My dadgum DVR cut off the last minute of Heroes last night, and I haven’t managed to make the streaming version on NBC.com work yet, so I’ll have to make due.

String Theory Five Years Gone was a tremendous episode.  Taking an established story and jumping five years into the future was something that could have been a ‘jump the shark’ moment.  And, you know, at times during the episode, I thought that it might have done so.  But it became one of the strongest chapters that the series has seen yet. 

There was so much going on in this episode, it’s tough to decide where to even begin this discussion.  2012 is certainly a dark time for our heroes…the ones that are still with us, anyway.  We discovered throughout the episode that several of the ’specials’ that we’ve come to know have died in the five years…DL, Ted and Candace were killed by Sylar, it would seem, as well as the loss of Micah and Molly Walker, the little girl that Parkman found hiding under the stairs back at the beginning of the series.  Then, during the episode, some big characters went down. 

Parkman has really seemed to have changed in these past five years.  The slightly goofy guy that seems like he’s just trying to come to grips with this power that he doesn’t understand is gone…he’s a ruthless agent who will not hesitate to take out anyone that gets in his way.  The artist formerly known as HRG is the first of his victims, even though Bennet helped to hide Parkman’s son, who also had special powers.  Next, he shot future Hiro in the back. 

Peter’s also a different person now.  Gone is the little yuppie guy who just doesn’t know what to do with all of these powers he keeps getting stuck with.  Now he’s the very definition of superhero.  For the first time, I’m starting to agree with the concerns that I’ve heard several times about Peter being the unstoppable hero.  I’ve had the feeling all along that maybe he would lose his powers if he wasn’t around that particular hero for a while, but now it seems that, once he’s absorbed a power, he has it for good.  I’m getting the impression more and more that he might not survive the season, at least in his current state.

Nathan was the thing that almost put me over the edge in this episode.  Sure, he may have toed the line a bit in the bast few episodes…but the Nathan that we saw last night was so radically different from the noble, if somewhat flawed man that we’ve come to know this season.  What could possibly have happened to him to change him so?  Oh, he had his head cut open and his brains eaten by Sylar.  Gotcha. That reveal was one of my favorite moments, not just of the episode, but of the whole season. 

I’ll hit on a few more points briefly…

• It looks like Niki finally wins out in her battle with Jessica.  But I kind of got the impression that maybe she can switch between the two personalities at will now.  Will we see Jessica and Niki make some sort of pact?
• Did you notice that the legislation that accounts for the rounding up of the specials was called ‘The Linderman Act’?  Where’s Linderman?  Does he know that Sylar has killed Nathan?  Was he killed by Sylar, too?
• I love the relationship between Hiro and Ando.  They’ve always come across as the comedic relief of the show, and they’ve played off of each other well.  But come to find out, the reason that Hiro has become this somber person in the future was the loss of his dear friend.  Extremely well done.
• The first part of the Peter/Sylar showdown was awesome.  All I saw was the part where they both lit up with Ted’s radioactive power…and then my DVR stopped.  I’m still upset about that.

This may sound sort of twisted, but I would kind of like to see the bomb go off.  There are several storylines that I would really love to see fleshed out, such as the way that Sylar took over Nathan’s position in the Oval Office,  and the way that Peter became the warrior that he did…actually, I’d love to see how everyone got to where they did.  If the bomb doesn’t go off, and the story continues in another direction, I feel like there won’t be much need to revisit all of this.