Heroes: How to Stop an Exploding Man

Pretty disappointing, I must say - for all the mentioned plot holes and some that weren't.

As for Hiro, I had always thought (based on the images of his hero and how he was able to bend away the arrows that flew at him in the depiction) that Hiro would eventually go back in time and become the very hero that he had admired (in a literal sense). I'm probably missing something, but from what I gather, Hiro is in actuality Takezo Kensai.

I was actually flabbergasted at how weak and underwritten the climax was. No imagination and lazy as hell. They should have had us grasping to keep up with how the heroes worked together to beat Sylar. I really neede a WOW and I was left with a WTF instead.

I know the guys on the forum are really trying to come up with some depth and theories for this climax that give it some oomph but c'mon guys, it was lame and we can't imagine the crappiness away.

When you watch this on DVD you'll be like "Fuck! It didn't get better, no matter what I thought of for the last 6 months"!

...yeah, I'll still check out Season 2.

I was actually flabbergasted at how weak and underwritten the climax was. No imagination and lazy as hell. They should have had as grasping to keep up with how the heroes worked together to beat Sylar. I really neede a WOW and I was left with a WTF instead.

I know the guys on the forum are really trying to come up with some depth and theories for this climax that give it some oomph but c'mon guys, it was lame and we can't imagine the crappiness away.

When you watch this on DVD you'll be like "Fuck! It didn't get better, no matter what I thought of for the last 6 months"!

...yeah, I'll still check out Season 2.

Some comments for Stephen's plot holes:
1. Candice never said she was "big and fat" and that her "given" appearance was fake - she just kept teasing Micah with "how do you know I look like this or that", possibly to help keep him off balance and probably because she likes playing with people. YOU assumed she was fat because she was eating some french fries and said tauntingly "how do you know I look like this for real?"
2. We don't know that they have to be injured "in the back of the head" - it could just be damaging the brain does it. Shooting Peter in the face would have the same result as shooting him in the back of the head - it isn't like Peter or Claire are invulnerable except the back of the head - its that they heal all injuries save head injuries where something remains lodged in the brain. We know they can heal from said injuries when the object is removed, but we don't know that the object has to protrude through the back of the skull. He didn't need to turn around as far as we know.
3. Peter was focusing on controlling the one power - that was obvious - it was taking all his concentration to keep from exploding. Had he focused his thoughts (remember, we HAVE been told that he accesses his powers by thinking of the people and/or emotions related to the people he's copied the powers from) then he would have lost control and exploded before he could get away. It is not explicitly spelled out for you, but I do think it is strongly implied. At the very least it is as easy to assume this as it is for you to assume that he COULD have flown away himself BUT they forgot that and hence the plot hole.

Couple other observations on my part -

Sylar kept just appearing behind people from apparently out of nowhere. I was wondering if he had super-speed or teleportation or some other power we hadn't seen yet. But at the end, on the manhole cover where Sylar's blood trail leads, there's a bug, a cockroach I believe. Did Sylar turn into a bug? Was that how he "hid in plain sight" and snuck up on people? I think, if so, it was so very subtle and understated that it was awesome.

I knew Nathan would be a hero at the end, but even knowing I thrilled to watch it happen. The not leaving his brother angle, how he sacrificed himself - maybe you saw it coming and found it cliche. I found it perfect.

I believe the guy on the horse with the banner is an ancestor of Hiro. I think he could even possibly be Hiro's "father" who has "waited so long" for one of his family to rise up.

I don't think the plot holes were really holes, or big even if I could be convinced otherwise. I thought the episode was an amazing end to an outstanding series. And I loved how the story arc ended, wrapping basically everything up, but then we're given the start of the next volume before the episode ends! Sweetness!

Merin has it exactly right. I was only disappointed in the sense that I wanted a big Matrix stlye throw down between Peter and Sylar

Season Finale for the most part sucked. So the big fight against Sylar and Peter punches him a few times?

WTF, they have been giving us little tastes of a big fight making amazing use of their powers...and they give us a few punches from Peter, Nicki hitting Sylar over the head with a parking meter, and a quick stab through the chest by Hiro? YAWN.

This goes down as one of the biggest anticlimactic let downs ever, right next to the crap that was the Iceman vs Pyro lameness in X-Men 3.

Here's a quick synopsis of what the ending should have been like.

- the streets should have been a battleground with most of the characters fighting against Syler in one aspect or another
- with Peter being the main combatant against Sylar
- at least 1 or 2 heroes dying during the fight
- Sylar starts to go nuclear to fight against Peter who at this point is winning
- Peter goes nuclear in response
- Sylar begins to lose control and can't contain it any longer
- . . . .

At this point just about any ending would be better than what they did. I can think of about a dozen cool ways this could end and none of them include Sylar dying by a simple stab to the chest and Nathan flying Peter off into space.

And why didn't they kill Sylar off? They already planted the seed that there was someone much worse. Sylar as a character was already flawed because they gave him too much power, making that much more difficult to have Heroes fight him.

Yep, we are trying to create imaginative reasons for what happened over in our Heroes forum here.

After all, for me at least, the last 10 minutes of Heroes was horribly written. It seemed as if the writers Kring and Co were either smoking something very toxic when thinking of the final act/scenes or their brains were completely "out to lunch".

Not sure what kind of reasoning they had behind that last 10 minutes of Season 1 but they definitely dropped the ball.

That said, I loved this first season as a whole overall view and I can't wait for season 2.

I just wished we could have a "Do Over!" for the last 10-15 minutes of the season.

While I disagree with pretty everything Stephen said and agree for the most part with Merin, I still think that the last 10-15 mins could have been better. It definitely didn't "suck" as so many of us here keep saying but I think it could have been written with a little more "oomph".

I think some people are disappointed because , those of us who read comics expected some huge Secret Wars, Matrix type battle between Peter and Sylar. But thinking about it, and Stephen mentions it, the way the hero teams came together, weren`t planned. It was a string of events and circumstance. This isn't the X-men vs Magneto. None of them are professional "heroes". To me its the equivalent of 2 guys getting into a fight at a bar. In the future the fight looked bad ass because Peter has had years to learn to control and hone his powers. Right now, he can bearly stop from blowing himself up.
I`m sure Kring and co could have made it some huge Avengers type battle in the streets but thats not what this show is about. If you think it is, you`ve been watching the wrong show.
I would have liked the fight to last a little longer and maybe had more of the heroes fight against Sylar, not just Hiro and Nikki.
And just a note. Parkman wasn`t a distraction for Hiro. He was down and out way before Hiro showed up. Also, his powers don`t work that fast for him to dodge bullets.
I did wonder why there weren`t more people around, especially in NYC. That was probably the most unrealistic part, because there are people outside, no matter what time it is, especially in Manhattan.
I thought that this episode was good, could have been better but I`m happy with the finale.
I can`t wait for next season. That would be really cool if his father was Kensai. My belief is that Hiro is most likely a direct descendant and his father`s family has been waiting a long time for someone in the family to take up the mantle as a hero, like Kensai

Nikki didn't "turn into" Jessica to hit Candice. She finally realized she has the power herself. The Jessica personality was just a split personality to formed because she had an abusive father who apparently killed her actual sister Jessica. But it was the Jessica personality that first discovered and was able to use the super strength. And when Micah asked if it was really Nikki now and she said yes, I took that to mean that the Jessica personality is gone.

I thought the finale was good, except for the "All you need is LOVE!" and "Home is where our family is" corniness. Also, I hated how Nathan responded to something Claire said BEFORE he even flew in. Does he have super hearing too?

Dito to Ponyboy & Merin. I too thought that the ending was rushed at first, but after thinking it overit made sense not only for the reasons listed above, but also poeticly, like in al comics - the villain is convinced of his own superiority and then is taken out by surprise rather quickly.

I didnt notice that Sylar's body was missing at the end of the show, i just assumed that first aid responders had removed it. Seems to me that the characters had been lingering at the scene for a while after the battle, so i assumed that someone would have noticed. I did notice that Hiro didnt feature much in the aftermath (if at all) and was wondering about his quick exit.

Someone brought up the idea of Sylar seemingly dropping in on people out of nowhere and related it to the cockroach at the end of the episode. I didnt make that conclussion, but it hadnt occured to me...i related the cockroach to being a symbol of evolution which Mohinder talked about at length in the 1st episode.

Going back to Sylar's poping in and out on people, i had noticed him make a quick exit on lats week's show, after fingering Ted to FBI Agent Audrey, she is talking to him, then turns and he is gone. We didnt see him disappear, but for a moment it seemed like he turned invisible or something, which brought me to my questions....

Why leave so many Heroes out of the finale? Where was Claude, especially after he figured so promiently laughing in Peter's visions on the bomb. And what ever became of the Hatian? He figured so prominently in the early episodes! Surely his powers could have helped in the battle. And then there was the email girl, Hana something...i know she has a big role in the on-line episodes, but i dont follow those closely, and she seemed to just pop up for an episode and then drop from the face of the earth.

I loved the redemption of Nathan coming to Peter's aid, and had figured Nathan to die if only because what the heck is this country (and this tv show) gonna do with a flying congressman! But I was sad to see Peter go. I know in a way he was getting too powerful, but he was a nicely developed character and someone you liked to follow. On a side note, since we know that Claire can regenerate from the explosion, does that mean that Peter should be able to also? Surviving the drop shouldnt be a problem since he can fly too! Just a thought.

Anyhow in season 2 im looking forward to finding out the connection between Mrs. Petrelli, Linderman, Shaft and Sulu, and also in this "more dangerous other guy".