Arthur is coming back despite a bullet in his head.

Every time Claire or Hiro does something that would give The Doctor cause to yell “Don’t touch the baby!” at Rose, take a drink
As a lifelong Doctor Who fan, one of the first things I noticed about Heroes was the lack of inbuilt or implied rules as to how time travel works. Without some equivalent of the Laws Of Time and the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, time travel in Heroes is… headache-inducing, to put it politely. It can be a fun, useful story tool if used well, so I will be disappointed if Hiro doesn’t get his powers back eventually.

However, if it is too much to ask that the writers get a better handle on time travel, there’s still plenty to enjoy in Heroes. Although… I still think this would have been a better way of handling the Mad Scientist part of the Formula storyline:

“I’m sorry, Maya, I can’t help you; we’re leaving for India. However, I have shared some of my research with Doctor Frank N Stein over at Pinehearst, and can write a referral letter for you. Molly, are your bags packed? Our plane leaves in an hour.”

MayaBug, anyone?

The scene with Hiro and Mamma Sulu was heartbreaking, and very well played.

Arthur’s death was fitting… how ironic that both Linderman and Arthur got part of their heads blown off in their own offices, lol. I assume Arthur will have some sort of return in following Volumes… a villain THIS powerful doesn’t remain buried for long. I applaud Forster for doing such a comendable job with the material he was given… he seemed to enjoy himself with the part. And, from now on, Forster won’t be Max Cherry for me, he’ll ALWAYS be Arthur Petrelli.

I hope that Claire seeing young Noah will just hit the re-set button (err rather back to the early post-’Company Man’ episodes) and she will just accept the relationship between her and her father, and STOP THE GODDAMN WHINING! lol.

Nathan as a villain is a promising premise… I hope if they go this route, they don’t #@*% it up and have he and Peter beat the unholy hell out of each other only to have Nathan ’see the errors of his ways’, and five episodes from now he and Pete are out clubbin’ like nothing happened. If he’s evil, keep him evil for a while. Let him run for Pres’ in Volume 5, entitled ‘Mr. Petrelli Goes to Wachington’… and You thought Nixon was #@*%ing scary??

Welcome back Sylar… now Mohinder needs to follow your example and re-watch season 1 and DO THAT AGAIN!

Great review Otto!

Okay. I was with you on just about everything. I too was blown away by the emotion of the episode. The family-in-the-past interactions definitely touched me, but I never felt they were schmaltzy at all. (I actually thought of you during the scene were bigClaire fussed over littleClaire! lol) I did find it just a skotch unbelievable that the Company Man would give in that easily, but the Clairebear line (a name I’ve never muched like, btw) made up for it.

The scene between Hiro and his mom was a real emotional gut-punch for me. Anybody who’s lost their mom would give various body parts to get the chance Hiro had. I thought that scene was perfect. And the cute parallel between young/young Hiro and old/young Hiro was hilarious.

Nathan is still a dumbass. Standing next to the Ice Queen looking at all those gung-ho Marines stand up and volunteer for the Super-Soldier Serum and the words “military dictatorship” never crossed his mind? Please.

I’m a little frustrated by the “Hiro lost in time” bit, but reassured by news that the writers are going to move away from time-travel as a plot device. Still, after Hiro’s incredible effectiveness as a juvenile hero, it was discouraging to see him so easily whammied pretty much as soon as he got his memories back. I don’t think that Ishi’s faith in Hiro was tragic; this is isn’t the end of the story. And, in any event, dying mom had a chance to meet her grown-up son and learn that he and his father had reconciled. I’m thinking there’s not much that would’ve spoiled that moment for her.

I, to wondered why Sylar didn’t go for the Hatian. (Are we EVER gonna learn his name; doesn’t he mind being referred to as “the Hatian” all the time? it is just a little rude.) But I agree with Nina that, Sylar not being nearly as powerful as Arthur yet, he just couldn’t pull it off. With Papa Petrelli dead and gone (happydance!) The Hatian would probably have no problem blocking Sylar.

Anyway, I too hope that this signals a new direction for the show. I’ve been encouraged by the last few episodes and this one put it over the top. I look forward to the brothers Petrelli duking it out. Also, I’m curious to find out if Sylar is Angela’s son, even if he wasn’t Arthur’s. Looks like their gonna break for the holidays in an exciting way.

As a footnote, I should mention that my antipathy for Arthur had nothing to do with the actor; I thought he did a great job. I just hated the way the writers handled the character. Until they killed him, that is.

What makes Sylar perfect is that he’s learn’t empathy duplication, yet chooses to rip away powers the old fashioned way. He’s a monster and should stay this. I think they should have a kill Kenny every episode where Sylar just kills and kills and kills and kills. When I think of Sylar I think of sharks. Keep him thus.

Hiro losing his power was and is a good thing, now he’ll probably start thinking instead of using abilities every five seconds.

Peter powerless is far stronger than Peter with powers. Keep Pete powerless.

The Haitian is brilliant, noticeable the strain Arthur Petrelli incured, believable it was.

Nathan could be more dangerous than his old man. Tonight’s the night….

Re: Arthur, points taken. But, that just highlights how desperate the writers are to move plot. Both times Arthur stopped Hiro for plot reasons, leaving other characters to stop Arthur. Apart from great performances, none of Hiro’s stuff was actually necessary this year, unless all this leads to Hiro popping in at the last minute during an already overstuffed finale. You could argue that Hiro affects Ando’s development, but in such a convoluted way, that I wish they’d taken another route.

As for Ishi, it would be tragic if she had lived to see Arthur pounce on Hiro. Because Hiro had no audience within the show to process the impact, it’s a moot point.

It’s good to know I didn’t miss something important. As for my theories. Maybe Ian is right and she had a dream about Future Peter and Pandora’s Box was referring to all the butterflies he’s stomped on. Although I don’t know how a phone could communicate through timelines. At the time that episode aired, my money was on HRG being the shooter. I assumed that his deal with Bob meant he had to take out Nathan to keep the secret, shall we say. And Angela was aware of this and supported Bob’s plans. As for Pandora’s Box, my guess was it was a very p*ssed off Peter with lots of powers going after the Company. But oh well, I actually liked the Future Peter plot, despite some of its holes.
I do miss Bob though. I’m wondering the if the Company misses him too. I’m not so sure of Angela’s management philosophy. It has felt like the Company is slowly coming apart for the past couple seasons. You have Linderman and Thompson dying, deadly viruses and immortal maniacs who want to release them, old agents trying to bring the Company down, rampaging serial killers tearing their way through Company HQ, lots of superpowered criminals on the loose, a rival company who hires those criminals, etc. Angela’s response is to either fire all her agents, or feed them to the seriel killer who rampaged his way through their HQ just hours before she takes over…Sadly, i think the Company may be doomed.

You just know when Glover shows up, there’ll be little adjusting. He spent years on Smallville, so I imagine he’ll just ‘pop’ from the first moment.

Re: Angela wise…

I like the theory that she was having a Precognitive Dream. That perhaps that’s when she discovered about FuturePeter. But it’s a little too vague.

“John Glover is going to rule on this show…”

… is my feeling exactly, and I can’t wait to see what he brings to the story. I feel like a hypocrite for saying that because I scoffed when people made a big deal about Kristen Bell joining Heroes, but this casting coup is a huge deal to me. The way Glover played Lionel on Smallville and the presence the guy brings to every other part he plays, you know he’s going to light up every scene his character gets on this show.

Nina, I’m looking forward to watching Nathan turn dark as well, but I’m not even sure that’s where this storyline’s going. I think Nathan has a villainous streak, but I’m not sure the show will ever try to spin him into a clearcut villain. Nathan strikes me as a lot like HRG in that respect: he’s ideal material for storylines that focus on moral ambiguity. I’m a little disappointed Nathan wasn’t used more for “Villains”: his whole deal with being the favorite son/condescending big brother/power-hungry politician seemed like a great starting point for a corrupt and conflicted character. Hopefully that’s going somewhere with these final episodes of the volume, and hopefully it’ll develop in the next volume.

Raissa, very interesting point about the show wrapping up Arthur’s storyline in the penultimate episode of the volume. It didn’t occur to me until now, but I wonder if Linderman’s death in 1.22 and now this suggests a pattern in the storytelling. Maybe the villain of the volume will always be killed off ahead of the finale to shift the focus back to the mains?

I have to disagree about Arthur never twisting the other characters: I think you could point to Sylar in 3.07, Angela in 3.08 and Nathan in 3.09 and argue that he’s had a considerable influence on all of those characters. Perhaps too much of it was only implied and more could have been shown on-screen, but as far as twisting the mains goes, I think he definitely chewed up Nathan, and he’s a pivotal part of what turned Angela into such an externally cold-hearted Company Woman.

Do you think Arthur removing the catalyst from Hiro negates Ishi’s faith in him, or do you think it somehow makes that faith more tragic? It’s not like it was Hiro’s fault that Arthur showed up (even though Hiro could have reacted faster); it seemed (at least to me) that the message was about evil overshadowing a guy with a heart of gold who wasn’t smart or capable enough to get away.

Myrystyr, thanks so much for your kind words. I’m definitely with you on the whole idea of Sylar getting another list. I didn’t think we needed that particular story device on the show again.

Claire and Micah cousins? Hah! Great point. I never would have thought of it. I wonder if the show will eventually reach a point where all of the characters are related.

Strawbot, I love your theory about Kid-Hiro being Hiro’s ticket back to the present. Do you think Kid-Hiro’s abilities would manifest sooner if Hiro explained how it worked and trained him, or did Hiro’s abilities really only become accessible after the eclipse in 1.01? I guess this is where the whole abilities/eclipse storyline needed more of an explanation.

Drew7490, your guess is as good as anyone’s. As far as I know, the Pandora’s Box conversation is a relic of a Season Two storyline that never got a chance to be shown, so it’s unlikely to ever be explained. But, to answer your question, no, it hasn’t been explained on the show, and I agree, it sadly doesn’t make any sense the way it was left unresolved. Any theories on where that storyline was going and who Angela was talking to, if not Future-Peter?