hazelk: (Default)
hazelk ([personal profile] hazelk) wrote2007-12-09 02:41 pm
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Heroes 1:23 How to stop an exploding man



It may be [livejournal.com profile] selenak’s influence at work but having mulled it over I do believe the finale works best if you think about it as the story of Nathan Petrelli. It makes thematic sense too – this whole first volume has been about people discovering and accepting themselves and Nathan was always the most reluctant to do that. With the exception of Ted Sprague he had the most troublesome initial manifestation of his ability and right up until this final episode he still held to the idea of these strange new powers being at best useless at worst lethal, forces of nature to be healed, suppressed, or collectively risen above.

Other heroes in the episode completed their journeys, Hiro defeated Sylar, Nikki found her strength, Molly found her boogie man, Noah Bennet gave up the secret of his first name but it’s in Nathan that you can see the whole process from fear and denial to hope and acceptance unfold. In his first scene Angela tells him Linderman has died but the show still goes on and she does it magnificently, every touch a precision weapon. That they’ve hit target is confirmed when Peter overhears him thinking

There’s nothing we can do, they’re all going to die.

It’s the next scene that’s the pivotal point and the one where

Save the cheerleader, Save the world

finally comes true. Not as future!Hiro thought because Claire didn’t die and didn’t give her ability to Sylar but because she lived and lived to give her absentee biological father an exasperated teenager’s opinion on the evitability of things. She didn’t do it alone, it was a long process that both Hiro and Peter contributed to and through them all the others one way or another even the dead (really loved the dream/flashback whatever it was with Charles Devreaux) but like Nathan himself give her credit for being the last straw.

The actual last straw was a little too much, couldn’t Nathan just have muttered something about Peter needing a haircut? And then there could have been tea. But at least Sylar was done with and Peter was Dawn. I cried a little and then, whoops we’re in feudal Japan! So it was all good.

[identity profile] aycheb.livejournal.com 2007-12-09 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Peter as Dawn
I hadn't thought of the option of letting Claire shoot Peter once Nathan arrived and was very torn about his intervention in that moment when he arrived (although less so afterwards) because Claire having to shoot had felt like an ending (the Becoming ending) and I wanted it but didn't because, as you say, of what it would do to Claire. BtVS had an easier job with endings I guess because it was always clear who the big story was about whereas Heroes is much more of an ensemble show.

I was glad that they backed down from the Peter vs Sylar showdown, which is partly what I meant by calling Peter Dawn, in the end he was the damsel rather than the hero. In fact plot wise Sylar's involvement was a big red herring in the end it all came down to whether Peter could control Ted's power, which I definitely liked for taking it away from good-versus-evil towards good versus itself. You know, the final cockroach shot was neat but in as much as it implies the return of Sylar I wish they hadn't done it - he has his moments but The Company is a much better villian.

[identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com 2007-12-09 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
which is partly what I meant by calling Peter Dawn, in the end he was the damsel rather than the hero

Oh, he's the damsel through most of season 1. The one episode where Peter does the traditionally heroic thing of facing his death to save the girl is Homecoming and there, too, he does so not by striking a blow, but by dragging Sylar down a roof, i.e. sacrificing his own life (as he doesn't know about regeneration). Otherwise, you have him getting rescued, fainting, being in a coma, and getting rescued again all over the place, all traditionally "feminine" storytelling motifs, which is a subversion I haven't seen often remarked upon. He's even Sleeping Beauty not just once but twice (in "Godsend", when Nathan kisses him, and in ".07%", when Claire removes the proverbial splinter to awake him). This, btw, fits with Peter's definition as an empath - it's the emotional connections he forms that make a difference.

My own comparison back when I first saw the episode to a previous character wasn't Dawn but Luke Skywalker in "Return of the Jedi". (As opposed to Luke in "Star Wars".) In RotJ, Luke doesn't strike any decisive blow, doesn't blow up anything and does not kill the villain; what he does is by being there and having faith in someone triggering a redemptive action.

You know, the final cockroach shot was neat but in as much as it implies the return of Sylar I wish they hadn't done it - he has his moments but The Company is a much better villian.

God, I so wish they had killed Sylar off for good in the s1 finale. Thankfully, he isn't much in s2 (basically three episodes dispersed through the 11 we've had so far), whereas the Company is very present indeed, in every episode, and in fascinating ways, too.