Mothers and sons was the unofficial theme of last night's "Heroes." And after the slightly underwhelming future episode the show returned to form. Lots happened; this time we'll go from least interesting to most interesting subplots.

-Nikki and DL teamed up to rescue the Linderman-napped Micah. I stand firm in my abiding love of Jessica/Nikki even though pretty much everyone I know hates the character. But man, I am done with DL. What an awful, awful actor. He's not even soap opera-level. I don't expect either of them to make it to Season 2, but for very different reasons. Anyway, the two of them break into Linderman's hotel and find his hidden art room that also, coincidentally, includes L-man's scrapbooking project devoted to Nikki and DL. After seeing old family photos, grade school report cards, etc., DL surmises that Linderman has been involved in their lives for years, and he suspects that they are in fact Linderman's science projects - with Micah being the end product. If that's the case I'm not sure how I feel about this twist. You're telling me that Linderman would have stood by and done nothing to help Nikki while she (or Jessica - I forget) was being abused by her father, becoming a stripper, etc.? Or when DL went to prison? Clearly he's involved, but the implication that he's been pulling their strings for years doesn't add up.

-Micah figured out that his "mom" is not his mom, and illusion girl (WHY can I not remember that character's NAME?) traps him in a pretty cool Moebius strip of reality that prevents him from escaping. I'm not a fan of Micah, but I'm really starting to love illusion girl.

-Claire and Peter endlessly debated whether or not Claire should go to Paris (and wear that kicky new overcoat courtesy of Mama P) or stay and save the world. Claire wants out; she's sick of being a freak and everyone using her. Normally I would find this kind of petulance annoying, but Claire makes everything look good. Peter ultimately tells her that he's destined to go boom, and tells Claire that if that happens she's the only one who'll be able to get close enough to him to put a bullet in his brain. Then he gives her a gun. Not for nothing, but would a bullet really kill Peter at this point? Even if it was in the back of the head, like the glass? I don't know, I'm just asking. Claire also realizes that she knows someone who can explode, namely Radioactive Ted, who she met when he took her family hostage in Texas. They decide to search for Ted and get Nathan to pull some strings to make it happen.

-Speaking of Nathan, he called Linderman because he's a) failing in the polls and b) still queasy about the blowing-up-New York idea, even moreso with Ted on the map. Linderman sends Eric Roberts to assuage his fears. When Claire sees La Roberts, she freaks and immediately becomes distrustful of Nathan. And she should start freaking about her grandma too, as Mama P reveals that she's totally in league with Linderman and is all for the destruction of New York. Really? I'm kind of bummed about that. I love that character and that actress, and would much rather have had her against Linderman than behind him.

-Mohinder got an interesting plotline (I know!) as he also called Eric Roberts (guy gets around) and tells him that he won't work for them, but they'll for him. Since Mohindy has the formula to find heroes, they need him. And he needs their resources to stop Sylar. Nice try, Mohinder, but no cigar. Eric Roberts totally preys on ‘Hinder's bleeding heart and introduces him to a girl named Molly, who has the power to locate anyone on the plant - including Sylar - but who is dying from the same rare disease that killed Mohinder's sister years ago. The best part is, we already know Molly. In a cool bit of continuity I had totally forgotten about, Molly is the little girl that Matt rescued back in the first six episodes when Sylar killed her family. We never fully understood why Sylar attacked that family and was so intent on killing Molly, but now we know. Very, very cool. Ultimately Mohinder whips up a cure for Molly, so her powers should return. And she also gives him a gold star drawn on paper to protect him from the "boogieman" (Sylar). No idea what that is, but you can bet it'll be significant.

-Ultimately Sylar was the star of the night, as after killing Isaac and stealing his precognitive powers he paints Ted and decides that Sylar is going to kill him and become the exploding man in Isaac's painting. Interestingly, the idea of killing thousands of innocents completely freaks out Sylar, and we see his conscience for the first time. Suddenly Sylar became a much more interesting character. That complexity is only bolstered when he goes totally Clark Kent with the slicked hair, glasses, and sweater vest and visits his mother. (In truth, Zachary Quinto has never looked hotter than in the geek chic.) Their insanely passive-aggressive meeting hits a boiling point when he literally asks her for permission to not be someone special, to just move back to Queens and live the quiet life of a watch repairman. His mother denies him, explaining that she could never let him waste his life like that when he's clearly so special he could be anything, even president (oh, irony...). That seals her fate as Sylar shows just how "special" he is, freezing the water from the sink sprayer into snow and swirling it about, turning her living room into a real-life snow globe, of which she is a collector. At first she's amazed, then frightened, and Sylar goes a little nuts with the display of power and barely sublimated rage for the woman, and starts hurling snow globes at her head. Ouch. She freaks out, grabs a pair of scissors and tries to force him to leave, they tussle, and of course she gets stabbed and dies. Happy Mother's Day!

-That brings us to Hiro and Ando, who zapped back from the future into Isaac's apartment and nearly came face to face with Sylar earlier in the episode. They teleported away, and then followed Sylar to his mom's. They watched as he murdered her, and then Hiro froze time and prepared to kill him with his sword. But at the last minute Sylar unfreezes himself (how does he do that? I suspect it's part of his "I know how things work" power, which naturally kick in to create a solution to whatever immediate danger he's in; think of the Mohinder drug situation) and instructs Hiro to do it, to kill him. Hiro hesitates and Sylar freezes and breaks Hiro's sword. Damn it! We waited a whole freaking season for Hiro to get that thing, and then it's gone in like three episodes. Lame. Hiro and Ando teleport out, and realize that they are well and truly screwed.

-Peter and Claire leave Nathan's office and go to some square in Manhattan with a dual-stair structure (it's vaguely reminiscent of the "heroes" symbol that's sprinkled all over the show) because Peter painted it in a future dream. Peter wants Claire's help to find Ted, who the painting showed at that location. Lo and behold he shows up with Stupid Matt and Bennett, and Bennett and Claire have a tearful reunion interrupted when Pete inadvertently starts absorbing Ted's powers and starts going nuclear. Oops! Good job, Claire. You could have saved the world right there by keeping those two apart, but you had to go and hug your dad, didn't you. ... Oh, who am I kidding? I can't stay mad at you!

Next episode: NBC wants you to think that Peter ‘splodes, but you're not that stupid, are you? You've got at least another episode before that happens.