It's a tradeoff -- if Heroes were a feature film, they'd have the budget for major SFX battles, but we'd only get two hours or so to fit a big story into. Police trucks going ass over teakettle are going to be used sparingly with a weekly series.

I'd have settled for Nikki getting a few more good, convincing hits in, and using CGI for some blood sprays out of Sylar in place of one of the white eyed fast-forwards we got.

I have just been watching some of the earlier episodes on-line, and now I am wondering how exactly saving the cheerleader saved the world?

now I am wondering how exactly saving the cheerleader saved the world?

In Future!Hiro's original timeline, Sylar killed Claire and had her invulnerability, and it allowed him to survive the explosion. (Whether or not Sylar caused the explosion.)

Also, I think by this point we can assume that NYC != world, except in the sense that explosion --> Nathan's presidency --> Nathan's death --> Sylar assuming Nathan's life didn't occur. Though that is really only valid if Nathan is, in fact dead. In addition to keeping her healing ability in her own brain and not in Sylar's, it may be worth noting that Claire was instrumental in convincing Nathan to sacrifice himself to save NYC from exploding, so in another sense saving the cheerleader *did* save the world, if world = NYC, because being alive and able to speak her mind to Nathan certainly helped lead Nathan to his own sacrifice. So it works both ways, as a prophecy with many potenital meanings and ramifications should.

Ah-- healing ability. I was just watching the "save the cheerleader, save the world" episodes and thinking that Claire was less active in the end than I would have thought from all that.

I have just been watching some of the earlier episodes on-line, and now I am wondering how exactly saving the cheerleader saved the world?

the first person who said this was Future!Hiro, right? i think he was just being dramatic. "save the cheerleader, save New York" just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

I think Future!Hiro meant "save the world of us with powers"

Eta: also, saving the cheerleader couldn't be the key to saving the world, or when Future!Hiro returned to the future the world would have been saved and, as far as he was concerned, it was not. Therefore, Hiro and Ando had to be the keys influencers of change after they returned to the present. So I'm all concerned about what they did after they got back that made the difference. Hiro talking to Nathan, maybe Hiro stabinating Sylar (though that happened in Future!Hiro's timeline also, so probably not), I don't know what else.

Stopping a recognition-hungry serial killer who can generate nuclear-level explosions in a population center and survive to do it again strikes me as more of a world-saving thing.

Good point. I like that better.