Brain penetration

Brain penetration
A stick impales Claire's brain

Brain penetration causes the abilities of evolved humans to immediately cease to work.

Characters

• Claire
• Peter
• Linderman
• Candice
• Arthur
• Sylar

About

Collision

Brody Mitchum accidentally knocks Claire Bennet in such a way that a tree branch becomes lodged in her brain. She appears dead until the medical examiner removes the branch from her brain. With the branch removed, her power rapidly restores her to health.

Fallout

Eden McCain uses a gun to commit suicide, destroying her brain so that Sylar cannot have any chance to take her ability of perusasion.

.07%

Sylar telekinetically lodges a shard of glass in Peter's brain. Claire removes the shard and Peter returns to life.

Landslide

Peter tells Claire to shoot him in the brain, after he absorbs the nuclear ability of Ted Sprague.

Later, D.L. phases his hand into the back of Linderman's head and removes part of his brain matter. Linderman dies almost instantly.

How to Stop an Exploding Man

Peter again tells Claire to shoot him in the brain, after begins to go nuclear in Kirby Plaza.

Kindred

When Sylar hits Candice uses a mug to penetrate her brain, her ability to create illusion ceases.

The Second Coming

Future Claire attempts to shoot Future Peter in the brain to stop him.

Our Father

Peter fires a bullet at Arthur, and Sylar uses his ability of telekinesis to interrupt the trajectory, question Arthur, then continue the bullet on its path. Arthur is killed as the bullet enters his brain. He does not regenerate.

Graphic Novel: Truths

As Arthur retells his death scene in his own narration, he likes his being shot and killed to that of his son's shooting a deer on a hunting trip during their youth. Unlike the episode, the graphic novel rendering of the gunshot shows his brain being blasted out the back of his head.

Dual

Claire jabs a glass shard into the back of Sylar's brain, rendering him powerless, and either unconscious or dead. His present status is unknown.

Notes

• Upon removal of the foreign object, even after a prolonged period of hours, the victim may revive if they held the ability of regeneration.
• Evolved humans may be able to use their abilities to effect victims brain in a similar fashion as an external penetrating object and render them incapacitated or dead. The Haitian, Matt, Maury, and Sylar (verses the Puppet master) may have done so.
• Brain penetration to stop the powers of an evolved human is similar to how the Highlander series made use of decapitation to stop its specials, and how a wooden stake in the heart is believed to stop vampires.
• Brain penetration may also be a side-effect related to "the hunger" in both Sylar and Peter, since at times both of them have initiated telekinesis to penetrate the brains of victims that they had already aquired abilities from.
• While Sylar did use a crystal paperweight to bludgeon the back of Brian Davis' head; it is inconclusive whether or not the crystal actually penetrated through to the brain. (Six Months Ago), (Villains)

Gallery

• 
  Claire can't regenerate when a stick penetrated her brain.
  (One Giant Leap))
• 
  Eden McCain blasts a bullethole in her own brain, to prevent Sylar from accessing her ability.
  (Fallout)
• 
  A glass shard penetrating Peter's brain, ends his invisibility.
  (.07%)
• 
  DL Hawkins uses his own fist to penetrate Linderman's brain.
  (Landslide)
• 
  Peter gives Claire a gun to shoot him in the brain if he ever starts to explode...
  (Landslide)
• 
  ...which she takes aim with later at Kirby Plaza.
  (How to Stop an Exploding Man)
• 
  Sylar removed a coffee mug shard that is penetrating Candice's brain.
  (Kindred)
• 
  Arthur's brain is penetrated by a bullet.
  (Graphic Novel: Truths)
• 
  Sylar's brain is penetrated with a glass shard.
  (Dual)
• 
  Future Claire attempts to use a bullet to penetrate Future Peter's brain.
  (The Second Coming)

See Also

• For the occurrence of ability loss without involving brain penetration, see ability loss.
• For the occurrence of actual brain removal, see brain removal.