Heroes: Thoughts on season 2

So yeah, I'm still watching Heroes. And yeah, it's getting worse.
Like, it's not bad or anything, don't get me wrong. But I walked away from the Season 2 finale, which I just finished a few hours ago, and I'm still not really sure what the heck happened.

*Spoilers ahead*

Here's my first big problem. Season One had a really clear cut tension. Peter was going nuclear and he was going to take New York City with him. That's bad, man. Like really bad. We need to fix that. And that's what the heroes did. All of them, even the bad guys were motivated in some respects by that one single goal. It made for dramatic, easy-to-follow television. And it made for a great finale.

Season Two, in my opinion, anyway, didn't have that singular tension. Yeah, there's something about a "virus" (it's basically a nuke on steroids, threatening to take out the world, not just NYC), but it never really felt like this catastrophic pressing event. I mean really, couldn't Hiro just have just teleported into the storage safe in episode one, stolen the virus and the problem would have been solved? Yeah, he totally could have. And that bugged the hell out of me.
Then there was the whole thing with people dropping dead and rising and dying and rising etc. etc. It was cool with Claire and all, but now it's just getting out of hand. Nathan gets plugged in the finale and it's supposed to be all dramatic, but I'm just sitting there thinking, 'Oh neat so he'll be back like 10 minutes into the season 3 premiere, right?' (He totally is, by the way ...). Don't get me wrong, I love zombies and all, but dead is dead. Or at least it should be. (P.S. If you're going to bring people back, why not D.L.? I'm not holding my breath ...)
And what the heck was going on with Noah? The guy gets shot by Suresh for virtually no reason - other than to stage an epic slow-mo shooting scene - then rises from the dead (shocking, right?) and goes back to his family only to tell them he's alive but they'll never see him again. Uh, okay.
Why the heck would he do that? I thought his whole thing was protecting his family. Not putting them through unnecessary torture. Wouldn't he want to not, you know, completely screw with their heads and put them all in harm's way again?
And don't give me that Bob was manipulating him crap. Bob sucks. Plain and simple.

Anyway, there were plenty of things I liked about Season 2. The story with Hiro and Kensai Takezo was fantastic. And I liked how Sylar was still a huge dick (now with 50% more Mommy issues!) even without his powers to back him up. I'm excited to see how he develops into season 3.
And the Maya girl was pretty. Like really pretty. Show more of her, please.