"Heroes": Up, up and away, or down and out?

Excited for next week's finale of "Heroes"? We are, too, but for different reasons. It's not a good sign when the creator of a show admits it's been dragging under the weight of mistakes. But should we hold out hope that the finale can cure the ailments that have plagued this season or just that it ends the pain?

Channel Surfing bloggers Malavika Jagannathan and Adam Reinhard react to last night's episode ("Chapter 10: Truth and Consequences") and what it says about the future of this show.

Dreary and Disappointing: I will be doing a dance when next week's finale brings lukewarm Volume 2 to a swift end.

Last night's episode - here's a recap - was disappointingly flat and as painfully awkward as Mohinder's lame attempt to be a good "Company" man. The only worthwhile plot development was the death of one half of the wonder/moron twins. Although, who knows, with the number of presumably dead people coming back to life on the show, Alejandro may be back for more.

With cheerleader Claire mourning HRG's untimely death, a death we in the audience already know is fake, and newbie hero Monica battling gangbangers in New Orleans over a set of comic books, I was bored. Then there's the whole thing with the virus that presumably wipes out 90 percent of humanity, blah blah blah blah. Still bored.

The only thing to jolt me back from my nearly comatose state were the final seconds of the show as Hiro set up next week's showdown by attacking Peter Petrelli in the secret Texas facility housing the virus. Sweet. More evidence to suggest the show changes its name to "Hiro." But enough juice to make me hopeful the show perhaps hasn't lost its edge. Let's just hope Tim Kring can find his way around the mistakes and give us something in the finale to be excited about.

-- Malavika Jagannathan, mjaganna@greenbaypressgazette.com

Just hang in there: How fitting that it would be supervillain Sylar to save "Heroes." First season's Big Bad was in fine form Monday night, playing mind games on Maya, gutting Alejandro like a pig, and holding Molly the Map Girl hostage. After not having much of anything evil to do this season but smuggle illegal immigrants, our favorite mind-sucker got his groove back.

The same can't be said for most of the rest of the episode, but there were still enough checks in the "pro" column to not go into next week's finale with a scowl on your face. If anything, we can look forward to a battle between Hiro and Peter (and possibly between Elle and Claire.) Hopefully we'll see what roles new characters Maya and Monica play (if any.) And we'll see what exactly Claire meant by "showing the world what she can do." If we're lucky, she'll get this series moving in the direction it should've taken 11 episodes ago: getting our heroes to be actual heroes, not just a bunch of post-modern whiny babies. Micah had the right idea when his backpack was stolen. He and his super-strong mom need to mount up and fight for a little truth, justice and American way.

Whaddya say, fans? Can you hold out a little longer, give "Heroes" one more chance?

-- Adam Reinhard, lifeisfunnybutnothahafunny@gmail.com

Not satisfied? Here's a nice breakdown of the villains and heroes from the good folks at Entertainment Weekly.