#208 In which our hero discusses Heroes.

If you don’t watch Heroes, then this entire post will be meaningless to you. Come back later, after the geek smell has dissipated.

Still here? Good. So, yeah, season finale of Heroes last night. It’s odd, I find myself enthusiased and a little let down at the same time. It was good, but I guess I expected more… a real barn-burner, knock-down drag-out confrontation between Peter and Sylar, for starters. But it was a much quieter episode than that; but I still found it satisfying. If that had been the series finale, then no, not so much; but knowing that there’s more adventures to come makes it okay with me. I think it was really smart of the producers to jump right in to the second chapter with Hiro appearing in medieval Japan. Anyone who might have been tempted to say, huh? That’s it? Instead said, oh my, Hiro is in quite a pickle now!

I received an email from friend and fellow blogger Li’l Kate this morning, ranting about the show in eight well-crafted points.

Now, Kate isn’t a comic book geek like me, so I suspect that some of the finer points of comic geekdom are lost on her (and Kate, let me tell you, that’s a good thing). But to really understand Heroes, in my humble opinion, it’s critical to remember that it’s a comic book show. Meaning that even though it’s set in modern day and there’s a pretty faithful adherence to the rules of physics and what-not… the universe of this show is ruled by comic book conventions. Meaning that people often do and say things simply to serve the plot. More on that in a minute.

So, being that I haven’t posted in a bit, I thought I’d share Kate’s questions/observations and my responses here, for the entire world to enjoy. You’re welcome.

1) Sylar totally just *let* Hiro stab him - and it was a pretty good stab, too. I'm not sure how he's going to survive it.

This is my biggest beef about shows/movies like this: characters sometimes forget that they can do things. This is a HUGE comic book convention, and it drives me nuts. The Hiro/Sylar showdown is a perfect example. Sylar can react fast enough to stop BULLETS in mid-air, but he couldn’t sidestep Hiro’s huge thrusting charge? The fact is that the show had set up Sylar to be so powerful that couldn’t be stopped by one man. Until he was stopped by one man. It made for a great dramatic moment (“Yeah! Hiro killed Sylar! He fulfilled his destiny! Ando will be so proud!”) but kinda didn’t make sense.

I thought the show had the right idea when Nikki clubbed him (with a parking meter? Awesome!) but that lasted all of thirty seconds.

So how did Hiro manage to stab Sylar? I think the real answer is “because that’s what the plot said,” but, if we break it down, geek-style, I think there could be other reasons that actually make sense.

• Hiro manipulated time. We know Hiro can completely stop time, but maybe he can do it locally, too. As in he froze Sylar in time just for the split second he needed to run him through. Hiro probably wasn’t even aware that he was doing it.
• Peter affected Sylar. We’ve seen that Peter can move things with his mind, maybe he froze Sylar for a second, or psychicly distracted him for a moment.
• Sylar let Hiro stab him. Sylar says to Peter “You’re the villain. Turns out I’m the hero.” Maybe in Sylar’s twisted mind he was becoming a martyr, transcending the hero role and becoming something greater (which is what he’s wanted from the very beginning). Personally, I think this is the most likely.

2) NOBODY noticed the trail of blood to the *open* sewer lid????? C'mon. Someone as creepy as him - you don't take your eyes off of him even if you think he's dead.

Oh yeah, I agree. Have these guys never seen a horror movie in their lives? When the bad guy looks dead, he's never really dead! But couldn’t you just see that scene as the final page of a comic? With a caption reading “The End?” That’s a total comic book ending and I loved it, even as I was saying “Open your fucking eyes, you retards!”

I’m actually a little disappointed that Sylar wasn’t killed outright (wasn’t Hiro’s father showing him decapitation moves? THAT I would have liked to see). I don’t want the show to turn into The Hunt for Red Sylar. “Molly says he’s in Kansas City! Avengers Assemble!”

3) So.... Peter can survive his own explosion, but his brother can't... do did Nathan just fly him up in the atmosphere, let go and fly away? Or did Nathan bite it? And will Peter remember how to fly back to Earth?

I guarantee you Nathan is dead. He was willing to turn his back and let millions of innocents die, including his own brother. In the comic book world you can only make up for such a sin with a huge personal sacrifice… and in Nathan’s case, it was the ultimate sacrifice.

I actually think Peter is dead and gone, too. I hope he is. His death lends some gravity to the actions of the other heroes. They can die… even the most powerful among them isn’t safe.

Of course, Hiro can bend space and time at will. There’s no reason that he couldn’t pop in at 12,000 feet at the last minute and zap Nathan to safety. Or prevent Peter from ever meeting Ted and absorbing his power in the first place.

That’s the big problem with Hiro's power… if had can literally go to any time or space, why doesn’t he? I give the producers a lot of credit here, they developed Hiro’s character in such a way that he doesn’t go back and fiddle with time simply because he thinks it’s not the right thing to do. And it makes sense, coming from Hiro.

4) I want to know what Mama Petrelli's power is and how many other people (Linderman, Hiro's dad, her, Charles) are in on this little plan, and who agrees with it and who doesn't. Now that the bomb didn't go off, will Mama Petrelli attempt another explosion/disaster with whoever still agrees with her and Linderman? Or were her and Linderman the only ones with that particular vision?

I suspect that the death of Nathan has effectively put to bed their plan of uniting the world under one strong crisis-time leader. But I’m sure they have other plans in the works, and we’ll see them again. With the death of the Petrelli boys, there’s no-one left to defend Mama Petrelli, so she’s free to really become a villain in the future. Only Claire is family, and she’s not likely to start vouching for grandma any time soon.

5) I TOTALLY called that it wasn't Jessica or that Mica was dead and that it was that Candace or whatever her name is. Nailed it. Not saying the show is predictable, but, you know, a moment of pride. ;)

You go, Kate. Own your inner geek. I also saw that coming, but enjoyed how it was played--Nikki and Jessica finally integrating personalities. The only other moment I saw coming was when Horn Rim Glasses told Peter his real first name. Not that it’s a major plot point or anything, but it’s something that the writers have teased us viewers with off and on. It was a nice moment. Also, Noah? That could be a little significant, huh?

6) Who is this new character going to be that Molly is so afraid of - the one who sees her seeing him? Is he going to be another villain? or does he just not like to be spied on? I know I'd be kind of pissed.

Yeah, the big bad for season 2! I suspect we’ll be teased with this Sauron-esque character for a while before he/she/it is actually revealed.

7) If Niki had stayed in the fight with Peter and Sylar, she could have kicked some serious ass. Sylar would NOT have crawled away.

Agreed. I guess integrating the two personalities greatly reduced Jessica’s killer instinct. What, exactly, was she going to do to help D.L.? Looks like all she did was kneel by his side and whisper encouragements. Couldn’t she have taken five minutes to beat Sylar into a bloody pulp with a parking meter first?

8) We never figured out what triggered the "nuclear" response in Peter - what brought it on. Seemed to randomly come out of nowhere every time.

Right. Stress? Fear? I think the true trigger was “the writers think this would be a dramatic moment!” He seemed to be able to control any other power he absorbed just fine… expect for this one. But again, I’m not bad-mouthing the show, because it’s sticking to comic book conventions. Sometimes things happen when they happen. And speaking of comic book conventions… um, Peter? You can fly, remember? If you don’t want to level the city, just fly away. Of course, maybe he can only use one power at a time, and couldn’t fly while glowing. Or something like that.

But overall, I still love the show. I’m very curious to see where they’re going to take it next season. Speaking of which, when I Wiki’d Heroes for some background for this post (oh yes, all my posts are highly researched beforehand) I came across this:

Heroes: Origins, a spin-off from Heroes. So next year there will be even more geeky TV to enjoy.

I’m so excited I could explode!

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