So many storylines, So little time…
I’ll admit it: I prepared myself for disappointment. How could so many complex storylines be resolved?
But, with little exception, they were.
The Heroes season finale evoked tears (Nathan sacrificing himself for Peter), cheers (Hiro saving Ando, and later stabbing Sylar), surprise (Noah?!?) and a bit of boredom (anything to do with Nikki/Jessica and her family).
In the end, however, the finale left me satisfied and yearning for more – not something I can usually say after only an hour. I’ll admit it: I prepared myself for disappointment. How could so many complex storylines be resolved?
But, with little exception, they were.
The Heroes season finale evoked tears (Nathan sacrificing himself for Peter), cheers (Hiro saving Ando, and later stabbing Sylar), surprise (Noah?!?) and a bit of boredom (anything to do with Nikki/Jessica and her family).
In the end, however, the finale left me satisfied and yearning for more – not something I can usually say after only an hour.
The future wasn’t written in stone, as Claire so astutely told her father early in the ep. Her thoughts came full-circle as Peter started to go nuclear following his fight with Sylar, and in flew (literally), Nathan.
I had a purple crayon moment (circa the end of season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer): I felt like it was the least likely person to have saved Peter who ultimately did so, and it was all based in love.
It wasn’t what I was expecting.
(My friend Mark, however, called it via text message about 5 minutes before the show started.)
Personally, I would have gone with the re-emergence of the invisible man, the former HRG cohort who mentored Peter and taught him how to exert some control over his powers.
Nonetheless, with Peter’s power to regenerate, I have to wonder where he’s going to land, and how he’s going to come back. We’ve seen him resurrected from the dead before (after the first fight with Sylar), but one would imagine completely exploding would take a bit more out of a superhero, potentially bringing him back a little darker than before.
The Peter-Sylar show down was a little less than I had hoped for … I think I wanted the same kind of fireworks featured a few episodes back when Hiro traveled into the future.
And speaking of Hiro, watching him spear Sylar in accordance with the future-telling comic was nice, but as you might recall, that comic was not the final piece of the Sylar-killing puzzle. Before Isaac died, he gave his final drawings (which contained information on how Sylar would die) to his bike messenger.
I expect Sylar will be alive come next season, in some form or another. At the end it was his blood(?) heading toward an uncovered manhole, a la the end of Underworld. Perhaps someone else will re-emerge with his powers, making Sylar more of a fluid identity than a specific character.
As further evidence of Sylar living, my friend Mark pointed out that as Sylar’s eyes were going through the side show and then went white – he was seeing the future. Maybe, suggested my pal, that would have given him incentive to carry on.
I’m thrilled that the “tracking system” (a.k.a. Molly) was not destroyed, and intrigued by her foreshadowing comments about the villain worse than the boogeyman. Who could that be?
My biggest disappointment in the ep was Nikki/Jessica’s survival. Oy. That storyline has been painful for quite some time. Her story has been slow-moving, and past the point of her web cam stuff, it’s just not been interesting at all.
There was a perfect chance to take her out too – she came to Peter’s aid. Sylar needed a power boost … and could have easily taken her brain to turn into a superstrong Amazon.
Uh, then again, maybe that’s why he didn’t take her power … conjure up an image of Sylar wearing a gold crown, riding around in an invisible jet and using the lasso of truth. Not a pretty picture.
And so, for at least three months, I will bid adieu to the heroes of Heroes, waiting in anticipation for the next volume to begin.
Hopefully the first minute or so of next season (shown at the end of this season) isn’t indicative of what is going to be the central plotline. I can tell you now that if I have to spend the next 30 episodes reading subtitles I’m going to stop watching.
I just don’t have that kind of patience.
Then again, the future’s not written in stone.