Posted by Purple Squirrel at 12/4/07 8:43 p.m.

Love the R. Kelly touch. I was thinking in a different direction: In some circles, the first step is to admit you are powerless and that your life has become unmanageable. But "Heroes" got it backwards. The show became unmanageable THEN Tim Kring admitted he became powleress. This episode was well-organized, but not fully satisfying. And they resolved their "daddy issues" better than the "Lost" characters.

Negatives: Gloopy Eyes, Monica, Bob are all staying and all very boring. Mohinder is staying, and getting dumber.

Pluses: Sylar. Hate to disagree with you, but that look gets me cold. Peter and Matt had a great moment in each others' heads. West flew off into the sunset.

And don't count out Nathan. Remember, Big Bad Mama said it had to be a "shot through the head" and he was hit in the chest. And are you sure HRG pulled the trigger? The Haitian was very close to her.

What's really weird, I enjoyed "Chuck" almost more than "Heroes" last night. Almost.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/4/07 11:18 p.m.

Seems like Peter's blood could save Nathan. After all, he's absorbed Claire's healing power so we have to assume his blood now works the same as hers. It wouldn't make any sense if he had the healing ability for himself but not for others, as Claire and Adam do.

Heroes would be missing a lot without the Petrelli brotherly love. The one thing that was nice about the ending was how it mirrored Nathan holding a dead Peter in his arms near the end of last season, and again when they flew into the sky to save the world.

I'm bored with Sylar. He didn't do *anything* this whole season. His character developed not a whit, and he didn't do much other than just end up back where he started. If he teams up with other supervillians who can push him to the background while he fills them in on what's what it'll be worth it.

Niki was boring too. Won't miss her. Gloop needs to go. Bob's daughter could be interesting, agreed that we need to find out what the parents (mama and papa petrelli, hiro's dad) could do.

Claire's hottie flying boyfriend needs to return. More Hiro too. Micah's cousin, the muscle mimic, was a really interesting character with one of the more interesting, versatile abilities. She's kind of like Peter in that she can absorb new abilities, even if so far they are of the human variety. (Still, being able to learn in 5 seconds any of the highest "normal" skills is an awesome power.)

And like you said, move on with it, get something done already. Crikey they did a lot of wandering through the desert. I feel like it's been 40 years.

Posted by bigjimmy at 12/4/07 11:32 p.m.

I too have to admit that it's nice to see Sylar back. I just hope they are able to take it in a different direction than before. Gloop dieing was joyous and her being brought back to life was joyous.

Now you can never count someone out as being dead anymore. Not with healing blood around. Peter has both Claire's and Adam's power so shouldn't his blood have healing powers too? The Matt vs. Peter thing was pretty sweet to watch. Hopefully they can team up to do good against the company. Like you said, no body means anything is possible.

Mohinder and Matt are almost like the odd couple now. One works for the company, the other wants to take it down but together they're raising a girl. Ok Odd Couple mixed with My Two Dads.

I can't wait for another season. I hope they are able to resolve the strike sooner than later. Get these writers paid. I miss my Daily Show and Conan and the rest of the shows on TV. I'm not a reality TV fan.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 12:05 a.m.

If season 3 is all about Sylar then it is been there done that. Boring!

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 7:38 a.m.

She's kind of like Peter in that she can absorb new abilities, even if so far they are of the human variety.
http://www.etoxtr.com/

Posted by jondoe at 12/5/07 8:22 a.m.

My wife gave up a few months ago, and I think I have finally had it too. There don't seem to be any rules on this show, and it makes it hard to follow - and trust.
What I'll miss - Kristen Bell - again. And that soulful looking lady that played Irish Caitlin.
Won't miss black-eyes, but that image was chilling and unforgettable!

Posted by Bekker at 12/5/07 9:26 a.m.

I was underwhelmed with the episode. You're right: a bunch of set-up and very little pay-off. But then, I was always frustrated with Sylar, and was looking forward to having someone "even worse" this season, only to apparently have that never materialize. I guess you can never say never on this show, though.

It would be a shame if Nathan died, but I'll believe it when I see it. I too am annoyed at the whole HRG turn. How does it make much sense? But again, perhaps this is just more set-up? One can hope that it's not going in the direction it seems to be.

Where are they even going with the whole Gloop story line? It's mostly annoying not being able to predict an interesting path forward for anyone but Monica and Elle, and probably Peter.

And "curing" people of their powers just freaks me out a bit, and is uncomfortably similar to ideas like trying to "cure" someone of being gay, or something, or even bring it down a notch: "cure" eye or hair color, height. It just seems that resources could be better spent on acceptance or training them to control them, instead of trapping them, and using them...wake up Mohinder!

Posted by BoatGuy at 12/5/07 10:08 a.m.

I'm going to take a slightly different tack on all this, although in general I agree that this ep left me feeling underwhelmed.

Sylar/Gabriel DID have something of an arc in this series, namely, that without his powers, he turned out to be just as conniving and manipulative as Bob or any other Company functionary, which puts him in a position to become an ally to them. Essentially, both of their goals are the same: to rid the world of "specials", it's just that their means are radically different. But, one can only imagine the mayhem in store if Bob and Syler were to somehow "team up". And yes, Gloop must go, unless she can get a handle on her powers, and start using them selectively, otherwise, she's just a prop, and not a very interesting one at that.

Nathan most likely isn't dead, as others have pointed out, there are now at least three specials running around (well, two running, one buried alive) with regenerative blood, and we've seen with HGR that one can be "dead" for several hours and still come back, so that's a total red herring. Niki may be somewhat more problematic, but we've seen characters in other series come back from worse situations, so again, I'm not counting her out. And I don't know how, but Adam is going to get out from six feet under, and he's not going to be happy when he does (BTW, wasn't that grave in the same location where Kaito was buried?)

I know a lot of people are snarking on Mohinder, mainly because they view him as being woefully naive about the Company. But, I prefer to think of him as being idealistic; he really thinks he can effect change from the inside, and I think we saw a glimpse of an opportunity for that in his exchange with Ellie after she lost track of Syler. I can imagine Ellie becoming less and less tied to Bob, as her self-confidence grows and she begins to perceive the threat the Company represents to her and others like her. I expect to see a MAJOR father-daughter showdown between these two at the end of Chapter 3.

In general what I'm hoping to see more of in the next chapter is the specials organizing, banding together to become a true adversary to the Company and their allies/enablers. So far, they've made the barest attempt in this direction, usually by pairing up, but what is the potential if four, five, or more of them become an integrated, functioning apparatus?

All Heck gonna break out then.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 1:05 p.m.

I knew that a "finale" episode titled "Powerless" was the first red flag that disatisfaction would be the end result - and, by god, it was! I agree with Melanie on all counts and would further like to add, what the heck! If they wanted to kill off Nathan they had their chance at the end of season one. Kind of shows a lack of imagination to end a finale the exact same way they ended a finale (Peter saves the day by being saved by his brother Nathan who talks some sense into him). Kind of wish Peter had never recovered his memory, then I could buy the whole following Adam without question bit.

Speaking of stuff that went awry quickly, what's up Sylar? It looked to me as if he were having a change of heart (at least for this season) that Gloop was softening him up, then the writers went, "nah!" at the last minute. That's fine, but like Melanie wrote, same ol' same ol'. Oh, he's the bad guy again, excuse me while I, yawn, quiver in my boots. I had predicted that the company would be the big bad guy this season, Slyar would help defeat them (as a matter of convenience) and then would come back with a punch for Season 3.

Oh well, I guess this show is is only capable of 3 or 4 really good episodes per quarter. C'est la vie!

Posted by SouthHillChris at 12/5/07 3:29 p.m.

Sadly I'm stuck with the potential of what this series could be, and hoping it will live up to what I think it will be when it comes back. (Yeah, last week I did say I wasn't as disappointed with the pace of this season so far - guess I'm kinda waffling a little.) I like how this series has been beyond just what you watch on the TV screen - the nbc.com/Heroes website with the graphic novels and other goodies helps round out the experience and fill in the blanks (like what happened to Hana Gitelman, underdeveloped and underutilized on the show but her saga continues online, literally and figuratively).

Yes I felt let down by the ending. Niki dies(?) - sadly her aborted recovery was brought on by the meddling of "Call Me Bob". I think Niki seemed to have Jessica somewhat under control and in possession of her super strength ability by herself by the time Kirby Plaza happened. Once she was convinced she needed to be on the medication and then decided the gloomy side-effects weren't worth it, out pops Gina, DL gets killed, and she surrenders herself to the Company again. Tragic, and even more so for Micah and Monica to deal with the guilt of causing her death. Be interesting to see how that storyline plays out.

Not sure about HRG being the trigger man on Nathan - he was in California, but if he was you can do your happy dance and we will all applaud. :-) I know people tend to zip around a lot in TV, but that fast to Odessa - I just don't know. If it was HRG, then just another sign that he has completely sold his soul to the devil and he returns to the dark automaton he started out as, now full of regret but unable to do anything about it.

If anything, this half-season has whetted our appetite for more about the past of the Company and the mysterious Founders. Something that bugs me about Victoria Pratt - what was her power, other than being a great geneticist? She quits the company 30 years ago but shows up smiling in a reunion photo taken "recently" smiling along with all the other Founders. Wonder how that conversation went - "Have you destroyed Strain 138 yet? Still planning on unleashing a plague on the world?"

I kinda figured there would be a few cheers when Sylar plugged Maya. Thought we had the future problem of Maya accidentally unleashing the black death on a few million innocent New Yorkers taken care of, but no, gotta figure out something else now. Not sure if Sylar 2.0 will be any worse or more menacing than 1.0. But how many different ways did they make Lex Luthor or the Joker that way?

Elle still has Daddy issues, and I think she will ultimately team up with HRG and Mohinder (there is still hope!) to expedite the Company's demise, and maybe even Daddy himself. Monica, racked by guilt (see Peter Parker and Uncle Ben's death), becomes St. Joan. We haven't seen the last of Adam yet - he'll manage to literally claw his way out of the casket six feet under. And... oh, crap! Gotta go!!!

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 11:39 p.m.

Yeah, I was really happy when Sylar shot gloop. Much as I like Nathan and Nikki, the actors probably did need to move on, and the show has too many characters, anyway. They need to do something about that blood being a cure-all, though - it really does take the tension out of the series, especially when it revives people from the dead. Curing HRG, awesome, because HRG is awesome. (Speaking of which, how awesome would a showdown between him and the Hatian be? They're basically the two best characters out there.)

It made me very happy when Elle started to show some personality. I mean, she can clearly act since she used to have her own show. And what, exactly, is up with the writers and evil women who wield their sexuality like a sledgehammer? There's been like three so far out of the like seven female characters with recurring roles. They seriously need to think up a new character archetype.

Peter needs to go on some epic quest to save Kaitlyn - possibly find a way to cure the disease in the future (and NOT his blood - that's such a cop-out! The writers need to come up with some reason it doesn't work for him.)

Speaking of possible storylines, how awesome would this one be: Sylar finds, disembrains Parkman's dad. However, somehow, it goes wrong - Parkman's dad's power somehow lets him into Sylar's head. Sylar doesn't know this. Fun ensues. It would be an interesting way to keep Sylar interesting.

And Adam Monroe seriously needs to unbury himself. I mean, come on, that guy is pretty much the most bad-ass villain by a long shot to ever grace that show. After all, someone else's grave is the perfect place to plot revenge...

Posted by SouthHillChris at 12/6/07 9:07 a.m.

I think the problem with having Peter's blood save Nathan is that the regenerative power is not native to him. He copy-catted it from Claire, which for her and Adam are native powers. Peter manifests other people's powers when he thinks about that person... maybe if he was thinking about Claire or Adam when he's having his blood drawn?

I suppose that could be the evolution of Peter's powers as well. He used to have to think of the person who he had copied the power from, but as he showed in Cork when he had amnesia, that probably doesn't apply to him anymore.

Oh yeah, forgot the whole deal about Kaitlin. Well, the horrible future where she was lost will never happen, so how can Peter go back and get her? Maybe she's content a year in the future, made her way from future NYC back to Cork, and taken over the pub again. Either that or she reappears in the Montreal warehouse at the point in time that the virus was destroyed, perhaps a little scared and confused... and maybe bringing the virus back with her...? ooooo! Time travel is so confusing.

Posted by korovan at 12/6/07 10:20 a.m.

I agree, a little diappointing... I can only hope it is all mostly set-up for later story-arcs. Gloop is dead-boring.
The author wrote complainingly about the Adam-in-the-grave thing, asking whose grave it was and how Hiro knew to put him there. Lessee... who does Hiro know who has died recently, and where to find his grave? Oh that's right: his dad! And sonofagun if Adam didn't kill him, so it even makes for poetic justice! And maybe Hiro even had the presence of mind to draw some resurrecting-blood from Adam and bring back his father (the awesome George Takei)back from the dead in time for next season.... hmmm...

Posted by Melanie McFarland at 12/6/07 1:32 p.m.

Believe me, korovan, I thought of that. However! If that's Papa Nakamura's casket...where is Papa? Adam had way too much wiggle room for him to be sharing the space with someone else --although maybe we're supposed to believe Hiro got his dad a double wide box. (Do they even make those?) Plus, if you valued honoring your loved ones as much as Hiro did, would you want your father's killer flailing around in the same resting place as your dad? I wouldn't. Anyway, I'm not saying the grave absolutely, positively didn't belong to Hiro's dad, only that the scene left things unclear. That's all.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/6/07 3:55 p.m.

I agree with the comments about the generally rubbish characters this season- mohinder was a pathetic double agent (using his mobile phone to talk to HRG in the middle of the company) and carrying the super blood about in the vicinity of sylar, surely he should have realised that sylar being powered up is the worst thing that could happen (and was practically the secondary aim of last season to stop him- after the bomb).
Also the arc with the mexicans (gloop and twin) was ridiculous as it spent ages trekking around mexico and then nothing really happened in the end. Wasted and annoying parts of the season.
Apart from this, I think that Peter is by far the worst let down this season. Excellent idea with the memory loss and getting it on with Caitlyn but then he goes and abandons her in the future and tries to change that future before he has rescued her. What a moron! Surely he has to realise that if he changes the future he potentially creates a parallel universe in which Caitlyn is trapped or something like that. How could he possibly find her if he changes the past. It is ridiculous and contrary to his character which would want to save the woman he loves before going off on a grand mission with a locked up crazy that he hardly knows. It was also very poor of the writers to get him his memory back so soon. They could have done lots with that!
Overall I feel that this bodes very poorly for next season which will prob be a repeat of the lets all chase sylar that took up the first part of season 1. Boo!

Posted by unregistered user at 12/6/07 3:57 p.m.

Plus in the pic above Nathan has no bullet wounds!

Posted by nibehlung at 12/6/07 7:11 p.m.

The bullet didn't hit Nathan's heart:

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8043/superimposeddj5.jpg

It wasn't a fatal shot. If Matt survived 4 gunshots at point-blank range, Nathan should be able to survive this.

Posted by Melanie McFarland at 12/6/07 7:28 p.m.

I hope you're right...but remember that as Mama Petrelli watched the news, the reporter used the term "assassin." If he had a chance, I think we would have heard "shooter," not "assassin." The former term leaves hope's door open wider than the latter.

But as so many have pointed out, with all that magic blood around, we simply won't know what happened to Nate until some point in 2008.

Posted by korovan at 12/6/07 11:32 p.m.

"Posted by Melanie McFarland at 12/6/07 1:32 p.m.

Believe me, korovan, I thought of that. However! If that's Papa Nakamura's casket...where is Papa? Adam had way too much wiggle room for him to be sharing the space with someone else --although maybe we're supposed to believe Hiro got his dad a double wide box. "

Well, if Hiro could get Adam INTO the coffin without disturbing the overhead earth, then it makes sense that he could get his dad OUT as well, beforehand. Here's how it breaks down, I think:

1)Time is frozen. Hiro teleports himself and Adam to Japan and Nakamura Sr.'s grave.

2)Hiro teleports/otherwise acquires a hypodermic syringe.

3) Hiro teleports into his dad's grave and removes the body to another location. Possibly he injects him with Adam's blood now, or maybe later. We'll see.

4)Hiro teleports back to the gravesite, and then teleports Adam into the empty coffin. Sayonara, sucker!

5)Hiro teleports away, and eventually ends up in his old office cube, talking to Ando...

Does this sound plausible?

Posted by bigjimmy at 12/7/07 7:50 a.m.

Maybe Hiro put Adam in what is supposed to be Takezo's gravesite. Like putting him where he belong, buried as Takezo Kensei. Plus we don't know how far back in time Hiro went. For all we know he went back to 1600 Japan and buried him then to live those 400 years again in a box.

Posted by Melanie McFarland at 12/7/07 8:47 a.m.

Actually, I was thinking along the same lines as bigjimmy. It would make sense if Takezo's grave were empty and Hiro took it upon himself to fill it. However, I don't think it's 400 years ago, because the casket looked very modern and the Earth recently dug (unless Hiro stopped time and went to work with a shovel which, sorry korovan, is more plausible than the elaborate scenario you suggested).
Also, remember what Papa Nakamura said when Hiro tried to save him: If it's a person's time to die, it's their time and you have to let them go. Much as I love George Takei, I seriously doubt Dad's coming back. As for moving Dad, yes, that could have happened -- but, where? A disturbed grave is still a big no-no.

Posted by Purple Squirrel at 12/7/07 12:31 p.m.

There was another family grave in Japan--Mama Nakamura. If Adam is in her spot, she could come back, which would give "Heroes" yet *another* new character....

Maybe I shouldn't give them any ideas.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/8/07 6:50 p.m.

I really didn't care about Nathan getting shot. Pasdar is an excellent actor but Nathan is a tool. The only time he has ever been remotely likeable/interesting was during his scenes with Hiro and that time his whiny brother punched him in the face. I could do without the Petrelli brothers in general. Their mother has a purpose in all of this, but they just flounder and bore.
That said, as long as Noah Bennet continues to exist, I could care less about what characters come and go. That character is the glue that holds everything together. Lose him? You lose the show.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/10/07 3:04 p.m.

Interesting how last year we couldn't wait to watch our DVR'd episodes 15 minutes into recording (in order to FF thru ads); yet this season I not only have the last 4 eps still unwatched, I had no problem at all in reading these spoilers with barely a raised eyebrow...

Posted by unregistered user at 12/20/07 1:43 a.m.

sylar

Posted by safari123 at 12/23/07 3:39 p.m.

Something that bugs me about Victoria Pratt - what was her power, other than being a great geneticist; She quits the company 30 years ago but shows up smiling in a reunion photo taken recently smiling along with all the other Founders.