The Top Ten Moments of "Heroes" Season One

The first season of "Heroes," NBC's smash hit of the fall television season, sent shockwaves through the country by shocking us with its astonishing success. As the season came to a close on Monday, May 21, 2007, it become easier to look back and pick out some of the season's best moments. Yet choosing a top ten list of these phenomenal moments, be they shocking, heart-wrenching, or adrenaline-racing moments, was far from easy. Here are my personal top ten moments of the "Heroes" first season.

At number ten is the first trademark-suspenseful conclusion to an episode: Peter learns the hard way that he can't fly without his brother ("Genesis"). After spending all night camping out on top of a tall building thinking about his destiny, Peter decides to prove himself to Nathan by jumping off and showing him what he can do. Unfortunately, Peter was about to find out two things: first, that it was Nathan who possessed the gift of flight, and second, jumping off the roof of a high building without knowing how to channel one's abilities will likely result in a trip to the hospital. The show's writers definitely sent viewers' minds reeling as we witnessed the first of many shocking moments "Heroes" would have to offer.

Speaking of the flying Petrelli brothers, coming in at number nine is Nathan's first amazing flight from danger that we get to witness in full ("Hiro's"). When HRG and the mysterious Haitian abduct him from his Vegas hotel room, Nathan makes a run for it across a fenced-in lot. When HRG and the Haitian catch up to him, he promises that now that he's seen their faces, he's going to get payback; HRG, however, assures him otherwise, instructing the Haitian to put him down. Nathan takes a quick defensive stance . . . and then it's up, up, and away for Nathan "Flying Man" Petrelli. If anything was as great as watching him take off into the blue sky, leaving a brilliant white ring of smoke behind him, it was seeing Hiro Nakamura's expression when he witnessed "Flying Man" landing!

The number eight moment spans two episodes. In "Genesis", Hiro uses his newfound gift to teleport himself to New York City; in "Don't Look Back" he learns that he has teleported into the future, and witnesses the bomb that is set to go off by season's end. This marked the beginning of Hiro's heroic journey as he came to face the fact that his destiny was, in some way, to help make sure the future he saw didn't come to pass. In this combination of "Heroes" moments, we see two sides of one of our favorite heroes. The first is the rapturous joy characteristic of Hiro's frequent moments on screen, while the latter showed him embracing the seriousness that was sure to overtake the season as it progressed towards the realization that the bomb was getting closer and closer.

People say that the number thirteen is supposed to be unlucky. If I believed in such things, I'd suggest that this explains why episode thirteen, titled "The Fix", ended so poorly for Mr. Bennet. After capturing Sylar in the aftermath of the Homecoming incident, Bennet has his staff putting the man through one strenuous test after another until he receives a call telling him the villain has died. Anyone who had watched the series to that point could have told you that his overly confident stroll into Sylar's cell could only mean bad things (well, that and seeing the "dead" Sylar's eyes open a bit earlier in the episode). As Bennet pulls back the cloth over "Sylar" he is stunned when he finds the doctor who notified him of the death strapped down and beaten to a pulp in his stead. Whirling around, he is faced by a smirking Sylar, who casually asks the question that comes in at number seven on this list: "How's Claire?" The moment that makes this scene particularly priceless is the look of absolute terror on Bennet's face. Being in charge of a branch of a major cover operation to seek and study people with abilities: a couple million dollars, maybe. Bennet's tests on Sylar to find out what makes him "tick": another load of dollars. The look of horror that came over Bennet's face when he realized he was now cornered by the man he'd been torturing: priceless.

When "Heroes" went on hiatus, show producers promised an explosive return in April. I'm guessing they had episode 20, "Five Years Gone", in mind. In this episode, viewers see what our heroes' world is like after the bomb has gone off. Nathan is a creepy president. Kind-hearted Matt Parkman is a ruthless Homeland Security officer. Claire is in hiding in Texas. Peter has a scar. By episode's end, the Hiro we know and love, who has teleported himself and Ando to this dismal future, is just about ready to return to his own time and make sure none of the events leading to this take place. Nathan shows up to put an end to the ruckus taking place under his leadership, and Peter learns a very disturbing truth. Nathan is dead, killed by the explosion that Peter, not Sylar, caused. The Nathan-wannabe is none other than Sylar himself. This new revelation sends Peter into a rage, and brings us to moment number six on this list. As Sylar and Peter get ready for a cowboy-style face-off, we see both their hands begin to glow, revealing that they've each absorbed Ted Sprague's power. As Hiro tries to concentrate and take Ando and himself back to their own space in time, Mohinder Suresh tries desperately to hold shut a metal door that is quickly caving to the immense power of the two fighters. The last we see of the future is a brilliant blue and gold flash of light growing in intensity, with Suresh shouting in the distance. Hopefully some other "Heroes" fans were thinking the same thing I thought when I saw that scene: if that's what a future fight between those two holds, I can't wait to see their real showdown in the season finale!

Bringing us to the midway point of this list is the moment many fans were dying to see for much of the beginning of the series: the revelation of Claire's biological father. As the season went on and more characters were introduced, many began forming guesses as to who the lucky man was that brought a wonder like Claire Bennet into the world. Guesses ranged from either Peter or Nathan Petrelli to Linderman himself, and there were even guesses that Mr. Bennet was, in fact, her real father all along. The truth was revealed to us at the end of "Distractions" when Meredith Gordon, her biological mother, places a call to the father to inform him that their daughter is still alive. As the news sinks in, the man on the other end sits down in his chair and his face comes into view, revealing that Claire Bennet is actually Claire Petrelli . . . daughter to Nathan Petrelli.

At number four is a scene from the season finale, in which many of the remaining heroes come together to fight Sylar in the season's final showdown. As Peter Petrelli and Noah Bennet-yes, we also hear his first name for the first time in this episode-walk across an open courtyard in New York City, Sylar appears, using one of his abilities to mentally throw Bennet across the open area and out of the fighting field. Matt Parkman arrives and opens fire, only to be brought down by his own bullets. As Sylar tells Peter he's not strong enough to stop him, someone we know has great strength, Niki Sanders, grabs a parking meter and beats Sylar with it before being sent to safety by Peter. Hiro finally gets the chance we've all been waiting for to stab Sylar, and takes it; yet just as he prepares to do Peter's wish of stabbing him, too, Sylar sends him flying. The greatest thing about this thoroughly exciting scene was seeing all the heroes finally coming together under one cause to fight one common enemy, an enemy some of them had never even come into contact with before. The scene seemed almost reminiscent of a futuristic western showdown; a lone, seemingly out of place taxicab that rolled through the scene before chaos broke out only added to the mood, like a tumbleweed signaling the calm before the storm of a gun-or, super human ability-battle.

The "Heroes" moment that comes in at number three takes us for a much more sentimental mood. The final moments of the episode titled "Company Man" were some of the most powerful of the season. In a final flashback to Noah Bennet's past, we learn how he came to own the famous wire-rimmed glasses that made him known as HRG throughout the series. As Noah and Claire try to pick out the perfect pair of glasses for the father, Claire wonders aloud if she'll need glasses, since both her father and grandfather needed them. It is at this moment that Bennet first reveals to Claire that she was adopted. He then goes on to give the most touching speech of the season as Claire struggles to understand how her adoptive family can be her real family if they aren't her real parents. "What makes us real," he tells his distraught daughter, "isn't where you come from, it's how much we love you. And we love you very much . . . I love you very much. You didn't grow inside your mother-you grew inside our hearts." It's somewhat cheesy, yes, but one would have to have a heart of stone not to feel at least a twinge of a tear forming after that moment, particularly with what came next. In order to make sure Claire remained safe from the Company, Bennet allows himself to be shot by the Haitian; he then orders him to take any memories that would lead the Company to Claire. His final words to his heartbroken daughter are, endearingly, "I love you, Claire-bear."

That's about as sentimental as this list gets. At number two on the list is the final scene from the classic "Hiro's" episode. As Peter and Mohinder return from an unsuccessful visit to Isaac Mendez's loft, Peter begs Mohinder to return with him one last time so he can prove himself to be more than just some guy who wants to be special. As Mohinder begins to reply, time slows down until everyone but Peter is completely frozen. As Peter looks around frantically for the cause of this phenomenon, a mysterious man clad in Black and carrying a sword appears, informing Peter that he has a message for him. Peter, who is also informed in this scene that he looks "different without the scar," informs the mysterious man that he doesn't know him. "Not yet," replies the man in black, before continuing to announce, "My name is Hiro Nakamura, I'm from the future. I have a message for you." All this leads to the famous prophecy that would linger for the remainder of the first season: "Save the cheerleader, save the world." If the enduring prophecy takes its rank at second place, it seems only natural that the number one spot would be that prophecy's fulfillment. In the long-awaited season finale, Peter is on the verge of becoming the "exploding man" many heroes have invested their destinies in. Peter, Hiro, and Isaac have spent this season trying to ensure the bomb doesn't go off. Nathan, on the other hand, has aligned himself with Linderman in believing the bomb is necessary to ensure a better future, a future that just happens to include his place as President of the United States. In the end, it seems the Petrelli family plays the most central role in the fulfillment or prevention of the bomb. Peter is the bomb, Claire is entrusted with shooting him if he finds himself unable to control himself, and Nathan is trying to ensure that the bomb goes off. In the season finale's final scenes, Peter is quickly losing control of his abilities. Claire is just about to shoot him as he assures her that there is no other way to stop this. Just in the nick of time, Nathan flies into the scene. Mirroring Claire's statement to him earlier, he tells them that "The future isn't set in stone." As Peter begs Nathan to get away, Nathan comforts him by telling him another way is possible to keep people from dying: "You saved the cheerleader," he tells him, "so that we could save the world." As the brothers confess their love for each other, Nathan takes Peter into his arms and flies him up to explode a safe distance away from anyone, leaving us to witness little more than a brilliant light in some distant part of the star-filled sky. It was the moment so many of us were waiting for, hoping against, and eager to understand, and for this among so many other reasons it takes its place as the number one moment of season one of "Heroes."