Heroes 1:23 How to stop an exploding man
It may be selenak’s influence at work but having mulled it over I do believe the finale works best if you think about it as the story of Nathan Petrelli. It makes thematic sense too - this whole first volume has been about people discovering and accepting themselves and Nathan was always the most reluctant to do that. With the exception of Ted Sprague he had the most troublesome initial manifestation of his ability and right up until this final episode he still held to the idea of these strange new powers being at best useless at worst lethal, forces of nature to be healed, suppressed, or collectively risen above.
Other heroes in the episode completed their journeys, Hiro defeated Sylar, Nikki found her strength, Molly found her boogie man, Noah Bennet gave up the secret of his first name but it’s in Nathan that you can see the whole process from fear and denial to hope and acceptance unfold. In his first scene Angela tells him Linderman has died but the show still goes on and she does it magnificently, every touch a precision weapon. That they’ve hit target is confirmed when Peter overhears him thinking
There’s nothing we can do, they’re all going to die.
It’s the next scene that’s the pivotal point and the one where
Save the cheerleader, Save the world
finally comes true. Not as future!Hiro thought because Claire didn’t die and didn’t give her ability to Sylar but because she lived and lived to give her absentee biological father an exasperated teenager’s opinion on the evitability of things. She didn’t do it alone, it was a long process that both Hiro and Peter contributed to and through them all the others one way or another even the dead (really loved the dream/flashback whatever it was with Charles Devreaux) but like Nathan himself give her credit for being the last straw.
The actual last straw was a little too much, couldn’t Nathan just have muttered something about Peter needing a haircut? And then there could have been tea. But at least Sylar was done with and Peter was Dawn. I cried a little and then, whoops we’re in feudal Japan! So it was all good.