Another good episode, and yet another good cliff-hanger.  I’m impressed that they’ve ran this back to back for six episodes, and have another one next week.  LOST won’t have seven straight until after this first six episode tease.

Michael has a good recap, if you can get past the crowing of  ‘I called it, EDEN is THE MOLE!’

As always it starts off where we left off, and we get some focus on the mystery of Niki’s powers.  Up until now we have just skirted revealing her power, which is somekinda split personality disorder on steroids.

Last episode we left Peter answering present day Hiro’s phone call, and we pick up with Peter saying the battle cry!

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!

Hiro and Ando have a broken conversation about which no one really knows what the next step is, or who the cheerleader is, but they agree to meet up in New York, while Peter and Issac work on figuring out who the is the cheerleader.  Peter also spills that future hero has a sword, which later edges Hiro into katana geek-out mode.   Spoilers and recap after the break.The major plot line is Niki.

Niki discovers D.L. (her husband that vanished) is in the house.  They have a confrontation, but not violent (yet!) and Niki protects D.L. from the police outside the house.  D.L. tells her a story about how his major plan got disrupted and he had to hide from Lindeman, after some woman killed his crew and took off with the money from the heist.  Niki doesn’t know what to believe but is glad to have D.L. back, glad enough to invite him to her bed. when the morning comes, D.L. mentions that she went out for a while during the night, Niki doesn’t recall where she went, but a peak in the mirror tells us that her smirking doppleganger knows something that she doesn’t.

Niki secretively takes D.L. to some guys place (the gamblers that beat up Hiro and Ando last episode) to see if he can find out the name of the girl.  After going through a locked door, D.L. discovers that the gambler’s lair has been ransacked and everyone killed.  (this happened while Hiro and Anro were in the bathroom, after the gambler brought them to his place to recoup some of his losses…)  The grusome mess is remincent of Niki’s garage after her doppleganger killed Lindeman’s thugs.  D.L and Niki leave the place and go back to Niki’s house.

Niki confesses that she borrowed money from Lindeman after D.L. left and that what they just saw was exactly like what happened to Lindeman’s men in the garage, and that she knows that it was her.  D.L. thinks that Niki is being set up and framed.  Niki confronts her doppleganger, and loses another patch of time.  Niki goes into freakout mode in her room.  Where her and her doppleganger have that long talk they’ve needed to have.  ikiN (the doppleganger) confronts Niki with the truth, that she had set up D.L and killed his crew, and took the money.  ikiN lays out the whole thing, admitting that she did what needed to be done, and hasn’t left any witnesses.  The next step on the ikiN road of horrors is to grab the money, and get as far away from D.L. as possible, because once he knows the truth, he’ll make things bad for Niki and Micah.  Niki decides to go with ikiN’s plan, and asks where the money is.

Niki finds a briefcase in the attic with $2 mil and a pistol in it.  (Ummm.. WHY didn’t they (Niki/ikiN) use this to pay bills before… ?)  D.L. spots her coming out of the attic with the case, and realizes that Niki set him up.  D.L. threatens to take Micah away, and Evil ikiN takes over and bust D.L. across the room.  D.L. hides in the wall, and then grabs ikiN.  The wrestle, and then D.L. reaches inside of ikiN and grabs something, she falls unconcious to the floor, while D.L. grabs Micah and leaves.

The other major plot line is Claire meeting her ‘birth parents’.  Nothing really happens during the meeting except at the end that Claire’s adopted father, HRG (Horned Rimmed Glasses) set this meeting up with people he works with.  Also that HRG has Eden working for him.  Eden has been a confidant of Mohinder, and HRG gets the update that Peter told Mohinder, ‘Save the Cheerleader, Save the World,’ and that HRG wants Eden to bring the pre-cog in.  The other part is that Claire’s discovers she had some chromosonal ‘things’ when she was a baby.
Lastly we follow Ando around one more Las Vegas adventure.  After talking to Peter about future sword bearing Hiro, and getting all excited about the quest, they get sidetracked into another card game by the guy the suckered last time.  To pay off the money they stole from him last time, he wants them to play another game and this time make things go his way.  The game gets interrupted by ikiN.  After escaping from the bathroom where they were hiding during ikiN’s murder spree, they walk back to their car, still in the garage.  Hiro is distraught that he could have saved the card players, but instead did nothing.  Ando talks him out of his stupor, and lets him know he can always come back and change things, a do over.

The story didn’t move very far, a better look at some character, and the introduction of D.L. and his ability to move through material things.  We discovered A LOT of Niki’s back story.  And Claire didn’t even wear her cheerleading uniform.  Next week things start to get closer to the big bang in New York.  We’ll also see if Niki survived her battle with D.L.

Is Niki good or bad?  Is D.L. good or bad?   Do HRG and his compatriots work for the good, or for the bad.  I find it hard the danger to Claire comes from her father?  Will Sylar be revealed?  What is the meaning of the symbol on ikiN’s back?
Can’t wait for next week!