I think we need someone with car-dropping powers to come in and drop a car on Claire’s new little boyfriend.

So in that painting… Claire’s gonna be a cheerleader again? Because the girl is in a ruffled skirt.

HRG and the Crazy Lady want to talk to Claire about boys. They want to make sure her new boyfriend is someone they can trust. She says that there is no boy.

Molly has another nightmare. The nightmares are getting worse — twice a night now. Parkman tries to listen in to the nightmares and is getting thrown back. Parkman and Mohindar act like a married couple.

In D.C., Osama Petrelli has shown up at his boys’ school to say hi to the kids. The teacher comes up and says Osama’s not allowed to be there. And the boys don’t like the new beard. Who would?

Someone in my comments last week (I think it was here on SRM!) noted that the car the Black Oil Twins are being carted to America in is the same kind as Claire’s stolen car and this isn’t just a coincidence. It’s definitely true, too, because Maya asks the American driving them through Mexico if he’s from California because the car has Cali plates. American boy says he’s from Jersey and just picked the car up in California. Dun dun dunnnn. (That’s where Claire lives.) They stop suddenly because there is a body in the middle of the road. It’s Sylar. Black Oil Twins are now marginally interesting. Sylar whispers to them, “Rosebud.”

Chapter Four: “The Kindness of Strangers.”

Micah awakes in New Orleans after some kid calls him a foo’ and pours water on his head. The grama doesn’t have $65 to loan the grandson, who wants the money for PPV wrestling. (I bet Micah will steal it for him.) The older sister is applying for a regional manager position at the restaurant where she works. And… there’s your political issue. Katrina! They’ve been inserting some political talking point into every episode this season, it seems. It’s fine now, because they’re just mentioning things off-hand. If it turns into the Talking Points Lecture Show like Boston Legal did, I’m out. But they’re not beating us over the head with anything… yet. Uhura is watching someone carve tomatoes into flowers on TV.

In the hospital, Mrs. Petrelli is being questioned. She tells the police she killed Nakamura. I think she didn’t. I think it’s one of her sons. They’re making Nathan the obvious one, so I’m more inclined to think it’s Peter. He could be faking his amnesia, could have chained himself to the shipping container, could be warping back and forth to kill the nine. Or he could be programmed that way somehow. Mrs. Petrelli confesses everything, and Parkman is there getting inside her head. He tells her the wounds she sustained when she was in the questioning room were self-inflicted and asks why she tried to kill herself. She tells him in her head to write down the confession and let it go. Because if they keep digging they’ll find out about all of the mutants and their abilities.

At school, Claire is approached by a cheerleader who wants her to join the squad. She says no, cheerleader says Claire’s a hero to half the squad, and they really want her to sign up. She says she’ll think about it. Who said way up at the beginning of this post that Claire would be a cheerleader again? Who? Me. Because I’m awesome.

Creepy West shows up and tells Claire that yesterday was so totally awesome. She says, no, I can’t see you anymore. He says he’ll let her break up with him tomorrow but not today. Ok, stalker boy. Step back, or Claire’s daddy will torture you again! Creepy wants Claire to go out with him tonight, and he’s like, “Claire, I can fly! And you can regenerate! We belong together.” Yeah, her crazy beard dad can fly, too. And so can her totally awesome Uncle Pete. He asks Claire if she thinks aliens put the marks on him. I mean, I promise, it was the guy with the horn-rimmed glasses! “It’s my dad!” Well, glad we got that out of the way. Claire covers by saying her dad is really protective. This is true, Creepy West. Move along. She says she’ll go on the date, but just this once. He says she won’t regret it, which means that she will.

Nathan shows up shaven (thank goodness!) and yells at Parkman for questioning his mom in the hospital. Parkman takes him aside and says he knows she’s innocent. “How?” “The same way I know you can fly.” Parkman shares his little mind-reading secret. He also shows the photos and symbol to Nathan and tells Nathan he needs help. I don’t trust Nathan, though. Nathan wants five minutes alone with mama. Mama says that just because he shaved doesn’t mean he’s clean and sober. He needs to get into a program and get his family back. Mama Petrelli says she can’t bear to lose another son, so he can’t get himself killed. Parkman wheels her out in handcuffs. Frank thinks Mama P looked at the camera. “She can see us!” he says. She didn’t, and she can’t. Or can she?

Back in Mexico, Sylar is in the car with Black Oil Twins. He says he was robbed. They figure out they’re all going to New York to see Dr. Suresh (Mohindar’s dad). Sylar is very curious as to why Maya wants to see Dr. Suresh. She says she wants answers. Alejandro is upset that she’s sharing anything with Sylar. Sylar says, “I can take you to him, I know this man.” He doesn’t mention that he brutally murdered this man. What’s your name? “Gabriel Grey.” “Gabriel. Like the angel!” Yes, just like the angel except for the opposite of the angel. Gabe has a watch with a broken face. The driver is fairly quiet. Hrm.

Uhura’s granddaughter, Monica, is at the Steak & Shake (or wherever she works) talking about her regional manager dream with her coworker. Monica is going on about losing her home, her mother, everything. Unwittingly, she carves a tomato into a beautiful rose. She has no idea how. Her boss asks to speak with her. Her boss looks like Chuck’s boss. Same person? Anyway, he tells her she’s not qualified because of her current situation. He tells her she’s good at her job of making hamburgers and should just be happy she has a job unlike so many other people in that town. This storyline is going to wear on me fast.

Claire tells her family she has to go to the library for a research paper. She’s going to be doing research *on* the library. HRG asks menacingly if she needs a ride. She says she’ll walk. She leaves the house, and HRG follows. Around the corner, Claire is picked up and flown off by the boyfriend. HRG is like, “I don’t see them on the the street anywhere. They couldn’t possibly be in the air, since there’s no one on Earth who can fly, so I’m not going to look up.”

At Mama Petrelli’s apartment, Nathan and Parkman are looking for the photo. Nathan mentions that his dad didn’t much care for Nakamura. Oh yeah. I’ve been wondering if Papa Petrelli is really dead, and I don’t think he is. He could be the one who’s going after the nine. He thinks Mama Petrelli and Mr. Nakamura had a thing. Nathan knows that Linderman was in the photo and so was Charles Devaux (sp?). That’s Simone’s dad. But he died of natural causes. Parkman volunteers that his wife cheated on him and got pregnant with another man’s baby. Nathan finds the photo. Parkman knows one of the men in the picture — Parkman’s father. Midas is also in the picture — his name is Bob. So the nine are Linderman, Midas, Nakamura, Papa Petrelli (you can’t see his face), Mama Petrelli, Charles Devaux, Parkman’s father, a blonde lady, a brunette lady who looks very familiar, a black lady, and a mustachioed man. Except that makes eleven. Where did I get the nine from?

Ok, now they’re having a parade of Katrina pictures through Monica’s brain. She thinks maybe God is punishing her for being selfish because she wants to get out of New Orleans and make a new life. I’m over this storyline already. Probably because it’s been going on for over two years.

Claire and Creepy West are atop the Hollywood sign. He tells her she needs to trust him and jump off the sign. She finally agrees to jump, and he catches her. “You caught me… but I would have been fine.” “Claire. I know you can heal, but I don’t ever want to see you hurt.” Aww, that’s actually kinda sweet. He might grow on me. They kiss.

Micah gets the PPV match for the snotty little brother. Monica sees. She tells Micah she promised Aunt Niki she’d look after him. He hugs her, and he touches her back for a long time. He tells Monica he wishes he could fix her dreams for her. She zooms in on the TV and watches wrestling. I guess she’s gonna become a girl wrestler now.

Matt tells Molly and Mohindar that he has to find his father because he’s a criminal (who left him when he was thirteen), and Matt just needs to find him. He asks Molly if she can find him. She looks at the picture and throws it down, asking Parkman to not make her find his dad. Because “he’s the nightmare man.”

See, I like this show, because we actually get answers.

Nathan is looking at cute pictures of Peter when he was a little boy. He sees himself in the mirror, and he’s all burned up again. Nathan breaks the mirror.

Claire decides she’s gonna be a cheerleader so she can have a better excuse for being out with the boyfriend.

In Mexico, Derek (the American) sees the Black Oil Twins on the front of the newspaper. He tells Gabe that they have murderers riding in the car with them. Gabe tells him to go inside and call the police while he distracts the BOTs. Gabe picks up a brick after Derek walks off. He gets into the car and asks the BOTs if they’re the people from the paper. Maya says yes but they didn’t mean to. And Gabe says he knows what it’s like to be hunted for doing something you didn’t mean to do. They really need to go see Suresh. Gabe tells them Derek is inside calling the police, and Maya starts to freak. Her eyes go black, Gabe starts to gasp and asks what she’s doing to him. Alejandro grabs her hands and calms her down. So it’s not just when they’re separated, it’s just any time Maya starts acting like a girl. Gabe’s like, y’all have powers? The BOTs don’t know what they’ve got. Gabe drives away with them, because the police are on their way. He gives the camera an evil look before starting the car. He can see us! Derek is inside, dead. Death by bricking. There’s a cockroach crawling around in his blood already. What’s the deal with Gabe and the cockroaches? I know he lived in the sewers with them… Are they inside him? Does he control them? Is it just coincidence that they go where he goes?

At the Bennet house, HRG is waiting up for Claire. He asks how the library was and says she was with a boy. She says there is no boy and tells him she tried out for cheerleading and made the squad and the girls took her out to celebrate. She begs and says she just needs one thing that’s normal, and that cheerleading means so much to her. Please, dad, please. He says he’ll let her cheer if she promises him she won’t date… for now. She agrees.

In the trees outside, HRG sees the wind chime moving. The Haitian is there with a lead on the paintings. They’re going to Odessa (Ukraine, not Texas).

They put Molly to bed, and Parkman tells Mohindar that Molly still has to find his dad, because he could be dead already, could be next, or could be the killer. They fight like a married couple again (a married couple that says mean things to each other), and Molly comes out and says she’ll do it.

Back in the smashed up city of New Orleans, Monica is closing up the front door of the restaurant while her boss closes up the back. A man comes up and says he wants something to eat, and when Monica doesn’t let him in, he pulls a gun on her and makes her sit down while she goes to the register. She gets up and uses one of the wrestling moves from TV on him. He runs away. But wrestling’s fake! Shouldn’t she just have fake-kicked-his-butt? Monica tells her boss she learned it on TV. Well then, she should watch CSI: Horatio and get herself a pair of sunglasses and perform some experiments of her own. While scuba diving in the Everglades.

Basically, Monica has the power that all kids and most adults think they have: she can do anything she sees on TV.

Molly starts looking for The Nightmare Man. She finds him in Philadelphia. Finds his building. Finds he’s on the third floor in apartment 9. Peter and Mohindar tell her to get out of there before he sees her. His apartment door opens, and she sees a lot of pieces of paper. Various drawings. Including Kensei’s symbol. Molly starts screaming, “Leave me alone,” over and over. She looks into Matt’s eyes and says his name. Then she passes out. She’s breathing but in shock. Matt goes into her head and hears her screaming. “Matt! Help me! Help me!” Poor Molly.

To be continued… This is gonna be a twenty-two part episode, I think.

Next week, all kindsa crazy stuff happens.