The Heroes Prophecy and the Power of Love

"Save the Cheerleader, Save the World." With this message from the future, Hiro Nakamura brought one of television's most complicated and perplexing prophecies to life. In the shadow of this message, events in the NBC smash-hit "Heroes" timeline were set into motion in ways few could understand until the season finale that aired on May 21, 2007. In this article, we will examine Hiro's message and try to understand how it was fulfilled.

The first thing we need to understand is that this prophecy, in order to be understood as having been fulfilled, cannot be considered a prophecy based solely in the characters' literal interpretations of it. For example, in the episode "Fallout," Hiro and Ando debate the point of whether or not the world is doomed since they failed to save the cheerleader. Ando examines the prophetic statement as a before and after statement: "First save the cheerleader, then save the world." Hiro, on the other hand, looks at is as an if-then statement: "If you save the cheerleader, then you can save the world." In the course of the remainder of the season, we begin to see how both interpretations play together. Ando is correct in his assertion that the mission came in two parts: the first key factor was the saving of the cheerleader, Claire Bennet. The part both Hiro and Ando seem to overlook, however, is that in the original message, neither of them were really part of this mission. Future Hiro tells Peter to "be the one we need." The saving of the Cheerleader was Peter's mission. It makes sense for this to be the case. As all who have watched this season should know by now, Claire is one of the most connected heroes in the series. She is the adopted daughter of the only man who really knows how to protect the other heroes from those who would hunt them down. She is the actual daughter of Nathan Petrelli, who as we also know is deeply embedded in the prophecy, as well; according to Linderman, it is his destiny that in the wake of the bomb, Nathan will be the leader who will unite the people of New York, and even the world. Being Nathan's daughter also makes her, obviously, Peter Petrelli's niece, giving them a very special bond already. In saving her life, Peter forms an emotional bond with Claire as well; he is her hero, and she is his hope. This fact is important to understanding the full range of the prophecy's fulfillment.

Hiro is also correct in his belief that the prophecy serves as a type of if-then statement. It is by saving Claire that Peter, for whom we've established the message was actually meant, is able to save the world. This does not come about, however, in the way we might think, as was revealed by the season finale. Many fans of the show had been hoping that somehow it would turn out that Peter was not meant to be the bomb at all; in his own dreams, like the ones in which he saw himself flying, the true main figure in the dream was rarely himself, and many hoped the same would be true of his apocalyptic dream as well. Yet in this hope, we may fail to realize that Peter did in fact see himself in the flying dream; he saw the fall from the roof, which actually happened, as well as a vision of flying over the city which, if we are to believe what Nathan told him after the rooftop incident, likely happened as well. The key to his dreams, then, is that Peter never saw the full story. Keeping this in mind, we turn to the vision he had in the "Fallout" and "Godsend" episodes. Let's focus on the expanded vision in "Godsend", in which Peter sees himself explode and the deaths of the two most important people in his life at the time: Nathan and Simone. As with the first dream, the events of this vision do occur, just not entirely in the way he sees them. Simone does die, and he is, in part, responsible for that, just like in the dream; only the time and place of her death are different. As we learn from the season finale, the part involving Nathan was closer to what actually occurred. Yet the way he saw this in his dream suggested something very important about how this dream, like the prophecy, would come to pass; Nathan would be with him, on his side, in the end, unlike in the future Linderman painted for the older Petrelli brother.

This point returns us to the original prophecy: "Save the cheerleader, save the world." In the course of the season, we learn that Future Hiro believed that saving the cheerleader from Sylar would keep Sylar from being able to regenerate when the Hiro of our present time killed him. He also believed that saving her would be what it took to keep the bomb from killing millions. On the first point, Hiro was dead on. In the season finale, we finally witness the final standoff between the powers of good and evil. Hiro finally finds the strength to face his fears and take on Sylar, stabbing him in one of the final heart-pounding scenes of the finale. Had Claire not been saved, Sylar, as Future Hiro predicted, would have been able to regenerate and complete his plan of making Peter the villain who blew up New York. Learning Sylar's final game plan, however, is also important to understanding the prophecy's fulfillment. We learn that it was never Sylar's final plan to blow up New York; this leads us back to the understanding that it was, in fact, Peter all along who was going to explode. This is key to understanding how the remainder of the prophecy was fulfilled. Had Peter not saved Claire, she never would have been around to remind the other major player in the prophecy's fulfillment of the power of love. In one of their final scenes together, Claire reminds Nathan that "The future isn't written in stone." Her questions to Mrs. Petrelli and Nathan in that scene, wondering how they could live with allowing their son and brother to die, are what reminded Nathan of his love for Peter and the loyalty he's had to him all along. Throughout Volume One of "Heroes", we've come to understand that despite his cold and seemingly heartless exterior, Nathan is a figure ruled by his heart, much like Peter; he was simply better at hiding this fact from both the world and himself. We had subtle reminders of his ability to love and feel both compassion and loyalty to those he loved throughout the season: his constant guilt over his wife's paralysis, his longing to provide for Peter, his guilt over abandoning his daughter, his kindness to Hiro Nakamura, and so on. His major flaw was allowing himself to be guided by the influences of those who shared his desire to see him succeed, namely his mother and Mr. Linderman. Yet in the end, it was the heart-broken and heartbreaking words of his troubled daughter that reminded him of his bond to his heart. And so we come to the prophecy's full completion. Peter saved the cheerleader-and, in his own way, Nathan worked to ensure her safety as well-as he was meant to do. In saving her, he found the hope he needed to continue. He also found the personal strength he needed, because of his compassion for her and the others he feared he might hurt, to control his abilities long enough to keep from killing the innocents around him. Claire becomes central to the rest of the prophecy's fulfillment by representing the familial allegiance and love it took to remind both Peter and Nathan of its importance in whatever destiny they had. In the end, her reminder to Nathan of the importance of love was what enabled him to help Peter save the world. As he reveals to Peter in the finale, "You saved the cheerleader so that we could save the world."

Ultimately, it was the love that ran through the veins of these two men that led to the fulfillment of Future Hiro's prophecy. If we consider it further, it was love that in due course served as the greatest power of them all throughout this entire series. It was the power that brought all the heroes and their friends together. Mohinder's love of his father, and longing to understand the man he barely knew, brought him to New York where he was able to help and save some of our heroes. Isaac's love for Simone aided him in his willingness to try and prevent the impending doom his paintings showed; his general love for life and humanity allowed him to sacrifice himself after showing the world how to kill Sylar. Noah Bennet's love for his daughter led him to make great sacrifices to ensure her safety and help bring down the organization he worked for. Matt Parkman's love for his wife and unborn child, and his compassion for ones such as Molly, resulted in his sacrifices in trying to help stop Sylar. The love that flowed through the Hawkins-Sanders family kept them together and saw them through a great deal, leading them to fulfill their part in helping to save the world. Ultimately, the power of love was the fulfillment of Future Hiro's prophecy. As Charles Deveaux reminded Peter more than once in this powerful season, "All that really matters in the end is love."