Holy cow — Entertainment Weekly has really gone overboard this time. They have gone behind the scenes on the set of Heroes to uncover the secrets of the upcoming 3-part season 1 finale, starting with May 7’s Chapter 21, “The Hard Part”, and concluding with May 21’s Chapter 23, “How to Stop an Exploding Man”. There are secrets and SPOILERS aplenty in the article, so only read on if you want to know what happens, or what may happen, or what could happen. The entire article can be found here, or you can just read the intriguing parts below:

So how does Sylar’s homecoming affect mom? Not well, apparently:

Looking more Beaver Cleaver than Hannibal Lecter with his severely parted hair and homely sweater, Zachary Quinto is rehearsing a scene in which Sylar confesses to his mother (Ellen Greene) that he has a nasty habit of murdering others of his freaky new ilk. (He spares her the part where he might be eating their brains, too.) Naturally, Mom is disappointed, so she grabs a knife and tries to gut him. The actors struggle — then they freeze. The physical universe has ground to a halt. It’s Hiro time.

Slipping into the scene, Masi Oka withdraws his sword from its sheath and prepares to bring it down on Quinto’s head. Does the noble hero have the stones to decapitate a defenseless, time-paused soul, even one as nasty as Sylar?

And they’re not done. Some more scenes:

Here’s Hayden Panettiere, waving away offers of a stunt double as she runs and vaults through a fake window — the front end of a stunt that will send her indestructible cheerleader Claire out of a skyscraper and leave her splattered on the sidewalk. Here are Ali Larter (the schizoid superwoman Niki/Jessica) and Leonard Roberts (the walk-through-walls ex-con D.L.) flooded with emotion over being repeatedly manipulated by an underworld puppet master, Mr. Linderman (Malcolm McDowell).

And what about the season finale itself? Sounds like the Dads and Mommys are baaaaaack:

The May 21 season capper will set up two big ideas for the second volume of Heroes, to be titled ”Generations.” The new saga will focus on putting the Heroes mythology in a grand historical context of superpowered family dynasties. ”I know exactly where season 2 starts,” says Oka. ”It focuses on heritage, the family line, and the source of the powers.” That means the ”older” generation of heroes — including George Takei’s Papa Nakamura and especially Cristine Rose’s Mama Petrelli — should expect more screen time.

Hey, Suresh fans, they even have something for you!

“All I know is that I’m going to be all over the world next year,” says Sendhil Ramamurthy, whose nonpowered (or is he?) scientist Suresh will learn crucial info about his Indian past and his dead (or is she?) sister in the finale that helps set up next season.

The EW’s expensive coverage of Heroes also includes 5 collectors version of the cover. You can see thumbnail versions of them below (bigger versions if I run across them):

(This HeroesTheSeries.com expansive coverage of the EW article comes to you courtesy of Hero, who has more about in our forum here, and a flickr page here.)