Revealing mistake: Claire Bennett is accidentally tackled when she and Zach are arguing while watching the football game. Apparently, her neck is badly broken in the fall, even twisted a full 180°. However, if you watch closely as she falls, you can see that she is completely fine, stretching out her arms to take the impact before rolling around. She lands on her front, arms stretched out, all in all well prepared for the landing, and rolls around. In the next shot her neck is twisted in a way that simply wouldn't be possible in such a fall. She would have had to have her head stuck under something before rolling over, which she certainly did not. The guy tackling her did not land on top of her either. (00:19:40)
Once Upon A Time In Texas - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: While talking to Claire outside the diner, Noah comments that he's looking forward to seeing her at the Homecoming game. But in season 1, Noah knew Sylar was going to try and kill Claire at Homecoming and had forbidden her from going.
Factual error: During Hiro's journey around New York, a Carl's Jr. restaurant is visible in the background. That restaurant isn't called "Carl's Jr." on the East coast; it's called "Hardee's."
Continuity mistake: In previous episodes, when we see DL getting into the car as Nikki prepares to shoot him, he pauses for a second and looks around. In this episode, when we see the actual shooting, DL never looks around, he just opens the car door and prepares to get in, without pause.
(Volume Two: Generations) Four Months Later... - S2-E1
Factual error: In the scene where Hiro is in ancient Japan posing as Takezo Kensei to rescue the girl, what looks like a Gatorade bottle can be seen in the grass as they ride away. (00:18:45)
Continuity mistake: Episode 4.18, "The Wall" - The dried blood on Claire's neck from when she was shot toward the end of the previous episode keeps disappearing and reappearing throughout the scenes at the Carnival. (00:35:00)
Continuity mistake: Episode One, when Claire is talking to her mom, right after she sticks her hand in the garbage disposal, her ponytail goes from being over her shoulder to behind it, even though Claire never moves.
Company Man - S1-E17
Continuity mistake: At the end of this episode, Noah is having a flashback. It shows Claire helping him pick out his new glasses. In this scene, Noah first tells Claire that she is adopted. However, in the episode "One Giant Leap", Claire tells Brody Mitchell that her parents told her that she was adopted when she was really little. In "Company Man" she is around 14 or 15 years of age in the flashback.
Our Father - S3-E12
Continuity mistake: "Our Father". At the end of the previous episode, "The Eclipse, Part 2", Hiro brought Claire to the rooftop of the Deveaux building to witness Kaito handing over baby Claire to Noah Bennet. To illustrate his point, Hiro showed Claire the exact same thing happening in the "9th wonder" comic book he brought with him, and she can follow the Japanese dialogue from there. But when the exact same scene is shown at the beginning of this episode, Hiro does not show Claire the comic at all.
Other mistake: Peter rescues Angela from an elevator by flying her straight up the elevator shaft. When we see the shaft, it is completely devoid of any elevator cables.
Other mistake: After Peter falls on the cab, a piece of metal is sticking out of his chest. He pulls himself off it, but when he's on the hood, the piece that was sticking though him isn't there, even though it should be visible.
Continuity mistake: When the would-be robber takes his gun out, he places his hands on his head. But in the next shot, at least his left hand is no longer on his head. It's back up in the next shot.
Other mistake: When Niki looks at the Cadillac's registration, it says the license plate number is "307RTH." When she opens the trunk, you can see the plate and it's "329OCX."
Revealing mistake: When Niki goes to find the 2 million in a case and open it, you can tell that all the money is fake as all the $100 bills have the same numbers. (00:37:37)
Visible crew/equipment: When Daphne meets Linderman at pine hurst she walks to greet him and you can see a crew member behind a tree on the right side of the screen. (00:42:05)
Continuity mistake: Peter is pushed off the building faced forward, he is falling face forward, yet he manages to land face upwards.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the episode, when Tracy is talking to the waitress and freezes her mug, the position of the mug changes in her hand between consecutive shots.
Continuity mistake: When Sylar is impersonating Nathan, the knot on his tie keeps changing between scenes.
Company Man - S1-E17
Visible crew/equipment: Towards the end of the episode, as Claire and Noah get out of the car and walk with René (The Haitian) towards the back of the car, you can see the entire camera crew, even the camera crane, reflected on the back of the SUV.
Acceptance - S4-E4
Continuity mistake: The second time Hiro goes to the rooftop and tries to save Tadashi he has ink on his face from stopping the photocopier from working. However when we cut back to him from Tadashi the ink has vanished, then when we do get the next shot of him the ink is back on his face again.
Chosen 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.
Tailkinker ★