You know, I had this whole thing planned out for tonight’s recap, when I’d skip the actual events of the episode and construct my entire theory of “Generations”, with the big centerpiece being “why I think Adam Monroe is Takezo Kensei”, and it was gonna totally freakin’ awesome, and then Heroes blew it by letting the big cliffhanger be, you guessed it, “Adam Monroe is Takezo Kensei”. Damnit.

But I can’t be too mad, since this was easily the best Heroes episode this year. I can’t compare it to the best of Season 1, since I’ve been so starved for a good episode of Heroes that I’m afraid my critical faculties have been blown to smithereens. This episode ranks below epics such as “Company Man” and “Five Years Gone”, but still captured the propulsiveness of Season 1’s storytelling.

So what I’d like to do, and which I can do, this being my own site and all, is try and track through the storyline from feudal Japan through 2008, and since just how the Heroes universe got from Point A to Point B. Join me, won’t you?

The tricky thing about nailing down the causality of the past is that with time travel, it’s super easy to get very confused very quickly and find loopholes in nearly every hypothetical postulate. I mean, Jesus, just look at that last sentence if you need a clearer example of how muddled things can get. The big question, really, is “Did Hiro’s journey back cause the present day chain of events, or were they always destined to be this way, insomuch as Hiro always goes back to 1671, always meets Kensei, always breaks his heart, and always turns him into a bad guy?”

In movies like Back to the Future 2, a single change (ie, a sports betting book) literally alters the landscape of the McFlys’ community. In Heroes, it’s much more subtle, with the chain of events leading to Takezo Kensei turning into Adam Monroe pretty much ingrained in the reality. Present-day New York City doesn’t have flying cars due to Hiro upsetting the balance of the universe, no such butterfly effect there, except for the effect that his journey back to Japan ever and always starts us down this path. Remember, in Heroes-world, the past is basically immutable, but the future is negotiable. (So, Hiro can help save New York, but can never save Charlie.)

Hiro teaches Kensei about his power, but more importantly, teaches him that he’s not alone in having them. It’s possible that after the artillery explosion in White Beard’s camp, The Artist formerly know as Kensei wandered the earth, like a more British version of Cain in Kung Fu, just looking for others like him. Because Hiro’s right, on some level: Kensei/Monroe craves companionship. He craves it both for the simple creature comfort of companionship, but he also clearly relishes the idea of being part of a superior species. He and Hitler probably got along amazingly well in the 1930’s.

In addition, while Kensei is invulnerable to injury, he’s not terribly omnipotent. He needs to surround himself with others who have power beyond his own: mind control, healing, telekinesis, etc. Powers that can be useful on a worldwide scale to affect the change he desires: mainly, a desire to be the ruling class for the globe. Others bought into his theories (like Linderman, his “disciple” according to Bob); others fragmented from the Company (Papa Nakamura, Charles Deveaux). One can now see the bomb in New York being Monroe’s idea, with Linderman running lead on the project.

Now, in the aftermath of Kirby Plaza, a systematic change came about in the Company, as alluded to in the Ukraine last week by Ivan. Something fundamentally altered within the structure of the Company, and what happened, plain and simple, is those remaining from the original 12 ganged up, caught Adam, threw him in a holding cell and threw away the key. Unable to truly kill him, they looked for other ways to make him vulnerable, at which point Mohinder Suresh’s sister came into the picture. Engineering a virus that could strip away a hero’s abilities could be useful to the Company in many ways, but the most important way was in neutralizing the biggest threat to their existence: Adam Monroe. By neutralizing his power, he could finally be killed.

Of course, they made the mistake of tossing him in the same cell as Peter Petrelli, only the most powerful hero on the planet. Peter is convinced by Adam to help him break out, and once out, he recruits the own one either loyal enough or scared enough (I’m thinking Peter Pettigrew territory here) to follow him: Maury Parkman. Monroe kills whom he can on his own, leaving Maury to dispatch of the rest. Thus, it was Monroe atop the Devaux Building that night, killing Hiro’s father, thus fulfilling his promise to Hiro: “You will suffer.” But it was Maury mentally messing with Angela and making Niki see DL: Adam could not touch Angela or Bob, and needed Maury’s help.

So, essentially, Hiro’s responsible for his father’s death thanks to one kiss. The lesson, as always, is that women ruin everything. Wheee. And yes, I’m kidding. Moving on.

With Adam’s escape, Bob’s desire to create a virus takes on more desperate measures. After all, his first attempts with Sylar were inconclusive, thanks to Sylar escaping Candice’s mindtraps. He pushes forth, recklessly, in order to save his own skin. This is turn leads to a mutation in the strain of the Shanti virus, with Niki as the nominal Patient Zero. She’s the first of literally billions who die thanks to The Company’s attempts to stop Adam Monroe. While Bob states tonight that he will destroy every remaining sample, clearly he won’t, so long as Adam is alive.

In the meantime, The Company sends Elle to look for Peter, who is in Cork, Ireland thanks to Adam’s machinations. Adam clearly intends to use Peter to both take down the Company as well as unleash the virus. A virus cannot kill Adam, so the thought of having 5 billion or so inferior beings off his planet really doesn’t bother him terribly. Elle cooks the Irish thug due to the extreme urgency of her mission: finding Peter prevents Adam’s master plan from reaching fruition. In the future Peter saw, Adam’s plan to use Peter to break the Company and achieve the unleashing of the virus was successful, with those of the power-having ilk dying off first before it leapt over into the “normal” population.

Given the fact that the Japan plotline finally, finally, finally paid off tonight, I’m willing to wager that the one thing that can actually prevent this virus is Maya. There’s no other reason to introduce her character to the show and send her hurtling towards NYC than to play a part in this virus storyline. Because in essence, her power is a virus: an airborne virus bred through her black tears that slowly kill all around her. The fact that her power seems so destructive now likely means it can ultimately be used for some good purpose: like, say, counterbalancing the Shanti virus. I’m not a huge fan of her character, but this theory makes a lot of sense to me.

***

So that’s what I have so far. Tell me if you agree, if you wish to amend, or wish to tell me to eff off. Actually, don’t do the latter: just make your case as to why you’re right and I’m wrong. Much more civil that way. And I’m all about civility.