Heroes Spoiler: Season 4 “Redemption” is almost at hand!

The premiere of Heroes is only a few short weeks away, and since the finale left us with so many questions, we thought we’d turn to the cast to get some answers, especially since season three and four’s storylines are so similar. “It feels like one long run-on season,” Hayden Panettiere tells us.

So who’s the new band of characters coming from the carnival? Who’s dying? Whose love story causes its star to shrug coyly at us? And what’s the scoop on what’s likely to be the hottest triangle we’ve ever seen on television? We have your answers…

The Triangle Twist: It’s not quite the love triangle you’re looking for, but more of a bromance. Adrian Pasdar tells us what he loves about Redemption: “The whole premise of Zachary [Quinto], myself and Greg [Grunberg] having an interesting triangle of behavior. In the process of Matt crushing Sylar and having my body become his, Sylar entered Matt, so there’s a soul that’s missing in me. It’s my own Nathan behavior that’s manifesting itself through Sylar. There’s a triangle that makes itself clear by the third episode.”

Sylar and Matt: So let’s take a look at all sides of the triangle, kicking off with the man who destroyed Sylar. Sadly, it just didn’t go over well. “When I did the mind transfer, it didn’t go clean,” says Greg. “Some of him stayed in me and he needs me. He’s looking for his body, he needs his body back and he’ll do anything to do that, including kidnapping my son.” Of course when you’ve got a bad man in you, he’s going to make you do bad things. “He’s kind of hanging around in my subconscious, making me do things that I don’t want to do. I have to catch myself. I can’t get rid of him, so I decide to ignore him. But you can’t ignore Sylar for very long.”

Sylar and Nathan: Moving on to the part of the triangle that’s actually sharing a body, Pasdar says he’s been working on picking up Quinto’s mannerisms. Don’t expect everyone to be in the dark about Nathan’s true identity for long, though. Says Adrian, “I think it’s clear from the outset of season four that something is going on, least of all to Nathan. He doesn’t become aware of it. I think he’s a step behind the audience. There’s just a split second for him in terms of understanding where he’s going and what might be wrong. He catches up though.”

Claire Goes Girl: We can’t talk about a triangle without mentioning the real action this season. Claire has a new roomie in Californication’s Madeleine Zima.“It’s a very interesting relationship,” says Hayden. “She hasn’t really had a relationship with someone that close—as a friend or anything else—since first season with her friend Zach (Thomas Dekker). So it’s a relationship I think that people are going to love and love to see us together. It’s a very interesting dynamic between the two of them.” As far as what Claire gets out of the friendship, Hayden tells us, “She gets a friend, a confidant, somebody she can confide in and not be alone with her secret and just be herself, somebody to help her along and be her buddy and her pal.” It turns romantic though, right? To which Hayden gave us a coy shrug, followed by admitting, “Yes, I did a coy shrug.”

The Big Bad Carnival: What’s a season of Heroes without some sinister force lurking out there? Hayden teases, “Carnival is the opposite of what the Company was. The Company wanted to hide us and our abilities. They wanted to keep it under wraps. The Carnival is the opposite where they want people to know about it.” However, don’t jump to conclusions whether they’re good or evil just yet. “Just when you think it’s safe, it’s not. Just when you think it’s evil, it turns out that we need them more than they need us,” spills Greg. And as for the leader of the gang, Samuel (Robert Knepper), James Kyson Lee says he just as bad as T-Bag from Prison Break: “I think so, but even more interesting.”

Need Some Romance? Speaking of Ando, he and Hiro (Masi Oka) are going into business this season. Says James, “Ando and Hiro are going to start up a new business venture. It’s going to keep us busy. Sept. 21 you will see a huge billboard. I am for hire, romance for hire.” Sadly, don’t expect the usual Hiro and Ando shenanigans because one of them is not long for life. Spills James, “Hiro has a bucket list because he’s dying. Ando is trying to change that, but we’ll see. There’s a whole theme of ‘Can you really mess with fate?’ in our show. Sometimes you can change history, sometimes you can’t.”

I originally read this over at ZacharyQuinto.comcommunity: where it was posted by fenraven. A very in-depth discussion followed. Some of it I’m going to reiterate here:

As asked by fenraven “I’m going to comment on my own post, because that weird stuff going on between Matt, Nathan, and Sylar doesn’t quite make sense to me. First, Nathan is DEAD. So how can he even be part of this so-called triangle?

And I also don’t remember that Matt did any mind transference with Sylar. He simply convinced Sylar to become Nathan, so how can a part of Sylar be in Matt’s mind?

I’ll reserve judgment on the baby kidnapping until I see how they handle that.

Zach mentioned at CC09 that he gets to climb out of a grave in the new season. I recently saw pictures from that scene on zachquinto.com. It looks very dramatic and all, but…why would he be climbing out of a grave? He was never put in one in the first place! He’s Nathan!”

I thusly responded “It seems worded badly as far as the Nathan thing. Nathan IS dead as you say. But obviously due to the way they left things Adrian Pasdar will be very much in focus as part of the storyline. I think what they meant to say is Nathan = Nathan/Sylar the hybrid. Because of the whole nature of the shape-shifting combined with Matt’s mind control: in some sense I assume at first Sylar (as we currently recognize him) will cease to exist in some manner; because the more immediate plot-line seems to be that he really does think he IS Nathan. But as evidenced in the above article that can only play out for so long. It sounds like inevitably the link between Matt and Nathan-Sylar’s mind begins to fray.. and whatever is left of Sylars consciousness begins to “infect” Matt.

I think the biggest bit that bothers me about all this is where is ZQ in this equation? If Sylar doesn’t remember who he is he has no reason to in fact switch back to his original form. I actually at some point almost suspected that ZQ might not even be returning to the show (esp. after I found out about the formation of Before the Door). But in the end what I guess they’re going to do is the whole reflective surfaces angle. Similar to how they used to do Niki/Jessica. Like Pasdar will walk by a mirror or a window and it will be Sylars reflection. At least until the infection happens.. and then I think we will begin seeing Sylar full-boat again wreaking havoc inside of Matt’s consciousness… or at least that’s my best educated guess.

As far as the kidnapping, I think they could manage to keep it sort of like Matt under the control of Sylar takes his own child and brings him somewhere, then Sylar releases him from his power so he can be made aware that he’s gone/missing. It’s less controversial than having some other character forcibly take the child… but we’ll see.

I feel like I now have to re-watch last season again to get a better visual on how everything played out in that last episode.

However much like Sylar’s burning on a pyre was metaphorical (in the sense it is a forced memory created by Matt to make Nathan-Sylars constructed memory more legitimate/believable) I believe the rebirth is similarly constructed as Matt’s connection/mind control begins to fail. If that makes any sense? (think of it like none of this is actually happening it’s all just images within Sylars mind being forced upon him).”

In addition to this some other notes of interest: the mention of Thomas Dekker. Now that Terminator:TSCC is canceled, I wonder if maybe we’ll be seeing him again at any point?

Also my most “way out there” theory still involves Sylar’s baby mama. This is assuming possible future season three still exists in any form. It’s probably too risque for NBC; but it has a bit of a South Park Angle to it (remember when Cartman’s mom was also his dad because of her being a hermaphrodite?). It’s been hinted repeatedly that Sylar undergoes an identity crises after the acquisition of the shape-shifting ability. We’ve already seen him pulling the “Norman Bates” by having conversations with himself  as both Sylar and Virgina Gray. And to be honest there’s really no indication either way that when he shapeshifts into a female that all the girly bits aren’t there/and or function (because really the alternative is just… *shudder*).  So the possibilities there just get kind of um.. weird. Could he get impregnated with shifted into someone else? Can he in fact make himself have a child(100% Sylar genetic material). Intriguing, mind boggling.. and probably not likely to happen in prime time. But still it had to be put out there.

THIS JUST IN: An addendum to the ZQC discussion – fenraven “Sylar’s burning on the pyre was NOT metaphorical. They burned the body of the original shapeshifter, who was still in Sylar’s form at the time of his death. So, real body, albeit not Sylar’s, and real burning.”