Heroes Reborn: Who Is Nathan and Malina’s Biological Father?

Heroes Reborn finale explained: who is the father?

“Project Reborn” is the thirteenth episode of the first season of Heroes Reborn and aired on NBC on January 21, 2016. It closes the season with a new mystery. Malina and Nathan, who goes by Tommy, have saved the world through the sacrifice of their grandfather, Noah Bennet. The twins are back to ordinary life, though they live it apart. Nathan is in Carbondale, and Malina is in Odessa, where she attends high school at Union Wells.

Nathan and his girlfriend Emily are at an ice cream parlor when a patron in a trench coat finishes a strawberry milkshake and leaves. The master of time and space, who is there to clear the table, finds a tarot card left behind. The next scene cuts to Malina at her school locker, where she finds another tarot card. Puzzled, she walks outside and gets into a Mercedes-Benz that has come to pick her up. In the back seat is her great-grandmother, Angela, who asks how her first day went. Malina hands over the card and says someone left it for her, and that she felt watched.

Angela looks at her great-grandchild in dismay. Their father, she says, is coming for them, and no one will be able to protect them from him.

Who is the man in the trench coat?

The father is a new character who comes from the Heroes ebook Save the Cheerleader, Destroy the World, and the series never gives him a name. In the book, Claire calls him Hammer. They first meet on June 5, 2012. Claire’s life had changed after she revealed her abilities to the world, on December 7, 2010, and it had only become more dangerous. She eventually went into hiding, and that is how she met the future father of the twins.

Peter and Claude had rescued Hammer and several other Evos from a lynching in Monaco, then took them to a barge docked in Tarragona, Spain. Even then he wore the trench coat. He was badly injured, and Mohinder feared he would never walk again. Claire was the first person he saw when he woke, and the two grew close. They shared their first kiss on July 4, 2012.

How the relationship fell apart

Things were not perfect. Hammer was moody and believed the others should be more proactive, and he began to fight with Peter, Claude, Mohinder and Micah. One day he disappeared without telling anyone. On September 27, 2013 he returned to Claire’s life while she was hiding in Italy, at the Abbazia di San Giovanni in Spilimbergo. He said he missed his “Blondie” and wanted a break from the intensity of the outside world by seeing the one person who could make him smile.

The two consummated their relationship, and he vanished again the next day. Within the week, Claire felt nauseous and realized she was pregnant. On June 13, 2014, she arrived at the summit in Odessa, scratched her hand and noticed it did not heal. Soon after, her water broke and she was rushed to the hospital to give birth. Heroes Reborn picks up the story from there.

What powers does he have?

Nobody knows his real name or his abilities. Nathan has inherited the Petrelli power of absorption, which his great-grandfather Arthur had, while his great-uncle Peter could copy abilities. Malina’s elemental control may come from her maternal grandmother’s side, since Meredith Gordon was pyrokinetic, or it may come from her father. What the series establishes is a set of habits: strawberry milkshakes, trench coats and tarot cards. He very likely has dark plans for the twins and for humanity.

Claire and Hammer timeline

Source: the Heroes tie-in ebook Save the Cheerleader, Destroy the World.

Heroes Reborn: what the ending leaves open

The series was a revival of Heroes on NBC, and its 13-episode run ended with this episode. Heroes Reborn was not renewed for a second season, so the cliffhanger has no payoff on screen. The father’s tarot cards and his clear interest in the twins are the last things the series says, and fans of the original Heroes are left with the scraps provided by the tie-in book.

Another question is quieter. Angela Petrelli appears younger than she did earlier, and the finale does not explain how. Between the unexplained de-aging and the nameless father, the final minutes of Heroes Reborn raise more questions than they answer.

The ebook is where the father’s story starts, and its timeline is the best evidence available. What it lacks is a name, a power and a motive, so the question of who he is can only be answered in part.

That leaves a fan theory space with very little to build on. The strawberry milkshake, the trench coat and the tarot cards form a signature, and Angela’s fear suggests he is more dangerous than anyone the twins have faced. Whether he wants to protect his children, recruit them or use them is never settled. The father remains one of the most memorable loose ends in the franchise.

Sources

• Heroes Reborn (miniseries), Wikipedia — cast, episode list and plot