With the show's cancellation three months later, this episode serves as the de facto series finale, although the Heroes world would return in the miniseries Heroes Reborn five years later.

Noah kills Sylar by slitting his throat but he regenerates when the Eclipse ends. He is about to kill Noah when Hiro returns and teleports Elle and Sylar to a beach. He realizes he can never change and kills Elle. He cremates her and shows remorse.

Faced with committing a sizable budget to a series whose ratings had fallen in successive seasons, NBC made the decision to cancel the series after the end of Season 4. Kring would later share some of his own insights about the factors that made Heroes a tough show to spread across an indefinite episodic format.

The fourth season consisted of a fifth volume of 18 episodes titled Redemption. The final scene of the last episode began a sixth volume entitled Brave New World, which became the title of the first episode of Heroes Reborn.