Now THAT was an intense hour of television. In what I think might have been a first, "Heroes" devoted the entire episode to one story: the standoff between Team Loser (Matt and Radioactive Roy) and the Bennett Clan. Multiple people were ducktaped to a chair, a couple people got shot, somebody went nuclear (literally), and a whole lot of secrets came spilling out. Lots of stuff happened, so this'll be a long one. Let's delve in.

-The main point of the episode was to flesh out the character of Mr. Bennett, also known as Horn-Rimmed Glasses or HRG. Bennett has been with us since the get-go, at first made to look like a villain, but more recently cast as a sympathetic dad trying to do what he can to save his daughter. Tonight's episode brought it all into focus. We flash back 20 years or so to Bennett meeting with Eric Roberts (!) and joining up with some secretive group to hunt down powers. He's partnered with Claude the Invisible Jackass (sans beard), and Bennett promises that he's fine with "moral gray areas."

-We then flashback to 15 years, where Bennett, Claude, Eric Roberts (we never learn his name; hmmm....), and none other than GEORGE TAKEI (!) as Hiro's dad have a discussion on the Manhattan rooftop we all recognize as Simone's building (another hmmm....). Also present? A pre-teen Hiro playing Gameboy and a baby girl that Takei gives to Bennett to raise. It is Claire, rescued from the fire that they believe killed Claire's mom, who they were apparently on to (another hmmm...). Bennett wants no part of the baby, but Takei insists. And he instructs him that should Claire manifest powers, Bennett must immediately turn her over to them.

-Another flashback to a couple years later, as Bennett is ordered to kill Invisible Jackass because the group has discovered that he's hiding a superpowered person from them. Interestingly, we never discover who this super is. Because Bennett "accidentally" shoots Claude a couple times, and then Claude goes invisible and presumably plummets from a bridge to his death. Except, you know, not.

-Another flashback shows Bennett confessing to Eric Roberts that his wife found his gun and files, and suspects him of being a serial killer. Eric Roberts explains that it's no biggie, they have a new find, a "mute" boy from Haiti who can wipe minds. The ultimate payoff? Bennett has been mindwiping his wife for more than a decade. Yowza.

So some interesting stuff to speculate on.

-Superficially, I was almost positive that Wireless was with Radioactive Roy and Matt when they stormed compound Bennett last episode. She isn't in this episode at all, even though she's clearly working with those two. Why wouldn't she want to confront Bennett directly?

-This group that Bennett, Roberts, Haitian Sensation, and Invisible Claude work/worked for is meant to seem like a government organization. I don't think it is. The fact that Hiro's dad is clearly a player in this scene suggests either a corporation or some kind of global conspiracy. And I'd lay even odds that the big boss of it all is one Mr. Linderman.

-Speaking of, I'm not convinced that the white-haired guy teased in next episode as Linderman is actually who they say he is. Let's face it: You don't hire Eric Roberts to have him play the patsy. He is the heavy. And Even if old guy IS Linderman, it doesn't mean Eric Roberts isn't still somehow in charge.

-This group has been tracking superpowered people for an entire generation. How long has this been going on? I had thought the eclipse thing in the first episode was the "trigger," since so many of the characters seemed to be manifesting then. But this suggests "heroes" have been around much longer than that. What started it all? Fascinating.

-When Bennett confronts Haitian Sensation about the fact that a) he can talk and b) he didn't mindwipe Claire as ordered, Haitian tells him that he reports to someone "higher" in Claire's life. Now that's an interesting reveal. My initial guess? Either Nathan, who has known about his powers since his wife's accident and might have also known more about his daughter than he's let on, or Nathan's dad, who I'm still not convinced is actually dead. (I frankly think he's Linderman.)

-The scene on that familiar rooftop has me wondering if Simone isn't more involved in this than we thought. If memory serves, the actor playing her dad was a "name" actor --- meaning, we would recognize him. You don't kill off a name actor that casually. What if he was involved in this whole thing, much like Hiro's dad? And what if Simone's actually a "hero"? (That said, I hope the teaser for next week is actually a dream, and that she really is dead, because I kind of hate her.)

-So is Matt going to become Bennett's new partner? And what's up with that mean-looking girl whose power was not disclosed? Bennett's life just got a lot more complicated.

-We definitively learned what we all suspected: that all of Bennett's machinations were to protect Claire from the group he's been working for all along. He's known about Claire's powers at least since he found the tapes she was making, so he's been trying to play a shell game with Eric Roberts for some time (Eric Roberts is not easily fooled, however). That last scene on the bridge where Bennett fakes a kidnapping so that Haitian Sensation can kidnap Claire was as heartbreaking as I knew it would be, and that Hayden is a great little actress. I'm very curious to see where they take Claire now, but I'm afraid we won't see her adoptive mom or bro anymore. Or Mr. Muggles. And that makes me sad.