Andi and I also liked the little moment between Micah and Molly at the elevator.

I half expected Molly to say "That is so cool."

Well, I thought the point was that she'd have to shoot him in such a way as to destroy his brain altogether (there was a line about her knowing the "right place" to aim for), thus rendering him incapable of both blowing up and also healing himself. I got the sense that she'd need to shoot him in such a way as to make healing basically impossible. (Although, if he can heal from exploding in atmo you'd think a bullet wound wouldn't be too troublesome, so... I don't know.)

See, I too the "right place" to be the same place that the glass was in that Claire removed, meaning that Claire could later remove the bullet too. Maybe I understood it wrong.

See, I too the "right place" to be the same place that the glass was in that Claire removed, meaning that Claire could later remove the bullet too. Maybe I understood it wrong.

I don't know anything about guns but don't bullets sometimes ricochet around in the skull? I think Claire hitting that "right place" would destroy Peter's brain enough that he couldn't heal. And just randomly shooting somewhere else would make just make Peter loose control (Ted in "Company Man").

I thought that the one person Molly was afraid of was Linderman.

Also, I totally flashed on Buffy and Angel when Claire was trying to shoot Peter.

Upon rewatch:

How come Peter could pick up Niki's power five seconds after he met her, but he couldn't fly himself away?

I don't think he necessarily did. He could have just been punching him. Sylar didn't really have time to try to get up after Nikki knocked the crap out of him. Peter might have just been kickin' his ass old school.

And on further reflection, I think even though they wouldn't do it, and even though it would be a hit to the minority and gender ratios, I'd be OK if this was the last we saw of the Sanders/Hawkins clan. Really, where else do we have to go with them, now that Nikki and Jessica are apparently starting to integrate? Micah's adorable, but it just feels like it would be an acceptable end to their story.

I don't have a problem with that, but time for them to include more people of color as part of their cast, then.

I'm going to put my belief in the comic-book-'verse ruleguideline that says that it's very very hard to actually kill superheros, who are always coming back from the dead with the slightest of pretexts.

(Which may indicate that Rasputin, in fact, was a superhero. But never mind.)

I actually really love the super strength idea - that Peter picked it up from Jessica.

I really hate, however, that Peter couldn't/didn't fly off on his own when we know he can fly - or that his inability to fly at that moment wasn't established previously. This was one of my favorite shows this season, but I didn't think the finale met the bar set by the rest of the season.

(Which may indicate that Rasputin, in fact, was a superhero. But never mind.)

Superhero, supervillain, whichever. Ain't either one of 'em easy to permanently kill. Though I have to say, the giant hole in the skull and matching fist sized hole in the brain on Linderman are pretty tough to come back from.

I believe Peter told Nathan that he "couldn't do anything" at Kirby Plaza, which I took to mean that he couldn't operate his other powers, couldn't fly himself away. That he was trying to use his other powers and failing.

The "shot in the head" solution seemed iffy to me even back when Peter first gave Claire the gun. Not a guarentee in stopping the bomb. I think Nathan was saving his daughter from having to do something horrible.

I also have a theory that Peter needed to vent all that power. That if he got shot, he'd have to stay dead, that they couldn't (shouldn't) risk removing the bullet that would allow him to heal, because then the overload would start all over again. With Nathan sacrificing himself by flying Peter up up and away, Peter gets to purge this surplus of power and reset himself. In the future, Peter didn't seem to be in danger of exploding again, so I think it's a one-time Boom.

Also, wouldn't Nathan need to fly Peter up above the atmosphere so no radiation or whatnot fell back onto NYC? So maybe they both suffocated, the blood boiled out their ears, Peter 'sploded, and now their ashes are in orbit around the planet.