No spoilers here. This post isn’t really about the Monday (Nov. 24) “Heroes”; it’s about the future, as in the story arc that will follow “Villains.” If only we, like many of our heroes, could simply leap into that future and find everything changed for the better. When Arthur Petrelli said early on Monday night that everything was going to change, I lit up for a minute. Yes, everything needs to change! Then it became clear that the eclipse was really only going to make things dark, not different enough. The upshot of this train of thought — and clearly, if “Heroes” had engaged me, I wouldn’t have been thinking this much — was to contemplate which characters’ deaths (real, permanent deaths) would help the show. I came up with a small list:

Claire. Used to love the little cheerleader. Now she’s whiny and cranky and a funny orange color from too much fake tanning. Her relationships have been sacrificed to bad plotting and her powers are all muddled. Her death would be more interesting than her existence.

Suresh. Oh, Mohinder, what have the writers done to you? One week you’re good. The next week you’re bad. Intermittently, you’re slimy. If you could obtain one power, it should be the power to end your stupid storyline.

Niki/Jessica/Tracy. And this time, no re-incarnation as a previously unknown quadruplet.

I know you think I’m going to say Parkman here. I’m not. I actually find his relationship with Daphne kind of cute, especially now that we’ve seen her minus her powers. But I know many others would like to see him dead.

I could actually go on and on. In the beginning, Tim Kring intended to kill heroes and rotate new ones in and out. In retrospect: brilliant idea! And it’s not too late.