Brotherly Love

So I wound up watching the season finale's of both Supernatural and Heroes on the same night, which made for an excellent two hours of television viewing, but was also a bit emotional for me. It struck me that both season finales were about familial bonds and specifically those between brothers. Nathan Petrelli and Dean Winchester both made huge sacrificed themselves for their brothers, and while that wasn't really an unexpected gesture from Dean, Nathan's loyalties had been in question. More than anything in the whole Heroes finale, and possibly more than anything I had seen on television all year, I rooted for Nathan to do the right thing, so while some people might have found the season ender a bit of a let down, I was thoroughly moved. There may have even been an audible cheer.

There was plenty of other stuff to cheer about on Heroes too. Claire continued to be awesome, standing up to everyone and just generally being...awesome. I probably cheered a bit when she jumped out that window to get away from Nathan and Mama Petrelli too. Niki was also amazing. All season long I had been a bit frustrated with where they were going with that character. Her arc had its ups and downs, but she came into her own in the finale. I loved seeing this woman who was so fractured become whole and own her powers was incredibly gratifying. I'm really excited to see what they do with her next season. I hope she gets to kick some ass. What I loved most though was that everyone became the hero they were meant to be in this episode. They all contributed and proved their mettle.

They also set up a villain for nest season, and Hiro traveled back in time. How cool is that? I just don't know how I feel about the potential of losing both Petrelli brothers next season. The cast will be significantly less pretty without them. I do feel fairly certain that Peter will be back. With his healing factor, he's hard to kill, but all Nathan can do is fly. How are they going to explain it if he doesn't die? But I really don't want him to be dead. Adrian Pasdar is the best. He doesn't deserve to be killed off now that he finally has a successful show. And did Sylar get away down the sewer, or did someone, or some thing, take his body? I was thinking that maybe it had something to do with the new villain. The thing is, Heroes has proved it has the balls to kill off characters, but it's also based on comic books, a medium in which death is only a temporary setback. Basically, they can do anything, which is what is so unbelievably cool. Also, did I mention Hiro going back in time?

Anyway, tons of love for the Heroes finale. Slightly less, but not by much, love for the Supernatural finale. The thing about that finale was that there was no way they could live up to last year's finale. Last year they rammed a truck into the Metallicar. That's hardcore. This season finale was obviously trying to simultaneously wrap things up in case the show wasn't renewed and set up next season in case it was. That lead to the ending being a bit anticlimactic, but the relationship between the Winchester brothers is even more powerful than the Petrellis'. Dean never fails to break my heart. Between his love for Sammy, his lack of self-worth, and the fact that he's been brought back from the dead at the cost of someone else twice now, what he did was no surprise. I just have no idea what they are going to do to get out of it. There is no way he's going to risk Sam possibly dying. Also, what's the deal with Sam? Did he come back a little bit wrong, because he seemed to take a lot more pleasure in shooting that guy than I would have expected? The one thing I did think was really strange was that didn't even have a line. That was weird, right? It was pretty clear how proud he was of his boys and how much he loved them though.

All and all, I liked how both shows focused on the familial bonds that have beeb so key to everything throughout the season, whether it was Nathan Petrelli protecting his brother and newly found daughter from having to do things that they would never be able to live with, Niki finally realizing that she was the one with the power to protect her family, or Dean refusing to let Sam go, they all touched on the emotional threads that had been building all season. It might have been nice if there was a bit more action in both finales. There was plenty of potential for that in both, but considering how much these shows actually made me feel something for the characters, which is more of a rarity than one would think, I can overlook that.