AirLockAlpha.com

This review may contain spoilers.

A watchmaker, a paramedic, a cheerleader, a cop, an office worker and a man who holds a grudge – these are the heroes we are relying on to save the world from an egomaniacal terra-shifter?

In what should have been a revealing and tension-filled penultimate episode to an epic 4th season finale, instead the episode meandered down tangential storylines.

However, there is simply no time left for long, drawn-out back story revelations like they attempted to do in order to shed light on Noah’s (Jack Coleman) past and his recruitment by the Company. It felt out of place and rushed to take the time to tell this particular story now. Rather, this was the time for the heroes to gather and formulate a strategic plan on how to confront and take-down Samuel (Robert Knepper).

At this late juncture, there is no cohesiveness on what our heroes are up to because they are too scattered and too invested in their personal stakes to be relied upon. But perhaps they can pull it together in next week’s finale episode -- though it is dubious that this season’s finale will be the ending we were all hoping for.

After all, how will our heroes survive to fight Samuel together in the season 4 finale when they are strewn to the four winds and all in mortal peril?

What Worked

While it was also a detour that the series did not have time for so that it could be explored properly, it was interesting to watch how Sylar (Zachary Quinto) and Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) reacted when confined together within Sylar’s mind for a long period of time. Sylar, imprisoned in his mind for three years without any human contact, reverted to being a genteel watchmaker - perhaps wanting to atone for his sins.

But after the sudden appearance of Peter in the midst of his solitary confinement, Sylar did not rush to welcome him. Instead, Sylar taunted Peter as if Peter were but a figment of his imagination. Truly, is this how Sylar would have greeted Peter when Peter appeared suddenly amidst his eternal loneliness? While Sylar may have appeared benign, Sylar was still a monster imprisoned in the solitary confinement of his own mind. So when Peter approached him about returning to the real world in order to save Emma, Sylar merely said with sad self-awareness, “You’ve got the wrong guy. I’m not the savior kind.” When Peter accused him of not wanting to get out, Sylar further protested, “Maybe I deserve all this aloneness – this nothing – maybe I earned it.”

It was only once Sylar desired to be truly free that the wall appeared. The wall represented the obstacle they must overcome to attain their freedom. After all, they were in a voluntary prison. For it was not until they both wanted their solitary confinement to end that they were finally able to break through the wall. What was even more intriguing was when they got out, Sylar thoughtfully noted, “I felt like we were in there for years.

Does it make it any less real?” Maybe Sylar needed to be isolated for a period of years in order to sort out within himself the conflicting feelings of murderous lust for abilities and his desire to not live alone for the rest of eternity. And maybe Peter needed time to heal and to forgive Sylar so that they could work together to fight Samuel. After all, they will likely need each other and will need to trust each other in the final showdown.

What Didn't Work

It felt unbelievable and out of character for Emma (Deanne Bray) to willingly betray Lauren (Elisabeth Rohm) to Samuel after Lauren came to her for medical aid. As someone who so desperately wants to be a doctor, Emma would surely know that handing over a woman fearful for her own safety to her attacker is not the moral or ethical thing to do; and it must violate some kind of Hippocratic Oath that she did so.

However, in doing so, Emma did bring about the mesmerizing confrontation between Samuel and Lauren. When Samuel tried to justify and rationalize his twisted motivations by stating, “We deserve admiration and respect,” Lauren incredulously exclaimed,” And you intend to take it?” To which Samuel then harshly replied, “What would you have me do? Continue with this life? Live in a carnival? Wasted years – unfulfilled years. I could have been so much more ... you know how powerful I could really be if I brought them here? My brother said I could move mountains, cities. I wonder: is it true? Can I change the world?”

It was illuminating to see how clearly Samuel is intoxicated by the idea of supreme power – as if he could be God and reshape the entire Earth. But echoing Lauren’s soft prayer, “I hope to God we never find out,” we too should be worried what Samuel intends to do once his dream of gathering all the specials together comes true. Thus, it was with a bit of relief that we learned that Lauren had escaped his evil clutches. Perhaps she and Tracy (Ali Larter) will manage to foil his evil plan.

Also out of character was seeing how Samuel continued to spin his web of deceit in attempt to lure Claire (Hayden Panettiere) to his side and how Claire kind of bought into it after Damien (Harry Perry) revealed the sins of her father’s past. Claire saw, with equal parts wonder and dismay, that Noah had a family before – and his wife and child had been murdered by a special.

That was what made Noah the man he is today, for afterwards he embarked on his fatal quest to capture and kill the man who destroyed his life – which ultimately put him on the radar of the Company. Claire, “That’s how you became Mr. Bag-and-Tag.” Yet even with all these sins and secrets revealed, Claire did not abandon her own father and rejected Samuel’s offer when he said, “You will inherit this new world. It’s your legacy.” Thus, it was inconceivable that when Claire ultimately rejected him one last time that Samuel chose to bury her alive. For if he truly needed her, why in the world did he just discard her in a fit of piqued anger underneath 50 feet of dirt? This seemed to undercut the necessity of having Claire with him for his master plane to come to fruition.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"Heroes" stars Jack Coleman, Greg Grunberg, James Kyson Lee, Masi Oka, Hayden Panettiere, Cristine Rose, Milo Ventimiglia, Robert Knepper, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Zachary Quinto. "The Wall" was written by Adam Armus and Kay Foster and directed by Allan Arkush.

"Heroes" airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on NBC.