Man, some days, it’s hard to be a geek. It’s tough being the dude who cares about this stuff even if he doesn’t want to. It’s a calling, really — like pulling a sword from a stone or being handed one of the Lantern Corps rings — and you can’t turn it down. You have to watch the season finale of Heroes, even if you’ve sorta stopped caring. To save you some time, here’s the episode, and after the jump, the four spoilery things you "need" to know:
1) Claire is now furniture. The poor girl went from being the focalpoint of an entire network ("Save the cheerleader, save NBC") to,literally, being pushed around by Sylar like an ottoman. She went from vital to annoying to scenery.
2) Angela Petrelli knows how to howl. When that thing that happens at the end of the episode — you remember, Sylar killing Nathan — and Angela finds the body, she lets loose this cry of anguish that was, maybe, the most convincing thing all season.
3) That last twist was pretty good. With her son dead, Angela coaxes Parkman into mind-wiping Sylar so the shapeshifter believes that he’s Nathan Petrelli. And no one knows but Angela, Parkman, and Noah. And "Nathan" — the wolf who doesn’t even know he’s in sheep’s clothing — has a thing for clocks. (In a little nod to Watchmen, the last thing we see Nathan do is change the time to 11:55.) Not bad, Heroes, not bad.
4) We’ll never see heroes fighting again. So we get to the pivotal moment of the episode — when Nathan and Peter make amends just in time to team up and take on Sylar — and the brothers storm into a hotel suite, ready to face off with electro-fisted Sylar. The doors close, and we’re outside the room with Furniture Claire, and all we see of the fight is blue flashes reflected in Claire’s eyes. Seriously? You’ve got a show with characters who can fly and throw fire and do all kinds of crazy-awesome comic-book stuff…and you don’t show us the climactic clash of the titans? Battlestar Galactica, for it’s occasional devolution into talking pseudo-religious pabulum, knew that the audience needed the space battles and shootouts; knew that after so much plot buildup, we needed that explosive release. Does Heroes just not know how to do action? What’s a budget for, if not to blow it in the season finale? Why tune into a show that steadfastly refuses to give you what you want? I’ll say it: Heroes is a tease.
How about you? Will you tune in for Volume Five, "Redemption," next season, or are you done? Do you wish they put Heroes out to pasture and committed to Chuck?
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I’m done. I was done partway through this season, but toughed it out until the end. It was a very disappointing season, and an even more disappointing finale. I don’t know why they spend 3 seasons building up characters only to have them act TOTALLY out of character for Season 4. Parkman is just as useless as Claire, all he does is stare intently and move his head from one side to the other, and why are we going to invest in TWO separate love stories for him? Come on!
And a fourth incarnation of Ali Larter? Please. yes, I know it’s still Tracy, so that’s only 3, but really…does that make it any better.
I quit watching Heroes in October, so I’ve been done. I should have been done after the 1st season’s finale, but kept giving it more and more chances. It’s honestly not that surprising that they did the big fight behind closed doors, because they’ve done that every single season. Once a promising show, now LAME.
who cares if they do it every season, they got powers someone always gonna be evil what u expect, aint like they overkillin wit the fightin
You are the worst type of geek. Heroes is far from perfect, but the season finale and the last few episodes leading up to it were very good. Much better than they had been. My only gripe is not seeing the fight. I normally don’t complain about the bloggers or TV Watchers, but dude, seriously.
Ah Heroes – Its sad to say but I stuck though the horrible 2nd season and had hope this season would get MUCH better. It did get better but I think it’s too late. They really need a proper writer – someone with a vision – Tim Kring needs to get the boot – he’s absolutely horrible at this.
I’m done with Heroes. I really couldn’t believe they were gonna have YET ANOTHER fight between Peter and Sylar and not show us anything. WTF!?!? This show should only be seen by those who want to know how NOT to treat their fans. Please NBC, bring back CHUCK!!!
I waited for the fighting scene in Season 1, didn’t get it. I lived with Sylar and others died and came back without explanation (among many other annoying things) — and still, I don’t get that rewarding fighting scene, ever. So yes, I think I am done with the show like 50% of the blogsphere says.
I don’t watch Chuck but the last few minutes, here and there, but feel I can more excitement from those!
No offense to “Nathan” the actor but why would they think he can pull off a Sylar in the next season? Sylar the actor is the smart one (who decides to leave the show?).
Lamest non fight sequence ever, at least in Chuck, Chuck kicked butt. Kring has lost his way on this show which showed up in the Season 1 finale. Of course the Sylar character is the most interesting of the lot. The show introduced way too many lame heroes. If this show is to be salvaged focus on a few and allow them to go at it, and kick some butt. Too much hemming and hawing and positioning. Senior Petrelli was more interesting.
Done! I stopped watching regularly in the fall & stopped DVR-ing after the first few eps this Spring. HEROES is just boring. There’s no character to the show. Just endless serialization that goes nowhere. Even LOST makes huge quantum leaps in plot at key points each season. HEROES never goes anywhere. Ever. CHUCK is so much better of a show in so many ways, it’s almost absurd to compare it to HEROES. BRING BACK CHUCK!!! 86 HEORES!!!
Lost is a much better show because you know that each character has an agenda and a sense of purpose, figuring it out is half the fun. Heroes needs to refocus on the Sylar/Peter conflict and eliminate many of the extraneous Heroes. They should compete for something, the Holy Grail of the Heroes clan, something, other Hero competitors should emerge that can threaten these two. It’s about that simple, I hope Kring is listening before it’s too late.
I’m done with Heroes. Especially if Chuck isn’t coming back next year. They’ve really run Heroes into the ground this season.
I have an abusive relationship with “Heroes”. No matter how much it beats me and breaks my spirit, I keep hanging on, hoping for a better future which never arrives. Saying “You have to watch the season finale of Heroes, even if you’ve sorta stopped caring” hits the nail on the head.
Sigh.
Will I tune in to “Redemption”? I dunno. I hate to say it, but yeah, I probably will. I… I just walked into a door, okay? St-stop looking at me like that.
If I read correctly, the creative staff was changed midway through the season. I noticed it in the last few episodes. They style changed to focusing on more individual characters, rather than a grand plot about rounding up and jailing.
Hopefully a new season created fully by the team that did the first and best season can pull this show from it’s slump.
It’s not about the fighting, though. Think about how many comic books have fights and things that happen off panel. I think the writers and producer’s know what their doing when the fights are “duds.” It’s not about that, it’s about the characters and their evolution. I can’t see how seeing Peter try to act as if he got struck by lightning would have made the episode any better. I loved the episode, but it seems as if I’m the only one.
I am torn. Part of me hates what Heroes has become. It had so much potential but it constantly fails to deliver. Every time there should be a big blowout fight we get nothing. Remember the first season finale? Remember the jump into the future in season 1 with Peter and Hiro storming the castle only to see a couple of bad guys thrown around? What the $#%! nbc?
I guarantee one thing, if NBC cancels Chuck there is no way I will watch Heroes next season. If they keep Chuck it’s still iffy, but if Chuck is canceled I’m done with NBC.
If I read correctly, the creative staff was changed midway through the season. I noticed it in the last few episodes. They style changed to focusing on more individual characters, rather than a grand plot about rounding up and jailing.
Hopefully a new season created fully by the team that did the first and best season can pull this show from it’s slump.
I’ve been disappointed with “Heroes” for a good, long time now, but I keep on watching much as you do. And I am right there with you on Angela’s Petrelli’s death-howl. That was the single moment this season where this show actually made me feel something. Hopefully Angela continues to be part of the main story next season. I also liked the twist with Sylar, but I really think they need to kill him off for good some time next season.
Heroes will go down in history as the show that completely self-destructed after the 1st season. A gave up when I realized even Bryan Fuller couldn’t save this sinking, incredibly poorly-written ship. Tuned in again last night and realized that I was right to tune out. Just awful. And to think that CHUCK is the one at death’s door!
Lost is headed somewhere, Heroes is literally lost. JJ Abrams makes the convoluted time jumping work. Kring has lost any “wow” factor he had in the first few episodes of the series. Peter and Clare have become weak and rudderless. At least the Father Petrelli had some goals and a sense of purpose. I’m giving up on the writers of this show.
I was bored and hoping for a bit of fun to kill at least an hour every week. I went to the pet store and bought a hamster. I named it Heroes. I thought Heroes would be fun. I hoped it would be playful and do fun things. Heroes just gets on this wheel and runs in place all the time. It never gets anywhere and it seems too stupid to even realize it’s going nowhere. It never does anything else. Now, I’m not just bored, but also a little angry. Getting involved with Heroes was a big mistake. Anybody want it?!
I realized a few weeks ago I had eight unwatched episodes of Heroes clogging my DVR…but I didn’t miss watching the show. In fact, I felt nothing for it. I had been watching the last season and a half out of obligation. So I deleted the unwatched episodes and the season pass. And I haven’t thought about Heroes since…until I read this blog. Join me. Stop watching. Think of all you could be doing in that hour.
“You have to watch the season finale of Heroes, even if you’ve sorta stopped caring.” That’s exactly how I felt. Thanks Marc.
I’m done with the show. I said to myself, “I’ll watch the rest of the season and then I’m out.” Compared to the other sci-fi, action-adventure shows I watch, it’s just not good. I stopped caring about all the characters and I totally forgot about the first half of the season with Arthur Petrelli and all that bulls**t. Not a good sign. I honestly feel bad for the cast. Something that started out awesome, went downhill so fast. They’re biggest mistake was not killing Sylar that first season. Zachary Quinto is great in the role, but writers and show runners should know when to throw in the towel. Sure there were other mistakes, (The virus? The eclipse? Genetics? They should have picked one and stuck with it.) but I the concept of Sylar ultimately destroyed the show.
Both my husband and I were so glad last night was the season finale. It’s like we can’t NOT watch the show, but we hate every episode. Maybe the summer hiatus will cure us of this inexplicable and unearned devotion. Here’s hoping.
Regardless of Chuck send this show Heroes out to pastured. I mean it’s like the Matrix…total let down after the first. They didn’t know where to go with this show after the first season.
I was so psyched for last nights finale…. and up until the ‘hidden’ fight between Sylar, Nathan and Peter it had me….Okay, yes Claire being manipulated physically by Sylar was lame, but it’s Claire so who cares. What really convinced me that Heroes is DOOMED… the ending… how STUPID was that? Turning Sylar into Nathan…. This season I have been back and forth about the quality…but this ending did it for me. Unless I have a big change of heart over the summer I will not be watching next year.
I’ll be the dissenting voice here – I LIKED the choice to not show the fight. It preserved the suspense of knowing whether or not Peter could grab Sylar’s power, whether the Peter we saw was Sylar, etc (seriously, I had no idea who was who for like half the episode, to my liking). I was even momentarily convinced that Peter “died” in the chair. Anyway though, I was a fan of the ep, and the trend the show’s shown since Bryan Fuller came back. Count me in for Volume 5.
I thought Nathan had Claire’s blood in him and could heal himself as well? I’m thinking it’s from a few seasons ago when he was in the hospital, and they used her blood to help heal him. Am I not remembering correctly or did the writers just “not remember” that he could heal himself
The problem with Heroes is it rips off every comic book ever written and it does nothing new.
Making someone think they are someone else? Done to Proteus via Morph’s body in Exiles (Marvel Comics).
Moving around a important body part (any shapeshifter has done this, including the alien shapeshifters).
Ice powered person being shattered and reforming themselves (umm Iceman does this all the time). However, this is a natural progression of power so livable.
Heroes needs to start from scratch. They need to get away from this family and start over. People want to see a team doing something, but at the end of every season, they get together and then separate. They introduce new people with powers and either kill them or make them go away, never developing the character. Heroes needs a complete overhaul.
For some reason, I never got on board on the third season. After I had accumulated 5 or 6 episodes on the DVR, I realized I was never going to catch up. So I deleted the show from my season pass and honestly haven’t missed it. I’ve been kind of hoping it gets canceled to free Bryan Fuller up to do something else. Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies, as incomplete as they are, are 100 times the show Heroes is, even at its best.
One of my biggest gripes about the show is its lack of action/fight scenes. Heroes is just lame, sloppy story-telling. And I agree that Sylar should have been killed in the first season – kinda like way the X-Movies always include Magneto. The comics don’t even do that. Eh, I just hope some other network starts a superhero series and does it right: lots of action + lost of melodrama!
I don’t know… I still look forward to “Heroes” on Monday nights, but I agree the finale was rather disappointing. The problem is the show keeps recycling the same plot lines over and over. I love Sylar. He’s an awesome villain. But he’s over-used. And his inner quest to decide if he is a good guy or a monster has dragged on too long. I was honestly hoping Bennet, Claire, Angela and the others would just kill Sylar last night (again) and get rid of him for good. It seems obvious “Nathan” will awaken eventually and discover who he really is. The show needs new villains and new story lines. Additionally, characters like Suresh, Noah Bennet, Angela and “Nathan” need to definitively decide if they are good or evil. All of them go back and forth. The only three with any true noble convictions are Peter, Claire and Hiro. That being said, I do think the last month’s worth of episodes have shown improvement. I agree the show needs some new direction, though