This is it. The last episode of this season. I'll be reviewing the episode as well as the season as a whole, so if you've been reading the reviews as they've posted you have a good idea as to how I feel about the season overall. Still though, read on and feel free to agree/disagree in the comments. If you haven't seen the finale then I highly recommend not reading ahead until you have.
Huzzah for batshit insane Sylar. The first five minutes of last night's episode was awesome. First, he morphs into Danko and kills the new officers. Then, he turns into the standard officer and arrests Danko. Once Danko is gone, he then turns into Nathan and convinces Claire (by touching her pendant) that he is Nathan. They then go together to shake the President's hand. Sylar's plan to become the President is the closest thing to a plot we've had all season, and I'm glad that these past few episodes have been building up to that eventual event.
Nathan is passed out in the back room when Claire arrives, and I don't get why Nathan's assistant doesn't see Sylar shapeshift in front of her. Yes, his back was turned, so I'll give him that. We also know why he didn't die as a result of the back of the head thing. See, he moved his weak spot with his new shapeshifting ability. We have a supervillain with know known weakness now? I don't get why Danko wouldn't have tranquilized Sylar first and then stabbed him. In all fairness though, I do suppose that he wouldn't have expected Sylar to switch the weak spot.
Can't say I approve of the techno intro that Danko gets when ushered into a cell with HRG, but that's why I don't score TV. Danko and HRG have a philosophical conversation that actually has a great line. HRG says that he would be in the exact same position that Danko is in if he didn't have Claire, to which Danko responds he is. That is, they're both in a prison cell when they decide to break out. Until time freezes! I'm a very big fan of Hiro's escape plan. He replaces all the mutants with the employees on the gurneys in an attempt to rescue them. In the process though he has another nosebleed and further weakness, and Mohinder's quick diagnosis tells him that Hiro can no longer use his abilities, I guess because he's not sleeping? Where did all the mutants go though? Ando hurried them out the door and then went back to Mohinder and Hiro, but we don't know where the mutants actually went.
HRG and Danko are on the verge of escaping when Danko whips out the elephant tranquilizer. The plan is to use it on Sylar. When HRG's back is turned however, Danko goes to stab him with it. Hiro once again proves his mettle and stops time, taking the syringe and stabbing Danko with it. And then he passes out, using his time stopping power for quite possibly the last time. Until Parkman's kid comes back I suppose. At the end of the episode Hiro is standing and appears to be ok, but who knows what they decide to do with him from here. Will this be explained next season? Will everyone's bodies start rejecting the powers, or is it just Hiro?
Sylar and Claire. The only time that Claire really matters now is as a foil to Sylar in a strange sense. Sylar has a thing for blondes it seems, and it would appear that he realizes Claire is the only one that will live long enough to survive with him. She's essentially holding them until Nathan and Peter get there, and upon arrival the two of them go in guns blazing. We didn't see any of the fight between Nathan, Peter and Sylar, but the tension was ratcheted up a zillionfold. Nathan and Sylar ended up out the window, while Peter and Claire left to find him. Peter can't fly anymore, and he can't heal. So what power does he have? And they didn't hear the piano crash behind them as Sylar and Nathan burst back into the rom? Regardless, Sylar went there. Straight slit Nathan's throat with his mind.
It was the last move he needed to get close to the President. A little Nathan shapeshifting until he meets with the President's right-hand man. Turning into him to get close to the President. Which of course is Peter. Somehow the one power he took was the shapeshifting, allowing him to get close enough to Sylar to tranq the hell out of him. Does this mean that Peter only has the shapeshifting power? Or did he get all the powers? What would be really cool is if Peter eventually becomes Sylar through the same method that Sylar became Nathan (more on that in a bit). Sylar making his way to the President was truly a frenzied and tense scene, and for a moment there was the possibility that his plan would actually work.
Ok. The ending. In any other show, I would say it was straight shenanigans. But when you have a show loosely based on comic books, well the ending better be damn comic book-y. Parkman wiped Sylar's mind of all his memories, while at the same time convincing him that he was Nathan. This also led to Sylar involuntarily shape-shifting into Nathan. Permanently. Now Sylar is trapped in Nathan (or Nathan is trapped in Sylar) for who knows how long. The episode managed to kill off both Nathan and Sylar, while keeping them alive at the same time. See, if the world found out that a mutant killed a senator, there would be a lot more attention put on them. Attention they don't want. So "Nathan" is needed to convince the President that the program needs to end and that the mutants aren't really a threat, and they can go about living their lives merrily. Parkman did end up saving Nathan per Angela's premonition (I could've done without her overacting upon discovering Nathan's death), although probably not in the way we all expected. It's clear that he was not completely on board with the plan, but he thought of his son's future and that was convincing enough.
Volume 5 is titled "Redemption," and we're 6 weeks in the future at Kent Harper's apartment. Someone left the water running. That is, Traci is the water running. That tear she shed was foreshadowing (at the time I didn't think the show was capable of that), as her powers have manifested as water as opposed to ice. She's on a killing spree, going after the agents that were part of the master plan. Nathan is shown second-guessing himself until he sees the clock. He realizes it's running fast and resets it, looking like it actually means something to him. Sylar is still alive. Well, the remnant of him is still alive.
I've been very vocal about this show. It started off intense, waned in the middle and then really picked up at the end. Many will credit that to the return of Bryan Fuller. I will say that the writing definitely tightened up and helped the story make a lot more sense. A lot of loose ends were tied up in a very neat fashion, and the spectre of Sylar in Nathan looms large as a potential villain down the road. And I like what they did. They killed Sylar, but left an out.
So next season we're going to keep waiting for Nathan to revert to Sylar and realize what the renewed Company did to them in convincing him he was Nathan. Parkman was clearly not completely on board with it, so that's an interesting sub-plot as well. Hiro and Ando are returning to Japan for whatever reason, while the new Company will no doubt regroup. Traci is another subplot that will loom...no idea where her path of vengeance will take her. Clearly there will be a lot of "redemption" next season when the show returns.
I've been watching the show to this point out of a sense of closure. But this season finale has given me incentive to pick up again next season. I'm actually really excited for the psychology that will be going into the new season. Sylar as Nathan as Sylar is tremendously intriguing, and when coupled with the other sub-plots mentioned above this show really has nowhere to go but up. Hopefully the season doesn't follow the same routine as the past few seasons and remains strong throughout. No doubt the fewer episodes will lead to less filler and more substance, and with fewer characters to be focused on we can expect tighter storylines. The season finale was a fast-paced and satisfying end to what had been a rather so-so season.
Overall score: 95 out of 100
This is it. The last episode of this season. I'll be reviewing the episode as well as the season as a whole, so if you've been reading the reviews as they've posted you have a good idea as to how I feel about the season overall. Still though, read on and feel free to agree/disagree in the comments. If you haven't seen the finale then I highly recommend not reading ahead until you have.
Huzzah for batshit insane Sylar. The first five minutes of last night's episode was awesome. First, he morphs into Danko and kills the new officers. Then, he turns into the standard officer and arrests Danko. Once Danko is gone, he then turns into Nathan and convinces Claire (by touching her pendant) that he is Nathan. They then go together to shake the President's hand. Sylar's plan to become the President is the closest thing to a plot we've had all season, and I'm glad that these past few episodes have been building up to that eventual event.
Nathan is passed out in the back room when Claire arrives, and I don't get why Nathan's assistant doesn't see Sylar shapeshift in front of her. Yes, his back was turned, so I'll give him that. We also know why he didn't die as a result of the back of the head thing. See, he moved his weak spot with his new shapeshifting ability. We have a supervillain with know known weakness now? I don't get why Danko wouldn't have tranquilized Sylar first and then stabbed him. In all fairness though, I do suppose that he wouldn't have expected Sylar to switch the weak spot.
Can't say I approve of the techno intro that Danko gets when ushered into a cell with HRG, but that's why I don't score TV. Danko and HRG have a philosophical conversation that actually has a great line. HRG says that he would be in the exact same position that Danko is in if he didn't have Claire, to which Danko responds he is. That is, they're both in a prison cell when they decide to break out. Until time freezes! I'm a very big fan of Hiro's escape plan. He replaces all the mutants with the employees on the gurneys in an attempt to rescue them. In the process though he has another nosebleed and further weakness, and Mohinder's quick diagnosis tells him that Hiro can no longer use his abilities, I guess because he's not sleeping? Where did all the mutants go though? Ando hurried them out the door and then went back to Mohinder and Hiro, but we don't know where the mutants actually went.
HRG and Danko are on the verge of escaping when Danko whips out the elephant tranquilizer. The plan is to use it on Sylar. When HRG's back is turned however, Danko goes to stab him with it. Hiro once again proves his mettle and stops time, taking the syringe and stabbing Danko with it. And then he passes out, using his time stopping power for quite possibly the last time. Until Parkman's kid comes back I suppose. At the end of the episode Hiro is standing and appears to be ok, but who knows what they decide to do with him from here. Will this be explained next season? Will everyone's bodies start rejecting the powers, or is it just Hiro?
Sylar and Claire. The only time that Claire really matters now is as a foil to Sylar in a strange sense. Sylar has a thing for blondes it seems, and it would appear that he realizes Claire is the only one that will live long enough to survive with him. She's essentially holding them until Nathan and Peter get there, and upon arrival the two of them go in guns blazing. We didn't see any of the fight between Nathan, Peter and Sylar, but the tension was ratcheted up a zillionfold. Nathan and Sylar ended up out the window, while Peter and Claire left to find him. Peter can't fly anymore, and he can't heal. So what power does he have? And they didn't hear the piano crash behind them as Sylar and Nathan burst back into the rom? Regardless, Sylar went there. Straight slit Nathan's throat with his mind.
It was the last move he needed to get close to the President. A little Nathan shapeshifting until he meets with the President's right-hand man. Turning into him to get close to the President. Which of course is Peter. Somehow the one power he took was the shapeshifting, allowing him to get close enough to Sylar to tranq the hell out of him. Does this mean that Peter only has the shapeshifting power? Or did he get all the powers? What would be really cool is if Peter eventually becomes Sylar through the same method that Sylar became Nathan (more on that in a bit). Sylar making his way to the President was truly a frenzied and tense scene, and for a moment there was the possibility that his plan would actually work.
Ok. The ending. In any other show, I would say it was straight shenanigans. But when you have a show loosely based on comic books, well the ending better be damn comic book-y. Parkman wiped Sylar's mind of all his memories, while at the same time convincing him that he was Nathan. This also led to Sylar involuntarily shape-shifting into Nathan. Permanently. Now Sylar is trapped in Nathan (or Nathan is trapped in Sylar) for who knows how long. The episode managed to kill off both Nathan and Sylar, while keeping them alive at the same time. See, if the world found out that a mutant killed a senator, there would be a lot more attention put on them. Attention they don't want. So "Nathan" is needed to convince the President that the program needs to end and that the mutants aren't really a threat, and they can go about living their lives merrily. Parkman did end up saving Nathan per Angela's premonition (I could've done without her overacting upon discovering Nathan's death), although probably not in the way we all expected. It's clear that he was not completely on board with the plan, but he thought of his son's future and that was convincing enough.
Volume 5 is titled "Redemption," and we're 6 weeks in the future at Kent Harper's apartment. Someone left the water running. That is, Traci is the water running. That tear she shed was foreshadowing (at the time I didn't think the show was capable of that), as her powers have manifested as water as opposed to ice. She's on a killing spree, going after the agents that were part of the master plan. Nathan is shown second-guessing himself until he sees the clock. He realizes it's running fast and resets it, looking like it actually means something to him. Sylar is still alive. Well, the remnant of him is still alive.
I've been very vocal about this show. It started off intense, waned in the middle and then really picked up at the end. Many will credit that to the return of Bryan Fuller. I will say that the writing definitely tightened up and helped the story make a lot more sense. A lot of loose ends were tied up in a very neat fashion, and the spectre of Sylar in Nathan looms large as a potential villain down the road. And I like what they did. They killed Sylar, but left an out.
So next season we're going to keep waiting for Nathan to revert to Sylar and realize what the renewed Company did to them in convincing him he was Nathan. Parkman was clearly not completely on board with it, so that's an interesting sub-plot as well. Hiro and Ando are returning to Japan for whatever reason, while the new Company will no doubt regroup. Traci is another subplot that will loom...no idea where her path of vengeance will take her. Clearly there will be a lot of "redemption" next season when the show returns.
I've been watching the show to this point out of a sense of closure. But this season finale has given me incentive to pick up again next season. I'm actually really excited for the psychology that will be going into the new season. Sylar as Nathan as Sylar is tremendously intriguing, and when coupled with the other sub-plots mentioned above this show really has nowhere to go but up. Hopefully the season doesn't follow the same routine as the past few seasons and remains strong throughout. No doubt the fewer episodes will lead to less filler and more substance, and with fewer characters to be focused on we can expect tighter storylines. The season finale was a fast-paced and satisfying end to what had been a rather so-so season.
Overall score: 95 out of 100
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