script excerpts - One Giant Leap
[INT. (NEW YORK) MOHINDER’S APARTMENT -- DAY]
(Chandra Suresh’s book, Activating Evolution, is on the table. In the background, we hear Mohinder typing on the computer.)
CAPTION:
MOHINDER SURESH
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
(He hears the scrape of a key in the door lock and he grabs the gun off the table. He cocks the weapon as he hears the door unlock. The door opens and Eden walks in. In one hand she’s carrying a casserole dish and in the other, she has the apartment keys.)
EDEN: Sorry. I still have your dad's keys. Maybe I shouldn't.
MOHINDER: Sorry. After being attacked, every noise I hear -- sorry.
(He puts the gun in the desk drawer. Eden uncovers the casserole dish.)
EDEN: Well, this is macaroni and cheese. It's what Americans eat when they want to commit suicide slowly.
(She puts the casserole dish in the kitchen.)
EDEN: Your dad said mine was the best he ever had, but he was from India, so -
MOHINDER: Thank you. You're very kind.
EDEN: You look like hell. When was the last time you slept?
MOHINDER: All this work. I'm no closer to understanding my father's research.
EDEN: Well, what about the program on your dad's computer? Didn't you say he cracked some code?
MOHINDER: I thought he had. But the algorithm ... it's gibberish.
EDEN: Know anybody who speaks gibberish?
(She smiles at him. Mohinder gets up and walks over to the wall map.)
MOHINDER: The man with the horn-rimmed glasses. He chased me around the world -- Madras, Manhattan, this very apartment -- looking for it. But this isn't anything.
(Mohinder walks past the desk and over to the far wall where he leans against the doorway.)
EDEN: Well, then, why would he build it?
MOHINDER: Why? It was always this way with my father. Every question met with another question. Never an answer. Only "why?" Even after he's dead.
EDEN: Well, what about the map?
(Eden turns to look at the wall map. Mohinder gets up and walks back to the map.)
MOHINDER: The map. The map is nothing until I can decipher the principle behind it. You know, if I could find even one such person, it would validate everything he believed. But I can't.
EDEN: Your father had a lot of faith in you.
MOHINDER: My father only cared about proving he was right. He left his country, his family, chasing this insanity. And now I'm wasting my life trying to prove him sane. Where did it get me?
(He closes the laptop and throws it on the floor. It lands in the next room. Eden jumps up and runs to get it.)
EDEN: Mohinder!
MOHINDER: I'm sorry. I'm just so tired.
(Eden finds a notebook hidden inside the laptop. Mohinder kneels next to her on the floor. She hands him the notebook and he looks through it. He stops on a page:
SYLAR
1146 TRENTON PLACE APT 1B
QUEENS, NY 11011
MOHINDER: "Sylar."
(He flips to the back of the notebook and finds a key.)
EDEN: What is it?
MOHINDER: Yet another question.
(They look at each other.)
[INT. (NEW YORK) HALLWAY OUTSIDE APT 1B - DAY]
(Mohinder knocks on the door.)
MOHINDER: Mr. Sylar? Hello?
(There’s no answer.)
EDEN: Shh.
(She motions for him to use the key.)
EDEN: What are you actually gonna do if Sylar's in there?
(Mohinder takes the key out of the notebook.)
MOHINDER: (quietly) If Sylar killed my father, I need to know why.
(Mohinder uses the key and finds it doesn’t work.)
MOHINDER: I suppose that would have been too easy.
EDEN: Let's go.
MOHINDER: No, all the answers could be behind this door.
(Mohinder takes a screwdriver out of his satchel.)
EDEN: It's locked, and I'm kinda trying not to freak out now. So can we please just go?
(He jams the screwdriver into the doorframe and lock and pushes the door open. He motions for Eden to follow.)
EDEN: Or we could just break in.
[INT. APT 1B - DAY -- CONTINUOUS]
(Eden steps inside and closes the door behind them.)
(Mohinder takes a digital camera out of his bag and snaps photos of the apartment.)
(They walk inside and look around. Mohinder finds Chandra Suresh’s book, Activating Evolution, on the counter. He snaps a photo of the book. He continues to look around the apartment. Everything is neat, tidy and in its place.)
(Meanwhile, Eden finds a book open on the desk. It’s open to a page showing graphic pictures of the human brain.)
EDEN: A little light reading before bed.
(They walk up to a curio display case. Mohinder moves his arm back to take a photo and bumps his elbow into the mirror behind him. The mirror opens into another passageway. He looks back at Eden, then enters the secret room.)
(This room is dark and dimly lit. It has bottles of samples on the wall. In this room, there is a wall map, similar to Suresh’s wall map - strings and post-its litter the wall. More strings.)
MOHINDER: Oh, my God.
EDEN: That map, those strings -- it's exactly like your father's.
(Mohinder snaps a photo of the map.)
(Close-ups of photos on the map show the SYMBOL drawn on some of their faces. This map has more information than Chandra Suresh’s map.)
MOHINDER: Not exactly. This map has more of them. Dozens more.
(She points to an article photo of Nathan Petrelli.)
EDEN: I know that guy. He's running for Congress.
MOHINDER: His life may be in danger.
EDEN: Okay, can we please go now?
MOHINDER: Not yet.
EDEN: Mohinder --
(Mohinder goes further into the room and pushes the plastic partition aside. He stops, his eyes wide at what he sees - mad writing on the wall - and in large red print: FORGIVE ME. It’s repeated in smaller print over and over all over the walls along with: FOR I HAVE SINNED.)
MOHINDER: Dear God. What was my father involved with?
[INT. (NEW YORK) HALLWAY OUTSIDE SYLAR’S APARTMENT -- NIGHT]
(Thunder rumbles. Mohinder leads the two officers back to Sylar’s apartment.)
MOHINDER: We were in the apartment. We saw everything.
OFFICER: Wanna tell me what you were doing in there?
MOHINDER: Please, just follow me. (They enter the apartment.) I believe this man Sylar killed my father. He has a ist of targets, including a man who's running for Congress.
(Mohinder stops. The entire apartment has been cleaned out. There’s nothing left. Eden enters the apartment.)
(Mohinder goes into the back rooms. Everything is gone. He turns and looks back at Eden.)