| Heroes: How to Stop an Exploding Man Review |
| Tuesday, 22 May 2007 | |
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So it's finally over. The entire season has been slowly building up to this one moment, this one event. And, even though the finale was slightly underwhelming, it's perfect for the kind of show that Heroes has come to be: a series that knows when and how to close the book on a plotline before it gets old or unpopular and still go out with a bang (literally AND figuratively).  He had stolen another man's casual fashion sense, and for that he would have to die. Peter meets with Nathan looking for brotherly support, but instead learns that Nathan is ready to let him die. Claire runs away and is caught by Mother Petrelli. Ando goes to the loft looking for Sylar and finds him. Ando is caught and nearly killed, but Hiro arrives, saves him, and then drops him off back in Tokyo. Peter blacks out after his meeting with Nathan and Peter has a dream (I think? maybe he time traveled) where he gets the encouragement and support he needs. Peter comes to, and goes to find Sylar with the help of HRG (who is HRG no longer!). Sylar and Peter finally battle. That is a gross abbreviation of the magnitude of this episode, but now we're up to speed. One of the big things the show gave it's fans was the identity of Bennett, aka HRG: Noah Bennett. It has been teased and taunted at us, and it's finally given to us. And even more, it's not just thrown out there in a side comment. The writers know full well that this is a big fanboy thing, so they delivered it as the end of a very important conversation between Peter and HRG where they commit to hunting Sylar down.  Look! Its the "Useless Character" fairies, and they're coming to take us away!
Well done. Another common mistake that TV shows make is to place the entire burden of the finale on the one major event. Granted, it's easier, but this weeks episode would have been much weaker without the inclusion of Hiro's encounter with Sylar in Isaac's loft. After failing in his mission last time, Hiro is challenged by Sylar, and lives up to it. Again, the dialog here is key. It informs the viewer about what is about to happen, so that the fans can get psyched up about it. You know the moment that Sylar puts out the ultimatum "You just have to stop time before I can kill him", that Hiro is about to do exactly that and prove that he is a worthy foe. Another important scene comes when Claire fulfills her part in all this by standing up against Nathan and Mother Petrelli. She asks the important questions, challenges the facts, and makes Nathan rethink his position. Then, she throws herself out the window. Brilliant. The writers could have come up with some cliche-d way for her to escape, but instead they surprise us. I even worried about her for a split second before I remembered her regenerative powers.  I find your lack of faith... disturbing. I still stand by my comment that these people shouldn't even be bothered with, so what they did this episode doesn't really concern me. It seemed like they were only there to promote the next chapter in the series, for example: Molly's speech about how Sylar isn't the worst and that there's another one even more dangerous that can see her when she looks for him. *insert dramatic music here* Ooooooh. Foreshadow much? I was glad however that Nikki helped Peter out with that parking meter, thereby giving him super strength as well. And it all comes down to the fight:
Sorry, this part is for members only and may contain spoilers. If you'd like to read it, please LOG IN or REGISTER. So, we are left with a cliffhanger leading into the second season. Peter may or may not have survived the explosion, but Nathan is probably dead. So, if Peter returns he will have that hanging over his head. Then again, it's possible that Nathan flew him up there, let him go, flew a safe distance away, watched as Peter slowly fell and went boom. Then Nathan could have flown back in, caught his brother's body, and we'll see them again next season. I can't imagine how the world is going to react to their new congressman suddenly disappearing. And again, maybe Mother Petrelli enlists Candace to make it look like Nathan is still around, and since there's a chance that Sylar is still alive, maybe the future will still happen, just without the massive casualties. My head hurts now.  Where's Bruce Campbell when you really need him? Parkman may or may not survive the bullet wounds, but honestly I don't really care one way or the other. He's a utility character. You only need him around to help the real characters get something they need. Hopefully, the Nikki/D.L./Micah storyline is closed, but I doubt it. I'm sure they will probably adopt Molly Walker or something ridiculous like that, and she will play a role in volume two. Claire and Noah Bennett may or may not return in volume two. For the sake of my libido, I sincerely hope Hayden Panatierre returns. Either that, or she goes the opposite direction and starts acting in late night Showtime softcore movies. Either one is allright by me. Screw Mohinder. The "big bad" for next season is obviously the person Molly was talking about earlier in the episode, and from the cliffhanger ending we can see that either Sylar somehow survived and escaped, or that someone took his body down into the sewer. (Why is it always a sewer?) We'll see next year, I suppose. And so ends my Heroes reviews. It's been a great season, and definitely will become an addition to my DVD library when it's released. Still no word on when Heroes: Origins will begin, but they have said that the online graphic novel will continue on (and I will be including it with my weekly comic book review). I'm going to watch the new Bionic Woman show, but I really don't think it will amount to much judging from the previews, so only time will tell if it will be one of my weekly reviews or not. I'll miss this show while it's gone, and I'll miss reviewing it for the site. So, to all the people who read these on a weekly basis (yes, all three of you): stick around. There's more to come. Peter Sorensen is a part time reviewer and when you think about him, he sees you. Comments (3)
  manzy704 wrote...
I'm glad to be one of your readers! Get to reviewing last week's Lost!
Moving on to Heroes. Congrats on predicting things pretty much to a "T". I was also expecting some kind of twist or better battle between Peter and Sylar but overall I still enjoyed the finale. I believe the c**kroach shown at the end of volume 1 represents how Sylar is like those disgusting insects that just won't die. C**kroaches have been around for millions of years. I read that one was shown when the Company had been sedating him earlier in the season but I didn't remember that instance. I think Mohinder will partner with Molly next season as they both have something to do with finding new "heroes." What is your opinion of Peter's vision of Simone's Dad?
|| May 22, 2007
manzy704 wrote...
I'm glad to be one of your readers! Get to reviewing last week's Lost!n
n Moving on to Heroes. Congrats on predicting things pretty much to a "T". I was also expecting some kind of twist or better battle between Peter and Sylar but overall I still enjoyed the finale. I believe the cockroach shown at the end of volume 1 represents how Sylar is like those disgusting insects that just won't die. Cockroaches have been around for millions of years. I read that one was shown when the Company had been sedating him earlier in the season but I didn't remember that instance.n n I think Mohinder will partner with Molly next season as they both have something to do with finding new "heroes."n n What is your opinion of Peter's vision of Simone's Dad?
|| May 22, 2007
Peter Sorensen wrote...
Thanks for the comment Manzy704!
Hopefully, all the members received an email this week about how there were some technical problems with the site and we ended up losing last weeks Lost review and a couple other articles. Couldn't be helped. There were also some problems with the comment system's profanity filter (for instance, it didn't originally post your comment because it didn't like the word "cockroach". LOL. I fixed that, but now for some reason it added all those n's in there. I'll get back to work on that immediately. But enough about the site. I didn't even think about the cockroaches until you mentioned them, so good catch Manzy704! There were cockroaches in the cell when they captured Sylar, so maybe the new bad guy controls bugs or something. Like Aquaman, but with insects. I don't know what to think about Peter's vision. It obviously wasn't a dream, because Peter heard conversations that he wasn't present for originally. But it wasn't time travel because Bennett saw him on the street and tried to wake him. The only thing I can guess is that it's either someones power that Peter picked up without knowing (maybe Simone's dad? maybe Peters mother or father?), or that it's a combination of powers. Maybe it's a cross between Isaac's ability to see the future and Hiro's ability to travel to the past. Peter has to have absorbed Sylar's ability to see how things work, so maybe Peter is able to mix and match powers to create new abilities. Either way, I'm excited that the next volume is called Generations because I'm still hoping to learn what Papa Petrelli's powers were, what Hiro's dads powers were, or whether Simone's father had powers, etc. It seems like everyones parents know each other. Also, I'm kinda hoping that Christopher Eccleston makes another appearance as Claude, because his character was awesome.
|| May 22, 2007
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