Heroes: She may have lost the popular vote, but she won the geektoral college

Okay, so there are other plotlines this week. Mohinder, through the help of Dream Kid, the Human Fortune Cookie, decides that his destiny is to go back to New York and find the heroes. Jessica shoots at D.L. But come on, what you really care about is Claire, right? Well, let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

Nathan gets the painting from Linderman, and it shows Peter dead outside the high school at 8:12. He destroys it, ostensibly to save Peter, and just as he does, he gets a supremely evil look in his eye. Hey, maybe he is going to turn out to be a supervillain after all. Because all the really good supervillains get into supervillainy thinking they're doing the right thing. I mean, I can only think of Darth Vader right now, and that was a stupid, O. Henry-ripoff reason, but… I'm sure there are others. Dr. Evil, maybe? Anyway, Simone kept a picture of it, which she shows to Peter, who immediately flies to Texas. On a plane, you guys.

Over in Texas, Zach is the best. He organizes the nerd vote to get Claire the homecoming crown, gives her Chandra Suresh's book, digitally throws rocks at her window, and comes to her house armed with a ladder to break her out of her grounding. The greatest proof that Claire is superhuman is that she's still not in love with him after all this. Perhaps the dance will change that?

So now Claire's at school, and so are Peter and Sylar, who get thrown off by Jackie's big "heroic cheerleader" display case and think she's the one. Sylar corners and kills Jackie, but realizes his mistake when Claire heals herself. Peter realizes his mistake too, and helps Claire get away before Sylar takes a dive off the bleachers with him. Thanks to Claire's proximity, he survives, but the cops arrest him. Sylar, meanwhile, doesn't get far before Eden and The Haitian neutralize him.

(Takes breath) Oh, yeah. This was an exciting episode. But I have to say, out of everything, my favorite part was… Claire. I liked her already, but in this episode she displays more confidence than I think we've ever seen from her, and she's finally accepting her abilities. And, of course, her relationship with Zach is endearing. She's a great, complex character who's easy to root for, whether she's saving someone, punching out Jackie, or greeting her new subjects as Queen of the Geeks. I'm glad it's her at the heart of this storyline.