Heroes - "Powerless"

Now THAT was a season finale. Everything ended in true comic book style, with the current arc tied up, and the new one poised to begin in 2008. They fulfilled their promises from last week's previews, but managed to do it in a way that surprised me. Again. You'd think I'd know better than to make assumptions by now. On to the spoilers.... I think the biggest disappointment is discovering that Peter also suffers from Parkman's Syndrome. That's a condition that renders an evolved human unable to think of actually using one of his powers to figure things out. Matt has repeatedly not thought of just reading someone's mind to find out the truth, and we see again tonight that it doesn't occur to Peter at any point to take a little peek into Adam's mind to find out the truth. I mean, he knows Hiro, knows the little guy is always trying to be on the side of good. Hiro telling him Adam has to die should have made him think twice and decide maybe he needed to see what was really going on. He's as blindly trusting as Maya, and he's been through way too much to still be that way. But such plotting is ripped directly from comics in general, so I can try to swallow my frustration and accept it as being true to the genre. When Sylar got back together with Mohinder, I knew he'd have the upper hand just by using Molly as leverage. Mohinder's another pushover in the show, and tends to jump whichever way the winds blow. As always, he tried to take a little control when Maya let the cat out of the bag about Sylar not having his powers (an admission Sylar seemed surprised to have come out so early), but, as always, Sylar was ready and reacted faster. I thought they revealed Alejandro's death in a clever way, having Molly try to locate him. It also reinforced that Molly's power only works on living things; she'll never be able to locate Mohinder's car keys if he loses them. And Sylar showed again how quickly he can react when he shot her immediately to keep her from doing anything. It also gave him a good test subject for the injection of Claire's blood. It seems the Company is mired in incompetence. The founders failed from the outset to realize Adam's issues; not even telepathic Maury Parkman could see what his plans and ideas were. Linderman, in fact, be came his disciple. It never occurred to them that the evolved humans they were sending out as field agents might come to resent being used to track down and often kill their own kind. Nor did they foresee that Bennet might come to love Claire as her own and put protecting her ahead of the Company's interests. Most recently, they've used Elle as a field agent. She's terribly in the field. She's got absolutely no self-control and she's not nearly proactive enough to handle things. She blew a simple surveillance assignment last week, and got herself benched. Now Bennet is using the Company's penchant for secrets against them to turn her against them. His story about her being tested almost to destruction ad the age of seven could be true. It could always be a very believable lie; and one that definitely serves its purpose to drive a wedge between Elle and Alchemical Bob. Sadly, even her attempt to get herself back in Daddy's good graces blows apart when she proves she's no match for the likes of Sylar. Mohinder may help her salvage things somewhat by telling Bob how she saved their lives, but the truth of the matter is she allowed Sylar to get away with their entire supply of Claire's blood. Despite his inability to remember to use all of his powers, Peter showed us tonight how incredibly powerful he is. He was effortlessly knocking Company guards around while he and Adam broke in (I caught him giving disapproving glares to Adam's more lethal methods with the sword). He was able to tear that vault door open, and, in the end, he was able to best Hiro. I knew that was coming; as much as I like Hiro, he's kind of a one trick pony. He's really far too powerful to exist unopposed, so it was definitely necessary to bring Sylar back to his full power. By the way, did everyone catch the Godsend symbol appearing in his palm along with the dust of the destroyed Shanti virus? I knew the Company would go to any lengths to stop Claire from going public, especially after resurrecting Bennet and sending him back to her. I was still taken by surprise when they assassinated Nathan. When the previews told us last week they were going to kill two of the heroes, I figured it would be minor characters. Maya was my first choice, and I wasn't the slightest bit surprised when Sylar shot her. I thought the other one might be Monica, but with her appearance in the 9th Wonder comic book, I should have known better. I admit I was pleased to see Niki apparenty taken out, but I also know that if we don't see a body, she's not dead. Nathan also might not be dead, since they have Peter's blood right there. That assumes he can overcome Parkman's Syndrome and realize his blood has to have the same healing powers as Adam's. When I chatted with Jessica after the episode, she brought up a neat idea they should have used. She suggested that Sylar killing her could have released her disease to wipe everyone out just as the Shanti virus was supposed to. When Peter learned about the outbreak, I don't recall him ever being told specifically that it was released in Texas. I would have loved to see them to end things similar to how they ended last season, with the future everyone's been trying to prevent apparently coming to pass anyway. I did like the setup for the next season, which will be called "Villains." Sylar's back, and he'll be back to his old tricks collecting powers. Now that he knows about Peter, his goal is almost certainly going to be to turn himself into an empath as well. For his part, Peter's going to declare war on the Company for their hit on Nathan. It's going to be a long, hard wait until they start things back up next year.