(S01E14) Before the heroes can eliminate troublesome distractions they must discover what their own true distractions are.

Claude is a kick, and Peter finds out the hard way that he is also quite the hands-on teacher. The invisible Claude might be cynical and a misanthrope, but he does get results. Being thrown off a thirty-story building quickly clarifies things for Peter, though his subsequent revelation is exactly the opposite of Claude's philosophy. And Peter's breakthrough makes him more clearly a kind of anti-Sylar. Each absorbs powers, Sylar does it while killing, Peter does it by allowing himself to feel a life-affirming connection to the other heroes he has caught an ability from. It starts with a memory of Claire, who we now know ...

... happens to be Peter's niece. Judging from guesses made in the comments here last week, the reveal of Nathan as Claire's real father wasn't that much of a surprise to anyone.

Really though, besides the as-yet-unseen Linderman, there weren't a lot of other likely candidates. Nathan is also the only character who wears dress shirts with the cuffs rolled up as seen in all the NBC promos this week. So there you go. "Some family," as both Claire and her birth-mom say. Anyway, I'd rather it be Nathan, and a little too obvious to figure out, than have had some goofy twist just for the sake of having a twist. Claire turning out to be a Petrelli opens up some story possibilities, and give her a good reason to blow Odessa for the Big Apple. Only question is whether she will bring the ever-increasingly-studly Zach along. Just how strong are those Haitian brain-wipes anyway?

As I've said before, I am constantly made happy by the knowledge that so many characters act in their own interest and share information with each other on a regular basis on his show. Claire and her real mom reveal their powers to one another, for one thing.

More impressively, Hiro stands right up to his father when his father demands he return to Japan and fulfill his destiny. As we know, Hiro sees another destiny for himself and in fact says so. Nevertheless, he is presented here with a real dilemma. His family is counting on him and his father's own reputation as a leader is on the line for his perceived inability to control his own son. Ando adds to Hiro's despair by helpfully reminding him that his time/space-bending ability seems to have disappeared anyway. Maybe it's time to give up the good fight?

Hiro's solution is inventive; he appears to agree, but only to demonstrate how very wrong he is for the job of corporate vice president. The true and proper heir to the family fortunes has been right in front of the old man all along. He has been too tradition-bound to realize that his own daughter should be running the company. This was little more serious than many of the Hiro and Ando adventures, but it seems to me Hiro made one of his most significant steps yet toward becoming his own person, and the hero he believes he is destined to be.

All this honest family sharing once again point out how badly H.R.G. is screwing up at home. Mr. Bennet's wife (who almost slips out with H.R.G.'s first name -- what a tease) is so loopy from frequent brain-wipes that it takes her a disturbingly long time to find anything the least bit odd about a creepy-eyebrow man with a very flimsy cover story slinking around her house.

When Claire comes home to discover evidence that something is amiss, she smiles brightly at her adopted father. He's proven himself so manipulative and deceptive in her eyes that she doesn't feel the slightest guilt at deceiving him any longer. Really too bad for H.R.G. that he took that path with her. After Homecoming, they had a chance to be close. Instead he chooses to try and keep her, and everyone close to him, in the dark forever, believing that there is safety in ignorance. He's wrong about that.

What the heck was Sylar thinking by not killing H.R.G. when escaping the paper mill? That's a little convenient. The best excuse I can come up with is that Sylar wanted to come back later and torture H.R.G. with the news of Claire's death, or something.

The only other plot point that bugged me in another otherwise great episode was when Peter sees Isaac and Simone touching foreheads in an innocent, but easily misinterpreted, moment right out of every romantic comedy made in the last twenty-five years. When you are invisible and spying on your girlfriend, you might as well go ahead and stand close enough to hear the actual conversation. It would help minimize any misunderstandings.

I had hoped to see D.L. react to learning last week that Micah has an ability. I also wonder how they handled the money Micah dumped out of his school bag. However, next week, this family will have more to worry about than money now that Niki Jessica (and only Niki Jessica) is free. I think we got the answer to the question of how she is supposed to be a hero. She isn't. Looks to me like she's been destined to be a villain all along. Before she tasered the spit out of her doctor, there was a little hope that maybe Niki and Jessica could, through counseling, merge into some emotionally-balanced warrior chick. Now I'm thinking not. Pure evil. If Peter had a detonator sticking out of his head, Jessica would probably ignite it.

(Update: I originally inverted my mirror twins above. Thanks to Christopher and Hugeliver for catching it!)