Summing up Season 3: Villains

(Mr. & Mrs. Freeze w/PikaHiro)

The conclusion of Season 3 Villains seemed to be supercharged and moving fast in no real direction, similar to Ando & Daphne's new hand-holding power. The dynamic duo was able to travel back 16 years in time to save Hiro, on one try. Or at least that's the only try we saw. How cool would it have been to see them wind up in the times of cavemen, the Middle ages, a Civil war battle and the Boston tea party before arriving to the Nakamura household 16 years ago? Either way, it was great to see Ando get a new power, and impressive that he could master it so much quicker than any other of our main heroes did with theirs in Season 1.

One of the major criticisms with any season of Heroes after Season 1 will be that it moves too fast and doesn't do enough to build up the drama and suspense. Season 1 was full of that, with us awaiting each new episode eagerly, just to see what would happen. The battles between Peter and Suresh were highly anticipated. (On a side note, the writers continue to help the show's budget during a recession by making sure Peter & Sylar never have full use of their powers during a season). But back to the fast paced shows, we get so many things jammed into one episode, it seems less plausible and maybe viewers will be turned off.

Take for example last night's show. In just one episode Ando gains and masters an ability, Daphne learns to time travel, Sylar kills 3 villains and possibly Meredith, Claire kills (or incapacitates) Sylar, Nathan fires Tracy, Knox is frozen to death, Flint explodes, Peter and Nathan duke it out, Peter regains his ability, Suresh gains his former self back, and Nathan starts his own hunt for all the heroes. By the way wasn't it great how Robert Forester was listed in the credits since he was dead on the floor for a minute in the opening? They needed him so they could have a cool place to display the episode's title.

Many people immediately saw the connections between last night's storyline and the Saw horror movies. Sylar played the diabolical Jigsaw type at Primatech, keeping our heroes on lockdown and making them choose who to save based on their own inner struggles. Claire tried to save everyone but it was to no avail. Amazingly, she, HRG and Angela escaped the exploding building just in time, but Meredith may have succumbed to the explosiveness of her abilities. Before all that Sylar had Angela Petrelli captive and forced her to admit she isn't really his mother. She added in that his real parents aren't a watchmaker or snow globe collector..Hmm. But before we could learn their identity, a perfect in makeup Claire Bennet snuck in to defeat the master villain. Isn't it amazing how powerful Sylar is most of the time, but out of nowhere Claire sneaks in and stabs him in the head with a glass shard? Sylar still has that super-hearing ability right, or does he mute it/adjust the volume control?

A few things to hope for in the next installment of Heroes are that we see Maya (Dania Ramirez) again, and that Hiro regains his powers soon. Fans might not want to see Hiro, Daphne and Ando have to hold hands every time they need to time travel or teleport. We gained two little teasers from this mid-season finale episode though and those were that Angela knows Sylar's real parents, and that the president is going to help Nathan track down the Heroes for Volume 4. Looks like Micah the tech wizard will be back also. Is all that enough to keep fans hooked? Oh, and the possibility to wonder once again if our favorite villain, Sylar is deceased.

Sylar's not dead, let's face it. Having Nathan, Suresh and Tracy as the villains for Volume 4 just won't cut it. But Ali Larter definitely makes a much sexier version of "Mr. Freeze" than Arnold ever did in "Batman & Robin".

See episode recaps of NBC Heroes Season 3 Villains!