Fans who tuned into the third-season finale of “Heroes” Monday night came away with some answers and a lot more questions about the fate and future of several characters on the NBC sci-fi drama.
Several members of the cast spoke to TV Guide On-Line about the season finale and what fans can expect for the upcoming fourth season. What they say will SPOIL Monday night’s episode if you’ve not seen it and will give away clues about what’s coming in the next volume. If you don’t want to know what happened or will happen, please turn back now.
The biggest twist from Monday’s finale was that Nathan Petrelli and the villainous Sylar will be sharing one body thanks Matt Parkman. But does this mean that Sylar is gone for good?
“Zach’s not done,” Adrian Pasdar tells TVGuide.com. “There’s Nathan, there’s Sylar, and there’s the point of view that you have to factor in. If I look up into the mirror, who would I see?”
Naturally, the twist sets up an epic internal battle between Nathan and Sylar in Season 4. “Who’s going to be able to control the actions of the body?” Pasdar teases. “Like one of those computers that self-teaches, the longer he stays in my body and the longer he assimilates my physical structure and DNA, the more control I get. So it becomes a battle of who’s in charge.”
Pasdar says when he first learned that his character was going to “die,” he was thrilled. “I wanted to try something new with Nathan, with the idea of the character,” he says. “And I think they’ve found a much more interesting way to engage. It’s much more interesting for me to play what’s coming up than anything I could have imagined without dying.”
As long as Sylar exists, however, the heroes will have problems. And now, they have Parkman — and master manipulators Noah Bennett and Angela Petrelli — to blame. Greg Grunberg says keeping this dirty little secret will present its share of problems next season.
“You’ve got an alliance right now with the three of us, but Angela Petrelli is not to be trusted. And you don’t want to get on her bad side,” Grunberg says. “I did what they asked me to do, and now they’re going to ask me to do more and get in deeper. It’s going to be a spiral that is going to tear my character up. It leads me to believe that next season is just going to be awesome.”
No matter how “awesome” next season could be, will fans stick around? After all, the death producers promised would stick has technically been unstuck. Pasdar says he’s not worried.
“Some things should stick, otherwise there’s no weight if you’re going to reset everybody’s history every 10 minutes, and nobody’s going to pay attention anymore,” Pasdar says. “But as fascinating as concepts might be, ultimately it’s people that engage viewership. If you’re going to ask people to tune in week to week, you want to follow somebody’s plight, not some nameless story arc. We’ve tried to be consistent — sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But I think we’re going to come out on top.”
Pasdar also hopes Nathan’s path crosses with the returning Tracy Strauss, who, with a revenge mission driving her, could become a major Season 4 villain. Grunberg, on the other hand jokes that he might have evil intentions of his own.
dalhectar says
I think the final straw was the closed door. If Heroes won’t deliver on big budget CGI super powered battles… what’s the point of the show again? Even during the worst of Season 2, Heroes didn’t skimp out on such a critical piece. To NBC/Universal, is cutting the show’s budget really worth it if you lose viewers?
Also, hasn’t everything before the second half of season 3 shown the characters the fallacies of the Company?
I never thought I’d say this, but I’m enjoying Dollhouse more than Heroes. Oh how the mighty have fallen…
Arkle says
They had to do it closed door so we could have the tension as to whether or not Peter actually touched Sylar and took his power.
Helmet says
I used to be a unconditional fan but now I am disapointed.
This would be the last chance for heroes redemption…
If I wont see a peter kickin somme real ass I will give up on HEroes…sad but true
Michael Mennenga says
Ok people… Reality check time.
Heros has completely lost its way because of two fundamental flaws.
1) No one with powers is doing anything to help humanity or fight evil. – The entire show is focused on this group of characters. They do nothing to help anyone, they just fight each other again… and again… and again….
2) I don’t feel like anyone is in any real danger. – It’s like watching your kids fight in the basement. There is a lot of screaming and yelling, but in the end, you never really feel like anyone is going to get seriously hurt. I mean, they have brought back so many people from the dead, so many times, in so many stupid ways.
Sorry kids… This was the last Heros for me.
Gazerbeam says
Heroes lost me because *nobody* on the show cared about anything more than himself. For Hiro, it was all about “his journey”, not about actually being heroic. For Claire, it was all about “I hate my power, even though it’s cool, and nearly invisible”. For the Petrellis, it was all “my family sucks”. There wasn’t anything remotely unselfish about ANYbody in the entire cast. It just got old, and tired, and Heroes is dead to me.
WildNelson says
I’m with Mike M on this one. This “finale” was so absurd and so chock full of plot holes that I’m done. And the closed-door-fight bullshit was just too much. We want to see the heroes using their powers in cool ways… shooting lightning, punching through walls, blowing stuff up… things that super heroes do, but all we got was a closed door and some flashes of light.
But the real nail in the coffin is that the motivations of these characters is so muddled that it’s hard to care what happens to any of them anymore.
VyseN1 says
Screw Heroes, like others have said the finale was absurd. I don’t care about this show anymore, it has become a chore to watch. Bring back Chuck! Chuck actually makes me look forward to Mondays!
Bill T. says
Heroes never recovered from the writers’ strike. The whole spirit of the show was lost after season one. And the producers never paid attention to viewers’ complaints. Keep Chuck and Medium, dump Heroes.
reppoHssarg says
Internal struggle sounds like more character plotting and less FX. The closed door was a big mistake. The dead should remain dead, otherwise the truth is more like Heroes:Return of the Zombies. What was an international story with plots that could take you anywhere in the world has become a US soap opera and should be delegated to the daylight hours alongside Days of Our Lives. If this is because of budget, then the bean counters have done in another great concept by attempting to maximize their ROI. How sad.
Kyle Nin says
“The writers never strayed too far off that reservation, and, once they also painted themselves into that “how can we save the world THIS volume?” corner, they never really got out.”
In Volume 4, they weren’t trying to save the world. They were just trying to save themselves.
Kurt in St. George says
I’ll tell you what killed this show for me. This season Sylar went on a journey to find himself. It could have taken Heroes in a new direction. Instead he ends up trying to do what he tried to do in the first season, to seize ultimate power. It would have been more interesting if he decided to become a televangelist.
The ending of this season was a combination of both lethargy and unbelievability (within the Heroes universe). They didn’t even try to give the audience a compelling final season battle. I won’t go into the ridiculous details of how Sylar was dealt with. I will only say it was truly pathetic.
I also have to agree with some of the opinions expressed above. The characters never really went anywhere after the first season. They just kept repeating themselves with slight variations on the original motifs.
All I have I have left to say is, “I’m done.”
Joe in Denver says
How about the simple fact that EVERY character seemed to change who they were from one episode to the next. It’s like the writing staff let a different person pen each episode without the pre-requisite of WATCHING the first two seasons. In two words, sloppy and inexcusable.
bryan says
I would have to agree with EVERYBODY, this season started SUCK and pretty much dig their own grave at the end. I thought I was watching a soap opera. I love Sylar but with all the attention they have given to his character, he could kill them all if he wants to; there isn’t one of those heroes character that can stand toe to toe with him. What kind of super power human show where you don’t see any super human fighting scence that last for at least 3 mins? If they are going to cut budget then please cancel the show and rename it and move it next to Days of Our Lives. I’m done with this BS!!
Candis says
I for one am a loyal Hero’s fan and always will be. They’ll come out of it!!!! Be optimistic. My only thing is why did they show all those clips of the future and now none of it can be true…. I mean what happened to Claire being a waitress… and nathen with his half blown off face in the mirror….. Peter with his sliced face from the future…. I mean I get it, the future can be changed but just lets please pick one path and stick with it just for a little while. I really hope next season is a little better. Either way I’m still watching if only for the baby that cop who controls minds (I can’t remember his name) had with his stupid mean wife….. And could someone fill me in what happend to Nathan’s family??? Anyway still love the show!!!
shane robertson says
Ive just finished watching season 4, as a fan of the show i was very dissapointed, like everyone here has said , the show just got lame.
Its like the writers themselves got bored of the show and thus creating boring episodes and ultimately a boring season 4 was created.
Season 1, 2 , 3 i enjoyed but through each new season they did get worse.The writers strike did ruin the show in my opinion and the budget cut was a bullet in the head for heroes. The end battle in season3 was so ridicoules.You wait so damn long to see a awesome battle and they dont even show it.. very upsetting.NBC loaded the gun to the head and the writers pulled the trigger.
I do hope some good comes from the negativaty theyve created, perhaps resigned by another network, higher budget and actually listening to the fans. the show has so much potential,they need to uphold that potential.