We deserved better from Heroes finale

For a show that was easily the best new program of the 2006-2007 television season, Heroes sure ended with a thud.

If you haven't yet watched the last episode, 'How to Stop an Exploding Man,' of the debut serial drama about 'ordinary people doing ordinary things,' there are, indeed, spoilers ahead. Be forewarned.

Most of the episode sailed along nicely, with cop-who-can-hear-the-thoughts-of-others Matt Parkman reuniting with the little girl he saved from the boogeyman early in the season, Molly Walker.

Little Molly turned out to be the ace-in-the-hole for the evil organization that Horn-Rimmed Glasses turned on in order to save his adopted daughter, the cheerleader Claire Bennet.

We learned the name of Mr. Bennet, too. Noah. The bad guy that turned out to be a good guy in the end is named Noah. By the end of 'How to Stop an Exploding Man,' a number of threads were tied up quite nicely. Claire and her father were reunited. The power family of D.L., Niki/Jessica and Micah were reunited. Niki seems to have some begrudging control over her alter-ego, and Mohinder Suresh has a better connection to the mutants, so he hopefully won't be stumbling around on his own next season.

But when we got to the end of the episode, when we arrived at the big finale when all the players were in place for the big showdown, the carefully plotted story just falls to the ground as if it took ill.

The last 10 minutes of the episode literally writhed around on the ground like a child who has eaten too much ice cream for dinner, moaning about having a sick stomach. What a disappointment.

Let's just accept the fact that Hiro's ability to bend time and space also allowed him to learn how to become a Kendo master in 30 minutes. Are we to also accept that Sylar - who can see the future the way that painter Isaac could - would just let Hiro get so close?

Don't forget that Sylar is the bad guy who had escaped capture and death before, and who, after inadvertently killing his mother, had clearly stepped off the edge of the cliffs of sanity. Are we to believe that he had another attack of conscience?

You might wonder why I'm being so picky about logic with a television show about people who are, essentially, comic-book superheroes. Well, it's because even in the realms of the fantastic, stories and characters need to follow the internal logic of the world that was created for them. Changing the rules just to create a bombshell revelation is not just disrespectful of the audience, it's weak writing.

The nature of Peter Petrelli's power is a perfect example. Since Peter learned that he is an empath, who absorbs the powers of others, we've come to expect that he can use those powers when he needs to. He turns invisible when he needs to escape and he heals when he's been injured. It's reasonable that he's unable to control the nuclear power he absorbed because it is a power that is new to him, but suddenly making him unable to fly seems to be breaking the rule of Peter's power.

And if there was one question in my mind when Peter began shining like a glowworm, it was, 'Why don't you just fly out of there, Peter?' But he just stood there, looking around like a helpless waif.

Perhaps, though, Peter was only able to use one power at a time, and because he was going nuclear, he was unable to invoke his ability to fly. Why, then, couldn't Nathan fly Peter out of harm's way, and then fly to safety himself? We saw Nathan fly and he moved fast.

There just seemed to be too many logical rules - that had been established in the previous twenty episodes - being broken just to set up Nathan's sacrifice and the confirmation of the brothers' love for each other.

Intentionally withholding information from the audience when they've grown accustomed to knowing certain things is a cheap trick to set up a surprise twist for next season. That the writers of Heroes would stoop so low in the last episode of the show's debut season is disappointing.

The only thing that redeemed the episode at all was having Hiro teleported into feudal Japan, where he is between the lines of two combative warlords. That's how a cliffhanger works best, not by keeping information from the audience, but by giving it to them.

I fully expect that come the fall, we'll realize that Peter and Nathan both survived. We never did see what happened in the sky, after all. And I suspect that Sylar allowed himself to be skewered by Hiro because it gave him a chance to escape. That's why we we were shown the blood trail heading to the sewer during the wrap.

I hope that the writers and producers redeem themselves when Heroes comes back for a second season, but that doesn't excuse what they tried to feed us at the end of the season finale. We deserved better than

We actually *do not know* what happened to Nathan. He flew away with Peter, big boom, that's all.

It is quite possible that Nathan just let go of Peter soon enough to escape the explosion himself.

It is even quite possible that Hiro figures out a way to save Peter and does it at some point in the future (I see one simple far-fetched way: cut off his head and teleport the head away, the rest of the body should regenerate eventually, as long as the brain is intact...)

We still have the basic 'Phoenix dilemma': Hiro, Peter, and Sylar are too powerful compared to the others. Sylar is somewhat crippled because he's insane, Peter because he's learning what he can do with his power, and Hiro because his power is unstable when he has doubts.

If you remove those limitations, that's the end of the story (similar to what Joss Whedon said in a Buffy commentary: the minute Angel and Buffy finally get together, it stops being interesting, so he had to devise a way to keep it interesting).

As far as story-telling goes, I think that, in next season, we'll figure out that Sylar has been resurrected somehow (probably for some sinister purpose, but he might yet achieve redemption), that Peter is truely dead (I see him coming back as a big surprise during season 3... took him that long to regenerate), and that Nathan has escaped the blast and is wracked with grief... and Hiro meets Kensei, who is his father, and goes on to tackle issues unrelated to the main Heroes storyline, and comes back just to save the day at the end of the season.

This is so fun, we'll see how far off the mark I was by the end of next

Exactly how did the writers screw up? They told you from day one what was going to happen, they never pretended there was going to be a big fight at the end, they showed you PRECISELY ON SCREEN what to expect.

So I guess taking what you're shown and taking the writers at their word is fanaticism? Go figure.

Backwards. If either of the brothers is dead, it's Nathan. Inside the story, we know that Peter can destroy 'blowing up'. Outside the story, we know the actor will be a regular next season. *

Non sequitur much? *

Er, brain failure! Where I said 'destroy', I mean 'survive'. *

Um, duh. I was talking about all of the details we knew, not just that the good guys would prevail. That goes without saying.

Not really, no. *

The point was not what happened at the end, it was seeing how they got there. Did anyone really think New York was going to be destroyed? Did anyone think Sylar was going to win? Of course not, we already knew Sylar was going to lose, we knew Hiro was going to stab him, it was the journey that mattered, not the destination.

says...

So you are saying the invasion of Syria is premature?

So far. You don't know what happens next season.

So far, you know Sylar got away and there's next season. But everything that we saw in the comic did come true, Hiro ran Sylar through and Peter exploded. The comic gave all the high points of the season, it was the parts that we had to learn along the way that made the journey worthwhile.

Not everyone watches just to see immature slugfests, you know.

Who cares - it is a future storyline that no longer is true. We'll never know all the circumstances of the time line that would have resulted if Hiro had not come back in time.

These story lines were introduced designed to *not* be resolved, so there's no use complaining about them as unresolved.

All element of the future that was changed are suspect, and really can't be said to be unresolved, since they may never actually happen.

Deveaux was a minor character in season 1, rarely even shown. His introduction in the finale is yet another example of how TPTB were setting up the story for season 2.

Read the online graphic novels, and some things may be resolved.

Repeat after me: Season 1 ended in a cliffhanger that sets up the story for Season 2. Season 2 begins in September, and elements of the cliffhanger will be resolved then.

As for the last part: She knew about the explosion, and chose to let it happen. What more needs to be revealed?

As far as part 1: Season 2 begins in September, and it will be about the older guard of mutants

Minor issue, which will more than likely be resolved in season 2, which, again, is about the older guard of mutants.

Ando didn't know why Sylar was taking brains, only that he was killing people. Why wouldn't he fear that Sylar would kill him?

Whether or not Ando has a power was is all fan speculation - it was pretty clear that at the time of this story, Ando himself either did not have a power or had not manifested it yet. He may develop one in the future, but that's not 'unresolved.'

Pretty clearly, Hiro reversing time. Read the Behind the Eclipse interviews on comicbookresources.com for the precise answer (I can't remember what date it was in).

She's dead, and didn't manifest a power prior to her death, so, for all intents and purposes, she didn't have one - no other answer is required.

A fan invention. Other than a few stray, ambiguous pictures early in the season, uluru was never even mentioned in the show.

It showed Hiro stabbing Sylar, an event consistent with Hiro's statements from the future. Isaac simply saw what future Hiro said was going to happen. Isaac died before this encountered occurred. Therefore, he couldn't know by what means Hiro discovered that stabbing Sylar would be the means of stopping him.

The only ones in the present who know about the stabbing were Ando and Hiro. Sylar dismissed the comic and, from what we saw, never foresaw the stabbing.

Repeat after me: Season 1 ended in a cliffhanger that sets up the story for Season 2. Season 2 begins in September, and elements of the cliffhanger will be resolved then.