Heroes Reborn: The World Still Needs Saving

Warning: Spoiler Alert

The Cheerleader’s Gone But The World Still Needs Saving!

Tim Kring’s pulled off what many fans thought was impossible. Expectations heading into the premiere of the NBC Miniseries “Heroes Reborn,” were incredibly high for fans of the original series that got cancelled by the network five-years ago. At least in the eyes of this viewer the show succeeded in fulfilling those expectations, opening with a two-hour tale that helped to start to fill in the blanks of the events of the last five-years and introducing viewers to some new and charismatic characters.

Even though most of the cast we met in these first hours were new characters in the Heroes Universe, much of the story still revolves our old friend Noah Bennett, the man that became known as “HRG” in the original series. Bennett’s the first character we encounter and we watch the past play-out from his perspective, starting on a park bench in Odessa, Texas. Bennett’s eating an apple on the bench, when we hear the voicemail greeting of his daughter Claire Bennett, who informed the planet of the existence of “EVOS” in the final episode of the original series. We then hear the message Bennett left for his daughter.

“Hi, it’s your dad. It’s been several years since we talked, I don’t know if you’re still mad. I really don’t now anything, I just know I miss you. I’m sure there’s plenty of apologies to go around on both sides, but to be honest with you I don’t care who was right or wrong anymore.

So much has changed since I saw you last. I don’t know if these changes are good or bad, but I really think this has a chance to all work out. And knowing how important you’ve been in all this to so many people out there, it’s made me proud.

I’m just calling to tell you how excited I am that we might be seeing each other. When you look back at all the things you’ve done, the decisions you made, the last thing you want to feel is regret. I’ll see you soon Claire-Bear.”

While we hear Noah’s message we watch a festival being held at Primeatech Corporation. We see a flower arrangement and signs reading “EVOS and Humans United.” Odessa Unity Summit. The expo’s filled with an overflow crowd as we watch humans and  EVOS interacting, even though there’s a small group of protesters clutching Anti-EVOS signs. We watch shape-shifters, teleporters and a toddler who can fly, among the crowd along with humans Luke and Joanne Collins and their nine-year-old son Dennis. Bennett’s walking through the crowd looking for his daughter.

Suddenly the festive air turns deadly as the sky starts to darken because something’s blocking the sun, then an explosion occurs and fire engulfs the entire complex. Bennett somehow survives the explosion and wakes up to nothing but rubble surrounding him, his glasses near him but one of the lenses are cracked. He then screams out Claire’s name, which only he hears. We see a graphic reading Odessa, Texas June 13, one-year-ago. We hear snippets of commentators and world leaders talking about the tragedy, including the voice of President Obama. The dialogue becomes increasingly darker and ends with a man screaming kill them all.

We then witness a montage of vigilantes and some governments try to either kill or imprison EVOS over the next year. A man’s chased by two carloads of vigilantes in his underwear in Quebec. A man trying to escape from a detention camp in China’s dragging a large circular weight that’s chained to his right hand. We see three vehicles approach him and watch him cut off his hand and then he rockets into the air, fleeing his captors. A teenage boy and his mom attempt to go through a border-check at the U.S./Canadian border, when they see a young EVO woman get shot to death as she tries to run from the officers. The mother smashes the car behind them and turns their car in the other direction and speed-off, a collection of “9th Wonder Comics” slips on the backseat.

A graphic informs us that this is Chapter One: Awakening and that we’ve reached the present, which is June 13, one year later in Chicago. Luke Collins is in a car clutching a piece of paper which has the word Cockroach written on it. We watch about a dozen people approach a hall, an elderly man asks them each the password, Cockroach.

There’s a TV on broadcasting a memorial documentary entitled June 13, A Remembrance. The narrator blames EVO extremist leader Mohinder Suresh for the attack on Odessa, claiming Suresh took credit for the bombing. A middle-aged guy growls it’s a lie and shuts off the set. We realize the folks are all EVOS looking to band together and the turnouts far short of impressive. The teenager from the car’s in the room, but says he needs to leave when he receives a text from his mother. He drops a punch-card for an ice-cream shop in Carbondale, Illinois called Moe’s, Luke picks it up and pockets it. The group say they have to strike back and stop being victims, they have the powers. The old guy says Suresh’s right, we are the future and Luke Collins laughs derisively.

Collins tells the folks that he attended the unity summit in Odessa with his wife and son to watch history take place and they were strong supporters of the movement. That’s until his son Dennis died in his arms and he realized how dangerous and unnatural these abilities are for humanity. At that point Luke’s wife bursts in chasing another EVO and the two of them shoot them all dead, then set the bodies aflame and leave the hall. This is the state of the planet in the Heroes Universe in 2015, people terrified of those different from themselves.

Bennett’s not wearing glasses and going by a fake name, he’s selling cars in Austin, Texas. We soon learn that “Ted’s” got a pretty young fiancée named Anne whose obsessed with their upcoming wedding. She says that if they have more than 75-guests they’ll need to rent a tent and Ted suggests they elope.

Next stop’s Linderman Junior High where former student Carlos Gutierrez, awarded the Medal Of Honor for saving three fellow soldiers in the Middle-East, addresses the current students. His nephew Jose’s among the students and he smiles broadly when he tells the kids that anybody can be a hero.

Heading to the Midwest we land at Pinehearst High School in Carbondale, Illinois and we see the teenage boy who left the meeting just before the shooting occurred. There’s a couple a few lockers down a jock named Brad and his girlfriend Emily who the teenager has a crush on and he stares at her when she walks away. Brad roughs the kid Tommy up and he falls to the ground, he starts to look like he’s going to use his ability but defers. Brad calls him a wuss and walks away.

A graphic tells us we’re in Tokyo and we watch as a young man looks for an apartment he’s got the address of. He finds the apartment and knocks on the door and finds it open, he enters the apartment and calls out hello. He hears music and opens a door to find a young woman making origami swans and he startles her when he gets her attention. He tells the young woman Miko, that he’s Ren Shimosowa and he’s a gamer and quite well-known. He says he’s been playing a game called “Ever-Now” and he’s reached the next to last level and he received her address. Miko repeats the name as if it has some significance to her but tells him to leave. As he’s walking out of the apartment he stops in amazement as he sees a Japanese screen that looks like the game. She tells him to get out and don’t come back.

Bennett looks out his apartment window and sees a car that he’s noticed parked at the auto dealership he works at. He tells Anne he’ll be right back and leaves the apartment and starts walking down the street. The guy from the car starts to follow him, but Noah grabs the guy and asks him what he wants. The man’s Quentin Frady, a character from the six-part online series Dark Matters, which revealed a lot of the new storyline. Frady tells Bennett he knows his background at Primeatech and wants to know the truth about June 13. However Bennett’s memories are fragmented, he believes due to the blast he survived.

Frady tells Noah that he believes the attack came from Renautus, the company that bought Primeatech. Bennett calls him a Truther and a conspiracy theorist and suddenly a cruiser arrives, as Anne alerted the police. Quentin’s taken into custody as Bennett heads back inside. However he can’t sleep that night and he removes a painting from a wall, revealing a section cutout from the wallboard. He reaches in and pulls out a bag that contains cash, weapons and an address book. He finds a card for a Lumiere Ophthalmology, it strikes a chord but he doesn’t remember it. He looks it up online and finds it relocated from Odessa to Dallas.

Carlos Gutierrez watches the city from his rooftop, then goes to a liquor store and buys a bottle. He sees a news report on TV about a local hero who saved a man. The hero’s known as El Vengador and wears a Mexican wrestling mask when doing his good deeds guarding the Latino community. They show a police sketch and Carlos recognizes the eyes and realizes it’s his brother Oscar, Jose’s father.

We see El Vengador standing on a rooftop watching two men chase a woman down an alley, he jumps from the roof onto the roof of a car and proceeds to kick both guys’ tails. Gunshots ring out and we watch as El Vengador slumps to the ground, he got set up and the woman shot him twice and aimed to fire again when he threw a blade into her neck killing her. The police arrive and El Vengador bleeding gets away before they arrive at the alley.

Later that evening Carlos goes to the garage that his brother operates and finds Oscar on the floor bleeding. Oscar tells Carlos that he needs him to be a hero for Jose as he’s dying. Carlos says he doesn’t know how to be a hero. He doesn’t even know how he saved the three soldiers in Afghanistan. Oscar dies and we realize that Carlos is the Peter Petrelli character of the new series.

Luke and Joanne Collins sit in Moe’s ice-cream shop trying to find Tommy, who’s interviewing in the office for a job as a scooper at the shop. His crush Emily’s conducting the interview and gives him the job after asking if he can scoop ice-cream. They head out to the floor so Tommy can get a uniform when he sees Luke at a table and walks over to find out how he survived the fire in Chicago. Tommy catches on that Luke set the fire once Joanne comes out of the restroom holding a gun, they take him out back but Emily follows them.

Joanne aims to fire at Emily when Tommy touches her and she vanishes, he then touches Luke and he disappears as well. He suddenly realizes he’s revealed he’s an EVO to Emily and runs home. She follows him in her car and tells him he saved her life and his secret’s safe with her.

Bennett goes to Lumiere Ophthalmology and asks the receptionist if he looks familiar and she replies he doesn’t. He then asks her to look him up by name and she says no records exist. He says he really thinks he’s been there before and says he has a card that reads See More Clearly written on the back of it. She says they don’t have a doctor named Seymour, then she pulls a gun on him. The Haitian comes out of the backroom and says he’s a friend. Rene tells Noah to wait for him at a bench across the street.

Ren Shimosowa returns to Miko’s apartment saying he’s got proof she’s Katana Girl a character from the game. He says that Katana Girl’s father got kidnapped and he hid a sword under the floorboards of his study, which Katana Girl finds and uses to rescue her father. She tells him to leave immediately and he leaves the book he brought about Katana Girl for her to read. She realizes the story’s about her and goes into her father’s study and opens the board on the floor, finding the sword and a note from her father. It reads the sword is key, save me. She unsheathes the sword and turns into a digital character and she’s in the game. She slaughter’s the soldiers trying to attack her, the last one saying you’ll never find him before he dies.

Rene comes out to the bench and hands Noah an envelope, saying the last time he saw them Bennett left him these, it’s Noah’s glasses. He puts them on and says they make a world of difference and Rene stands behind him and starts strangling HRG with a wire cord. Bennett fights back and the two wrestle to the ground and Bennett grabs his pistol. They struggle over the gun and there’s a shot and blood spurts from The Haitian’s chest.

Noah asks Rene why he tried to kill him and he replies Bennett told him to, he had the perfect plan so he’d never remember. Noah realizes The Haitian removed his memories and asks what he can’t remember. Rene says it’s coming and dies, ending the first hour.

The second hour begins with a voiceover provided by Mohinder Suresh, asking why people fear the unknown and the strange. We then see Malina, the first character we glimpsed from the new series in an ad that aired on the Super Bowl. She controls the Northern Lights, as she’s dressed in a fur parka and says it’s happening too quickly and she doesn’t know long she can control it.

Back at Pinehearst High, Tommy tells Emily that EVOS are the modern equivalent to the witches in Salem, everybody hates them and wants them dead. She asks if he can make a flower she’s holding disappear and he does, unaware that Brad’s watching them through a window. When Tommy comes out Brad calls him a freak and says he’s turning him in.

Luke and Joanne Collins are trapped in a room filled with kids toys and covered in space themed wallpaper. There’s no doors windows or even a light switch for the lights that illuminate the room. Joanne tries to shoot through the walls but the bullets do no damage.

Ren shows up at Miko’s to apologize but she’s not in the apartment, he goes into her father’s study and sees Ever-Now on the computer screen. He logs in and realizes that Miko’s now part of the game and he starts playing to help her win. She almost saves her father when a force pulls him away and then she’s knocked out by a soldier, she rematerializes in the study.

Noah bails out Quentin Frady and tells him about his visit with Rene. He tells Frady to get in his car they’re going for a ride.

Carlos Gutierrez and his nephew Jose are sitting in Oscar’s garage after the funeral. Jose says he’s glad lots of people paid their respects. The priest comes in and tells Jose that his mother wants him home, after he leaves he talks to Carlos about how good a man Oscar was and that he loved Carlos very much. He then said that Oscar did his best to watch out for his own.

Tommy tells Brad he could make him vanish but he doesn’t want to hurt anybody. Brad says that if Tommy does something for him, he’ll keep his secret and Tommy agrees. He then attempts to back out when he realizes Brad wants him to make his stepfather disappear as he beats him. Brad goes out to get batteries for his stepfather’s remote control while Tommy stays in the house. Tommy tries to work up the nerve to touch the stepfather but when the man asks what he’s doing Tommy runs out of the house.

A short while later an older man who wears a fedora and has kept tabs on Tommy knocks at the stepfather’s door. The man’s an EVO and can erase memories by giving someone a penny for their thoughts. The man tells him he’s got a business proposition for the stepfather and gives him a penny.

We meet some new characters in a bar, an attractive redhead and brunette and a guy whose likely an EVO as he keeps winning at craps. The guy tells the redhead she’s his good-luck charm and has her blow on his dice and he keeps winning. The proprietors start giving him the stink-eye and he suggest to the redhead that they cash out and leave.

Noah and Quentin drive to Primeatech and are met buy signs warning of toxic material on the site. Bennett says it’s just a scarecrow and drives through the gates. They enter the rubble and Noah finds the trapdoor hiding level five, they go down through the door and Bennett tells Quentin to look for any documents with the name Molly Walker on them. Molly’s the little girl who Matt Parkman adopted after her parents got murdered, she’s an EVO that can find anybody on the planet just by thinking about them.

Ren nurses Miko back to health and she tells him she has to reenter the game to save her father. He says it’s too dangerous but she says with his help she can save her father. He’s in a tower in the game and asks Ren to direct her from the PC when she goes back into the game.

The redhead and the craps player are back in his hotel room and she says she wants another drink. He tries to kiss her and we find out her real intentions, she knows he’s an EVO and threatens to turn him in unless he gives her all the money. He tries to fake his way out of it, but she throws a knife at him and he stops it with his ability. She tries taking the money and running, but he uses his ability to pin her high up on a wall and starts choking her. A couple walk into the hallway and the guy knocks out the crap-shooter with a metal trophy. Just then the brunette from the bar walks in and hustles the redhead out of the hotel.

Luke realizes that maybe the reason they can’t find an exit in the room’s due to the light’s being on. He shoots out the lights and the couple see a plate-glass window in front of them. Luke breaks the window by repeatedly whacking it and the couple escape.

Carlos find the name of the cop that set Oscar up and threatens to kill him if he doesn’t tell him his boss’ name. The cop tells him the name of a superior officer on the force. Carlos goes to see the priest at the church and asks him if he was trying to allude to the fact that Oscar was El Vengador. The priest tells Carlos that Oscar ran the underground railroad to give EVOS safe passage to Canada, he also reveals that he’s an EVO, able to turn himself into smoke and asks Carlos to help him transport a mother and her son.

Luke and Joanne find an elevator and it takes them to the fifth floor of Primeatech, with employees working under the ground. They shoot all the employees and security guards and then take the elevator to floor one and escape. Bennett hears the gunfire and tells Quentin to head to the car as he investigates.

The brunette and redhead are back at the bar, the redhead says her name’s Zoe and the brunette introduces herself as Taylor. Zoe said she needs to disappear and was counting on that money to make it happen. Taylor says she’s a trust-fund baby and can write her a check.

Noah takes the elevator to the fifth floor and finds all the dead employees, but one man clings to life. Bennett asks him where Molly Walker’s at and the man says that Renautus plans to use her to power their new project which will get introduced the following day. The man dies before he can tell Noah anything else.

Miko’s back in the game and enters the tower but Ren tells her it’s a trap. She puts the sheath back on the sword and rematerializes in the tower in reality and she takes out all the security guards with the sword.

Carlos helps the priest get the mother and son safe passage to Canada. She picks up a small object and it turns to gold, she gives it to Carlos as a token of her appreciation and tells him it’s 24-karat. Carlos looks at Oscar’s costume and mask when he’s alone and it looks like he’s ready to take up Oscar’s fight.

Luke and Joanne shot Quentin in the shoulder and stole Noah’s car. It’s filled with files on EVOS across the planet, Luke’s not sure that’s a good thing. He seems to be questioning their mission. Noah tells Quentin that he’ll get him patched up, but they need to find Molly Walker.

Zoe’s been drugged and wakes up handcuffed in the crap-player’s room, it turns out that Taylor’s actually Dahlia and she’s the crap-player’s girlfriend. The guy says he thinks he suffered a concussion from the blow he took from the man in the hall. He then gets on a cellphone and tells the person on the other end they’re holding Molly Walker prisoner, it’s Zoe.

The Story Continues Next Thursday Night at 8:00 pm on NBC.