Writing on his blog about the making of the episode, Beeman explained,

My favorite scene is the one where Peter and Nathan get in a fight, which culminates in the appearance of Jimmy Jean-Louis. The scene was very well written and had a natural escalation in the conflict between the brothers. It got to some core issues that I think haven’t been said as bluntly before. Milo and Adrian got pumped up for this one and came at it with strength. I think, in general, I was pushing for them to get angrier and grittier and yell more – to really let loose. But I’m always impressed by how much power Adrian can have when he goes soft. One of my favorite line readings of the scene is when, after being challenged by his brother, Nathan says “I’m a US Senator, you’re a nurse.” If I remember right, this line was scripted to be yelled, but Adrian went very soft and intense and I think the line is more cutting and powerful that way.

But, one story I must tell you, is that, for some reason, Milo and Adrian decided to pump themselves up for this scene by taking turns slapping each other on the back of the neck as hard as they could. I’m not sure how this brilliant idea got started, but I remember looking over and watching these two goofballs just smacking each other with all their might. There would be a loud CRACK! That echoed in the fake jungle and then, whoever had just been slapped started jumping around yelling, “Ow ow wow! Sonofab*&ch!” “Ah…” I thought to myself, “Ah, The Stanislavski method at work.” If you don’t believe me check out the pictures below. One is of the back of Adrian’s neck with welts in the exact shape of Milo’s fingers on it.

Sure enough, here's the proof:
There's something weirdly satisfying knowing that it's as painful to make Heroes as it is to watch it these days, isn't it?

[Beaming Beeman]

Writing about "Villains" on his weekly blog, Beeman gave one possible reason why we've seen so little of this season's new villainous characters:

[T]his was supposed to be the episode where we explored the villains that we introduced in the season opener. Frankly this changed a little bit as the script went through studio notes. The first draft really featured the villains – and our main characters were the side stories. This shifted as the drafts went on to the version that we now see.

Interestingly, there was a whole storyline that was dropped from the episode. There was a story that featured the character of Knox and his relationship with Matt Parkman. The story took place in L.A. and told how Knox was part of a gang and was trying to get out of that life. Matt was a cop who had busted Knox once and was trying to help him stay on the straight and narrow. As things progressed Knox realized he had the power of incredible strength whenever people around him were afraid. This caused him to turn away from Matt’s good guidance. It was a good story. But it was 9 minutes long. And, in the editing room, when Allan [Arkush, director] tried to fit it in – all the other stories became compromised. So the decision was made to just drop that one story altogether. It’ll be a great DVD extra someday.

Never mind the missing Parkman plot - It doesn't sound that impressive in the first place - but the dropping of that whole "this changed as we got notes from the studio" thing at the beginning is what caught our attention. Has the quick disappearance of Volume 3's eponymous villains been down to Universal and NBC stepping in and making demands, as opposed to creators who didn't know what to do with them? And if so, does this mean that we have NBC to thank for the (admittedly flawed) slow reboot that the show seems to be going through?

Season 3 - Episode 8 [Beeman's Blog]