Heroes open thread 3/2

I have to leave the house at the crack of dawn tomorrow, which means I have to sack out early tonight. Even if I get around to watching "Heroes," I won't be writing about it until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. So since this is the last new episode for a while and will no doubt end on a wicked cliffhanger, I'm leaving this post for you all to talk about it. I'll try to weigh in ASAP tomorrow. Play nice.

"Rob is not Jesus"

Mailbag column this morning, including a brilliant Oscar host suggestion that will never come to pass, plus a little more on my "American Idol" equation, which I realize I should have excerpted here when it ran on Friday, so here's the relevant portion:

I've been working on this equation over the years, and it comes out something like this: (performance quality x 2) + (minutes of pre-semifinals screen time x 4) + (show placement, where end of the show equals 10 and beginning equals 1) x (judges' comments, where a rave from Simon equals 8, a scathing pan from Randy equals 9, and lukewarm sentiments equal 2) + (amount the audience feels you would be crushed by elimination, a k a the John Stevens IV Factor) - (4 for every insult of Simon) = possibility of staying, with the higher your score, the better.

A very good "Amazing Race," with a cool Roadblock, tons of great quotes (at least a half-dozen lines would have made strong episode titles), almost every variety of mistake possible (missed road signs, misread clues, showing at the mat without a clue, etc.), but at the moment Rob and Amber are competing at such a higher level than everybody else that I think the only way they can lose is by bad luck. I like having them around for entertainment value and as an example of how well somebody can race, but I don't want them to win.

Also, did anybody watch "The Winner" and have thoughts on it? And it's the last day for suggestions on tacky or otherwise unfortunate reality show contestants from the great state of New Jersey.

Battlestar Galactica: Eye, Eye, Captain Thrace

Big, big, big "Battlestar Galactica" spoilers coming right up. (And a note to folks who haven't seen the episode already and are looking at this on their RSS readers and therefore see the whole entry at once, just stop reading right now. Seriously. You'll be much happier that way. I promise. Look away now. Please. Got that?)

Whoa. I'm not sure which is more stunning: that they killed her, or that they did it in what seems like a completely pointless way.

She didn't go down buying time for some civilian ship trying to get its jump drive on-line to escape the Cylons, wasn't executed for going past insubordination and right into treason, didn't stand on the edge of an erupting volcano with her hands wrapped around Leoben's throat (or Tigh's) and his hands around hers. She died because she had a religious vision at the wrong place and the wrong time. Hell, Kat had a better death. With a lot of characters, I would be fine with the notion of an unglamorous, stupid demise, but they've built Kara up for so much more than that.

Maybe it has more weight if you care about the mystical/spiritual side of the show, and therefore you assume that Non-Leoben is going to take her on some great voyage of discovery with much cosmic significance. (Even so, this really doesn't feel like it lived up to Leoben's boasts about Kara's great destiny.) I'll grant that there's been enough evidence over the seasons that there are forces at work beyond human understanding, but that's not what I watch "Galactica" for. I watch for the politics, and the military drama, and the character studies, and all of the ways in which the show goes against the skiffy grain, so to have the final fate of one of the show's most fascinating characters tied into one of my least favorite parts of the show is damned frustrating.

After her great arc as Leoben's prisoner/plaything on New Caprica, the show pretty much forgot about Kara (the quadrangle aside, and the less said about that, the better). When I saw the previews for "Maelstrom," I was excited that Moore and company had realized how much they were wasting one of their best assets. Instead, it feels like they ran out of ideas for her and decided having her blow up mid-hallucination would solve everything.

Now, I write all this having not watched the season's final three episodes (though I have a screener of them), without having listened to Moore's podcast, without having checked spoiler boards or anything else. So for all I know, Kara's going to turn up alive and well as the season-ending cliffhanger, or Baltar's trial is going to be intercut with Kara hanging around a ghost version of Galactica with Kat, Duck, Jammer and Socinus, "Grey's Anatomy"-style, or Tigh's going to wake up in the next episode acting strangely like Starbuck (would anyone notice the difference?), or Moore has something else brilliant up his sleeve, in which case I'm more than willing to revise my opinion.

But based solely on "Malestrom," I'm puzzled and not that pleased right now.

What did everybody else think?