Heroes concluded this week on BBC2, putting together the last two episodes of the cult-soaked mainstream hit series.

The first of the two episodes this week promised to start with a bang, quite literally. When we last left the titular band of heroes Peter Petrelli was about to go nuclear, thereby splattering his floppy hair all over the place. The episode closed with him telling his niece Claire to shoot him, exciting and promising stuff - or so you’d think. It seems the writers are so desperate to keep their audience that they seem to assume that we have the attention span of an ADHD kid who has drunk two litres of coke. What we get is Peter just turning around and saying he’s OK and then they plod along onto their next adventure. Cliff-hangers in television are good, and Heroes has had some corkers, but when it contributes nothing to the plot or characters it feels like an unnecessary gimmick.

So we’re not off to a good start. It was the Heroes penultimate episode though, so the rest of it had to be tightly structured. So next we see that Hiro (Time Traveller) and Ando (Idiot), have just failed to kill Sylar (Bad Guy) and has had his sword broken. Things are bleak - how are they going to fix the sword that’s 500 years old? By looking in the Yellow Pages, obviously, for the ancient sword fixer listed who for some reason uses the same symbol that is on their sword. That is quite the coincidence! 

One thing that worked really well in this episode is the inner conflict of Nathan Petrelli, the brother of Peter, who must make the moral decision whether to let his brother explode or not for what he’s being told is for the 'greater good'. Throughout the two episodes it's unclear whether or not Nathan will use his chin for good or evil and its compelling and exciting to see him go through the motions as he gets manipulated. The people pulling his strings put in good turns and were generally menacing and intriguing with their misty pasts. His own mother being the most vindictive with the look like she's gone two rounds with Mike Tyson, if he was wearing Botox needles on his fists as apposed to gloves. The second puppet-master is the superbly-played Linderman. Malcolm McDowell interacts with the characters with such authority and charisma that it’s a shame that it doesn’t seem like he’ll be returning to the series in the next season, especially considering all the mystery and intrigue his character leaves behind, along with his brain.

Other characters doing their bit are Nikki and D.L, trying to get back their son from Linderman, using their abilities of being annoying and whiny to go about their business. Cop Parkman and ass-kicking machine Bennet trying to find a mutant tracking system and kill it. The tracking system turns out being a cute little girl, who's being protected by muppet-headed Dr Suresh. Also bad guy Sylar turns up killing original nuclear man Ted and decides for shits and giggles to try and blow up New York himself, as you do.

There were two scenes that stopped this episode slipping into mediocrity, which won't be ruined here. One is the best death ever seen on television and the other is a cold-blooded turn by the coolest character in the series (who ironically doesn’t possess any powers).  

By the end of the episode, all the characters in the first part are on their way to the final meeting point and it all feels like one giant cliff-hanger that’s building up throughout the episode. The worst of these being Ando, who possesses no powers, deciding to go after Sylar himself with a sword and his spiky hair. Great thinking, another cliff-hanger for the sake of it. 

The next episode was more promising, obviously there's no more foreplay - we’re down to the good stuff now. We get treated straight away with Dr Exposition explaining with voice-over something about life that is meant to be poignant but instead has the effect of making us want the little girl next to him to get shot so we can see him use a facial expression that ranges beyond the mildly bewildered.

Straight to the Ando/Sylar confrontation and it plays out as you’d imagine. He gets there, gets his ass kicked, Hiro saves him and Sylar doesn’t care because he’s too evil to bother. Other plot points are resolved so they can all meet up for the anticipated final smack down. Little girl gets spared because she’s cute and it's primetime television and putting one between the eyes of a nine-year-old would go down as well as Paris Hilton presenting University Challenge. Peter and Claire then turn up to save the city, and D.L and Nikki move into another corridor to bleed over the walls some more.

The most promising aspect of the episode is the fight that we are promised at the end between Peter and Sylar. As both characters make their way to the meeting point we are treated to some intriguing and compelling scenes. Notably which side Nathan will be on at the end? Will he let Peter die?

Peter also travels back in time and meets dead Shaft who appeared earlier in the series. This scene works particularly well as it gives a forgotten character a new and mysterious twist.

Also Molly, the spared little girl from earlier, makes an awesome statement telling us that there’s another man she can see who is far worse than the ‘Boogeyman’ - an enticing line of dialogue that will hopefully pay off in the next series.  

This leads to the final smackdown between Peter and Sylar, something that some might argue the whole series has been leading up to. We don’t know who decided this scene would be satisfying for the fans but we hope their paycheque bounced - in fact we hope the paycheque was made of concrete and bounced off their head! The scene was lacklustre; they turn up, Peter gets punched a couple of times, Sylar gets hit by a parking meter by Nikki who then wanders off, and then Peter punches Sylar and that’s about it! No super powers, which you’d think would be the most logical thing, just a couple of punches. It’s so crap even Sylar seems to be laughing about the absurdity of it. Things finish off with Sylar getting off and Peter about to explode. Claire can’t kill Peter and says “There has to be another way”, then strangely Nathan flies from a mile away, lands and says “There is, Claire” (Nathan appearing now to have super hearing as well it seems!). Then Peter and Nathan have some brotherly love and fly off living happily ever after… or not, because they blow up! A satisfying and well-acted ending for the character Nathan.

With the fate of those two hanging in the balance, Molly’s evil man, Shaft's magic and Hiro’s surprise location, it sets up for a promising second season. In fact this episode works best when setting up mysterious and cliff-hangers that don’t feel forced. Heroes is at its best when the characters and situations make the mysterious not the other way round.

This episode was a letdown for a series that had so much promise and moments of true greatness. The writers at times don’t seem to know what to do with characters and then just put them in stupid situations. The second season seems to have promise though and perhaps if they stop relying on cheap tricks and trim some of the useless characters, (I don’t even understand Nikki’s power? Unusually straight teeth?), it could be a consistently great television series. With the decent and promising end of the finale though we should at least have a great beginning of the second series! Or have they tricked me again? I feel so used!

[story by David A. Scarborough]