Heroes: How To Stop An Exploding Man

"In the end, all that really matters is love."

This was the pay-off. Was it worth the wait? Well, yes, pretty much.

It was all about the full circle. The series began with Peter jumping off the roof and Nathan saving him, and it ended in much the same way. I think Nathan had already decided to let the explosion happen so that he could become the leader of the free world. What finally changed his mind? It was probably a lot of things, but in the end, I think it was what Claire said to him, and seeing Claire so determined to save Peter that she jumped out a window. Nathan loved Peter so much that he couldn't let him be responsible for the death of so many. His sacrifice was very powerful, and brought me to tears.

I was expecting bodies everywhere, and I was surprised that the only character we apparently lost was Nathan. Nathan was an outstanding character; I spent the entire first season wondering what he would ultimately do. I'm assuming that Peter will indeed reassemble and fly home. (He'd better, because he's my favorite character.) It's certainly possible that Nathan left Peter in the air and got to a minimum safe distance. Matt, Candice and DL are on the critical list; we'll see. Even Ando made it, and I thought for sure that he was headed for the big Star Trek Convention in the sky.

As I thought (and they had hinted), everyone played their part. Matt saved Molly. Molly found Sylar. DL got Niki out of the suite to save Micah. Micah made the elevator work. Niki "distracted" Sylar at an important moment. So did Matt, for that matter. Hiro did stab Sylar. Maybe the wound didn't kill him because Hiro left his powerful sword in Japan with Ando. Maybe that was supposed to be Hiro's arc – saving his friend. Maybe Hiro will kill Sylar in season two.

What was Peter's dream with Deveaux? Did it really happen on some plane of existence? Back in Chapter 7, Peter shared a dream with Deveaux about saving the world. Maybe it has something to do with whatever Deveaux's power was.

If I have a complaint, and it's hard to complain about an episode this good, it's that I wanted the Peter/Sylar death match I've been imagining in my head. Their final confrontation was too short, and dammit, Sylar lived. I guess that if Peter and Sylar are both still with us, we might get the ultimate death match in season two, and that's something to look forward to.

Except I have to say that the glimpse of season two at the end kind of irritated me. I wasn't ready for coming attractions. I was still stunned by Nathan's sacrifice and suddenly being tossed into 1671 Kyoto eclipse scene was like cold water in my face.

Bits and pieces:

-- A number of fans have asked why Peter himself didn't just fly to minimum safe distance. I've pretty much bought into Dan's theory that Peter can only use one power at a time, so this didn't even occur to me. I thought that it was either that, or Peter was just overwhelmed by Ted's power and simply couldn't.

-- Hiro may not have stopped Sylar, but he did leave his father's disapproval behind. He chose to save Ando instead of doing what his father wanted. And his decision played into the major theme of this episode, i.e., love is what truly matters.

-- Bennet and Mohinder hid Thompson's body in a hazardous waste container. :)

-- Bennet's first name is Noah. (At this point, I think I was expecting it to be Mxyzptlk.) The Biblical Noah was the one who gathered all of the world's species in twos and placed them on the ark, so I'm sure this name was a deliberate choice.

-- Now that Bennet has changed sides permanently, I bet he has some sort of new organization in mind. The anti-organization organization, perhaps.

-- Twice, we saw how the white eyes/painting thing works, and I just loved it; awesome effect. The first was Sylar seeing much of the final confrontation at Kirby Plaza, but not the end. The second, while Sylar was supposedly dying, was of all of his victims.

-- Candice got knocked out. Why didn't we see her true form?

-- During her fight with Candice, a mirror broke immediately before Niki acquired her super strength. I really did love how they ended this one.

-- That final confrontation did resemble the vision. Everyone (with a few exceptions, like Claude and Simone) was there, and Nathan did walk right up to Peter at the end.

-- Peter just got everyone's power, didn't he?

-- Mama Petrelli really thought the explosion was unstoppable. Maybe the Sulu Linderman Deveaux Mama faction isn't evil, after all. We still don't know what the Company is, or why it does what it does.

-- D.L., Niki, Micah and Molly look like a perfect nuclear family, pun intended.

-- If he didn't sacrifice his life, at the very least Nathan sacrificed his political ambitions. He probably won't be president now.

-- The explosion at the end looked like the eclipse and the credits. "The glowing light of a new dawn."

-- The last thing we saw before the season two preview was a cockroach. I think it was just to remind us that Sylar is practically unkillable.

-- Molly mentioned someone a lot worse than Sylar. "When I think about him, he can see me." Next season's villain, I presume? Except Sylar is still with us, too.

-- "End of Volume One. Volume Two. Generations."

Quotes:

Ando: "Hiro. You look bad ass."
Hiro: "Really?"
That was kind of Ando, because Hiro really didn't look bad ass. Hiro looked cute. He always looks cute.

Hiro: "@#$%!"

This was an amazingly strong first season, and I'm a happy camper. Despite my nitpicking, this was an excellent, excellent episode. Four out of four stars,

Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

• Next episode
  
• Heroes season 1
  
• Heroes home