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?
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?
Chosen 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.
How to Stop an Exploding Man - S1-E23
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?
Chosen 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: 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?
Chosen answer: It is stated in "Six Months Ago" that Claire was on the list that Chandra had, which Sylar had access to.
Question: What was the deal between the whole Niki/Jessica thing? Was Jessica a figment of Niki's imagination, a split personality, or something else entirely?
Chosen answer: Jessica is Niki's dead sister, so Niki somehow embodied the escence of Jessica and against her own will just switches to her sister's personality to take on another persona.
Homecoming - S1-E9
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?
Chosen 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.
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?
Chosen 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: Throughout the first season, Sylar has been shown to survive a number of deadly situations, from being shot at in "One Giant Leap" and "Distractions" to falling from a great height in "Homecoming." My question is, how could he survive all of these incidences when he hadn't yet absorbed Claire's ability of regeneration?
Chosen answer: Telekinesis. Stop or deflect the bullets, slow his fall so that he'll survive. Very useful power.
Both times he was shot, he didn't know it was coming so he couldn't have used telekinesis to stop the bullets.
How to Stop an Exploding Man - S1-E23
Question: I'm watching the show on Peacock, the streaming service. But this episode is not available, even though it seems all the others are. Is there any reason why they would leave out the season 1 finale or why they wouldn't be allowed to air it?
Answer: As of right now, I do see the episode available on Peacock.
Homecoming - S1-E9
Question: Why does Jessica want to kill D.L. so much? I don't understand her motivation behind it.
Chosen answer: Jessica thinks she is the only one capable of taking care of her son. She feels that DL stole him, and she has to eliminate him as a threat.
Company Man - S1-E17
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?
Chosen 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: 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?
Chosen answer: They want to leave evidence shes dead. After all, she is a wanted felon herself, from before she was recruited.
How to Stop an Exploding Man - S1-E23
Question: How was Peter able to communicate with Charles Deveaux even though he's been dead for some time?
Chosen answer: Charles Deveaux had super powers. It could very well be his powers made it possible for Peter to communicate with him.
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.
Chosen answer: Simple, he changes the illusion for peter, but keeps the others thinking he is still Nathan, he can make different illusions at once.
Yeah, but surely when the cameras were on him, and the whole world was watching, what happened? He cast the same illusion to 7 billion people?
Yes. He could drop the illusion for Peter alone whilst everybody else would still see him in his disguise.
Unexpected - S1-E16
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?
Chosen 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: Why exactly do The Company want New York City destroyed? Is it so that they can manipulate Nathan into becoming president, ensuring he becomes their puppet?
Chosen answer: Not exactly. Their intent is that the destruction of New York will act as a focus for the entire nation, a rallying point of sorts. The plan is that Nathan will be in a position to show strong leadership after the explosion, giving him a high public profile and a strong support base as the outraged and shocked nation unites behind him. This support could then be used to put him into the White House where he can continue to further their agenda. Not so much a puppet, more a willing ally, but the effect is much the same.
Question: Before contracting The Shanti Virus, just how many powers did Sylar acquire?
Chosen answer: Confirmed powers prior to that point were telekinesis, freezing, kinetic projection, eidetic memory, liquification, enhanced hearing, precognition and radioactivity. There may have been others as well, but those are the definites.
Unexpected - S1-E16
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?
Chosen answer: There's no indication that it applies to anything other than the visible light spectrum.
Question: How is Sylar able to resist Eden's power of persuasion, when she tells him to kill himself?
Chosen 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: How exactly does Peter Petrelli acquire that pretty nifty looking facial scar, even though he's absorbed regeneration? Is it even explained?
Chosen 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.
Wait but that future scene was after the future was changed.?
Answer: You are talking about two different Peter's. The "scarred" peter never met Claire until Hiro told him to do so.
Chosen 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.