A show like Heroes demands a fitting season and arc finale and “How To Stop an Exploding Man” mostly delivers. We finally see the Heroes come together and we finally see the battle we’ve been waiting for: Peter vs. Sylar. Unfortunately it’s not as long and drawn out a fight as I would have liked to have seen, but it does serve the purpose well.

Bennet threatens Molly’s life but he loses the battle when Parkman recognizes Molly as the girl he saved and reiterates that nothing will happen to her. They do decide they must use Molly to track down Sylar whom is shown painting the predicted fight between himself and Peter. Ando bursts in to stop him, and Sylar treats him as a bothersome flea pinning him up against the wall.

Despite his fathers protestations, Hiro tells his father he must save Ando and stop Sylar. Teleporting to Isaac’s loft, he faces Sylar who challenges him to move faster than he can slice off Ando’s head. Sylar is shocked when he does just that by teleporting next to Ando, grabbing him and teleporting away.

Niki leaves the injured DL so she can find Micah. She comes into a room where she sees Jessica on a couch and Micah dead on the floor. Shocked she can’t quite process it and Jessica attacks her. Catching a reflection in a broken mirror, she sees Jessica who tells her that her enemy is not Jessica. Niki is able to harness the strength that previously only Jessica had and knocks “Jessica” into next week. “Jessica” turns into Candice and Micah’s body disappears, an illusion. Micah calls out to his mom and Niki finds him.

Nathan is struggling with his destiny still as his mother informs him that Linderman is dead. He doesn’t know if that’s good or bad, but he does know that he has accepted Peter will explode and most likely live through it. He has no plans to stop him, and Peter discovers that himself as he goes to try to recruit Nathan against Claire’s warnings. Claire manages to slip away during the conversation and Peter goes invisible to start looking for her, but he begins to go nuclear until he falls unconscious, simmering the power down. Claire is found by Angela.

We learn that Molly has one person she can’t find, someone worse than Sylar even but that when she looks for him, he can see her. This seems like a typical comicbook way of foreshadowing the next season…and I like it. She locates Sylar at Isaac’s loft and Parkman decides to go confront him against Bennet’s advice. Bennet searches for Peter. Sylar however leaves before Parkman can get there and makes his way to Kirby Plaza and his destiny.

Molly warns Suresh that Sylar has arrived and is in the building. Mohinder decides that they must leave. They find DL injured by the shutdown elevators and they try to help him until Niki and Micah arrive on the scene. Micah fixes the elevator and they continue to make their way out of the building. Micah and Molly share a nice cute connection as kids with powers.

Meanwhile Hiro has teleported Ando back to Japan, where he leaves him with his sword, saying the final confrontation must be his alone. Ando has shown him true bravery, facing Sylar without powers, but this is his battle now. He leaves Ando the Kensei sword as a promise of his return. I get dejavu. Hiro already kicked Ando off their team once, but it does seem more necessary this time.

While unconscious Peter enters a flashback. On the rooftop, right as Peter has begun care of Charles Deveaux. His mother and Charles speak of the upcoming bomb. Charles thinks that Peter is the true hero while Nathan is not the leader he should be. His mother denies this and decides that Nathan is in the moment. Suddenly after his mother leaves, Charles confronts Peter directly, shocking him. He knew of the plan to use Nathan to heal the world, but tells him it’s Peter that must do it. He then calls the other Peter to bring him into the house. Peter is awakened by Bennet who helps him up. He thanks Peter for saving Claire’s life and reveals that his name is Noah.

Claire escapes from Nathan and Angela by jumping out a window after lashing into them about allowing the bomb to go off.

The final battle brews as they all converge in the plaza. Bennet is thrown against a wall hurting him so he can’t stop Peter if he explodes. Parkman shoots at Sylar who stops the bullets and sends them back at Parkman who is hit and collapses.

Sylar than takes a parking meter and begins to attack Peter until Niki steps in to knock Sylar back a bit, buying Peter time to recover. Peter tells her to go with her family and that he’ll take it from there. He grabs Sylar and begins viciously punching him, as Sylar laughs. The laughs stop as Peter’s hand begins to glow. Peter’s emotions are overcharged and he can’t concentrate on controlling Ted’s power.

Sylar stands up and taunts Peter as the villain and calls himself the hero that will pick up the pieces. Suddenly before Sylar can act, Hiro teleports in and impales him with a sword, sending Sylar to the ground dying. Sylar telekinetcally throws Hiro towards the office building, forcing him to teleport to destination unknown.

As Peter’s hands continue to glow, Claire arrives and takes Bennet’s gun. Peter tells her to shoot but she hesitates. She tries to think of another way, but Peter begs, claiming there is no other way.

Suddenly from the sky, Nathan flies down and lands between Peter and Claire. He tells Claire that she was right. He then tells Peter that he had “saved the cheerleader, so we could save the world.” Nathan has come back to the light like Anakin Skywalker and the two fly off together as Peter explodes far over New York.

It’s a great climactic moment as Nathan redeems himself completely, of course buying the fact that Peter couldn’t just be knocked out again to stop the power.

Then to end Volume 1, Sylar, believed dead, crawls into a manhole escaping to fight another day.

We are then treated to the opening of Volume 2, Generations. Hiro lands in a grassy meadow where samurai archers are targeting what he thinks is him, but he realizes is a man wearing the symbol of Takezo Kensei…in 1671.

Overall it serves it’s purpose well. There are a few moments that lessen what could have been a perfect episode, but it is very enjoyable and lays great groundwork for Season 2.

B

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