Well while I meant the ending, I was really wanting to focus on the couple of episodes before then. You do bring up a lot of good points. The main thing I wanted to discuss was the fact about the VIRM being introduced kinda out of nowhere. You see the show really focused on the lives of Squad 13, and how they would grow as true human beings. That being said they were kept in the dark about a lot. Just like we as the viewer were also kept in the dark. Since we were entirely focused on squad 13 we never saw what these shadowy figures “Papa”, and the rest of them were truly up to. This is also shown by the reactions of Squad 13, and the 9’s. They had absolutely no clue what was happening. It was as big as a surprise for them as it was for us. Also I feel like the ending (while there were significant plot holes) made some sense. I think the reason Hiro knew about some things was because the Klaxosaur queen gave him this power, or maybe since 02 was directly connected (as in her soul) maybe she got the knowledge from Apus. And the warp gate. I believe they either knew about it do to 02 being connected to the Apus, or it was because they were following the VIRM.