Spoilers below.
While I enjoyed the Heroes finale, I was also disappointed in it. For one thing, it never had the dramatic feel that I expected and was looking forward to. Instead, while it did resolve many of the situations that were left hanging in the penultimate episode, it did so in a way that sometimes felt a little plodding. I kept waiting for the story to kick it up into another gear, and I not sure that it ever did.
The main dramatic scene would have worked better had Claire been forced to shoot Peter, yet for the shooting to have not stopped the build up to explosion, and then have Nathan swooping in to save the day. As it stands we are left with this question: why couldn’t she just shoot Peter (as had been the plan for two or three episodes), have the nuclear cascade stop, and then have his healing powers save him? Was it really necessary for Nathan (and maybe Peter) to die?
While I like the notion that Claire was able to change Nathan’s mind (and the theme of hope and love that was linked to that element of the plot), and that therefore saving the cheerleader did lead to the saving of the world (or, at least, of NYC), it didn’t really pay off the way I wanted (i.e., it wasn’t fully satisfying). It is true that Sylar was unable to recover from the stabbing, just as future Hiro wanted, but it still didn’t play out in as impressive a way as I had expected from the show.
And while the notion that Hiro is now in 1600s Japan is intriguing and I look forward to the next episode, it wasn’t the kind of cliffhanger that makes me chafe for the next episode (the away, say, the BSG finale did).
The show did leave a number of intriguing issues for next season, including (and in no special order):
- What is the Organization? Where did it come from? Did it really go bad, or did Bennett’s view of it change?
- With Linderman dead, who is in charge of the Organization?
- What about Sylar?
- Did Peter survive?
- Will we hear more from Simone’s father? What was up with that scene, anyway?
- Who/what is the one person that Molly is afraid to think about who is worse than Sylar?
- What is Hiro’s dad’s relationship to the Organization?
- Why is that symbol (revealed to mean “Godsend” in the next to last episode) all over the place? (Hiro’s sword, the Haitian’s necklace in one of the flashbacks, tattooed on Jessica’s shoulder and elsewhere (see here).
- Speaking of the Haitian, who is he really working for?
Feel free to add your own questions/theories below.
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Pingback by PoliBlog ™: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » The Heroes Finale — May 22, 2024 @ 7:18 am
I still think Company Man (Episode 17) was the best so far. The finale definitely suffers in comparison to it.
That being said, I’m also looking forward to the new Old Japan storyline as well as the “worse than Sylar character”.
Two other random thoughts:
Since we didn’t actually see them die, I fully expect Peter, Nathan, Sylar and Officer Parkman to be back, though they will probably sit out a few episodes at the beginning of the next season.
With the eclipse in Old Japan, it looks like there may be ‘waves’ of heroes through the centuries.
Comment by Joe Mucia — May 22, 2024 @ 11:27 am
My question is this, why did Peter need Nathan to fly him away? Can’t Peter fly all by himself?
In answer to your question about why Claire couldn’t just shoot Peter and let him regenerate, it is because the plan was for her to shoot him in the back of the head in the “kill” spot that killed both Claire and Peter previously. Now it is true that they both survived, but Peter’s plan seemed to indicate that she was to kill him totally. That is why I assume she was unwilling to go through with the plan.
I am correct in my assumption that the blood trail leading to the manhole cover was caused by Sylar “getting away” so to speak, yes?
And a superpower related question. If Nikki can walk through walls when she is holding on to DL and Claire can be invisible when holding on to Peter, etc., can Nathan regenerate when he is holding on to Peter when he is regenerating?
Comment by Jan — May 22, 2024 @ 4:47 pm
My opinions:
Nathan is dead. Peter survived. Some aspect of Sylar survived.
Claire couldn’t shoot Peter because she doesn’t believe in situations without choices. She stalled hoping that some other choice would present itself, and it did. I’ll admit I wasn’t as happy with that, but that’s how I interpreted it.
I read that NBC plans a six episode interlude that has completely new characters but plays into the storyline. People will be able to vote which character they like best, and that character will make it to season two. Anyone else have info on that?
Comment by boz — May 22, 2024 @ 7:36 pm
I never understood there to be a “kill” spot–it was my interpretation the Peter stayed dead (as did Claire that one time) was because the object that killed them (the tree limb in Claire’s case and the glass in Peter’s case) had not been removed from the spot where it killed them. Once removed they both healed. I didn’t think that that was a special location. Although, I may have missed something.
I could see that Peter might not be able to fly given his distraction of trying not to blow up. It was demonstrated before that he needed some amount of concentration to use his different abilities–plus he passed out previously in the episode when he tried to not explode.
I figure that Peter is alive, Nathan is dead and that Sylar is alive (and had gone down the drain, so to speak).
In regards to healing whiel touching: all I can say is that it is comic book convention that those who can phase and become invisible (e.g. Kitty Pryde and Susan Storm) can extend their powers to those they touch, while self-healers (e.g., Wolverine) can’t. I had assumed, for no good reason I suppose, that that was the case for Heroes as well.
Comment by Steven L. Taylor — May 22, 2024 @ 8:05 pm
My assumption about “the kill spot” comes from Peter saying to Claire, “You know the spot” when he was telling her that she would have to shoot him because she would be the one who could get close to him. And I also think she wouldn’t have hesitated to shoot him if she was assuming he would regenerate. She seems plenty willing to do horrible things to herself knowing she will regenerate.
As to the comic book superpower issue, I will freely admit that I don’t that much about the understood powers of comic book heroes as I have never actually read a comic book. That is why I was asking.
I think there is a chance that Nathan could still be alive, as he could have let go of Peter and flown farther off before Peter exploded. But with this show, killing off Nathan is a real possibility.
Comment by Jan — May 23, 2024 @ 2:09 pm
Maybe so in re: “the spot”. It just doesn’t fully track.
And it did occur to me that Nathan might have let go of Peter and flew away, but somehow I think he’s dead.
Comment by Steven Taylor — May 23, 2024 @ 2:45 pm
I agree that it doesn’t fully track, but that just seemed to me to be the way they were playing it. Who knows, anything can happen with that show.
As a side note, I noticed something else in the finale that didn’t exactly track. When Niki knocked out the girl that can look like (make one see) anything, she went back to looking like she normally looks. But in last weeks episode she had told Micah that she was huge, when he suggested that people that eat like she does are usually fat. It’s really inconsequential, but it occurred to me when it happened.
Comment by Jan — May 24, 2024 @ 12:22 pm
I thought about that to.
I expected that once she knocked Candace out that she was going to revert to her “true” form.
Maybe she was lying to Micah before. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Comment by Steven L. Taylor — May 24, 2024 @ 1:01 pm