Remember the classic episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “Cause and Effect?”

In it the Enterprise and her crew are caught in an endless causality loop, where it repeats the same day over and over. The day always ends with the ship being destroyed in an accident with the U.S.S. Bozeman, which had come from decades in the past via a time portal.

Long story short, the crew eventually realizes what was happening and finds a way to break out of the loop.

(It’s such a good episode.)

For the story in Heroes Reborn, “June 13^th, Part 2” was the closing of such a loop.

There’s no telling how many times the loop of Noah going back in time, attempting to stop the bombs, failing, sending Hiro/Angela/Nathan/Malina to 1999 and returning to 2015 had taken place without any significant changes.

But in the loop we witness, Noah gets it in his head to shoot Erica Kravid. Then he has Casper wipe 2014 Noah’s memory instead of The Haitian.

When it comes to Heroes Reborn and time travel we’re literally in uncharted territory.

In years past, time travel as a plot device was used either as a gateway to passive flashback episodes or to give a peek at a devastating future our ensemble cast had to prevent.

With the “June 13^th” two-parter, it’s been used to create a very active flashback episode that potentially makes the “present” of the show even worse.

I say potentially because we have no idea what all Noah changed on his visit to 2014. Anything’s on the table. Let your minds go crazy thinking about the possibilities!

OK, maybe not too crazy.

The only thing that slowed the natural flow of both episodes is what slowed a majority of the season prior: Carlos and Miko.

As I said last week, we don’t need to see how Miko came to exist. That was made clear to us in “Game Over” through dialogue. The only new angle added is Erica lied to Hachiro Otomo, something she does to everyone.

Even though Carlos’ storyline is finally connect to the main body of the story, albeit minimally through Farah, a character that’s more than likely dead in 2015, his presence in “Part 2” just reinforces how insignificant – or at least underwhelming – he’s been to this point.

But that wasn’t enough to take away from the thrill of seeing Hiro Nakamura, family man. Seeing a much older and wise Hiro in a father role with a confident Nathan ready to embrace his destiny and then having to forget it will have an even bigger impact once you rewatch the season from the beginning.

And that’s really the biggest accomplishment of “June 13^th,” time travel loops and all.

Grade: A-

Other judgements

• This might have been Jack Coleman’s best outing at Noah in a long time. His performance as 2014 Noah reacting to the news of Claire’s death is by far his most gut wrenching. His downplayed reaction when Molly says she’d rather die than give up Nathan and Malina hurts even more.
• When Hiro gives Nathan the first issue of 9^th Wonders from the first season, I about lost it.
• Good thing we’re getting Matt Parkman for another episode. It would have been awkward to get less than 3 minutes of screentime from him.
• The last two episodes make Angela’s absence in the first six episodes even more glaring. She ups the show’s game and gives it much needed gravitas.
• “I’m Hiro Nakamura. Former master of time and space.”
• Anyone else geek out over “11:53 to Odessa” being a direct reference to “Seven minute to Midnight” from season 1?