One Giant Leap

Niki finishes burying the dead thugs from the previous episode. Afterward, she confronts her mother-in-law, who believes she cannot take care of Micah. Niki reveals that her estranged husband D.L. has escaped from prison. Later, Niki and Micah are taken willingly by one of Mr. Linderman's henchmen.

After her high school's football team's victory, Claire attends a celebratory bonfire. Brody Mitchum, the team's quarterback, talks to Claire and takes her away from the group, then attempts to rape her. After a brief struggle, Claire's head is impaled on a branch and Brody conceals her body. At the end of the episode, an autopsy is being performed on Claire, and the branch is removed, causing her to revive.

Hiro returns to the present, where he shows Ando a comic book he obtained during his visit to future New York that depicts their exact words and actions. Hiro convinces Ando to follow him to America, where they will be responsible for saving the world from the catastrophe witnessed by Hiro in the future.

Peter is still angry at Nathan for denying their situation; Nathan is more concerned about Peter's appearance to the press and its potential effects on his campaign. At a campaign event that evening, Nathan claims to his guests that Peter was depressed, and attempted to commit suicide. Peter leaves, angered, but is found by Simone, who he had confessed his love to earlier, and they kiss.

Mohinder and Eden find an address that appears to be Sylar's apartment. There, they find that Sylar has much information on where to find the superpowered characters, as well as confessional messages from Sylar. Later, they return to find everything missing.

Matt convinces Audrey that he is innocent and that he can read minds. Audrey offers him a job with the FBI. Sylar finds Molly and attempts to attack her, but is pursued by Matt and Audrey. Despite sustaining several apparent gun wounds, he gets up and escapes. At home, Matt and his wife argue, and Matt leaves. At a bar, he sees a mysterious man ("the Haitian") whose mind he can't read, and Matt falls unconscious.

Isaac forces Simone to leave when she states that she does not believe in his precognition. Later, Isaac notices one of his drawings, depicting two people kissing in the rain — Simone and Peter.

At the beginning

When evolution selects its agents, it does so at a cost. It makes demands in exchange for singularity, and you may be asked to do something against your very nature. Suddenly, the change in your life that should have been wonderful comes as a betrayal. It may seem cruel, but the goal is nothing short of self-preservation... survival.

At the end

This force, evolution, is not sentimental. Like the Earth itself, it knows only the hard facts of life's struggle with death. All you can do is hope and trust that when you've served its needs faithfully... there may still remain some glimmer... of the life you once knew.

The helix symbol appears four times: As a scribble on Claire's geometry textbook, in Dr. Suresh's computer program used for finding people with special abilities, on the pictures of those people on the map in Sylar's apartment, and as a necklace worn by the mysterious man that Matt encounters.

The total viewership for this episode was 13.31 million. It earned an 8.1/12 share for the week.

• Watch "One Giant Leap" at NBC.com
• One Giant Leap at IMDb
• Beaming Beeman: Episode 3: One Giant Leap Director's blog on the filming of this episode.