Heroes, Chapter 23: How to Stop an Exploding Man
We’ve seen 22 chapters building to this final one of Volume One. We’ve seen characters go from ordinary people to superheroes, slowly master their powers, realize what their callings were, look within themselves to see what truly mattered to them. We’ve waited all season for all of them to finally end up all together in one spot, and we know the fate of 0.07% of the entire world’s population hangs in the balance, and Tim Kring said this finale would be like a big-budget summer film in the final moments. This was going to be the biggest season finale of 2007… and then… bump.

I can’t remember the last time I was this disappointed in one of my shows.

I’m not saying it was all bad. The episode had some great moments, but the writers and producers have been filling their heads all season with the lavish praise poured on them by the fans, the critics, and everyone in Hollywood. It’s the highest-rated new show. There was SO much excitement all year:

Save the Cheerleader. Save the World.
The unveiling of Sylar
The journey of Hiro Nakamura
The glimpse of the apocalyptic future
Mohinder finally getting a clue Oops, sorry, that didn’t happen.
The heroes slowly coming together and crossing paths
Bennet going from evil to good

The writers had SO much riding on this finale that it HAD to be superb or it was going to fail. Could they do it?

Well, actually, they should have. Buffy had several fantastic seasons, all with self-contained arcs, and Joss Whedon always managed to pull out all the stops to have mind-blowing finales. The writers on Heroes have been comparing themselves favorably to Lost all season – because they’ve borrowed so much from the series – talking about how their numbers are up rather than down (though they had nothing to compare it to from last year) how, unlike Lost, they’ll reveal all the answers and won’t keep you guessing.

But guess what? I like guessing. A lot has been wrapped up, and they’ve given me a little teaser at the ending, but what about the journeys of the season? Of COURSE I’ll be tuning in next season, and the next, and buying the DVDs the second they come out. But this was just a disappointment. I think Tim Kring and co. have let the praise get to their heads, and just didn’t try very hard. So here's the wrap-up:


Sylar does his psycho painting – only he doesn’t actually have to make any brush strokes – and realizes Peter will be his adversary in the final battle. The opening title is embedded in Sylar’s paint palette. I know I’ve said this before, but they are so brilliant with thise opening titles.

Parkman stops Bennet from killing Molly, which is unbelievable – one minute Bennet’s holding a gun to her head while Moronder holds a gun to his, saying that he will kill her no matter what. Then Parkman says he won’t let anything happen to her and Bennet drops the gun like, “Oh, okay. If you say so, no probs!”

Meanwhile, DL helps Niki go through a wall and then tells her to save Micah, so she leaves him by the elevator and runs away. So is Linderman really dead? If so, his death was about as anticlimactic as the final scene of this episode.

Bennet tells Peter that he’s the only person who can stop Sylar. Peter takes Claire to Nathan, which is a surprise twist, because he says his brother has never let him down (except, of course, throughout most of this season) but he reads his mind and realizes Nathan thinks there’s no way out of this, that the bomb is inevitable and it’s not worth trying to stop it. Claire runs away, but Granny catches her. Peter runs after her, and ends up out in the street with his hands going all radioactivey. He passes out.

Molly suddenly seems to be sick, so they hook her up to an IV and Moronder gives her another transfusion. She tells them that if she thinks about someone and points to the map, she can find them. There’s only one person in the world that she can’t find, and this person is even worse than Sylar. If she thinks about this person, they can see her. Here’s our first setup for season 2. She locates Sylar in Isaac’s apartment.

Bennet calls Claire, and Gran picks up the phone and tells him that they’re Claire’s real family and will get her safe. Bennet tells Claire that they’re right, let’s let them do this, but he has a plan and will see her again.

Peter, lying on the pavement, suddenly wakes up in the greenhouse on the top of Isaac’s building, and Simone and her Dad Charles are there, with Peter as his nurse. It’s not clear (even at the end of the ep) what exactly happens here, other than I always suspected that Charles had some sort of power, too. I think he can control dreams somehow, and it’s being around him that allowed Peter to have his prophetic dreams. He meets with Peter’s mom and says that Nathan isn’t the one who should be treated like the man who will save the world, but Peter. Then he starts talking to invisible Peter, and knows he’s there. Inside the greenhouse there’s some cheesy dialogue delivered by nurse Peter to Simone about how all that matters is how much we love and care about people and, in the words of Anthony Cooper on Lost, “blahblahblahblah.”

Ando enters Isaac’s apartment and slips on blood, Sylar behind him, Sylar throws the sword away, holds Ando in a neck hold against the wall (without using his hand, of course), and sees the future comic book. He finds the final page and laughs, saying, “You’re kidding. This is how Isaac thought I’d die, stabbed by a silly little man!” Good point, there, Sylar. After seeing the scene, I agree with you. Sylar begins cutting his throat, until Hiro morphs into their presence, and Sylar wonders aloud if he can stop time before Sylar slashes Ando’s neck. So Hiro instead disappears, reappears beside Ando, and then disappears the both of them. AWESOME. Loved this moment.

Niki comes into the room where “Jessica” is sitting (seriously, I doubt ANYONE could have possibly believed that was Jessica and dead Micah, and not Candice doing her illusioneering). Candessica kicks Niki in the head.

Parkman comes into Isaac’s loft, finds the paintings everywhere, sees the oozing blood on the floor, and sees the painting of Sylar and Peter facing off, with “Kirby Plaza” in the back of the painting.

Moronder tells Molly that they have to go, the bogeyman is on his way. Molly says nope, he’s already here.

Granny and Nathan talk to Claire about what’s going to happen tomorrow but that she’ll be safe. She asks them how they could do this, how Gran could let her own son be such a villain and kill so many people, and how Nathan could allow that to happen. She tells Nathan if things were inevitable then why did Gran try so hard to keep them apart for all these years? Nathan looks like he’s finally thinking, “Uh… hm… good point?” But instead he tells her everything will make sense very soon. Gran says they’re offering Claire everything she always wanted, a place to belong, a family, etc. and Nathan gives her a big ol’ hug. So Claire does what any daughter would do in that situation. Jumps out the window. The THUNK was particularly cool. Gran tells Nate to let her go.

Candessica and Niki have a big ol’ Ali Larter on Ali Larter fight scene (the editing team must have LOVED doing this scene) and it’s pretty cool. Niki sees Jessica in the mirror and explains that’s not her. Niki worries she’s not strong enough, then stands up, pummels Candessica with one blow, she turns back into Candice, Micah calls from the closet, and she finds him. Wow. Had to work hard for that one. An entire season of Niki whining that she’s not strong enough, and apparently after she hears for the 18th time that yes, she is, she listens.

Moronder and Molly find DL in the hallway, Molly tells him to wait, Moronder says, “But he needs my help” and runs out, DL morphs into Sylar and sucks his brain… okay, that didn’t happen, but it would have been awesome. This scene just shows once again that no matter what, Moronder will do the stupid thing. In the last half hour, he’s seen people die, had a gun held to Molly’s head, found out Sylar was in the building, and… oh, look, there’s a guy who’s bleeding. I must go help him. Idiot.

Hiro transports he and Ando to the office headquarters in Japan, and tells Ando he’s leaving him there, gives him the kensei sword and takes the other one. He tells him it’s the man who will do it, not the sword. Ando tells him he looks bad ass. Hiro looks pleased. This was a great scene, and a perfect throwback to the early episodes.

Peter talks to Shaft Charles, and Charles says that he's a bad motherf...shut yo mouth! Peter’s true power is to love unconditionally. Then he tells him that all he needs is love, and you can suddenly hear the Beatles behind him singing. A bunch of hippie flower children appear in the air, singing in a purple sky with stars falling all around them. Oh, and that sound you heard was me gagging.

Bennet shakes Peter out of his reverie, and tells him that he will be here to save him if he goes kablooey. And by save him, he means put a bullet in him. This raises an interesting question: Can Peter be killed at all? We know that as long as the thing that killed him remains inside, then he’ll stay dead. So if Peter is shot in the head, and the bullet remains lodged, he’s dead. Someone buries him, he’s put underground, begins decomposing, and somewhere, years later, the bullet just pops out of the skull because a worm dislodged it or something. Does he suddenly come back to life? Hmm… Anyway, Peter thanks “Bennet” who finally reveals that his name is Noah. He’s been sent by God to collect the heroes and load them onto an ark two by two, and it won’t be Sylar or Peter who blow up the world, but God, angry that people haven’t been listening to Him. Only the people in the ark will live. Or something. Did anyone else think this was a lame attempt to copy the religious names on Lost?

Moronder continues to try to save DL rather than get Molly out of harm’s way. Micah and Niki run into the hallway. Micah talks to the elevator and makes it work, and Molly, DL, Niki, Moronder, and Micah get onto the elevator.

Peter and Bennet are in the courtyard in front of the Kirby building. Sylar suddenly shows up, zaps Bennet across the yard and knocks the gun out of his hand. They exchange a few verbal barbs. Suddenly all the heroes are there. We FINALLY have them all together, and as we’ve been told all season, when the heroes are all together, it will be like the Justice League of America. So let’s break down what each of them does, then, shall we? I mean, awesomeness of this magnitude has to be looked at closely:

Parkman: Shoots at Sylar, who turns the bullets on him and shoots him back. Parkman lies there bleeding for the rest of the scene. Apparently in police college they didn’t tell him about BULLET-PROOF VESTS. Argh.

Niki: She grabs a parking meter and whacks Sylar hard, but then Micah shouts that Daddy needs tending to, and she runs back over to DL. What the hell was SHE going to do to “tend” to him??

DL: Lies there bleeding the entire time.

Micah: Stands there yelling about how Daddy is bleeding.

Molly: Nothing.

Bennet: Lies against the building, useless.

Moronder: Sits with DL, “tending” to him.

Peter: Held in a grip by Sylar, helpless until he absorbs Niki’s strength, then he beats up Sylar. Suddenly he goes radioactivey, and he becomes the liability, not the strength.

Hiro: Time travels into the scene, runs toward Sylar with the sword, and seemingly kills him. Uh… okay? The greatest villain I’ve seen in YEARS and he goes that quickly, without a fight?? What happened to the whole, “This ending will be like a big-budget summer movie” that we were promised? Peter asks Hiro to kill him, Sylar, in his final moment, shoots Hiro into the building, but Hiro teleports into the scene.

Claire: FINALLY shows up, runs to Daddy, grabs the gun, and… can’t do a damn thing. Great.

So there are your heroes for ya. Looks like Hiro was the only one worthy of ANYTHING, but in the end, didn’t really do much of anything. Sylar ain’t dead, and he couldn’t stop Peter.

Peter stands there, glowing and getting worse, and it sounds like the opening strains of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” start up.

Nathan suddenly shows, and says, “You saved the cheerleader. So WE could save the world.” (Oh, that sound was me gagging again.) They exchange verbal love for each other, then Nathan grabs him and flies up into the sky. And somewhere, out in the Earth’s stratosphere, Peter explodes. Instead of killing everyone in NY, he possibly takes out the GALAXY. Nice. Then radioactive rain begins falling, and the world melts. But don’t worry… probably 0.07% of the world will survive. Ahem.

Claire hugs her father and smiles. Why does she smile??? Because she couldn’t pull a trigger, BOTH the Petrellis died!

Cut to montage of Moronder talking, saying we have a simple human need to find a kindred, and know in our hearts we are not alone. We see people move on, everyone seems so happy, and then we see a trail of blood showing Sylar apparently wasn’t dead, and slouched into the nearest sewer.

But Kring doesn’t end it there. He cuts to Hiro landing in a field, and we’re told this is actually the beginning of season 2. He’s trapped between a gang of warriors and the kensei warrior, and then suddenly the world goes black, and a huge eclipse happens. The end.

I’ve watched it twice, and still found the Sylar/explosion ending to be anticlimactic, but like I said, had good moments in it. Did they try to cram too much into it? Did they rely on too much cheesiness about we just need to love ourselves and love the world and everyone in it and find kindred spirits and know we’re not alone and… blahblahblahblah?

Are Peter and Nathan dead now? How did Sylar survive? Is Linderman dead? Will Mohinder get a clue? Is Niki cured and now just a strong badass? Will Hiro ever find his way back to our time? Will DL die? Will Parkman be saved?

How will season 2 tie in to season 1? I’m definitely intrigued, and because it’s called “Generations,” presumably we’ll find out who Gran is (could she be the person that Molly won’t even picture in her head?) where Linderman came from, Charles, Mr. Petrelli… all the previous heroes. While I found tonight’s ep to be a disappointment, I definitely can’t wait for season 2. Here’s hoping they map out the full season ahead of time so they don’t disappoint as much with NEXT year’s finale.

What did you think? Did it satisfy you?