After Fuller's first departure we were submerged in the tangled and merky waters of plots that led nowhere, characters we couldn't give two shits about, and a wandering cheerleader without a purpose.  After Pushing Daisies was canceled Fuller returned to Heroes near the end of last season, but in my opinion his return left a lot to be desired, as his return episode was confusing and seemed to dismiss or ignore elements that we'd just seen in the previous week's episode.  Regardless, there were improvements toward the end of the season, however slight, and even I, the eternal cynic, had high hopes for season 4 of Heroes.  But at this point I no longer know what to think, and can't imagine this series staying alive for a season five.

Fuller is leaving the show…again, to pursue new projects for NBC.  In Fuller's own words, ""Development was really starting to heat up, and it appears like I may be writing multiple pilots for NBC so that wasn't leaving a ton of room for Heroes, unfortunately," Fuller told Ain't It Cool News. "We crafted some really great arcs for the season that I'm excited to see come to fruition. I love that cast dearly and am sad to go, but the plate — she was over-flowing."

Please Bryan Fuller, if you're leaving us…again, at least give us some awesome pilots to see in the future.  Please. We need you now more than ever.

Source: Ain't It Cool News

"Cold Snap" certainly was a lesson in nuance for the Heroes writer's room.  I was giddy with Fuller's use of the act of shaving to silently dial-in the contrast between Denko and H.R.G. I still think Noah should have used a straight razor and appeared with a soul patch that would have made Tony Almeida melt with envy, but I'm sure Fuller has his reasons for thinking Denko is a smoother operator than the bespectacled one.

At the end of the day, though, Heroes needs a lot more than Nuance.  It needs to rescue itself from the steady stream of incongruity that has us asking week after week "Are the writers watching the show?"  Epic fail.  "Cold Snap" does gloss over the fact that Denko was fired by presidential order, and Noah already approved as his replacement.  Given that Nathan has outed himself as a flying man, it's no big surprise – although what is a surprise is that Noah, who seemed hell bent on reconstituting the company and coincidentally was also aware of Nathan's abilities – was the only other witness to that reveal.  Incongruity.

Again there is a bizarre recalibration among the characters that is disappointingly familiar this season.  H.R.G is no longer slyly loyal to Angela, he's actually behaving a bit more like a loose cannon.  Nathan uncharacteristically has his head in the sand for the whole episode, while brother Peter pulls a bizarre Deus Ex Machina appearance to rescue his mommy from Denko's forces.

The nuance that works so well in coloring the characters in the opening is nowhere to be found in the action segments, save for the wonderfully hallucinogenic exit strategy for the Matt Parkman/Daphne relationship.  Unfortunately, the area that we need the most character development in, Hiro and Ando, is as typically slapstick as ever as the bumblers embark on a two-boobs and a baby subplot devoid of any connective tissue.

The episode was as good as any other episode of Heroes this season, which isn't saying much, but made worse by the much hyped return of Fuller.  Fuller, whose Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies both died with terminal cases of viewer apathy, wrote one of the most popular episodes of Heroes ever, "Company Man."  One argument for why this should not be an indicator of what to expect is the fact that Fuller also was given the opportunity to write a character turn that was epic and unexpected.  Delving into the history of H.R.G and the company for the first time.  Not to say that such an episode would write itself, but certainly better odds than chiming in on a serialized plot that was widely considered D.O.A.

With the ratings continuing to betray ambivalence amongst viewers, coming in at a chilly 6 some-odd-million, it is looking increasingly like NBC's promised renewal for next year will be announced as the swan song for Heroes.