Heroes

So, we've finally reached the end of the Heroes Season 2 DVD set and watched all the episodes and special features. So many people said that it wasn't as good as the first series and I've gotta say I both agree and disagree as well.

At the end of Season 2 we see Peter stop the virus from being spread by using his telekinesis to catch the falling vial, and that was indeed a bit of a cop out. Everything so far has lead to this virus being released on the world and yet Peter manages to stop it so easily despite everything happening as it had in the timeline he visited where the virus had been released. So what changed that stopped the virus being released? Well, for starters the American Writer's Guild went on strike.

What Could Have Been
You see, in the original scripts for Season 2 the vial had hit the floor and smashed. The rest of the season had the heroes dealing with the outbreak and trying to find a cure for the virus while their parents tried to stop their secrets coming out, with occasionally lethal results. The town of Odessa gets quarantined, a government official (the same man who showed Peter around in the future) shows up to contain the disease, Nathan falls ill with the virus, Mohinder is called in as the only man to have ever cured it, Claire breaks into the quarantine area to help cure the virus, Mohinder creates a vaccine from Claire's blood that successfully cures the virus but this is stolen, the man charged with containing the disease really works with the surviving members of the heroes parents and is under orders to let the town die to contain the secret hence him stealing the cure. Finally Maya, who had learned to control her abilities in that time, arrives and uses her abilities to draw the virus into herself, curing everyone and sacrificing herself in the process. So, as you can see, this season would have been just as good if not better than the original if it had been filmed any earlier. Unfortunately the Writer's Guild strike happened halfway through the filming of episodes 11, 12 and 13 (three episodes are filmed at a time) and presented the show's creators with a choice - keep the storyline as it is and face a cliffhanger that could potentially last months, or wind the story up quickly and skip the virus outbreak. Obviously they chose the latter which was the right thing to do considering how long the strike lasted, but made a lot of the build up mean virtually nothing. In a special feature on the DVD some of the lost footage from the original plans is presented as an alternate ending. This is footage that had already been filmed when the strike occured and shows the direction the series would have taken. It's just such a shame that they didn't get the chance to explore that avenue fully.

Sylar The Sailor Man
The Season 3 preview shows Sylar injecting himself with Mohinder's serum and getting his powers back. He reaches out, testing himself, and a can flies across an alleyway towards him. He catches the can and we can see that its a can of Spinach. A great comedic touch to an otherwise creepy moment with a truly great villain.