“The Lion’s Den” picks up where the last one left off: with Noah, Quentin and Taylor fleeing the premises and deciding a talk with Erica is necessary in regards to her genocide plans. On the other side of the spectrum, Malina is feeling insecure about her abilities and Farah reassures Malina that her powers will fully manifest when she’s truly ready before she heads off, leaving Malina on her own. Erica is agitated by all the Evernow cosplayers outside the Renautas office and grows increasingly restless due to losing Molly Walker before her powers could synch 100% with EPIC; Harris reminds Erica that EPIC is being used by law enforcement and is far from being a failure before he heads off to find Miko and hide the sword at Erica’s home. Tommy is being hassled by the Feds and they implant a tracking chip within him so they can locate him at all times. Carlos is back from doing whatever he was in the last episode and panics when he realizes Jose is missing; cue the opening credits.

Team Noah remains on the run and they discover compartments of seeds (a seed bank); the kind you need when you’re planning to repopulate after an extinction. Noah is now more determined than ever to speak to Erica and Taylor now refers to her mom as “that evil bitch.” Well said Taylor, well said! But one thing that still confuses me about Taylor is that her mother isn’t exactly discreet about her plans of world extinction and domination so how has Taylor been oblivious to her plans for so long? Could Taylor be a double agent that was maliciously planted by Erica herself? Time will tell and one thing’s certain: no one suspects Taylor of being evil so it’s likely she’ll end up being just that. Luke heads back home and is extremely cautious when entering due to Joanne who is unsurprisingly absent. She’s probably off feeding on the souls of the innocent. A clone of Harris, or Harris himself (I can’t tell anymore), locates Farah and is steps away from Malina. The other Harris is eagerly searching for Miko who is confused by Harris’ EPIC gear. Tommy teleports away from the Feds after finding out he’s adopted; his real name is indeed Tommy, but who his birth parents are remains a mystery. The reveal of who Tommy’s parents are is sure to be a big one and I’m praying he isn’t the child of one of the original Heroes characters. Malina and Farah manage to evade Harris and company all thanks to Malina’s powers. The CGI in this scene was particularly atrocious and thankfully it was brief.

Carlos storms off to see Detective Dearing who is apprehend after being identified as an Evo via his colleagues EPIC gear that just arrived. Carlos flees the scene the minute he sees this. We’re introduced to Richard, an ambitious scientist who’s helping Erica in her cause; Richard doesn’t look like a bad guy and is most likely unaware of Erica’s true plans for the world. Taylor calls Erica and begs to talk to her to “make things right” and Erica heads off to see her. Taylor states she’s always been a good fake cryer which furthers my suspicion about her true intentions. Miko and Ren manage to avoid Harris yet again and I’m left sighing in boredom; when exactly will Miko get her hands on the katana. Tommy heads home only to discover they’ve been evicted due to his recent Evo status. The landlord fearfully rushes past Tommy who’s now lost his home. Luke is still at home, mourning the loss of his son before he calls a woman named Marcy and asks to see Don. Farah is shot by Harris and Malina is unable to fight against Phoebe aka The Shadow so she leaves Farah behind. Before Malina leaves, Farah hands her an envelope that contains all the answers she needs.

Malina stows away on a lumber truck and is safe – for now. Tommy teleports to Emily’s room and proceeds to have a hissy-fit about being adopted. Emily reasons that it isn’t a big deal and that Tommy should talk to his mom about the issue. I’m sorry but I just can’t stand Tommy; we’re five episodes in and his whole teen angst “I want to be normal” attitude really isn’t working for me. Carlos gets the chance to test out his new El Vengador suit (which works pretty well for him) when he “saves” Dearing and basically spares his life in order to find out where Jose is. I really enjoyed this scene because the dynamic between Carlos and Dearing is sassy and electric. I’m hoping Dearing sticks around and becomes a vigilante just like Carlos, though that seems highly unlikely. Miko and Ren aren’t able to stop Harris from leaving Renautas with the sword, but Ren places a tracker in Harris’ vehicle. Noah and Quentin “ambush” Erica during her talk with Taylor. Erica lets Taylor know she broke her heart and Taylor responds brilliantly with, “not sure you have one anymore.”

The talk between Noah and Erica was perhaps the most plot heavy aspect of the episode. Erica continues to insist she’s doing all of this for the sake of the planet and she claims to have nothing to do with Claire’s death. She also states that Hiro Nakamura “died at the Summit along with everyone else” all thanks to Mohinder Suresh; considering Hiro is still alive, we can safely assume Erica is partially or completely bullshiting. Something else to think about: Erica implies and then out rightly states that Noah had his memories erased in order to protect “someone.” Could it have been Malina or is it an original Heroes character? Harris joins the party as well and holds Noah at gun-point. Back to weepy Luke, he decides to sell his medical practice to Don and claims this is his way of “atoning” *cue dramatic eye-roll* Luke’s character continues to shift abruptly and quite frankly the show needs to settle on what path he’ll be walking down; not too long ago, he was murdering countless Evos and now he’s abruptly feeling remorse? Hopefully some consistency is added to Luke’s character and we see him move past his grieving stage.

Miko epically dive rolls through glass and indirectly helps Team Noah. Miko manages to get her katana and immediately enters the world of Evernow in order to save her father, but not before sharing a hug with Ren. These two are absolutely killing me with fluff; they are bound to be endgame…right? Tommy visits his mom and instead of asking her how she’s doing, he proceeds to question and accuse her. She calls him Nathan, so I’m assuming this is Tommy’s real name. This scene highlights all the differences between Claire and Tommy; Claire cared for everyone immensely and despite being lied to by Noah countless times, she always gave him the benefit of the doubt and worried for him first and foremost. Tommy’s dismissal of his mother’s health was both selfish and childish. Sure he’s a teenager, but is it necessary to make him so damn unlikeable? Tommy’s mom says she’s ready to tell him everything and then Mr. Hat shows up and questions if she’s truly ready to tell him everything. Seriously…who is this guy?

It’s revealed to Tommy that his mother and Mr. Hat already know each other and Tommy’s mom ran away from him and whichever company he works for; she mentions if she had told him the entire truth, he would have set out to save his father. Mr. Hat tells Tommy he’s going to help save the world and Tommy predictably refuses and teleports away. Seriously, am I the only one who can’t stand him? It looks like Luke has found some sort of path to venture down and in order to do so, he sets his house on fire starting with his son’s room; he also ditches his wedding ring and only takes his son’s miniature boat, that he helped him make, along with him. We briefly check in with Malina who’s still stowed away on the truck, crying due to losing Farah. And at last, we finally find out about the event Malina is trying to prevent: basically…the world will soon be ending due to solar radiation and in a matter of days, 96% of the world population will be wiped out. This is ultimately what Erica wants in order to restart humanity, what makes her so sure she’ll survive the solar radiation? This was the big reveal of “The Lion’s Den” and the preview for next week promises the long-awaited return of Hiro Nakamura.

Heroes Reborn continues to consistently capture my attention despite having multiple downsides (Tommy, Luke, Joanna). Despite the negatives, the show contains more positives – for now; only time will tell if my feelings for Heroes Reborn will stay consistent!

What did you think of “The Lion Den?” Let us know in the comments down below!