Ratings: 13.5 million viewers

Mr. Bennet reveals his first name to be Noah when Peter thanks him.

The final five minutes of the episode were a preview of the season 2 premiere, "4 Months Later." According to the title screen, volume 2 is entitled "Generations."

During season 1, only Hayden Panettiere (Claire) has appeared in every episode. The character of Hiro Nakamura has appeared in every season 1 episode, but was not played by Masi Oka in "Company Man" -- Hiro was a child in the episode.

The "expletive" that Hiro utters, 大ピンチ (dai pinchi), translates to "big pinch".

Mohinder: (opening voiceover) Where does it come from? This quest? This need to solve life's mysteries when the simplest of questions can never be answered. Why are we here? What is the soul? Why do we dream? Perhaps we'd be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. But that's not human nature, not the human heart. That is not why we are here. Yet still we struggle to make a difference, to change the world, to dream of hope. Never knowing for certain who we will meet along the way. Who among the world of strangers will hold our hand. Touch our hearts. And share the pain of trying.

Hiro: Ando must have thought I would give up. He took a sword and went after Sylar! Alone! He'll die!
Mr. Nakamura: Yes, probably. But that's not your concern right now. You must remember your mission. The world is at stake.
Hiro: No! I must go after him. I will not abandon my friend!
Mr. Nakamura: Then you have already lost.
Hiro: Father. My whole life you have looked at me with disappointment. I do not wish to lose you now. But I cannot let my friend die. Not when I have the power to stop it.
Mr. Nakamura: Don't forget your legacy -- the wind at the back of history.

Claire: Nathan doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about anyone. He doesn’t care about me and I’m his own daughter. We do not need him!
Peter: Yes, we do!
Claire: Why?
Peter: Because I’m afraid, okay? And I need my brother to help us.

Matt: So you can find anyone in the world you just need to think about them?
Molly: Almost anyone.
Matt: Almost?
Molly: There is only one that I can't.
Matt: Who is that? Is it someone bad, Molly, like the boogeyman?
Molly: No. He is a lot worse.
Matt: Why don't you want to find it?
Molly: Because when I think about him (quietly) he can see me.

(flashback)
Peter: This may sound strange but, your father’s last few weeks, his death, it can be beautiful if you let it be.
Simone: Sure, piece of cake.
Peter: I’m not saying it’s not tragic for you, I’m just saying, you know, death is the one thing that connects us all. It reminds us that what’s really important is who we’ve touched, and you know, how much we’ve given. It makes us realize that we have to be good to one another. See your father, he’s the real hero. Not me.

Ando You cannot take my brain!
Sylar: Please. What would I want with your brain?

Mohinder: Molly, we need to go now.
Molly: Where are we going?
Mohinder: Officer Parkman called. He believes that Sylar ... he believes the boogeyman is on his way.
Molly: No. He's not on his way. He's already here.

Angela: There are things you simply aren’t mature enough to understand yet.
Claire: Yeah, like how you can let your own son die like this. Your own brother!
Nathan: He’s not going to die.
Angela: Thanks to you, Peter has the ability to survive.
Claire: So he lives and kills millions of people. How can you let him be responsible for something like that? And how can you live with yourself if he is?

Ando: (to Hiro) Your whole life you talked about your favorite stories--Star Wars, Star Trek, Superman, Kensei--all the heroes you wanted to be. One day people will tell the story of Hiro Nakamura.

Ando: (to Hiro) You look badass.

Peter: Thank you, Mr. Bennet.
Mr. Bennet: Call me Noah.

Sylar: Haven't I killed you before?
Peter: Didn't take.

(Claire raises her gun as Peter begins to glow)
Peter: Do it. Do it! You're the only one, Claire!
Claire: (crying) Tell me there's another way! Please!
Peter: Shoot me! There is no other way!

Claire: This is insane! Nothing is inevitable! The future is not written in stone!

Peter: I took his power, Nathan. I can't control it. I can't do anything.
Nathan: I'm not leaving you, Peter. There's another way to end this, and you know it.
Peter: I can't let you die.
Nathan: And I can't let everyone else. (motioning towards Claire) You saved the cheerleader, so we could save the world.
Peter: I love you, Nathan.
Nathan: I love you, too. You ready? (Peter nods)

When Mohinder sees Peter alive, he is not surprised at all. However, the last time Mohinder saw Peter was in ".07%" before Peter was saved by Claire. When Mohinder left Peter, he thought he was dead.

In the first scene where Matt, Mohinder and Bennet are waiting for Molly to wake up, Molly is lying on her side. When it cuts back to Molly, she's sitting up sleeping.

When Matt shoots at Sylar, four shots are heard, yet five bullets can be seen in midair when Sylar freezes time.

The Matrix

The episode contains several references to the film, The Matrix, including the scene where Sylar stops a bullet; the dialog between Hiro and Mr. Nakamura as they debate Hiro and Ando's destiny; and Charles Deveaux being similar in nature to The Oracle.

Episode Title: How To Stop An Exploding Man

In "Fallout," Hiro asks Isaac "How do you stop an exploding man?" in response to Isaac's painting.

Visual: Hiro looking to the sky

The scene near the end of the episode where Hiro looks at the eclipse parallels a scene from "Genesis" where Hiro looks up at the eclipse comes over him while exercising on the office building roof.

Nathan: You saved the cheerleader, Peter, so that we could save the world.

Nathan is referring to the events at the Union Wells High School Homecoming during "Homecoming", where Peter did "save the cheerleader"---his niece, Claire. In doing so, he stopped Sylar from gaining the ability to regenerate (while picking it up himself), which allowed Hiro to mortally wound him later.

Visual: Cockroach crawling into a manhole

The visual is a reference back to Mohinder's closing monologue in "Genesis":

Mohinder: Man is a narcissistic species by nature. We have colonised the four corners of our tiny planet. But we are not the pinnacle of so-called evolution. That honour belongs to the lowly cockroach. Capable of living for months without food. Remaining alive headless for weeks at a time. Resistant to radiation. If God has indeed created himself in his own image then I submit to you that God... is a cockroach.

One of the many questions regarding this episode is the question of Peter's needing Nathan to fly him up out of the atmosphere in order to detonate safely. Considering that flying was one of the first things that Peter "picked up" from another gifted individual (in this case, Nathan), many have assumed that Peter could simply fly himself out of harm's way. After all, Peter's counterpart, the murderous Sylar, has proven to be able to use two abilities at once (as immortalized in The Hard Part). So why was Peter in need of rescuing himself?

A popular theory is that unlike Sylar, who must commit murder to gain new abilities, Peter (who naturally gains abilities by standing in proximity to other "gifted" individuals) is only able to process and use one ability at a time. Proof of this could be given in the episode Five Years Gone, because though Peter has a terrific array of abilities to choose from, he still only uses one at a time.

Another possibility is that because of the nature of Ted Sprague's ability (radioactive capability channeled through anger and frustration), Peter is incapable of "calling up" another ability to counter it. Peter's ability to recall other's "gifts" comes from his empathic nature, and as he told Claude in Distractions, he needs to remember what the person feels like in order to call up the ability (for example, Claire reminds him of a "sweet kid"). Sylar uses this to set Peter off--he somehow knows that anger will turn him into a nuclear event.

Molly Walker (who finds people by thinking about them) alludes to someone who is more evil than Sylar by saying that she can find anyone except 1 person but she doesn't want to think about him, because when she does, "HE" can see her and apparently this person is even more dangerous than "the boogeyman."

Abilities Development
Charles Deveaux: Charles is able to return back in time to meet with Peter.
Niki Sanders: Niki is able to take complete control and defeat Jessica. She is able to use her powers without Jessica's influence.
Peter Petrelli: Peter absorbs Niki's superstrength.