Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Across the world, people discover abilities that unsettle their ordinary plans. Nurse Peter Petrelli absorbs powers from people around him and struggles to control them, while his brother Nathan tries to protect a political career built on secrecy. Tokyo office worker Hiro Nakamura learns to bend time and space and sets out for New York with his friend Ando. Cheerleader Claire Bennet survives fatal injuries, and police officer Matt Parkman hears other people’s thoughts. Mohinder Suresh continues his late father’s search for the source of these changes.
Their stories converge around a warning that an explosion will devastate New York. Isaac Mendez paints images of the future, including a city in ruins, while Peter’s visions suggest that he may be the person who detonates. Noah Bennet, Claire’s adoptive father, works for the secretive Company, which tracks and studies people with abilities. He tries to keep Claire safe, but his duties pull him into a conspiracy involving the Company’s founders, politician Daniel Linderman, and killer Gabriel Gray, known as Sylar, who hunts people to take their powers.
As the predicted day approaches, Hiro reaches New York and finds Ando in danger, while Peter and Claire try to stop Sylar from carrying out his plan. At Kirby Plaza, Sylar overpowers the arriving heroes and Hiro drives his sword through him before being thrown aside. Peter cannot contain the energy building inside him, and Claire cannot bring herself to shoot him. Nathan flies his brother high above the city, where the explosion can do no harm to the people below. New York is spared; Peter and Nathan are presumed dead, but Sylar’s blood trail leads to an open manhole, leaving his fate unresolved.