Overview:

Željko ends up in a Goon Squad cell with Noah after Sylar frames him for the murder of his agents. Their efforts to escape prove easier than expected when Hiro freezes time and releases everyone there. Sylar finally meets President Worf after attempting to woo Claire, beating up Peter and slitting Nathan’s throat. His plan is overthrown, however, when it turns out Peter absorbed Sylar’s shapeshifting ability and masqueraded as Worf. With Sylar tranquilized, Angela and Noah persuade Matt to work an advanced Parkman Whammy that leaves Sylar morphing into Nathan and thinking he really is Nathan. The approximation fools everyone, including Worf, who agrees to fund a new Petrelli/Bennet-led Company.

Review:

As different as the two beasts might be, the Season Three finale has many of the same strengths and weaknesses as its Season One counterpart. It’s tense, well paced, and it brings a fitting sense of closure to the volume, but it also suffers from the same pitfalls when it comes to a rushed conclusion that leaves storylines unresolved and details hanging. The crucial difference is that where “How to Stop an Exploding Man” was essentially a good episode dragged down by minor flaws, “An Invisible Thread” is essentially a great episode dragged down by one gigantic flaw.

Nathan’s death didn’t come as a surprise, at least not to me. What’s unfortunate is the way he was killed off; the way the show actively used plotholes and inconsistencies to make it happen, the way the death was drained of all emotional impact because half of Nathan’s family have no idea he’s even dead, and the way Nathan’s death has been used as a gimmick to service Sylar’s ongoing identity crisis. As much of a relief as it is to know that Pasdar will be on the show next season, what grates is the realization that he won’t be playing Nathan, and that Sylar now has the chance to wear Nathan’s face and live his life until the show decides to let his real self resurface.

Or not. I’d like to be proven wrong. I’d like to be surprised next season. I’d like to give the show the benefit of the doubt and trust that this isn’t another spin on The Sylar Show. The sad part is that judging from the response across message boards this week, a lot of fans won’t give the show the chance to surprise them. A lot of them have walked away and won’t be coming back.

Which, in a roundabout way, is a testament to the show’s success in creating characters we care about, to the extent that we’re willing to walk away when we’re appalled by the way a character was written out. But it’s also a testament to this episode’s mixed success — as a finale to an outstanding volume, as the conclusion to a rocky season, and as a send-off for a beloved character.

The finale opens with Sylar nearly scalping Nathan and V.O. Mohinder rambling. Oh, show. You’re supposed to entice viewers, not repel them! As discouraging as this might be, it’s worth noting that the opening voice-over is one of the more lucid, and perhaps a hopeful sign that the show realized what a tough sell the Sylathan twist would be:

“There are nearly seven billion people on this planet. Each one unique. Different. What are the chances of that? And why? Is it simply biology, physiology that determines this diversity? A collection of thoughts, memories, experiences that carve out our own special place? Or is it something more than this?”

Thought-provoking, albeit typically pretentious. The key point is that physiology and memories do not a Nathan make. The fact that it’s here, in the opening voice-over, at least suggests that the show knew we’d never accept that Sylar could become Nathan. Reassuring from the start, if perplexing given the outcome.

The shot of Matt on the Greyhound was a nice detail. Amusing for the in-joke, because you have to figure he wouldn’t be up for another coast-to-coast drive so soon after the last one. But it’s somehow also a fitting way to start the episode: with the guy who left his ex-wife and son so he could remove the organization threatening them, and the guy who was roped into enabling Noah and Angela’s insanity.

Angela’s dream about Nathan “in trouble” ratchets up the sense of foreboding, but I can’t help wondering what became of Angela’s cryptic whisper to Nathan in “Exposed.” Not a huge plothole, but it seemed like she’d already dreamed about Nathan in trouble. In the end, though, Angela dreaming about an impending catastrophe is as effective a way to build the tension as any of the show’s prophetic paintings were.

Noah kicks Claire and Angela out of the car and tells them to avoid capture by finishing the journey on foot. This would be shrewd if it weren’t accompanied by Noah’s instruction to Claire to “get to Nathan and make sure it is him.” Which, *PING!*, earns Noah the episode’s first Dumb As Award, because unless he expected Claire to push Nathan off a bridge or plunge a knife into the back of his head to see what happens, Claire’s pretty much stumped when it comes to “making sure” it’s him. I guess Claire could have asked Nathan what his sons’ names were, but I’m not sure even the real Nathan remembers that.

Petrelli HQ. Sylar again gets stabbed in the back of the head and collapses, then gets right back up and pulls the knife out.

Sylar: “Remember that little off-switch in the back of my head? I moved it.”

At the risk of repeating myself after last week,

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?

I can buy the bone-rearranging and the DNA-altering and even the absurdity of the clothing-mimicking. But that “little off-switch” is Sylar’s BRAIN! Unless Sylar’s now able to move his brain around his skull, I can’t see how this is an adequate explanation. Sylar wasn’t impersonating anyone when Željko stabbed him, so it’s not as if the show could even argue that a different physiology meant a different skull structure. Željko hit the brain. That was enough to kill Claire, Peter AND SYLAR over the course of the series. There is no caveat to that.

Željko’s expression of disbelief resembles my own, although mine is the Looney Tunes caricature version of disbelief, whereas Željko’s is more the carefully underplayed Emmy-Award-winning version of disbelief. Thankfully, it seems like we might have a chance to see that kind of performance again after this volume, which is both a surprise and a delight. I was betting Željko would be dead within the first five minutes of this episode, and as disappointed as I’ve been that the character got so little backstory over these 12 episodes, I hope the show will explore his history next volume.

The shout-out to Angela feeding Bridget to Sylar felt a little redundant after it was already established last week, but if the show was intent on making the premise surrounding Sylathan as plausible as it could, they set it up clearly right away. Looking back, I’m almost tempted to think they planned that gross-for-the-sake-of-shock-value human sacrifice with this outcome in mind. If you’re cynical, it’s unlikely the show was thinking this far ahead. If you have faith in the writers, they planned this from the start. And with hindsight, there’s a certain morbid irony in Angela’s snack facilitating Sylar’s replacement of her son.

Sylar describes his “rendezvous with destiny” (was that intentionally bad dialogue?) and all but cackles and twirls his non-existent mustache as he lays out his maniacal plan. It’s mercifully brought to a conclusion …

… when Sylar morphs into Željko. Amazing effect, and all the more memorable when Ivanek brings that deliciously evil smile to Sylar-as-Željko. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that. The shapeshifting ability? Yes. The fun the actors have when they’re playing Sylar? Never.

Sylar-as-Željko plows bullets into the Goon Squad agents outside the office, morphs into Taub and pins the murders on Željko. And the rest of the agents arriving on the scene … just accept that their boss flipped out and killed his team? Evidence that Željko’s team were looking for the earliest opportunity to get rid of the guy, I guess.

Sylar adjusts his tie in the mirror. It seems like just a neat detail, but then you start to wonder why he’d bother putting on Nathan’s tie when he can shapeshift the tie onto his physique. And then you realize that Sylar’s using the tie to glean every detail he can about Nathan. All of which is awesome, but not as awesome as Sylar then kicking Nathan in an attempt to wake him up. Cruel but funny.

Was the reveal that Sylar absorbs memories from contact with people glossed over? The gist seems to be that if Sylar touched Nathan while he was conscious, he would have absorbed his memories just as easily as absorbing them through contact with Nathan’s belongings. Curious detail, but also a problematic one, because if this ability is still active after Sylar becomes Sylathan, you have to wonder why Sylar doesn’t immediately absorb Angela’s memories of finding Nathan’s dead body when he hugs her.

I never figured out if Claire knew right away that this wasn’t Nathan. There are moments when she’s blatantly suspicious, and there are moments when it isn’t clear whether she’s been fooled or whether she’s just pretending to be fooled. The implication is she had a strong suspicion this was Sylar but let herself be fooled. When Sylar-as-Nathan tells Claire that he thought Claire knew him better than anyone, he’s channeling his intuitive aptitude and telling Claire what she wants to hear: that her bio-dad trusts her, that he’s willing to confide in her, and that there’s a bond between them that can’t be impersonated. Which Claire immediately falls for, although it in no way earns her a Dumb As Award because Sylar’s performance is remarkably convincing, and more importantly, it demonstrates Sylar’s ability to analyze people, extract their insecurities and exploit them.

Pulling memories out of Claire’s necklace? Again, I’m tempted to give the writers the benefit of the doubt and assume they planned it all along. Very cool, and somehow sad, because when you recall the effort Nathan made to retrieve the necklace as a gesture to make amends, it’s heartbreaking to think it’s now a method for Sylar to lure Claire to the Stanton suite.

Claire: “I need to help stop Sylar. It’s time I put myself in the middle of this and made a difference.”

Proactive, determined, courageous … and it’s Claire!?! Color me stunned, because this was one of the few instances when I found myself not only sympathizing with Claire, but actually admiring and rooting for her.

I’d like to pause the review and offer a brief but respectful nod to the episode’s director, Greg Beeman, who, for those who aren’t aware, was let go after this episode.

I won’t pretend to understand NBC’s corporate reasoning — Beeman describes it on his blog as a “financially motivated decision” — but having reviewed, critiqued and dismantled this show over the years, and having religiously followed Beeman’s blog in that time, I feel it’s appropriate to mention how much I’ve enjoyed the episodes Beeman directed, and to point out the enormous loss the show has suffered from his departure. Among his many credits, Beeman directed “Homecoming,” “Unexpected,” “Landslide” and “Shades of Gray.” Which is to say, he directed four of the show’s absolute best.

Take a moment to visit Beeman’s blog, folks. If you’re not too shy to comment, let the guy know what an amazing job he did on this show. If you’ve listened to him on the commentaries, seen him working behind the scenes, read or watched an interview with him or had the privilege of working with him, you’ll know what a brilliant director and producer he is, and what a terrific guy he is. He’s been an integral part of the show’s communication with its fans, he’s consistently generated phenomenal performances from the show’s cast, and his part in coordinating and overseeing the show’s production over the years cannot be overstated.

Heroes won’t be the same without you, Greg. We wish you the best, and we look forward to your next project. For now, farewell, and thank you for being a part of this show.

As if to prove a point, Beeman’s episode takes a turn that surprises me in the best possible way: it makes Hiro likable again. The usual superhero references are there, but Hiro’s determination to see his plan through is admirable, and the performance Beeman gets out of Masi — with all of Hiro’s stoicism and self-sacrifice coming to the surface — is commendable.

Ando: “It’s just a headache now. Next, your head could explode.”

Hiro: “Explode?”

Was that meant to take us to a scary visual place? Or was it meant to inspire several very entertaining pieces of fan artwork? Either way, nicely played, show.

Goon Squad agents lead Željko past HQ. We get a glimpse of the staff’s reaction to the sight of their boss in restraints, and while their look of quiet vindication is telling …

… Željko’s expression, which seems to say, “Thanks for sticking by me, a**holes!”, is even more telling.

Was the decision to put Željko into the same cell as Noah worthy of a Dumb As Award? It’s a converted version of Tracy’s cell, so it’s possible this is the only cell in the building and the guards had nowhere else to put him. It’s also reasonable to assume that two middle-aged non-powered humans were never going to bust their way out the way Tracy did. I’m giving Goon Squad Central a pass just this once.

Peter finds Nathan at Petrelli HQ and delivers what’s possibly the funniest moment of the episode when he tells his brother, “I’ll bet you’re happy to see me.” As harsh as I might have been on the actor for some occasionally wooden acting this season, I have to say that the moment is made great by Milo’s deadpan delivery. If Peter had been written this way all along, I think I would have liked him much more.

We cut back to Goon Squad Central, where the show demonstrates that it can ditch all visual effects and pyrotechnics and deliver a stellar scene …

… with a bare room, a bench, a bright light, two great actors, and two compelling characters with all the regret in the world. As disappointing as the absence of a super-showdown is later on, it’s largely to the show’s credit that one of the highlights of the finale is a scene as straightforward and theatrical as this.

Were we meant to sympathize with Željko? The close-ups seem like they’re trying their best to sway us, and given the turmoil the guy seems to be in, it’s hard not to at least feel bad for him. But then, given the monstrousness of his plans, and given the ruthlessness of his methods, and given the outright hatred he’s demonstrated for the superpowered population throughout the volume … what am I saying?!

Željko: “How the hell did you do it? Deal with all of this. Can’t capture all of them, can’t contain them. There are no rules. Not even gravity.”

Great dialogue. Drives home how unprepared Željko was for the project, and how impossible it is for him to accept that in spite of his resourcefulness and fanaticism, he failed.

Noah: “It’s all about spinning plates. Living in the gray area. Twenty years of middle-management, becomes second nature.”

Željko: “So, in 20 years, I’ll ‘get it’?”

Noah: “Twenty years, and an adopted daughter.”

Again, great dialogue. Consistent with the characters, and an elegant way to bring the dynamic full circle and back to their conversation at Željko’s apartment in “Cold Wars.” We’re reminded that the distinction between the two Company Men is family; or at least a daughter, because there’s sufficient evidence to argue that Noah equates “family” with Claire. The message here, however — and possibly the one positive message in the entire episode — is that in the end, Noah’s devotion to his family saved him.

The irony there, of course, is that we’ve seen how worthless some of these characters find a normal life. The finale obliquely raises key questions in both Noah’s and Hiro’s story threads: What is Noah without The Company? What is Hiro without his ability? Hopefully questions that will be addressed next season.

Hiro freezes time and opens the cell door. I love the little “Nah!” headshake Hiro gives Ando when they realize they haven’t found the right room. Frozen Goon Squad Central was also a delight. As with the joy the actors get out of shapeshifting, it’s something that never gets old. One particularly cute detail is a Goon Squad analyst throwing a ball of paper at a wastepaper basket. Small detail, but it’s part of what makes the episode memorable.

One big disappointment about this episode is the way the fate of Building 26 is never established. Is it shut down after Worf agrees to the new Company? Will The Company move to Goon Squad Central’s premises? Will the staff here be re-assigned to The Company? It’s one of the details left exasperatingly unresolved, and that’s a shame because it was the focal point of the volume: Nathan’s decision to out the supers and create a government operation to hunt them down.

I laughed, but I also couldn’t help feeling bad for the guys who ended up drugged and semi-conscious. These agents and analysts were complicit in the capture and death of numerous supers, but a lot of them were only doing their job.

I also couldn’t help wondering about the ramifications to letting these supers go. As noble as Ando is for ushering a bunch of bewildered captives back onto the street, we know that supers like Doyle were among them. For every harmless and good-natured super that Ando released into the general population, he might have released a maniac who’ll go on to wreak havoc.

Sylar-as-Nathan and Claire visit the Stanton Hotel. Claire recognizes Samuels because she “live[s] in America.” Hilariously, Sylar doesn’t seem to have a clue who he’s looking at until he shakes the guy’s hand and realizes that he’s looking at both a former acquaintance and Worf’s chief of staff. Between the watch repairs and the serial killing, I guess Sylar wouldn’t have followed the news or have a broad political knowledge.

Claire catching the left-handed signature from a right-handed dad forces you to applaud her observational skills, but also to question again whether Claire knew she was looking at Sylar. Based on the interrogatory tone, you’re certain she realizes the truth. But then, that begs the question, why on earth is she going along with it? Was she waiting for a chance to drive a knife into the back of Sylar’s head? Was she planning to dive between Sylar and Worf to keep them apart? Was she going to call Noah? You want to praise Claire’s bravery for going along with the charade, but at the same time you have to wonder what her motive was.

Goon Squad Central.

Željko gets stabbed in the neck by his own tranquilizer. It’s amusing for the comic expressions everyone brings to the scene, but perhaps more importantly, it’s a defining moment for Hiro, who now has a chance to exact revenge on the guy who was partly responsible for the death of his nemesis.

Or at least it would be a defining moment if anyone remembered Hiro’s nemesis.

It’s on the tip of my tongue.

I know I’ll remember her name any moment now.

Anyway, Hiro collapses, and by the look of it …

… you wouldn’t expect Hiro to be back on his feet anytime soon. You certainly wouldn’t expect him to attend a funeral pyre with only a headache. This moment was made out to be momentous, and yet somehow, by the end of the episode, Hiro seems on the way to recovery. Which isn’t a huge deal, but it makes us wonder whether we should bat an eyelid if Hiro dropped dead. On the basis of this, there’s a good chance he’d be back on his feet by the end of the episode.

Sylar-as-Nathan and Claire reach what will come to be known as the Suite of Decimation.

The moment we saw Sylar-as-Nathan peering over the balcony, I was going to point out how brilliantly Pasdar was channeling Sylar, and how even more brilliantly he’s doing it now than he was in “Five Years Gone.” Everything about the performance is perfect: the predatory eyes, the calculating stare, the confident, deliberate economy of movement.

Then Claire gets a call from Noah on the Secret Cell Phone, and Sylar-as-Nathan’s smirk …

… just kills me. He’s not even worried that they figured it out. It’s more, “Geez, took them long enough.”

Then — get this — Sylar-as-Nathan turns around …

… and inspects his fingernails.

THE FINGERNAILS OF A GUY HE’S IMPERSONATING.

Whatever this finale’s critical flaws, you can’t fault the show for ignoring nuances. Whoever came up with this deserves a bouquet, and it’s one of several reasons to look forward to Season Four. Pasdar is going to have a blast with it.

As grotesque as this scene is, the actors deserve praise for maximizing the horror. Hayden conveys the same fear and loathing she conveyed in the season premiere, although this time it’s conditioned by Sylar puppeteering her, which means the contempt comes largely through facial mannerisms; the icy glare, the gritted teeth, the look of helplessness as Sylar guides her around the room.

Sylar: “Everybody dies sometime. Well, almost everybody. Papa Petrelli, Ma Bennet, Mr. Muggles … What’s your brother’s name again? Larry?”

Funny. You know you shouldn’t laugh when Sylar’s threatening to kill him, but the fact that the show used an intense moment like this to remind us how forgettable Lyle is just goes to show what a running joke he’s become. Poor Lyle.

Sylar: “Have you ever stopped to think about how much we have in common, Claire? You were adopted, I was adopted. You can’t die, I can’t die.”

Wait, there’s more! You’re both annoying! And you’re both completely self-centered! And you both frequently have scenes where all you say is me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me!

There’s not enough ew to convey how sickening this was. I’d like to think that that was the idea, and again, props to Hayden for a superb performance, because Claire looks like she’s physically suffering when Sylar touches her. Hopefully that was the intention, in which case this was the episode’s implicit horror to complement the upcoming explicit horror. But then, you can’t help worrying that they’re trying to pull a Spike with a storyline in which Sylar rediscovers his humanity through Claire. And if that’s where they’re going with this — and starting with an episode in which Sylar kills Claire’s father — good God.

Nathan and Peter show up at the Stanton, and we learn that Samuels is part of the inner circle and clued in to Goon Squad Central’s existence.

Nathan: “His name is Sylar. He’s extremely dangerous.”

Samuels: “He’s a target? He’s one of them?”

Nathan: “He’s one of them. He’s … I gotta stop saying that. He’s one of us.”

Heartbreaking, because, looking back, you realize how hard Nathan was going to try to make amends. When he gets to this portion of dialogue, Nathan’s expression …

… is the expression of a guy who’s excited about the road he’s taking; a guy who, after years of acting like a douche, has had an epiphany and knows he’s been a douche and knows he needs to fix everything he’s done.

Which rubs more salt in the wound, especially when we see Peter’s response:

For the first time in the series, it looks like Peter admires Nathan; like he’s impressed that, for once, his big brother’s not lying, not thinking solely of himself and not putting on an act to manipulate everyone around him.

Nathan floats off the ground to prove his point, and as cool as this moment is, you have to wonder if Nathan realized how it could have backfired. We immediately assume he’ll dissuade the security guards from shooting him, but imagine how stupid Nathan would have felt if these guards had blown his brains out before Sylar had a chance to slit his throat.

Actually, thinking about it, would that have had more impact than the send-off the show’s about to give Nathan?

Nathan and Peter approach the Suite of Decimation.

Nathan: “I love you, Pete. You know that.”

Peter: “Of course. I love you too, Nathan.”

I’m not usually one for the Petrellicest, but that even got to me. With hindsight, knowing that it’s pretty much the last thing they’ll ever say to each other, and knowing that Peter won’t even realize it’s the last thing they’ll ever say to each other, it becomes even more saddening.

Claire comes flying through the doors and crashes into the hall, looks up at Peter and Nathan, like, “Hi, good of you guys to show up, I’m useless but what’ve you got?”

The brothers launch into the air, and …

And …

OK, that’s it folks! I think you’ll agree, this was one heck of a finale. A little shorter than usual, but in these tough times I think the show more than made up for it with a capital 35-minute episode. Boy, did they deliver the goods! Action! Suspense! Drama! What a mighty big cliffhanger to finish the season! What will happen next time? Will the Petrelli brothers defeat Sylar? Will Sylar become president? Will Angela find Matt and rescue Nathan, or will Claire somehow save the day? So many questions! I have no idea what will happen, but I can’t wait to find out! See you all in September!

Just let me stay in the Land of Denial for a moment. If the episode had ended here, it would have been so awesome. We would have felt cheated, but we would have still wondered if the characters we loved would pull through. Or, if they didn’t pull through, we’d still be hoping they’d be written out in a way that struck an emotional chord.

Instead …

… WE’RE LOCKED OUT OF THE ACTION?!

I’m going to hold off ranting about this. At the end of a season in which a lot of talented people on the show were let go, it seems insensitive to complain about the lack of expensive stuntwork. My complaint, if I were to make it, would be the same as it was in the Season One finale: that the episode had built up to this confrontation, that we were expecting it and that it was a disappointment not to see it. But in a finale about identity, broken bonds and emotional aftermath, it wasn’t essential.

The show does its best to convey a sense of action without showing it: we hear Ellectrobolts firing, furniture crashing, glass smashing, and lots of masculine grunting.

Beautifully shot. There’s something surreal about the ash in the air.

One moment of light humor amid the tragedy: the whole suite has been decimated, but the piano’s intact. Presumably Sylar and the Petrellis had enough respect for musicianship to leave it out of the carnage.

Peter staggers to his feet, limps across the room on Claire’s arm and reveals that Sylar and Nathan went out the window.

Which, again, would have made for an amazing spectacle in the season finale. Alas, we’re left to imagine Sylar and Nathan trading blows in the upper atmosphere.

Claire persuades Peter to leave the suite to “find them.” They’re going to “find” two flying guys on the ground? I guess Claire might have meant they’d find Sylar if they followed the president, because the alternative is wandering the streets and looking aimlessly into the sky.

Sylar tosses Nathan back into the suite, and the piano finally gets its share of destruction. There’s even a jarring CLANG! of piano keys as the legs collapse and the thing falls apart.

Sylar floats onto the balcony. Nathan clambers to his feet, Sylar lifts his finger, and if you were squeamish when Claire got her head ripped open in the season premiere, look away now, because …

… dayum.

I’m stumped on which part of this is more horrific. There’s the wound and the blood itself. There’s Sylar’s grim smile as he watches the life draining out of Nathan. And then there’s the way Nathan finds it in himself to stand up and face the guy who killed him, right up until he falls into a chair and bleeds out.

What’s interesting is that none of us wonder for a moment whether Nathan got what he deserved. And this at the end of a volume in which Nathan was largely responsible for a lot of the bloodshed.

Mostly, we’re wondering what kind of a monster is capable of chuckling while he watches a guy bleed out, and how we could have been moved by this monster’s moist eyes and mommy issues a week earlier. Which is a testament to the show’s ability to play on our sympathy, but also on its willingness to break our hearts by killing off one of the Petrellis. Because, villain or not, this was Nathan Petrelli, and the show just killed him in the most gruesome way possible.

R.I.P. Nathan, and thank you, Adrian Pasdar, for playing the character to perfection for three seasons.

Peter and Claire run through the Stanton lobby, and Peter’s like, “You look over there, I’ll look over here.” Uh, Peter? Buddy? Nathan and Sylar went out the window. Why would either of them be hanging out in the hotel lobby? I’m passing up the Dumb As Award, but only because Peter must really have gotten his senses knocked out of him in that suite.

Noah shows up and points a gun at his daughter’s head.

Noah: “You tell me that’s Claire and not Sylar.”

Peter: “I just fought [and got my ass kicked by] [and got hit on the head really, really hard by] Sylar, OK? That is Claire. Put the gun down.”

Claire: “Dad, it’s me.”

This persuades Noah that both of them are telling the truth, and when this is the extent of Noah’s approach to “making sure” the person he’s talking to isn’t Sylar, I’m amazed Noah has survived so long.

Security guards show up, and Claire …

… does something that seems flashy and reckless at the time, but which moves events along when the guard realizes that holding Claire to gunpoint won’t get him very far. Again, plus points to Claire for a proactive, problem-solving approach that helps the situation.

Angela and Matt arrive at the Suite of Decimation, and we reach what’s in many ways the emotional core of the episode.

To Cristine’s credit, Angela’s reaction is about the most visceral and affecting performance the actress has given all season. Which, when you consider that Angela has been the breakout character of the season and had some remarkable material to work with, is saying something. We’ve seen Angela angry, we’ve seen her scared, we’ve seen her distraught. This scene stands out from the others because we see Angela go through several stages of emotion within moments — from shock to denial to devastation.

What makes the performance stand out is the way Cristine is essentially tasked with carrying the audience’s grief. You can believe that Noah and Matt will mourn in their own way, but when we know that Nathan coerced Noah into joining his operation, and when we know that Nathan orchestrated the operation that got what’s-her-name killed and put his son in danger, it’s probably fair to say that Noah and Matt react to Nathan’s death with mixed feelings.

In the end, Angela’s the one whose grief mirrors the audience’s, and it’s portrayed with enough depth that when she lets out that blood-curdling shriek, you’re sold on her willingness to do anything to bring Nathan back.

Which isn’t to say that I thought the Sylathan twist was anything but awful, but after this scene, it’s not too hard to buy that Angela was driven to despair and willing to keep a walking, talking facsimile of Nathan around instead of losing him completely.

Sylar-as-Nathan reaches the Stanton kitchen, offs Samuels and takes his form, and …

Welcome back, Michael Dorn! Welcome back, Son of Mogh!

Did anyone see this twist coming? This is one of a few moments in the final 20 minutes that I enjoyed, not least because the look on both guys’ faces when they shake hands …

… is priceless. It’s hard to imagine Peter inside of Worf, but the smug grin that appears when Sylar-as-Samuels wonders what’s wrong is so perfectly done. Looking back, knowing that it’s Peter in there, you enjoy the sense of triumph even more.

^ ^ Triumphant!

The only downside is the realization that Peter has no idea what happened to Nathan in the meantime. That, and this:

Peter: “Bet you didn’t think I took that one from you.”

So, Peter’s one-power empathic mimicry meets Sylar’s multi-powered intuitive aptitude, and it’s like, “Hi there, IA! I’m EM! What’ve you got here? Telekinesis? Nah! Ellectrobolt? Done that! Weevil body-switching? Crap! Lie detection? Pfft! Midas Touch? Pitiful! Clairsentience? Screw that! Puppeteering? Lame! Disintegration? Boring! Flight? Useless! Shapeshifting? … JACKPOT, BABY! That’s the ticket, right there! GIMME!”

^ ^ Peter’s ability did this in the split second Peter had in the suite to make contact with Sylar? And while Sylar — Sylar! Mr. Intuitive Aptitude! — needed a full episode to get the hang of shapeshifting, Peter’s immediately a pro?

Seriously, show, are you kidding us?!

Peter hands Sylar over to Noah and Angela, who meet Matt at the Suite of Decimation and conspire to Parkman-whammy Sylar into becoming Nathan.

Matt: “This is insane. It’ll never work.”

^ ^ THAT! That is good sense! Listen to yourself, Matt! Walk away!

Noah: “It has to be right now. I don’t know how much time I bought sending Claire and Peter after Nathan.”

Translation: “Claire, go look for Nathan. He’s probably had the heck beaten out of him and he’s probably lying in an alley. Find him and take him to hospital. And if he’s injured, offer to do exactly what you did in the season premiere: offer a transfusion of your regenerative bl-”

Wait a second …

WAIT A SECOND …

?!?

?!?!?

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Now, here’s the pickle the show faced, because using the Magik Blood would have been a cop-out, and not using the Magik Blood would have seemed like an oversight. I’m not sure which is worse, but I can’t believe the show didn’t anticipate that this would be the first solution we’d think of. With that in mind, the best solution would seem to be to come up with an explanation to why the Magik Blood wouldn’t have worked: the amount of time that passed; the amount of blood Nathan lost; the fact that Claire’s no longer The Catalyst.

Something. Anything. I would have cruised right past it and never once complained that it was an arbitrary rule invented purely for this scenario, if only the show had acknowledged that Claire’s blood was at least a possible way to bring Nathan back.

Instead, we’re left with the impression that a gaping plothole was involved in a central character’s death, and that the show either ignored or — worse — forgot that there was a way to bring him back.

Matt: “Why don’t you just chain him up? Huh? Or tranq him? Isn’t that what you guys love to do?”

Cement mixer! Wood chipper! Dismemberment and immolation!

No, Noah would rather let Sylar — the guy who scalped his daughter and murdered his daughter’s bio-mom and impersonated his wife — walk around in Nathan’s body. And Angela’s willing to keep her son’s murderer around because, with shapeshifting and clairsentience and an extensive Parkman Whammy, he’s a good enough approximation of Nathan.

This is NOT Noah. This is NOT Angela. This is some kind of Bizarro alternate universe. Noah’s now responsible for releasing Sylar and letting Claire think her father’s still alive. Angela’s responsible for letting Nathan’s killer usurp her son’s life so she can tell herself that a part of her son’s still alive. Which he isn’t.

Angela: “Who will convince the president the whole thing was a mistake without Nathan?”

Noah: “Word gets out that a person with abilities murdered a U.S. senator, you’re gonna have a hundred [Željkos] out there.”

Call me crazy, but wouldn’t Peter — shapeshifter extraordinaire — be a strong candidate to fix this? I guess you could argue that Angela wouldn’t inflict the trauma of impersonating a dead brother on Peter, but it’s not like Peter would need to keep the charade up for very long. He could tell Worf to shut the project down, resign from his post as senator and disappear. It seems a smarter plan than letting a psychokiller loose when the only thing holding him back is a Parkman Whammy that already shows signs of weakening within six weeks.

This goes beyond a Dumb As Award. This is a TURBO Dumb As Award. It’s like 50 Dumb As Awards.

It’s been three days and I’m still trying to come to terms with how extensively this damages a great volume, a great finale, a great story and so many beautifully crafted character arcs. It’s not just that it’s selfish and irresponsible on Angela’s part; it’s not just that it makes a smart guy like Noah look like a fool for thinking it could work; it’s not even that it makes Peter and Claire look like victims of their parents’ scheming when they’ve lost Nathan and don’t even realize it. It’s the way it robs Nathan’s death of all meaning and drives the knife deeper into the wound by keeping an impersonation of the character around. Nathan’s dead, but someone who looks just like him sticks around as a reminder.

Noah gives Matt a look that tells him this is the best option.

Angela gives Matt a look that conveys all the despair that a grief-stricken mother can muster.

And of course, Matt caves. Because he’s human, because he has a heart, and because he’s been targeted by the show’s two master-manipulators.

On so many levels, this bothered me. It deceives everyone who cared about Nathan, it puts everyone in danger, it releases a monster into society with what’s clearly an only partially successful restraint, and it removes all emotional impact that Nathan’s death should have had.

Sylar-who’s-not-really-Sylar-but-in-fact-James-Martin-the-original-shapeshifter … burns.

It’s played as profound, but when you realize that everyone’s watching a total stranger burn, it somehow feels empty. Mohinder thinks his father has been avenged. In reality, the killer’s still walking around in another guy’s form without realizing it. Claire thinks her bio-mom’s killer is dead. In reality, the guy who killed both of her biological parents is unwittingly posing as her biological father. Hiro and Ando think the Brain Man who ripped open Isaac’s head is gone. In reality, he’s standing next to them by the pyre.

Above all, my heart breaks for Peter, who now believes he’s gained a sense of closure as he watches the man who terrorized his family and wrought unbelievable havoc go up in flames. In reality, that man’s alive and submerged beneath a convincing façade of his brother.

To me, this woman is now a villain. Not for giving into her grief, but for allowing herself to put her grief ahead of the safety of her son, her granddaughter and everyone in Sylar’s vicinity.

To me, this man is now a villain. Not for trying to salvage the situation by shutting down a dangerous operation, but for resorting to the most elaborate cover-up he’ll ever be involved in, and for endangering his daughter and the general population in the process.

And this guy is a hero who was manipulated, and who’s now saddled with the burden of knowing that he made a contemptible plan possible, that he gave in to emotional blackmail, that he allowed himself to be swayed by hokey justifications, and that in order to go back to his family he was forced to put scores of people in danger.

“It’s a new beginning,” Sylathan promises Angela. I hope so, because this …

… is not at all how I imagined the volume ending. This was such a phenomenal volume in places. It was so well written, so well structured and so beautifully filmed and realized, and it led up to such a phenomenal finale. But in the end, it’s a finale that, for all its greatness, was dragged down by a part of the plot that left a lot of us bewildered.

Based on the first half of the episode, this is a 5. That’s the half I choose to remember.

Based on the final half of the episode, this is a 1.

I’m going to settle somewhere in the middle.

3 out of 5

“Redemption”? The characters need it — particularly the two named Noah and Angela.

Tracy’s back, and mightily pissed at everyone connected to Goon Squad Central. I’m happy the character’s sticking around, I’m intrigued by the way her ability has expanded to include water, and as long as the show doesn’t kill her off and let Sylar take her shape, I know I’ll love wherever her story goes.

Sylathan’s already showing signs of an existential breakdown, and as tedious as the thought of another volume of The Sylar Show is, the shout-out with the time on the clock is extremely cool, and the idea that this crazy plan will come back to bite Angela and Noah in the ass fills me with fuzzy warmth.

Is she worried? SHE SHOULD BE! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU COME UP WITH INSANE PLANS!

That’s a wrap on HeroSite’s reviews for Season Three. As always, thank you to Craig for continuing to let me contribute to the site, and a huge thank you to everyone for reading this season. It’s been a lot of fun.

I know of no better way to conclude the site’s reviews — and no better praise I can issue Volume Four — than to observe that everyone was smarter in Volume Four than they were in Volume Three. You could argue that the shorter volume meant no one had the opportunity to be quite so dumb, but perhaps that’s only part of it. With the season’s reviews complete, HeroSite invites you to take a nostalgic look at the cumulative stupidity amassed over the course of Season Three. A staggering 44 Dumb As Awards were earned by the main and recurring characters this season, 26 of them in Volume Three and 18 in Volume Four. The key offenders will surprise no one. The HeroSite Dumb As Awards for Season Three, in order of rank, are as follows:

Peter Petrelli: 7 awards

3.01: decided the best way to dissuade Nathan from going public about special abilities was to shoot him.

3.04: future self expressed concern about “them” finding him, but didn’t think to use his invisibility.

3.04: present self learned that “they” were looking for him and his future counterpart, didn’t think to use his invisibility.

3.04: future self told present self to absorb Sylar’s intuitive aptitude to ensure a stable timeline, didn’t think to absorb it himself.

3.04: present self ignored all of the abilities at his disposal (including, at the time, telekinesis, time-stopping and teleportation) and let Future-Claire, Future-Daphne and Future-Knox take Future-Sylar’s son hostage.

3.06: saw a guy who looked like his dead dad associating with the worst of the worst, ignored all possible explanations and promptly gave him a hug.

3.15: met his regenerative niece in the middle of a war zone, didn’t think to absorb her regeneration.

Mohinder Suresh: 5 awards

3.01: responded to the threat of a serial-killing psycho by booking a flight to India.

3.06: learned that Tracy was Niki’s sister, then asked Tracy if she was Niki.

3.06: took the hand of a cryokinetic woman he’d drugged and planned to conduct experiments on.

3.14: chose not to heed Peter’s warnings about the future when he knew Peter had been to the future.

3.17: got into a scuffle with Matt at a hotel and allowed a captive Noah to break free from restraints and run out the door.

Matt Parkman: 4 awards

3.01: stepped into a closet with one of the show’s most powerful characters when he suspected said character of homicide.

3.13: got touchy-feely with Ando even after Ando started emitting red sparks and told Matt he couldn’t control his ability.

3.17: got into a scuffle with Mohinder, didn’t pay attention to the captive who had enough time to loosen his restraints and escape.

3.24: phoned Janice on a phone that was almost certainly bugged to let her know her superpowered son was coming home.

Noah Bennet: 4 awards

3.11: decided it would be more fun to watch Sylar and Elle having sex than to shoot them.

3.13: separated from Meredith while hunting down Sylar at Primatech.

3.25: told Claire to make sure Nathan was Nathan instead of Sylar, but couldn’t think of a smart way to do it.

3.25: Turbo Dumb As Award: Sylathan. Enough said.

Angela Petrelli: 4 awards

3.12: assigned Peter and the Haitian to kill Arthur, decided Peter was the best choice to put a bullet in his father’s head.

3.14: conducted an incriminating conversation with Nathan by phone and didn’t consider that Claire might be listening in the next room.

3.23: provoked a deranged weather-controlling sister into going berserk when she realized how much she’d missed during her isolation.

3.25: Turbo Dumb As Award: “Sylathan” says it all.

Hiro Nakamura: 3 awards

3.12: teleported Sylar to a local beach instead of a remote island.

3.20: pushed Ando in a wheelbarrow for 12 miles instead of unfreezing time and making contact with Ando so they could both make the trip on foot.

3.24: blew his cover and put a van of agents in unnecessary danger by disguising himself as an agent and forgetting to remove his glasses.

Claire Bennet: 2 awards

3.02: asked Peter to train her to fight without possessing any of Peter’s abilities.

3.06: aimed a taser at the puppeteer who was terrorizing Sandra, took so long to pull the trigger that Doyle had enough time to puppeteer her into firing at a random marionette.

Tracy Strauss: 2 awards

3.10: conducted an incriminating conversation with Arthur by phone from inside Angela’s office to let him know what Angela and her team were doing.

3.16: blew her shot at getting out of Building 26 by breaking out of her cell and icing the first agent she came across.

Meredith Gordon (R.I.P.): 2 awards

3.03: fell for Claire’s “sleepover retreat” story.

3.13: separated from Noah while searching for a psychokiller at Primatech.

Arthur Petrelli (R.I.P.): 2 awards

3.09: found Hiro and Ando in the desert, didn’t kill them.

3.12: found Hiro on the Past Rooftop of Pigeonly Delight, took his ability, TK’d him over a rooftop, didn’t kill him.

Emile Danko: 2 awards

3.19: wondered for about the billionth time how Nathan got from one location to another so quickly (later unearned after it turned out he wasn’t quite that dumb).

3.22: gloated over a suspiciously quick capture of the uncatchable Sylar (he was Sylar, but we didn’t know that at the time — it counts!).

Building 26 staff (R.I.P. lots of them): 2 awards

3.19: heard a segment of dialogue in which Tracy reveals that Nathan was “one of us,” didn’t even look up.

3.21: didn’t notice the top priority on the Wall of Fugitives strolling through the office.

Daphne Millbrook (R.I.P.): 1 award

3.13: got touchy-feely with Ando when he started emitting red sparks.

Ando Masahashi: 1 award

3.02: searched Daphne’s apartment “thoroughly” for the formula, didn’t think to look behind the Mona Lisa painting.

Flint Gordon (R.I.P.): 1 award

3.09: watched Peter and Claire running away in the sewer, just stood there.

Knox (R.I.P.): 1 award

3.09: saw Peter and Claire escaping in the sewer, just stood there.

Micah Sanders: 1 award

3.24: took the psychokiller up on his offer for a sleepover.

Three things worth noting: first, that Sandra is awesome; second, that besides the obvious stupidity involved in creating Building 26, Nathan’s actions throughout the season have mostly made sense; and third — and in spite of gargantuan amounts of screen time — Sylar emerged from the season with no blatantly implausible actions.

If only everyone could be this smart.

Hey, there’s always Season Four to get that right.

Have a great summer, and see you next volume.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 7:07 PM and is filed under Season 3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.