||SPOILERS|| After two faltering seasons (mildly rescued by this half-decent volume comprising the back-half of season 3), Heroes reaches its third finale. Even back in the halcyon days of season 1, the show never managed a rousing finish, so my expectations were inevitably low for "An Invisible Thread". And, while certainly a little underwhelming in certain respects, I was ultimately appreciative for two reasons: they concluded the storyline fairly logically and gave us a few things to chew on. Just don't think too deeply about any of it...
Sylar (Zachary Quinto) is once again the threat that needs to be stopped by our heroes; now with a plan to shape-shift into Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) to facilitate a meeting with The President (Michael Dorn), and steal the Commander-In-Chief's identity to become "the most powerful man in the world". For no particular reason, it just sounds like a lark and the writers have fond memories of season 1's "Five Years Gone" plot.Danko (Zeljko Ivanek) tries to stop his former-accomplice with a knife to the base of Sylar's neck, but it appears that Sylar's morphing ability has enabled him to move that weak spot (implausibly, as surely the "weakness" was always just severing blood flow to the brain -- so, what, Sylar moved his spine somewhere else?)
Anyway, Sylar soon becomes Nathan and prepares for a meeting with The President, only to make another monumental error (keeping the real Nathan unconscious, rather than kill him, or tie him up at the very least.) So, while Claire (Hayden Panettiere) arrives and is tricked into believing Sylar's her bio-dad, Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) is the one to find his unconscious brother and know the truth. The Petrelli's then join forces to stop Sylar in his hotel room, where he's since revealed his identity to Claire and is taunting her with notions of being eternal, immortal enemies. The good news is: if power-leech Pete can touch Sylar he'll gain his power (perhaps all of them, or just one at random, it's never clear) and thus even the odds in their fight.
Elsewhere, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) manage to free all of the captured "specials" kept in Building 26, by freezing time -– making you wonder why they didn't do that sooner, instead of travel to India for that pointless wedding. And it's worth mentioning that Hiro's still having health problems as a result of using his ability so often, in the form of nosebleeds, earbleeds and migraines. Concurrently, Angela (Cristine Rose) arrives at a bus depot to persuade Matt (Greg Grunberg) to help them defeat Sylar, claiming he'll be able to live in peace with his family if Sylar's taken care of, because Nathan's going to dismantle the Building 26 operation by being honest with The President over they threat "specials" pose.
One major disappointment was that a hotel room punchup, between the flying Petrelli brothers (a circus job beckons) and Sylar, was played out behind closed doors. This was likely a factor of budget/time restraints, but it was a shame we were denied super-charged action once again -- as there were similar complaints about the season 1 finale. Still, the episode clawed back some respect by allowing Sylar to rather graphically slit Nathan's throat and have him bleed to death in a chair. Angela and Matt arrived at the scene too late to help, and Cristine Rose's "wounded animal" reaction to her son's demise marked the first time death actually felt raw, consequential and heartfelt in Heroes.
But... well, they kind of ended up cheating the audience, in a silly but imaginative way that helped me excuse it. Sylar eventually winds up sitting next to the President in his limousine, disguised a Secret Service agent, but when he shakes hands with the President to sample his DNA, he's stabbed in the neck with a sedative by the President... who morphs into Peter! Yes, Peter managed to touch Sylar during their hotel fight and turned the tables. A clever end, that fed into the episode's most intriguing moment...
With Sylar caught and unconscious, Angela insists that things will only get back to normal if Nathan speaks with the real President to end Danko's manhunt –- but, seeing as he's now dead, they hatch a crazy plan to transform Sylar into Nathan, permanently. Therefore, Matt uses his ability to erase Sylar's memories and make him believe he's Senator Petrelli (just go with it), and this belief causes Sylar to shape-shift into Nathan and genuinely believe he's a different person after waking up.
Rather creepily, the victorious heroes burn the body of "Sylar" on a Darth Vader-style pyre (well, the shapeshifter double of Sylar taken from Building 26 by Mr. Bennet) as "Nathan" watches on, unaware he's actually Sylar. Too, too weird...The traditional tease of the next Volume ("Redemption") looked intriguing, but low-key compared to previous sneak-peaks; here, six weeks later, Tracy (Ali Larter) returns as a naked water nymph in the flooded apartment of a former-Building 26 employee, killing him as her fourth victim. Then, in Nathan's office as he reads about the murder, Angela realizes there's still a trace of Sylar in "her son", as he has become fixated on a carriage clock that was running slow. So, while Adrian Pasdar will probably be around next year, it seems likely that Sylar's going to regain his memories and escape his existential prison. And is Tracy now to be counted as a villain, or don't we blame her for getting revenge on those Building 26 agents?
Overall, this didn't really have the impact of a big season finale, but neither was it a dud. In fact, it may have been small-scale, but it was actually more satisfying than season 1 and 2's climax in a great many ways. Sure, there are nitpicks everywhere you look, a few things didn't make sense (not least the haziness over Sylar's sudden desire to be President), and the threat of Danko's operation never really gripped like it promised to in the volume's premiere. Still, events wrapped up competently and "Fugitives" as a whole fixed a few longstanding issues with the series (like limiting Peter and Hiro's power), but I'm not especially excited about The Company being reborn as a government-sanctioned, Petrelli-run outfit.
27 April 2009
NBC, 9/8c
Writer: Tim Kring
Director: Greg Beeman
Cast: Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Masi Oka (Hiro), Greg Grunberg (Matt), Cristine Rose (Angela), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Zeljko Ivanek (Danko) & Michael Dorn (The President)
