The third season of “Heroes” premiered Monday with a two-hour long season premiere. To describe it in one word: intense.

All of the original characters were reintroduced, including Niki and Nathan, who supposedly died last season.

Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) seems to have pulled a 180 by taking the future into his own hands. The sudden departure of his old character is sure to make the new season interesting. His constant time-shifting provides important glimpses into the future that once again, show the world coming to an end.

Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy), in some sort of desperation to understand the meaning of what he’s trying to cure, injected himself with some sort of solution to help him develop “powers.”

While super strength is enough to score him a getaway from two muggers and a night with Maya, it seems to lead to his undoing as his skin starts to peel away. One can only wonder what this is going to lead to.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, Claire (Hayden Panettiere) was unable to defend herself against a home invasion involving the evil Sylar (Zachary Quinto). To make a long story short, he takes her powers (no brain eating necessary), and now has the healing factor that makes him invincible.

In other words, the world is going to end, thanks to Sylar and few of the other people that Elle accidentally released.

The trailers for this season explain that some of the “heroes” from last season have a dark side and are not afraid to use it, hence the title of the show: “Heroes: Villains.” A scene from last night’s episode also showed a group of characters destroying other “heroes” from last season.

Of the new villains, Niki, and Mrs. Petrelli (Cristina Rose) seem to be the most surprising additions to a class also held by Sylar.

Season three of “Heroes” looks quite promising. New characters are introduced and old characters show different, unexpected sides to themselves.

Monday nights are sure to be filled with hour-long, powerful episodes of “Heroes.”