in order to steal someone’s ability, Sylar tends to slice their head open. After subduing Claire, Sylar removes the top of her skull, and extracts her ability from her brain. But he has no intention in killing her. “You can never die,” he tells her. “And now, I guess neither can I.” His next stop? Level 5, for an all-you-can-eat evil buffet. 

Back in Japan, time-stopping Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) is, well, bored. He’s inherited 51 percent of his father’s fortune and has realized that he gets fairly bored when he isn’t deciding the fate of the world. Things pick up for him when his deceased father’s attorney arrives with a DVD will, in which Hiro’s dad Kaito (George Takei) tells him that he must guard a family secret locked away in a safe.

Much to his best friend Ando’s (James Kyson Lee) chagrin, Hiro opens the safe and finds a piece of paper. Written on it is half of a molecular formula which, apparently, can never fall into the wrong hands. It’s stolen mere seconds later by a “speedster” named Daphne (Brea Grant), who is using her superhuman speed to become the world’s best thief. Hiro has found himself a nemesis! Rather than chase her down, Hiro travels to the future to see what kind of lasting effect the theft will have. In the future, Hiro sees a super-powered Ando betraying and murdering him as the city starts blowing up. He quickly travels back to the present, and doesn’t seem to trust his best friend quite as much as he used to.

Remember when Niki (Ali Larter) was blown up in that massive building explosion at the end of last season? Well, she’s back. Meet Tracy Strauss, adviser to Governor Malden (Bruce Boxleitner) who, after seeing Nathan talk about his miraculous resurrection on the news, wants to make him a senator. Viewers will remember that Niki/Jessica and Nathan have a bit of a history between them (wink, wink). Could there be something insidious going on?

Introduced last season, Maya (Dania Ramirez) is now shacking up with Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy), who is trying to cure Maya of her destructive power. In the process, Mohinder discovers that Maya’s power—along with everyone else’s— is triggered by adrenaline. He also concocts a serum that allows him to actually give people powers. He injects himself with it and, while being assaulted by some thugs, realizes that all of his senses are heightened including his strength. A new hero is born!

In Chapter Two, “The Butterfly Effect,” Claire is still reeling after her encounter with Sylar and can no longer feel pain; one of the only things that made her feel human. She goes back to her old Season One habit of filming her suicide attempts, this time standing in front of a moving train. She asks the camera, “If you can’t feel anything, do you still have a soul?” Future Peter swoops in to save her, and when she asks him to help her be able to defend herself from future attacks, he declines. He’s already screwed things up enough.

Hiro and Ando run into Daphne at her Paris hideout, where Hiro attempts to bargain with the speedy thief using her first-place high school track medal as leverage to get back his father’s piece of paper. He fails, giving up the medal, but not before affixing a tracking device to it. The chase is on! To Germany!

With his newfound abilities Mohinder is a new, more passionate man as sparks begin to fly between he and Maya. But his artificially-heightened senses have some unfortunate side effects as his body begins to mutate. Gross.

Sylar, now equipped with regenerative powers, assaults Level 5 and faces off against Claire’s adoptive father Noah (Jack Coleman), who is imprisoned there after the events of last season. In a skirmish, Elle (Kristen Bell) electrocutes Sylar but the damage is done. In the battle, the dangerous denizens of Level 5 have escaped. Among them is Jesse, the body in which Present-Day Peter is trapped. Elle’s father Bob (Stephen Toblowsky) is dead, ceding control of the Company to…that’s right…Angela Petrelli, who has something devious up her sleeve for sure. What was that she said about being Sylar’s mother?

Furthermore, what’s the deal with Niki/Jessica/Tracy? Will Matt Parkman ever make it out of the desert? Whatever happened to Micah (Noah Gray Cabey) and Monica (Dana Davis)?

Lots going on, right? Well, "Villains" is just getting started.