Heroes Season 2

[Talavar]

As to Claire's storyline...
[spoiler]
I half-expected Superman to fly in when Claire & FlyBoy were hovering and making out, and be irate that FlyBoy was stealing his moves.  "This is how I pick up women!"

Has Sylar's watch really always been broken?  I totally missed/forgot that.
[/spoiler]

[Conduit]

[spoiler]

Has Sylar's watch really always been broken?  I totally missed/forgot that.

Yep.  When Mohinder dreams about Sylar killing Chandra in Seven Minutes to Midnight, there's a long, lingering shot of Sylar's broken watch.  We also see him wearing the still broken watch in the Burnt Toast Diner in present day in that same episode.
[/spoiler]

[House Quake]

A couple observations...

[spoiler]I really like the potential of the Micah/Monica/Grandma story line.  Monica has a very nice power. Although it isn't clear , as others have mentioned, if its photo-reflexes or some how elctronically transmitted bia the TV to her brain... even though that would be lame considering all TVs don't operate on the same technology.  Micah did not feel any 'electrical' impulse from Monica... he was simply being in character... ie being somewhat sensitive to the feelings of others and 'wishing' he had the power to fivx her dreams.

Skylar joining the 'wonder twins' arc has just sparked life into it.  I have no problem with Derek getting the axe.. cause all it did was to set up the most bizarre co-incidence imaginable.  If that's Claire's car...  surely she may have some type of identifiable items in there.  Registration most certainly which would devulge address... and something with a picture...? not unlikely.  Skylar in her car.... IMO... it just builds up to thier cover being blown by one man who may be desperate to 'heal' himself at all cost.

Matt was kinda pushy with the kid.. he didn't have to get the 'floor' 'room number' and all that... cause.. hell .. isn't he a 'detective'... ie figure it out.  And i don't think his father is necesarily a villain.. but he does seam to possess some sort of mental ability and probably is hiding .

Now the picture


You heard it hear first (???) Charles DEVEAUX... if that ain't a Cajon name... straight out the Bayou of Lousiana... then call me a white boy named Bill.  I'm very certain that there will be a connection built up between him and Grandma 'Uhura'... ie... offspring with powers.  I almost wanted to say that the black woman sitting down was maybe Grandma .... but I'm not too sure about that.  Just doesn't look like her enough in the pic.

Another major note... we have never seen daddy Petrelli (sp).  Even in this picture... he is the only guy with his head turned and we can't get a clear look at him.   Are we even sure he's dead?  My money is he's the big bad.  Bigger money say he's Kensie!

Also I'm going with the process of elimination.  I'm sure 'Bob' isn't the big bad.  I doubt Matt's dad is... and that would leave the big bad to be one of the three women depicted... and I'm not ready to give writers enough credit to make the big bad.... a woman.  That leaves Daddy Petrelli... who we never seen on the show and was simply 'told' he was dead.... but as we have noted... we have ben told many things which were later not necessarily the truth[/spoiler]

[Tomato]

A couple observations...

[spoiler]I really like the potential of the Micah/Monica/Grandma story line.  Monica has a very nice power. Although it isn't clear , as others have mentioned, if its photo-reflexes or some how elctronically transmitted bia the TV to her brain... even though that would be lame considering all TVs don't operate on the same technology.  Micah did not feel any 'electrical' impulse from Monica... he was simply being in character... ie being somewhat sensitive to the feelings of others and 'wishing' he had the power to fivx her dreams.

Skylar joining the 'wonder twins' arc has just sparked life into it.  I have no problem with Derek getting the axe.. cause all it did was to set up the most bizarre co-incidence imaginable.  If that's Claire's car...  surely she may have some type of identifiable items in there.  Registration most certainly which would devulge address... and something with a picture...? not unlikely.  Skylar in her car.... IMO... it just builds up to thier cover being blown by one man who may be desperate to 'heal' himself at all cost.

Matt was kinda pushy with the kid.. he didn't have to get the 'floor' 'room number' and all that... cause.. hell .. isn't he a 'detective'... ie figure it out.  And i don't think his father is necesarily a villain.. but he does seam to possess some sort of mental ability and probably is hiding .

Now the picture


You heard it hear first (???) Charles DEVEAUX... if that ain't a Cajon name... straight out the Bayou of Lousiana... then call me a white boy named Bill.  I'm very certain that there will be a connection built up between him and Grandma 'Uhura'... ie... offspring with powers.  I almost wanted to say that the black woman sitting down was maybe Grandma .... but I'm not too sure about that.  Just doesn't look like her enough in the pic.

Another major note... we have never seen daddy Petrelli (sp).  Even in this picture... he is the only guy with his head turned and we can't get a clear look at him.   Are we even sure he's dead?  My money is he's the big bad.  Bigger money say he's Kensie!

Also I'm going with the process of elimination.  I'm sure 'Bob' isn't the big bad.  I doubt Matt's dad is... and that would leave the big bad to be one of the three women depicted... and I'm not ready to give writers enough credit to make the big bad.... a woman.  That leaves Daddy Petrelli... who we never seen on the show and was simply 'told' he was dead.... but as we have noted... we have ben told many things which were later not necessarily the truth[/spoiler]

[spoiler]You know... now that i think about it, Kensei being Mr. Petrelli would explain alot. Mrs Petrelli mentioned that he was suicidal, and being immortal Kensei might very well wish to finally die. Plus, he'd have a certain ammount of resentment for Mrs. Petrelli's affair, and it would also explain why she chose to agree to go to prison.

Still, it seems like too much for some reason. I understand your reasoning, but I bring myself to believe him to be both Kensei and the big bad.[/spoiler]

[The Hitman]

[spoiler]

Bob, a.k.a. Ned "Needlenose" Reyerson.

BING!

Yeah, HQ, I was also thinking Kensai is a Petrelli. And Monica's my new favorite character. I bet the woman sitting next to Devaux is supposed to be Ohoura. My 2 cents.[/spoiler]

[stumpy]

Hey, some interesting theories here! Some good storylines could come out of any of them.  :cool:

[spoiler]BTW, do we have any idea who the white-haired guy below Parkman Sr. is in the photo? I was assuming that he is one of the five people in the photo that we haven't met on the show yet. They were: The standing blonde woman at the left, the seated brunette woman at the left, the standing auburn-haired woman next to Parkman Sr., the seated mustached man below Bob, and the seated white-haired man below Parkman Sr.

We don't know much about Petrelli Sr., either and we can't really see him in the photo. His face is oddly blurred and he is looking away, apparently at something off the right edge of the photo. I would guess we will know what he was looking at before the season concludes...

It would fit that he was Kensei. For one thing, he would have a pretty easy time faking his death. Of course, he must be aging since 1671 then; it would be sort of noticeable for him to look no older than Nathan. Also, he is about the right height for the photo, going by the actors' stature: at six foot even, he's a few inches taller than Linderman and a couple inches shorter than Bob.

From the preview for next week, we can see Elle (played by Kristen Bell) will finally make her debut.  I'm rather excited and she'll definitely get my vote  :P

I totally forgot she was making her way from Neptune to Earth. Very cool. And, yes, another contender for hottest special, though, IMO, Monica has a prettier face.

Bob, a.k.a. Ned "Needlenose" Reyerson.

BING!

Yeah, HQ, I was also thinking Kensai is a Petrelli. And Monica's my new favorite character. I bet the woman sitting next to Devaux is supposed to be Ohoura. My 2 cents.

I don't think that the seated woman is Uhura. It doesn't look very much like her, IMO.
[/spoiler]

[GrizzlyBearTalon]

[spoiler]The whole flying to school thing doesn't bother me that much. It is rather stupid yes, but they did something similar in the invincible comic and I always thought it was kinda clever. When Invincible and Atom Eve change behind the school near a dumpster he asks how do they get out unnoticed and she replies to just fly out and that you would be surprised by how very few people ever look up.

Of course... several people recognized them with ease at a few points in the comic though, heh. He should at least wear a hockey mask after all he mentioned it was colder at really high altitudes. You would think like others mentioned he'd be more paranoid after being captured once.[/spoiler]

[The Hitman]

[spoiler]

I don't think that the seated woman is Uhura. It doesn't look very much like her, IMO.

I know. I just figure... what if they got someone to stand in as a "younger" Uhura... but then why wouldn't they use a younger Linderman, Mrs. Petrelli, Deveaux, etc.
[/spoiler]

[Conduit]

[spoiler]

We don't know much about Petrelli Sr., either and we can't really see him in the photo. His face is oddly blurred and he is looking away, apparently at something off the right edge of the photo. I would guess we will know what he was looking at before the season concludes...

It would fit that he was Kensei. For one thing, he would have a pretty easy time faking his death. Of course, he must be aging since 1671 then; it would be sort of noticeable for him to look no older than Nathan. Also, he is about the right height for the photo, going by the actors' stature: at six foot even, he's a few inches taller than Linderman and a couple inches shorter than Bob.

His face is sort of blurred, but he clearly has a receding hairline.  He doesn't look that much like Kensei.  And the web comic series War Buddies doesn't fit at all with that theory.  In that series, Mr. Petrelli is clearly younger (I doubt he would stay the same age for centuries, then suddenly start aging), looks nothing like Kensei, considers Linderman a freak for being able to heal others, never acts like he could survive getting shot, and worst of all, he actually does get shot in one scene and stays injured for what has to be at least 30 seconds before Linderman heals him.  After Linderman heals him, he reacts in shock and asks Linderman what he did to him.  Then again, given how they've been treating things established in previous episodes lately, maybe I'm expecting too much of the writers.
[/spoiler]

[kkhohoho]

[spoiler]

We don't know much about Petrelli Sr., either and we can't really see him in the photo. His face is oddly blurred and he is looking away, apparently at something off the right edge of the photo. I would guess we will know what he was looking at before the season concludes...

It would fit that he was Kensei. For one thing, he would have a pretty easy time faking his death. Of course, he must be aging since 1671 then; it would be sort of noticeable for him to look no older than Nathan. Also, he is about the right height for the photo, going by the actors' stature: at six foot even, he's a few inches taller than Linderman and a couple inches shorter than Bob.

His face is sort of blurred, but he clearly has a receding hairline.  He doesn't look that much like Kensei.  And the web comic series War Buddies doesn't fit at all with that theory.  In that series, Mr. Petrelli is clearly younger (I doubt he would stay the same age for centuries, then suddenly start aging), looks nothing like Kensei, considers Linderman a freak for being able to heal others, never acts like he could survive getting shot, and worst of all, he actually does get shot in one scene and stays injured for what has to be at least 30 seconds before Linderman heals him.  After Linderman heals him, he reacts in shock and asks Linderman what he did to him.  Then again, given how they've been treating things established in previous episodes lately, maybe I'm expecting too much of the writers.
[/spoiler]

Where did you find "War Buddies"?

[Conduit]

Parts one and two are here.  The other parts are here.

[USAgent]

I found this interesting pic over in the hero forums:



I looks like there is someone standing between Mr. Nakamura and Bob in the overlay photo with a white coat on, and it may be possibly who Mr. Petrelli is looking at.  But why could he be seen in the "marked for death" photos but not the regular one?

[bredon7777]

Some random thoughts - may contain spoilers

[spoiler]

- The more I think about it, the more I wonder if Candace is actually alive, and created the whole "death" thing with one of her illusions after all.  Think about it: Hana destroyed the Company's tracker/locater and then Mohinder/Parkman took their backup one away from them.
What better way to find powered people then to let Sylar "escape" and track him, knowing he will be driven to seek out powered people in order to regain his abilities. Now, whether they've got a power-negator near him at all times, or they've borrowed Spike's chip is unclear (if they've borrowed Spike's chip, it certainly didn't stop him from murdering an ordinary guy).

It makes a certain amount of sense (which is probably why its not true :D) ): Sylar would never join the company of his own free will. The company would never be stupid enough to keep him under such light guard (even if they surgically removed all the bits he'd grafted into himself to get extra powers). It'd explain why we've heard the ticking effect indicating he's accessing his powers twice now. He didn't get Candace's powers because the strain of creating an illusion within an illusion was too much; or maybe they wanted to plant the beginnings of a mental block so that he'd not be able to access new powers. Plus, I just don't believe that he could walk for three days and survive (given the state he was in last episode) without someone covertly assisting him.

Dana Davis (Micha's cousin, whose name escapes me) looks no more than a few years older than Micah himself, so shame on you stumpster. :D  Plus, as others have pointed out- as soon as Kristen Bell shows up, the title of "Hottest woman on the show" zooms straight to her. 

I really hope Micah's cousin's ability is to duplicate ANY action she sees, not just ones she sees on TV. Mainly because it seems such an arbitrary and stupid limitation.  Also because, hello, how many times a day do you see people doing extrordinary things in front of you?  That said, however, the scene between her and Micah was filmed oddly- there was a weird emphasis on the way his hand was lying flat on her back, and he was making the same face he makes when "talking" to machines, so I dunno...

Parkman is still a schmuck, but just because the kid wasn't his after all doesn't necessarily mean it can't have powers.  They're are a million different ways around that.  I'm still a little ticked that they went for the easy  out- my brother is an EMT in NYC and knows more than his share of cops. More than one divorce has been caused by a refusal to take a desk job after being injured in the line of duty.

I'm a little surprised about how many people took Mrs. Petrelli seriously.  I got a totally different vibe from that scene- I didn't believe for a second she'd had an affair with Kaito- I just thought that she was saying that because it'd give her a credible motive in the eyes of the police.

I wouldn't be surprise if Mr. Petrelli senior is still alive, and whether or not Parkman's dad is the BIG bad or not, he's still apparently holding Molly's soul hostage, and that makes him more than bad enough for me.
[/spoiler]

[bredon7777]

ips-

[spoiler]
Sorry- its been well established that Sylar removes the brains entirely. There were repeated comments in Season 1 about how there were no brains at the crime scenes. 

It's never been established exactly what he DOES do with them, but I think we can pretty much rule out just looking at them. [/spoiler]

[Adamence]

[spoiler]The more I think about, the more convinced I am that Sylar is definitely getting help.  I don't think he could have walked for three days with the injuries Candace said he had, and in the most recent episode, he really didn't seem all that hurt to me.  If Candace's illusions are more than just images, and are in fact illusions to all senses, she could have faked his injuries, causing him to feel pain and then when he broke free of her illusions (if he ever really did) they just went away.  Or maybe he did kill Candace and the Big Bad is in fact following him and helping him and if Sylar really was injured, healed him. 

Perhaps the Big Bad knows of Maya's power, knows that it could possibly kill him (the reference to it being able to 'kill the devil') and thus wants to eliminate that threat to increase it's hope of survival.  By leading Sylar to Maya, the Big Bad may be hoping that Sylar will kill Maya, and will make a bargain with the Big Bad to not 'kill the devil' in exchange for what Sylar really wants...power.

There's just something about the cockroach that we saw near Derek's dead body that really leads me to suspect this.  We saw cockroaches several times first season, including one beside Sylar as he lay "dead" at Primatech, as well as one crawling on the manhole cover that Sylar vanished into.

Coincidence?  Maybe...or maybe not.

I'm also reminded of Mohinder's lecture on evolution and how he said in terms of evolution, cockroaches were almost perfect.  Seems to me the Big Bad might be almost perfect as well.

And also...

Dana Davis (Micha's cousin, whose name escapes me) looks no more than a few years older than Micah himself, so shame on you stumpster. biggrin  Plus, as others have pointed out- as soon as Kristen Bell shows up, the title of "Hottest woman on the show" zooms straight to her.

YES!  I am truly glad I am not alone on that thought.


[/spoiler]

[Adamence]

I came across this a few minutes ago, in case anyone was interested in learning a bit more about the new character Elle before next week's episode.

[spoiler]

Here we are, now less than a week away from Kristen Bell's arrival on Heroes, and a few more morsels of intel are trickling in about her enabled alter ego, Elle. "She's a little messed up in the head, which makes her manipulative and out to get what she wants," the former Veronica Mars shared in a Tuesday conference call. That, Bell notes, is "really interesting... because [Heroes'] whole first season was about these fairly good-natured people trying to embrace these abilities and being very conflicted as to how they should be using them. Elle is not that way at all. She very much enjoys her power and the emotional power it gives her over other people." Series creator Tim Kring adds, "Elle was raised within the Company, and this is in some ways a cautionary tale about what would happen to any of our characters had they lived with powers their whole life."

As for Elle's ties to the canvas, Bell reveals that in addition to "a little bit" of a connection to Suresh, "There's a very interesting dynamic between her and Claire, in terms of what is and what is not. There's a deeper relationship there than people are expecting."


Source: TVGuide.com

"This face? Right here? My over-the-moon face."  :)
[/spoiler]

[stumpy]

[spoiler]Conduit: Good point about the unlikelihood of Petrelli being Kensei. I had forgotten that "War Buddies" established Petrelli as the character Linderman met in Viet Nam. Assuming they are the same Petrelli (and it would be a cheap switch if they aren't), then there is no way Petrelli is Kensei.

bredon7777: Monica isn't just a few years older than Micah. Puh-lease. Dana Davis is like 27 years old, which is in line with what I was assuming because Monica claimed to be the breadwinner for that household. I can lust after her with impunity. ;)

Also, I agree with ips that we don't really know what Sylar does with the brains which is something discussed in the Heroes thread last season.

I am glad more people are coming on board with the Candace-is-not-dead theory. We don't know either way, but I would prefer that no more characters are idiots than necessary.[/spoiler]

[bredon7777]

[spoiler]

I'm well aware that Monica is substantially older than Micah- she just doesn't look it :P.

As for the brains, while we don't know what Sylar does with them (yet, anyway- the writers have said we will find out this season) I just find the idea that he merely looks at them extremely unlikely, especially given that on more than one occasion, he's taken the entire brain away with him.

Plus, the fact that he no longer has access to the powers he had last season, IMO, is a compelling argument that he grafted part of the powered brain onto himself - grafts that were removed during his surgeries, effectively removing the powers.

I could believe that, or that he built some sort of device with bits of brain, much easier than the idea he merely looks at the brain - an idea that is both less supported by what we've seen so far and less narrativley compelling than the alternatives. [/spoiler]

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

About Candace:

[spoiler]
Sorry, but it appears that the producers and writers have confirmed that she is really dead.  This was actually a last minute change.  She and Sylar were supposed to run around together for 6 episodes, but when the actress who originally played her quit to join the cast of Reaper, the decided to just abruptly put another actress in there, then immediately kill her off.  The suddenness of this change, is probably why it doesn't sit quite right with anybody.
[/spoiler]

EDIT:
Here's the section about it from Beeman's blog.
[spoiler]

Of course, the original plan was for Missy Peregrym to reprise her role as Candice. Unfortunately for us, Missy has landed a new job as a series regular on the CW's REAPER. And REAPER shoots in Vancouver (where Missy is originally from, and I'm very happy for her because I'm sure she's glad to be back in her hometown.) The writers' original plan was for Candice and Sylar to have a several episode adventure together - but with Missy's lack of availability we decided to tie it off in just one. We really tried to work out a way to have Missy do this episode. First we squeezed the story down to where we felt it could be shot in one day. Then we began working with the REAPER production team trying to find a day she could be made available. Missy was great, she was willing to come back at any time – even a weekend to do the episode. But in the end there were reshoots on the new show and they pulled her dates up. (And truthfully our work was never realistically going to be done in one day.) So we reconceived.

Luckily, Candice's character is one of the easier one's to recast. JJ explained it all with the dialogue "I used to go by Candice. But ever since I dragged you off of Kirby Plaza, police are kind of looking for my old self. So, I went for a new look. What do you think? Too generic?" Once we could wrap our heads around that idea - the rest fell into place.

Rachel Kimsey came in to read for the newly conceived role and we were all really happy. She brought a comedic sexiness to the part that we all really liked. After seeing her dailies and the first cut of the episode, we discussed whether we could conceive of a way to keep her alive in the stories. But that bus had already left the station. So (similar to what happened with "Charlie" in Paul Edwards other episode "Seven Minutes To Midnight" last year) another great actress will be here for just one episode!

[/spoiler]

[starlock]

ips-

[spoiler]
Sorry- its been well established that Sylar removes the brains entirely. There were repeated comments in Season 1 about how there were no brains at the crime scenes. 

It's never been established exactly what he DOES do with them, but I think we can pretty much rule out just looking at them. [/spoiler]

don't apologize. your statement doesn't invalidate what i said. so what if he removes it or keeps it in? he probably just looks at it carefully like he takes apart watches. that's really the only premise any of us should be going on... it's the only thing he's ever been shown to do with anything he is trying to understand. the rest of what you guys are going on about is baseless conjecture.

whats the problem with guessing what he does with them?, ando mentioned( first season.. i will check if it was ando for sure) that he eats them- i know its not proof, and from what brendon777 said, why cant we guess he eats them,i have not heard anything about the brains being cut up, taken apart, they never mention what condition the brains are in, that would leave me to believe he does somthing with them, and i have never seen him carrying them,Eating them is what i first thought he did when the show first started,
So its killing you that people are guessing sylar eats them, making up our own continuity, i say keep guessing and keep making up our own continuity... its fun and entertaining and actually interesting to read

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

It's DEFINITELY not eating.  Notice when he kills Candace--blood on his hands, none around the mouth.  Same after he kills his first victim, actually.

I always figured that he disassembled it somehow, using the information, or even parts of the brain itself, to augment his own brain.

[stumpy]

[spoiler]RE: Candace. Hmm. I can deal with changes prompted by scheduling considerations, but I still say they shouldn't have had her die in a stupid way. For one thing, they could have just had her disappear, potentially to play a role later on. Secondly, we never saw her drag Sylar off the plaza, so they could have had him survive some other way. Of course, there may be other parts of that backstory that make it important that Candace saved him,  so I can't be sure about that. But, most importantly, even if she had to be the one to save him (or be with him when he awoke) and she had to die, they should have killed her off in a way where she wasn't a complete rube. I mean, it may have required something more creative than Sylar just bashing her over the head, but I would have hoped that wouldn't be beyond the writers' skills.

As to the continuing question of what Sylar does with the brains, he may have to do something really complicated with them. But that doesn't preclude that the operation is still basically analysis. It doesn't mean that he eats them, but I guess it's possible that his power gives him a very special digestive tract. Even if they go that route (which I don't favor), it would be understandable that they don't make it clear exactly what he does.

While I could believe that whatever power-absorption process he has involves a technique that someone could reverse (surgically or via some other means), I don't like the idea that Sylar is surgically implanting chunks of other people's brains in his head. It's just too medically impossible, nevermind that he never shows any scars or other side-effects of that kind of operation. I also hope it's not a device. For one thing, it would be hard to explain how he had that device available the first time he stole a power...

My guess is still that his power allows him to analyze the brains of his victims and then make alterations to himself that allows him to duplicate their powers. He might have to root around in the brains to do it. It may be that he is analyzing the gross physical structure of their brains, but I get the impression that he is finding an expressed sequence of mutated DNA or something and then expressing that same sequence on his own. To me, that fits in well with the "knowing how things tick" description of his power.

We still can't say how he lost his powers, and it's possible that someone deliberately removed them. Also the theory we've discussed before that he has the same plague or whatever that hit the Haitian seems plausible. That also would set up a situation where to save some other innocent specials, Mohinder ends up saving Sylar. Or, Sylar has to save Mohinder in order to save himself...[/spoiler]

[Sevenforce]

[spoiler]Guy in white coat...maybe Claude? just an idea

Concerning flying dude...uh...flying does not equate invulnerability to pressure and lack of oxygen. And the troposphere is well known as having a distinct lack of both. He should be bleeding from the ears and suffocating at the very least. Also...Peter and flying boy are tied for stupid storyline/stupid person[/spoiler]

[bredon7777]

stumpy-

[spoiler]
The first time Sylar stole a power, TK, he was in his watch shop- with access to all sorts of mechanical bits and pieces. I have no problem with him quickly knocking up a device that allowed him to access powers.
[/spoiler]

[stumpy]

[spoiler]The engineer in me is resistant to that sort of stretch. I don't know that Sylar was ever presented as any sort of gadget genius, since he said he spent seven years trying to repair that old German timepiece when Chandra first saw him. He doesn't come across as Reed Richards. And most watch repair shops (I've been in a few) aren't exactly wonderlands of technological resource.

But, aside from the lack of believability of him building it, which I'll admit may be more of an issue for me, there is the fact that we've never seen him use any device or refer to one. Don't forget that he would have had to rebuild it at least twice now, since it was presumably taken from him when HRG caught him and when his wounds were operated on and he wound up with Candace. (Unless, of course, we are to believe it was so small he could have kept it hidden on his person.) And, at that shack where Candace had him, it didn't look like there was much in the way of parts for ultra high tech do-it-yourself projects.

Also, he would be the first person we've seen who needs a special device to use his power.

Anyway, not that it's outside the realm of possibility, it just doesn't appeal to me.[/spoiler]

[Uncle Yuan]

OK - I know I'm a couple of day late in posting - so this is going to be nothing terribly new or original but

[spoiler]I think it's incredibly cool that the HOT new chick is the Taskmaster!!!  :thumbup:[/spoiler]

[MikeB7]

An easy explanation would be Sylar has to touch/hold the victim's brain to activate his power (like how Rogue touches skin) which then reorganizes his brain to mimic the person's (like when Mr. Fantastic stretched his brain to use Cerebro in Earth/Universe/Paradise X/whichever).  That's how I envision it.  As a power - unscientific, weird and nasty.

[USAgent]

Regarding Sylar and what he does with the brains, If I recall when Sylar was captured by the company, didnt one of the doctors or HRG say that splicing others DNA to his own was causing him to loose him mind?  Or something to that extent. So if that was the deal, he is somehow getiing his victims brains in his system in some way,shape, or form.

As for the above group pic of the white jacket dude next to Hiro's father, here is another pic (more clear) of that jacket that surely isnt Bob's.

[Pyroclasm]

I don't read the online comics which in IMHO are NOT canon, because if they were I'm sure they would say at some point each episode that the viewer needs to go to nbc.com to get the "full story" via the comics.  I watch the show with my wife and we normally discuss what's happened and what it means.  I've been reading this thread and thought I'd finally chime in.
[spoiler]Re: Mexitwins
Some have indicated the dislike of the the bit where the brother gets tossed in jail and escapes.  After seeing Monday's episode, I would tend to agree that Derek was a useless character.  The guy in the cell could have easily been Sylar.  However, I do think that the writers used the jail scene to illustrate two things.  The first being that her power doesn't just randomly triggered when Alejandro is not in proximity as suggested on previous occasions.  The scene very much seemed like an homage to the Hulk TV show in which Banner would get slapped around and it would trigger the rage inside releasing his alter ego.  They even did the zoom into her eyes to show the transformation happening.  They confirmed the stress trigger on Monday's episode.  The second thing was that she is not as innocent as she appears.  We actually both commented to each other on how she purposely tried to kill the officers just to "rescue" her brother.  Note that when the officer shoos her away, she notices the wanted poster, and with a smirk on her face she proudly declares that they are killers.  She slyly "warns" the officers to leave her alone, but she knew exactly what would happen if she were to confess to being one of the killers from the poster.  Even if she expected her brother to be able to reverse the condition, it would not be a good act to risk the lives of those people.  I'm actually convinced she fully intended on hurting them.  She does normally plead innocence, so I hope they don't do another dual personality schtick.  I'm also not entirely convinced that Alejandro's power isn't actually killing him.  It seems to hurt or even make him ill each time he does it.
Re: Candace
I'm a bit disappointed that she was killed for real.  The explanation for writing her off does seem a bit overly sugar coated.  I think that she was either killed off while Sylar's still broken so that he would never have her powers OR that Sylar did get her powers but just can't access them yet.
Re: Sylar
I wouldn't put it past the writers of the show to indicate that Sylar did in fact physically modify himself in order to gain powers.  That "ticking" sound may not just be an effect for the viewers, but an actual sound of some clockwork mechanism inside himself.  Perhaps it was damaged when he was stabbed, or perhaps the company did something to it when they were fishing around in his guts.  As for the brains, perhaps he's absorbing them through his hands via osmosis.  It certainly would explain the bloody hands and the disappearing brains.
Re: Big Bad
I'm inclined to think that although Matt's father may appear to Molly as the end all of all nightmare people, he is not in fact this season's big bad.  He may indeed be a bad guy, but not THE bad guy.  I think that several people have the possibility of being this season's archnemisis despite not being the one responsible for the attacks on Mr. Nakamura and Mrs. Petrelli.
1) Maya.  Her power can easily kill those surrounding her.  Perhaps Sylar recovered quickly because he's a special, or perhaps because he was only very briefly affected.  Either way, I'm still suspicious of Maya's misuse of the power last week.  Especially since she is supposedly worried about being around people, but is seriously determined to go to New York, where she just might go all black oil on the populace.
2) Kensei.  His symbol features very prominent in the show.  It's also the symbol being marked on the faces of the people marked for death.  Although seemingly an ok kind of guy, what could happen if he is ripped out of time and the girl he was falling for was stolen from him by his "friend"?
3) Peter.  He IS refusing to learn about his past self.  His past self is the kind, sweet, gentle soul that would never have sneered at the use of TK to cause pain.  That taste of the dark side might be a bit tempting (seeing as he has chosen to hang out with Irish mobsters).  Maybe that little fling with the Irishwoman may end in tragedy, and he loses it.  He IS afterall the most powerful character on the show.  I'm still hoping not, as it rings a bit of Dark Willow.
4) Elle.  Her character description is that of self-serving and possibly insane.  We have yet to meet her so I can't write her off just yet.
[/spoiler]
I know it is popular for people to blame the writers for everything, but you never know how much is really lost when the story finally makes it to final cut.  Perhaps the director tweaks the script for his own purposes, or perhaps the director simply isn't being 100% successful at translating the words to video.  In addition to that, there may be other things that are simply edited out for whatever reasons, which just might be the explanations some of you are wanting.
Sorry for my long post.  I think I've been rambling on. :)

[BentonGrey]

I've been wanting to post this for a week, but just haven't gotten around to it.  I am more and more annoyed by the New Orleans part of the show.  I'm from the Gulf Coast, and....well, I'll put the rest of this in spoilers.  If you don't want to hear me griping or don't want to see possible spoilers, feel free to skip it:

[spoiler]I'm from the coast of Mississippi, a small town that, along with everything to the west of it, was devastated by Katrina.  However, by the way the media speaks of the storm, you'd never know that New Orleans wasn't the only place hit.  What?  The hurricane didn't just slam N.O.?  That's right, we were all hit hard, and a lot of places were hit a lot worse or at least just as bad, as N.O.  I remember,  I was at school in Alabama when the storm hit, and I watched the news trying to hear ANYTHING about my town, my family, and my friends.  In stead, we got nothing but report after report of N.O.! 

Ugh, well, that aside, the fact that they set a storyline in N.O. is frustrating for a lot of reasons. 

1.)  N.O. is now in pretty good shape, the government POURED money into it (because it was the center of attention) and rebuilding has sped along.  Meanwhile, in Mississippi, the mile-to-three-miles inland from the beach that were scoured clean by Katrina are still empty.  There is no rebuilding going on.  You want to see hardship post-Katrina, look to the East.

2.)  It's very inaccurate.  Yeah, the visuals may be alright, but nothing else about it.  There are TONS of jobs on the Gulf Coast right now, anyone who wants to work can, because there is more work than people willing to work.  Tons of people are still getting government money, and don't care to have to WORK for their money.  Heck, Walmart was paying $10 an hour a few months ago in my hometown.  If they were paying that much in Illinois....well, anyway, the real problem is housing.  If they wanted to give them a problem, that could have been it, because there are still far too few houses and apartments. 

3.)  It just feels like a cheap attempt to get ratings with a story of REAL suffering.  Ohh, you know what will get us ratings?  We'll do a show in New Orleans, 'cause people remember that they got hit by a hurricane.

4.)  The accents........ughhhh....painful.[/spoiler]