S02E10 - The River
The episode begins with the title sequence, there is no cold open.
Late Fall, 2008.
In the depths of the city below Consolidated Edison, the Ferrymen close in on the sounds of rumbling generators and electric lights. They find the Vanguard's command center in the abandoned train station, but it appears to be empty. As the Ferrymen split up to search the area, Wireless says she's picking up Sylar's signal from the phone again and that it's moving. Helena seems relieved and says maybe that means they can deal with the Vanguard first.
As they go deeper, they find the makeshift lab Odessa was working in built inside of a train car. Teo looks at the equipment and seems confused, he says there isn't enough materials here for them to have done anything involved. Most of it looks like equipment for safely handling biohazardous materials. Eve says that something isn't adding up, that this place wasn't in her dream.
Magnes says he found something and goes into a maintenance access door, then comes running out shouting "Bomb!" Wireless steps inside and sees plastic explosives rigged to the ceiling with detonator cord linking one charge to another. Everyone shines their flashlights up and they see the entire structure is rigged to blow. Teo calls for everyone to run and that it was a trap. Magnes grabs Gillian and Helena to fly them to safety, but there is a sudden electric surge of light between their hands and when he does move he flies even faster out of the tunnel. The others are left to turn and run on foot.
As they are running, Teo stops and Wireless looks back at him, shouting for him to run. The others stop as well, and Teo looks up to Wireless and slowly shakes his head. Teo says there "isn't enough time to get out."
Meanwhile, Kazimir Volken sits behind the wheel of a tractor trailer truck, pulling it out from an underground subway entrance. Eileen is in the passenger seat with him. He says that it is only a matter of time now. Eileen leans forward and asks him what he means. Kazimir explains that Sylar and Odessa will be the end of this city, this country, and eventually the end of this world. As a Non-Evolved Odessa will develop a destructive power, go on a rampage infecting others, and die. Sylar, meanwhile, will succumb to the other symptoms of the virus, grow weak and weary and take days to perish, all the while spreading disease that will ravage the world.
Eileen thinks back to what Sylar told her earlier and realizes that he may have been telling the truth. Eileen asks what will happen to her and Kazimir, to which Kazimir says they will die with the old world so that everything may be healed. She asks about the other Vanguard members across the world, and Kazimir says that it doesn't matter, none of them will likely survive the trials to come. Eileen grows silent and slouches back into her seat.
As the truck passes a chain link fence with birds sitting atop it, one of the birds watches the truck, then looks around purposefully before flying off of the fence.
Magnes arrives outside of the subway tunnel and drops Gillian and Helena, turning back for the others when there is a massive explosion that erupts from the tunnel. Teo's truck is pulverized by debris, Magnes is hit by the shockwave and blown off of his feet while Helena and Gillian lay flat for lack of cover.
The explosion sends a shockwave through the ground and when they look up they see the striped smoke stacks of Consolidated Edison wobbling, crack, and then collapse onto the power plant. When the stacks collapse, lights all around them go out as Brooklyn is thrown into a blackout.
Helena screams a horrible, mournful cry and rushes to the now collapsed subway tunnel. Gillian runs up to her and tries to stop her and Helena crumples onto her knees sobbing. Magnes groans in pain, rolling onto his side. Gillian rushes back to Magnes who has taken a significant blow to the head. She doesn't know what to do and is panicking, when Helena suddenly hears a phone ringing.
Searching her pockets, Helena finds her cell phone is receiving a call from Wireless. She answers and we find that Eve, Teo, and Wireless survived by fleeing deeper into the subway tunnel and escaping down into a lower level. The phone call crackles in and out, but Teo is able to explain that they're blocked on the side they know how to navigate out of but there might be a rear exit.
Helena asks them how long it will take to get out and Wireless comes over the phone line and says too long. She tells Helena to go after Sylar with Gillian, it may be the only hope left. Helena reluctantly agrees and asks Wireless if they're going to be ok. We see the collapsed tunnel they're trapped in and Eve quietly says she never saw a vision about her dying underground. Wireless relays that and Helena manages a bittersweet smile.
Wireless orders Helena to go over a crackling line that is breaking up. Helena says she will and for the others to stay safe. Gillian asks what happened and if everyone is ok, and Magneswearily sits up while Helena explains that they need to leave. Magnes says for them to go on without him, that he'll be fine in a little while. Gillian turns to Helena and asks her if she knows how to drive Wireless's motorcycle, to which Helena replies "how different from a dirtbike could it be?"
Inside the tractor trailer truck, Odessa kneels down beside Sylar who is wetly breathing and gasping for air. Sylar, groggy from the sedative, ontices Odessa seems to be unaffected by the virus and asks her why she isn't dying. Odessa says that Kazimir got something wrong about her in all his hubris.
Odessa goes on a long-winded rant about how she worked her whole life to become a doctor, but the Company lied to her and her degree was a lit to keep her in control. But she says the Company put her on virilogy because of her natural talents. Sylar, suffocating on his own lungs, asks her what that was. Odessa tells Sylar the reason there is no cure for this virus is because she is the cure.
Inside the truck, Kazimir notices something in the rear view mirror. A motorcycle swerving and wobbling and moving erratically through traffic. Screaming as she drives, Helena struggles to keep the motorcycle steady while Helena holds on tight to her. She doesn't realize the massive storm brewing at their back dropping hail and snow on the city.
Kazimir tells Eileen to take care of them and Eileen's eyes cloud white. Suddenly a cloud of birds sweeps up from all the adjacent rooftops and starts swarming the motorcycle. Helena asks Gillian for her hand, and Gillian reaches up and places a hand on the side of Helena's face. A light charges between the women and Helena's eyes crackle with electricity. Her hair stands on end and a bolt of lightning tears through the birds, striking the street nearby sending a shower of molten sparks into the air.
Cars swerve and go off the road to avoid the damage done by the lightning and burning remains of crows rain down from the sky. Eileen is sent back into her body with a sharp gasp, shaking her head apologetically to Kazimir. He says they're almost there, preparing to turn onto a bridge to Manhattan, but Helena drops another lightning bolt ahead of them on the road and Kazimir is forced to turn away, altering his course.
Inside the truck, Odessa struggles to stay up. Sylar starts coughing feverishly and looks pale. Odessa says she's immune to viruses and diseases, because that's her ability. Sylar, stunned, looks at her and realizes he'd overlooked her when he picked her up in the truck. He calls her clever for hiding under such a meek facade. Odessa says she doesn't want to end the world, and Sylar says it might be too late for that.
Outside, Helena speeds up on her motorcycle, sending more lightning down as she weaves in and out of traffic chasing Kazimir in the truck. Each time Kazimir tries to turn off for Manhattan she cuts him off, dropping telephone poles and collapsing street signs with gusts of wind and powerful blasts of lightning.
Inside the cab, Eileen rolls down the window and leans out of the truck, shooting at Helena and Gillian but misses them and runs out of bullets.
Inside the truck, Odessa says she can confer immunity to a disease and even cure diseases in people she touches. Sylar reaches up and weakly grabs at her collar, demanding she heal him. Odessa says it doesn't work like that and Sylar finds his last bit of strength and grabs her by the throat, pressing her up against the wall with all the strength of a ferocious animal fighting for its life. Odessa is shocked at Sylar's resolve, and he says if she doesn't heal him now they both die.
Odessa hesitates and Sylar squeezes her throat and looks ready to snap her neck. She reaches up and puts her hands on his face and closes her eyes as a pale glow spreads from her hands.
On the freeway, Kazimir sees a sign for the Verazanno-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island being closed. He waits until the last minute and pulls off toward the bridge, faking out Helena. The truck plows through the barricades and continues moving toward Staten Island on the bridge. Helena swerves on the bike, skids to a stop and then peels out after Kazimir as night falls.
Kazimir laughs, seeing Staten Island approaching on the other side of the bridge when suddenly the semi truck jackknifes. The trailer end flips up in the air and the whole truck flies end over end, crashing onto the abandoned bridge and skidding to a stop. Helena and Gillian race after the truck but slow and stop when it crashes. Gasoline spills out over the bridge and sparks ignite into flames.
Gillian gets off the bike and looks to Helena who says she didn't do that. Inside the cab, Eileen disentangles herself from her seatbelt and crawls out of the broken window on her hands and knees. Wispy threads of shadow start snaking through the vehicle wreck and Eileen lets out an agonized cry as she feels black veins course through her skin. She collapses onto her side, writhing in pain.
Nearby, Gillian and Helena see a figure rising up from the ground, shrouded in shadow and smoke. Kazimir Volken stands up and leans on his cane, laughing. He calls out to Helena and Gillian, saying that whatever they wanted, it's too late. The virus was contained in the truck and will already have begun to spread. As Kazimir starts to gloat again, he suddenly lifts up into the air, grasping at his throat.
Sylar steps out of the burning wreckage of the truck, cured of the virus and back at his full strength. He tries crushing the life out of Kazimir, but collapses onto one knee when the shadows from his body seek out his life. Helena, realizing that Sylar and Kazimir are fighting one another, asks Gillian if she can drain them both at once. Gillian isn't sure, she's never tried to do something like that. Helena says it's now or never.
Inside the wreckage of the truck, Odessa pulls herself free, gasping and choking and grabbing at her throat. She sees Kazimir and Sylar fighting and struggles up to her feet, she starts backpedaling and moving toward Eileen, but Eileen thinks Odessa is infected with the virus and panics sending her birds after Odessa. A swarm of birds descend from the night sky, attacking Odessa. She screams for help but in her panic staggers off the bridge and falls over the railing, her scream diminishing into the night before a hard splash.
Meanwhile, Gillian fights to try and siphon power from both Kazimir and Sylar. Sylar noticies what is happening when he feels his telekinetic grasp on Kazimir ebb and fade. Kazimir is lowered to the ground and he draws his sword from his cane and thrusts it into Sylar's stomach. Sylar can see Kazimir rapidly aging before his eyes. "Not so immortal, are you old man?"
Kazimir looks at his hands, horrified, and Sylar grabs the sword embedded in his chest and says. "Have I shown you this trick?" And sends electricity from Jenny Childs' ability coursing through the sword. Kazimir is electrified as smoke comes out of his eyes, his skin cracks and blackens and he crumbles into a dusty skeleton inside of black clothes. The sword rattles to the ground and Sylar drops to one knee.
Gillian stops draining their powers and she looks at Sylar and Sylar sees Jenny's twin sister across the bridge. Suddenly he assesses her ability, realizes what is happening, and as light starts to spark on his fingertips Helena says, "boost me!" And grabs Gillian by the hand.
Light floods into Helena, all the power she had taken from Kazimir and Sylar and a cyclonic storm cloud churns overhead. Lightning crackles in the sky, arcs of electricity come down to the bridge. Eileen looks up at the sky and sees the lightning, it is reflected in her eyes as she whispers, "no."
Helena, hair crackling with electricity begins to recite Psalm 23 as a massive bolt of lightning streaks down from the heavens and strikes the semi truck. The truck and the entire bridge erupt into a massive explosion. We see the blast from a distance, sending debris flying into the air. The bridge is split in half by the bolt of lightning and we linger on that shot as flaming debris rain down all around and slowly fades to black.
The Next Day.
Smoke issues off of the Verazanno-Narrows bridge, now divided in half and missing its middle span. Helicopters search the area and boats trawl the water. These images are interspersed with news footage discussing a terrorist attack on the bridge that the Department of Homeland Security is actively investigating.
We see a shot of Agent Parkins on a boat in the drizzling rain, holding one hand at the side of his head as he concentrates his attention on the river. The voice-over discusses the blackout caused by the destruction of Consolidated Edison, the destruction of the Verazanno-Narrows, and the bombing of Red Hook High School as proof that PARIAH has stepped up their terroristic actions.
Parkins calls for the boat to stop and divers go over the side, swimming out to something floating in the water. The voice-over continues that the Department of Homeland Security has begun plans to initiate a task force specially designed to combat the menace of groups like PARIAH, called the Department of Evolved Affairs, given unilateral permission to combat Evolved threats using any means necessary.
The divers come back to the boat with someone, and Parkins watches as Doctor Odessa Price is laid out on the deck of the ship. Parkins narrows his eyes and says, "She's alive."
Fade to black.
