Shades of Gray

I almost forgot all about the whole waffles thing until I saw this over at Twitter: JamesProps#WaffleWednesday Don’t forget the Heroes Season Premiere Party @TheWaffleLA, 9/21! http://www.shopallaccess.co… Please RT!

Those “Heroes” writers (as well as apparently their props department) certainly have a waffle obsession. It is clearly evidenced on the show, as they are mentioned in 12 different episodes as well as once in the web-comic.

Greg Grunberg even divulged the cast & crew enjoying craft services waffles behind the scenes!

I myself am apparently an unsuspecting contributor in this conspiracy, having once prostituted personal information about myself for the sake of waffles on the newsgroup alt.1d.

But is there more to this waffle thing than just tasty breakfast treat? Some people seem to think so!

There are all sorts of rumors, some ranging from the mundane (the writers receive dividends from the “Waffle House” chain) to the fantabulous (waffles are part of a secret conspiracy to take over the world)… and everything in between, one of my most favorite being that waffles augment the powers of persons with enhanced abilities. Too bad this weren’t true, as I’m sure I have eaten enough waffles in my lifetime to at least  inherit the possibility or either “gaydar” and/or “bullshit detector”. C’mon evolution, work with me here!

So what is #WaffleWednesday anyway? There seems to be some confusion as to who created it, and more importantly, why?

• Chief Waffle Officer (a.k.a. Gillian) claims to have come up with it sometime around 2006 (she posts on 2/2/07 that it came about “a year before” the post).
• The TypePad blog “Waffle Wednesday” posted it’s first article on 9/4/06.
• And even one unofficial source claims that it began as early as March 2005 in Ontario, Canada.

 While I’m pretty sure the last article is a joke, it does seem likely that whomever created the idea of a Waffle Wednesday probably did so unintentionally, and thus did not have the foresight to notate it’s official date.

It is also plausible that Waffle Wednesday may have occurred serendipitously in time with either International Waffle Day (March 25th) or National (U.S.) Waffle Day (August 24th) to fall on a Wednesday.

Whatever the case may be, waffles somehow because the official breakfast food of Wednesdays, which seems ironic as I almost always make them on a Sunday when I’ve actually got the time. Attempting to procure waffles on a weekday(unless at a restaurant) just seems odd.. but maybe that’s just me.

In any case apparently to make it more confusing the official All-Access “Heroes” premiere party is being held at a place called “The Waffle” at the corner of Sunset & Vine in Hollywood. this is of course on a Monday.. not a Wednesday, and takes place between 6PM and 11PM. So, dinner not breakfast, not that there is anything wrong with eating breakfast foods for dinner. If you live over that way and have about $40 then you can totally make a reservation.

Of course none of this info ends up answering my initial question, as such I now officially dub this a non-blog (nlob) as nothing was truly gained by the reading of this post. However if you’d like more information regarding waffles and how it pertains to ‘Heroes” then I suggest you check out the Heroes Wiki “Waffle” page as well as the “Waffles Spoiler” page.

WRITERS NOTE: This may well be the last entry to “Shades of Gray” (a.k.a. :Heroes” Spoiler Blog). I do still watch the show – but I’ve just gotten too far behind on posts, and really no longer want to commit myself to daily or monthly blogs, because I write a lot better on the fly than when i have a “deadline”. Apologies if you were enjoying the column, and thanks for reading!

Season 4 of ”Heroes” premieres next Monday, September 21 (as you probably know). It’s a two hour premiere, which means that technically it is in fact two separate chapters. Chapter 1 – “Orientation” and Chapter 2 – “Jump, Push, Fall”. This preview is based solely on conjecture; based on casts lists for the episodes, a few interviews here and there (Greg Grunberg as always a font of unbridled spoileriffic material), and a couple of leaked photos, combined with theories I have formulated from previous episodes. As per usual.. don’t read these if you don’t want to know what might potentially happen on the show. I know I say this every time, but of course the one time I don’t someone will haphazardly read it and I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who doesn’t want to know anything until after the show… so there you go – you have your chance to run to a spoiler-free zone! Go on, now! OK, for the rest of you – spoilers 3… 2… 1… NOW!

Episode #401 (Volume 5, Episode 1) “Orientation”  and Episode #402 (Volume 5, Episode 2) “Jump, Push, Fall” – Based on the official NBC description of the episode released 8/27/09

Claire once again makes an attempt at normalcy. She attends college in Washington D.C., only to have her hopes quickly dashed with the unexpected suicide of her new roommate, Annie.

Hiro is potentially dying as hinted in the Season 3 finale. This is the source of his mysterious nosebleeds. With the help of Ando, he nobly decides to use his remaining time to do good deeds, mainly by finding other evolved humans and helping them discover, hone, and use their abilities for good.

“Angela fears that Nathan will discover his true identity (Sylar); while Matt is haunted by an unexpected visitor seeking what he is lost.” This all sounds very cryptic until you realize that it is promoted as one sentence. As previously discussed here: when Matt used his powers to create Nathan/Sylar some of Sylar’s essence transferred into him. From within, Sylar is able to manifest himself in Matt’s mind and uses this to communicate with him in an attempt to regain his body/power.

“The Company” is reformed by Angela & H.R.G. and Tracy joins. Tracy & H.R.G. investigate the motive behind a horrific murder. - My opinion on this depends on whom the murder victim is, as I do not currently know. As of now, my theory is that Tracy is in fact covering up her own vendetta murders. As again, you may recall from the end of Season 3; she materializes out of agent Harper’s overflowing sink, and then proceeds to freeze and kill him claiming him as “Number 4″. I believe this indicates that she is summarily working her way through former members of Building 26. She may join the company in an attempt to get further information of those members whereabouts. In addition it is possible by pretending to investigate murders that are actually hers, she  would try to push suspicion off of her self.

Unfortunately this theory is flimsy at best. First of all why would “The Company’ be investigating murders of normal humans, unless it was obvious the murders were done by enhanced human ability. And then assuming it is obvious, why wouldn’t H.R.G. pick up on the fact that Tracy is a suspect (unless he is trying to trick Tracy into revealing herself)?

However if this theory is correct – Building 26 (known) employees still alive include H.R.G. himself, Bob (Danko’s former assistant), formerly unnamed Central Commander, Dan from Internal Affairs, Danko, Agent Donner (one of the agents Sylar frequently impersonated), Agent Taub (another agent Sylar frequently impersonated), Rachel Mills, and a handful of previously un-named agents and techs. Zeljko Ivanek (who plays Danko) is scheduled to guest in the premiere, but as far as I can tell none of the other (so far advertised) episodes. I wonder if he is in fact the murder victim?

“Peter uses his powers for good, but is soon called upon by an old friend” – I think it is important to note the phrasing “uses his powers for good, but” portion of the statement. Peter is notorious for meaning well, but then somehow accidentally become or aid the thing/person to be avoided. Therefore I am taking this as a very crafty hint from the writers, that once again Peter will attempt to “help” only to have things go awry.

“While the heroes adjust to their new surroundings, a mysterious carnival clan, led by ringleader Samuel, sets their sights on familiar faces.” – Again note the use of the term “familiar faces”. It may just be their way of making a blanket statement about familiar to us, the viewers, meaning our cast from the previous seasons. But is it? Perhaps the new character, Samuel, is familiar with some of the faces as well; esp. if he is in fact the “old friend” of Peter’s the above statement refers to. He would probably at least know of Peter, Nathan and Angela.

I initially got excited about this circus concept, hoping that it meant yet another return of Eric “The Puppet Master” Doyle. He has been getting some Graphic Novel/Webisode action during the off-season. However I follow David H. Lawrence XVII on Twitter, and as far as I can tell he has yet to make mention of filming any “Heroes” episodes yet. Then again, you never know he could be saving it as a surprise.

Other notes of interest based on the guest stars list :

• Ray Park – I would wager as a member of the carnival, given his acrobatic skills.  
• Madeline Zima – as Gretchen. Gretchen is one of Claires new friends at college, and reportedly the girl-on-girl kiss that Hayden Panitierre alluded to a few months ago in an interview.
• Dawn Olivieri as Olivia the Tattooed Lady (yay song reference). Obviously, one of the other carnival members.
• Zachary Quinto – yes as a guest star! I know this is a total downer for fangirls (myself included), but it seems at least for these episodes Sylar is being played mainly by Adrian Pasdar as Nathan/Sylar. ZQ will likely only make appearances in memories and  in Matt’s visions.
• Rachel Melvin as Annie. Claire’s roommate who commits suicide.
• Jimmy Jean-Louis as the Haitian. I assume as always, part of “The Company”. Probably helping out with H.R.G.s investigation.
• Ashley Crow as Sandra Bennett. H.R.G. and Sandra still have a messy divorce battle impending (as hinted somewhere that Claire divides her time between them this season). So we’ll probably still see her on occasion, no clue if she has any other role to play aside from Claire’s mom and caretaker of Mr. Muggles. BTW – because I don’t think  I mentioned it before – Mr. Muggles is an invincible dog. I think he inherited Claire’s power when he drank her blood. So far he has resisted a number of attacks, and also as apparent in potential future timeline Volume 3 (the same one where Gabriel has a son) apparently looks just as young and behaves just as spritely in the year 2011 as he does in year 2007 (4 years is a decent chunk of change in dog years) which is similar (as we know) to other people with rapid cellular regeneration (like Adam Monroe) whom never age.
• Lisa Lackey as Janice Parkman. She’ll be around a bit more, now that Matt is aware he ha a son. Whether or not she and Matt actually reconcile remains to be seen.
• Assaf Cohen as Hesam. Hesamis one of Peter’s EMT/Paramedic coworkers. He lectured Peter once about Nathan (assumingly unaware of the existence of evolved humans) mistaking it for a more hardcore approach to the Patriot Act. In other words he thinks the government was hunting/rounding up immigrants and minorities. Reportedly he is of Iranian descent. Not sure where this plot-line may go, unless they revert all the way back to Season 1, unaired pilot episode and bring a terrorist faction back into the story.
• Saemi Nakamura as Kimiko Nakamura. Yeah, like me you probably forgot that Hiro even had an older sister, right? She took over Nakamura Industries when Kaito died, so that Hiro could concentrate on his other endeavors. So far she has not demonstrated any enhanced abilities.

I know it’s still 52 days to go, but here I am already with potential theories and spoilers.

But before we do all that I just wanted to apologize for slacking off at the end of last season. I totally had unfinished drafts and everything (maybe I’ll still even post them, we’ll see) but I dunno. I just lost my mojo/momentum and couldn’t seem to get it back. It wasn’t for lack of interest in the show, believe me. It was more I just took on too many projects at once and got burnt out.

As always with my Heroes blog. Seriously don’t read it if you don’t want to know. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I have like a 75% accuracy rating on being able to anticipate the plot-lines of the show. You’ve been warned!!!

Yesterday E! Online posted a huge spoiler article (original source: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b138042_heroes_spoilerpalooza_triangles.html)

HeroesSpoilerpalooza: Triangles, Carnivals and Death

Thu., Aug. 6, 2009 12:45 PM PDT by Natalie Abrams and Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna

Apologies for not writing in oh.. what four weeks now? Yes convenient of me to start writing again now that there is only one more episode left this season. Bad, bad, bad! Not that you want to hear my lame excuse.. but I was sick for two of those weeks. Couldn’t in fact sit up at the computer without being dizzy, also my computer crashed and I had to reformat my HD and the whole deal. Anyways I do plan on watching the new Eric Doyle webisodes… if that’s any consolation, so there’ll be stuff to read here on the off season.

You should know by now, this blog will contain spoilers for all currently aired episodes as well as potential spoilers for this seasons remaining episode and possibly into next season (assuming my omnipotentness isn’t on the fritz at the time). As of the date of this blog recently unreviewed episodes include: Season 3, Episode 20 (Volume 4, Chapter 7) “Cold Snap”; Season 3, Episode 21 (Volume 4, Chapter “Into Asylum”; Season 3, Episode 22 (Volume 4, Chapter 9) “Turn and Face the Strange”; Season 3, Episode 23 (Volume 4, Chapter 10) “1961″; and Season 3, Episode 24 (Volume 4, Chapter 11) “I Am Sylar”.

There were so many jokes along the way, some of them stale now. But as someone who isn’t ashamed of poor timing I’ll reiterate them anyways. Pretend like you didn’t already think of them weeks ago and I actually said them the day after the episodes aired. Yeah, that should work! Also it should be obvious I won’t be making any predictions on the stuff that’s older (unless of course it hasn’t been resolved yet).. most of the actual potential spoilers will be for “I Am Sylar”.

Cold Snap: So yeah the big news of this episode is that apparently I have to retract one of my retractions. The good news is even when I’m on track they keep me guessing. I’ve heard several complaints at this point of the game that the plot is getting too convoluted and confusing. Personally I love it. Plot twists are like candy to me and I love trying to get one leg up on what they’re going to pull next. For those of you that apparently don’t like to think, maybe you should start watching DWTS instead, eh?

Sylar does end up working with Danko after all. Though I’ve gotten a bit ahead of myself. Initially he breaks into Danko’s apartment and leaves him a present; Eric “The Puppetmaster” Doyle!!! And amusingly leaves him all strung up like a marionette.. how fun. (In case it matters Doyle is probably my second favorite character, followed by Arthur, Maury and Adam. What can I say I like to get my inner evil on).

Meanwhile HRG and Angela meet up in her limo and have an odd bit of an exchange that will become moot in about thirty minutes.. so I won’t even go into too much detail about what was discussed.. sufficed to say that it’s main point is that Angela is being tracked and HRG is about the only person left with inside access to building 26 thanks to the previous week’s Famous Flying Petrelli incident.

Mohinder’s character becomes increasingly more idiotic.. walking right into Danko’s lamely staged trap and getting himself captured. HRG and Danko conspire to use Tracy as bait in order to catch Rebel. And Hiro and Ando finally use thier collective genius to determine that Matt Parkman Jr. is not a baby version of Matt Parkman but in fact Matt Parkman’s baby… quick aren’t they?

They also discover that MPJ has a power. He’s kind of like a battery, he can recharge and discharge things, including Hiro’s power; allowing Hiro to be able to stop time again: convienently just in time to allow the three of them to escape from an impending attack by Danko’s goon squad. In the middle of all this is soem whining regarding Hiro’s parental issues, and a cute little “E.T.” homage in which Hiro and Ando hide from Janice in MPJ’s closet full of toys.

Rebel uses his power over technology to disable the power and security systems long enough for Tracy to break free. She in turn sets free Mohinder and Matt, who insists they can’t leave without also taking Daphne. Tracy is not about to let her escape attempt be thwarted by slow-pokes and runs off ahead. While trying to escape through a barricaded door, the goons are attempting to get in from the other side. Fortunately Matt, whom the was more than willing to leave behind, bedazzles them with his hocus-pocus mind power.

Cut to Tracy in a shop trying out some new threads… or rather shoplifting witht he help of her frigidity (which busts the security tag right off). Leaving the dressing room to ask for a different size she is confronted by HRG, who tries to convinve her to look out for herself by trading Rebel for her own freedom.

Meanwhile Matt and Mohinder bring Daphne to the emergency room, under the guise of her being his wife (amusingly using his real ex-wife’s name, Janice). The doctors insist they need to report the gunshot wound to the authorities, but Matt uses his mojo again to change thier mind.

Firstly I have to apologize for not writing sooner regarding the past THREE episodes. For those in the know I’ve just been busy redoing my website. It seems a bit silly to post spoilers/theories after the fact on some of these. But there are still some small unrevealed things I want to touch upon, so bear with me.

As always… the blog contains potential spoilers. If you’re not into that sort of thing, please stop reading now. This post is in regards to:
Episode 317 (Season 3, Episode 17 a.k.a. Volume 4 Chapter 4) “Cold Wars”
Episode 318 (Season 3, Episode 18 a.k.a. Volume 4 Chapter 5) “Exposed”
Episode 319 (Season 3, Episode 19 a.k.a. Volume 4, Chapter 6) “Shades of Gray” (for which this Blog has been re-named. For more on that see HERE).

I can’t really decide to break things down by episode or by theory.. I think I’ll do the latter.

Rebel/Libertad: It’s looking less and less like Alex is Rebel. I mean it’s still possible he’s been secretly communicating via-computer while hiding in Claire’s closet… but doubtful. Upon further research regarding if “Libertad” had appeared before Season 3. It turns out in fact that there has been at least one reference via the website stuff (graphic Novel/Evolutions). “Libertad” was a novel written by original company member Richard Drucker, whose ability was being able to communicate with technology. Sound like anyone else we know? Drucker is reportedly deceased… but perhaps Micah? In revenge for his mother’s death, and/or his aunt’s (Tracy) capture. Maybe even to protect Monica (you remember her right? the muscle mimic, yes she’s still alive: refer to the Target board in Building 26 of any of the new episodes). It is also looking less and less likely that Alex is related to Sylar in any way. I’m still not convinced about Luke.. but more on that later.

There are other “evolved” infiltrating the Building 26 project besides Nathan. In an effort to keep themselves from capture most likely. Most notably Homeland Security agent Rachel Mills (part of the duo that is staking out Claire) who previously featured in the webisode “The Recruit“. I would also wager that Abby Collins, another agent, may also have an ability that she is hiding, and that she only sanctioned the Building 26 project to deflect suspicion from herself. My reasons for this are pretty much unsubstantiated however, as my only proof is that I know Sylar is supposed to kill her. That doesn’t automatically imply she has powers, as Sylar’s new mission appears to be picking off the project members one by one (beginning with Danko?).

And no, I don’t think Danko is going to die quite so soon. He seems to be a weaselly little-fellow… in fact I think it’s quite possible that Danko himself at one point had powers. He seems to have a VERY personal vendetta against “evolved” humans; in my mind there can be only two reasons for this: he or someone he cared about was hurt by an evolved in some manner. It has been previously implied that he is expendable by Angela (no family/no connections). It has also been mentioned that there is some sort of “mystery” regarding how he was the only one to survive a crash at a previous point in time. Possibly Danko had an ability that saved him in the crash? His guilt of being the only survivor fuels his vendetta? His power was stolen by someone else (Arthur)? Or at least the reason why he now is “unattached” is due to an “evolved” in some way?

Matt Parkman Jr.: Hiro and Ando are sent to save “Matt Parkman” after receiving a fax at the end of episode #316 (Building 26). That was quite a few weeks ago… So I almost forgot about it until they showed up this week to rescue a baby named “Matt Parkman”. So is it a baby version of Matt Parkman, another baby that happens to be named Matt Parkman, or in fact Matt Parkman’s baby? It isn’t too clear really, however there was that one episode waaay back in season 2 (Episode#205 “Fight or Flight”) in which Matt’s father Maury uses his mind control to trap Matt and Nathan in a nightmare reality. In said reality Matt is locked in jail with a crying baby. Janice, Matt’s ex-wife then appears and informs Matt that the baby is his son. Janice did become pregnant (revealed to Matt via her thoughts) though it is unclear if it is Matt or Tom McHenry’s (Matt’s former partner whom Janice had an affair with) child. This baby is most likely THAT baby, though why Janice would name her son after Matt (other than the fact that it is his) is beyond me.

As far as the title of this installment “Here We Go Again…” this refers to yet another ominous painting of a nuclear explosion. This time in Washington D.C. We were led to believe towards the end of#318 that this could be related to Danko strapping the explosives to Matt… however as it turned out in #319, that attempt was thwarted. It is my opinion that the two were NEVER related, as in fact Matt never had enough explosives strapped to him to do THAT much damage. I think this future vision refers to a yet impending event. No clue yet as to if it is caused by “evolveds” or “norms” though I have some theories (of course I do or this wouldn’t be a theory blog): The explosion is caused by the continuing escalation between Danko and the people he is trying to capture. Danko either sets it off in an attempt to kill as many evolved as humanly possible (the capturees as well as major targets from the board happen to be in D.C. at the time), or is caused by an “evolved” who has radioactive powers similar to Ted Sprague (possibly Luke?).

And yes I know I said we’d get back to Luke: but in order to do that a little more explanation regarding Samson Gray first.

I have no idea what to make of Samson. His motivations (so far) seem to be even more difficult to figure out than his son’s. Why would a man kill his wife, but save his son, only to then make arrangements with his brother to take care of the boy (I’m assuming so he could still keep an eye on him, he was after all keeping photos, so there was still SOME sentimental attachment)? Why then give up aforementioned son, only to befriend a new boy (neighbor/Luke) and spend quality father/son time with him? I still haven’t entirely ruled out that Luke is also a son of Samson… though ability-wise it seems rather unlikely.

My other thought is that Samson also has “the Hunger”. He covets powers similar to Sylar. However it is evident by his monologue that he grew tired of “easy pray”. If this is the case, would we also suspect knowing that Gabriel/Sylar would one day also inherit (or already showed signs of) intuitive aptitude, that he was saving him on purpose, hoping he would someday grow to be his equal? I don’t think Samson actually has forgotten as much of his acquired abilities as he claims. He does exhibit signs of either telepathy and/or future seeing as he knew about the agents and Sylar’s escape; which means he KNEW Sylar was coming to kill him! So the whole pathetic attempt at pinning down Sylar and then letting him escape was probably just a ruse to see how powerful he really is. In the process, Samson has now received a very IMPORTANT piece of information. That the healing ability (which would cure his Cancer) can be acquired from a cheerleader in California. While that does sound like a bit of a needle in a haystack sort of search, I wouldn’t quite rule out that Samson could make an attempt to go after Claire. How does he narrow it down? Using one of his other abilities… which I believe to be shape-shifting.

I believe the black crow/raven that kept showing up during Sylar and Lukes road-trip was in fact Samson. I think the fact that Samson is a taxidermist is just a cover. I think similar to having to kill “evolved”s for powers, Samson has to kill/study the animal in which he wishes to change into. It also explains how he knows things, because he’s seen them for himself using his animal form. Furthermore I wouldn’t put it past him to have been in cahoots with Luke all along, probably playing on Luke’s hatred of his mother and promising to get him out of there if he helped him with leading Sylar to him.

And just how did they pass off this plan without Sylar (who is now a human lie-detector) knowing about it? As far as Samson, at no time was it indicated that Sylar was in fact USING this ability on him. Samson was brutally honest (at the start) regarding the fact that he was Sylar’s father and that he did in fact leave him and kill Sylar’s mother. And that he was also telling the truth about the Cancer. If Sylar was using the ability at all, he eventually abandoned it with the assumption that Samson had no plans of lying. As far as Luke, you will recall that Sylar kept repeatedly catching him at lying, to the point at which he just assumes Luke is a habitual liar and can’t EVER tell the truth. With so many lies coming out of him at all times, Sylar eventually dismisses pretty much 90% of anything Luke says.

Also of note; the Biblical origin of the names of both Luke and Samson. With particular note on Samson, who as you know was the man who toppled the “unbeatable” Goliath.. is there something to that? I wonder…

This is the spoiler for Volume 4, Episode 3 “Building 26″, with potential future episode spoilers. The usual spoiler disclaimers apply.

Things are finally heating up in the third episode. People who we haven’t previously seen to be that interesting are getting their inner badass on, and that always makes for a potentially good time.

And my usually decent powers of observation are apparently on the fritz. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing, as I prefer to be surprised about plot twists… it’s actually a much more interesting show when I am wrong about things than when I am right!

Three of my favorite potential (non Sylar) twists this week involve somewhat more secondary characters. As a general rule the show has so many mains, they don’t always go into a lot of detail with the supporting cast, so it’s always refreshing to get a little glimpse into them.

Case in point, Sandra Bennet. Previously she was mostly touted as a subservient airhead, only capable (even without the help of the Haitian’s power) of blindly believing every word her husband fed her. She had a couple of decent moments in Volume 3 where she showed some potential strength, overcoming her ditziness/fear by accompanying Claire in her quest for Eric “The Puppet Master” Doyle; though she immediately folded once the situation became too dangerous. Last night’s episode however she showed that strength again, when after being told by Claire about H.R.G’s latest shenanigans, she finally stood up to him and made him move out!! Also for you Claire fans, some hints at inner turmoil regarding the battle between her own independence and the love of her father. This is a traditional “coming of age” plot point that could be potentially interesting, if I actually gave a crap about Claire as a character…

Ali Larter also makes a triumphant comeback this week as Tracy finally gets her inner-Jessica on. Apparently those triplets do all have their mean and nasty side! After being held captive and (somewhat) tortured she busts out of her holding cell and shows no more qualms about using her powers… including using them to (finally) kill someone on purpose. Also speaking of the triplets, it only just occurred to me that Barbara had a closer relationship with Dr. Zimmerman than I previously thought. He probably said so and I just don’t recall, as I’m not sure I was writing the blog yet at that point, but he initially automatically assumes Tracy is Barbara and I only just know recalled he had a photo of Ali Larter on his mantle. I assume Ali as Barbara.. whom I believe he kept and raised as his own.

In a related story arc, “The Hunter” (whom I still consider a secondary character, though he will soon be escalated to the primary antagonist role) is officially “rogue” as we were previously led to believe he probably would be. It had already been revealed that Nathan was having a hard time controlling him, and he proved big time this week he will do pretty much anything to further his mission. In this case he intentionally caused Tracy’s escape to concur with Abby Collins (Moira Kelly) visit at the expense of one of his own men, to help facilitate more government funding towards the project. I call a huge blowout in the nearish future between “The Hunter” and Nathan. It is already obvious they’re making each others hackles stand on end, but I suspect a quick escalation of matters once “The Hunter” receives the security footage of Alex’s escape and discovers Claire had a hand in it. Expect him to reneg on his agreement to go after Claire (esp. since he’s already chomping at the bit to go after her due to the events of the plane crash). Expect Nathan to ultimately become hunted himself as he reveals himself (powers) in an attempt to rescue/protect Claire.

Speaking of Alex… though it initially appears that we are being led away from him as being Rebel/Libertaad, I wouldn’t rule him out just yet. I suspect Rebel would test his potential “soldiers”… seeing if they would do the task asked of them. Alex seems clueless enough… and possibly is in fact just a plain old ordinary victim in this situation… though I have to admit I am a bit interested in his constant attempts to have Claire “convince” him of information. Also for a clueless guy he didn’t seemed phased (either time) that H.R.G. was Claire’s dad.. and made a pretty decent escape without much effort. Besides no guy that relatively good looking has ever worked in any comic book shop I’ve ever been in…

As usual a few random asides before I move on with the rest of the article; I was thinking a bit more about situations occurring towards the end of Volume 3, mainly Daphne’s observation that people get the powers that they in fact wish for. She references herself (the ability to run being as she cannot walk due to her Cerebral Palsy) as well as Matt (who wished he knew what people were thinking).

It almost seems like this theory is unlikely, as Ando wishes to time travel in order to save Hiro (his friend) but instead receives supercharging (power amplification). However when thinking about it further, it could be argued that Ando’s will to “help his friends” was in fact stronger than his will to “time travel”.. as such his power ONLY works when combined with the power of other evolved humans.. thus he did in fact get the power he wished for. I’d be curious to see further case powers relating to what people desire vs. what power they receive.

The second aside (also assisted by a case study of Daphne), is that “The Haitian” does not entirely STOP powers, he only retards them. This is proven by the fact that under “The Haitian’s” influence Daphne can STILL run, just at normal speeds. If her power were 100% useless she would not be able to walk at all without her braces (as seen during “The Eclipse” episodes). Just an observation that could become important at a later time…

In closing, somewhere deep down in his psyche Sylar is still evidencing flashes of “Gabriel” behaviour, as he actually found it in his heart to not only not kill Luke, but to rescue him as well. Some random emo with the few memories he has left of his childhood, and some potential jealousy of Luke who got to spend the quality time with Samson that Gabriel never did. He either actually likes the kid (doubtful) or he’s got something even more sinister planned (what better way to get revenge on your father than to kill his “surrogate” son in front of him to prove what his abandonment did to you?). Also bonus kudos for the use of the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” .. I was laughing my ass off from the first note!

Also I will have to beg to differ on the official stance that Sylar is a “serial killer”. Though Luke does have a point regarding Sylar’s MO, he DOES NOT strictly kill only one specific “type” of person. Yes he mainly aims for “specials” but he is more officially a psychopath as he will pretty much kill anyone to further his goal including those who get in his way. Cases in point, Elle (whose powers he had already acquired with empathic mimicry); various guards, squad members, persons of authority, etc. (whom do not possess powers, only act as a threat); Echo, Dennis, Arthur (whom are evolved humans, but whose powers he does not acquire); and numerous other accidental deaths (his mother, Virginia Gray) and persons of mistaken identity. He also doesn’t always kill them in the same way (though most often he uses the telekinetic scalpel method, some of his victims were not initially attributed to him as a murderer due to being killed by other means). As such Sylar’s victims do not fulfill the standard serial killer criteria of having been murders performed in a similar manner and/or upon victims whom have something in common. However for argument’s sake here’s a list of criteria from Wikipedia:

1)The majority are single, white males. YES
2)They are often intelligent, with IQs in the “bright normal” range. YES
3)Despite their high IQs, they do poorly in school, have trouble holding down jobs, and often work menial jobs. UNKNOWN (school life undetermined, the only job we know of him holding was inherited {watch repair})
4)They tend to come from unstable families. YES
5)As children, they are typically abandoned by their fathers and raised by domineering mothers. YES
6)Their families often have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories. UNKNOWN (though it is speculated that Samson also has the power of intuitive aptitude/”the hunger”)
7)They often are mistrustful of their parents. YES
8)It is common to find that as children, they were abused—psychologically, physically and/or sexually—by a family member. UNKNOWN
9)Many spend time in institutions as children and have records of early psychiatric problems. UNKNOWN (but evidence points to “NO”)
10)They have high rates of suicide attempts. UNKNOWN (one attempt is shown, no further information as to if there were previous attempts)
11)From an early age, many are intensely interested in voyeurism, fetishism, and sadomasochistic pornography. UNKNOWN (though some light instances of these behaviours occur in adulthood)
12)More than 60 percent wet their beds beyond the age of 12. UNKNOWN
13)Many are fascinated with fire starting. UNKNOWN
14)They are involved in sadistic activity or tormenting small creatures. UNKNOWN

It does turn out though that I was also way off on why Sylar was wearing that uniform (hence the title of this blog installment). The photo I saw was in fact that exact scene where he throws Luke over his shoulder.. and it is all so much clearer to me now. I officially re-neg on my prediction that Sylar will work with “The Hunter”, though I do hear through the grapevine he will have something special planned for Moira Kelly’s character

OK, so this blog covers the first 2 episodes of Volume 4, “A Clear and Present Danger” and “Trust and Blood”. As per usual it’s loaded with spoilers and future episode speculation, so if you don’t want to know, don’t read it!

Well so, only two episodes in and I wish we were back in Volume 3. I am totally “MEH” (that’s with all the capital letters) so far. However, if any of my theories are correct it could get interesting later on.

It’s possible I’m biased, but this installment of the blog is mostly Sylar driven. Bias and/or his story is the only thing even worth talking about so far… you decide.

As previously speculated, I still believe that Sylar will find out he has two brothers.

The first (whom we haven’t yet met) is Alex. Alex is a special that Claire meets in next weeks episode. They get a lovey dovey thing going on (speculation) and that’s all I really got for you at the moment. I don’t know why I think Alex is going to be related to Sylar other than if you’ve seen his photo, he kind of looks like he could be related. I also have this wild and wacky theory that Alex is Rebel/Libertaad who we see texting Claire at the end of Episode 2. We shall have to see…

The other brother is obviously, Luke (who I now officially dub MeltMan in honor of my friend Chris Abramson). I hate the whole idea of Luke, and of Sylar having a sidekick. It’s the same feeling I had when Scooby met Scrappy.. OK maybe not THAT ominous, but still. Sylar himself refers to it when he notes that finding another special so near to his father’s house is “convenient”. I’ve not got it all quite figured out yet how everyone is related.. I think at best maybe everyone is half-brothers, same dad different moms sort of thing, which means I haven’t quite ruled out that Sylar isn’t still related to Peter (even though that means that either Arthur or Angela are really damn good liars – oh wait, that’s right they are).

And now a huge rant regarding Sylar’s dad, Samson Gray:
My theory is as follows. Samson Gray is if fact the special who originally possessed Sylar’s power of “intuitive aptitude” (the ability to understand complex systems/inner workings. The power inherently comes with “the hunger” the need to acquire as much knowledge as possible) which we up until Volume 3, Episode 9 “It’s Coming” we consider to be Sylar’s base power. As we find out in that episode, however, Sylar’s actual power is in fact “empathic mimicry”, which is the ability to in fact COPY another persons power. It is the exact same power that Peter Petrelli initially has, but then looses (Peter’s current power by the way is artificially induced “Ability Replication”, which is similar in vein, but is why Peters powers no longer accumulate and instead change depending on who he touches). Anyway “empathic mimicry” is what Sylar uses on Elle, and presumably what he did accidentally to his father. When using “empathic mimicry” the initial person retains their abilities, meaning Sylar’s father still has both his power and “the Hunger”. I believe Samson’s chosen profession, taxidermy, is in fact an outlet for “the hunger”. By dissecting animals and keeping himself otherwise occupied he finds it easier to not victimize his fellow humans. Though he loved his son (as evidenced by the photos he kept of Sylar as a boy) he sent him away to live with his brother Martin and his wife Virginia (who desperately wants to have a child of her own) in fear of hurting the boy (alternate speculation: in fear of what the boy would become). In other words, as we already know, Sylar does not HAVE to kill people. He chooses to, initially out of misunderstanding of his own power, and now subsequently for no other reason than he has a persecution complex and it makes him feel good to hurt other people the way he feels he has been hurt in his life.

As an aside I want to clear up a few things (not at all related to these episodes) regarding Sylar and the speculation of “brain eating”. Canonically this matter should have been cleared up in Volume 3, Episode 1 ‘The Second Coming” when Claire asks him if this is what he is going to do to her, and he replies with disgust. But yet I still see that there are people out there who will argue that maybe he doesn’t eat brains now, but that doesn’t mean he ever did. In fact even the writers themselves weren’t sure initially if he did or did not, and ultimately decided against it when they realized it was too “zombie horror movie”. Sylar has never been shown eating brains. There were early scenes where parts or wholes of brains were missing. In fact in the pilot episode (I think it was the pilot, if not then the second episode) there is even a newspaper article that explains in a Weekly World News sort of way “He Stole Their Brains!”. In an attempt to clear this up once and for all here is my take on that:

Canon: Sylar cannot steal powers unless his victim is still alive. Sylar does not initially intend on killing his victims, it is accidental caused by the trauma of “surgery”. Sylar learns from Chandra Suresh that the powers are housed somewhere in the mind. Sylar’s third power (second obtained) the power of telekinesis, is stolen from Brian Davis, the man whom he hits over the head with the hunk of Quartz in the watch repair shop. Only after Brian Davis, does he have the ability to use the “telekinetic scalpel” which we’ve all come to know as Sylar’s MO.

Argument from other sources: In the film “The Cell”, Carl Stargher (the serial killer) revisits his first kill within his mind/memory. he recalls what a “mess” he made and how he “didn’t even know what I was doing”. This is further reiterated as we see his victim in a tub full of blood, Stargher just ripping organs out (mainly the liver) aimlessly; tossing them in a bowl as his dog sniffs the fresh meat and howls noisily.

Non-canon speculation: Sylar knows what he is after (the brain, or a portion thereof). He has no training however in brain function or mechanics, only the ability of “intuitive aptitude” which requires him to actually SEE how something works before he can understand it (remember Sylar is unaware of his actual base power). As such I would speculate that A) Sylar may have killed people before Brian Davis. That their powers were not gained due to the victims either dying from trauma (blood loss and/or because not knowing what he was doing he was just taking big hunks of brain tissue) before Sylar could figure out how things worked, or that he in fact poked around too hastily and ruined the parts of brain that actually housed the powers. and B) having the ability of “intuitive aptitude” the first thing we would figure out is that eating the brain would serve no actual purpose.

OK.. so now I’ve said my piece on that where was I…

The rest of the show. Well mainly I was annoyed at the Heroes and their whole Alpha team thing. I half expected them to punch their fists together, raise them in the air and then break. It was so corny/cheesy. They have always been some sort of a team, but it was casual. they came together when there was trouble they split up when stuff quieted down. That’s how it should see.. but no instead we get this uber-lame “all for one, one for all” shtick, which just makes me want to vomit all over myself… so in the interest of my lunch stying in my stomach where it belongs, I will reiterate no further on that point.

Nathan as expected, is turning out to be a bigger prick than his dad. And not in the “cool” Simon Bar Sinister mind control way, like Arthur was. (though technically the only episode where Simon controlled minds was the one with the Phoney-booths.. mainly I just wanted to say Simon Bar Sinister.. and there I did it again!). And I still stand by my statement that Arthur is alive BTW, I think it’s in fact who Nathan is reporting to in one of the phone conversations (the one where they DON’T show who is on the other end, not the later one where he is speaking to Angela). Well, he’s either reporting to Arthur or The President, but since I don’t suspect The President knows about Claire, etc (because it would involve explaining too much about Nathan’s own ability) that it is someone who would already know about her. In fact I would go so far to say that Arthur is either controlling Nathan and/or Nathan is so convinced that his father is God, that the whole round-up could be a way for Arthur to collect more powers and put them “into the hands of the right person”… again I could just be biased because I want Arthur to make a “come-back”.

My theory on Tracy however being secretly in control of everything was however way off.. in fact way way off is she is now a prisoner herself. I have heard speculation of another “blond heroine” getting killed off this season. Depending who they started that count with; if it starts with Elle, then they meant Daphne and thus it’s already been fulfilled, if they are counting beginning with Daphne however look out Claire/Tracy!. I actually dislike Tracy as a character, I preferred Niki/Jessica. I’d be interested however to see Ali Larter take on sister #3, Barbara, if they want to get that whole thing going on.

My last complaint, speaking of Daphne, was that even the writers apparently cannot decide what they want to do with their own space-time continuum. They are confusing even themselves with their time-jumpy antics. This is what happens when you bend the rules too much. It is much easier to do time travel if you obey laws of physics.. now everyone is confused, including you!

By all rights we should begin to see glimpses of alternate future no. 4. In fact we are seeing them in 15 minute increments or so from Matt via his new power (possibly slightly longer spans as Hiro now needs to get to India, and no longer has Daphne to help him). Alternate future no. 3 IMHO is officially dead, and if you don’t already know my arguments about how/why it is dead, please read the previous installment of this blog. However in Daphne’s convoluted argument about why Hiro must not be dead (because Ando kills him in the future) she if definitively referring to AF3. By that sheer argument alone, this would also preclude that she herself (Daphne) cannot/would not die as she also appears in AF3. While it is true that Matt’s drawing seems to show Daphne getting grazed in the arm (which shouldn’t kill her), I do still believe she is dead. I don’t think Matt would have left her otherwise, even if it meant getting captured by “The Hunter” again. I would like to see a longer AF4 vision to ultimately determine which story arcs are DOA and which are still being carried on, but as of right now I think I will safely say, discredit any information regarding the futures we have seen in previous installments.

Yep, I know the last episode of the year aired about two weeks ago and I’m finally just getting round to it. What can I say? It’s just crazy hectic this time of year…

Partially this blog will be a summation of predictions I made earlier in the year, and partially a summation of what happened in Episode 13 “Dual”.

At one point I mentioned that it may be possible that the “future” visions were being controlled, either by Arthur or someone else potentially as powerful. It occurred to me that there are two distinct types of future scenarios. Those experienced by “time travelers” and those experienced via “visions”.

As such futures experienced by time travelers are in fact potential real life future timelines. If certain criteria are met, those visions will in fact come true at a later date. However much like most time travel scenarios, the time line CAN and WILL be seriously altered if something changes it in the past (aka The Butterfly Effect – Angela refers to it and is the title of Episode 2). This is part off Hiro’s continuing struggle. He more or less vowed to no longer visit the “past” after the events with Adam Monroe. He broke this promise briefly to help Claire with the catalyst situation, and the fallout from that disastrous mess-up still remain to be seen.

The other kind “visions” as seen by Issac Mendez (also Sylar and Peter when using his power) as well as anyone on a “Spirit walk” (Matt, Hiro, Usutu). I believe Angela Petrelli also receives “visions”. “Visions” as a general rule seem to occur in altered states (drug use/dream states). Though these “visions” also appear to come true a large portion of the time, I have this theory that in fact some “visions” can be controlled by a stronger force. Though the information is usually accurate I believe portions of “visions” can be manipulated to effect future outcomes. The best way to explain this is that though the raw information either did or will happen, what images are shown to the seer can be manipulated in a way that the seer will act upon the information given. For example though the ultimate outcome of Matt and Daphne falling in love did occur, it only happened because Matt received this vision in the first place. I believe Matt’s vision was forced by outside influences (in this case Arthur Petrelli) initially to get Matt to cooperate and come to Pinehurst.

Ultimately what I’m getting at is don’t rely 100% on any information given via a “vision” as it has possibly been corrupted to alter the future in some way or another…

Any predictions I had about Sylar seem moot at this time. At this particular moment, I believe any scenarios involving possible future 3 are null and void.

There are many reasons why, the most important of which I will discuss. Firstly the event which triggers that future has been altered. Instead of Nathan revealing his powers, he continues to hide them. Though he does acknowledge powers, he only does so in an attempt to capture/kill “specials” and not to further awareness. The formula, initially (in the future scenario) available to anyone has now been lost: the last functioning dose having been given to Ando and the formula destroyed. Even assuming it can be recreated (doubtful considering the dissipation of “the light” a major component) at this point in time under the Nathan/Tracy NWO; it would only be given to the “chosen” not just anyone.

Secondly, Sylar no longer finds himself in a position to rehabilitate himself back to Gabriel. In one of the coolest quotes ever “I could’ve been a nobody”… He has in no uncertain words… gone completely bat shit crazy. I suppose this could change again as he starts on his quest to find his roots… but somehow I suspect major vendetta happenings instead (he’ll trace down his family and likely kill them for abandoning him). Oh yeah I did forget to mention that I don’t think he’s dead right? Only because I’ve already seen pics from Volume 4… Your guess is as good as mine how he survives, unless Claire in a moment of weakness (not wanting to become a killer like him?) takes pity on him and does not in fact hit him dead on his weak spot?

Noah is not Sylar’s son. It is Claire’s son with the upcoming character Alex (who I speculate is the older of Sylar’s two younger brothers). Claire names him Noah after her father. I do not currently have a theory how he ends up in Sylar’s charge. And/or why Claire would knowingly kill her own son (assuming things still play out the same way as the future we have already seen) other than my initial theory of Claire somehow losing her memory. Alex is most likely killed by Sylar, before he turns back to good? It’s an early theory so bear with me if I’m way off…

It does however look as is an early prediction of mine (11/17) will most likely occur. The “specials” are going to be bagged and tagged, per Nathan/Tracy. The new character “The Hunter” obviously is some sort of special agent exclusively set on this task.

Sylar will work for/with the Hunter. This seems to be the only explanation for the leaked photos of Sylar in a government uniform/flak jacket. Why the hell he needs it with his powers is beyond me (unless his powers are being repressed somehow?). My guess is he is considered public enemy no. 1 by Nathan (after all he killed Arthur) and as such it is the Hunter’s first mission. I’m calling they do end up capturing him, and cut a deal with him that they will give him the information he requires regarding his past/parents in exchange for his help in rounding up and/or killing other “specials”.

It sounds like some sort of deranged awards show.

So I have to apologize to the writers of Heroes, either that or assume they’re back from vacation, because Monday’s episode was infinitely much more awesome than I expected after the disappointing “Eclipse” episodes.

Well firstly, Sylar is back… as I already mentioned. Like really really back. To the point at which Steve exclaimed, he’s got some issues! I refrained from going into detail about how Sylar has always had “issues”. I’m digging the new blood stained t-shirt look. Perhaps blood on white will become this years fashion statement… as a side note, Elle’s burial was very funeral pyre. I’m not sure if they were paying homage to anything in particular, but it vaguely called up images of Darth Vader’s burial at the end of Return of the Jedi or maybe the whole Faramir/Denethor bit from Lord of the Rings, only in that sort of modern twist on it sort of way. As he has stolen her “company” phone, he is now the most organized sociopath in all of Costa Verde.

In another “weekly” instance of “I totally called that”. Nathan has completely done a 180, and is now on the “villains” side. Not in that intentionally evil way, but that kind of evil way you get when you think you’re actually doing something for the greater good kind of way. They’re definitely on board with a New World Order. Artificially manufactured specials. Unfortunately I’m not convinced that Nathan is a very good judge of character. The (marine?) he picked for the first trial seems a little PSD… if you get my drift. He’s now got lofty aspirations to become President, and has positioned himself to be potentially just as dangerous as his father (only you know to a lesser degree without all that mind power hoo-hah). Of course we all know its Tracy who’s really pulling the strings at the moment. Speaking of pulling stings… next weeks promo appears to have the puppet master (Eric) in it. I wonder what he’s doing back?

Meanwhile there were some of the best bits this year in regards to Hiro. It’s not that I dislike his character, but sometimes they go too far out of their way to make him a tad annoying. Some touchy feely stuff with the death of his mom, and also more detail into his strained relationship with his dad. The most important outcome of which, the catalysts (aka “The Light”) is some sort of healing power that his mom possessed and that was transferred to Claire artificially. That timeline has now changed as future Hiro takes it instead… not sure yet what this means. I have two theories, one of which doesn’t work at all in a time continuum way:

1) “The Light’s” host can only survive for a certain time period within its host. This is the reason why Hiro’s mom was dying… and the reason they originally chose Claire to put it into (her own powers of healing negate the detrimental effects of holding the catalyst).

2) “The Light” gave Claire her abilities in the first place? As we have not seen yet that she can still heal or not. This would be problematic script wise however as having never received the healing properties by all rights any malice she has done to herself in the past should be more “permanent” and that anyone whom was saved using her blood should not in fact be saved. Unless of course they want to completely throw out the laws of physics. This is a similar confusing issue I always get into when thinking about time-travel, alternate pasts/futures. And one of the biggest arguments I always have to suspend to believe when watching “The Terminator”. Bill Putt tried to explain it to me once… but his example just seemed like a convenient way to just do whatever the hell you want with the space-time continuum.

So yeah more likely number 1. It probably doesn’t matter anyway as “The Light” seems to have dissipated for the moment (where does it go after Arthur?)

Also if you’d been in my living room you would have got a giggle watching me yell at my TV when Hiro’s mom died. Mostly because he seemed so sad and surprised. Literally was yelling “well what did you think was going to happen?! For someone that reads so many comics he really isn’t very adept”.

So in a last moment of WTF? Everyone is apparently brain-dead and can’t keep their minds open long enough to remember that the people they are dealing with have powers! You would think it would have occurred to at least one person in the chain of command that shooting Arthur in the head isn’t going to do any good whatsoever?! In order for it to work, the Haitian has to stop Arthur’s powers long enough for him to actually die. While a shot in the head should do this more or less instantaneously, I think there is a little wiggle room. For good measure I personally would have made the Haitian sit in a room with the corpse for at least a few hours while still using his power blocking ability.

As we know this is not even close to what in fact happened, which was more like the Haitian lost his power over Arthur, meaning he could use his power at the time he got shot. So yeah he’s probably not dead (which is fine with me because I really like him as a character). In a related non-typical moment… why the hell doesn’t Sylar steal all his powers?!!! I mean other than the obvious reason that it leaves it open for Arthur to come back… if Sylar is so power hungry, Arthur is the perfect target. It’s like the all you can eat buffet (of course I use the term eat figuratively)…

So decided to wait until both parts of “Eclipse” were aired before I really sat down to discuss.

I hate to say, as per usual with this show, the rest of the season was incredibly awesome only to sort of fall flat at the end here (yeah there’s one or two more episodes before we change volumes… but I’m not holding out much hope there).

Honestly there were so many ways in which it could have gone… and they went with the totally predictable route. I wouldn’t mind so much except they mess with your head the entire remainder of the season only to give you the most obvious and initial answer.

I have to be honest I don’t have a lot to say about the Haiti story-line. Now I remember why I always forget about the Haitian. Unless he’s used as a plot mechanism he just isn’t an interesting character to me. Besides I swear I just watched that whole warlord scenario last week on “24: Redemption”, which I watched about a year before that when I watched the film “The Last King of Scotland”… in other words, though they’re based on real life events… impoverished countries under warlord power stories just don’t do a whole lot for me. I got so bored I kept tuning out during those scenes so I honestly can’t give you a solid synopsis of what happened, other than to tell you that the warlord, who is the Haitians’ brother, died at the end of the struggle and thus Nate & Pete are OK. I think somewhere in there Nate got some hard realization regarding his role as a U.S. Senator, which is probably why in the spoilers it looks like he’s going along with Tracy’s “NWO” army looking thing/plan. Maybe I ought to rewatch this bit on NBC.com; it’s probably going to be important later…

In other news… everyone lost their powers… I think that was one of many scenarios I called regarding the eclipse. It was a real eclipse and not a master manipulation (which would have been far more fun). The super bummer as everyone kind of started dying I immediately said “oh now would be a convenient time for the eclipse to end so everyone is OK” and wouldn’t you know… that’s exactly what they did. Ho hum… not that I wanted to see Sylar die. Because then I would totally have to boycott this show… but still a little more imagination people. I swear I wonder if the usual writers take like holiday break or something…

And speaking of Sylar dying did anyone else besides me become annoyed that HRG didn’t have a little more finesse when he killed him? Seriously I mean I liked the whole box-cutter thing, but it would have been much more ironic had he say cut open Sylar’s head (reverse victimization) rather than his throat. Maybe that was too gory for NBC prime-time but it would have been infinitely cooler.

And yeah, all-evil Sylar looks to be completely back. Gabriel had his moments… and I’d like to see him again in more Stepford flashbacks (or forwards), but he certainly can’t hold the show together like a murdering psychopath can.

I refrain from making any comments about Sylar’s origin. Though HRG says so, I’m still not entirely convinced he isn’t a Petrelli. It’s hard to say really with so many good liars on the show, who’s telling the truth. It just seems too coincidental about that whole Arthur/Peter/Sylar power triangle. Then again assuming possible future scenario (Volume 3) is still intact at all… it would be that motivation for the name of Sylar’s son. Though he and HRG never seem to get along (other than for a day or two) in the history of the show, that sort of information may still help him later with some sort of redemption (you know after he’s done having his snit). I can’t tell for sure, but I don’t think he killed Elle. It looks to me as if he stopped short… either way this pairing is probably doomed (oh darn he’s single again… so sad {insert sarcasm here}).

Though lots of other things happened, not much else of it is worth talking about. The Seth Green/Breckin Meyer characters were as funny as I was led to believe they would be when I heard they were going to appear. Some random eye candy involving Mohinder in a naked state during part 1… And a lot of whining by Arthur, who lost about 1,000 cool points on my meter for acting a lot tougher than he apparently actually is without powers. Seriously, maybe he should consider Viagra like other older men, because he obviously has some performance issues… or something.