Heroes: Better Nate Than Never

Ok, I’m assuming Nathan is dead for good this time.

(I’m also assuming I didn’t ruin anything with that first sentence because this episode aired way back on Monday and it’s not exactly a state secret that Adrian Pasdar has been removed from “Heroes.”)

If you’ve watched this show from the beginning, I’m sure you can understand my skepticism, given the fact that a Nathan Petrelli death/near death experience has been a yearly ritual during every season finale. (See: being fried by a bomb-ified Peter at the end of season 1, being shot in the chest by Future Peter at the end of season 2, and being ACTUALLY killed by Sylar at the end of season 3.)

Monday’s episode, “The Fifth Stage”, was this year’s semi-official “fall finale”, so we all knew what was coming.

Still, I’ll be damned if this episode didn’t make me care (going back to a key pilot episode location was a smart move), despite all the rampant ridiculousness.

The episode’s title, of course, refers to the five stages of grief. Peter was having trouble getting to stage #5 – acceptance. More specifically, Peter couldn’t accept the fact that his brother was really dead. As a result, he borrowed the Haitian’s power (this character has been more effective as a verb this season than as an actual person) and set about finding Sylar.

He didn’t have to wait long since cheeky Sylar – disguised as a middle-aged black woman(?!) – assaulted Peter before the two fought it out in a curiously abandoned portion of the hospital. (Another aside: has the Haitian’s power always been voluntary? I always thought his mere presence zapped people’s powers – although, clearly that’s not the case since Sylar chokeslammed Peter.)

In a nice change from the usual m.o. on this show, we actually got to see the two characters fight, even though it was basically a fist fight. Peter got the upper hand and, after trying to beat the living Nathan out of Sylar, erased the bad guy’s memory and got Nathan back momentarily.

Peter and Nathan took a little field trip to where it all began for them way back in the show’s first-ever episode. The brothers visited the roof that Peter jumped from to prove he could fly, and that Nathan jumped off to save his brother. The scene began promisingly enough with Nathan stating why he denied his ability to fly at first (“It was an election year”), but soon devolved into silly melodrama. Adrian Pasdar is a really good actor, but even he couldn’t sell Nathan’s momentary transformations into Sylar.

What WAS believable was the weariness in Nathan’s voice and his desire to rest in peace. He jumped off the roof and finally convinced his brother to let him go (nice job by Milo Ventimiglia in this scene too). I (and a lot of people) have been saying that this show needs to kill off characters for good, but I don’t really think Nathan should’ve been one of them. (How about Parkman, Mohinder, etc.?) Since I’ll miss Nathan so much, I’ll forgive the HIGHLY questionable green screen shot of Nathan falling and morphing into a smiling Sylar.

Here’s hoping the writers actually DO something with Sylar in 2010. Yes, Zachary Quinto is the only actor having fun on this show, but right now the character has no purpose (he hasn’t been a Big Bad since season 1) and is really just a clown. A clown who amuses me, but a clown nonetheless.

The show’s other subplot included Claire’s trip to the Sullivan Bros. carnival where she got the hard sell from Samuel.

Clearly, one of the season’s biggest mysteries has centered around what Samuel’s true motivations are. We’re about halfway into season 4, and it’s still not entirely clear what his ultimate goal is. (But then again, I’m kinda thick.)

He keeps selling the carnival as a place where people with abilities can live out in the open without having to hide their abilities, but I don’t think “living out in the open” means what he thinks it means. Maybe it’s me, but isolating yourself from regular society so that you could use your powers on the down low (it’s not like that telepath was openly messing with the minor league jerk) does NOT qualify as living out in the open.

Samuel also seems to be selling a peaceful existence, but hasn’t thought twice about sending some of his minions to commit crimes, including murder. (Edgar slicing up Danko.) Given that Samuel was more concerned about going back in time so he could see what was in Dr. Suresh’s film and learn of his immense powers instead of going back in time to save his brother, I’m going to say he’s full of it, and he’s merely gathering as many superpowered beings as he can to launch an assault (that the TV audience won’t get to actually see) on, um, someone.

It seems he’ll have Claire on his side. She joined the carnival after taking a backstage tour and tasting some amazing popcorn. To be honest, my favorite part was puppet master Doyle’s cameo (a hug?!) and Claire’s casual description about how he’d tried to have Claire’s mom shoot her. I could’ve done without the episode-ending twist that Claire, apparently is NOT the one they’re after.

Maybe Samuel’s really after Noah. Sure, the show pulled the “we’re not after Claire, we’re after Noah” bait and switch last month with Invisible Rebecca, but I wouldn’t put it past this show to go back to that well.

Other than dealing with Samuel’s “multiplier” minion (nice use of camera tricks), Noah didn’t do too much in this episode, other than try to further his relationship with Lauren Gilmore, who is starting to grow on me. (Especially if she continues to deliver genius/ridiculous lines like “I Haitianed myself?!” The show could use more of that INTENTIONAL silliness) The multiplier made off with Noah’s box of Primatech files – which was apparently out in the open for everyone to see…and labeled “Primatech.”

So what’d you think of this episode? Did the show give Adrian Pasdar a proper sendoff? (Assuming he’s really, 100%, for sure gone!) What are Samuel’s intentions? Finally, which character are you most and least eager to see again? (Did anyone else groan at the shot of Hiro and Ando apparently breaking Mohinder out of that insane asylum? Groan!)