AS “VOLUME 4: FUGITIVES” COMES TO A CLOSE, THE FIGHT TO STOP SYLAR HAS CONSEQUENCES THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING
Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) faces off against Sylar (Zachary Quinto) to keep him from meeting the President (guest star Michael Dorn). Sylar has his own plans for his new partner. Meanwhile, Hiro (Masi Oka) learns that there are repercussions to regaining his ability. Elsewhere, Matt (Greg Grunberg) is forced to go to extraordinary lengths to protect his future with his family. Jack Coleman, James Kyson Lee, Hayden Panettiere, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Cristine Rose and Milo Ventimiglia also star.
Emmy Award-winner Želkjo Ivanek and Michael Dorn guest star.
(Please click to enlarge)
Angela and HRG are evil! Who would have thought of something like that? This is going to come back to bite them. Matt Parkman will probaby feel guilty the rest of his life.
well the makers of the show did say that they were going to explore the darker side of Matt Parkman in the next volume i think
My head is spinning. I loved it but I don’t know what to really think about it. What the heck is going to happen with Tracy?
Nathan is dead, but Pasdar is staying. Is Quinto gone for good?
i think they are leaving Sylar’s character open because as i see it deppending on how Zachary is recieved in the new Star Trek movie, he could become a big movie star and stop doing tv, or if he isnt that good in star trek he could return to tv
I think this is the show’s blessing to let Quinto do other things for the moment.
The ST sequel has been confirmed and he’s gonna hit it big with Star Trek….
With Sylar playing Nathan, they can keep him on the show and not lose him in case Quinto backs out.
Plus the show has a love affair with Sylar….
The ending of this episode alone was more worthy of the title Villains than the entireity of the previous volume.
Other than that, it was kind of bland.
you see i think that this volume should have been called Redemption, because in my eyes it redemed the series agter the horror od season two
i loved this volume it was great
I thought about that. Thats probably it but maybe hes done either way.
They better keep the real Nathan dead or i’ll be severely dissapointed. Surprised by Peter being the President. It was great to see President Worf at least once.
I smirked when I saw “Simon Says..” by the way.
i liked how the President’s eyes were all messed up and stuff when peter was him
i used to get “Simon says” a lot in elementary school but not so much anymore
and kinda off topic, but my math teacher last year said “Simon says” and everyone in the class started to crack up and she had no idea why
I thought he was wearing a bald cap
In keeping with the ignoring of all Season 2 elements, Angela and Noah forgot that they could have used Claire’s Magik Blood on Nathan and burned up the real Sylar. Has anyone had more resurrections than Nathan, by the way? They never did explain how he survived the shooting at the beginning of this volume–I guess faux Linderman did it via Maury.
Simon Says?
Is that what Peter said to Sylar? I couldn’t hear….
I FOR ONE ARE TICKED OFF THEY DIDN’T SHOW US THE FIGHT….
They didn’t show the Brother team up on Sylar and those would of be fine last moments for Nathan.
I couldn’t agree any more. I wad stunned that they left the fight just for outside the door. but its a “Heroes” tradition to cheat us from the action so what the hell. But still I thought the finale was intense. I chuckled when Nathan got the slitthroaght. And also loved the Star Wars shout out in the closing moments. But at least the volume ended in a good note. That’s the happy plus. But the missed fight will haunt me for the rest of the summer. It was a giant cheat just like in FYG.
NBC’s only willing to pay so much–the budget was surely dry. That kept the fight as seen through Claire’s eye.
You were ticked off?
I was p****. When they did it in the first season, i was ticked off, but c’mon…this is season 3, and we’re getting the same old thing?
There was no reason for it, storywise. This wasn’t a mid-season tease…this was the freaking season finale!!
I thought it was a solid ep., as far as it went. But, PR wise, they’re screwed. Going by 9thwonders and previous comments here, the Nathan/Sylar thing is going to cost the show viewers.
Well, at least the critics who hated it are still the usual suspects, EW and the like.
Screencaps on their way, folks. Should have them up within the next hour…
ETA: First batch posted. The rest are on the way…
I’m actually freaked by the whole Sylar is Nathan thing, it creeps me out. I really enjoyed the character of Nathan, now I’ll never be able to look at “Nathan” the same, cause he’s actually Sylar. And that makes me sad.
Though I kinda thought Nathan was gonna bite it though in the hallway scene with Peter. I wish we could have seen the fight. Peter as the President was great. Atta’ boy Pete! But I’m waiting to see what stupid thing Peter is going to do when he finds out that the real Nathan is dead and that Angela, HRG, and Parkman have all been lying.
I have all the same problems with the Sylar/Nathan situation that a lot of other people have. But, on a a strictly structural level, the finale made sense in relation to the season. Sylar Petrelli actually morphs into Sylar Petrelli. It sucks. But, it is logical within the “only the current season exists for continuity and thematic development” vacuum they’ve turned the show into. That is to say, Kring & Co. have become consistent in their inconsistencies.
I understand that it needed to be done, but it sucks. I feel like this sense of unity has been created between the characters from finally “defeating” the villian and it’s all a lie. Unfortunate, yes, but sure to cause some drama in the next volume when the truth comes out. I don’t think it can be kept secret forever, especially if similar incidents like the one with the clock begin to happen.
Well, you see that’s where I’m so upset with the ignoring of S2 in general. Oh, how quickly everyone forgot about the Magik Blood.
I thought it was great. I’m excited to see Ali Later finally getting to play a badass.
I buy that she was able to reconstitute as you can’t be harmed by your own power. How they explain her surviving Danko’s shot at pointblank range is another thing entirely. When she reconstitutes, she should have a sucking gut wound.
Full set of screencaps now posted. Enjoy.
If there’s a shot anyone wanted which isn’t here, please let me know and I’ll add it as quickly as I can.
Overall great finale, which gives a solid basis and potential for an eventual S4, even if I wasn’t really surprised of the outcome, because of spoilers I stumbled on.
Either someone leaked the whole plot, either some people had the imagination to think of exactly what would happen in the whole episode.
I’ll just wait for your review before discussing any further.
Oh, and an interesting shot would be the first reaction of Angela when Sylar-who-thinks-he-is-Nathan lays his hand on her shoulder, which with the opener of V5, totally translates what I find interesting about the Sylar/Nathan (ew) twist. [Done. -- Otto]
I personally don’t get why the Heroes are not smarter, when Peter and Nathan was about to fight Sylar and Claire was thrown out into the hallway, why didn’t Peter absorb Claire’s power. That way, when fighting Sylar he would have a better chance, and you as the viewer can believe this. Instead they had there fight behind closed doors and even though Sylar is this all powerful being now that can kill 10 people in one shot and not break a sweat, but somehow Peter (with out his healing ability) was able to get close enough to touch Sylar and absorb his power. I just have a hard time believing it. Over all I thought the show was ok, I am sure I will be back for the next season. I just hope that the characters can start showing there intelligence rather jumping into a situation based on emotion.
I’m going to defend Peter on this one. Flight might enable him to get to Sylar before he could react.
Sylar had no problem tossing Claire out of the room and keeping her out telekinetically.
Judging from the online reception of various critics on various websites, I’d say the chances of there being a Season 5 are infintesimal unless Fuller REALLY can work some magic running the writing room. Magic–hell, he’d have to perform a bloomin’ miracle.
I haven’t yet decided whether I’m sticking to my vow of being done. The reason being that I’m conflicted in my opinion as to whether or not “Sylar” is still around. The b******s went and made it all ambiguous on me.
I think the thing that bugs me the most is that Noah, Angela, and Matt are keeping Peter and Claire out of the loop. Those two deserve to be in on it–guess it sets up potential drama.
And the fact that Matt is going to have to keep the secret.
And what’d they do with Nathan’s body?
Kelly, Peter would never go along with this. That’s why they didn’t tell him.
Actual review still going up on Thursday, Otto?
That’s the plan.
Indeed, Peter would never have let them do it. What strikes me more is that :
- I’ll admit Peter can’t pretend to be Nathan forever, so I’ll excuse Noah and Angela for not considering it, but…
- I really think they deserve the biggest collective Ping-Dumb-As-Award for not thinking about Claire’s blood, while 1) it healed Noah in CT, and 2)Adam’s already healed Nathan before (4MA). And I kinda think they deserve a second collective Dumb-As-Award for thinking Sylar won’t be back (healing?), or not thinking about what would happen if Not-Nathan ended up healing himself after cutting himself (or manifesting any of the other powers), or realising he can’t fly (or at least not like before).
It’s kinda obvious that it’s a device to keep Sylar in the show but at least, that time, it looks interesting to me (not like Sylar boo-hooing because he is an outsider). Is that a good thing that you didn’t make your mind yet KellyH? You clearly said you would quit if Sylar didn’t die
For the critics, the simple facts that 1)Nathan died, and 2)Sylar isn’t really dead, but not really alive, can alone make people hate the episode. At least they made a semi-ballsy move (even if it’s, again, at the expense of a character with great potential, Nathan).
I wouldn’t say the chance of a Season 4 (not 5!) is infinitesimal, because of Greg Beeman announcing he’s been told to leave, another thing (not a good one and they’ll realize it) to cut the budget that they probably wouldn’t do if they were not planning on bringing Heroes back. But I’ll wait untill next week before saying anything. And I thought they would try to reduce the number of writers first but well…
NBC Exec : “As some of you might have heard, Greg Beeman was let go of the Heroes’ crew. In spite of these bad news, we are pleased to announce that the whole cast and the rest of the crew, are now, gonna have to look for another job. Boom goes the dynamite ! Cya !” That would be weird to hear, even if in some way funny.
Like I said, it’s ambiguous. Ugh.
No, no (the volume/season stuff makes it confusing). Season 4 (volume 5) is a certainty. Season 5 (Volume 6) is very unlikely unless Fuller can become a miracle worker. They need to make him the straight show-runner, not just the head of the writers’ room. I think Kring should remove himself entirely.
Oh yeah my bad. Even if nothing is official, I’m not really worried about S4 anymore. But if not done correctly, what they do with Sylar will be a huge factor for my opinion. While I enjoyed the show so far (nice to see I’m not the only one who really liked the finale), if they don’t wanna get rid of Sylar (obviously), they HAVE TO do something awesome with me. Again, the potential is there, so I hope they do something with it, not make the “real” Sylar come back at episode 3…
You’re not the only one who’s upset with the S2 ignoring. While not living up to S1’s quality, and even with the slow pace, it wasn’t horrible, and the storytelling was quite good. V3 wasn’t that much better, just different. V4 headed the show direction, but had lows too (23 and 24 for me, and some minor arcs). Unfortunately, on top of the magic blood ignoring, they got rid of all characters in S2, so I unfortunately doubt we’ll get anything related to it :(.
At least, Fuller has some influence if he is the head of the writers’ room, and I keep thinking that the high number of writers can’t be good for the writing, no matter how good they are. I don’t know if “Crossing Jordan” was good (I’m French so that might explain why I never heard of it), but 95% of the time I read something about a writer, it says he worked with Kring on it, and I hope it’s not the only reason most of them ended up on Heroes.
Pas, I have some of the same concerns re: Sylar/Nathan/Sylar as you. A number of Sylar’s powers seem to be somewhat autonomic, such as lie-detection, healing, clairsentience, intuitive understanding. Is “Nathan” just not going to notice these things, or did Matt somehow manage to turn them off? The V5 teaser seemed to indicate that his intuitive understanding is still on-line. Sylar, so far as I know never absorbed self-propelled flight and, despite his amazing facility with TK, I don’t think he can break the sound barrier. I suppose it’s possible Sylar absorbed flight using empathic mimicry, but that was never effortless for him, as it was for Peter.
Anyway, over all I liked the finale, but am (reluctantly) intrigued as to how they are going to work the Nathan/Sylar/Nathan angle.
But isn’t reading all of these comments going to taint it a bit? Maybe you should get it up ASAP!
Another quibble–why has the Ando “power booster” thing been completely forgotten? Why wouldn’t he have tried it to keep Hiro from bleeding from various orifices? I mean, they’re just going with the “crimson arc” thing? That’s really kind of dumb when the “power booster” things was actually pretty cool. I don’t see why they wouldn’t utilize it more.
And the message boards EVERYWHERE are up in arms about the “why didn’t they use Claire’s magik blood?” thing. I’ll bet they REALLY regret that particular S2 element, but they should have known its implications when they decided to introduce it. Which kind of explains the S2 amnesia. But as far as I know, HRG was the only actual “dead” person to be given the magik blood treatment (since Nathan’s healing at the beginning of V.3 has still not been adequately explained–could have been that, I guess).
The thing is, people remember these things, no matter how much the writers want them to forget them. I simply can’t BELIEVE how much this is being mentioned all over the internet. I mean, it was a way to save Nathan without HRG having to (once again) deceive Claire and without Angela having to (once again) deceive Peter. Ahhh, but they needed to do something to make sure we knew Sylar wasn’t gone for good because that is the ONE thing where the show feels it needs to be totally consistent–the only real rule that can never be broken: Sylar can never be “really” dead.
Sigh. I just don’t know. I enjoyed the episode so much, you know, and the show is a big part of my life. I’ll take the summer to decide whether to watch Season 4 (Volume 5). Perhaps when September comes–I may not care anymore.
To be fair, no one knew what Ando boosting Hiro’s powers would do in this situation-would it make the side effects worse?
I look forward to your review, Otto. Although I have reservations about the Sylar/Nathan bait-n-switch (I really wanted Sylar Deaddead) overall, I thought the episode was good. Several characters really stepped up (Hiro, Claire, Peter), who haven’t in awhile.
The end of Building 26 was a bit abrupt, but I guess that’s what plausible deniability is all about.
I, like many others, would have liked to have seen the fight, but I’m sure budget constraints were in play.
The teaser for Volume 5 was VERY good.
See ya Thursday. Thanks for the screencaps.
Bit tipsy - but I thought the ep was awesome.
Re: the magic blood, guys… sorry. I don’t buy the argument. Everyone chided it in S2 when it was used, now you’re angry that it’s not? The use of ‘magic blood’ cheapens death, and death is needed for consequence. Nathan’s death being undone would be a cheap plot-twist. His death sucks because he’s a great character… but it’s MEANT to suck. If we don’t care, then the death is meaningless. That we want him back means it had an effect.
But that’s just the problem. They should have known the implications of the magik blood when they introduced the device, and having used it, they can’t pretend that they didn’t. This Sylar/Nathan switch would be a lot more effective and fewer people would be whining about it if the magik blood had never been on the table–it’s a big “why?”
Like I said, go look at any message board anywhere and people are asking “why not use the magik blood?”
The device was a big mistake, to be sure, but its use in the past taints all present devices like this. There’s a reason “Truth & Consequences” is one of Otto’s worst ratings–but it’s canon and can’t be just forgotten about.
I’m not really sure of the blood issue; I don’t remember the episode well enough, but was there an implied time limit of some sort? How long was Noah dead before they injected him? Is it possible that Nathan had simply passed the point of no return, as it were? Anyone remember?
Those same people whined when the S1 finale wasn’t ‘action-packed’, and then complained when S3 was too much action and too little story. They cannot be pleased.
The blood issue is a key component. If you hated its inclusion, bitching about it not being included is a contradiction. Especially as the shows angle on it was knocked for six by the writers strike. Besides which, the only one who knew of the Magic Blood was Noah, and there’s no chance he’d have Claire give it to Nathan because he’s fiercely protective of her. We don’t know whether Angela knew of the blood, after all.
Plus, while the Majik Blood is a death cop out, it is a logical extension of Regen power. So, people who have issues with it need to take them up with Kring for giving Regens time shares in the Undiscovered Country to begin with. I love the Majik Blood. But, I’ve been exploring the reality of Claire’s Death Time Share in fanfic. If you give these plot devices thematic depth, they’re all viable.
Honestly, the magik blood thing didn’t bother me too much. I didn’t love it when it was introduced and I’m happier seeing that deus ex machinas put in the ground.
What did bother me is the battle between Sylar and the Flying Petrelli Bros. Seriously, after all this time with Sylar building his array of powers, his graceful application of those powers his willingness to act fast and fatally. On the other hand, the Flying Petrelli Brothers who can…um, fly. They are hesitant and slow. Sylar should have pwned them immediately. The final (TK-SLASH - “Goodnight Irene”) should have happened while the Flying Petrelli Brothers were still staring at Claire lying in the hallway.
It’s not even about whether or not I’m a Sylar fan. It’s about what the show made him in to and then couldn’t admit to.
P.S. The scene with Nathan and the clock sucks. They couldn’t just leave it hanging they had to promise Sylar would be back in the next season! I’m so close to done.
I have to agree with everything you said. I was wondering why Sylar was letting Peter and Nathan gawk at Claire, waiting patiently for them to turn their focus on him, when he could have just taken them out easy-peasy.
About your P.S. though: I, personally, adored the scene with Nathan and the clocks. If there is anything that Heroes series has proven, it’s that Sylar is resilient, persistent, and driven. It only makes sense that even under the Parkman Wammy Sylar’s true self is making an appearance.
It’s not really the fact that they don’t use the magic blood that bugs me, but the fact that they didn’t even think about it. It’s just like it never existed, just like everything/one introduced in S2. Just one sentence saying it was too late or something would have done the trick.
As much as I would have prefered Sylar dead (for real), I knew it wasn’t gonna happen. I’m at least glad he’s semi-death leads to a potential great storyline. Of course, it could be done totally wrong, but I pretty much hope the writers have learnt from their previous mistakes. The only problem is that some people will bitch about the device switcheroo because 1)No more real Nathan, or 2)No more real Sylar. If you’re neutral, you either think it has potential, or that it’s just plain stupid, which is your right (but if you look closely at it, those who find it stupid are mostly whining about one of the characters), which isn’t quite the same.
Do anyone else think a big time gap between V4 and 5 would be a good thing? They could catch up with the real one, and why not some potential for flashbacks. The fact that intuitive aptitude manifest already 6 weeks after, shows how dumb is the move HRG and Angela made. ^^
did everyone forget that sylar has the healing power and the healing power will eventually heal mind wipes? im just assuming the hatian whammy is a little stronger then the parkman whammy, but peter healed his mindwipe just like sylar/nathan will heal his. parkman better watch his back when sylar heals himself. also are we sure tracy is back? maybe Barbra is just getting revenge on the ones who killed her sister.
Why are they bringing Tracy/Nikki/Barbara/Jessica (what ever this water version might be named) back? It’s frustrating that someone like Daphne can die and that’s it, we won’t see her again, but Ali Larter’s various characters just wont. go. away. Nikki was definitely the better one out of all of them, but they somehow made it clear that she’s really gone. I think Fuller said that it was in fact Tracy, which is not good, but no matter who that is supposed to be it’s not good.
Other than that I enjoyed the episode. Like many others, I thought the “ultimate” fight between Nathan, Peter and Sylar was disappointing, but I understand that they have to do that. I just wish they wouldn’t spend 23 other episodes building it up though. I agree with what others said as well, about Sylar simply being too powerful for two flying men, but the fact of the matter is that he’s had many chances to kill almost all the heroes and he hardly ever has - unless they’re contractually supposed to leave the show, which sucks. The fact that Nathan is gone forever is sad, but I think it should also be that way. The whole healing blood thing would’ve taken so much credibility from the actual deaths that happen on the show - including future deaths, and well, I don’t remember the episodes too well, but did Matt or Angela even know about that? Potentially good season coming up for Matt, same for Nathan/Sylar, though they could both be terrible as well.
Peter is still annoying, and he’ll probably do something stupid (though understandable) when he finds out about Nathan. Claire doesn’t really serve a purpose at the moment, and I hope she gets a good NEW storyline in s04. Her father is still a good character, but again, his storyline could be both good and terrible in the upcoming season, all depending on the writing. Lastly, Hiro and Ando returned home with Hiro being sick. I’m not sure what this means for the upcoming season, but I hope Hiro’s story/ies will be better from now on. Ando keeps getting better for each season.
I think the Sylar/Nathan thing will end up to be an exciting plot element, and that Sylar will be doing something different than he has for, like, forever. However, people shouldn’t make their final decisions now: At least watch the first episode of Season 4 you ditchers! It’s definitely going to be unpredictable
i really hope that sylar comes back, for me he is the best thing on the show. he just keeps it rolling! plus, zachary quinto is so sexy so how can you really just get rid of him?! he better come back!