Letters to the Editor
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Did anyone die last night?
“Second: At the very end, I could have sworn there was a blood trail from where Sylar fell to an open manhole cover, implying that Sylar's alive and will return, regeneration be damned.”
That’s right. I think Sylar was that cockroach on the man-hole cover! He’s going to come back a tortured freak out for revenge.
And I don’t think Nathan is dead either. I’m sure he flew his ailing brother, sapped of all other powers, up nice and high and then zoomed away to safety.
Comics and Soaps have always had something very important in common: even if you see the body they’re probably not dead.
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Willing Suspension of Disbelief
So we are willing to believe that a character can fly or absorb other powers, but we can't come up with a plausible explanation for why Peter couldn't just fly away? He seemed, throughout the show, to be susceptible to panic attacks and was easily overwhelmed by all of his powers. If he was having trouble controlling the radioactive power, what makes you think he would be able to control his ability to fly?
Also, we don't know that either Peter or Nathan are dead. We can assume Peter lived, but with shows like this you can never assume anyone is dead unless you see a head lopped off (does anyone remember the X-Files?).
As for the easy dispatching of Sylar, it seems obvious that he was ready to sacrifice himself and so did not put up much of a fight. He really only wanted to provoke Peter enough so that Peter would lose control. Typical of serial killers, his self-loathing made him want to be captured/killed, but he also wanted to orchestrate the way things would end. It was enough for him to see the "good guys" destroy the city unwittingly.
There are so many "why didn't he/she just..." scenarios possible that we can only accept the one we were given as the most expedient to the plot. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the season and by this episode, and was only annoyed by the final scene of Sylar's trail of blood leading to the ajar manhole cover. If it's one thing I could not willingly believe, it's that everyone just forgot that there was an evil genius bleeding his life away in the middle of a public square and that he somehow managed to slink away undetected. I was also completely confused by Peter's revelations during his dream sequence. If any of that really meant anything, why was he still unable to master himself and save the day?
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I still love Heroes!
Ya know, Peter's never been much for flying, so that's why Nathan had to fly him to safety. I don't know if Peter can survive, but I hope he does, he's the only one that can stop Syler. Nathan has afterburners, I'm sure he's ok.
I was more disappointed that the shape shifter girl (can't remember her name, prolly cause I didn't like her) didn't turn out to be hideous and fat like she claimed. That would have been awesome!
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Power and responsibility as themes
Thank you for the Heroes article. I adore Heroes and really liked the messages this season about power and responsibility.
Some people (like baddie Mama Petrelli) believe that the power of position and money is the only true power in this world, never realizing that true power in life is often about having grace and compassion, being willing to make sacrifices for others, even in the face of betrayal, pain and death. The show does a nice job dealing with the ways in which we face and accept death and our places as human beings in the world, actually.
I didn't mind that Peter couldn't fly away. That made sense. He couldn't control his powers at that point. However, I DO think someone should have thought of tranqualizing him first. A tranq gun would have done the trick, with Claire manning the helm. Why would none of them listen to me when I yelled at the screen?!? So maddening.
And I would have liked a two-hour finale to fill in all the messy spots. And some of the dialogue was a wee bit clunky in places, but hey, they've got some time to work that out.
I also have a terrific theory about the next bad guy. Perhaps he controls insects, which would explain the presence of the cockroach at Sylar's side (well, besides the metaphor about cockroaches that was certainly made) and explain why Molly thinks he can see her whereever she is. (Yikes. Nicely chilling by the way, that scene.)
At any rate, I'm huge lover of graphic novels, which are often quite complex works. I think Heroes has the potential to be that sort of complicated work about humanity and life. And, if this complicated commentary on humanity is the intention of the writers, I think, for the most part, the show is accomplishing that.
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expository dialogue
remember last week when everyone was saying "why didn't DL just phase the bullet through himself?" Then this week they explained that with a clunky bit of expository dialogue?
Reminded me of this week's Sopranos. Everyone online was questioning how Tony could just take off to Vegas... Then Carmela says to Tony "well, once you explained you had to go take care of Christopher's business out in Vegas..." Apropos of nothing.
I am sure Heroes will do the same silly trick again to explain why Peter couldn't fly himself away in a forced bit of exposition.
www.theethicalscumbag.blogspot.com
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I'm surprised everyone assumes Peter could regenerate . . .
after blowing himself to smithereens in a thermonuclear explosion. We know that Claire/Peter can appear to be dead but revive after a "fatal" piece of wood or glass is removed from their brains, but that's a far cry from recomposing oneself after total annihiliation. The show hasn't really told us how far "indestructibility" goes . . . or have I missed something?
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Explanations
Peter couldn't fly for any number of reasons, but let's just say he was too busy holding off the big boom to concentrate enough to fly.
As for why DL didn't phase out the bullet, well, damn, the whole point was that he was trying to protect *his wife*. It wouldn't have done much good to jump in front of Nikki and let the bullet ass through, hitting Nikki! After the fact he might have been able to phase out the bullet, but he still has the effects of getting hit by the bullet...
Heroes does have plot problems, and I was the first one to groan when Mohinder left the defenseless Sylar alive in his apartment, but I thought the finale was reasonably logical.
It's not the Greatest Show Ever, but I'll take what I can get, Sci-Fi wise.