They didn’t know it was definitely happening till the very last moment. That’s why they edited 211 so sharply.

If they knew it was definitely coming, I imagine a LOT more would have been changed.

Good points. However, they suspected the strike was coming long before it did. They knew it was very likely they weren’t going to get through their planned arc as planned. They could’ve tweaked the Twins storyline to get her in place sooner or changed her storyline altogether until after the strike played out.

The fact is, what every fan sees in the show is correct — good and bad. The trouble is that third parties insist on shaping the narrative, which creates friction. Until someone invents the holodeck, where the writers and actors are paid for creating templates and users are otherwise left alone to do what they want, we’re going to have these issues. We have to live with each other. I just wish the writers we have to live with didn’t drop the ball.

Because in season one in they already saved the cheerleader and were about to show us who was the exploding man. And season two — altought it had some problems — right about episode 07 you could see where everything was heading to, but now I don’t have a clue. I know they problem gonna kill Arthur and them for some reason became fugitives, but if this epi 11 is close to the volume finally it doesn’t have the feeling that something is wraping up.

But I agree with you, that pu aside the fact that Elle’s death was so lame, it drove Sylar to the place that I like. Maybe those two episodes were to show us that everybody was so wrong about Sylar being bad because of the hunger. It’s in the character.

Sort of true, but look at the how the audience reacted to Maya:

They hated her from the start. Despite the fact that her ability was clearly designed as a parallel to the Shanti Virus. Now I know she struggled as a character, but the whole point of introducing her was so that when they had her be heroic in the second half of S2 it wouldn’t come out of the blue.

What we sometimes forget is that Heroes does have a plan for the characters. So we judge them based on what we see, rather than where the story is going. It’s like how many people criticised S2 for being slow, but then loved it from 205 onwards. While 201 - 204 could have been more interesting as standalone episodes, they built steadily so that 205 onwards would work. Without Noah’s prophecy storylines, 209 doesn’t work… without seeing Peter struggle in Ireland, 207 doesn’t work… without Nathan’s alcoholism, seeing him be heroic in 205 doesn’t work.

Granted. But, I feel like they’re using fan input/network input/advertiser input as a crutch and excuse. You’ve seen my fanfic. I haven’t negated S2 or S3. I’ve just rearranged the puzzle pieces to form a new picture. West, Maya, Monica, Elle, etc were just that — puzzle pieces. It was up to the writers to arrange them and sell the picture they made to the suits and the viewers. To a significant extent, they’ve failed, and they’re having trouble facing the fact that they couldn’t wield the tools of their trade the way they thought they could.

Incidentally, I hope Sylar finds out Angela IS his Mother soon. While it felt like a retcon at the time, I think he HAS to be a Petrelli in some way to continue to exist on the show.

There’s no way Elle could have known about Sylar’s origins, but I’m not sure the scene at the Bennet house was trying to suggest that. HRG’s line to Elle was, “You know exactly who he is because you helped create him.” It’s possible “You know exactly who he is” was intended to mean, “You know he’s an evil SOB,” as opposed to, “You know he’s not a Petrelli because you’ve seen his files and you know they list his parents as Characters X and Y.” But, yeah, it wasn’t clear, and that’s an example of where better dialogue and editing would have helped the episode.

Interesting point about Hiro and Claire altering the timeline. I guess Hiro — in his 10-year-old state — won’t have the same reservations about rewriting history as Adult-Hiro. And Claire — if she’s in the same bratty, reckless mood she’s been in for most of the volume — probably won’t stop to think about the ramifications of messing up the timeline. Between them, I can see them making some major changes without even realizing it.

Loved the Peter/Caitlin reunion. Very inventive.
Word on the writers pandering to fan demands throughout this volume. Sometimes, I wish they’d ignore us. If they’d written the show the way they wanted to from the start, it might have turned out better. The flipside to that is stuff like Coleman and Cristine Rose becoming regulars, because that probably had as much to do with fan adoration as it did with producers responding to the characters’ storylines. Fan input is kind of a mixed blessing for this show.

Kevin,

“I’m formally requesting you rename the “Ping! Dumb As Peter Award” to the “Ping! Dumb As Nathan Award.”"

Heh. Noted. I can’t recall Angela earning too many Dumb As nominations, but the rest of the family have all earned their share. Maybe it should be a generic Dumb As Petrelli Award?

I agree, Hiro’s a much more effective hero with the 10-year-old mentality. I liked how he seemed more thoughtful as well; the way he drove Matt to go after Daphne, the way he reacted to the stuff that happened to him over the past two seasons … I don’t know if that’s directly connected to the memory loss, of if it’s a sign that Hiro’s generally being better written. It’ll be interesting to see how that changes when Hiro gets his memories back.

I’m not sure about the brother-versus-brother storyline being heavy-handed. I thought the Peter-Nathan/Haitian-Samedi comparisons complemented one another quite subtly, but I also wonder how much they tie in with KellyH’s point upthread about the lack of hope on the show. Samedi obviously needed to be stopped, but the message in this storyline seemed to be, “In the end, family ties don’t mean jack.” The Haitian kills Samedi (or at least turns him into a vegetable) regardless of whether they’re brothers; Nathan joins Pinehearst regardless of whether its CEO robbed Peter of his abilities and trapped their mom in a nightmare … You’ve got stuff like that, you’ve got Seth’s heroism speech being undercut with the admission that he didn’t actually believe it, and you’ve got Sylar turning on the one person who seemed to care about him for who he was rather than because of what he could do. I have to agree with KellyH: the message behind these story threads seems pretty grim. I hope the volume wraps with at least some kind of positive spin.

Nina, great point about the restoration of Sylar’s abilities coinciding with his return to villainy. Do you think Sylar would have killed Elle even if he hadn’t gotten his abilities back? Maybe being forced to run from HRG, then dying and getting the Not-A-Petrelli reveal all played a part in him turning back into a vicious b*****d. It’s interesting that slicing open HRG’s throat and killing Elle didn’t seem to have anything to do with The Hunger. I think the point (however convoluted and obscure it might have ended up) was that Sylar really is rotten at the core, hunger or no hunger.

True Samedi would have figured that out, but apparently he was still out cold, so I believe that’s a moot point.

As a Peter fan, no, I don’t believe it would have been worth Peter’s life, but he did believe it. As long as Nathan and The Haitian could have escaped, Peter believed it would be worth it. If they would not have made it, the loss would have been in vain, but Peter was willing to risk it.

he main problem is that they listened to the fans and gave them what they wanted. So this Volume is like a ‘Greatest Hits’ compilation. We’ve got the plot to save the world… Linderman… we’ve got a Niki like woman manipulating Nathan… we have Peter trying to figure out who he is… we have Hiro and Ando as comic-relief… time-travel, a pre-cog, 9th Wonders…

And some of it works. It really does.

But the problem is that this Volume isn’t working completely for anyone. The writers are torn between what they want to write, and what they think people want… and the audience is annoyed because this is, for all intents and purposes, the opposite of S2. The reason S1 worked was because it was their story - they didn’t do what we wanted them to do. They killed Charlie, ya know? An amazing character. She died, and it hurt… but they did it. And it tore Hiro apart. And they went on to tell an excellent story that built and built and ended on their terms.

Now, sadly, everyone is trying to tell the writers what to do. Fans, the Network, critics. Well honestly, screw that. The writers should be telling the story they want to tell. And frankly, that isn’t Volume III. Hopefully it’ll be Volume IV, and people will be patient enough to see where it goes.

But not to be totally ranty:

Did anyone notice Sandra’s awesome reactions to Hiro teleporting?

With Sylar she stares blankly forward, afraid to move for fear that Elle will zap her; with Elle she looks at Hiro with this ‘what is this strange Japanese man doing in our house? look; and then with Claire she just crosses her arms, completely and utterly exasperated with how ridiculous the entire thing is.

And the kicker. Her ‘oh, you have some EXPLAINING to do’ glare at HRG. Best part of the episode, by far.

EXT. KIRBY PLAZA - DAY

Peter takes Caitlin in, and suddenly all the memories of what happen come flooding back to him, face contorting into a mixture of sorrow and regret.

PETER
Caitlin, I…

She SLAPS him HARD across the face.

PETER
I deserved that.

CAITLIN
Oh, you deserve a lot more. I’ve seen what you and your brother do.

PETER
What do we do?

CAITLIN
You kill Claude.

(Kills two stones at once, hee.)