‘Heroes’ Finds Its Dark Nature or Something

With three episodes left before the “holy crap the writers aren’t coming back we need to finish up this season real fast� season finale of Heroes, creator Tim Kring and company proved once again that they’re masters of ratcheting up suspense. Unfortunately, they also proved that they’re equally adept at hedging any and all bets.

First off — holy crap, the Horn-Rimmed Glasses Guy got shot! Just like the paintings prophesized! Wow! That’s a big story! Wait … oh, jeez, he’s been brought back to life. By his daughter’s blood, which has been extracted from her while she had been kidnapped by the Company. How ironic. Or something.

The show was effective, finally, at blurring that line between good and evil, with pretty much every major character discovering his darker inner nature, save Hiru, who remains a charming saint. (Let’s hope Mohinder’s “murder� of HRG will kill his narration as well; we don’t like our perspective-enhancing narrators to shoot people in the face.)

But it’s still difficult to figure out how they’re going to wrap up all this in two weeks. The supposedly big story — the whole virus thing that kills most humans in a matter of months — wasn’t even mentioned, tossed aside for family drama. The criticism of the show for having too many characters was valid tonight; as well paced as the episode was, it’s impossible to juggle all the different story lines. (At least we’re not in New Orleans anymore.) It’ll be a mad dash to finish, but it’ll be an awkward, galloping dash. —Will Leitch