After the recap a scene opens up in Matt Parkman’s house, where he and his wife are having passionate sex by their fireplace. After the camera pans Matt’s body is shown as Sylar, unbeknown to Janice that Sylar is inside Matt’s head. Matt awakens presumably a few hours later disoriented and unaware how he ended up in front of the fireplace. Janice awakens with him saying “That was amazing, you were amazing.” Matt looks up and sees Sylar in a bath robe sitting in a chair, tossing an apple up into the air before taking a bite. He ends the first scene delivering the line “The forbidden fruit, my favorite kind.”

The next scene opens up with Jeremy being placed in a holding cell at the local police department. Noah tries to reason with the town Sheriff, saying that the death of Jeremy’s parents was an accident, due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The Sheriff states that this isn’t the first time Jeremy has gotten himself into trouble, and that he won’t be released until the investigation is over, and only to his next of kin. Noah pulls out his cell phone and makes a call, saying “Hey it’s me, I need your help.” The help he requests ends up being Tracy, who shows up at the station after an undisclosed amount of time passes. Noah explains to her the situation, explaining Jeremy’s power and the incident with his parents, assuring her that it was a mistake due to Jeremy’s powers taking over his body, saying that she knows what it’s like, referencing her accidental murder of the reporter who hassled her last season. He presents her with a fake I.D. that states Tracy as being Jeremy’s aunt. Reluctantly, Tracy agrees to Noah’s proposition and enters the station.

The next scene starts with Claire and Gretchen both laying awake in bed. Claire asks her if she’s awake, and when Gretchen says she is, Claire says that they should “talk about this.” Claire explains that although the kiss Gretchen gave her wasn’t bad, she doesn’t want to mess up the chance of having an ordinary life. Suddenly, without warning, three figures dressed in black suits and masks slam the door open and enter their room. Claire quickly arms herself with a nearby waste basket, knocking down two of the three people. The third figure takes off her mask, revealing herself to be Becky, and that the whole thing was simply a ritualistic fraternity prank, and that they were being “kidnapped.” Claire apologizes for harming the other two to which Becky asks “Do you want to be in the sorority, or not?” Claire asks where Becky is taking them, to which Becky replies “Well if I told you, that wouldn’t be a very good kidnapping, would it?”

The next scene opens up with Claire and Gretchen tied up in the trunk of a car. They have a small conversation about friendship, and then Gretchen asks Claire “which way do you like me?” To which Claire replies “I don’t know.” The car comes to a stop and Becky opens the car saying “Good morning! Welcome to hell week!” After a small transition Claire, Gretchen, and two other unnamed college girls are bound and on their knees with black bags over their heads. Becky explains to them that they are in a “screamin’ scavenger hunt”, looking for a big Alpha Ki treasure. The winners get to sit out of hell week. After Becky and her two friends leave, the girls remove their binds and masks.

The next scene opens with Tracy being confronted by Samuel and taken to the carnival. Samuel tells Tracy he knows all about the situation and says Jeremy would be safe with them. Tracy demands to be returned, but Samuel leaves her with a compass in case she needed to find her way. Jeremy was convinced to leave the cell by Tracy and Noah. Jeremy is being escorted out of the jail by Noah and Tracy. Upon leaving the cell and being ridiculed and mobbed by reporters and angry protesters who do not want him released. One angry protester comes up and grabs Jeremy to react. Jeremy loses control and eventually puts the man in severe pain. While Tracy and Noah try to convince Jeremy to heal the man, it is too late. Jeremy makes a U-turn and returns to the cell. While Noah and Tracie try to convince the Sheriff to let them see Jeremy, a police officer takes Jeremy out the back of the Police station and points a gun at him stating, “You don’t belong here.” and ties a chain around his legs that is connected to a police car. He tries to get Jeremy to do something so he can shoot him but Jeremy puts his hands to his sides as the police car speeds away in the background as the chain quickly tightens.

Back at the Parkman household Matt has told his wife about Sylar being in his head and at his request takes Baby Matt and flees leaving Matt to figure out how to get Sylar out of his head. After calling Mohinder he has a beer. While having the beer he sees Sylar being affected by the alcohol and decides to start drinking hard liquor. While Matt and Sylar both get more and more drunk Matt and Sylar go back and forth with insults Sylar passes out and starts fading away as Matt laughs and drinks more. As Sylar completely disappears Matt’s wife and his partner walk in. Matt yells, “I DID IT!” before passing out in front of them.

Claire and Gretchen split up with the other girls as they enter the “Prep Room” a room with chains and hooks hanging from the ceiling. As they find a teddy bear Gretchen tells Claire she finally “gets her” wanting to have a normal life and apologizes for putting her on the spot by wanting to start a relationship. Claire admits that she needs Gretchen. Suddenly a chain wraps around Gretchen’s neck and chokes her. Claire tries to save her and hits the invisible Becky with a broken wooden handle. She then gets flung back as Gretchen gets unwound from the chain. Claire hits a rebar sticking out of a wall and gets pierced through the chest. She then grabbs one of the hooks and cuts Becky across the shoulder. As Becky becomes visible the two other girls walk in. Claire screams “Grab her!” but Becky goes invisible and rushes between the girls and out the door. The girls then scream as Gretchen pulls Claire off of the rebar. The two girls look at Gretchen and Claire and ask, “What’s happening?” Gretchen looks at Claire, who’s normal life just came crashing down around her and says, “What are we going to do?”

Tracy and Noah are in a car and they come across Jeremy’s body in the middle of the road looking mangled and scraped from being dragged over the pavement. Tracy sobs over the body and says he had a home. A real home. They then argue about letting him down after promising not to. Tracy asks if he thinks they could ever live out in the open. Noah says that after today he does not think so. Tracy tells Noah never to call her again and she gets in the car as Noah walks away. She takes out the compass that Samuel gave to her and it stops spinning and points in one direction.

In the Parkman house Matt wakes up and gets embraced by his wife. His partner asks what happened and Matt states that he is OK now. His partner hands him his AA coin and says “Not quite, we start over from the beginning.” Matt and his wife declare their love and hug. Then Matt leaves to take a shower. As he is going around the corner tossing an apple up and down he comes out the other side of a wall as Sylar, who has now completely taken over Matt’s body. He sees a panic stricken Matt and says, “Let me guess. You want your body back?” He then explained as soon as Matt passed out he took over. Now he is in the driver’s seat. As he laughs Matt’s wife sees him talking to no one through the patio door.

Back in the small town an angry Samuel demolishes the police station and walks away.

“Strange Attractors” is the sixth episode of the fourth season of the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes and sixty-fifth episode overall. The episode aired on October 26, 2009.

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