Heroes: Powerless

Thug: "You know what happens to heroes in the real world? They end up dead. Just like you."

Well, at least they didn't leave us with a cliffhanger, or kill off Mr. Muggles. (Heaven forbid.) And I got what I wanted: Peter, Claire, HRG and Hiro made it, and so did Elle and Adam. (Adam is still alive, after all; he could return. And if we thought he was nuts before, we ain't seen nothing yet.)

New Orleans: Since I haven't been all that much interested in her storyline, I was surprised by how affected I was by Niki's heroic death. Rescuing Monica from that fire was a deliberate echo of what DL did. And now Niki and DL are together, if you believe in that sort of thing. Poor Micah. I bet he'll feel guilty for the rest of his life. At least he still has family, and he and Monica have obviously bonded.

Odessa, Texas: I could feel Nathan's assassination coming during that final speech, and I absolutely hated losing him -- especially since he finally embraced his own superpowers and was about to tell the world about the Company. I can only assume there's no chance of an HRG-like resurrection, since Claire is on the west coast and Adam is underground somewhere in Japan. At least we got one more "Flying man!" Too sad.

They finally deep-sixed the unpleasant and unpopular virus plot that I never liked, and Peter's ability to nuke finally came in handy. It certainly saved more people than he would have killed with it last season. But I was disappointed that Peter hurt Hiro. And that it took so freaking long for Peter to realize what Adam was doing. But then again, Peter believes in the good in people, and I wouldn't want Peter to be other than what he is.

Nathan carried Matt from New York to Texas. Hilarious. Does (or did) Nathan also have superstrength? Come to think of it, West managed to carry HRG pretty far into the air, too. Maybe the ability to fly includes some extra umph in order to achieve lift-off.

New York: This episode had some great moments; it wasn't all about characters dying or getting buried alive. I think my favorite was when Elle attacked Sylar, inadvertently rescuing Mohinder, Molly, and Maya. When Mohinder thanked her for saving them, her expression was priceless. Elle was proud of what she had done. She can't be a sociopath. Can a girl come back from frying people for her daddy? Redemption, anyone?

I also loved Noah's look of pride when Bob complained that Claire was getting "difficult." The Company may have gotten HRG back, but his heart won't be in it. (Claire really has gotten pissy this season. She did have a bad year, though.)

I was confused by what Angela was doing. I thought that telling Matt that a bullet through the head would kill Peter and Adam was her way of protecting Peter, since we all know Peter and Claire resurrected from fatal head wounds. Were we supposed to believe that Angela was behind Nathan's assassination? Who actually killed Nathan? It looked like Sylar from the back, but I doubt that it was.

How long will we have to wait until we find out? Writers' strike. Fie.

Bits and pieces:

-- "End of volume two. Volume 3: Villains." Sylar? Bob? Will they bring Adam back? Please bring Adam back. I hate the thought of him down there screaming forever.

-- We still don't know how Sylar absorbs powers. Did he just absorb Claire's power, along with her blood? Probably not. I thought the spinach can a la Popeye was funny.

-- This week's Most Obvious Symbolism was that shot of Elle reflected in Bob's glasses. Elle is a reflection of Bob. Or at least she was.

-- At Mohinder's apartment, Maya was wearing an apron that said, "World's Greatest Dad. I thought that was a clever little reminder that Sylar killed the original resident of that apartment.

-- Maya fell in the same place that Isaac Mendez did. I dislike Maya a lot more than Isaac. Why didn't she stay dead?

-- I thought Mohinder was a lot more fun this season. I loved that he tried to stab Sylar, and that he surreptitiously set off the alarm in the lab. Do you think that next season we could have him shaved, well-groomed, and without a freaking band-aid across his nose?

-- I wonder what other goodies were in that vault in Odessa?

-- Elle's admin password was "midas."

-- So the future was changed. Where's Caitlin?

Quotes:

Matt: "Your mother told me that if I had to, that I should kill Peter."
Nathan: "Listening to my mother has never led to anything good."

Matt: "We don't talk about that. Ever again."
Nathan: "Agreed."

Dan thought this was a four-star episode. I'm not so sure. But it was still terrific, and I'm looking forward to volume three,

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

• Next episode
  
• Heroes season 2
  
• Heroes home