Review:

You know how the episodes on this show tend to vary from very good to extraordinary? This is one of the extraordinary ones.

The stock and trade merits are the same: characters are consistent, story and dialogue flow, performances are outstanding. What makes it stand out -- and in a way what makes it even better than "Company Man" -- is sheer creativity. Not in the concept, because if you're judging the episode on originality, it's not like the "what if?" concept is anything new. But if you're judging "Five Years Gone" on the way it takes that concept and uses it as a framework to develop its characters; if you're judging it on the strength of its ideas; if you're judging it on pure production value and the scale of the story it attempts to tell; any way you look at it, this is possibly the most ambitious and creative moment of the season.

I have minor complaints, but they're mostly relating to details left out and points which are yet to be resolved rather than blatant continuity problems or out-of-character behavior. More than any other episode, "Five Years Gone" underlines how carefully thought out the plot on this show has been. And when we get a milestone like this, I'm inclined to shelve the criticism, sit back, and just applaud.

The Previously... at the start might be the longest the show's ever done. I'm not sure. If not, it's still got to be the most wide-ranging. There are clips going as far back as "One Giant Leap" and "Collision," as well as the most scenes in "Parasite" and ".07%"

Sometimes I wonder what this show must look like to people who just tuned in. I mean, if you watched the recap, would you be any more clued in to what's going on than if you didn't? The montage of images is so cool that it would make you want to watch every episode, but the fact that the show needs to recap pretty much EVERYTHING that's happened since the premiere just goes to show how intricate the story is. And how screwed you are if you missed a moment of it.

Hiro and Ando visit the Future Apartment of Clairvoyance looking for Meester Eeezuk. They find a super-elaborate network of threads and pictures hanging across the room. And Future-Hiro. Future-Hiro tells Present-Hiro that he's "not supposed to be here." And the whole time-paradox headache begins, because if Hiro hadn't teleported to this exact moment and led guards to the apartment so that he'd be captured, the events which lead to Hiro learning that it's his destiny to stab Sylar with his sword would never have happened. Or something.

It's weird and confusing and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but more on this later.

Future-Hiro recounts what happened in his timeline and what was chronicled in last week's graphic novel: Sylar scalped Claire, took her insta-heal power and regenerated from the nuclear explosion he caused. Future-Hiro outlines his intention to "go back in time and change the future." It sounds plausible on paper, and it would be, if the character hadn't tried and failed to do the exact same thing in "Seven Minutes to Midnight." But then, if Peter hadn't met Future-Hiro on the subway in "Collision," and if Peter hadn't told Present-Hiro to come to New York in "Better Halves," does that mean Future-Hiro never met Charlie? He would never have had a reason to visit New York, and he wouldn't have driven through Midland and stopped at the Burnt Toast Diner.

But if that's true, how did Future-Hiro get to the point where he was plunging his sword through Sylar in the first place?

Oh, heck, this is what the entire review's going to be like, isn't it? One "what if?" after another.

Present-Hiro's "I scare me" line was comic without being silly. The dynamic between the two Hiro's throughout the episode was funny, and in an episode with such a grim tone, there are moments of quirky humor which offset the seriousness. Even Future-Hiro telling his Present-self that he's supposed to kill a guy gets a laugh because of the vigorous headshake it gets from Present-Hiro.

Part of me hopes the show will find a way around it, because Present-Hiro represents the iconic hero who won't take a life under any circumstances. But then we got to the part where Future-Hiro slit the throats of a bunch of Homeland Security guards, and suddenly it didn't seem like such a shocking step. But given that Present-Hiro is still an idealistic dork at this point in the story, you wonder how he'll bring himself to do it. I could see Peter or Nathan killing Sylar, maybe Claire if she knew it was the only way to save New York. But Hiro? Not the Present-self.

I'm also curious to see how Hiro gets close enough to Sylar to even TRY to stab him before watching his sword get TK'd into the upper atmosphere and his scalp sliced off.

The SWAT team busts into the apartment and grabs Present-Hiro. In a reversal of the chase in "Run!", you'll note that Ando doesn't stick around and offer to trade himself for his friend. We can infer that it's no longer how they roll.

Future-Matt shows up to glare and intimidate. You wonder how this can be the same guy who went for coffee ice-cream runs and curled up with his wife on the sofa to read her mind, but that's the genius of this episode. Grunberg gets to play this badass official who'll put a bullet through your head if you think the wrong thought. And judging from the performance and the guy's enthusiasm in the commentary to the episode, he loved every moment of it.

In the alley below, Future-Hiro explains to Ando that the world "became a very dark place" after the explosion, and that there's only one way to rescue Present-Hiro and change the past. It's in Vegas, baby. And mercifully, it involves no [PRODUCT PLACEMENT] Nissan Versa road trips.

Future-Hiro and Ando visit a strip club in Vegas. "This is where we're going to find Peter Petrelli?" asks Ando. From his eager expression, it's a given that he's thinking the same thing a million Milo fans are thinking right now: Peter in his underwear, writhing on a pole.

I'll bet you anything Ventimiglia tried it when he was on the set. He's totally the kind of joker who'd do that so that his fans have another reason to look forward to the DVD outtakes.

Future-"Jessica" turns out to be Future-Niki-without-"Jessica," which is kind of interesting but never explored. Future-Peter refers to D.L. being "gone," and later admits to Niki that he killed Micah when he set off the explosion. The intriguing part is whether we can attribute Niki's alternate personality and "fractured soul" to an instinctive need to protect Micah, and whether Micah's death is what leads to Jessica's death.

Which raises, and in turn answers, the question about where the "Jessica" personality came from and how Niki will either eliminate or gain control over her.

Not that this would have been the most compelling detail in the episode. I was just hoping there'd be something more here, mostly because I figured the show would use this opportunity to finally give Niki a ray of hope; that it would drop a hint about what lies ahead in the way of character arcs and story threads.

Based on what we see here, Niki's basically going to turn into another Simone. A superfluous character with no discernible purpose besides looking attractive, scolding a guy for thinking that millions of lives are more important than her (how dare he!), and then storming off in a huff and making everyone feel guilty, conflicted and inferior. Oh, joy.

So Niki sees Future-Hiro staring up at her from the audience. She tells Future-Hiro that he gets "one song and two minutes" in exchange for five hundred dollars. Hilariously, Ando immediately pulls out a wad of bills and hands them over to Niki. "It's me, Niki! Ando! Do you remember?" Ah, the memories. Now Huggerz69 can call her a b**ch for cutting short her performance, and we can watch her choke the life out of him.

Or, Niki could just ignore Ando.

Future-Hiro says he's looking for Peter. Niki decides she'll speak on Peter's behalf. Because, hey, if you can get five hundred bucks just for talking, you might as well talk on behalf of your super-powered boyfriend.

Future-Hiro mentions Sylar, and Niki goes berserk and grabs him by the throat. And the sight of Ali Larter throttling Samurai-Oka is so startling that I wonder if Niki's story really will pick up. At least she's passionate about her son's death, even if she isn't interested in the prospect of, you know, preventing it from happening in the first place.

You can see what the show was trying to achieve by presenting Future-Niki as a grief-stricken mother who can't bear to let go of her son or forget about how she lost him. The problem is Future-Niki comes across as the kind of character who wants Peter to fawn over her while she wallows in sorrow and tells everyone else to get over what happened. Which isn't particularly compelling, and doesn't do the character much service when it comes to outlining what the show has in store for her. With pretty much every other character this week, it's one giant Alternate Universe Fifth Season Mega-Spoiler. With Niki, it's more, "Huh? That's all they could come up with? She's with Peter and she's p**sed off with the world?"

Nice detail when Niki walks away and Ando waves goodbye. Seeing what's left of a nuked city and watching his best friend dragged away by guards can't get him down, and apparently neither can Niki ignoring him. And no matter how badly Niki treats him, you know that Ando will always have a crush on her, and he'll always treat her right. Aww.

Niki walks over to the bar, picks up a drink, then puts it down again. It's not clear whether she slides the drink over to Peter as he dematerializes or whether Peter TK's it across the counter because he's thirsty. Either way, it's a cool detail.

The contrast between the younger and older Peter's is staggering. Someone needs to do a Then-and-Now slideshow and put the Peter in "Genesis" next to the one here. You can see why Future-Hiro would barely recognize the guy on the subway. Beyond the physical differences, it's just amazing how differently Milo plays the character: how the eyes and voice change, and how the quiet contemplation becomes a withdrawn disillusionment.

At Homeland Security, Matt gives Present-Hiro a stern talking to about all the "good men" that Future-Hiro killed at a Natural Science Center. Matt listens to Hiro's thoughts and can't figure out why the guy who's apparently the Superhero Most Wanted has so little going through his mind.

Interestingly, Future-Haitian sits in a corner and lets Matt's mindreading go ahead at the same time as BLOCKING Present-Hiro's time-freezing and teleportation. Which is another neat detail, because you realize that the Haitian's power-deflecting whammy is selective enough for the guy to decide whose power he inhibits and whose he allows to go ahead.

Future-Matt gets onto the phone to Future-Nathan, who's now president, and (as we later find out) actually Sylar. Nathan points out that he and Matt and the Down With The Supers Brigade have been "looking for [Hiro] for years." Which, unlike omitted details or time-travel headaches, just makes no sense. It's strange enough that no one thought to keep Isaac's apartment under surveillance; you'd think Sylar would keep every superhero residence guarded in case anyone ever returned to it.

But if you can let that go, someone needs to explain why a guy who can paint the future -- and who can paint specific individuals in the future -- couldn't paint Hiro. It's been shown that Isaac could focus his power and CHOOSE to paint Peter. So unless Sylar's completely inept when it comes to using Isaac's power, you'd think he could have knocked out a painting of Future-Hiro sitting in Isaac's apartment. Not a gaping plothole, and certainly not the kind of thing that'll pull you out of the moment. But in a script that's virtually airtight, it seemed like it was overlooked.

Bearded Ramamurthy! The pigeons have found the new Bearded One!

I can't tell you how disappointing it was to see Mohinder be duped again; to discover that, fresh from being duped by Sylar-as-Zane and Thompson, Mohinder's earning this week's Dumb As Mohinder Award for being duped by Sylar-as-Nathan. At this rate the only character on the show who won't play Mohinder for a fool is Mr. Muggles.

Essential expo-dialogue follows: we learn that Nathan poured "billions in research" into eliminating every super's ability. A lot of people weren't sure last week when it came to Sylar's painting of Nathan in the Oval Office. Some were convinced it was Sylar. I went with the theory that it was just a bad imitation of Isaac's painting, mostly because I couldn't figure out why Sylar would be interested in political power when all he wants is to find every superhero out there and slice their head open.

The line about research resolves that, though, because you realize that presidency is a means to an end for Sylar: it's his way of widening Mohinder's resources. Sylar's in a position to give Mohinder the facilities and equipment he needs to create an extensive list of supers, and then to ensure that none of them can pose a threat to him, particularly when he's surrounded by security.

More expo-dialogue: the supers are being tracked down and policed, then prevented from procreating and being cordoned off from the rest of the population. One question never answered here is whether it was the real Nathan who set this into motion, or whether it was Sylar all along. Sylar gets in a line about how Nathan "turned on his own kind." And as impossible as it is to believe Nathan would want to make good on his "island in the middle of nowhere" idea in "Unexpected," it's believable that he'd take measures to prevent a kid in Santa Cruz from sucking the oxygen out of his schools.

Pasdar's performance this week was off-the-charts awesome. The delivery and the mannerisms aren't so obvious that you immediately know he's Sylar; there were plenty of people who were caught off guard when he morphed back. But the performance is subtle enough that you can believe how Pasdar studied Zach Quinto's take on the same lines. The tone and cadence of the guy's voice are exactly like Quinto's.

At Homeland Security, Matt tortures Present-Hiro. Which is unsettling and saddening because we can't bear to see Hiro get beaten up, but at the same time it's a morbid delight to see Grunberg play the guy who tortures characters we love. It beats watching the guy fix leaky pipes.

Was I the only one who thought it would be Janice on the cellphone? I was sure we'd get a moment when Matt would be all, "Hey, sweetie, how's our *SMACK!* son? Sure, I'll be home in time for *FWUMP!* dinner. We'll get the wallpaper painted in *THWACK!* no time at all. Love you too!"

The cellphone call turns out to be a heads-up on Mohinder visiting the Future Apartment of Clairvoyance. So Matt goes over there too, and they talk about what it would be like to go down a "different path." And then Mohinder picks up the copy of 9th Wonders which Nerdeo was supposed to deliver. At which point we just want to say, "Uh, Mohinder? Buddy? You're holding a scene-by-scene guide to that "different path." How about you stop rambling and just READ IT?" But he doesn't.

The Future Primatech Fun Factory. Daddy Bennet's DNA forgery kit looks like hours of fun, but can he see anything without the horn-rimmed glasses? It's like he's ... naked, or something. Bennet struck me as the character who'd changed the least over the years. He still puts his daughter before everyone and everything, he still wants to serve a greater good by helping people, and he still believes in deceiving and manipulating people around him to serve his own agenda.

Hana Gitelman lives! It's a nice nod to the graphic novels that she's working with Bennet, but the reintroduction comes with problems. It's cool for people who read the online comics and know that Hana and Bennet are working together. But for the majority of the show's audience who don't follow the comics, the last time we saw Hana involved her spurring on RadioTed to go nuke Bennet and everyone at Primatech.

More worryingly, a lot of people confused Hana with Candice. And, truthfully, I can see where that confusion came from.

More obviously, though, a lot of people didn't remember Hana at all. Because it's been months, and because Hana's role was limited to putting RadioTed and Matt together and pointing them in the right direction.

None of which really matters, I guess. But when half of the audience are either trying to recall where they saw the character or going "Huh? Who's that?", it seems like a sign that the cameo was a bad call.

So Future-Hiro and Ando show up at the Fun Factory, and Future-Hiro's all, "Yeah, my superhero wishlist: I want the phasing guy, the illusionist, and that precocious brat from the second episode."

"Back up, Samurai ... Who was that last one?"

"I said I want Molly Walker."

"No, you said you wanted the kid from the second episode."

"Uh, no I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"Did not."

"Did too."

*FWUMP!*

"Whaddaya know -- Molly's got a superpower too!"

"Who's Molly?"

"She's that kid Matt found under the stairs. Remember? That was Molly!"

"You think anyone's gonna get THAT?! Are you *%@#ing kidding me?!"

"Oh, you watch and see! I'll bet you a stack of waffles and a copy of the final 9th Wonders that a bunch of fans are going to make the connection and worship this show more devoutly than ever."

"Gosh, Future-Hiro. Does everyone need to make that connection? Because I'm not sure how many people will remember a kid under the stairs last October. I can't even remember my son in this timeline."

"It's less than a week ago in the story!"

"It's been five years, idiot! Also? Shut up!"

"But this is so cool, Future-Bennet! It won't matter if people get the namecheck or not. It's just a cool moment for continuity, and the story works fine whether people get the reference or not."

And it does. Which, unlike the Hana cameo, is extremely cool.

Future Burnt Toast Diner. Claire has become a waitress. And a brunette. And even prettier and more endearing than she was before. But the "Parasite"-obnoxious syndrome remains. More on this in a moment.

The heartbreaking part here? The show dashed the hopes of a million prepubescent boys by promptly supplying Claire with a beau the instant she became legal.

Do I hate the guy? Of course. He's the kind of generic hunk who'll inevitably win Claire's heart. But I'm also wondering whether this was one of those story threads which will go ahead regardless of the changes to the timeline. Like, we'll get to the fifth season, and Claire will find herself in Midland again, and this exact same guy will happen to be there, at the diner. It's not like the guy got a shade of character development here (although at least they named him, which is more than some supporting characters got). But knowing this show, there's probably an entire story arc already planned out for him. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to have a super-power too.

That, though, was part of what carried this scene: the implication that as Claire gets older, she's going to need to decide whether she can trust people enough to confide in them and reveal her secret. The gist here is that Claire can't bring herself to commit to her engagement before she tells Andy about her ability. It has the potential to be well written and compelling, but it could equally go the way of another show involving a superhero who's afraid of telling the love of his life about his special abilities. And then we get SUVs doing somersaults on highways.

Anyway, Bennet shows up for pie and surreptitiously warns his daughter that the Bad Men are about to find her.

Claire's response? "I just want a normal life! I'm getting married! Why are you doing this to me?"

It's "Parasite" all over again -- let's blame Bennet! Everything's his fault for joining that chop shop freak factory and pretending to be a paper salesman!

It's not like the guy was forced into adopting a kid. It's not like he did his best to hide the kid's ability as long as he could. And it's not like he's doing his best right now to keep her safe and, you know ... ALIVE.

Nah, he's the "creepy guy with glasses," and he's a jerk for shipping Claire across the country so that no one would find her. And now he wants to ruin Claire's normal life by getting her to safety? Shame on him!

And don't even get me started on Sandra and Lyle. At least there's a mention of Sandra leaving him, so we can assume Thompson didn't put a bullet through her head the moment Candice replaced her in "Parasite."

To be fair, Claire does then decide to elope with Andy. And even though the "Thanks, Dad" attitude is still here, even years later, it seems like Claire finally gets that Bennet will always have her welfare in mind. I just wish we'd gotten a hint that Claire will eventually realize how selflessly Bennet's acted over the years. Because in the end, you can bet that everything he does comes back to his daughter. Even in an alternate universe timeline.

Future Primatech Fun Factory. Ando wants to know if he's rich and married, and Future-Hiro's all, "Please, Marty, no one should know too much about their own destiny." Future-Hiro seems like he's about to tell Ando he'll be nuked, but Future-Matt shows up to taser him.

Hilariously, Future-Matt can't figure out how he caught the same guy twice. He doesn't notice that this Hiro has a soul patch and an abundance of hair gel. He also fails to notice that this Hiro sports none of the bruises that Matt inflicted on Present-Hiro a few hours earlier. And it never occurs to him that a guy who teleports through space and time could be in two places at once.

Matt gets this week's Dumb As Mohinder Award.

Future-Peter materializes and works his TK on a guard, then freezes time. Neat effect, and a moment when you root for the character, even when he gives that intense look of contempt at Future-Matt frozen in time.

The amazing part is that we sympathize with both characters. I think part of us wants to see Future-Peter beat the heck out of Matt, almost as much as we want to see Peter get his scar and Sylar scalp Nathan. But as corrupt and spineless as Future-Matt is depicted this week, we feel bad for the guy, particularly when it turns out that he's hiding his son from authorities.

Does Janice have an ability of her own? That would be laughable. So are we supposed to assume that it only requires one super-powered parent for the gene to be inherited? It isn't relevant to the rather moving exchange we get here (right up until Matt puts a bullet in Bennet's head), but it raises all kinds of questions about Angela and Papa Sulu and the way these characters' abilities have been passed down over the generations.

Future-Peter takes Future-Hiro and Ando back to the strip club. Future-Peter also figures he can best convey his badass nature by throwing off the billowing coat and revealing the tank top underneath. Because nothing says "Bad Boy" better than a wifebeater and a scowl.

Ando learns that he died, and that Hiro's "hope and optimism" disappeared immediately after.

In a way, it's a disappointing revelation, because you half-wish that Hiro's disillusionment would have developed from repeated failure and towering defeat over the years. Or from failing to stop the bomb.

But then, part of Hiro's appeal comes from his interaction with the people around him, particularly with Ando. He's a reflection of Peter in that sense: his attachment to the people in his life are what drive him to heroism. And if there was one good idea in that whole ridiculous "let's-find-the-sword-no-wait-let's-separate-because-it's-too-dangerous" mess, it was that Hiro considers himself responsible for Ando. So it stands to reason that he'd blame himself when Ando dies, particularly if Hiro can't even stop the bomb and starts wondering if Ando died for nothing.

If Future-Peter's right about Future-Hiro's motivation for changing history, it means that Future-Hiro's inherent nobility and heroism were killed off by his own failure rather than the reality of supers being killed off. It implies that he wants to save his friend before he wants to save the world. Again, it's one of those neat details which isn't essential to the plot, but it brings up ideas and discussion.

At the Future Apartment of Clairvoyance, Nathan and Mohinder consider whether Future-Hiro's crazy-ass plan to alter history is worth getting behind. Nathan tells Mohinder to stop playing with his action figures and come back to reality. Mohinder expresses horror at the prospect of wiping out the entire super-powered population with a lethal injection. Someone working on the show gets a light bulb above their head and figures the best way to redeem Future-Mohinder for inadvertently helping Sylar over the years is to have him (a) be Dumb as Mohinder, but more importantly (b) feel ethically bound to challenge Nathan and disobey him by doing The Right Thing.

Nathan defends his plan by suggesting that the extermination of a part of the population will lead to a world "united in grief." Which was basically Linderman's plan, and the one which, predictably, failed to achieve said unity. It makes you wonder what the connection will be between Linderman and Sylar if it's ever revealed. Given that Linderman has so far been portrayed as a would-be mass murderer with good (albeit deranged) intentions, it's ironic that the guy who's now feigning good intentions can't wait to watch every super-powered individual die. It shows up Linderman's plan for the lunacy that it is; and somehow, given that Nathan was tempted to go ahead with Linderman's plan, it makes his scalping by Sylar even more fitting.

One thought: does Linderman KNOW that the Nathan in his painting is Sylar? And does Linderman even know who Sylar is?

Petrelli Mansion. Heh, I wasn't far off when I called it a castle last week.

More amusing is the fact that the mansion apparently withstood a nuclear blast and emerged unscathed. Presumably, Angela's austerity formed a protective bubble and safely enclosed her from the impact. This, of course, would be after she was done stealing a few hundred pairs of socks to last her through the nuclear winter.

I wonder what it must have been like for Zach Quinto to watch this scene; to watch Pasdar play -- with such eerie similarity -- the character who Quinto brought to life. It also makes me wonder how different the character would have been if Pasdar had been playing Sylar from the start. Weird thought, but it crossed my mind because Pasdar owns the role so completely. It's Nathan on the outside, but you can hear Quinto's Sylar telling Claire that he's "got a lot of power" and "met a lot of special people." Kudos to Pasdar for playing Sylar so believably.

Claire gets a scalping, and Sylar gets the insta-heal power. Meaning the showdown between Peter and Sylar at the conclusion would likely go on for a while because both of them would keep regenerating.

Then we get another Peter/Niki scene in which Niki lambastes her boyfriend for leaving her to go save the world.

Read that again. I'm not sure I need to say any more.

Peter tells Niki that calling herself Jessica and "acting like nothing gets to [her]" isn't who she is. I'd like to agree, but the sad part about this episode is that it underlines how weak the Niki/Jessica storyline has been throughout the season. We don't know who Niki is, in the present or the future. Besides her love for Micah and her determination to protect him, Niki is as two-dimensional now as she was at the start.

I assume Niki will still be alive next season, and I hope the show will give her the screen time and character development she deserves. But as it stands, this scene fell flat for me, largely because it's not clear to me how Niki -- as Peter's girlfriend or as a character in her own right -- fits into it. Which is a shame, because Ali Larter played the scene with feeling, and her anger at Peter for revisiting events that led to Micah's death comes across as genuine.

Peter reveals that he was the one who nuked New York, and that Nathan covered it up and put the blame on Sylar to protect his brother. Which says a lot about the lengths Nathan went to in order to keep Peter under the radar; but it also opens up a huge can of worms when it comes to Peter's conscience and integrity, because you wonder how the guy could have entered into a relationship with Niki without ever telling her that he caused the explosion which killed her son. The way Future-Peter is portrayed, it's implied that he's haunted by the memory of what he's done and that he's willing to die to make it right. But if it takes a visit from Future-Hiro to pull the guy away from his girlfriend at a bar, and if Future-Peter only decides to tell Niki that he inadvertently caused her son's death when he's in a position to fix it, you have to wonder whether this guy's still the moral fiber of the story. Like Hiro having a personal agenda behind wanting to change history and save New York, it changes the way we look at the character.

Which was probably the idea, because it makes us reconsider who the characters are in the present day. But here's the part which grates: Future-Peter, Future-Hiro and Present-Ando now head over to Homeland Security to save Present-Hiro. Most of the plan falls apart when Sylar-as-Nathan shows up, but Present-Hiro gets back to his own time with a copy of the final 9th Wonders and the impression that stabbing Sylar will save New York.

Now, this puzzled me, and it's the only part of the story which doesn't seem to fit: Present-Hiro should be getting ready to slay Peter, not Sylar. If Peter's the one who causes the explosion, which we now know to be what happened, doesn't that make the whole stabbing-Sylar plan a little pointless? Killing Sylar means that Sylar can't explode, sure. But shouldn't Future-Peter be warning Present-Hiro that he needs to go back to his own time and stab Present-Sylar AND Present-Peter if he wants to save New York?

You could argue that Future-Peter's plan was to tell Present-Hiro all of this before sending him back. But throughout the rescue operation, it's unclear to me whether Future-Peter ever planned to admit he's the one who sets off the explosion. It seems like everyone's under the impression that killing Sylar in the past is the key to stopping the bomb. Future-Peter knows that's not true. Based on that, and given what we now know, isn't Present-Hiro now psyching himself up to stab the wrong person? Shouldn't he be getting ready to stab Peter?

Not that I want Peter dead and Milo off the show. I still maintain that Peter, along with Claire and Hiro, will be one of the characters who makes it to the end of the show's run. But this was a part of the alternate-timeline headache which didn't seem to make sense.

That aside, the final minutes to the episode were probably the most stunning of the season.

The scene cuts between Nathan's memorial speech in New York and the Matrix-homage at Homeland Security. Nathan talks about "sacrifice" while a team of security guards get the "Oh *%@#!" expression and have their throats sliced open by Future-Hiro.

I enjoyed this stuff as much as anyone, and I wouldn't have a problem with Future-Hiro killing if it was a last resort or if the success of Present-Hiro's mission depended on it. But this was just gratuitous. Why slaughter everyone at Homeland Security when you could freeze time in the lobby and casually make your way up to Present-Hiro's cell?

Nah, this is cooler, right?

"Shall we freeze time?"

"No, I haven't had a good fight in years."

And Ando? Watch that moment when Peter and Hiro start taking the guards out. Ando stands there with this bewildered look that's like, "What should I do?", right before the guards pump him full of lead.

Or not. Somehow, the guards don't seem to notice Ando any more than Niki did.

The part of Nathan's speech where he talks about "those who would do us harm"? Call me crazy, but that doesn't seem like psycho-killer insane-talk when it's intercut with images of the dead security guards falling victim to Peter's penchant for "a good fight."

Ando mentions the guards upstairs who'll be waiting with guns. And it only takes a moment for everyone to realize that those guards are about to get "a good fight" too.

Yup, sure enough, they're dead in under a minute.

Present-Hiro wails like a baby, and Future-Haitian gets the lethal injection by Mohinder. *Ping!* The light bulb goes on in someone's head: let's redeem Future-Mohinder for colluding with a murderous president by having him help Present-Hiro return to his own time!

I bought into it. Not everyone did, and I get why they didn't, but it seemed to me like Future-Mohinder was always working with the same objective in mind: to help every super-powered individual he could. The fact that he was duped by Sylar-as-Nathan doesn't make him a villain, and letting Present-Hiro go back in time instead of killing him doesn't strike me as a necessary "redemption" for the character. It's more a vindication of Mohinder's indomitable need to be a hero.

Which, judging from the mounting body count outside this cell, is something Peter and Hiro will struggle with.

Future-Mohinder meets Future-Peter, and Future-Hiro takes a bullet in the back from Matt.

Not to nitpick, but shouldn't Future-Peter have heard Matt coming? After meeting Sylar in Mohinder's apartment in "Parasite," shouldn't Peter possess Dale's super-hearing?

It's either a plothole, or the super-hearing ability really isn't as effective as it seemed, because that's twice now that someone managed to sneak up on a guy with super-hearing.

Sylar decides it doesn't matter if the world sees him flying. You could argue that Sylar was reckless for blowing his cover and not running into an abandoned alley before he launched into the sky. But does the presidency really matter to Sylar anymore? On a practical level, Sylar needs to stop Present-Hiro from going back in time and killing him off. On a psychological level, Sylar probably looks forward to seeing the nation unsettled by the discovery that its president was one of the "freaks" they were hunting down all along. And on a speculative level, you have to figure that Sylar's plan is to scalp Present-Hiro, take his power, then jump across time and rewrite history to the point where this scene would never happen in the first place.

Chances are Sylar's only thinking on the practical level in this scene. But I think there's definitely a plausible rationale behind Sylar's decision to fly on national television, so I'll let it slide.

Present-Hiro watches his Future-self die, and turns into a basket case. Future-Peter's presumably contemplating whether it's worth foregoing the rest of this "good fight" and freezing time so that he can get Present-Hiro and Ando out of there. Then Nathan shows up, D.L.-phases his hands through the door of the cell, and pulls Future-Peter into the corridor.

Nathan morphs into Sylar and tells Peter that Nathan "had already turned on his own kind." Which, more than ever, makes me wonder whether Nathan was the one who started the project to round up the supers and limit their interaction with the rest of the population. We'll probably never find out, given that this part of the timeline will almost certainly turn out differently. But it's one part of the backstory this week which I wish could have been explored: how much of this is Sylar's masterplan, and how much of it is manipulation of a project which was set up by Nathan.

The little we saw of the Iceman/Pyro homage was brilliantly shot. Like everyone else, I wish it could have been longer. But as with the non-existent smackdown between Peter and Sylar in ".07%", I have to believe the show will make up for it in the finale. As it is, this episode was working on a feature-film scale. As it is, this was a superhero moment for geeks to cherish. And if a five-second clip can generate such an overwhelming reaction, the final confrontation between Peter and Sylar is going to be phenomenal.

So we draw to a close: Present-Hiro and Ando are back in the present, standing on the Rooftop of Pigeonly Delight. The pigeons are still waiting for the Bearded One to return, but the Bespectacled One probably makes an adequate substitute. And Hiro now realizes that he needs to take a life if he wants to save half a city's worth of lives.

It goes without saying that "Five Years Gone" is an easy 5 out of 5. It's also the eighth 5 I've given the show this season. I'm beginning to wonder whether I should be qualifying how extraordinary an episode is; when it's in the context of an entire season's worth of do-not-miss-this-because-it's-frickin'-awesome episodes, I wonder whether I'm supposed to differentiate. Like, whether an episode is a better 5 than "Homecoming," but less of a 5 than "Company Man."

This episode? It's a 5+, and on a level with "Company Man," the episode which, to me, stood out as the defining moment for the show, and the one which exemplified what makes Heroes such a pleasure to watch and such a delight to take apart in reviews. More than any other episode so far, this is a testament to how well written and well crafted the show can be. Joe Pokaski deserves praise for scripting one of the strongest episodes of the show so far. Paul Edwards deserves praise for getting some of the strongest performances from the cast so far.

I say "so far," because the show has demonstrated throughout its first season that it's only going to get better. At this point, I'd still say "Don't Look Back" and "Collision" deserved the 5-out-of-5 scores I gave them. But next to the episodes that have aired since, the excellence is relative. When it seems like the show just delivered the best it has to offer, it outdoes itself. And when you think nothing can top the quality of the most recent episode, another comes along and turns out to be even better.

5 out of 5