Claire explores her ability by cutting off her pinky toe and seeing what happens. West finds out. Peter gets beaten up, discovers he has lots of cool abilities, then agrees to work for the Irish gangsters in exchange for information about his identity. The Haitian comes down with the supervirus and returns to Haiti. Mohinder cures him and sends him to Noah. Maya and Alejandro reach Guatemala. A family friend gets the bleeding eyes, but Alejandro saves her. And Hiro masquerades as Kensei, makes Yaeko think that Kensei’s awesome, and watches Kensei die and come back to life.

Sylar paints a showdown with Peter, then heads over to Superhero Square to make it happen. Hiro teleports Ando back to Japan, but returns in time to stab Sylar. Claire ends up in the clutches of Nathan and the Ice Queen, but dives out a window and joins everyone else at Superhero Square. Peter has a dream of Papa Deveaux, and learns that all he needs in order to save the day is love. His smackdown with Sylar ends up turning him into the bomb, but Nathan shows up in time to fly Peter into the upper atmosphere, where they both explode. Or not. We’ll find out next season.

Matt and Daddy Bennet journey through Company Central. They meet Molly and Mohinder, and Thompson meets a bullet. Peter stops himself from going nuclear and plans to skip town with RadioTed and Claire. Their attempt is thwarted when Sylar helps AudreyClea to track down RadioTed. Sylar then intervenes and gives RadioTed a good ol’ scalping. Hiro visits the Samurai Workshop and finds Papa Sulu there. Strenuous training ensues, and Papa Sulu totally kicks Hiro’s butt for most of it. Micah rigs Nathan’s victory in the election. Before Linderman can exploit the kid further or put any more bullets through D.L., D.L. phases a fist through the guy’s brain. I’d add how brilliant this episode is, but that sort of goes without saying.

Sylar realizes he’s the bomb, feels guilty, and decides to visit his mom. Hiro follows Sylar to his home and plans to kill him. He fails. Peter doesn’t want to leave New York, and he doesn’t want Claire to either. They end up in Kirby Plaza, which, coincidentally, is where everyone else is, and where the SuperTrio’s road trip concludes. In other news: Jessica and D.L. are part of Linderman’s superhero breeding program, Nathan’s just about ready to blow up New York, and Mohinder gives Molly Walker a blood transfusion to cure her illness.

Linderman reveals the Big Plan to Nathan. It involves a nuclear explosion in New York which kills .07% of the population. Apparently, this unites the world with a sense of solidarity. Nathan thinks it’s nuts, as do we, but then begins to reconsider. This is after Peter takes a chunk of glass to the head and needs to be brought back to life by his darling niece. In other news, Daddy Bennet escapes from Primatech with Matt and RadioTed, Mohinder teams up with Thompson to stop Sylar, and Hiro meets himself. And Isaac gets the scalp treatment, which is all kinds of tragic.

Mohinder figures out that Zane is Sylar. He proceeds to torture Sylar. Then Sylar tortures Mohinder. Then Peter loses the emo-bangs and the world weeps. Meanwhile, FBI agents approach Nathan to discuss Linderman’s downfall. It goes awry. Jessica kills the agents and Linderman entices Nathan with ideas of presidency. Hiro gets his sword. His powers immediately return. And Claire ditches the Haitian to go find Peter. She finds Grandma Petrelli, who reveals that she’s the one giving instructions to the Haitian. Despite a ton of plotholes and inconsistencies, it’s an amazing hour for story twists and character arcs.

Through flashbacks, we learn how Bennet joined The Company, how he and Claude were partners, how he turned Claude in, and how he adopted Claire. Back in the present, Matt and RadioTed take the Bennets hostage, Claire gets shot, and Eric Roberts shows up to help RadioTed go nuclear. Claire sedates RadioTed and saves the day, but Boss Roberts is peeved that no one told him about Claire’s insta-heal power. To protect Claire, Bennet orders the Haitian to wipe his memory, take Claire and run. A 100-word summary can’t begin to convey how brilliant this episode is.

Peter learns to control his powers. Daddy Bennet starts firing tasers and Claude bails. Peter blames Isaac for messing everything up and Isaac accidentally puts a couple of bullets in Simone. In other news: Claire tells Daddy Bennet what a bad man he is, Mohinder and Sylar meet a mechanic with super-hearing, Hiro tells Ando to go back to Japan, and RadioTed and Matt team up to take down Daddy Bennet. I’d use words like ‘phenomenal’ and ‘jaw-dropping’, but it’s pretty much a given that this one’s a masterpiece.

Matt gets a security job. This leads to a shoot-out with Jessica and Matt pocketing $2m in diamonds. Claire wants to meet her bio-dad, but Meredith’s not so keen after blackmailing $100k out of him. Mohinder and Sylar track down a guy who liquefies solid objects. Sylar gets there first, scalps him and takes his place. And Ando helps a showgirl retrieve a bag. The Matt and Niki stories speed up, Mohinder becomes central to the plot, and Claire’s search for her bio-parents comes to a tragic resolution. The disappointment is Hiro’s thread, which comes to a total standstill.

Claude begins training Peter. This involves cynicism, theft and a thirty-storey fall off a rooftop. Isaac’s working for Daddy Bennet, who’s busy trying to stop Sylar from killing his family. Claire’s in no immediate danger, though, because she’s in Kermit meeting her firestarter bio-mom. Claire doesn’t know, but her bio-dad turns out to be Nathan. In other news: Papa Sulu lets Hiro return to his mission, and Jessica walks out of prison. Despite one or two flaws, this is an intensely dramatic and fast-paced hour, and as close to perfect as the show gets.