Spoiler:How to Stop an Exploding Man

How to Stop an Exploding Man
Season:	One
Episode number:	123
First aired:	May 21, 2007
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Previous spoiler:	Landslide
Next spoiler:	Four Months Later

This article contains archived spoilers about How to Stop an Exploding Man. See the main article to see how they panned out. For general spoilers about upcoming episodes, see Spoiler:Heroes. For Season Two spoilers, see here.

NBC Blurb

Heroes rise and fall in the shocking season finales written by executive producer/creator Tim Kring and directed by executive producer Allan Arkush -- With Isaac's horrible predictions all unfolding before them, the everyday people with extraordinary abilities face moments of pain and peril in Kirby Plaza with unflinching heroism, as "Heroes" first volume comes to a close -- and the next surprisingly begins.

Published Spoilers

• " 'The bomb' is a...series regular, male and was in the pilot" (SpoilerFix, citing Ask Ausiello @ TV Guide as their source)
• "Four Characters End the Season 'in Peril': This is what the cast told me today, and I think 'peril' is code for 'may or may not be coming back next season.' The good news? I can assure you that Hayden, Milo, Adrian and Ali will all be back for sure next season. I personally think D.L. (duh), Matt (shown injured in the preview) and Ando are most at risk. (Micah and Molly are of course safe, 'cause you can't kill kids on television!)" Watch with Kristin
• A promotional photo for the episode appears to show D.L. alive with Jessica, Micah and Molly.
• 4/17 - Charles Deveaux (Richard Roundtree) and Simone Deveaux (Tawny Cypress) appear in this episode. (NBC description)
• 4/10 - Watch with Kristin reports that Simone just won't stay dead. Simone and her father will mysteriously reappear in the season finale as evolved humans. Her source adds "There are people on the positive and negative side. And Simone is on the negative side... [They] may have some ties to some other characters that we had no idea about before." Watch with Kristin, Spoilers Section
• 03/19 - The climax to season one will be built in a small arc consisting of the last three episodes of the year. These episodes will bring together all of the characters in New York City. Each character will play a unique role, a vital puzzle piece in the season one story. Kring says: "Even though some may feel like they're less significant to the final event, when you analyze it, each one had to play that role in order for the final event to be solved, and so there really was a kind of destiny quality to them coming together and having each one fulfilling thing and one specific role." Heads will roll in these closing episodes, but Kring warns "on a show like Heroes, you may not always stay dead. And with our ability to go back and forth in time, you may be dead, but you may show up on the show a few more times." (Sci Fi Wire)
• 3/12 -- Tim Kring says the show will eventually bring all of the main hero characters together before the season is out. (Sci Fi Wire)
• "Entertainment Weekly went to the set during the shooting of the final three episodes. Their article reveals: Here's Hayden Panettiere, waving away offers of a stunt double as she runs and vaults through a fake window — the front end of a stunt that will send her indestructible cheerleader Claire out of a skyscraper and leave her splattered on the sidewalk. Here are Ali Larter (the schizoid superwoman Niki/Jessica) and Leonard Roberts (the walk-through-walls ex-con D.L.) flooded with emotion over being repeatedly manipulated by an underworld puppet master, Mr. Linderman (Malcolm McDowell). And here's the behind-the-scenes ringleader of this fantastic flying circus, Heroes creator Tim Kring, sauntering onto the set just minutes after writing the final sentence of the season's final episode, in which the show's sprawling, far-flung cast of next-gen X-Men will finally come together Super Friends-style in an attempt to save New York from being torched by a human A-bomb. [...] The finale — right down to its eye-popping last scene — sets the stage for a second season designed to expand the show's creative horizons and commercial potential even further. [...] "I thought I was signing up for a show called Heroes," says Adrian Pasdar, whose morally shaky politico Nathan Petrelli will make a choice in the finale that will affect the destinies of every character on the show. "I didn't know I was going to wind up on Survivor." [...] Kring admits he and his staff "struggled" with Larter's story line but insists "we're going to earn back a lot of goodwill when you see how she's connected to everything." Lessons have been learned, adjustments are being made. Next season, instead of one epic yarn stretched across an entire year, there are likely to be two tighter sagas, or "volumes" in the Heroes parlance. There will be more episodes that burrow deep into a single character — outings like "Company Man." [...] This is the present — a subterranean parking garage, where the Heroes gang is shooting some walk-and-talk that will address a key point in the final episode: Will Claire get sucked into the crazy-corrupt whirlpool that is her newly discovered kin, the Petrelli clan? "I get the sense there will be a lot of objects flying around," hints Quinto [about the finale], who won't comment on rumors that his breakout bad guy will indeed return next season. However, Sylar's Freudian-fraught fight with his mother does ignite the finale's apocalyptic endgame and puts him on the presidential path suggested by April 30's noodle-cooking "possible future" episode. "It's a bad day for the world," says Quinto. "I'm not going back to the watch shop anytime soon." The May 21 season capper will set up two big ideas for the second volume of Heroes, to be titled "Generations."" (SpoilerFix)

Fan Theories

• Sylar will not be killed because Tim Kring still wants Zachary Quinto on the cast for season two.
• Simone Deveaux (who is in this episode) was healed by Linderman.
• Ando will still die, believing that Hiro has abandoned his quest and will try to kill Sylar himself.
• Candice lets Micah go after learning of Linderman's death.
• We will find out that Candice is in reality, obese/ugly/disfigured, and her "real" image so far is in fact an illusion. Perhaps Candice dies protecting Micah from someone (perhaps Sylar), and her true form shows with her death.
• Hiro will teleport in a panic when the explosion starts, and accidentally travel to 16th century Japan, where he becomes Takezo Kensei. This is where he will be followed for season two.
• Peter still explodes, losing control after he is slashed across the face by the piece of glass that was pulled from his head. He is slashed by Nathan/his mother. However, this still doesn't explain why the cut wouldn't heal.
• Hiro stabs Sylar as depicted in the the unfinished 9th wonders. Sylar explained that he took the powers from those who were not deserving, and gets sympathy from Hiro. When Peter explodes, Hiro teleports/time travels himself and Sylar to safety.
• (off on a tangent). Hiro says in Landslide that to become a true hero, he must have the strength to cut out his own heart (ie, to make the ultimate sacrifice). Perhaps in season 2, Sylar and Hiro become friends. At some point, Hiro will become mortally injured. To ensure that his powers are not lost, he asks a reluctant and remorseful Sylar to kill him and take his power (eating Hiro's brains) in order to complete their important mission (whatever it may be). Perhaps the Kensei story is a metaphor, Hiro is Kensei, Sylar is the dragon, and Hiro's brain is what Kensei offers to the dragon to take.
• The "two big ideas for season 2 titled Generations" (see above quote from Entertainment Weekly article) that are being setup in the "How to Stop an Exploding Man": one of the themes will be the antagonism between the two big power forces in play.... the true heroes of the Nakamura lineage, and the 'bad' guys of the Linderman/Petrelli/Deveaux lineage.
• Molly and Micah cannot stay in the show (serials do not do well with kids, because they have a bad habit of growing up). Perhaps the other big idea is a brand new future, with adult versions of Molly and Micah. So season two will be about 2 stories, the past, and the future, with the back-story from season 1 acting as the bridge which connects the two story lines.
• The Haitian, who wears a necklace of the symbol, in fact works for Nakamura as a spy on the Petrelli.
• Hiro goes back in time and saves Simone Deveaux and Isaac. Then he teleports into the future where he and Ando are at Jittetsu and tells Ando to come with him. Ando is confused because Hiro just went into a room with his father.
• Candice, in her attempt to bring Micah to Niki, is chased by Sylar. As a result Candice is killed protecting Micah. Sylar takes her power and Micah just barely escapes out of Linderman's casino. Peter is the Uluru (the rock monster) from one of Isaac's comics. The "petra" sound in Peter's last name means rock in Italian. Sylar is the Dragon. Kensei is Hiro and Claire is the "Princess" (like in the Kensei stories) he is supposed to save. Peter faces Sylar once again, Claire sees Sylar for the first time since Homecoming. Hiro and Ando will arrive, Peter starts absorbing Hiro's power. He says that he and Peter are the dragon and Uluru respectively. Both of them stop time and Hiro realizes that his time travel power is stronger. He convinces Peter that they should go back and kill Sylar together. Hiro says, "Time travel more powerful. We do it together." Peter agrees. "What about Claire? We just can't leave her here." "You grab cheerleader, I grab Ando. Ichi, Ni, San (one, two three)." They end up on the same roof top six hours before the election. "Yatta." Hiro turns back to Peter, Claire, and Ando. He puts on a serious face, pushes up his glasses, and says "We saved the cheerleader. Now we save the world." Hiro smiles and Claire and Ando smile back.
• Candice will use her powers to make Hiro think that Claire is Sylar in order to prevent him from stopping the explosion. Hiro will stab Claire instead.

Gallery

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  D.L., Niki, Micah, and Molly look up.
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  Hiro wields a bloody sword.
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  The last three minutes are reported to show Hiro time traveling to ancient Japan.