Still gives me chills....

Unfortunately, this is the best video I could find of the closing moments of Heroes' first season finale. The background music really couldn't be any more inappropriate, as it really, REALLY takes away from the overall tone of the scene.

Really, everything about this scene was perfect. I still get chills when Nathan swoops in from the sky, turns Claire's gun away, and tells her that the future isn't set in stone (echoing what she had said to him earlier). And his "you saved the cheerleader, so we could save the world" may go down as one of the greatest lines ever uttered in television history.

Unfortunately, this finale acts as such a massive contrast to the second season's finale (which, I suppose, can be somewhat excused since it probably wasn't supposed to be the REAL finale). After this finale, it truly felt like everything was going to be different. Hiro had seemingly achieved his mission and was now in a different time period, preparing to meet his childhood hero. Nathan had come full circle and was possibly dead. Peter fulfilled his destiny and perhaps suffered the same fate. The tumultuous relationship between Claire and HRG (who we had finally learned the first name of) had climaxed with their touching reunion, and Nicki overcame her psychosis, reunited with her family, and proved that she was ultimately good and heroic. It truly felt like the culmination of a well built season. We got Peter vs. Sylar, Hiro vs. Sylar, Nicki and DL vs. Linderman, and HRG vs. The Company.

We also got some nice mirror-scenes. Peter had spent the first half of the season trying to save Claire's life, and now, in the finale, she was going to have to take his.

While season one's finale made me feel like everything would be different in season two, the second season's finale made me feel like season three would be much of the same. Nathan was possibly dead, again. HRG was back with the company and would make personal sacrifices for his family, again. Sylar was going to be the main antagonist, again.

And while season one ended with what felt like the culmination of all the main stories, I personally felt really gipped when I finished watching the end of season two. The last few episodes were clearly leading up to a Claire vs. Elle smackdown. And aside from that being enormously sexy, it made sense too. You had one girl who was protected by her Company father, and you had another who was manipulated and exploited by her Company father. One could heal, the other could inflict immense pain. Instead, we got Claire punching a window and Elle sucking up to her daddy.

Along with that, practically the entire season featured HRG and Mohinder against The Company. I feel like we got nothing out of that, at all. I appreciate that Mohinder drank the Kool-Aid and began to believe in what The Company was selling, but nothing really happened with that, either. If that was the path they were going to take, they should have had Mohinder shoot HRG in the eye in the finale, with the last scene being HRG's resurrection. That would have been cool, and would have been a proper send-off.

The volume --titled "Generations" -- also promised to provide us with information on the previous generation of heroes. Sure, we got a BIT of a history lesson on The Company, but we found out absolutely nothing about the abilities of the parent characters (Nathan and Peter's mom, Hiro's dad, etc). I understand that they may not want to make all of those revelations at once, but when you build an entire volume on the premise of the previous generation of heroes, that's the time to do it.

Honestly, at the end of season one I was not only salivating for season two....but I couldn't wait to buy the DVDs so that I could watch the whole season again. With season two....well, lets just say I wasn't devastated when I found out, after the writers strike, that the should wouldn't be coming back until September. I'll still watch it, and I am fully confident that it will be one of my top five favorite shows. But when it comes to comparing the two finales, there's no competition.