Broken Frontier

It’s been a rough year for Heroes fans. While the series’ third season promised to far surpass its lackluster second volume, “Generations,” an overcrowded cast and a plethora of meandering storylines have continued to turn even long-time viewers away from this once beloved series.

“Fugitives,” the second half of the third season picking up where “Villains” left off, clearly intended to bring the series back to its roots with a more focused narrative and in some ways it’s succeeded. Heroes upped the ante considerably when Season One scribe Bryan Fuller returned with “Cold Snap” just a few episodes back; however many of the show’s glaring flaws remain.

The penultimate episode this season, “I Am Sylar,” once again revolves around everyone’s favorite super-powered serial killer who, with his newfound shape-shifting ability, has set his sights on the presidency. You see, after coming into physical contact with someone, Sylar can take their form at will. Assuming the guise of Senator Nathan Petrelli, Sylar could become the president of the United States with just a handshake. It’s a scary thought, and a welcome twist in the occasionally middling “Fugitives” storyline.

What makes this episode great is that Sylar’s drive to become the leader of the free world isn’t just cheesy, supervillain cliché. Rather, Sylar has a deep psychological need to become someone else as evidenced by his extremely creepy conversations with himself as his “mother.” He hates who he’s become, so why not turn into someone else?

In the finale, “An Invisible Thread,” we learn that Sylar—thanks to his shape-shifting abilities—has moved his “off switch” at the back of his head to another part of his body. Previously, whenever our heroes wanted to put the villain out of commission they need only to lodge an object at the base of his skull. While the Petrellis race to thwart a near-invincible Sylar, Hiro and Ando stage a break-in at Building 26 to rescue Mohinder and others. In the process, we learn that frequent use of his time-stopping power is taking its toll on him.

Once freed, Mohinder tells Hiro that his body is rejecting his ability, and that using it again could kill him. Against doctor’s orders, Mohinder uses his ability to save Noah Bennet from the deceitful Danko and collapses. He winds up being okay, but Hiro’s fragile condition plants some interesting seeds for next season. At least we hope they’re interesting. Hiro and Ando have become characters that everyone behind Heroes seems to have gotten bored with. They were once fun, geeky characters that fans could relate to. Now they’re just filler.

While the final few moments of the season were at times exhilarating, they were also bafflingly frustrating. The battle we’ve been waiting for—a climactic super-powered showdown between the Petrelli brothers and Sylar—takes place behind closed doors. Yes, the brawl that the entire season leads up to takes place off camera. Nathan dies just moments later in shockingly gruesome fashion from a slit throat, and while we should be mourning the loss of a character on the path toward redemption, we’re instead left scratching our heads as to why we’ve been cheated out of a key moment in the story. Sure, special effects are expensive in today’s economy but this is insulting.

Fortunately the actual resolution of this season is significantly less infuriating even if it is a bit of a stretch. After Peter brilliantly tricks and subdues Sylar by using his shape-shifting power against him, Matt Parkman uses his mental ability to brainwash Sylar into thinking that he’s Nathan. Sylar shifts into Nathan’s appearance, bringing the senator back to life and giving him another shot at redemption. Sylar is no more—or so we think.

Heroes ends the season on a bold note with a potentially great storyline revolving around Nathan and the possibility of Sylar’s return, but that’s all it is: potential. If this season has proven anything, it’s that  Heroes does a great job in teasing its fan base with promising storylines and plot developments, but the end results are often too muddled to fully appreciate. Hopefully with Fuller now back on board, Volume Five, “Redemption,” will mean just what its title implies.