Heroes (2006) - 45 questions

Question: Any body know what type of phone Claire Bennett has. It's the pink mobile.

Answer: It looks like a T-mobile Sidekick II.

Question: Why do the writers and producers of 'Heroes' feel the need to kill such great characters? For example, The German. His power was pretty cool and could have been a major new villain in the third season, but they killed him off. Another would be Elle. Why her? She was such a great character.

Answer: The writers kill off characters as and when it serves the purposes of the overall story for them to die. All characters have some potential to them - just as with real life, not all of them will get to live up to that potential. It sucks when a favourite character is killed off, but that's the nature of a TV show - characters, particularly recurring characters like Elle or minor villains like the German, are going to die on a regular basis.

Question: How exactly does Sylar acquire other powers? I know it has something to do with the victims brain, but what exactly?

Answer: It's not been made 100% clear. It was originally assumed that he actually consumed part of the brain, but this has turned out not to be the case. Sylar has been shown all along to have an instinctive knowledge of how things work and how to fix them - this is his actual original power and the ability that made him an exceptional watchmaker and repairer. It appears that he uses a similar process when acquiring new powers - he exposes the brain of the target, allowing him to examine it and determine how their power functions. He can then apply that knowledge to his own brain, allowing him to replicate the ability in question.

Question: Does anyone know what the ubiquitous, ever present helix means and what it signifies?

Answer: It is a reference to human DNA. It represents how some people have evolved past what is considered "normal". Hence the name of Chandra Suresh's book: Activating Evolution".

Question: What are the limits of Sylar's telekinesis? Can he use use it to fly perhaps?

Answer: He's certainly been shown to use it to levitate, so full flight is probably within his capabilities. His exact limits are unknown, but are undoubtedly pretty high - he throws a police van around with no obvious effort towards the end of season one and has shown himself to be skilled enough to manipulate many different objects at once, as when he used the glass fragments against the invisible Peter Petrelli.

Question: Exactly why do The Company and their agents conduct bag and tag missions? Is it simply to study evolved humans and their powers? Or do they have something more sinister in mind? Also, why bag and tag at all? Why not just talk to the people they target?

Answer: It's partly study, partly containment, partly potential recruitment. Simply talking to the targets isn't going to get them what they need to know - they're looking for detailed genetic information, plus they want to install the tracking isotopes, neither of which could be done during a pleasant chat.

Question: At the end of the episode, when Peter starts to glow, why doesn't he just fly or teleport away to a safe location instead of having to rely on Nathan to fly him away?

Answer: Peter doesn't have perfect control over any of his abilities - he has to be able to focus on certain mental keys to be able to use them with any degree of certainty. With his acquired radioactivity power beginning to run out of control, any possibility of focus is gone - he's scared, he's in considerable discomfort if not outright pain. He's simply not able to do it, so Nathan has to step in to help get him clear of the area.

Question: How was Peter able to communicate with Charles Deveaux even though he's been dead for some time?

Answer: Charles Deveaux had super powers. It could very well be his powers made it possible for Peter to communicate with him.

Question: How exactly does Peter Petrelli acquire that pretty nifty looking facial scar, even though he's absorbed regeneration? Is it even explained?

Answer: (POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING) Peter lost his regeneration ability and can now only possess one power at a time. He may yet get the scar.

Question: Towards the end of the episode but before the climatic battle between Sylar and Peter, Sylar, disguised as Nathan through the power of illusion, walks calmly towards Peter and then reverts back to his own form/image. To my knowledge there are four people who are there to witness this: Peter, Matt Parkman and two unnamed SWAT officers with a battering ram. It is understandable if the two SWAT officers didn't see this transformation, but Matt? Surely he must have seen? He was a few feet from him, yet he didn't even bat an eyelid? Why is this? His superior transformed into a well-known killer.

Answer: Simple, he changes the illusion for peter, but keeps the others thinking he is still Nathan, he can make different illusions at once.

Question: I don't understand the motives behind The Company, i.e. Kaito Nakamura and Angela Petrelli, giving Claire Bennet to Noah Bennet to look after. Why couldn't Angela or her biological father Nathan look after her? Also, why did Kaito order Noah to hand Claire over when her ability manifests? I thought the whole point was that she would be looked after and not experimented on?

Answer: 1) Seeing as how Nathan was the prominent son of the Petrelli family it probably would not do well for it to be public knowledge that he has fathered an illegitimate child. As Nathan's mother and a founder of The Company, Angela Petrelli certainly would have a say. 2) The Company would probably want Claire when her powers manifest to determine their scope and potential danger, possibly even attempt to recruit her a la the "One of Us, One of Them" policy.

Question: Is Claude's invisibility limited only to the visible light spectrum? Could he perhaps use it to manipulate say, the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums?

Answer: There's no indication that it applies to anything other than the visible light spectrum.

Question: Throughout the show, The Haitian has been shown to nullify the powers of evolved humans. Yet, why on the rooftop was he unable to nullify Claude and Peter's invisibility? Doesn't his power work as well as those that require active concentration?

Answer: The Haitian doesn't automatically stop every power around him, he does it at will (eg when he doesn't focus and lets Nathan fly away). by using infra-red goggles they can sneak up on Peter and Claude, whereas forcing them to become visible would have alerted them too soon.

Question: Hope the showgirl locks Hiro in a small closet. He makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape by running and charging towards the door. Why doesn't he simply teleport out? Surely a lot simpler and a lot less painful?

Answer: Hiro's powers are still quite unreliable, and a locked closet door isn't a huge obstacle. Since Hiro knows he needs to rescue Ando, it's probably safer to try and bash the door down than risk teleporting to the wrong place or time.

Question: During Sylar's examination, Hank informs Mr. Bennet that they've been trying to find the codon switches that identify his powers, but they're unable to identify any of them except for telekinesis. How can this be?

Answer: Sylar's powers are stolen and forcibly impressed into his DNA, unlike most of the empowered characters where the DNA is natural. It's entirely understandable that his powers might be more difficult to determine under those circumstances.

Question: After Eden McCain shoots herself to prevent Sylar from consuming her power, it's stated that her body was found in a river, presumably dumped by The Company. Throughout the show, The Company have been shown to be a highly resourceful organisation. Why, with all that resourcefulness, would the company dump her in a river? Why not just cremate her?

Answer: They want to leave evidence shes dead. After all, she is a wanted felon herself, from before she was recruited.

Question: How is Sylar able to resist Eden's power of persuasion, when she tells him to kill himself?

Answer: We don't know the extent of Sylar's powers. It's possible he's taken powers from someone that allows him to resist Eden, or maybe his willpower alone is strong enough.

Question: Sylar informs Mr. Bennet that as soon as he gets out of containment he's going to collect one more ability from his daughter. To my knowledge they have never met before so this would be the first time they've actually met each other face to face. How does Sylar know Claire Bennet is Mr. Bennet's daughter?

Answer: It is stated in "Six Months Ago" that Claire was on the list that Chandra had, which Sylar had access to.

Question: Hiro Nakamura acquires two plane tickets to Tokyo for himself and Charlie Andrews. Why? Wouldn't it be a lot less time consuming to simply teleport her there?

Answer: Hiro's powers aren't terribly reliable at the time - he's okay with using it himself, but doesn't want to risk her ending up somewhere unsafe.

Question: Why does Sylar choose the homecoming event to kill Claire and take her power? Surely a person as clever as Sylar would realise that it would be full of people and that there would be a risk of capture (which is exactly what happens). Why not wait until Claire is asleep? Or follow her when she's on her own and corner her in an alley?

Answer: Sylar's not bothered about the risk of capture - his confidence in his abilities is high enough that he probably thinks that he would be impossible to take down anyway. And you have to remember that he's driven by a hunger to take new abilities - he's not going to be happy with the idea of waiting for the perfect moment. She's relatively isolated, her only companion being another cheerleader, no reason to wait.