S03E02 - Waste Not, Want Not
In the cold-open we see a young woman walking her dog down a quiet suburban street in Queens at night. She is talking on her cell phone to a friend about a date she had the other night. Her dog starts to act distressed and her attention is divided. Trying to juggle her phone and keep her dog on his leash, the young woman fails to notice a large white van driving up behind her on the street with its headlights off. The dog turns to bark at the van and she turns as it pulls up to the curb and stops.
When two men in biohazard suits climb out of the back of the van with guns, the young woman screams and loses control of her dog. The men in biohazard suits shoot the dog and another man comes out of the driver's seat with a taser and wrestles her to the ground. She drops her phone and we hear her screaming off-camera while her friend on the other end of the line is shouting her name, asking if she is ok. We see a boot come down and crush the phone.
After the Series 3 introduction we see an aerial view of New York City.
Late Winter, 2009.
In an abandoned subway station under the ruins of Midtown, we find Norman Benner, Wireless, and Helena standing around a map-covered table under oil lanterns. There are others nearby, loading rifles and tending to supplies. It has the feeling of an underground resistance movement. There are some civilians sitting together, children too.
Wireless says that she's intercepted a pattern of unusual abductions occurring in the New York area. She's been following police activity and missing persons reports and cross-referencing them with the Linderman Act database. Helena asks her why she does these searches and Wireless says it is to see how fast law enforcement notices people are missing that the Ferrymen have moved out of the country. But Wireless says there has been an increase in missing persons cases of registered Evolved.
Norman asks if Wireless thinks the government is doing this and Wireless says they would try to cover their tracks better. Wireless shows a pattern of the kidnappings on the larger map, but indicates she's still running algorithms to determine if the pattern has merit or if she's merely seeing what she wants to see.
Norman asks Helena for a status update and she says that she wasn't able to get through to Magnes because Teo was around. Norman says she should try again when he's at school so Teo can't interject himself. Helena says neither of them know where Cardinal or Eve are. A newcomer arrives at that moment and says, "that makes two of us." Enter Lynette Rowan (Sadie Montgomery), who says she's asked around about Eve Mas at her usual hangouts but "nobody's seen her since the night after the bridge went up." Helena wonders if this has anything to do with the disappearances, Wireless says it's dangerous to jump to conclusions like that.
Norman introduces Helena to Lynette whom he says is a newcomer to the network and is a social worker who is going to help the Ferrymen find at-risk Evolved to get them out before it's "too late." Lynette cracks a smile and offers a hand for Helena to shake, then mildly shocks her as a joke. Helena looks wide-eyed at Lynette who says, "I like her, she's trusting." Norman warns Lynette to play well with others.
Helena says she's going to go check on the family they're moving tomorrow and says an awkward goodbye to Lynette. Wireless watches the exchange and gives Lynette a stern look.
On Staten Island, Gabriel awakens in the bedroom of a house-boat. He is alone. Sitting up in the bed, Gabriel looks around and sees old dusty photographs in their frames on the floor. The curtains look crooked. When he stands Gabriel stumbles and falls against one wall and the camera tilts to show the boat is crooked. In the doorway to the bedroom we see Eileen leaning against the door for support. She tells Gabriel to be careful and Gabriel asks who she is and why she saved him.
Eileen is careful with how she answers but introduces herself and says she is an "old friend." Gabriel asks if she knew him and knows who he is and Eileen says they'd only just met a few months ago and she'd been looking for him since. Eileen offers Gabriel her hand and helps guide him out of the bedroom. They emerge on the deck of a sail boat that is beached in a derelict harbor on Staten Island's west coast. Gabriel takes a seat on the edge of the boat and looks out to others lodged in the sand and grass.
Eileen says that she and Gabriel were becoming friends before he disappeared and she asks him how much he remembers of his life. Gabriel says he recalls pieces. Indistinct things like a dream. He says he only feels half awake. She asks about his name, and Gabriel says that fishermen pulled him out of the Hudson River and brought him to a doctor on Staten Island. They were worried he was in trouble so they didn't take him to a hospital. Gabriel tells her that he didn't have any identification and the name "came to him." He asks Eileen if she knows his name and she avoids the question.
Gabriel asks if Eileen knows the man who attacked him and she says she doesn't, but that he had been following Gabriel for a few days. Gabriel seems confused, and asks Eileen how she knows all this. She says she's "different" and asks Gabriel if he remembers what the Evolved are. Gabriel says the fishermen had to remind him, but that it "felt familiar." He says it's part of what makes this all feel like a dream. Eileen says she's an Evolved and that her gift lets her see through birds. Gabriel mentions the birds that saved him and she smiles.
Eileen offers a hand out to Gabriel again and says that they should go find something to eat. Gabriel smiles and says he won't recommend any chicken. Eileen is not amused. Gabriel regrets making the joke.
At the Ferrymen's headquarters, Helena is finishing checking up with a family they are caring for when Gillian shows up. Helena goes to meet with her and they hug. Gillian apologizes for being so "out of it" the last few months but she's been struggling with her sister Jenny still being missing. Helena explains that Wireless has concerns about the number of missing people and Gillian wonders if Sylar could be to blame. Helena says it's possible and cites the horror movie trope of "no body, no death." Gillian agrees that he's like a horror movie monster and the two share a laugh.
Norman comes over and asks Helena if she can try talking to Magnes again, and Gillian volunteers to help.. She says that she and Magnes go "way back" and he might listen to her. Norman says that Teo might try and get in the way and Gillian laughs and says she knows somewhere Teo never goes.
It immediately cuts to a video game where a muscular man with a sword cuts a skeleton in half. The words LEVEL UP flash on the screen, followed by an incoming message from "SkeletonSorceress": "Hey Mags, how are you doing?" We cut to Teo's apartment where Magnes is on his laptop playing an online game. He switches to his phone and messages Gillian. They catch up and Magnes is extremely happy to hear from her. When she asks how everything is going Magnes says that Teo has been disappearing for the night a lot and looks sick. Gillian is concerned but doesn't push the issue. She asks if he is there right now, and Magnes checks the couch, finding it empty. He says Teo isn't around and Gillian asks if he wants to get food at the diner. Magnes enthusiastically agrees.
At the diner, Magnes and Gillian sit at a booth watching traffic go by. Magnes is in the middle of explaining how Teo is depressed and Gillian apologizes for not being there for him. Magnes apologizes back and says that he knows she lost her sister and that he wasn't there for her. Gillian concedes that their lives both aren't great. Gillian asks Magnes about the Ferrymen and Magnes insists that he can't go back to working with them after what happened last year. He apologizes to Gillian and says that she's always been a good friend and leaves. Gillian watches Magnes through the diner window, regretful.
The next day on Staten Island Gabriel is with Eileen in a run down neighborhood. They are going for a walk together and he asks her how much she knows about him. Eileen says almost nothing, and then asks him how much he knows about her. Gabriel smiles and repeats "almost nothing." Eileen goes on to tell Gabriel that she was born in London to a poor family, an only child. He asks her how she learned she could talk to birds, and Eileen says that came later when she met her adoptive father, who was like her. Gabriel asks where her father is now. Eileen says he's dead. Gabriel doesn't understand the context of what she's referencing and offers his sympathies, which she accepts.
As Gabriel and Eileen are crossing through an alley between two fire-blackened buildings, a portion of a roof begins to collapse. Gabriel sees the bricks crumbling down and lifts his hands, but pauses when he sees the bricks are hovering in the air. He asks if Eileen is doing this and with a wry smile she says that Gabriel is and takes his hand in hers. She leads Gabriel out from under the debris and watches it crash behind them. Gabriel asks how this is possible and Eileen says "I said I knew almost nothing. Not nothing."
In the Ferrymen's headquarters, Wireless pulls up a drivers license photo for a woman who went missing two days ago, registered with the Evolved ability of superhuman scent. It is the same woman from the cold open. Norman, Lynette, Gillian, and Helena are watching the screens. Wireless explains that she has completed an assessment of missing persons data and finds most disappearances centered around the Brooklyn and Staten Island regions of New York, particularly western Brooklyn close to Manhattan. She then shows street camera footage of a white, unmarked van spotted near several of the disappearances.
Norman says this doesn't feel like the Company, but insists it is consistent with CIA abduction tactics. Wireless fears as much as well and has set up a script to scrape traffic cameras by the minute searching for vehicles matching the van's appearance. She hopes that if they can find one en-route to an abduction they can prevent it. Helena says that Wireless is like Neo, sans the Matrix. Wireless gives her a wordless look and says, "what makes you think there isn't a Matrix?" Helena laughs nervously, to which Wireless smirks and says she's just kidding. Helena is uncertain.
Across town, Teo is outside of the nightclub Kain Zarek runs, off hours. He pounds on the door but no one responds because the club isn't open yet. He shouts Kain's name at the door then leaves in frustration. . Teo looks unwell and is pale and sweating. He collapses in an alley near the club and calls Magnes on his cell phone, but when Magnes answers he hangs up. At Teo's apartment, Magnes is worried and tries to call Teo back, but with no response. Distraught, Magnes opens the window to the apartment and flies out.
On Staten Island, Gabriel is sitting on a beach with Eileen. He has stacked up rocks with his mind in a narrow column. Eileen tells him his ability will become easier over time, but that he used to have more, but he must have "forgotten" how to use them. Gabriel asks her how it is possible to have more than one, and Eileen lies and says that Gabriel studied the human brain to understand how it works. She says that it kills people, but he gains something amazing in return. Gabriel is horrified by this and doesn't want to hurt anyone. Eileen asks Gabriel "what if there was a way where no one was hurt? Where you made the world a better place?" Gabriel is confused, but asks her what she means.
In Brooklyn at dusk, Magnes is searching for Teo and his usual haunts. He is down by the waterfront checking a bar Teo sometimes visits, but no one has seen him in days. Magnes starts walking down the street and tries calling Teo's phone again. We see Teo, back at his apartment, sitting in the tub trembling. His phone is ringing on the floor. Back in Brooklyn, Magnes doesn't notice the white van driving up behind him with the headlights out. As he hears the van approaching, Magnes slowly turns and looks confused when two men in white hazmat suits step out. Just as Magnes is prepared to run he is struck by the darts of a taser and collapses to the ground, dropping his phone. In Teo's apartment, he leans out of the tub and picks up the phone. But by the time he answers, the line has gone dead.
We cut to a dimly-lit hospital at night. The camera tracks through the emergency room entrance, past several closed doors, and down a long hall. As the camera turns into a hospital room, we see Gabriel from behind standing in the doorway, looking at a young man laying in a hospital bed. A sign on the wall by the door reads "Acute Care, Cancer Treatment." The man on the bed opens his eyes and sees Gabriel and asks him, "are you a doctor?"
Gabriel steps into the room and says. "No, but I'm here to help with the pain." He slowly shuts the door.
