Heroes: An Invisible Thread

All I can say is, “WHOA!” What the hell just happened?! Sure, I anticipated some of the things that would happen in this off-kilter season’s finale, but you can sort of say lines before they’re actually said when you watch as much TV as I do, but by this episode’s end, everything we had come to understand had been turned upside down. So as the “Fugitives” volume came to a close, our heroes battled (for like the one millionth time) Sylar, and somehow they all had a hand in his (okay I’ll just say it) demise, but there’s a twist that’ll make you think twice about the reality of the baddie (that we all love to hate’s) fate.

We pick up where we left off last week. Sylar has just regenerated after Danko stabbed him in the back, and Noah, Claire and Angela have been pulled over at a set up road block by Building 26 agents. What they didn’t show us last week, was Sylar cluing Danko into the fact that his powers to shape shift has allowed him to move the part of the brain that takes him out of the game. (Did I just rhyme? Am I poet, and I didn’t even know it?!) Though Danko thinks he’s got everything figured out, clearly Sylar is the man with a plan (ALWAYS!). He morphs into Danko, shoots some of his men and then morphs back into Agent Taub so that the team can arrest Danko. (Who’s the boss now, Mister!) Noah, on the other hand, is alone in the car when he’s pulled over because he’s ushered Claire and Angela out of the car and told them to book it to safety. (I love how the only guy without powers always knows what’s going on. Hello, Angela has vision!)

Hiro seems to have recovered slightly from his nosebleed episode, and the whole night I kept thinking, “OMG! Hiro is going to die!” And as useless as his character has become, I think I’ll always love him. But maybe I spoke too soon because Hiro pretty much sacrifices himself to save everyone else. First, he convinces Ando, much to his friend’s dismay, that the only way to get into Building 26 and save everyone is to stop time. Ando knows that the last time resulted in some major Desmond-like nosebleeds, but Hiro never wants to argue with his destiny. And I don’t blame him. Not only do they rescue everyone held captive, putting all the agents under, but when Danko (who’s been taken in to the same cell as Noah) escapes with his old “friend,” Hiro stops time just before Danko is about to put Noah under. (Come on, Noah! Didn’t you see that one coming? He’s usually more on his game. This last time freeze though puts Hiro down, and with the nosebleeds, ear bleeding and petechial hemorrhaging, it looks like Hiro may be powerless for good.

Angela and Claire successfully escape and head to the heart of DC. Angela sends Claire to find Nathan while she goes in search of Matt Parkman. You see, Angela has had a vision of Nathan being in trouble, and he’s the only one who can help. Not to mention someone better do something soon, because at the rate of people Sylar’s touching, he will be close enough to touch the President and assume his identity in no time.

Claire is a little skeptical of her father. Is he the real Slim Shady or Sylar? His power to know the history of objects or people he touches comes in handy, but Claire doesn’t buy it so easily. Looks like Sylar knows he can’t keep up this ruse or he just wants to torture Claire, but he telekinetically holds her captive and lures the real Nathan and Peter to the hotel room he’s occupied. There’s some creepy interaction between the two where he says that eventually she can learn to love him, and she’s all, “Ew…I will always try to kill you.”

When the Petrelli brothers arrive, I’m thinking, what good will two fly boys be against the man with all the sick powers, but then my fiancé goes, “Can’t Peter take all of his powers, and then he’ll have everything too and it’ll be a fight to the death?” He’s a newbie to the Heroes game, so I look at him like, let’s just keep our mouths shut during this intense finale and find out!! But that is a smart idea, you may have something!

We don’t really get to see the fight, which would have been a serious ass whooping on the Petrellis’ part anyway. We get to see Claire’s eye, which sucks. Why does she get to see the fight and we don’t? When she gets back into the hotel room, Peter’s all bruised and Sylar and Nathan are gone. When we see them next, it’s not pretty. Sylar quickly slits Nathan’s throat, and we awfully watch him gurgle to death. (And it’s pretty awful. They didn’t shy away on this one.)

Things quickly begin to unfurl after this. Angela finally convinces Matt, who’d rather run away and be with his family, to help her save Nathan as Nathan is the only one with a connection to the President who can help them, but it’s too late. And she doesn’t understand how things could end up so differently from the vision she saw.

And even worse, Sylar has taken Nathan’s façade to reach the President.  Peter, Claire and Noah realize that this is the only moment they have, and if that means that they have to out themselves then that’s what they’ll do. When they run into Secret Service agents between them and warning the President about Sylar, Claire walks right up to the loaded end of a gun and says that they can listen now or AFTER they shoot her. (AWESOME!)

We, as the audience, don’t really see everything that goes on, but Sylar does reach the President in his limo, or so we think! In the end, it’s Peter (who’s taken Sylar’s powers) who impersonates the President, and gets close enough with Sylar’s guard down to tranq him and basically take him out.

How did they take him out since Sylar’s so unkillable? Angela convinces Parkman to wipe all of Sylar’s memories of himself and to push the personality of Nathan to the forefront. He shape shifts into Nathan and basically BECOMES him. Yeah, it’s confusing and out of left field, and I don’t know how this will play out at all, but I’ll go with it.

Only Noah, Matt and Angela know what they’ve done, and they decide to take the first shape shifter’s dead body and burn it so that everyone else (especially Nathan) can believe that Sylar is really truly dead. But is he?

I enjoyed recapping this season and watching Heroes evolve back into the show I used to love. Though the end of this season seems more like a series finale than a season finale, I do hope it is renewed so that, at least, they can have one devoted season of being the top show I know they can be and instead of this half-great show.

REDEMPTION

We get a sneak peak of Volume 5. And it seems that the Tracy we saw shatter into a million pieces is now reeking havoc on Building 26 agents. Can she still freeze things because she’s not so much a solid when we see her. She appears out of a pool of water. And all crazy-eyed, she says, “You’re number four.”

Nathan also doesn’t seem to be who he used to be, but we know why, but at least we know what the hell happened! We see Angela visiting her “son” weeks later and realizing he still feels that things are off. Oh and he has an affinity for clocks. Who does that remind you of?!

So are you on board for next season or, like so many of my friends, were there too many up and downs to get back on this rollercoaster? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Season 3, Episode 25: An Invisible Thread (originally aired April 27, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out You Can Stop Running by Paul Secrest.

For more on Heroes, click here.

Mondays at 9/8C on NBC

Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal, Chris Haston, Trae Patton