Warning: If you’ve not seen the “How to Stop an Exploding Man” episode of “Heroes” you may want to turn back. This article will reveal full SPOILERS for the resolution of the episode and the season-long story arc.
Since last Monday’s season finale of “Heroes” fans have been wondering one thing — why did Nathan have to show up to grab Peter and fly away before Peter could explode?
It was previously established that Peter has absorbed Nathan’s flying power and could fly on his own. So why not just fly away when the exploding power started to go awry?
Series creator Tim Kring was asked this question by TV Guide On-Line blogger, Matt Webb Mitovich.
“You know, theoretically you’re not supposed to be thinking about that,” he said.
When assured that viewers are, Kring confirms that — as many have theorized — radioactive Peter’s other powers were “incapacitated” at that pivotal moment, and “somewhere in there is the explanation” for having Nathan grab his bro and do the “flying man!” thing. “But the real explanation is that we wanted Nathan to show up and [save the day]!”
“Yes, I will admit that there’s a very tiny window of logic there,” Kring continues with a laugh. “But what can I say? It’s requires the proverbial suspension of disbelief.”
So, does the explanation hold up for you? Or was it too big a glaring plothole to overlook?
After I saw that episode, I thought about the “Peter can fly” posibility. But I thought about it, and you have to remember Peter was freaking out. He was getting some notion of how to use his differnt powers, but he had to consentrate to be able to use a power (unless it was an automatic response, like healing himself). I can buy that he was capable of the simple thought “Fly Away” let alone be able to actually do it.
It was only one of the big fat glaring problems with the last episode. But not one that was overlooked. In my discussions with friends, it came up over and over. Have those clowns never worked in the genre before? Did they expect their fans were the same people that watch American Idol and Dancing with the Stars?
The whole episode had a “We’ve only got an hour, let’s get it over with quick” feel to it. This is just the icing.
Couldn’t stop thinking “just fly away you idiot” . Nothing stopping him. Brother didn’t need to die (though glad he did) … Still enjoyed it nonetheless.
I didn’t need a big slap down tween Peter and Sylar but there were too many reason’s it shouldn’t have ended that way.
If you were intently concentrating on NOT going nuclear and barely being able to control it, would you be able to fly? Would you risk it?
I vote big a glaring plothole
Kring suggests that we should be watching Heroes with half our brains. What a glaring difference compared to Lost.
Incapacitated, or really freaking out!
I don’t recall ever actually seeing Peter fly by himself, or at all really. When Claude pushes him off the building, he doesn’t fly…I don’t know how much he ever mastered whatever emotion might have been tied to that power…..
I agree it was iffy, but think about it as a comic book…We know that Peter will probably regenerate and be alive somewhere, but what happens to Nate? Did he stay with him the whole way, or does he jet off at the last moment, saving himself and leaving Peter to freefall in the upper atmosphere?
To my mind it looked like Peter was trying to suppress the radioactive power, and that this in turn had the effect of supressing his other powers….Maybe
I understood that Peter can only really concentrate on one power at a time. I don’t think you ever really see him doing more than one, even in the future episode.
I think Peter noticed that Nathan was trying to finally be a good guy, that he was trying to sacrifice himself. Also, we haven’t seen Peter use two or more powers in parallel, but always in sequence, one after the other.
Glaring plothole gets my vote too! That and the whole DL having to take a bullet for Niki. She herself said it was unnecessary, since he could have let it phase through him. Was she right behind him? I can’t remember… Anyways, we see DL sitting on the floor in pain, barely able to move; then outside he’s standing up pretty much on his own. The Hiro ending added nothing to the story, except letting me see my favorite character one last time this season. Altogether a weak final episode, but the series as a whole is good so I’ll keep watching. Hopefully next season the ladies can get more prominent roles.
I agree with Jeremy. I’d also add that Peter always took time to develop his powers (helped with training from Christopher Eccleston) and at that point he just didn’t have the level of flying skill needed.
Detonating in the lower atmosphere (which is probably as far as he would have gotten) would have done a lot more damage than detonating on the ground.
(I’m not saying Pete was in a state to think this rationally. Just a thought . . .)
Peter still seemed to need to concentrate to use his powers properly. I think that while he probably did have Nathan’s flying power in there somewhere, he was too concerned with the exploding to do something rational like remember how to fly. He was pretty much totally freaking out. If he had any control over his ability, he wouldn’t have been blowing up to begin with.
I didn’t really think about it ’till long after, and I came to the conclusion that Kring gives here.
It’s a weak excuse, but by far the most minor example of the poor writing that plagued this series as a whole.
Why was Peter’s back turned to Sylar in Mohinder’s apartment with the flying glass?
How did they subdue Sylar the second time?
Why doesn’t Claire ever eat? She’s always filmed with food near her, but she has never so much as had a sip of water on the show. You’d think all that healing would have a high metabolic cost…
WTF was that out-of-body-time-tripping thing with Richard Roundtree? Y’know, other than a little dues ex machina at work…
Why didn’t anyone notice Sylar’s body was missing?
Why did Peter tell Niki to go away? They were almost acting like a super team, and that emo kid pulls the macho, go-it-alone card?
THAT was what all that sword training was for? To yell and charge at Sylar who will simply stand there to be run through? Sylar just reacted quickly enough to send bullets flying back into that idiot Parkman, but he couldn’t react swiftly enough against a chubby kid with a sword running headlong at him? Seriously?
I thought it was simply that he can only do one power at a time, and as the radioactive power was uncontrolled and ‘ON’ then he couldn’t use any of the other powers that he has. No doubt he’s explain it himself next season as he can’t die 🙂
I’m good with the explanation. I agree with others that he doesn’t really seem to have the flying down. He’s got the healing and the invisibility largely sorted out, but his mastery of many of the others really seems to come and go at this point.
One of Peter’s personal themes seems to be the inability to get out of his own way enough to move forward in life. He’s been worrying for several episodes prior that he is the exploding man. Once this worry that he’s been ruminating over starts to come true, I can see him being freaked enough to lose all focus.
I’m more then fine with it, in fact it’s what I figured when I watched the episode and it’s what I figured would happen from first seeing the dream sequence. In fact, we didn’t know it was going to be Ted’s power when we first saw the prediction that Nathan would explode; it was that he had lost control over his ability to control all the powers he absorbed. Which is the reason he sought to be trained by Doctor Who.
Remember, even Ted had a very hard time controlling his own ability.
Something I wondered in the whole two part season finale was–could Niki’s husband (whose name eludes me as I type) have removed the bullet from his body by changing into the same state that allows him to pass through walls? It seems that he could disolve his entire body and allow the bullet to fall out of him. Also, I was annoyed that his injury level seemed to fluctate as the script necessitated. No consistency to it.
That said, I hated the Heroes season finale. Easily the most disappointed hour of TV in quite a long time. So many promises, so little actual delivery on those promises. The first 10 minutes was a rehash of all the character arcs and then we got a battle that should have been epic but turned out to be lame. And the dialogue…ugh, it was brutal.
I know a lot of people slag on Lost, but if you want to see how to do a season finale well–provide a few answers, open up some huge new doors that have me, quite frankly, eager for next season, just look at the Lost season finale. It showed up Heroes in every possible way.
I don’t think he can use more than one power at once (we’ve never seen him fly invisible!) and with not being able to turn off the nuclear power he was stuck. But Clair, on the other hand, really dropped the ball on this one. She could have “Killed” him temporarily and stop the explosion. Now she got her dad killed. Oh well, I guess she can be on Lost now that she’s killed her father.
Since this is a spoiler column anyway, you can read about how all the other heroes came out in my column “Science Fiction is Pretty” at http://tvscifi.com
I’m glad Slice of SciFi is around for the long summer!
Ooops, I just thought of something. If he can’t use 2 powers at once, maybe he CAN’T use the indestructible power! He might really be dead! Arrrg, it’s going to be a long summer.
I think which powers Peter can use at the same time does depend on how much concentration he needs to “activate” them, if he has to activate them.
The indestructibility isn’t something he has to control… he just is, like Claire. Being invisible, flying, telepathy, painting the future, those are things he would have to actively choose to control to do.
Didn’t he turn invisible as he flew away with Claude from the rooftop escape? Or was that just an illusion borne from the camera angle?
And remember, Peter isn’t as powerful or sure of himself as the version of him we saw “five years from now”. So I’m willing to allow for some slack in inconsistency with his powers. And to allow for which characters aren’t in next season’s storyline 🙂
Does tim Kring watch his own show? Peter flat out said to Nathan; “I can’t control it. I can’t control anything.” He was clearly using all his will power to try and keep from going boom. If he’d tried to fly, he’d have made it about an inch off the ground before pulling a Hiroshima.
Peter definitely needs a course in micro-management and multi-tasking. No wonder he couldn’t find work in a busy hospital as a nurse and could only work with one patient at a time in a quite penthouse apartment. Nathan, as a politician, always covering his own ass and hawking for contributions to his war-chest, must have acquired all the multi-tasking skills in that family. Oh well, Momma got a bit of that talent as well, leaving poor Peter with the ability to do only one thing at a time and always in an emotional lurch…yeah, he’s the guy I want to be able to sponge every heroes’ abilities. 🙂
I definitely agree with all those that feel this season finale had more holes then answers. Here’s something most have forgotten: PETER ALREADY AVOIDED GOING NUKE ONCE. Could he not do it again? But for me the greatest disappointment was Sylar, at the climax of his battle, he went slow. And, believe it or not, with all those good guys around you who have plenty of reasons to finish you off (Bennett and Parkman fully armed), you miraculously make it to the sewage without ANYONE seeing you! COME ON! Kring, you think we’re stupid or what?
What about “Save the cheerleader, save the world” She froze, didnt pull the trigger. If she’d of fired no-one would die(peter would get better after the shot in the head), and all that junk would make sense.
Overall I enjoyed the series, ending definately weak though.
Didn’t bother me so much as Peter still needs to try hard to focus his power, and I think people on here are right, he struggles to use more than one power at a time. In time though, I think he will be very very powerful. What annoyed me about the finale was the lack of amazing showdown between Sylar and Peter. I was waiting for that and was all excited when it was just the two of them in that square, but then Sylar pulled the choking act on him, and nothing much else happened. I hope there is a showdown in Season Two. That’s what I was waiting for and it never came.
I hope that Niki’s character has more purpose in the next Season. I find her a little pointless.
Can’t believe Claire flaked either. I was screaming at her to shoot him. Why didn’t she?!