Heroes Volume 4 Finale: I Can’t Decide if I Liked It, Leaning Toward “No”

Last night marked the season finale of the latest volume of Heroes, “Fugitives.”  Unlike Sub-Zero, who has for a while now bashed the show, I’ve defended it, arguing that despite sloppy writing and inconsistent character arcs, this season has shown flashes of quality reminiscent of Volume 1.  Volume 2 I was willing to forgive because of the writers’ strike, and we can all agree that Volume 3 was pretty terrible.  Brian Fuller returned this season, but his presence may not have been enough to save a show that everyone seems to love to hate.  So, how did the Volume 4 finale hold up?  Keep reading my review to see what worked, what didn’t, and what we can expect (or hope for) in Volume 5.  Spoilers ahead.

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Right away, we find out how Sylar survived a knife to the “sweet spot” in the back of his head.  Fully understanding his shapeshifting ability, he simply moved the spot to a different, presumably well-protected area.  Works for me.  He becomes pretty much immortal, and with his ability to know an object’s or person’s history by touching it, Sylar seems a sure bet to meet and touch the President.  Claire, Nathan, Peter, and Angela go after Sylar, while Hiro and Ando invade building 26.  Noah, after a brief hiatus, joins in the hunt for Sylar.  The plot is set, and we know that it’s whether or not Petrelli & Associates can stop Sylar before he meets the President.  There are a few wrinkles, though.

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For one, Hiro gets messed up every time he stops time: first, his nose bleeds, next, it’s his ear.  The writers did a good job of limiting time travel or manipulation – a concept that has plagued this show – and setting up a Hiro self-sacrifice scenario.  One big problem with Heroes is that characters usually don’t stay dead (more on that later), so Hiro killing himself to save others at some point in the future wouldn’t be a bad idea – and a good way to write the character off the show.  He’s used mostly for comic relief, time travel has proved precarious, and I think most fans agree he’s worn out his welcome.  I don’t mean for this review to be a “how to fix Heroes” article, but it’s tough to not point out the potential a show like this has.

Nathan and Peter get to Sylar eventually, and there’s a huge, explosive fight…but we never see it.  Maybe the budget is tight, maybe the director was going for style points, or maybe two dudes flying around a man shooting lightning would probably look pretty silly.  In any event, Peter managed to touch Sylar and gain his ability.  Which ability, we don’t find out until later.   Nathan and Sylar soon confront one another and in a scene I definitely did not expect, Sylar uses telekinesis to slit Nathan’s throat.  It was f*cking sweet.  But once again, Heroes figured out a way to bring the dead back to life.

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It turns out Peter absorbed Sylar’s shapeshifting ability and then beat Sylar to the President.  Looking just like the President, Peter ambushes Sylar and hits him with a tranq in the thoat.  Sylar can’t die (we have to assume the “sweet spot” is virtually impossible to find), so what will Noah and the Petrellis do with the body?  This is where the show gets pretty creative (or maybe it just ripped from X-Men?) and takes a chance to do something different than what it has done in the past.  That’s a good sign.  Since Sylar has almost all of Nathan’s memories, Parkman is able to wipe away all personalities and memories Sylar has collected – including his own – except Nathan’s.  Sylar’s body shapeshifts to look like Nathan, and Viola!  Sylar is dead, Nathan is back.

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If that was the end, I think I’d be OK.  I’d be disappointed Sylar was killed (he’s my favorite character on the show; without a powerful villain, heroes are nothing), but at least the show figured out a way to kill off a 1) seemingly immortal character and 2) a major character.  But no.  In the prologue to Volume 5, we see Nathan telling Angela he hasn’t been feeling like himself.  He realizes that a clock is a second or two fast, and it’s clear that Sylar is starting to develop inside of Nathan.  Once again, nobody stayed dead, and where’s the suspense now in Volume 5?  We know that Nathan will struggle to keep Sylar from emerging, and I’m sure we’ll have a big, dramatic “I’m back!” scene from Sylar.

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And just to nitpick, Sylar wasn’t able to fly, right?  If “new” Nathan has all of Nathan’s memories, won’t he be curious to know why he can’t fly anymore?  Am I wrong on this?

I know it sounds like I hated the finale, but I really didn’t.  I thought some scenes were pretty cool.  It’s just that I really don’t have any desire to watch Volume 5, and once again, I was left disappointed by a show that I think has a lot of potential.  Sort of like how my ex-girlfriends feel about me.  Boom!  Anyway, what’d you all think?  Like it or no?

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41 Comments

  1. The “behind closed doors” fight summed up everything that’s wrong with Heroes. You can’t even get a budget for a thirty second fight scene for your SEASON FINALE? I was pretty much yelling at the TV.

    I thought what they did with Nathan was actually pretty creative, but I’m still unclear as to where Sylar got his memory absorbing power in the first place. I think I heard him mention that Angela “fed it to him like a snack,” but I thought that was the object-touching memory power. If the memory thing is part of shapeshifting, why was it a separate act? He had to go out of his way to do it, and he certainly didn’t have the memories of anyone else he absorbed.

    Sylar is seen flying up through the window when he throws Nathan back in, which is weird because I’m 100% sure he couldn’t fly before, and he clearly hadn’t cut Nathan’s brain up yet. Did he use super-empathy powers in the middle of the fight to absorb Nathan’s ability before killing him? I suppose that’s what they want you to believe, but it doesn’t make any fucking sense.

    But I guess it wouldn’t be Heroes without a few gaping plots holes. Overall the episode could have been worse, but one or two brief moments of clarity don’t save it.

    PS. Sylar hitting on Claire as a fellow immortal was EXCELLENT.

  2. Sylar could fly. They showed him flying outside the balcony just before he killed Nathan. I have no idea how, they never showed him gaining that ability, but he was flying.

  3. yeah sylar couldnt fly but in the end fight, when nathan comes back through the window you see sylar fly back in after him. I hope they bring sylar back he is truly a badass, or maybe its going to be tracy who is to become the next villain, and what did she mean by you are number 4?

  4. What kills me is that for these heroes to be so damned smart why can’t they think to give Nathan a drop of Claire’s blood to bring him back? If he is so important to Angela’s and the new company’s plans why not do that?

    Also, Nathan had the healing ability, which he got from Peter after he got shot. Did that get reset with the eclipse?

    I love this show but it tends to make me angry. There are just too many things that don’t make sense.

    I’d like to be the in the first thousand people to predict a scene next season. It’ll go something like this:

    Sylar figures out he isn’t Nathan…
    Sylar looks at Angela or HRG and says, “I’m baaaaaaak.”

  5. So i’m not going hit on the sylar flew in after nathan thing, subzero already did so good work rob and daveylawd for not reading anything. so first… in volume 3 angela p. when she was being dear mommy to sylar and getting him to work for the company, put him in a room with another hero (not sure if it was a dude or dudette) but said something like take her she will help you. then sets him up with ole horn rim glasses to find the escaped animals. Second the hiro brain tumor/stroke victim thing is right on que. i certainly agree that he is the most powerful hero and a deal breaker. too bad they didn’t see this sooner. third. syllathan was absolutely a homerun. only thing is is that instead of jumping back on the wagon within ten seconds of mindfucking him into believing himself to be nathan, the should have been more subtle. make it a lengthy change back.
    and really, why cry about not seeing a fight between the three of them. sylar is a heavy weight compared to those two. they couldn’t beat him so they decided to keep it a mystery as to how they were able to even get close enough to touch him. volume five….. please god… come back and fix this….

  6. To some of you things dont make sense because your being illogical or silly.

    Sylar didnt fly, he levitated himself with Telekenisys.

    The behind closed door scene was pretty cool tbh, it doesnt need awesome special effects to be good. (unless your a moron whos only entertained by flashing lights and flying people!)

    Nathan didnt get the healing ability from blood when he got shot, that was future peter healing him with Lindermans ability (Involentary)

    One thing your right about is why they didnt use Claires blood to heal Nathan (This was a huge mistake by writers which theyve promised to pretend never happened) – This is why its not an option.

    ps: I heard Claude was credited for this Episode, where was he 8(!!

    ps2: I’m dissapointed regarding Peter – I dont think he’ll ever become very powerful again.

    good finale, I liked it – When Nathan and Peter flew at Sylar I made a (:DDDDD) face!

  7. Bitch please, “levitated himself with telekinesis.” When has he ever, ever done that before? You think if he could do that he wouldn’t be flying around everywhere all the time? It’s bad enough telekinesis already encompasses the powers of magnetism and puppeteering, we can’t add flight to that too.

    And no, the closed door fight was absolutely fucking retarded. There are NO good fights on the show besides Sylar tossing SWAT teams around every so often, and this was a prime opportunity for a really great, memorable confrontation, which they promptly through away due to lack of creativity and a tight budget.

  8. Any fan of this show fails to accept that the show itself is not what they like, it is the idea of the show. The writers of this show try too hard to be unpredictable, and by doing so they refuse to give they’re core viewers what they want.

    Think of that next time you’re watching (if you ever do again).

  9. and why don’t they just have matt parkman stick around syllathan
    and just perform brain maintance on him so he doesn’t ever get out of control.

  10. All I have to comment on with the finale is that they didn’t steal the Nathan’s memories thing from X-Men, or create it. It’s actually a theory of philosophy called the Memory Theory (dur), that tries to answer the question of who we really are. The Memory Theory states that if we possess all our memories of being alive at a former time, we are the same person we were at that time.

    This almost makes me anticipate Volume 5, if they are indeed trying to go more deep and philosophical behind the scenes.

  11. Ok, first of all, telekinesis does not involve puppeteering, Sylar got the puppeterring ability from Eric Doyle when he gave him as a “gift” to Danko. He gave Danko the gift to start the partnership between them. Also if you remember when Danko and Sylar was chasing the shape shifter we found out that Sylar is able to absorb abilities without cutting their head open. Danko asked if Sylar was able to take abilities without cutting their head open because he wanted to pass off the shapeshifter as Sylar, so that no one would question why they were not after Sylar anymore. Sylar was also able to get the electricity ability from Elle without killing her, even though he ended up killing her anyways. So Sylar flying DOES make sense because he had a minute or so alone with Nathan where he could take his ability.

    I have always LOVED this show, and will continue to love this show. It has definatly had its ups and downs, but I hope that this next volume can bring it back to its former glory. They only way that I will be happy with volume 5 is if Peter gets ALL of his abilities back. Which he might already have because Bennet said that if Peter touched Sylar then he would get ALL of his abilities. But the show ending made it seem that Peter only took the shape-shifting ability.

  12. Gaping holes no one has mentioned (I think):
    1. Since when do tazers result in unconsciousness? (For any period of time, especially a day)
    2. Where was Peter while Nathan was unconscious? They left at almost the same time.
    3. How did Sylar know Peter and Nathan were coming?
    4. Sylar knows about Nathan’s college history, yet doesn’t know he’s right handed?
    5. Does Sylathan keep all of his powers? If so, how does he handle the fact that he picks up memories from everything he touches, or knows whenever someone lies?

    @sub-zero: telekinesis does work for levitation. If he can throw others through the air, he can do it for himself. Also, by showing not showing the fight scene it does add some doubt as to whether it’s the real Peter or not.
    Oh, and when in the past has he *needed* to fly?

    @jds: Nathan was dead dead dead. Even super-healing-Claire blood can’t fix that.

    @daveylawd: Tracy is taking out government agents. That was her 4th kill, as referenced by the “mysterious drowning” deaths of 4 people.

    All in all, not bad. A rebound could be in the making.

  13. Sylar levitated as he did in Villains (while stalking Claire).

    Sylar can gain abilities without killing but it requires some empathy. He’s hardly empathic anymore so he most likely got to James Martin’s brain through the mouth (it was a dropped idea from Volume 3) or he had observed the ability enough to realise how it works, which is entirely possible.

    Peter may or may not have all of Sylar’s abilities. My guess is that he has Sylar’s IA but he won’t ever try to use it. He’ll probably only use Sylar’s abilities that he absorbed (if he has any others).

    The epic fight was pretty sad. It was something they’d been hyping but it seems the budget got cut pretty badly. Volume 4 was supposed to last 13 episodes but it stopped at 12. If you felt this episode was rushed, that’s why.

    Hiro’s brain bleed is probably due to the nature of his current power. He can only freeze time because Baby Matt zapped him.

    The Sylar/Nathan thing is really interesting to work out. As vaschon says, it’s really complicated and philosophical. We’re made by our memories. Is the Nathan that we have now the old Nathan? Unless he touched himself (the dead Nathan) after he was “revived” in Sylar (very very unlikely) then he’s not. To be our Nathan he’d need to remember everything until he died. Since he doesn’t, he’s not the exact same person. But it’s relative. The last people to see Nathan were Claire and Peter. The Nathan we have now is identical to the Nathan they know and everyone else knows. To us, however, he lacks a key memory; his gruesome death (which could be filled in by Sylar’s memory, ironically, when he resurfaces).

  14. Sylar knew that Nathan and Peter were coming because he took that one power from that lady, I believe in the first season, who had super sensitive hearing. So he could hear anyone coming in the hallway. And yes, Heroes does let HUGE GAPING chunks of time pass between showings of characters.

    I think that Sylathan does keep all of his abilities since they are in Sylar’s DNA, but since Matt Parkman brainwashed him to completely forget about Sylar, and just remember Nathan, then I don’t think that Sylathan will “remember” his abilities, or know how to use them. That is, until Sylar resurfaces.

    @Veritas, Nathan was dead, but Claire DEFINITELY could have saved him with her blood. As mentioned earlier, Bennett got shot in the eye, had a bullet in his brain and hours of time had passed since he “died.” All it took was a couple drops of Claire’s blood to bring him back to life. So the writers messed up big time.

    I did feel like this episode was very rushed. But what are you going to do with declining ratings and budget cuts…

  15. i agree with Jay.

    dam! why are you people so dumb??? sylar didnt get the puppeteering ability, what he did with claire is telekinesis, same thing when he was “flying”, he was actualy levitating, he has done that multiple times in the show, but it seems some of you just dont wanna see it.

    DAGRON: where the hell have you been all these seasons? sylar lost the super hearing ability in season 2 along with all the others eccept for intuitive aptitude and tk.
    Just because sylar thinks hes nathan doesnt mean he cant use his abilities, they are always there, just like what happened in the preview of season 4 volume 5 with the clock.

    Jay is right, the show doesnt need awesome special effects to be good, only morons whatch the show to be entertained by flashing lights and flying people.

  16. the real questions are

    1) Why didnt they use Claires blood to revive Nathan? (NEED to be xplained)
    2) Did Peter absorb all of Sylars abilities or just shapeshifting?
    3) What did Angela and Noah do with Nathans body?
    4) Is Peter ever going to get his old powers back?
    5) Are we going to see more of the number 1 character and fans favorite of the show(mr muggles)?

  17. One thing I can’t stand is how Sylar barely uses any of the other powers he’s stolen. Like the super screaming!

    Vic: I see what you mean in Volume 2, when Sylar got his TK and IA back… but what about the future when Sylar blows up an entire community with his nuking powers. Guess that was also one of the powers he got back in Volume 2, or he really got all his powers old powers back. How did Sylar lose his powers that time anyway? I can’t remember…

    Speaking of how Sylar got his powers back in Volume 2 with Suresh’s “potion”; could that potentially be the way Peter will get his old absorbing powers back? Or maybe baby Matt Parkman.

  18. This may sound stupid, but can someone please give me an explanation on how Tracy’s freezing / ice body form / melting to water form and being able to move around as water, connects to her original freezing power? I mean freezers can turn water to ice, i get that, but not the other way around and then being able to move around etc.. I don’t know.. I don’t think I like it.

    What is her ability exactly?

  19. In Volume 1, the Haitian was unable to erase Claire’s memories because her brain cells are invincible. Given that Sylar has Claire’s power, how was Parkman able to do anything to his brain?

  20. Jase:

    That´d be a question for the writers. They have made clear that Sylar lost all of his previous abilities eccept for TK and IA. He lost his abilities because of the Shanti virus, when he was injected with the cure his original ability along with TK were the only ones he kept.
    In five years gone he also had all of his powers, we can see him use the ilusion ability he stole from Candice at te begining of season 2(which he was unable to use because of the shanti virus) and using cycrokinesis(freezing power) when he fights Peter. Wether he stole those from other characters is unknown

    Ashwin: That wasnt the reason why the Haitain didnt erase Clairs memories. It is stated he just wanted to help her (or something like that). The answer to how Parkman was able to do what he did to sylar is simple: He wasnt damaging the brain tissues or anything like that, he was just “hidding” his memories, making him believe something else, theres no such thing as “erasing memories”.

  21. The Haitians powers were never really clear, we know he can prevent the use of abilities when hes near someone with powers (which is not stated in heroes wiki where his powers is called “mind manipulation”), he can also make someone forget but it is not in the same way that Parkman does.

    I think sometimes it is ok not to explain too muh about someones powers, it makes the show way more real and interesting.

  22. I used to love Heroes, but I probably won’t be tuning in next season. It has turned into a predictable mess full of plot holes.
    The thing that bugged me most about the finale..why didn’t they just get Claire’s blood to heal Nathan? Umm hello?! Why would none of them even think of that? Not even HRG..her blood brought him back from the dead after being shot in the freakin face.

  23. First off I do see how Sylar can fly with the ability of TK because that power has often been used in that way (Jean Grey from X-men). THat being said, the reason that sylar probably hasn’t used TK in that way very often is because it requires a great deal of concentration and power to do so. BEcause it is Nathan’s natural ability, it’s alot eaasier for him to fly at fast speeds and without much thought because it is kind of like a natural reflex. As for sylar, it would take him a lot of brain power (TK is a power of the mind) to fly, let alone fly at the speeds that nathan can reach.

    Ashwin: I agree with you that technically matt parkman should not be able to eras sylar’s memories because in season 1, Claire’s mother was subjected to the same kind of “mind wipe” (though by the Haitian) and it was discovered that erasing her memory scarred much of her brain tissue. Since sylar has claire’s power of healing, this would be relatively impossible. however, being that sylar is now a shapeshifter, making sylar believe he is nathan would, i assume, force his brain to shapeshift along with his exterior, to that of nathans. But im still unsure of how that would necessarily erase his memories of sylar without damaging brain tissue.

    As for the HEROES writers’ inability to rid the show of ALi Larter! lol. SHe may be hot, but really how many plot holes are you gonna create just to ensure she stays on the show =P. The fact that she is one of 3 copies was just ridiculous in the first place, and if we are going to go off that storyline, where the hell is her sister barbara? How in the world can tracy now materialize from water and such?? etc

    As for Sylar/New Nathan. Why does he only use TK and electricity?? over the past 3 seasons he has gained over like 20 powers, so like wassup?? lol. I know that in season 2 he lost all of his powers due to the shanti virus, but through suresh’s lil potion and from taking claire’s power, he GAINED THEM ALL BACK! it wouldn’t make sense (not to say that heroes is a fan of making sense) for him to only have gained back TK and IA at the end of season 2 because TK wasn’t even his original power. As for his little “puppet powers”, it is unclear whether he took the power for the puppetman or whether he is just using TK. From the looks of it (hand gestures and claire’s movements) he appeared to be using TK because the whole action looked very sloppy completely different.
    ***O and sidebar, he never gained Candice’s powers because where he tried to take them, his IA power was inactive so there was no way he could rearrange his DNA in order to get the power.
    But back on task, due to sylar’s IA power, he is able to know how to work each power to the fullest extent, which explains how he could manipulate TK to do more that jus move things. BUt in all honesty, i think sylar really just wants a good fight, which is y he never uses some of his more deadly powers and more efficient powers. If he really wanted, he could just blow up washington DC and rule the world even, but he likes to make a personal connection with his victims and has a dominating superiority complex, along with an overwhelming inferiority complex (which he had just about gotten rid of in I am sylar).

    As for claire not using her blood to save nathan, that would just bring back a world of problems for heroes. I think the writers are just trying to stay away from that whole subject altogether, because once she heals nathan, micah will try and get them to dig up his mother and try to heal her…..then no one on heroes will die and the show will just get canceled. THey need to go back to their season 1 greatness where you got to know a character, and then they weree offed……end of story! There was much more suspense back then as well.

    As for the unshown fight scene, I think that was a smart move on the writer’s filmmaker’s part. It brought back memories from the season 1 episode where hiro went to the future and peter and sylar fought in some epic and also unshown battle that was just amazing. luckily we get to see claire’s face as she witnesses some of the fight between the cracks of the doors, which futher emphasizes the sheer intensity of the battle. And besides, there’s no possiblt way they could have shot that scene and had it NOT come out looking corny. =P

    Season 5 Predictions:
    As for season 5, I think that nathan’s gonna gradually discover he has all these abilities, discover he is sylar, hide it from everyone at first and probably (hopefully) kill of a few characters whil still pretending he is nathan, and if they really wanna go for a stretch, they’ll make him president and then he will reveal he is sylar!!!! that would be fun to watch lol. THen when everyone finds out the truth, HRG and angela will be put under severe scrutiny and once again have their children hate them. THey’ll pull the old “i did this to protect you crap”. the kids will pull the old “you lied to us” crap. THey’ll not speak for about 2 episodes, and then Sylar will attack and they will all have to join forces, forgive each other, and defeat him.

    Also, they will restart the company, which will possibly become an xavier type thing or the same thing it was in season 1….it could go either way. HIro and ando will return to japan until some new found problem emerges and they have to come back to america (go figure). Parkman will try to make right with his wife and child, they might get remarried, who knows. Micah and claire may team up depending on the actions of the newly instated company, of they both might be manipulated into joining the company. Tracy will go on her little killing rampage and probably try to attack nathan, which will cause him to use one of his unknown sylar powers and start the chain reaction for sylar’s reemergence (hopefully he’ll kill her for good if this happens, most likely using his electricity powers). Peter will once again try to pull a spike lee and Do the right thing almost constantly, he might regain his powers back, but sumhow i doubt it. HRG will also try to make things right with his wife, with claire’s help. Did i miss anything??

  24. ADrian:

    The writers made clear Sylar lost all hi previous abilities. The reason why Sylar only kept tk is because of his strong feelings of guilt towars the guy he took tk from(don remember his name), which is that empathy method of taking abilities. I know ot sounds weird but thats the explanation they gave so get it over with.

    ______
    What no one gets is why they didnt use Claires blood to save Nathan. I mean if they made a mistake by doing that in the past sasons they just cannot ignore that fact and let a major character like Nathan die like that.

  25. One thing that really annoys me is that shapeshifting changes the DNA to match another’s, how exactly does it allow you to have the other persons clothes…. what happens to your clothes? Does that mean you can clone objects? Mat Parkman can make people see something that’s not real… that’s a more complete form of shape shifting! and very underutilized.

    Maybe be its not a good idea to over think these things and just enjoy the show because it really does have so many gaping holes in its internal logic.

    Anyone have any theories on the above?

  26. Vic: OK i kinda get what you’re saying but in the beginning of season 3, when sylar came and attacked claire, he told her that he needed to get her ability so he could get ALL of his abilities back, indicating that he hadn’t lost them all. And besides, when peter went to the future this past season and saw the more humble and “good guy” sylar, he still maintained the nuclear power, which according to the writers, would have been lost when he contracted the shanti virus. Even though that happened in an alternate future, it was still a future set after the events of season 2. I don’t know but that empathy things just seems a little too far fetched to me.

  27. What happenes to Nathan’s body is never mentioned, but IMO Angela and Noah, are plotting something together again. I’m sure they have his body in a freezer somewhere wating until
    they can’t control Sylathan anymore, then perhaps angela and Noah will have no choice but to expose their plans by using Claire to bring back the “real” Nathan.. likely it has to do with the company or some details surrounding it’s management… or Angela knows Sylars importance and is guiding events to unfold as she saw in her dreams which she selectively shares with others.

    Sylar can’t die or be lost permenantly… Miccah said that “he was special” that “he could save them all” hmmmm? Also the fact that he “flew” was explained well enough by other posters, either his TK or he used empathy to take Nathan’s power. The writers have BIG THINGS lined for Sylathan. keep in mind that allthough it was in a different time line we do see Sylar in the futur with a child and a total turn around of character. not saying this will happen, simply because the timeline has been altered so much, but similar events may occur with different outcomes?

    As for peter’s abilities.. well that would be open to interpretation, there are hints that he only has the shapeshifting ability, but nothing is ever clearly observed. It was done so intentionally to leave some room for plot evolution in season 4.

    Hiro’s power loss was inevitable, as other have mentioned time travel is confusing at best. So i imagine it was elliminated for the sake of viewer sanity.

    As for Tracy “the Ice box” Strauss, I think we’ll see more of her, but IMO the water girl we saw might well be Barbara the 3rd an last of the triplets that Zimmerman created in the 50’s. who knows? maby she found out what happened and is perhaps more spiteful than the other 2 befor her?

    me 2 cents

  28. I did not like the vol 4 finale. I did not like how they killed off Nathan and brought him back by having Sylar become Nathan. I thought it was retarded.

  29. what a let down i wasted my night watching a double bill of heroes to be let down.

    NO BIG PETER SYLAR FIGHT, like i guessed nathan died, why didn’t sum poor looser die like Ando cz he is the “Crimson Arc” no he gives people adredaline rushes wth is that power.

    my ratings are as follows

    Volume 1 – 10/10
    Volume 2 – 4/10
    Volume 3 – 7/10
    Volume 4 – 5/10

    no as bad as volume 2 but certainly not close to the best

  30. Reading this page, some things about Sylar’s powers are starting to make more sense. I’ve been going mad at the writers for two seasons over him never using illusionary, painting, hearing, memory, liquidising, nuclear or ice powers; despite them being appropriate at so many points.

    I was convinced the process of acquiring his first power was more fundamentally engrained in some way, that perhaps the process of integrating it was more sloppy. If you consider that back when the company had him in the first season and were checking him for powers, they only found Telekenesis despite knowing he clearly had more than that.

    If his infection with the virus did remove all his powers, then this maybe how Telekenesis and his natural power alone survived and his neglect of painting in particular (which you’d think would be one of his favourites) adds up much better. Though the bomb incident in the trip to the future in volume 3 raises big questions with this still.

    Anyways, for me this finale was easily the best episode of the volume, though it had it’s issues. Felt like some lost writer from Series One had shown up in office for once, because Sylar was on top form for this one, (they only seemed to include that badass clock ticking when he’s at his best; which again seems like it’s coming from a specific writer) plus there was actually a referrence back to a previous power he’d got, which they properly included over him sticking to like 2 abilities for all occassions as usual.

    Sylar’s scene with Claire was one of the best things I’ve seen on the show, I think those two have had a great chemistry. I’m twisted with ladies like that.

    I was convinced that thing with Ali Larter was a seperate one of those clone sister things. I didn’t mind the ommitted fight, as I’d rather not understand exactly how Peter and Nathan managed to survive more than 5 seconds in that room.

    Obviously though, if this is intended as the definitive battle (for now) to take down Sylar, it’s largely anti-climactic and they might as well have saved it till they could do it full-on. Gotta lol if they really got screwed on their budget for it, coz they seemed to be spending big bucks left, right and centre in Volume 3; especially in the opening episodes.

    There was a big thing that I found very confusing in this epsiode though. Admittedly, I missed “I am Sylar” inadvertantly, plus in the scene where they had the two bodies and were trying to work out what to do, I lapsed in concentration, though I’d gathered they wanted to trick Sylar using the memories he has of Nathan.

    What I can’t work out is why the end shows them burning Sylar’s body. It doesn’t make any sense to me, and no one else here has questioned it.

  31. That wasnt Sylar’s body they were burning, but the original shapeshifter who had the form of Sylar and was stashed in the deep freeze. They were burning it for effect for Clair and Peter who believe Sylar is dead.

  32. Oh cool, and for Sylathan aswell I guess; that’s a nice idea. Must’ve missed it when I lost concentration, so thanks for clearing it up for me.

  33. The Nathan dying/Sylar becoming Nathan was an interesting narrative twist, but in the grand scheme of things it’s full of too many plot holes.

    As so many people have mentioned already, a drop of Claire’s blood would have resurrected Nathan. Claire may not know this, but Noah definitely does. Extremely lazy or sloppy writing.

    Secondly, why does Sylar even bother to use electricity to attack Peter and Nathan during their battle? A simple flick of the wrist and he could have slit both their throats without breaking a sweat.

    Third, what’s the deal with Peter’s powers? Early on in the season, I thought that he’d be able to get his powers back if he touched Sylar since Sylar has the ability to capture other people’s powers. But apparently, when Peter touches a multi-powered individual, he can only choose 1 power to keep. If that’s the case, why did he choose to take shape-shifting? Wouldn’t taking another power (like TK or immortality) have been much more useful in taking down Sylar? But no…somehow, Peter had the forethought to know that Noah was coming with a tranquilizer, and secret service would let Peter touch the president (that’s the only way he could morph into him), and that Sylar would be able to see the secret service evacuating him…again lazy writing. Just curious, what would have happened if Sylar didn’t cross paths in time? Would Peter have remained the president until his next encounter with Sylar?

    Lastly, Sylar has Clair’s healing powers. One of these days, “Nathan” is going to get hurt and when he sees himself heal, he’ll know something’s up. And shouldn’t that healing ability be working on his brain right now so that eventually, he’ll gain his memories back?

    Now that “Nathan” has served his purpose, Noah and Angela really should execute him to eliminate the risk of Sylar ever resurfacing.

    BTW, I don’t know if Sylar’s flight in this episode was due to TK or him gaining it from Nathan through empathy, but it seems a lot of you complainers don’t remember that Sylar was flying way back in Season 1 (back then, Zachary Quinto wasn’t even hired yet and they had a stunt double playing the character). He used his TK to fly off after the cops tried to arrest him. He used flying/levitating again in season 1 when he killed Dale to take her super hearing powers.

  34. Just a thought on the start of volume 5, where tracey appears to have this new liquid ability thing, has anyone thought of the possibility that this women isnt actually Tracey, but “Barbera” instead………Niki and Tracey’s triplet.

    Do we all remember Dr Zimermen from the first few episodes of volume 3? He confirms that tracey is one of three triplets, herself, Niki and never before seen ‘Barbera’. Well……..it could be her?!?

  35. Question: Original Nathan didnt have the shapeshifting ability. So when he was killed by Sylar, his body shouldve stayed the shape of Nathan. Then Matt erased all of Sylars memories so that he would think he was Nathan. But the body they burned was Sylar. For this storyline to make sense, wouldnt they have had to burn Nathan’s body?

    Please help explain this to me.

  36. crazycow – Interesting that I just happened to finish this volume for the first time right after you posted, and that I just had to see what people said about it.

    Anyway, the Sylar-body was the original shape-shifter that was killed as he was trying to escape from Danko and Sylar by appearing as Sylar. Then Danko passed him off as Sylar to look good and so Sylar could operate more freely. Remember?

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