Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Heroes Finale Rundown

I really wanted to write about the end of the first Heroes season with an analysis of what we were left with. I didn't want to spoil the ending for anyone, though.

I thought I might try to work with Blogger to get those posts where you can put the entirety of the post beyond a link, and just a little bit of it on the main page. That would be perfect for this. You know what I discovered? Since Blogger upgraded to v2, their template is ridiculous. I don't understand it a bit (Widgets are much less self-evident than HTML). I'm not sure I could even do basic changes to the template on my own anymore. All that stuff in my sidebar? I couldn't even tell you where the code IS in the template anymore, which means they might be permanent fixtures.

I hear WordPress is nice, or maybe MoveableType.

Anyhow, I still wanted to write about Heroes without ruining it for anyone, so the entirety of my thoughts is going to be posted in the comments for this post. If you're interested in reading a spoiler-filled, geeky analysis of the end of season one, then read on in the comments.

4 comments:

Hal said...

Let’s go by character:

Noah and Claire Bennett
Aw . . . I’m glad she’s happy with her father again. Took her long enough to realize that he really loved her. I’m not sure where they’ll end up, but I don’t think we’re going to be hearing from them in the second season.

Matt Parkman
Why did this moron think he could take on Sylar? He’s seen what Sylar can do, and yet he just thought he’d run in and shoot him. And now he has 4 bullets in his chest.

We’re not sure if he’ll live. I’m betting he does, and that he returns in the next season to some degree.

Mohinder and Molly
Where does Mohinder go from here? Will he go back to finding a “cure” for the superpowers, or will he do something else? Is Molly going to live with him? That might make sense, since she’d be helpful to his research. Alternatively, she could go live with Matt and his wife, and that would be just as sensible, since she’s pretty fond of him.

But who is this “worse” person that she doesn’t like to look for? I’m betting it’s a prelude to season two. Very curious.

Nikki, DL, and Micah
I hope DL lives. You were really pulling for these three to be all right in the end. I doubt we’ll see much of them next season.

Also, seeing Nikki bash Sylar in the face with a parking meter was satisfying in ways I can’t describe.

Nathan’s Mom and the Company
We still know very little about her powers, and her role in the company that Noah used to work for. In fact, with Bennett’s old boss and Linderman both dead, what happens to the company? Were they the ones leading the way, or are there more people at the top ready to continue to pull the strings of fate?

Hiro and Ando
Ando was saved. This is good. We won’t see him next season, except maybe briefly if Hiro returns to visit him.

Hiro, we’ll definitely be seeing more of. This incident of him ending up in the past with, I can only assume, the Kensei of his childhood stories, opens the way for a very interesting story. I’ve no idea where they’ll go with it. Maybe Hiro’s going to train there for a while, then cavort about time.

When does he fight the dinosaur?

Nathan and Peter Petrelli
Another happy ending . . . I guess. Nathan’s heart finally softened enough to save his brother and prevent the explosion.

But . . .

There’s a lot unknown here and a lot that doesn’t make sense. When Nathan flew his brother away, did he get away before the explosion? Did Peter find some way to protect his brother? Or is Nathan dead? We know Peter can survive it, and I suspect we’ll see more of him next season, but I’ll bet he doesn’t know if Nathan survived. If Nathan’s dead, Peter is going to be a very whiny, emotionally conflicted character.

Still . . . why did Nathan do it? A bullet to the head would have stopped Peter from going nuclear, and as we saw with the glass shard, simply removing it would have allowed Peter to regenerate. Why did anyone have to die?

And why was Peter being such a pansy about fighting Sylar? I was expecting this incredible brawl, like the one alluded to when Hiro was in the future. Instead, Peter gets knocked around, punches Sylar a couple times, and then starts glowing on us. That’s it, Peter? A few punches is all you could muster to stop Sylar?

Which leads me to . . .

Sylar
All I wanted to see from this episode was the death of Sylar. It could have been 5 minutes long, consisting of nothing but a scene where Hiro stabs him in the chest, and that would have been good enough for me.

And we had it . . . sort of. Is Sylar dead? Well . . . maybe. He looked pretty dead. But then they had that scene, right at the end, with the blood trail leading into the open manhole.

Great. Just great. We’ll be left to wonder, did they actually steal away the satisfaction of defeating the villain? Or did something drag him down there?

Shame on you, NBC. All we wanted was for Sylar to die and you took that away from us. So much for good beating evil in what should have been a classic superhero story.

So, all in all, I loved this show. The ending was not what I was hoping for, but I can’t say I was too disappointed. It’s like hoping for filet mignon and getting steak; you’re happy either way.

I’m very much looking forward to next season.

-Murphy said...

I hope DL lives. You were really pulling for these three to be all right in the end. I doubt we’ll see much of them next season.


Their story didn't really interest me all that much, for some reason.

We still know very little about her powers, and her role in the company that Noah used to work for. In fact, with Bennett’s old boss and Linderman both dead, what happens to the company? Were they the ones leading the way, or are there more people at the top ready to continue to pull the strings of fate?

It'll have to continue on in some form, I think, and I don't think Thompson had any real authority.

Also, was it just me or was the Nathan/Mrs. Petrelli storyline more or less entirely lifted from The Manchurian Candidate? Particularly if she turns out to have some kind of suggestion thing like Eden.

Hiro, we’ll definitely be seeing more of. This incident of him ending up in the past with, I can only assume, the Kensei of his childhood stories, opens the way for a very interesting story. I’ve no idea where they’ll go with it. Maybe Hiro’s going to train there for a while, then cavort about time.

I'm interested to learn if there's a link between Kensei and Hiro's father. There's been some speculation around that they're the same person.

This would make me happy, as it would allow for more George Takei.
When Nathan flew his brother away, did he get away before the explosion?

I thought that this might be the case for a while, but considering the amount of radiation Nathan would have been subjected to during the flight up, I imagine he's probably dead.

A bullet to the head would have stopped Peter from going nuclear, and as we saw with the glass shard, simply removing it would have allowed Peter to regenerate.

It's possible the stress of being shot in the head would have triggered the explosion anyway.

It could have been 5 minutes long, consisting of nothing but a scene where Hiro stabs him in the chest,

I thought the stab in the chest seemed odd, actually. Did Hiro stop time before stabbing Sylar? Because otherwise, it seemed like Sylar just sort of stood there and waited to be stabbed.

I'm ok with him being alive, actually.

Hal said...

I thought the stab in the chest seemed odd, actually. Did Hiro stop time before stabbing Sylar? Because otherwise, it seemed like Sylar just sort of stood there and waited to be stabbed.

I thought the same thing; Sylar seemed to take his "death blow" quite in stride.

I'm ok with him being alive, actually.

Then the terrorists have already won.

-Murphy said...


Then the terrorists have already won.


It's only ok if he falls under the tutelage of some even worse villain, I think.

I thought I put that on there. Apparently I did not.