We all have to remember, for some reason or another, Sylar thinks he is the bomb...Despite everyone else telling us it's Peter.
So, Sylar still wants to be special thanks to his mom telling him being a normal watch maker isn't enough...So, he figures he might as well go through with his destiny, and destroy New York. Thanks to Issac, he knows he can become President, and has caught on that the explosion will allow that to happen...Hence, fullfilling his mother's dream of him being special.
Now, all that aside, this was pretty much a "Here, let us explain Sylar episode." There was a VERY good chance that Sylar was going to quit his murderous ways and never be heard from again...Until his mother went all whackjob on him...Poor guy.
However, it's hardly just filler.
We have some potential solutions:
1.) The virus that was affecting Molly, preventing her from accessing her power, could be used as a potential gateway product to stop Sylar. Thompson says, "She's the only one who can stop Sylar." implying, that she can locate him. However, what if that's not what he meant?
If Sylar was injected with blood from Molly, knowing the company they've saved a few untested samples, what would happen?
Possibly, he'd be unable to access his powers and become a normal human...Or, since it's never been used on someone with more than one power, it could cause a meltdown...Hence, the explosion.
Using that framework, what if the shot meant for Sylar accidentally hit Peter? If it does cause a meltdown between the powers, Peter explodes and takes New York with him. Hence how he survives the blast himself, as it's simply every power being accessed at once at it's full capacity. This would also probably be enough to destroy the virus within Peter, allowing him to regain access to his powers once he comes to.
Of course, that's just my theory on how this Molly Walker thing is going to play out.
2.) Mohinder = power. Seeing as his sister had an ability, and most sibilings through blood do, it would not be unlikely to see Mohinder get his own ability sometime here in the future...It may even be something we've seen Mohinder do before...But I don't know if extreme-gullability is a power though...
3.) Death, Death, Death: This episode sort of sets the tone for the rest of the season. A lot of people are about to die. Because of Linderman, Thompson, Bennet, and the rest invovled in the Company, a whole lot of characters are going to die within the next two mondays. The smart bets would be on Ted, D.L, Nathan and Linderman being among those who hit the floor.
Other people still think Sylar, Peter, Claire and Niki/Jessica will be killed off. Who knows, but the body count is going to increase over the next two episodes...
And that's all I've got to say about this for now...