In what was to be a showdown between a super-hero and a super-villain, many heroes were left standing on the sidelines

 With the fate of the series hanging in the balance, this episode was pivotal. It was time to pull out all the stops. It was time for a “shock and awe” campaign. It should have been a tension-filled roller-coaster ride to the final battle between Sylar and Samuel. So imagine my surprise, when the episode took its time to blissfully allow for a fake-out tearful good-bye scene between Noah Bennett (Jack Coleman) and Claire (Hayden Panettiere); for Parkman (Greg Grunberg) to debate with Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Sylar (Zachary Quinto) whether or not the five years of incarceration in Sylar’s mind had truly made him rehabilitated; and for Hiro (Masi Oka) to find Charlie (Jayma Mays) and reminisce about the good ole days and whether they could still have a future. This just did not feel like the right time and place to explore those stories. Instead, this was the time to rally the troops and take down Samuel (Robert Knepper). Samuel received his comeuppance, but it was not as expected. It was much tamer and less satisfying.

 Was it truly Peter’s destiny to tackle Samuel while Hiro took all those with abilities to a safe distance away? Was Sylar even needed to help Emma (Deanne Bray) when all she had to do was flick her fingers and it sent Doyle (David H. Lawrence) flying? With Samuel seconds away from mass destruction and the death of thousands, would not his loyal family at the carnival rallied on their own and stopped him? After all, they each had some pretty amazing abilities as well. Surely, Eli the Replicator (Todd Stashwick) and Edgar the knife-wielding speedster (Ray Park) would have intervened, or even the two-faced puppet-master Doyle would surely not have allowed Samuel to continue to destroy and kill at whim. Thus, were Sylar, Peter, Noah, Claire and Hiro even needed at all?

 There was a lot of creative interweaving of storylines used to try to justify why they all were needed. But, in the end, it was really about one thing: once everyone saw who Samuel truly was, they would have left him alone anyway. His grand plan was nothing more than a demonstration of his demented desire to demonstrate his superior god-like ability to destroy the world and those who lived within in it. It was evil and insane. But his Achilles heel was that he needed others with abilities for his power to work. It simply made no sense that he would endeavor to kill everyone when he needed them so desperately.

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