As I’m sure most of you know (NBC has certainly been hyping the heck out of it) the last episode of HEROES airs this Monday. It’s not the end of the series, a second season has already been approved (given how it’s one of the few hits NBC has these days that’s no surprise); however, it is the conclusion of this season’s plotline(s). Unlike LOST, HEROES intends to wrap up their mysteries every year, bless them for that. In fact, originally they planned to start over with a whole new cast next season (retaining only the ‘superpowered people living in the real world’ concept) but they have reconsidered, and will now be phasing out characters in favor of new ones more gradually. Getting rid of popular characters like Hiro so suddenly would probably have been a bad idea, anyway.
Those of you who haven’t been following the series will probably not understand what is going on in the last episode, and even if you do you probably will not get the full effect of how seeing each character’s individual plotline wraps up. Still, HEROES is one of the best written shows in the air right now, its twists and characterization have been great so far. There are things that annoy me in the show -like all the coincidences and the gross stuff like the guy who eats brains- but thankfully not enough to keep me from enjoying the rest.
Here’s a very simplified summary of what’s going to happen in the episode for those who might want to see it: someone is going to explode, destroying New York city in the process. It’s either going to be the super-serial killer Sylar, or the powers-mimicking Peter. Hiro, the time traveller, thinks it’s going to be Sylar and is set to kill him; Peter thinks it could be him and asks his niece Claire to shoot him dead to prevent it. Meanwhile, the rest of the characters are running around Kirby Plaza, either trying to stop the conspiracy plans to allow the disaster to happen, trying to get it to happen, or just trying to get out before things go BOOM. Not a bad set up, though I fear at least one of my favorite characters will die in the process.
Oh, btw, there will be a Heroes spinoff that will focus on new characters, whom the viewers will be able to vote to join the main series. (Kinda lika an American Idol for HEROES, eh?) Nice idea, even if you can tell they’re just trying to squeeze as much juice out of the HEROES phenomenom as they can. 
