You pretty much couldn’t get a better setup for the season finale than tonight’s  Heroes. More and more storylines are starting to mesh together, and even more history is being revealed, as our heroes are being drawn

On with the spoilers:

I was pretty sure Peter wasn’t going to explode this week. I wasn’t sure what precisely would prevent it, but we know from watching him working with Claude that you don’t have to kill him to stop a power chain reaction, just knock him unconscious. Fortunately, he has developed a real knack for figuring out new powers and how to control them very quickly (maybe that’s an actual power he absorbed from Sylar, heh). At any rate, he hit upon yet another idea to stop the bomb when he got together with Ted, one that showed the best chances for success thus far. If neither of them is in New York City when the bomb blast is supposed to happen, then it can’t happen. Unfortunately, Sylar was very close by and saw his destiny in Radioactive Ted’s brain.

Poor Ted. That’s what I kept saying over and over, starting when Sylar stepped out into the road in front of the paddy wagon. I knew Ted was slated to die as soon as Sylar turned him over to the FBI, but it wasn’t until that moment it became real for me. Poor Ted, what a way to go, especially hanging upside down like that. I have to wonder, though, why Ted didn’t explode, as he came close to doing in other times of high stress. I would think having Sylar in front of you cutting the top of your skull off with his mind would be pretty stressful. But Ted’s a slave to the path the universe has already chosen for the future as much as anyoneelse, I suppose.

I knew from pretty early on that fixing the polls was what Linderman wanted from Micah. New York City would be bound to have nice electronic polling stations by now (and frankly, I doubt it would take a superpower to manipulate the results, but that’s a rant for another post). I did enjoy how the original plan was to take him to multiple precincts to do his thing, but the poll booth told him it was networked with all the others and he could do his bit from there. More shades of Coils there. It looked like it wiped the poor kid out pretty good, though.

The most interesting piece that came up during the poll fixing arose from the conversations Micah had with the Illusionist. She sounded pretty bitter about how people are judged baed on their appearance or where they’re from, making me wonder what she really does look like. My guess is we won’t find out until she dies. She sounded more than a little like Mystique during that speech. And she further drove home the idea that the appearance we’ve been seeing all along may not be her true form by suggesting to Micah that her disguise at the polls could well be what she really looks like.

In the end, the threads drew everyone to the one building at some point. Mohinder’s there curing the Walker child under Thompson’s watchful eye. Micah is staying there with the Illusionist. Linderman himself is there. And the unlikely foursome of Bennet, Matt, Niki/Jessica, and DL come together to storm the building. Matt showed some serious skill at social engineering combined with his mind-reading to get past the guards, while DL just phased himself and Niki/Jessica through the barriers. I did wonder at that point if DL could simulate invisibility by phasing himself to the point that photons pass through him rather than bouncing off of him. I hope we get to find out at some point.

One major showdown has come and gone, and in a most spectacular way. A month ago, the Scifi Smackdown podcast started a multi-episode smackdown between the heroes of Heroes and the X-Man. In a very early round, DL took out one of the most formidable X-Men, Wolverine, by reaching into the back of his head and squishing his brain. A day over a month later, we see DL do exactly the same thing to Linderman. Props to the guys at Scifi Smackdown for coming out with that first! Unless the writers pull an illusion cop-out, it looks like Linderman is out of it for good. I had a suspicion he had to die at some point, since we never saw him in the future episode (just heard his name attached to the Linderman Act), but I really wasn’t expecting him to go this early.

Another major showdown was left hanging at an excellent cliff-hanger point. Bennet was fully aware that the “Walker method” of tracking the mutants involved the powers of a mutant controled by his former employers, so when he and Matt went in, he was prepared to have to kill to protect Claire. And I suspect he actually enjoyed putting a couple bullets through Thompson’s head. I definitely say good riddance to the creepy SOB. But he wasn’t ready for that mutant to be a child. He’s got a big dilemma to face there, while Mohinder has a gun on him. He’ll do just about anything to protect Claire, but you have to wonder where, exactly, he draws his line. I suspect Mohinder’s going to say a few things about her being able to track Sylar down once and for all which will change Bennet’s mind. And, after all, if Bennet were to control Molly Walker, he could definitely keep Claire safe by keeping tabs on anyone who might be after them.

I was really glad to see Hiro’s father come back, and come in on the right side. He’s apparently known all about Hiro’s powers all along, and has been watching his progress with great interest. One wonders again what powers the elder Nakimura has aside from being George Takei (which is a most formidible power itself). It’s amazing what a single, intensive training session can do as far as turning a chubby salaryman into a samurai warrior. I wonder if Hiro didn’t slow down time for the duration. I bet he wishes he had stopped time for the training now, since Ando’s run off with a sword to do something really foolish. Poor Ando’s not long for this world, I fear. I suspect that, next week, Hiro’s going to have to choose between saving Ando and saving the world. That seemed to be the gist of his father’s lessons about cutting out his own heart, and it makes me thing me might well sacrifice Ando for the greater good (the greater good).

The biggest showdown of all is yet to come. Sylar certainly has a flair for the dramatic, making his little hand-held nuclear fireballs while standing atop a building and wearing his long black coat. “Boom” indeed. From the previews, we’re going to see another serious fight between him and Peter next week (and I suspect one or both of them will, in fact, detonate, wiping out much of the city). I can’t wait to see how it’s handled, especially as Peter becomes more and more adept at using newfound powers. And we mustn’t forget that there are some mutants unaccounted for. Where is the Haitian now? And Claude? Will they be coming back for the endgame? Will Hiro arrive in time to put at stop to things, and will his father help him? We’ll know in another week.