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Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :

Let's try posting while I watch...

Teaser:

Peter blows up, Nathan burns, Peter flies back and picks him up, takes him to a hospital where he gets zapped by Elle & Bob...

Alejandro was married! His new bride cheats on him, on their wedding night, with her ex boyfriend. Maya sees, goes apeshit and kills the whole village. She takes off into the night...

DL survives! Interesting..

Act 1:

Bob wants to give Peter the virus to take away Peter's powers. Research on this "vaccine" was started 30 years ago.

Man.... Nathan got crisped really bad...

Bob paid for DL's surgery... He sure comes across as some kind of benevolent figure cleaning up Linderman's mess, as he says to Nikki.

The "vaccine" takes the form of pills, rather than the injection that Nikki ends up taking four months later.

How is it that Elle's powers work but not Peter's? Also, she has some kind of creepy crush on Peter..

Adam is in the room next to Peter's at some kind of hospital. Doesn't exactly seem like high security, given the apparent risk he poses.

Act 2 - Three months ago:

DL, Micah and Nikki seem to have the perfect family... Nikki is taking medication, but it seems to be adversely affecting her moods. And then she dumps them all down the sink....

Adam has been trying to get Peter to talk for the past month.... finally cracks through.

Two months ago...

"Not in the mood today, Elle"? She seems to get off on zapping people. Sociopath with paranoid delusions?! Twenty-four years old and no dates... She's been living in the institution for 16 years. Adam warns him to stay away from Elle...

Adam has been in there for 30 years and they've been days away fom a cure since he first arrived. "You think this is a hospital? Look around, its a prison! Don't believe me? Try to get out.."

Act Three:

Angela comes up with some bullshit story to explain everything to Heidi... and she seems to believe it.

Nikki has a job selling cars... A new personality has come to surface: Gina. And Gina has taken control, heading to LA...

Peter wants to go visit his family, tries to talk Bob into it, but Bob won't let him leave.

Adam supposedly tried to take his ability public. His blood can cure others, and he wanted to help people. Tells Peter he can cure Nathan with a small amount of his blood. They hatch a plan to escape.

DL is a firefighter! Apparently he was trying to live life without his powers until one fire he dashes into a burning house to save a kid...

Act Four - One Month Ago:

Apparently the escape plan involes Peter coming on to Elle.... can't say I blame him! Rawr.

Meds don't work so well... Peter phases through the wall to get to Adam's room, then they phase out of the building altogether.

Maya joined a convent. Alejandro finds her, brings in the police. She does her thing again and kills them. Alejandro discovers he can cure the plague Maya creates. And then they're on the run...

Gina's in LA, partying it up and having a good time, taking some decidedly different medication... DL has tracked her down, shows her a picture and Gina goes away... In the meantime DL pisses a guy off that ends up shooting him before he can phase...

Act Five - Three Weeks Ago:

DL's funeral, Bob shows up. Uhura and the kids are there.

Peter and Adam visit Nathan, Adam injects Nathan with his blood. Nathan heals instantaneously. Adam provides Peter with a passport and plane ticket, tells him to meet at the warehouse in Montreal. The Haitian and Elle show up. The Haitian goes after Peter, locks him in a container, gives him the necklance and erases his mind, telling him to start a new life.

Now what is Adam up to?

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

I *missed* it! Damn...got absorbed in what I was doing and forgot to watch the clock. Have to wait until it's up on NBC.com now [Frown]

(

Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :

Well, you can make up for it next week. I won't be able to post after watching due to lack of internet access where I'll be staying. [Smile]

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

"How is it that Elle's powers work but not Peter's?"

I would assume the Haitian can target his power-dampening powers when there's more than one person around. Has there been anything to refute that?

"A new personality has come to surface: Gina. And Gina has taken control, heading to LA..."

I do like the explanation of Niki's power : that some people can't deal with having powers, so they develop a split personality. I always thought it seemed odd that her power would be "having a second personality who is super-strong". Instead, it is the much more reasonable "super-strength, which her addled brain has compartmentalized into a second personality".

"Meds don't work so well... Peter phases through the wall to get to Adam's room, then they phase out of the building altogether."

Meds don't work so well... when he stops taking them for five days running.

"The Haitian goes after Peter, locks him in a container..."

Wasn't the container supposed to contain something the Irish wanted? Before, it sounded like someone took it out and put Peter in there. Now we know it was empty all along. What's the deal?

And does anyone else get the impression that Peter's shirtlessness in the first episode of the season was just something they threw in for fun? And now, when they needed to make him go from shirted to shirtless, they just decided to have his shirt burst into flames for no real reason? After all, Elle's zaps haven't set anyone else alight.

Posted by HerbShrump (Member # 1230) on :

We know that sometime after locking Peter in the cargo container that the Haitian contracts the virus, is cured by Mohinder and then joins Bennett in his cause to overthrow the Company.

The reason for Nathan's beard was to hide his presumed facial scars.

Nathan's wife left him, took the kids and told the school Nathan wasn't allowed near them because she (apparently) believed the story about him being nuts. On the other hand, I was suspicious of the way Heidi looked at Mamma Paterlli while she was being told the story.

Just a nit: firefighter's don't work at the department like it's a day job and then come home in the evening. They work 24 hours on and then off 48 hours. Even when covering for other people and trading shifts they trade the whole shift.

Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :

Hm. Guess I must have missed the bit where he expunged the pills. Damn cat distracted me (the keyboard is NOT a sleeping mat!).

Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :

I'm betting he forged the thing saying what was in the container. There are still all those pesky regulations about human transport to consider...

And all I want to say is: HA HA HA I WAS RIGHT ABOUT PETER'S MEMORY LOSS.

One of these days I'm going to make an entire post without editing it.

Also, was D.L.'s death really just awfully pointless? I mean, look at all the shit he survives, only to get whacked by some asswipe in a club. (Sure, it has the point of getting Niki into the company and Micah into New Orleans, but still.) Reminiscent of an event in that one bit of Trek apocrypha. You know the one. That awful Riker & Troi holodeck episode. (Don't say the name; it only gets its attention and makes it mad.)

Posted by OverRon (Member # 2036) on :

When did Mohinder's sister die? As Bob said they were doing research on the virus 30 years ago but they stopped. I'm thinking that Mohinder's sister was the reason they stopped.

Maybe Adam/Kensei did something that made them stop the research as he said he'd been in there 30 years too. Then they locked him up for it.

Also do you think Adam was the name he was born with? As I can't remember Kensei being called anything other than Kensei back in olden day Japan.

Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :

It was just a few months before Mohinder was born, as I recall.

Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :

Perhaps they tried using the Shanti virus to suppress the powers, but it mutated somehow, perhaps it came in contact with Adam/Kensai.

As for Angela Petrelli, I'm really starting to believe her's is the power of persuasion, or at least the power of suggestion. When she spoke to Heidi seamed to imply as much anyway.

Also, in "Five Years Gone" I believe we did indeed see Parkman able to use his ability around the Haitian, while others were being suppressed.

Posted by Johnny (Member # 878) on :

Remember last week when I said my pet theory was that Angela could make people do what she wanted by touching them? [Smile]

There was certainly a lot of emphasis on her touching Heidi as she convinced her of the story about the Petrelli men having mental disorders.

I also like how that tied in with her claims to Peter in the first season that Mr.Petrelli had attempted suicide several times.

Anyway, another good episode. I'm glad they explained what Nathan's visions of the scar were about and it was interesting to get some back story on Elle. I didn't really like how they dealt with DL though. I prefered it when I thought he'd died heroically saving the world, rather than just saving Niki's slutty alter ego.

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

Well, I kind of like it when things like that happen. In real life, people don't die heroically just because they're named cast - there are no named cast. 99% of deaths are stupid, senseless, lonely affairs... I like verisimilitude in my escapist entertainment. It helps with the suspension of disbelief. (This was also my reaction to Carson's death...I loved that guy, but that's why it was so powerful when they wrote him off like that. But he sort of did die a hero's death, I guess.)

I'm wondering why in the hell Nathan was lying in that hospital room burned up like that!! People with those kinds of burns over that much of the body can't be exposed to pathogens. They're kept in a surgically clean isolation ward. (Although AFIK they don't cocoon them in bandages anymore - gets in the way of debriding the skin.) Also, third (possibly fourth, in places, from the looks of it) degree burns hurt. A *lot.* Someone with burns over that much of their body (looked like 70-80%) would be kept in a chemically induced coma so they wouldn't have to feel the pain.

I think the shrinks were quite right, Elle is a sociopath. But maybe it's not her fault; being locked up for 16 years because she's dangerous might mold a personality that believes it should be dangerous. Or maybe she just happened to be both destructive and psycho at the same time. Or, maybe it's more support for Hopeful's theory that the abilities seem to go with the personality - she has a destructive ability and a destructive personality.

Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :

Excellent how they showed the Peter/Nathan flying circus. Here's my observations/questions:

Nathan now has Adam/Kensei's blood running through his veins. Will he be able to heal forever now or will the effect dissipate because he isn't actually producing replacement blood?
D.L. reacted very quickly to the dude trying to punch him by phasing but freezes up when the gun is pulled? Seems a little hinky.
I still say Angela's power is to cause all men's testes to shrivel, retract and neutralize all testosterone.
We know the Haitian got sick sometime after Peter became cargo, but who is the carrier? Our choices at this point seem to be Niki, Peter, or Adam.
Peter could heal before (Claire) but what about now that he has been in contact with Kensei? Does he now have HIS immortality as well?
Kensei said "Let's change history". Great.....what PART is he wanting to change?
Petey could walk through walls after 5 days without meds. Will Sylar have his powers back in that same timeframe?
Adam seems to have shifted the focus of his anger to the Company instead of Hiro. Could they renew their friendship and take out the company together?
Maury was supposedly working with/for/under Adam. So where's he been for 30 years while Adam was locked up? Did they communicate through dreams? Or was the splintering of the company that long ago?
Anyone else get the feeling that Bob is about to show his true colors?
Did anyone else see the way Bob noticed Monica when he first saw her after dropping Niki off? Like he sensed she had abilities?

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

I'm in the "Claire has a duplicate of Kensei's powers" camp, so I figure she's immortal too (and then so is Peter). So her blood would also heal someone.

Also, something I forgot to mention before, it now appears that people with healing abilities can repair their memory after the Haitian has fucked with it. This would seem to indicate that his power doesn't do something functional - ie, mess with their *mind* so that they can't remember - but rather something physical, damaging the neurons/synapses/brain structures responsible for storing a particular memory. This again makes me want to bring up the fact that he apparently has two completely separate and unique powers - the power of memory erasure and the power of power suppression. I'd love to see them explain how those two powers are related...

Edit: I guess this resolves the debate about how Peter remembered his mom in the previous episode - he thought about her and healed the memory. Don't know why that didn't heal the whole shebang though.

And relating to what I originally posted about the Haitian, I remember someone positing that his suppression sort of suppresses the memory of how to use their powers. I'm going to post my two rebuttals in advance of that being brought up:

1) The Haitian's memory erasure is permanent. If he erases your memory, you don't get it back (unless you're a lucky fool with a healing power). However, as soon as he leaves the area, everyone can use their powers again.

2) More telling - he erased Peter's memory, but Peter could still use his powers. And he erased pretty much *everything,* so he'd have to have purposely left the powers intact - or, his suppression power has nothing to do with memory. I think the latter makes more sense, because it makes sense that these abilities would come from a part of the brain that has nothing to do with memory (like ingrained tasks and reflexes come from a different part, and so does language, and so on). I think he can only affect factual/experience memory. (Also, it would have been really foolish for him to leave a being as powerful as Peter with total amnesia but still able to manifest deadly powers such as plasma, TK, EMP, telepathy, invisibility...and even the more benign abilities like healing and painting the future could be dangerous. Not to mention space-time jumping - after all, look what happened! ;-))

Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :

Right. I'm thinking the memory loss and power dampening are two separate effects. Judging from Monday's episode, when the Haitian removes memories, it causes Eternal Sunshine-style brain damage, which for most people is untreatable. But with other people's powers, his just being there and perhaps focusing on the person dampens the powers.

Also, so far I think we've only seen him dampen active powers (TK, flight, telepathy, persuasion). I wonder what if anything he'd be able to do with the more passive powers like Charlie's memory or Dale's hearing.

Posted by Bones McCoy (Member # 1480) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Daniel Butler:
This would seem to indicate that his power doesn't do something functional - ie, mess with their *mind* so that they can't remember - but rather something physical, damaging the neurons/synapses/brain structures responsible for storing a particular memory. This again makes me want to bring up the fact that he apparently has two completely separate and unique powers - the power of memory erasure and the power of power suppression. I'd love to see them explain how those two powers are related...

I always assumed the powers reside and are activated by the brain. In episode one when Mohinder is talking about the his dad's theories, he mentions that humans only use 10% of their brains (bullshit, but we accept it as a plot device) and he talks about the human soul (anyone else notice how he misplaced his vaguely Indian accent..? boy did New York change that guy) he says that the 'soul' is the brain. So if the Haitian has the ability to alter or damage physical brain tissue, it would follow that he could suppress the areas of the brain that are responsible for, um, power control/manifestaion... presuming that's where they come from in the first place, that is.

Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :

Yeah. I figure he generates a low-level "interference" normally, which can be focussed more narrowly toward one person, which is probabl yakin to synaptic disruption... And that he later learned to do more lasting damage, whether by altering the physical structure of the brain or blocking synapses with something or whatever...

--Jonah

Posted by Johnny (Member # 878) on :

So presumably Peter, Claire and Adam can help restore the memories of anyone wiped by the Haitian just by giving a blood transfusion? This also means that Claire could have restored her own Haitianed memories back in season one if she'd known it was possible.

One of these days they're gonna write themselves into a corner with all this.

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

I've also assumed the brain activates the power, but everyone's abilities are pretty specific (except for Peter, Emo God [Wink]

) so I just don't understand why the Haitian would get lucky and have two powers from birth. I'm just going with the idea that they are both related somehow, in some...fashion...*sigh*

Yeah, well, if the series continues past the strike, they might indeed write themselves into a corner, and I'm not sure which would be worse.

Mmm, and, it just occurred to me that after Peter went off the meds to control his powers, he didn't go nuclear again. Same after he regained his memory. So he must have somehow learned to control it...if Claude was right, Peter can control any power he absorbs, if only he works on it and gets used to it. That was probably just speculation on his part though. Although, he sure didn't seem altogether surprised to meet a person with the ability to absorb other's abilities. In fact it was almost as if he already knew who Peter was and what he could do. So either the Company knew the Petrelli's kid was going to do that, or someone else in the Company (or elsewhere) has manifested a similar ability before Peter.

Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :

quote:
I've also assumed the brain activates the power, but everyone's abilities are pretty specific (except for Peter, Emo God [Wink] ) so I just don't understand why the Haitian would get lucky and have two powers from birth. I'm just going with the idea that they are both related somehow, in some...fashion...*sigh*

I'd say his power is to be able to alter another person's brain. Sometimes that means memories, sometimes it's a learnt skill or reflex (which is a kind of memory.) He doesn't suppress the power itself, just the ability to use it. I imagine if he wanted to he could make you forget how to swim, or drive a car or if he want to kill you he can make your brain forget how to breath or pump blood. Makes sense that even in 5 years gone he's the only credible threat to Peter (with the exception of Sylar of course.)

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

I thought he was the only credible threat to Peter because when he was around Peter couldn't go all demigod on him, since his powers wouldn't work. I'm not sure I buy that he can just modify the brain - why would he let Peter remember how to use his powers if he could force him to forget how permanently? Like I said, it'd be downright foolish to give someone with that kind of power total amnesia but leave the powers intact. (Of course, if he CAN'T erase powers, he still did something foolish by giving Peter amnesia at all, so there you are.)

Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :

Peter didn't know how to use his powers when they found him in the container. He was operating on instinct. He threw up a hand to protect himself, and was as surprised as anyone when electricity came out. I'm guessing the Haitian can block conscious powers, but can't tinker with autonomic powers, like healing and absorbing, without screwing up the entire autonomic center of the brain. Maybe he doesn't even know healers can heal from the effects of his power.

And Peter's slightly different because he doesn't heal automatically, he has to call up the sense of the person whose powers he is trying to use. Mommy Dearest knows he's a healer, and used her power to kickstart it.

--Jonah

Posted by Bones McCoy (Member # 1480) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Daniel Butler:

if Claude was right, Peter can control any power he absorbs, if only he works on it and gets used to it. That was probably just speculation on his part though. Although, he sure didn't seem altogether surprised to meet a person with the ability to absorb other's abilities. In fact it was almost as if he already knew who Peter was and what he could do. So either the Company knew the Petrelli's kid was going to do that, or someone else in the Company (or elsewhere) has manifested a similar ability before Peter.

Claude mentiones something along those lines when he first meets Petey... something like "oh, god, one of them... an empath"

So he clearly knows about it, we just don't know who the other empath/s are that Claude's met.

I'm curious about daddy Petrelli... notice how his face is blurred out in the photo? I think we'll be seeing him before long. (Flashbacks, etc)

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

Peregrinus: I guess I wasn't clear; I know Peter didn't know he HAD powers, but he clearly didn't have the autonomic memory of how to *use* them erased. So like I said, leaving someone with those kinds of powers with no knowledge that they *have* them is foolish.

Also, it just occurred to me: Isn't it convenient that Suresh and Adam/Kensei both apparently have Type-O blood? [Wink]

Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :

Well, type O neg is still the most prevalent on the planet... [Wink]

And I do think Peter only has access to his powers because his is an autonomic power. His autonomic empathy dredged up Claire's and Adam's autonomic healing at Mommy Dearest's "suggestion", and that took care of the rest of the damage. But. At some point, all the mutants' powers were involuntary/reflexive/instinct before they realized what was going on or how to control them. Yet when they gain control over them, that becomes a conscious trigger...

I think the Haitian doesn't understand the nature of things. Have we seen him permanently take away anyoen else's power? He probably did think that by erasing Peter's memory, he'd killed the power. I think his "interference", general or targetted, is him making people temporarily "forget" how to access their consciously-activated powers. And, like Matt graduated from passive telepathy to active mind-control, the Haitian graduated from passive interference to active erasure.

--Jonah

Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :

I think it's safe to say the Haitian has his own agenda and morality which we're not entierly clued up on yet.

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

I still don't buy that about the Haitian. The graphic novels show him erasing the memory of everyone in his village as a very small child, shortly after he'd learned that his father's power wouldn't function when he was around.

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

"And Peter's slightly different because he doesn't heal automatically, he has to call up the sense of the person whose powers he is trying to use."

Not so. When he had that chunk of glass in the back of his head, he healed automatically when it was removed. He certainly couldn't have been thinking about healing, because he'd been dead for quite some time.

Which leaves the question : Why doesn't the Haitian's memory erasure heal itself? Technically, we don't know that Adam has the exact same power as Claire. But we know that Claire-style healing happens on its own ; it's done so in both her and Peter. So, why didn't Peter's memory come back by itself?

Posted by OverRon (Member # 2036) on :

We know that Adam's power of healing is not a concious of act of willing himself to heal either, as he was dead when those arrows hit him, and only healed once Hiro pulled them out. I wonder what Adam must have been doing to find out that his blood heals others as well. Maybe he was doing one of the blood brother pact things with someone and they healed when the blood mixed. Or maybe he went through some weird vampirism phase when he was younger!

Anyways I've finally gotten around to reading the online graphic novel. I hadn't realised there were so many of them! Anyways didn't Peter and Nathan's dad appear in one of them, and he seemed pretty powerless in that comic.

Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :

Except that when Claude was teaching Peter how to use his powers, Peter had to call up the thought of Claire to heal after he fell from the roof. So either Peter's healing became autonomic, or the writers screwed up. *heh*

--Jonah

Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :

I suspect Peter's powers became automatic once he learned them. Like muscle memory, where even if you consciously forget something, your body still knows how.

Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :

Yah. I think thinking of Claire was just how he got to healing early on...

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

OverRon, I don't remember Nathan and Peter's dad being in the novel. But if he was, and wasn't shown using a power, that doesn't really mean anything; for all we know he had the power to shoot grapefruit seeds out of his ass ;-)

Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :

Mr. Petrelli is in the "Lone Star Files" comic arc, DB. He was powerless then, but they were young soldiers then (I think 18 or 19) and we've seen people manifest much later than that.

Posted by OverRon (Member # 2036) on :

Yeah, it did show Linderman meeting up with Petrelli Snr. later on in life, so maybe he developed later, and Linderman found out. I had just assumed that the original heroes all developed their powers at around about the same time, like the current generation of them.

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

I wonder why I didn't notice who he was...Does it actually explicitly say his name and I missed it in my foolishness or is it just implied and I...missed it in my foolishness? [Wink]

Edit: Check this out. (Once the new comic is up and this link dies, it's comic #920.)

Further Edit: A random string of clicks on Wikipedia made me realize a further medical inconsistency with Nathan. Not only would he be horribly burnt but he'd have radiation sickness too - teeth falling out, hair falling out, etc. We can't say he didn't have cancer or wasn't dying since they never said either way; and he certainly did seem incredibly weak and incoherent, which are symptoms of severe radiation poisoning. However, as far as I can recall the hair that wasn't burned off didn't fall off, and he seemed to have a mouth full of teeth.

[ November 15, 2007, 10:38 AM: Message edited by: Daniel Butler ]

Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :

Number 28, Dan. *heh*

And I don't think Nathan got the brunt, just the heat wash before Peter caught him and got him the hell out of there.

--Jonah

Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :

Right, so, the former then!

Ehh, but he was burning as he held Peter, when Peter was radioactively 'hot' but before he exploded.

Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :

Oh, yeah, that...

--Jonah