Because Sylar never killed her. The dark future came to pass because they got the target wrong. Future Hiro mistakenly belived that it was Sylar who blew up New York and that the mission to "save the cheerleader save the world" meant saving New York. By saving New York they could prevent what follows. Reality is that New York was destroyed no matter what and killing Sylar was the only way to prevent what follows New Yorks destruction. Which is the eventual genocide of the mutants. If you watch the episode they all belive that Sylar died in the explosion even though he did not cause it. It would appear the only people who knew it was Peter were Nathan and later Jessica. But even they did not know Sylar was alive. Witness Peter's reaction to "Nathan" revealing his true self. Sylar was in the area IMHO but managed to escape unharmed. The rest of the world following Nathan's lead blamed Sylar. Nathan doing this to protect Peter. Sylar later kills Nathan and becomes POTUS which is the dark future. Sylar then gets his hands on Claire. In the fight in New York Peter probably blows up just before Hiro can kill Sylar. Hiro on instinct teleports (leaving Ando behind to die). This probably explains his guilt trip over his sidekick and his quest to save Ando by figuring out where things went wrong. This dark future will cease to exsist in a couple of weeks. Remember what Present Hiro got? He got his hands on the future comic that shows how to actually kill Sylar (before New York blows up and Sylar gets away). Present Hiro doesn't know how to stop Sylar until that comic which was Issac's way of telling everyone what to do. So this episode while cool just hit a major reset button. It's going to be as if it never happened. Hiro has the comic from the future and knows what to do now to stop Sylar. The question now is wheter the writers will still destroy New York or will they somehow wiggle out of it.
To sum it up: What is the point of this episode? The only point was to get the comic book showing how to kill Sylar from Future Hiro to Present Hiro so he could actually kill Sylar. So why didn't Future Hiro just take the thing back to Present Hiro? #1 Hiro thinks Sylar is dead so why bother? Present Hiro technically accomplished the mission that Future Hiro set out for him: Save the Cheerleader. Present Hiro stalled Sylar long enough for Clarie to get away, then Peter blows up New York but everyone belives Sylar did it and that Sylar died. Present Hiro doesn't realize that he has to actually kill Sylar until he is in the future and gets his hands on the comic book. Future Hiro gave the wrong mission. It should have been to kill Sylar. Future Hiro has no idea that Sylar survived and took over Nathan, killed Clarie and is creating that dark future. So why doesn't Hiro just go back and lop of Sylars head? #1 Hiro understands how mucking with the timeline can screw things up royally. This is why he is very carefully putting the timeline together to figure out what happened. My guess is that had he lived long enough he may have realized his error and corrected it that night he told Peter to save the Cheerleader. So we get future comic "how to kill Sylar" book into Present Hiro's hands by for lack of a better word "fate". Present Hiro now knows that when he fights Sylar that he must kill him. His correct mission is, "Save the world by killing Sylar to prevent him from killing the cheerleader and taking her powers." Hence reset. Except possibly for New York. That is up in the air.
Ah yes, but we know from the time-travel rules of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure that as long as you remember to do something in the future - no matter how old you get - you can always go back and prepare whatever it is you want to happen. Yeah, but that was based on a mistake. Future Hiro thinks Sylar was the bomb. He remembers he killed Sylar, but thinks Sylar healed and exploded later, thus his message about saving Claire to prevent Sylar from healing. But he was wrong. Sylar is supposedly not the bomb. Future Hiro passed the mistake to his past self. Which means Hiro came back with bad information. If he kills Sylar now, he's bascially just executed a mass murderer, not prevented the bomb. [I suspect you agree with that, but aren't sure.] I considered this episode kind of the first part of the story arc (the future that must be avoided), and not just a reset. Do we agree that Present Hiro returned to the present without knowing how to stop the bomb? Unless the comic shows what - or who - blows up NYC? Plus Hiro intends to kill Sylar because he thinks it will stop the bomb (the mistake). And we're still supposed to think Peter is the exploding man.
There goes Peter! My first instanct was to tell him to fly as high as he could, get the hell away from the city, out over the ocean. But nobody on TV is ever as smart as me.
whats the bets we won't see the peter-bomb resolved next week, but have to wait for the finale? *stomps around like an impatient tyrannosaur*
I didn't see that it would be involuntary until a quarter-mile away. But yeah, as soon as Sylar called her up, it was clear: she dead.
Future Hiro seemed to exist outside the timeline he created (he didn't know Claire had been saved). "Save the cheerleader, save the world" may have been wrong because it produced a timeline so similar to the original that future Hiro didn't even notice the change. But the biggest problem of all is from way back in the first episode: if the bomb doesn't go off Hiro won't go to New York to stop it.
Hiro is immune from paradox. In the last episode when they find Isaacs body he clearly remembers the other timeline where Isaac was killed and he was arrested for it.
Cool. I saw that too, once I read your summary of the graphic novel, upthread. Until then I didn't understand how you knew that Sylar blew up. So there are two alternative bad futures: Sylar the bomb in one, or whatever caused the bomb in the other. And saving Claire caused the change. Plus, each alternative can lead either to the 'Linderman plan' or Sylar's version. More or less. Or the heros can win and avoid both bad futures. Sure. But perhaps Bennet was just that good at covering Claire's tracks. After all, Hiro has tended to be outside the loop. But I tend to agree with you, and Bailey made the same point - Hiro operates outsdie the 'normal' rules of time travel. If by "wrong" you mean 'insufficient by itself to lead Peter (or Hiro) to a solution to stop Linderman's plan,' then I completely agree. But if you mean that Hiro erred when he chose the Cheerleader message to fix things because the consequent change was just too subtle for him to notice that he still had more to do, well, that's what he gets for fuckin around with the time line. Kinda like he's travelling around with his own personal temporal wake leading the way. /geek
Oh, about the cliffhanger, where's Eccleston when you need him? A good clunk on the head worked perfectly fine to disarm Peter every other time. What's all this "Claire, shoot me in the head crap?" Has Peter been drinking from Parkman's cup or something? Or was it just that they wanted to put a pistol into Claire's hands for later? I think I read somewhere that the finale is two hours, anybody know?
Bloody hell, I think I had a geek-gasm from that! At least three times I looked at the wife and said "How fuckin' cool is this?!?" Sylar. Ted. Hiro. Hiro's Dad. Ando. NYYAAAAIGH!! I can't wait till next week!
Will there be anybody LEFT after next week!? This show is SO much better than Sopranos. "Didn't I throw you out a window?"
This is now officially the coolest show on television! I LOVE Hawkins reaching I LOVE Hiro's Dad! "A thing or two." I love (in the sense of appreciating a cool villian) Sylar! I love the "Justice Society" motif that seems to surround HiroDad, Linderman, Mom&Pop Petrelli and etc. The only thing I still don't get is what are they going to do next season?
No discussion of Monday's episode is complete without mentioning HRG's awesomeness. Can't wait for next episode! And did you hear there's going to be a fall miniseries spin-off called "Heroes: Origins"? The downside is that the show proper probably won't start until January or so ala "24." They have tons of threads that they can pull for stories. They can show us more about the Linderman-Hiro's Dad generation of Heroes. There's still the quest to find other people with special abilities. There's the fallout from the explosion (or non-explosion, as the case may be). Sylar may survive to scheme and fight another day. Even if he doesn't, it's not as though there aren't other villains who are lurking around the corner. Heck, it's even conceivable that we get a visit from an alternate-reality Sylar who stole Hiro's power.
Awesome episode! I read an article that next season will be considerably more global in scope and will involve a threat to Earth itself (as opposed to just New York). Source: latest Entertainment Weekly.
Wow, so hot Candice is actually a fugly chick? Cool. Glad she's thawed from her ice bitch personna. Linderman's final use of his power was also cool. And good to see that Sylar was cheated out of DL's ability, not that I think he has much time remaining to have used it. It's been a fun ride. And this week's set up to the finale flowed nicely. I like the way all the separate threads that have been weaving and intersecting during the year have finally come together in NY, for the climax. And I'm looking forward to seeing the back story behind the first generation freaks.
