It has been, as the Delays once sang, a long time coming, but we’ve finally been witness to the long-awaited first-season finale of “Heroes.”
Was it worth the wait…?
Well, I think you have to say that, with a few exceptions (namely, the fact that several lingering questions remained unanswered), it sure as hell was.
The Mexican stand-off ended in a rather anticlimactic fashion, though Matt Parkman’s defiance when he declared that he was indeed going to keep Molly from harm was a nice moment. When Molly spoke of a Hero…and I use the term verrrrrrry loosely…worse than Sylar and said to Mohinder, “When I think about him, he can see me,” wow, that sounded creepy.
It struck me as sadly naive that, even in the midst of everything going on, Peter still trusted Nathan to do the right thing. (Of course, that thought came back to bite me in the ass later!) Mama Petrelli continues to be a real queen bitch about the future; I can’t imagine she took the events at the end of the episode terribly well. Peter’s flashback sequence with Simone struck me as a bit schmaltzy, but the scene took a dramatic upswing with that revelation that Mama Petrelli had no confidence in Peter’s abilities…and it absolutely soared when Charles said, “I know you’re there, Peter.” D’OH! There’s something perfect about a bad mother like Richard Roundtree being the one to deliver the message to Peter that he should’ve known all along.
When HRG…sorry, I mean, Noah…assured Claire that he had a plan, I almost believed him. But somehow, I don’t think his plan would’ve involved her jumping out a window from several stories up. Didn’t anyone ever tell her that you can’t run from family?
You have to give Ando credit; dude’s got balls of steel to even try to take on Sylar by himself…and Hiro’s clearly grown a pair himself, thanks to that training with his pops. The final sequence when Hiro dropped Ando off in Japan was nicely poignant, and each got at least one sweet line…
Hiro: “This man is ready.”
Ando: “You look bad ass.”
For one second, I thought the Jessica-fighting-Nikki sequence was a big ol’ dream or hallucinations until I remembered, oh, right, shape-shifter. I’m sure we all noticed that, when the episode ended, we were left with no reference to the shape-shifter’s whereabouts, so I think we can count on her return next season. Meanwhile, as the episode ended, all I could think was, “Wow, Micah and Molly sure make a cute couple…”
Sylar: “Haven’t I killed you before?”
Peter: “Didn’t take.”
Great comic book dialogue, delivered to perfection. As to the final battle, I thought Nikica jumping into the fray was an unnecessary moment…but, then, so much of her story has proven to be unnecessary that I guess it brought things full circle, didn’t it? But Hiro’s timely appearance was great, as was the way Sylar flung him away, and Claire’s pained expression as she prepared to fire the gun and fulfill her promise to Peter was rough stuff.
Damn that Adrian Pasdar. You can’t read him to save your life, and, as a result, you absolutely couldn’t predict how Nathan would act from scene to scene. As such, I never saw that ending coming. Yes, Nathan redeemed himself for a season’s worth of questionable morals by performing the ultimate sacrifice and being there for his brother until the very end. It’s a shame that we had to lose Peter, but, then, are we still to presume that he may yet survive, given his powers? I guess time will tell.
So where do we stand? Sylar is still alive, because everyone knows that a good villain can’t be killed off that easily. Mrs. Petrelli’s whereabouts remain unknown, and you can guarantee she’ll turn up…and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if she were, in fact, in cahoots with Mama Petrelli. I’m telling you: Mama, Sylar, and the shape-shifter makes three!
And after a fantastic season, leave it to the producers of “Heroes” to tease us with Season 2 by dropping Hiro outside Kyoto, Japan, in 1671. The fall has never seemed so far away…
