Major Spoiler: HEROES VILLAINS

Episode 3-01 ‘A second coming’ premiered today at the 2008 San Diego ComicCon.

The ODI and Newsarama so far posted a report, and -obviously- the’re stuffed with spoilers, including who shoot Nathan, if Nathan is alive or not, if Mohinder has special powers or not, who’s Saylar going to… well, you got the point…click on ‘continue…’ to read the spoilers.

The episode picks up at the end of the abbreviated Season Two, with the attempt on Nathan Petrelli’s life. Nathan flat-lines on the operating table — but then he comes back to life, pale as a Casper and twice as grateful.

Then we learn that it was Nathan’s brother Peter - from the future - who came back in time to kill Nathan, to prevent him from revealing to the world the existence of super-powered people. Matt figures it out, and gets banished to the desert for his troubles.

Hiro is in Japan, a titan of industry running his family’s company. He tells Ando he’s bored, that after saving the world — twice — he’s a man without a quest. And right on cue, he’s delivered a dvd with a message his father recorded for him before his death.

The message? On the dvd, Hiro’s dad Kaito Nakamura (George Takei) explains that he is now the protector of a secret that, if it falls into the wrong hands, could destroy the world. It’s in his safe, and he’s instructed to NEVER open the safe. “It’s half of a formula…It’s the light, to combat darkness,” Nakamura says in the recording.

After Hiro and Ando open the safe (and get chided for it posthumously by Hiro’s father). Season 3’s new villain, a blonde named Daphne, AKA Speedster (Brea Grant) shows up and steals the formula.

Sylar’s back! He shows up and terrorizes Claire in her home in a scene obviously written by someone with affection for the “Scream” horror franchise. Their scenes together were the highlights of the episode, simultaneously tense and funny. “I know you’re scared Claire,” Sylar says. “I would be too if I were here with someone like me.”

Claire stabs him in the heart with a huge kitchen knife. But Sylar overpowers her and then proceeds to pull a Hannibal Lector and cut the top of her head off and then pokes around in her brain and absorbs her power. As he walks out, Claire asks Sylar why he didn’t kill her.

“You can never die, Claire, “ he said. “I guess now, neither can I.”

Like Matt the intrepid cop, Niki Sanders gets short shrift in the episode. She shows up only briefly in a hotel room, scantily clad, with a political figure (played by Bruce Boxleitner) who’s interested in the newly-evangelical Nathan.

Nathan, you see, after his near-death experience has seen the light. “We are all connected. Save ourselves. Save the World.”

Meanwhile, Suresh makes a breakthrough. After watching Maya’s powers manifest themselves, he determines that the genetic building blocks for powers lie in the adrenal glands, and triggered by bursts of adrenaline.

He sees the opportunity to create superheroes on demand, with specific powers. Maya thinks it’s going against nature, and that he should destroy it.

But Suresh juices himself anyway, and wouldn’t you know he gave himself super-strength??

The episode had two HUGE reveals. Hiro, curious to see what the future holds if they don’t get the formula back, jumps forward and sees himself betrayed and struck down by a suddenly super-powered Ando! We get a quick glimpse of the potential Apocalypse as well. Then, after Angela warns Future Peter that he’s messed up the timeline with his actions, we learn that Present-Day Pete has been trapped inside the body of a prisoner in Level 5 of the company, the same place HRG is incarcerated.

Fade to black, episode ends.