'Heroes' hype: On set with the Nakamuras

(Mild to moderate spoilers on upcoming Heroes events below, so be forewarned.)

Hiro Nakamura enters a dusty, dimly lit sword shop in a less-than-savory looking corner of New York. He's wearing a samurai-style robe.

He looks around and says something in Japanese. I'm not sure what the translation is, but I do know the sentence contains the words "Ando" and "Sylar."

Oh, and at the end of the scene his dad walks in -- also wearing samurai gear.

That scene was filmed on the Heroes soundstage in mid-March. Alas, though, viewers will have to wait until the show's penultimate episode on May 14 to see just why Masi Oka (Hiro) and George Takei (Hiro's father, Kaito) are so attired, and just what they're doing in a sword shop.

The two actors don't tell the reporters on set that day much about the scene either, although Oka allows that "what you're seeing here is kind of the end of the Karate Kid training montage -- Hiro gets his ass whooped but eventually comes back."

"We don't have a song in the background," he adds ruefully. "I tried to pitch that idea, but they didn't go for it."

Given what we've witnessed, though, it's safe to assume that Hiro and Ando (James Kyson Lee) make it back from the future they teleported to at the conclusion of Heroes' last original episode in March, and are determined not to let that version of events happen.

Takei's presence also indicates that we'll get a little more information on Mr. Nakamura's role with the Company -- a notion Takei all but confirms.

"I've discovered also that I've had powers, and some of my colleagues that I fought with for good -- I have a line with them where I say, 'The Nakamura family has always fought for good, tried to be the wind behind the course of history.' But some of my colleagues went off the good road."

He's a little more cryptic, though, in explaining whether he knew his son also was endowed with powers, or just what the elder Nakamura's notion of "good" is.

"That's a good question," he says with a laugh (he'll answer several other plot-specific queries the same way). "I talk about the Nakamura family guiding history toward good, but yeah: What is 'good,' in my definition? The next script may tell."

Oka isn't much help with that question either. And he's probably biased, but he says there are some big things to look forward to in the NBC show's final story arc, which begins Monday.

"I just saw the script for the finale. Ooh, it's un ... be ... lievable," he says. "It's fascinating. And [creator Tim Kring] has already talked to a couple of us about how season two is going to go, which is a good sign. Some of us are still alive."

"Anyone heard word on whether the first season will be available on DVD this fall?" She asked hopefully, crossing her fingers.